Dennis Hackethal
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/
Dennis Hackethal’s Blog Posts
2024-03-19T02:37:55+00:00
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="i-don-t-get-the-hype-around-gpt-4">I Don’t Get the Hype around GPT-4</h1>
<p>I’ve been using GPT-4 through the chat interface for a few months and I don’t get the hype.</p>
<p>I routinely run into programming problems it can either only solve with great difficulty after lots of handholding or not at all.</p>
<p>When it does find a solution, just figuring the solution out myself might have taken around the same amount of time, at worst. And I usually have to do manual improvements at the end anyway.</p>
<p>As you add requirements in the same chat, it often ‘forgets’ previous requirements. You then have to remind it.</p>
<p>ChatGPT clearly lacks understanding and merely strings words together.</p>
<p>It’s pretty good at generating boilerplate code or something like a Fibonacci algorithm, but that’s either too basic for real-world use cases or stuff programmers can just look up. Like, it seems decent at solving problems that are already well understood, but it’s stumped easily by new problems.</p>
<p>It’s sometimes useful for creating logos and other images. For example, I used it to create the <a href="https://www.quote-checker.com" rel="ugc">Quote Checker</a> logo. But once you ask it to make changes to an image it generated, all hell breaks loose. It seems unable to modify only the aspect you want modified – in all my attempts, it modified other parts of the image, too, and that usually reduces the quality because the previous version was already a local optimum, or close to it.</p>
<p>Also, if you tell it NOT to do something, like not include an elephant in an image, say, the resulting image almost always includes an elephant. (There’s a somewhat interesting similarity here to how people can’t help but think of elephants when you tell them not to, but given that GPT works completely differently from how the mind works, I hesitate to ascribe any deep meaning to that similarity.)</p>
<p>My prediction is that ChatGPT will not get <em>qualitatively</em> better simply by throwing more training data at it. I think it’s asymptotically approaching the cap on how much a program can achieve without genuine understanding.</p>
<p>GPT-4 is useful; it’s a net positive and certainly better than tools like Siri, which hasn’t improved ~at all since its release. But GPT-4 is not deserving of the hype. I don’t turn to it for help often. There are also ethical issues around spending money on OpenAI products given their CEO Sam Altman’s <a href="/posts/sam-altman-s-hidden-motive" rel="ugc">dishonesty</a> and his spreading of immoral philosophical doctrines such as the precautionary principle.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/i-don-t-get-the-hype-around-gpt-4
I Don’t Get the Hype around GPT-4
2024-03-18T01:33:38Z
2024-03-18T01:33:38Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="would-it-be-right-to-have-a-constitution-you-couldn-t-change">“Would it be right to have a constitution you couldn’t change?”</h1>
<p>Somebody <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Objectivism/comments/1bdiks9/would_it_be_right_to_have_a_constitution_you/" rel="ugc">asked</a> on the Objectivism subreddit:</p>
<blockquote><h3 id="would-it-be-right-to-have-a-constitution-you-couldn-t-change-even-if-that-constitution-was-right">Would it be right to have a constitution you couldn’t change? Even if [that constitution] was right?</h3>
<p>For example. If a constitution was written and it banned taxes, had free speech, right to bear arms. And basically did everything perfectly and was unchangable no matter how many votes there was [sic]. Would this still be right? Or would this actually be wrong?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Objectivism/comments/1bdiks9/comment/kur5kpn/" rel="ugc">Here’s</a> my answer:</p>
<blockquote><p>It would be deeply wrong.</p>
<p>Following philosopher Karl Popper, we should judge political institutions not by their prophetic ability to guarantee any specific preconceived outcomes, but by how well they facilitate <em>error correction</em>.</p>
<p>Constitutions are written by people, and people are fallible, meaning we should expect even our best political documents to contain mistakes. Sooner or later, even a seemingly perfect constitution requires changing to correct errors. There’s no authoritative criterion for perfection anyway.</p>
<p>A political institution that <em>prevented</em> the correction of errors would be immoral since it would forcibly entrench the status quo. Just imagine you set up such an institution, and then you do find an error – then you’re either stuck with that error forever or people eventually resort to violence and revolutions to correct it.</p>
<p>For example, I agree that taxes should be banned and that speech should be free, but I could be wrong about that. And if I <em>am</em> wrong about that, I wouldn’t want to be stuck with that mistake. One of <em>the</em> defining political achievements of the West is that, contrary to ~all preceding human history, its political institutions do not entrench mistakes but facilitate their correction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s worth noting that some Western countries still have partly unchangeable constitutions. The German constitution, for example, contains two articles that must never be changed. The first of those two states that human dignity is (or rather, shall be) inviolable. I understand this article was written in response to the horrors of fascism and WW2.</p>
<p>For the reasons I explain in my answer above, immunity to change is a mistake. In this instance, it’s based on good intentions, but it’s trying to build on allegedly secure, infallible foundations. What if, one day, this article about human dignity, as great as it sounds now, is found to be mistaken? Or what if it’s found to be in conflict with another part of the constitution (as I believe it is) in such a way that it’s not obvious which part should prevail?</p>
<p>Unchangeability of any law or political institution implies that the only way to get rid of such a law or institution is <em>violence</em>. Thus, unchangeability is <em>not</em> opposed to fascism – on the contrary, it implies facism’s most salient characteristic. Consider the statement ‘People can only get rid of me through violence’ – is that not something Hitler would have thought if not said? The German founding fathers should have realized this. I’m not saying Germany today is a fascist country – it isn’t – but making any law unchangeable to avoid fascism is a contradiction in terms.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/would-it-be-right-to-have-a-constitution-you-co
“Would it be right to have a constitution you couldn’t change?”
