Recursive_Enlightenment
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User ID: 791
Recursive_Enlightenment
11mo ago
Until the industrial revolution everyone in the long run was either (1) in a Malthusian trap, (2) had a lot of war, or (3) had a lot of disease. Before sustained economic growth and birth control, something bad was always the check on population growth.
My small US town put bike lanes on some roads, but lots of cyclists understandably ride on the sidewalk. The bike lanes I pass on my commute to work seem optimized to kill cyclists as they literally cut across the path cars take at one point, although fortunately I never see cyclists on this part of their path.
The cyclists I personally hate are the ones who pull recycling material in carts behind their bikes. These cyclists are hard to pass, and I'm certain the amount of extra gas cars use to slow down for them more than makes up for any environmental gains of them using bikes rather than trucks to transport recycling material.
Recursive_Enlightenment
8mo ago
Sports are profoundly important to lots of kids, and messing with them is, politically, on par with saying we should kill house cats to protect the environment.
I think Iran is one of those totally corrupt countries where not being corrupt is seen as a sign of stupidity not honor.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
My understanding is that a low level government worker who did what Trump did with classified documents would go to jail, but an important politician (e.g. Hillary, Joe Biden, Sandy Berger) likely wouldn't.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Silly religious people don't realize that hell only exists for those who make bad acausal trades with future AI Gods.
Recursive_Enlightenment
5mo ago
If you have celebrity status in one place on earth, you live there.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
If you truly hated Trump and lived in Pennsylvania you registered as a Republican so you could vote against him in the primary. You had to register as a Republican to vote in the primary.
Recursive_Enlightenment
7mo ago
How about "I think I know your father, he is a police officer, right?"
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Yes, Douglas MacArthur was fantastically brave and on a podcast one of the reasons given was that he knew he was a man of destiny and so wouldn't be killed before victory.
Recursive_Enlightenment
6mo ago
Is that true? There is a military base within 50 miles of where I live and we occasionally get loud military jets going overhead. We don't expect to be told the purpose of the flights and accept the inconvenience as part of the price of having a strong military
Tips (perhaps out of date) for dating leftist women while conservative and male: Treat your beliefs like a peacock's tail. Try your best to signal that you can afford to have these beliefs because of your huge evolutionary fitness advantage over other men. Don't show any embarrassment, your goal should be projecting the view that "I know you find my politics abhorrent, but I'm not going to hide my views because I'm confident that if you get to know me you will really want to date me, and if you don't, well, I have lots of options." Being a conservative white man, surprisingly, gives you a real advantage when trying to date a leftist non-white woman because these women are sick of white men trying to date them to prove their anti-racism, and won't think you guilty of this offense.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Don't forget Haiti. The French revolutionary government, remarkably, decided to end slavery in Haiti. Napoleon tried to bring it back, causing a horrific Haitian race war that may have made US Southerners more resistant to ending slavery and more willing to fight a civil war to keep it.
Recursive_Enlightenment
7mo ago
I don't live near many rationalists, but I have had several phone conversations with Vasser, and have not observed this. He seems sane to me. We had normal (for nerds) conversations.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
There is build 2x capacity and use fossil fuels when you are getting insufficient solar and wind power.
Recursive_Enlightenment
7mo ago
Counter-counterpoint, big donors respond to expectations of power. The more Trump is ahead, the better bet it is for the wealthy to give him money over Harris.
Recursive_Enlightenment
2yr ago
I've been told by a knowledgeable source that Conan the Barbarian (minus the magic) had a more accurate description of pre-history Europe than post-WW II anthropologists do.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
That's a hard question, especially without specifying the number of people in the set called "powers-that-be". I like the term because it is clear that I am not pretending to know exactly who is in the set.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
A plausible ranking of what a US president does by importance is (1) Controlling Nuclear Weapons, (2) Foreign Policy, (3) Appointing Federal Judges, (4) Regulatory Policy, (5) Budgetary Stuff, (6) Other Law Making, (7) Communications. Almost everyone ignores (1) which is horrible, but that seems to be the nature of democracy. Perhaps it was mostly luck but US foreign policy went extremely well under Trump as he seemed to have deterred adversaries from making new trouble. If you are a conservative Trump did about as well with (3) and (4) as you could hope from any president especially with respect to the Covid vaccines. Washington is broken with respect to (5) and Trump didn't fix it but most likely neither would anyone else. We didn't get many bad new laws under Trump which is the best you can realistically hope for if you are a conservative. If you like Trump's style then he maxes out with (7).
Recursive_Enlightenment
2yr ago
I've talked with her a few times in real life and formed a very positive impression of her.
Recursive_Enlightenment
6mo ago
Altman saying "Maybe Not" to an employee who said they will ask the model to recursively improve itself next year. https://x.com/AISafetyMemes/status/1870490131553194340
Recursive_Enlightenment
6mo ago
Why not also ASML?
Recursive_Enlightenment
7mo ago
The jury system is not good at determining medical causation.
Recursive_Enlightenment
2yr ago
My guess is that teachers find it much more enjoyable to teach using whole language compared to phonics, and so our non-consumer based public school system mostly uses whole language instruction.
For me, Newsom gives off an "I am a sociopath" vibe. I mean this literally, and am not implying that the vibe is reliable evidence of him being a sociopath, rather a possible hindrance to him being elected president. Do any of you also get this vibe from him?
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