“Any two AI designs might be less similar to one another than you are to a petunia.” - Eliezer Yudkowsky, Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk . John Schwenkler was kind enough to point me towards this post by Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution in . . . . Continue Reading »
I don’t normally frequent the anarcho-syndicalist enclaves of the blogosphere, but my curiosity was piqued by the ongoing saga of the “Tarnac 9” , whose penchant for absurdism combined with neo-Benedictinism is at least somewhat endearing. As it happens, the now-released . . . . Continue Reading »
While we’re on the subject of form, I recently stumbled upon University of Texas mathematics professor Nikos Salingaros’ phenomenal work Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction , a short excerpt of which is posted on his faculty page: In wanting to explain a cultural mystery — why . . . . Continue Reading »
There are two models of rapture — one super-worldly, one this-worldly, one in which we are abducted, from here to eternity, and one in which we are inducted, to infinity and beyond. The first model is depressing if it’s the only opportunity we have to experience eternity. Even the . . . . Continue Reading »
Thru Andrew, the latest attempt to supply the Twitter phenomenon (and Twitter, along the way) with meaning: As the physical world takes on more of the characteristics of a simulation, we seek reality in the simulated world. At least there we can be confident that the simulation is real. At least . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ll confess to being a little bit dissatisfied both by Helen’s latest screed contra statistics and by Prof. Kenneally’s argument that science improperly understood ignores the qualities of our lived experience . Both have managed to say a lot of true things but neither, in my . . . . Continue Reading »
Apparently there being soul in cyberspace means that there’s adultery and divorce in cyberspace as well: "I went mad — I was so hurt. I just couldn’t believe what he’d done," Taylor told the Western Morning News. "It may have started online, but it existed . . . . Continue Reading »
Loyalty is immoral ? Color me skeptical. Without further ado, here’s the avalanche of questions that come to mind upon reading Helen’s post: First question: "Loyalty is immoral—I won’t bother trying to deny it. Morality is universal and objective; loyalties are . . . . Continue Reading »
Freddie DeBoer, PoMoCon commenter extraordinaire, has fired a broadside in our direction . James is working on a response . I’m getting ready to do the same. Nicola has penned a snarky rebuttal . Eve rebutted this long ago . Here’s hoping that this heats up. . . . . Continue Reading »
When James t ells you to read Rorty , he’s not telling you to follow Matt Yglesias in reading the wrong part of Rorty . I’ve written before about Rorty’s nutty philosophy of language . While I won’t go as far as Richard Weaver in saying that nominalism is the root cause of . . . . Continue Reading »
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