2024-03-15T01:07:36Z
2024-03-15T01:07:36Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="how-do-you-deal-with-irrationality-from-family-and-friends">“How do you deal with irrationality from family and friends?”</h1>
<p>This is a question somebody <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Objectivism/comments/1bc8bej/how_do_you_deal_with_irrationality_from_family/" rel="ugc">asked</a> on the Objectivism subreddit. They wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Since there are so few objectivists, most of us likely have friends and relatives who are not objectivist. What do you guys do when one of them makes an irrational remark about political or cultural issues? It’s tiring to constantly argue with people and it doesn’t make you very fun to be around so I tend to ignore it unless I’m in the mood for an argument.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This question is important – many people have to contend with this problem at family gatherings, eg during the holidays.</p>
<p>Here’s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Objectivism/comments/1bc8bej/comment/kug01x3/" rel="ugc">my answer</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Your question is a special case of the more general question ‘How does one lead a rational life in an irrational society?’ For you, specifically, it translates to: ‘How do I lead a rational life among irrational family and friends?’</p>
<p>Ayn Rand addresses the general question, and by extension, your specific case, <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>In short, pronounce judgment in the appropriate amount and when it is rationally appropriate to do so. If your family members and friends can’t be reasoned with, a simple ‘I disagree’ whenever they say something irrational or evil is enough [meaning there’s no need to escalate things into a full-on argument]. Just ignoring the problem generally isn’t a good idea because it helps evil triumph over good.</p>
<p>A couple of side remarks:</p>
<p>You can’t choose your family, but you may ask yourself whether you wish to be friends with people who are irrational, and whether being rational yourself shouldn’t rank higher in your hierarchy of values than being fun to be around. Besides, having rational friends means such considerations won’t be necessary anyway – you will be fun to be around by being rational.</p>
<p>You imply that anyone who isn’t an objectivist is irrational. That doesn’t sound right. Sometimes, people are just mistaken in their views, and whether or not they are rational depends on how they deal with being mistaken.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To give some more detail, Rand’s position in the linked essay is essentially this: <em>“One must never fail to pronounce moral judgment.”</em> As in: moral agnosticism is bad – it corrupts your character and favors irrationality over rationality. You must never allow your values to be attacked and stay silent. Pronounce judgment whenever silence could rationally be mistaken for sanction of evil. For example, if someone jokes about how rich people lost their homes in the Malibu fires, as a family member of mine once joked, you should say that that’s not okay.</p>
<p>Sometimes, pronouncing judgment isn’t reasonably possible – eg if you live under a regime where pronouncing judgment could cost you your life – but even then you should still form some sort of judgment mentally and either keep it to yourself or say it out loud only when it is safe to do so.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why OP wants to be friends with irrational people. Also, he may investigate whether he himself is really as rational as he thinks he is. He can’t always have been an objectivist – nobody is born that way – yet he presumably wouldn’t consider his past self irrational just because of that.</p>
<p>Whenever people claim, implicitly or explicitly, that they’re fully rational, I get a little queasy. Reminds me of people who advertise that they never lie; those are often the worst liars.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-do-you-deal-with-irrationality-from-family
“How do you deal with irrationality from family and friends?”
2024-03-12T08:53:59Z
2024-03-12T08:53:59Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="sam-altman-s-hidden-motive">Sam Altman’s Hidden Motive</h1>
<blockquote data-source="Elon Musk on OpenAI" data-link="https://youtu.be/bWr-DA5Wjfw?t=220" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>It does seem weird that something can be […] non-profit, open-source and somehow transform itself into […] for-profit, closed-source. [T]his would be like [funding] an organization to save the Amazon rain forest, and instead they became a lumber company, […] chopped down the forest, and sold it for money […].</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://youtu.be/bWr-DA5Wjfw?t=220">
Elon Musk on OpenAI, youtu.be
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has been using the current pessimistic cultural background to peddle fears around AI safety for years. In a congressional hearing in 2023, he <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-openai-ceo-sam-altman-testifies-before-senate-judiciary-committee" rel="ugc">proposed</a> the formation of a political agency to regulate AI systems. He typically phrases his ‘concerns’ in terms of responsibility and safety. I think he’s lying – safety isn’t his true motivation.</p>
<p>When companies ask to be regulated, you should be extremely cautious and skeptical. It’s what crony capitalists (<a href="/posts/my-thoughts-on-xai#crony-capitalism" rel="ugc">including Musk</a>) do to prevent competition. In particular, open-source projects in this field, which are inherently non-profit, present a significant challenge to companies like OpenAI, which, despite its name, isn’t open at all. Open-source projects would enable anyone to run an AI assistant similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT on their own devices for free. These systems are currently too slow on personal hardware to match the performance of ChatGPT, but they’re bound to improve in the near future.</p>
<p>There’s a similarly dishonest incentive structure for politicians. They can pretend to regulate AI in the name of their fight against ‘misinformation’ and ‘hateful content’ when what they really want is to censor speech to gain political power. Although Altman previously <a href="https://twitter.com/sama/status/1489740774673584131" rel="ugc">distanced himself</a> from worries about ‘misinformation’, OpenAI has since jumped on the misinformation bandwagon, presumably to align with government incentives, citing their fight against “misinformation” and “hateful content” in their obligatory <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240308105538/https://openai.com/sora#safety" rel="ugc">section on safety</a> accompanying the launch of their new text-to-video product Sora.</p>
<p>The government’s and OpenAI’s stated motivations share the same underlying mistake: just as it is increased, not decreased, competition that improves safety, the solution to misinformation and hateful speech is not censorship but more speech. Both are clearly acting counter to their stated intentions. <em>That’s dishonest.</em></p>
<p>Don’t take my word for it, though. Listen to what long-time AI expert Andrew Ng, cofounder and former head of Google Brain, has to say on the issue [brackets mine]:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Andrew Ng" data-link="https://www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/ai-on-the-agenda-at-the-world-economic-forum/" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>[B]ig companies, especially ones that would rather not have to compete with open source, are still pushing for stifling, anti-competitive AI regulations in the name of safety. For example, some are still using the argument, “don’t we want to know if your open-source LLMs [large language models] are safe?” to promote potentially onerous testing, reporting, and perhaps even licensing requirements on open-source software.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/ai-on-the-agenda-at-the-world-economic-forum/">
Andrew Ng, deeplearning.ai
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Such regulation would destroy any meaningful competition from open-source projects, which are often run by, or at least depend on contributions from, hobbyists and regular people who have neither the time nor the money to ensure compliance. Citing safety concerns is ironic in this regard: open source is often safer than closed-source, commercial counterparts. One reason is that, since open-source code, by definition, can be inspected by anyone, security holes can be found quickly. Due to this transparent nature and unstifled by corporate bureaucracy, literally anyone in the world with a computer can then fix security issues as soon as they are reported. And again, those really concerned with safety would want <em>more</em> competition, not less, as competition increases quality and disincentivizes bad actors such as Altman, who, having paid millions to develop their technology, have a vested interest in snuffing out competition that could provide the same service for free.</p>
