Felagund
11mo ago
It's been almost a month. If you've read much more since you posted that, did whatever things we were talking about improve the reading experience?
Felagund
11mo ago
Glad to hear you're enjoying it!
Yeah, books 3 and 5 are my favorites, I think because of what you were saying, that it feels most like the plot is progressing and important things are happening.
If you like things that read more like history, you'd probably enjoy the appendices, especially appendix A, once you finish. (A, B, E, and F are the ones I enjoy more.) You'd also like most of the Silmarillion—the first two sections aren't very history-ish, but once you get to the third (which is by far the largest section), it's much more like history than Lord of the Rings, and I found it fun. It's the sort of work where you need to be regularly consulting family trees and maps to keep track of what is going on.
Felagund
11mo ago
Moreover, the Certificate of Need boards (and I would assume whatever other regulatory agencies) often have representatives from the existing health players on them, who have a vested interest in making it difficult to meet the standard of need for new competitors.
This comment was I think an apt summary of some of the sorts of problems going on in the healthcare space (among others), although perhaps in the case of healthcare, it might be even worse, because of the costs being hidden.
Felagund
11mo ago
What do you mean by "the assumption that thought ought to be recursively interpretable"?
Felagund
11mo ago
And won't it be effectively traded away anyway, if people really want to? As long as anything it can be used for is liquid, there's a way to extract resources from it, even if it's at a loss.
Felagund
11mo ago
That's overstating the extent a little, I think.
One of my parents is an immigrant to the US, but the main ways that I deviate from the default are, I think, generally not connected to the immigrant status of my parent. I don't really think my parent is ideologically unusual for the US either.
Felagund
11mo ago
But I don't know that that's entirely wrong—while various groups did start out more different, over time they assimilated. People complained when the Germans came. People complained when the Irish came. People complained when the Italians came. But there's been plenty of assimilation, and now they're viewed much less distinctly, and became much less distinct.
Felagund
11mo ago
If there's somewhere better I should be commenting things like this let me know, but I think the + and - composition of the vote counts were not showing up in the child comments of the parent comments to which I was replying when I had added a comment but not yet refreshed the page.
Probably worth verifying before trying to fix.
Felagund
11mo ago
Christianity is interesting on ethnic groups.
The Jewish people were obviously their own ethnic group, but one thread found in Acts and several of the epistles is the broadening of that to all nations. See Ephesians, for example:
11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Ethnic tribalism is antithetical to Christianity, at least at this point in redemptive history.
It is the household of God, as the quote I put ends, that we should identify with instead.
Touching on your comment, @DuplexFields, I suppose I don't see why Christ's Judaism is a problem.
Felagund
11mo ago
How different is this from just giving them money? (maybe while subsidizing some goods)
Felagund
11mo ago
Right, but they'll also, sometimes at least, figure out the best ways to convert the EBT card into a plasma TV, through some other good along the way. At least, I would imagine? A simple example is using government electricity to do things you can get money from (bitcoin mining??), but I'm sure there are all sorts of other things you do, if you wanted to be irresponsible with the money.
Felagund
11mo ago
I've seen it analyzed as due to legislation on workplace discrimination, and all of this makes it harder for the businesses to be sued, and so have some value to them in that respect. That, in combination with it looking really bad if you try to get rid of them.
Felagund
11mo ago
I know you said your thoughts about AI and consciousness are complex, but what are they, roughly?
Felagund
11mo ago
Or just like, taking control of the US military, since obviously the pentagon will have a bunch of things run by AIs if it makes them more effective.
Felagund
11mo ago
Right, it seems like it would have to be that level of response for people to actually trust it for buying it again to be accepted. A credible level of "we're on your side" instead of neutrality that burns enough bridges that they can't walk it back.
Felagund
11mo ago
I meant that if I try to do the following process, it doesn't work, so far as I can tell:
-
Go to a thread that's been around for long enough for vote counts to appear.
-
Reply to a comment that already has child comments with vote counts showing.
-
Don't reload the page or anything.
-
Hover over the vote count of a child comment of the one I replied to to see the values of + vs - votes. (this doesn't happen).
I can still see the vote counts of the other comments, just not ones that are descendants of the ones that I replied to since I last loaded the page.
Sorry about not saying that more clearly, that was a little obscure.
Felagund
11mo ago
That seems to be overstated, a little. They can take a side if the gain in loyalty from the one side is worth the shunning from whatever customers, employees, contractors, etc. are on the other side.
Felagund
11mo ago
Perhaps if there are several, relatively neutral competitors, it could give a reason to choose them?
Felagund
11mo ago
I agree that Desantis probably misstepped in the sorts of attention he's been getting. But DeSantis seems less unpopular, at least, for the moment. I'm pretty confident that there exist many independents who would vote for DeSantis but not for Trump. 73% of independents dislike Trump. But we have a long way to go still, much could change.
Personally, with my current knowledge, I'd be willing to vote for DeSantis, but in all likelihood not Trump after all the fraud claims and the attempt to overturn the election.
Felagund
11mo ago
Well, it would matter if other people's minds have changed. Biden's popularity has fallen since he was elected, I believe.
I'd voted 3rd party.
Felagund
11mo ago
Well, there are old-fashioned Patrician, Evangelical, and Romney-esque moderates in sight, they're a bunch of the other candidates in the republican primary. But first-past-the-post voting means they don't have a chance since they're not the established front-runners, so no one will vote for them. I'm not sure how best to measure popularity objectively.
It's something of a Keynesian beauty contest, in that people don't want to waste their vote, and want the candidate to be able to win the general election, so they have to think about how everyone else will vote, not merely whoever their favorite.
I agree; novelty and beauty are different.
I'm alright with some level of cleverness and novelty (e.g. Escher's fun sometimes), but I recognize that it's not beauty. But Escher isn't pretending to create something beautiful, so much as something interesting. It's also possible to have both, to some extent, of course.
There are at least two differently behaving phenomena for why we do not see beauty everywhere, so far as I can tell. Interestingness being high status is one. Art galleries and architecture are both probably symptoms of this. (Well, in architecture physical and legal constraints might affect the building of buildings, but I would be very surprised to find that this did not play a role.) But there is at least one more case, exemplified by the simplified designs used by companies and other entities (like the apple logo). I'm less sure how to analyze this. In some cases it just needs to be simple for functional reasons (see street signs). In others, it seems more to be going for a particular aesthetic.
Whatever the differences are, I would be a little surprised if the newfound cheapness of detailed imagery did not increase its prevalence.
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