<p>To address such criticisms, Altman has <a href="https://twitter.com/sama/status/1659341540580261888" rel="ugc">stated</a> that “regulation should take effect [only] above a capability threshold.” In other words, regulation should only prevent competition that could hold a candle to OpenAI. But why punish competitors for their success? Altman is just digging himself into a deeper hole here, not to mention that regulation is typically a slippery slope: it grows over time. And who would get to define this threshold? The government isn’t competent to do it – they have to rely on experts like Altman to do it for them.</p>
<p>Reliance by clueless government officials on lobbyists to draft legislation is neither new nor limited to tech: for example, an investigation by <em>USA TODAY</em>, <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/copy-paste-legislate/you-elected-them-to-write-new-laws-theyre-letting-corporations-do-it-instead/" rel="ugc">cited</a> by the Center for Public Integrity, found that “[t]he Asbestos Transparency Act didn’t help people exposed to asbestos” and was instead “written by corporations who wanted to make it harder for victims to recoup money.” They mention one of the lawmakers “who introduced it in Colorado”; he “said he didn’t write the bill and relied on ‘my experts’ to explain it […].” One of those experts was a lawyer working to reduce litigation. Expect Altman or one of his lawyers to exploit this single point of failure that is government and dupe yet another dunce politician in a similar fashion.</p>
<p>Another reason I think Altman is lying is that <a href="https://twitter.com/sama/status/1602119635373105154" rel="ugc">he’s read</a> David Deutsch’s books. Deutsch is <em>the</em> preeminent philosopher making any sense on A(G)I (artificial <em>general</em> intelligence). Having the best ideas in the field, he is lightyears ahead of ‘experts’ working for big players such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind. The details of Deutsch’s position are out of scope for this article – read his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> to learn more. Suffice it to say that his position is essentially that humans have already reached a sort of ‘ultimate’ universality he calls <em>explanatory universality</em>. AI may reach it one day, thereby achieving the ‘G’ in AGI, but it could not possibly surpass humans.</p>
<p>Therefore, there’s no need to be particularly worried about A(G)I, at least not any more than you would be about any other technology. Accordingly, views by Nick Bostrom, one of the original fear mongers about what he calls ‘superintelligence’, are completely blown out of proportion, and Altman is wrong to be impressed by them (as is Musk, I should add). <em>Bostrom’s arguments have been addressed;</em> fears around A(G)I are rooted in fundamental misunderstandings about what it <em>is</em>.</p>
<p>Deutsch has also written ample criticism of the <em>precautionary principle</em>, which says to avoid anything not known to be safe. Altman’s stance is effectively the precautionary principle applied to AI. I’m not aware of Altman advancing any refutations of Deutsch’s views, but evidently this hasn’t stopped Altman from holding on to his own regardless. Alan Forester explains why this is dishonest <a href="https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/a/47802/36371" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>Don’t trust companies that ask to be regulated, especially ones whose very name is a lie. And don’t trust Altman.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/sam-altman-s-hidden-motive
Sam Altman’s Hidden Motive
2024-03-13T21:59:03Z
2024-03-13T21:59:03Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="why-are-people-afraid-to-form-their-own-judgment">Why Are People Afraid to Form Their Own Judgment?</h1>
<blockquote data-source="Ayn Rand paraphrasing Nathaniel Branden" data-link="https://youtu.be/fTK1FoR3kqM?t=510" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>[A]nyone who introduces a ‘somehow’ into his idea of the means of achieving his ends always means ‘somebody’ […].</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://youtu.be/fTK1FoR3kqM?t=510">
Ayn Rand paraphrasing Nathaniel Branden, youtu.be
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism, <a href="https://youtu.be/fTK1FoR3kqM?t=268" rel="ugc">explains</a> why so many people are opposed to capitalism and misrepresent its nature. She says it’s because people are generally afraid of rationality and independence; in short, afraid to form, and rely on, their own judgment. They would rather defer to someone else’s judgment, second-hand. I ask in turn: why is <em>that?</em></p>
<p>I think it comes from childhood. Children are punished for using their own judgment whenever it contradicts the parents’ and teachers’, which happens often. This instills a fear of punishment in children, which, over time, translates into a fear of forming their own judgment.</p>
<p>For example, most children do not get to disagree about bedtimes. When they do not see <em>according to their own lights</em> why they should go to bed, parents force them to go to bed anyway. (For the skeptical reader, though the details are out of scope for this article, I preemptively add that all common objections to letting children go to bed when <em>they</em> think it’s right have already been addressed.)</p>
<p>There’s also screen times, compulsory schooling and homework, chores and other <a href="/posts/how-can-i-help-my-5yo-feel-more-in-control-of-h" rel="ugc">unchosen obligations</a>, and more. Day in, day out, children are forced to disregard their own judgment, listen to their parents and teachers instead, and do as they are told, <em>OR ELSE</em>. Their youth is already planned out by the time they are born, and they do not get a vote.</p>
<p>After 18 years of this torture, most newly minted adults are effectively helpless in their efforts to face reality, since their only tool to face it head on, their ability to form their own judgment, has been gradually sanded down and castrated; all that remains is an amputee’s stump, still bleeding on the edges.</p>
<p>Forming judgment to one’s own satisfaction, and relying on it to navigate the world, is one of the hallmarks of rationality. Parents and teachers, and to some extent other adults, systematically beat this rationality out of children, figuratively if not literally.</p>
<p>Capitalism, a free society, requires independent judgment and personal responsibility. A mind without capacity for judgment, however, provides the ideal breeding ground for the anti-values of second-handedness, altruism, and authoritarianism. It’s easy to see why such a mind is opposed to capitalism. ‘Since I am now an adult, my parents do not judge for me anymore. I can’t do it on my own, so who will? Someone, somewhere, <em>somehow</em>, must face reality for me’ – ie the state, which really means: the productive people whom the state expropriates. Ayn Rand explores this dynamic in depth in <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>.</p>
<p>Children <em>depend</em> on their parents largely in a <em>material</em> sense: they rely on their parents for physical survival. But children do <em>not</em> depend on their parents or anyone else in the realm of ideas – not until they are older. On the contrary, young children in particular have a most independent intellect, as evidenced by their unselfconsciousness around other people. In a way, as they grow up, a physical dependence on the state replaces their physical dependence on their parents as their intellectual independence largely vanishes.</p>
<p>I’ve previously found that the <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">true purpose of schools</a> is to make children neglect their own <em>interests</em> – I now wonder if that’s a special case of making children disregard their own <em>judgment</em>. In any case, an <em>objectivist</em> analysis of the traditional upbringing of children helps to reveal its evils.</p>
<p>Not all is lost: the bleeding stump can heal and eventually grow back. And, by some miracle, a minority of children manage to retain, to a sufficient degree, their ability to form independent judgment in adulthood.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/why-are-people-afraid-to-form-their-own-judgment
Why Are People Afraid to Form Their Own Judgment?
2024-03-09T05:14:05Z
2024-03-09T05:14:05Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="6-year-old-wont-go-to-the-bathroom-by-herself-anymore-because-of-being-scared-what-to-do">“6 year old won’t go to the bathroom by herself anymore, because of being scared. What to do?”</h1>
<p><em>This question is from the Parenting Stack Exchange. I gave a brief answer there but provide more details here since the moderators often delete my answers. They also have a history of editing my content without indication.</em></p>
<p>NeutronStar <a href="https://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/44025/6-year-old-wont-go-to-the-bathroom-by-herself-anymore-because-of-being-scared" rel="ugc">says</a> his daughter heard a strange noise coming from the toilet and has since been scared to use it by herself.</p>
<p>From the get go, he portrays her as emotional, calling her a “deeply feeling child”. That’s a sneaky way of saying ‘irrational’ – he avoids using that word but others know that’s what he means and in turn use that word in their responses. He complains:</p>
<blockquote><p>[S]he started asking about if anything lives in the toilet and can come out while she is using it. We told her there is not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He helped her one night but has decided to withdraw his assistance “so that this doesn’t become a regular thing […]”. He’s just too inconvenienced.</p>
<p>Now that his daughter is traumatized and knows she cannot rely on her parents for help, NeutronStar wants to know: “How can we convince her to go to the bathroom by herself?” In other words: how do we get her to disregard her concern and follow our judgment instead of her own?</p>
<p>This, of course, is the wrong question to ask. Also, it is not true that nothing can come out of the toilet while she is using it. <a href="https://www.nuckolsplumbing.com/blog/2020/october/critters-that-can-crawl-out-of-your-toilet/" rel="ugc">Rats, snakes</a>, and other animals can and do sometimes emerge from toilets. <a href="https://lifehacker.com/how-often-do-snakes-rats-and-spiders-really-crawl-up-1848335336" rel="ugc">The solution</a> is to keep the toilet clean and to install a so-called ‘rat guard’, which allows only unidirectional flow of matter.</p>
<p>So NeutronStar is not only factually mistaken but his daughter’s fear is rational. As I write in my brief <a href="https://parenting.stackexchange.com/a/44037/44867" rel="ugc">answer</a> to him:</p>
<blockquote><p>Your daughter is smarter than you think she is. She recognizes that, just because the proximate cause of the noise she heard [gurgling pipes after repairs] has gone, does <em>not</em> mean animals cannot emerge from the toilet. She is being logical and rational.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The way to address the situation is to <em>take her seriously</em>, do the research, agree that she is right that animals sometimes emerge from toilets, assure her the issue will be addressed, order a rat guard, install it in her presence, and show her how it works. The need for a clean toilet also presents a wonderful opportunity to teach her the importance of cleanliness as it will solve a problem she wants solved.</p>
<hr>
<p>For posterity, my <a href="https://parenting.stackexchange.com/a/44037/44867" rel="ugc">full answer</a> to NeutronStar reads:</p>
<blockquote><p>A quick search online would have disabused you of the misconception that animals cannot come out of the toilet:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nuckolsplumbing.com/blog/2020/october/critters-that-can-crawl-out-of-your-toilet/" rel="ugc">https://www.nuckolsplumbing.com/blog/2020/october/critters-that-can-crawl-out-of-your-toilet/</a></li>
<li><a href="https://lifehacker.com/how-often-do-snakes-rats-and-spiders-really-crawl-up-1848335336" rel="ugc">https://lifehacker.com/how-often-do-snakes-rats-and-spiders-really-crawl-up-1848335336</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Your daughter is smarter than you think she is. She recognizes that, just because the proximate cause of the noise she heard has gone, does <em>not</em> mean animals cannot emerge from the toilet. She is being logical and rational.</p>
<p>The second source suggests getting a rat guard. It restricts the flow of matter unidirectionally.</p>
<p>Take your daughter seriously, admit to her she was right and you were wrong, tell her you looked into it and that a rat guard might help. Ask her if she thinks that’d be a good idea. If so, order it and install it in her presence.</p>
<p>Keeping the toilet clean also helps keep critters away, so this presents a good opportunity to teach your daughter the importance of cleanliness: by showing her how it solves a problem she wants solved.</p>
</blockquote>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/6-year-old-won-t-go-to-the-bathroom-by-herself
“6 year old won’t go to the bathroom by herself anymore, because of being scared. What to do?”
2024-03-05T02:55:39Z
2024-03-05T02:55:39Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="enabling-ujs-in-rails-7">Enabling UJS in Rails 7</h1>
<p>In Rails 7, Turbo and Stimulus <a href="https://rubyonrails.org/2021/12/15/Rails-7-fulfilling-a-vision" rel="ugc">replace</a> Turbolinks and unobtrusive JavaScript (UJS). But what if you need UJS along with server-generated JavaScript responses, for backwards compatibility or other reasons?</p>
<p>I ran into this problem the other day when trying to make a form asynchronous while disabling Turbo using <code>data: { turbo: false }</code> on my <code>form_for</code> helper. Passing <code>remote: true</code> to this helper did generate the corresponding HTML data attribute, but Rails ignored it and the form behaved synchronously. Why? Because UJS was missing.</p>
<p>Luckily, <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/70769655/1371131" rel="ugc">this</a> Stack Overflow answer by Ruslan Valeev explains how to add UJS to Rails 7.</p>
<p>First, use <a href="https://github.com/rails/importmap-rails" rel="ugc">Importmap</a> (shipped with Rails 7) to install UJS:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>./bin/importmap pin @rails/ujs
</code></pre></div>
<p>This adds the following line (or something like it) to <code>config/importmap.rb</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">pin</span> <span class="s2">"@rails/ujs"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">to: </span><span class="s2">"@rails--ujs.js"</span> <span class="c1"># @7.1.3</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Next, add these lines to <code>javascript/application.js</code> or <code>javascript/controllers/application.js</code> to start UJS:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="k">import</span> <span class="nx">Rails</span> <span class="k">from</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">@rails/ujs</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="nx">Rails</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">start</span><span class="p">();</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Lastly, restart your server. UJS should now be enabled.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/enabling-ujs-in-rails-7
Enabling UJS in Rails 7
2024-02-24T05:42:04Z
2024-02-24T05:42:04Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="conditional-femininity">Conditional Femininity</h1>
<p><a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/rsQKiqSWxjs" rel="ugc">Conditional femininity</a> is an increasingly common phenomenon and gets discussed on dating podcasts. It’s when a woman refuses to be feminine with a man unless he is ‘the <em>right</em> man’. Until then, she acts masculine.</p>
<p>A feminine woman is neither assertive nor argumentative. Instead, she is respectful, cooperative, and, most importantly, <em>pleasant to be around</em>. She is physically fit, certainly not larger than a man of her height.</p>
<p>Men don’t want to date a man in a woman’s body; they like feminine women and dislike masculine ones. Feminism has done a disservice to women in the sense that masculine women will have a harder time finding a man. Conditional femininity keeps women single.</p>
<p>Women generally like masculine men. If a man said he reserved his masculinity until he meets the right woman, and acted feminine until then, he would be laughed at (and rightly so). He would have a harder time finding a woman because his feminine behavior and attitude would turn most women off. Expecting a man to be attracted to a masculine woman is equally ridiculous.</p>
<p>Femininity is (or at least should be) a woman’s standard behavior. Why? Because the only other way she could be is <em>masculine</em>, which cannot be the default for women.</p>
<p>Many modern women live a – metaphorically speaking – schizophrenic lifestyle. They move like a man until they hit age 30 or 35, when suddenly they scram to live a life to true to themselves: a woman’s life, meaning marriage and kids. Having had no practice in being feminine, they usually suck at it. They need practice, but they have little time left.</p>
<p>So feminism has done another disservice to women by convincing them that the only way to be free is to be more masculine and live a man’s life by pursuing a career instead of focusing on family.</p>
<p>This is what feminism has done to women: it has caused them to deny themselves their nature until a man provides a reason to embrace it. That’s a recipe for unhappiness. In this regard, feminism has made women <em>more</em> dependent on men, even though its alleged purpose was to free women from them.</p>
<p>There are some women who will be able to live life in a masculine way. But there’s this Popperian notion that breaking with tradition is hard for most people – too hard. So, too, for women: breaking tradition in this major way will be too difficult for most of them.</p>
<p>Kevin Samuels has suggested a simple test to determine whether a woman is feminine: argue with her. If she barks back, she isn’t feminine.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/conditional-femininity
Conditional Femininity
2024-02-17T20:51:15Z
2024-02-17T20:51:15Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="dont-date-single-mothers">Don’t Date Single Mothers</h1>
<p>From a man’s perspective, dating a single mother is typically a bad idea because:</p>
<ul>
<li>Her kids are the priority, not you.</li>
<li>Down the line, you may need to provide for kids that aren’t yours.</li>
<li>The kids’ father is probably still in the picture somehow.</li>
<li>She can’t be spontaneous or meet as much since kids are a lot of work and require planning.</li>
<li>If you want kids: she might not want more.</li>
<li>She’s probably less desirable physically. Staying fit is difficult after pregnancy; many women never lose all of the weight they put on during pregnancy.</li>
</ul>
<p>Some people, such as Kevin Samuels, would add another alleged downside: that you can’t ‘discipline’ her kids. But I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. Any relationship with anyone, including children, should be based on mutual respect. It shouldn’t be about control.</p>
<p>There are also some questions you need to ask yourself:</p>
<ul>
<li>What does her ex do? If he ranks lower than you socioeconomically, Samuels would ask, why does she deserve you?</li>
<li>Why isn’t she with her ex anymore? If he left her, why? Does she have some problems you now have to deal with? If she left him, why? Did she have unreasonable standards you’re not going to be able to meet either?</li>
<li>Was she married to her ex? If not, why was he good enough to make babies with but not good enough to marry? Why didn’t she make marriage a requirement to have kids in the first place, as Samuels would ask? Is she reckless?</li>
</ul>
<p>In short, dating single mothers is a bum deal. You shouldn’t do it unless all of the following apply:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">The father is not in the picture anymore, except maybe financially.</li>
<li data-step="2">The kids are still very young, meaning there’s a decent chance they’ll accept you as their father down the line.</li>
<li data-step="3">You want to have kids (particularly if you’re physically unable to get a woman pregnant).</li>
<li data-step="4">You’re prepared to eventually adopt the kids and become their father.</li>
</ol>
<p>And because these last four points are only relevant long term, and because even the short term is challenging with single mothers, you will probably never even get far enough for these points to matter in the first place.</p>
<p>Since dating single mothers usually has almost only downsides from the man’s perspective, single mothers should expect to remain single, and married mothers generally shouldn’t divorce if they don’t want to be alone afterwards. (It’s no surprise that so many women do what’s called <a href="https://en.wikimannia.org/Branch_swinging" rel="ugc">‘branch swinging’</a>: they won’t leave their current significant other until they have secured someone else.)</p>
<p>Due to these downsides from the male perspective, single mothers should adjust their expectations on the dating market way down. But their needs and demands are <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CurxtnBRxYH/" rel="ugc">higher</a> than those of women with no children. It’s all skewed: they have less to offer than single women yet expect more. Most women’s standards and expectations increase as their value shrinks in men’s eyes, but with single mothers, this imbalance is more pronounced.</p>
<p>Conversely, let’s imagine a man most women find unattractive: a poor/unemployed man with no drive. He struggles to pay the bills and has a low credit score; he has no real social standing of any kind. Now, most men, including poor ones, want to date hot women – that’s no secret. But imagine if this man not only wanted a hot woman, but also expected her to provide for him because he is poor. In other words, he would expect more <em>because</em> he has less to offer. But need is not a claim, as Ayn Rand pointed out. His expectation would rightly turn women away, and they would not be wrong to call him delusional.</p>
<p>There is a growing double standard that women should have high standards, even ‘reach for the stars,’ while men should accept all women the way they come. Men are even demonized for having certain preferences. That’s not right – men are entitled to reasonable preferences and standards just the same, and the truth is that single mothers do not rank high on any man’s list. And the kind of man single mothers want has better options.</p>
<p>Single mothers who find a guy willing to date them, let alone take on the responsibility for their kids, should treat him like a saint. However, single mothers who get attention, even sex, shouldn’t mistake that for the ability to get a long-term partner. (That’s true for women <a href="/posts/so-when-can-a-woman-date-up" rel="ugc">in general</a>, mothers or not – h/t to Kevin Samuels again.)</p>
<p>Men who are on the dating market should generally avoid single mothers. Like, don’t even go on dates with them, let alone sleep with them. Why go through all that trouble when you can date a woman who has no children? Keep an abundance mindset. But some men still date single mothers because men are generally too desperate for sex. Their standards are lower than they should be.</p>
<p>Women should avoid becoming single mothers in the first place. It sucks being a single mother. One would think that’s obvious, but <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-resilience/201508/women-initiate-divorce-much-more-men-heres-why" rel="ugc">women initiate divorces more than twice as often as men</a>, and some of these women must be mothers. There’s a growing consensus among women that they don’t need men and that they can have it all. They’re wrong. They need men badly, and they have to make <a href="/posts/a-woman-s-plight-to-choose" rel="ugc">choices and tradeoffs</a>.</p>
<p>There is, of course, any number of reasons why women might become single mothers, many of which they may not be responsible for (eg they might be widows, or maybe they had to leave due to abuse). But men do not owe them understanding, nor do these reasons increase attraction in the eyes of men. My impression is that women underestimate how much less attractive being a single mother makes a woman to men (see, for example, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CspMuMqMCQn/" rel="ugc">this video</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvIRj2YAKxr/" rel="ugc">this video</a> as evidence – see how surprised the women in these videos are?).</p>
<p>To be clear, I don’t have anything against single mothers. On the contrary, I empathize with them: like I said, being a single mother sucks, so women should avoid that life, if possible.</p>
<p>A lot (though not all) of the same concerns apply, albeit to a lesser degree, to women with high-maintenance pets like dogs (there I do speak from experience). Lower-maintenance pets like fish might be okay, but no pets is best, as Samuels has said. More generally, it’s preferable to avoid women with notable and time-consuming pre-existing responsibilities – kids are just the most salient example.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/don-t-date-single-mothers
Don’t Date Single Mothers
2024-02-15T05:30:06Z
2024-02-15T05:30:06Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="how-can-i-help-my-5yo-feel-more-in-control-of-her-life">“How can I help my 5yo feel more in control of her life”</h1>
<p><em>Here’s my answer to a question on the Parenting Stack Exchange. I think it is thoughtful and worth sharing here. Plus, the moderators sometimes delete my answers.</em></p>
<p>Stan <a href="https://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/43956/how-can-i-help-my-5yo-feel-more-in-control-of-her-life" rel="ugc">asks</a> how he can “help” his five-year-old daughter “feel” more in control of her life.</p>
<p>He describes her as “extremely smart” but lies about her being “extremely independent”. It’s a lie because he should know that if she <em>were</em> independent he wouldn’t be asking about making her feel in control. He also asks how he can offer her independence further down, so he should know he’s contradicting himself. (Contrary to popular belief, a lie isn’t just an intentional statement of falsehood – it’s when you say something you <a href="https://www.elliottemple.com/essays/lying" rel="ugc"><em>should</em></a> know to be false, per philosopher Elliot Temple. It’s when you’re not <a href="/posts/core-objectivist-values#conscientiousness" rel="ugc">conscientiousness</a> in communicating the truth.)</p>
<p>Stan’s daughter has had “a lot less free time” since starting school and he is imposing a fairly rigorous schedule on her:</p>
<blockquote><p>School for the morning until 1pm, afternoons to play, 5pm dinner, 6-8pm bedtime. Saturdays are free, Sundays have church and a play date, and then afternoons free. 1-2 hours of screen time a week.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She does not like this schedule. “[S]he’s expressed a feeling of being out of control of her life. She said things like ‘I have no choice!’ or ‘when can I do what I want to do?!’.”</p>
<p>Stan imposes unchosen obligations such as “helping with the laundry” on his daughter and then wonders why she doesn’t like doing them. He somehow also seeks a way to make her feel more independent and in control of her life, yet rationalizes away the contradiction by claiming “we all need to get used to having obligations and doing things we don’t feel like doing […]”.</p>
<p>Here’s my <a href="https://parenting.stackexchange.com/a/43959/44867" rel="ugc">answer</a>. The footnote implicitly references an important concept I call <a href="/posts/is-sanctioned-force-still-force" rel="ugc"><em>regard for consent</em></a>, which is again connected to conscientiousness.</p>
<blockquote><p>It depends on what you really mean by the question.</p>
<p>If you literally mean, ‘how can my daughter BE in control of her life?’ (rather than just FEEL in control), there are several things you could do:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">You could pull her out of school. I’m guessing she’s in school against her will, like most children. If you don’t think that’s the case, ask yourself whether you would honor her desire to stop going to school if she expressed it (more on meaningful consent below).</li>
<li data-step="2">Stop imposing bedtimes.</li>
<li data-step="3">Stop imposing screen times.</li>
<li data-step="4">Stop taking her to church. Most children hate church – it’s mind-numbingly boring and teaches them to suspend reason in favor of mysticism. (It also exposes them to creepy people who are into kids. Best to avoid those environments.)</li>
<li data-step="5">Let her play for as long as she wants. You say, almost plaintively, “she has <em>hours</em> to play in the afternoons”, but time that’s filled with fun always passes by quickly. To her, having her playtime restricted feels arbitrary and cruel (because it is). Also keep in mind that playtime is the time she learns the most. It’s also the time she gets to freely pursue her interests. Letting her play for as long as she wants will go a long way to increasing her control over her own life. You write in a comment that you tell her “you’re free to play now until 5pm!” but that isn’t her being in control, that’s you being in control.</li>
<li data-step="6">Stop burdening her with ‘obligations’ like chores. Did she meaningfully agree<sup>1</sup> to being responsible for those chores? I doubt it, in which case those are unchosen burdens. “There is a lot of grumbling and moaning and stamping of feet for these tasks.” Good.</li>
</ol>
<p>She sounds good at communicating her desires and grievances. That’s an important skill for living a happy and healthy life. Giving her more control should be as easy as listening to her, taking her grievances seriously, and acting accordingly.</p>
<p>You say your schedule is necessary, and I’m guessing you probably wouldn’t be able to change it all at once. I don’t know your situation but maybe you and your wife are both at work during the day so somebody needs to watch her, in which case school seems like the only option. But you could still stop imposing screen times, bed times, chores, and dragging her to church.</p>
<p>You say “we all need to get used to having obligations and doing things we don’t feel like doing” – but that isn’t really true. Apart from paying taxes or being drafted, stuff like that, adults don’t typically have obligations they didn’t agree to. She will learn soon enough that life sometimes requires us to do things we don’t want, but it’s not necessary to hoist that on her now. Let her be a child.</p>
<p>If instead you mean, ‘how can I coax my daughter into thinking she has control while subjecting her to the same amount of control as before?’, then I cannot help you and you should rethink your approach.</p>
<hr>
<p><sup>1</sup> Meaningful consent is difficult to determine, especially for children. Adults have created a world where children do not meaningfully get to say ‘no’, and children know this, so even an explicit ‘yes’ does not necessarily mean they fully consent. Meaningful consent involves counterfactuals and conscientiousness; one of the necessary conditions for consent is that you <em>would</em> back off is she asked you to (even if she never does), and that you’re sensitive to conditions and situations where she might feel a desire to ask you to back off but suppresses this desire, in which case you’d back off yourself without her asking you to.</p>
</blockquote>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-can-i-help-my-5yo-feel-more-in-control-of-h
“How can I help my 5yo feel more in control of her life”
2024-02-10T19:46:50Z
2024-02-10T19:46:50Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="how-is-spanking-still-legal">How Is Spanking Still Legal?</h1>
<p><em>I am not a lawyer; this article contains no legal advice. Note that I use single quotation marks for scare quotes, double quotation marks for verbatim quotes.</em></p>
<p>In a discussion about the punishment of children, somebody <a href="https://twitter.com/rveulacia/status/1755009715791147094" rel="ugc">pointed out</a> that corporal punishment is still legal. I searched online in disbelief, being sure I could refute his mistake. I had assumed the law was protecting children against this type of violence, at least on paper, and that many parents just failed to comply with the law.</p>
<p>But I was the one who was mistaken: shockingly, <a href="https://www.parentmap.com/article/legal-united-states-spanking-kids" rel="ugc">corporal punishment is still legal in all 50 states</a>. What shocks me less, however, is that everyone commenting on the issue, <em>including children’s rights advocates</em>, completely misses the mark in their evaluation of this sad state of affairs, as evidenced by the responses to a particular court ruling.</p>
<p>The linked page references an <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/06/25/mass-high-court-outlines-legal-rules-spanking/AA75Y9oVRkEBGWIXCoY2fO/story.html" rel="ugc">article</a> in <em>The Boston Globe</em> (BG) about the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) overturning the assault-and-battery conviction of a father for spanking his two-year-old (!) daughter:</p>
<blockquote><p>The SJC was ruling on a 2011 case involving a commotion at a […] bus terminal, where Jean Dorvil was walking with his daughter and her mother. According to police, Dorvil kicked his daughter in her backside while yelling “shut up,” and then spanked her. The officer said he saw the mother pick up the child to shield her, and that the child was crying and looked frightened.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The first person to miss the mark (apart from Dorvil himself, of course) is the judge who had originally convicted him of assault and battery. The decision was right, in my non-legal opinion, but for the wrong reason: the <a href="http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/472/472mass1.html" rel="ugc">ruling</a> written by Justice Barbara Lenk from the SJC quotes (p. 6) the judge as saying that “[i]f you’re in public with your kids, it’s not appropriate to discipline in this fashion.” Was he saying that the attack would have been fine if it had happened behind closed doors? Was he worried that onlookers might be offended? If so, that’s a <em>social</em> standard, so it couldn’t be objective.</p>
<p>Dorvil had appealed the judge’s decision; his appeal was denied. Good, but why? Because, as quoted by SJC (ibid.), “the child lacked the capacity to understand the discipline” and because Dorvil spanked her “when he was upset and angry and not in a calm and controlled manner, as required for parental discipline to fall within the reasonable force defense.” I grant that emotion precludes objectivity, if that’s what the judge meant, but he had already violated objectivity himself by referring to a social standard. And was he saying that attacking one’s daughter is fine as long as she understands why and as long as one is cold and calculated instead of angry? What kind of standard is this?</p>
<p>As BG writes, “[t]he SJC rejected that line of argument.” So do I, but for different reasons, and leading to the opposite conclusion. SJC argues (p. 14):</p>
<blockquote><p>It is understandable that parents would be angry at a child whose misbehavior necessitates punishment, and we see no reason why such anger should render otherwise reasonable uses of force impermissible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I disagree that “misbehavior necessitates punishment” because, among other reasons, parents can use their words instead of force. And calling it “misbehavior” tacitly accepts the authoritarian notion that the parent is always right, whereas in reality, parents are as fallible as everyone else. Also, the father is on trial here, not the child. But perhaps most importantly in this instance, I believe SJC likewise partly used a non-objective, ie wrong, standard for determining whether a given use of force is “otherwise reasonable”. At first, Lenk cites several conflicting legal precedents (pp. 6-9) which in turn refer to “reasonable” or “moderate” vs “excessive” force – in other words, they beg the question. But then Lenk, just like the previous judge, turns to a <em>social</em> standard, leading SJC to unanimously conclude spanking is a “parenting technique[] still widely regarded as permissible and warranted”.</p>
<p>It is, sadly, true that many people still approve of the legality of assaulting children: BG cites a report from 2013, only two years before SJC’s ruling, according to which report close to 80% of men and 65% of women think children may, at times, need a “good hard spanking” – and those are just the people who felt comfortable saying so, meaning the real numbers are higher. But a social standard cannot be objective because it is arbitrary: by that logic, ‘society’, popular opinion, what have you, could just as well demand the opposite decision, <a href="/posts/the-mind-as-a-courtroom" rel="ugc">as I’ve written before</a>. Case in point: the original judge and SJC came to opposite conclusions, even though both referred to a social standard. There’s a reason judges shouldn’t be swayed by popular opinion. Further, rights aren’t a popularity contest. And then there’s the issue that an appeal to social norms can be a trick to avoid accountability: it’s blaming ‘everyone else’ instead of taking personal ownership.</p>
<p>It is only <em>after</em> invoking this social standard, citing how “the long-standing and widespread acceptance of [corporal] punishment remains firmly woven into our nation’s social fabric” (p. 9), that SJC feels comfortable combining precedent (pp. 10-12) to define a three-pronged framework of acceptable use of force, ie “limited physical force” that is not “excessive in nature” – in other words, ‘reasonable’:</p>
<blockquote><p>[W]e hold that a parent or guardian may not be subjected to criminal liability for the use of force against a minor child under [their] care and supervision […], provided that (1) the force used against the minor child is reasonable; (2) the force is reasonably related to the purpose of safeguarding or promoting the welfare of the minor, including the prevention or punishment of the minor’s misconduct; and (3) the force used neither causes, nor creates a substantial risk of causing, physical harm (beyond fleeting pain or minor, transient marks), gross degradation, or severe mental distress.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Observe the circularity of both (1) and (2) in referring to what’s “reasonable” while setting up a standard of reasonableness. Then note the self-contradictory nature of (2): aggressive violence against a minor cannot possibly “safeguard[] or promot[e] [his] welfare” but must necessarily harm it. Observe also that speaking of “the minor’s misconduct” makes it sound once more as if the child were on trial. In regards to (3), I believe SJC underestimates the effects of spanking, which absolutely include “severe mental distress” and other awful consequences (see below) – and anyone with a modicum of self-esteem would find being spanked grossly degrading, especially (but not only) in public. Also recall that “the child was crying and looked frightened”, as BG writes, which, when taken seriously, should meet SJC’s standard of mental distress. <em>By its own criteria</em>, SJC should not have overturned the ruling.</p>
<p>During the original trial, both Dorvil and the mother had conceded the spanking did occur because his daughter had “disobeyed his direction to go to her mother, and continued playing on the sidewalk near the street” (SJC’s ruling, p. 13). But Dorvil had denied kicking his daughter and telling her to shut up. The cops who had witnessed what had happened stated that he had indeed kicked his daughter, but the court had still concluded that there was insufficient evidence the kick ever happened. The district attorney’s office disagreed. BG quotes:</p>
<blockquote><p>We respectfully disagree that there was insufficient evidence in the case, particularly where there was testimony the defendant kicked the child like a football.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, spanking is still widely socially accepted, whereas kicking would raise eyebrows even with staunch disciplinarians. Dorvil presumably relied on this social sanction when he admitted to spanking his daughter.</p>
<p>I disagree strongly with SJC that the use of force was reasonable, even if it was ‘only’ spanking. Authoritarians always downplay their violence, eg by claiming the child ‘won’t even remember’. No. Nobody, including, no, <em>especially</em> the parents, is to lay so much as a finger on a child. If the child was in danger due to her vicinity to traffic then the only appropriate amount of force would have been to pick her up and carry her to safety. I call this ‘force’ because it would have overridden her preference of remaining near the road; assuming she really was in danger, this is one of the few cases where it would be fine to <a href="/posts/is-sanctioned-force-still-force" rel="ugc">disregard</a> that preference. But that’s it. No violence or punishment whatsoever. I’m evaluating this concrete relative to the proper, objective standard for parental force I give in <a href="/posts/when-can-parents-use-force" rel="ugc">this article</a> – in short, just enough to save the child in sufficiently dangerous situations. For the reasons stated in that article, in addition to the criticisms laid out above, I believe my standard is superior to SJC’s three-pronged approach. Note also that neither the BG article nor SJC’s ruling mention any traffic-related danger; they instead say Dorvil took issue with his daughter’s alleged disobedience. Violating Dorvil’s authoritarian sensibilities is decidedly not proper cause for force. On the contrary, disrespect for authority is a hallmark feature of rationality.</p>
<p>After the original trial, the district attorney’s office also missed the mark. BG quotes them as saying that they “have never opposed recognition that a parent should be permitted to use a reasonable amount of force, if necessary, to discipline or control a child.” Referring to “discipline” and “control” is not even trying to sound helpful or caring; it’s openly, brazenly authoritarian and enables people like Dorvil.</p>
<p>Even Jetta Bernier from Massachusetts Citizens for Children, a children’s advocacy group, misses the mark when disagreeing with SJC’s second of the three prongs, which, again, states that physical punishment is fine as long as it “reasonably relate[s] to the purpose of safeguarding or promoting the welfare of the minor”. She explains, as quoted by BG, that “[i]t implies that physical punishment can, in fact, support the welfare of children” – I agree it cannot; as I’ve said, it’s a contradiction in terms. But then she concludes: “I would object to that altogether. It doesn’t communicate to children what they did wrong and what they should do instead.” Her conclusion is technically correct – corporal punishment explains nothing and guarantees no particular behavior. But it isn’t this failure to induce behavior that makes it wrong. That’s still granting that physical punishment would be appropriate if it were effective. It wouldn’t.</p>
<p>Then there are the scientists who, as the <a href="https://www.parentmap.com/article/legal-united-states-spanking-kids" rel="ugc">original article</a> says, find that “[t]he more you spank your children, the more likely they are to defy you and to develop issues including anti-social behavior and cognitive difficulties” (emphasis removed). Science can sometimes help convince people that even ‘light’ spankings are detrimental physically and ‘cognitively’ – hence my conclusion above that SJC underestimates the effects of physical punishment. But the quoted finding is still compatible with the false notion that children should obey. And again, what if the study had instead found that spanking <em>does</em> lead to obedience and improves social ‘behavior’ – would that make spanking appropriate? If not, why bother conducting such studies in the first place? And what does it say about the moral standing of children in society that our ethics have failed us to the point we need <em>science</em> to tell us, if only implicitly, that spanking is bad, though only because it’s counterproductive? In reality, such ‘studies’ scientize a moral issue. They’re on the same level as ‘studies’ showing that whipping a slave reduces rather than increases his productivity. His productivity isn’t the problem – his enslavement is.</p>
<p>But then there are the people who not only miss the mark but <em>commit evil</em>. Aside from Dorvil, that’s SJC. Recognizing parents’ alleged “privilege” to discipline children using “reasonable” force, SJC understands “the risk that the parental privilege defense will be used as a cover for instances of child abuse” (SJC’s ruling, p. 10). (Did it not occur to them that, <em>if</em> their three-pronged framework was wrong, this might have been such an instance?) They thus aim to find a middle ground between these two conflicting interests and rule in a way that, BG writes, “<em>strike[s] a balance</em> between parental rights and protecting children against abuse” (emphasis added). Martin Healy from the Massachusetts Bar Association commended SJC because, according to BG, “the decision <em>carefully balanced</em> parents’ constitutional right to raise their children as they see fit with the need to protect them against abuse” (emphasis again added). Observe both SJC’s and Healy’s failure to recognize spanking as child abuse; that <strong>what’s really being balanced, therefore, is the parents’ ‘right’ to abuse and the child’s right to freedom from abuse;</strong> and thus SJC’s and Healy’s failure to recognize this ‘balancing’ act as pure evil.</p>
<p>SJC added, I’m guessing to address any criticism preemptively (p. 15): “[T]he balance will tip in favor of the protection of children […].” Well, isn’t that nice. That puts detractors of this awful ruling in a tough spot because supporters can always say: ‘but see, the compromise eventually favors the children!’ In reality, the opposite is the case. Just ask yourself who benefitted from this ruling, the father or the daughter? And what does it say about parenting culture that a child’s freedom from abuse requires ‘balancing’?</p>
<p>An objectivist evaluation helps to understand why a ‘balance’ or middle ground of this sort is evil. Consider this passage from Ayn Rand’s <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Rand, Ayn. *Atlas Shrugged* (pp. 1054-1055). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition." >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>“There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, […] who dispenses justice by condemning both the robber and the robbed to jail, who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway. In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromiser is the transmitting rubber tube.<br>
“[…] When men reduce their virtues to the approximate, then evil acquires the force of an absolute, when loyalty to an unyielding purpose is dropped by the virtuous, it’s picked up by scoundrels—and you get the indecent spectacle of a cringing, bargaining, traitorous good and a self-righteously uncompromising evil.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Rand, Ayn. <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> (pp. 1054-1055). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Or consider this passage of hers:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Rand, Ayn. “‘Extremism,’ or the Art of Smearing”, *Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal*, 182" data-link="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/compromise.html#order_2" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>There can be no compromise on basic principles. There can be no compromise on moral issues. There can be no compromise on matters of knowledge, of truth, of rational conviction.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/compromise.html#order_2">
Rand, Ayn. “‘Extremism,’ or the Art of Smearing”, <em>Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal</em>, 182, aynrandlexicon.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Or this one:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Rand, Ayn. “Doesn’t Life Require Compromise?”, *The Virtue of Selfishness*, 93" data-link="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/compromise.html#order_3" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>There can be no compromise between a property owner and a burglar; offering the burglar a single teaspoon of one’s silverware would not be a compromise, but a total surrender—the recognition of his <em>right</em> to one’s property.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/compromise.html#order_3">
Rand, Ayn. “Doesn’t Life Require Compromise?”, <em>The Virtue of Selfishness</em>, 93, aynrandlexicon.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Likewise, there can be no compromise between an assailant and his victim, even if (or especially when!) the assailant is the parent and the victim his child. There can be no ‘balance’ between a ‘right’ to abuse and a right to protection from abuse. Any cowardly attempt to strike such a ‘balance’ results in no balance at all but comes entirely at the cost of the victim, in this case Dorvil’s daughter. It would be the recognition of his (non-existent) right to violate her (moral if not legal) right to freedom from physical harm.</p>
<p>As Rand explains, there can be no such thing as a ‘right’ to violate someone else’s rights. That’s a moral standard, not a legal one, but I doubt a <a href="/posts/core-objectivist-values" rel="ugc">conscientious</a> judge would have found it impossible to find a legal standard to avoid a compromise between good and evil in this case. On the contrary, SJC even cites such a standard (see below). And if courts can invoke arbitrary <em>social</em> standards, why couldn’t they invoke objective <em>moral</em> ones?</p>
<p>That brings me to the real reason parents shouldn’t spank their children, the one everyone I’ve mentioned failed to see: because it’s <em>immoral</em> and <em>disgusting</em>; because it’s an attack on the child’s <em>personhood</em>; because it has <em>no place</em> in an otherwise mostly civilized society. At its core, it’s a failure to recognize children as people in their own right.</p>
<p>The reasons SJC felt the need to ‘balance’ the parents’ ‘right’ to discipline and the child’s right to freedom from abuse are twofold:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">SJC followed a popular but completely mistaken notion of what the parents’ proper role is. It is <em>not</em> that of disciplinarian or master. Children are not obliged, neither legally nor morally, to obey – that is to outsource their own thinking, in other words <a href="/posts/why-are-people-afraid-to-form-their-own-judgment" rel="ugc">sacrifice their own judgment</a>, to their parents or to anyone else. Again, no parent has a ‘right’ to violate his child’s rights. That means, specifically, that no parent has a right to ‘discipline’ or ‘control’ his child, physically or otherwise. A parent <em>does</em>, however, have an obligation to keep his children safe from danger, <em>including the danger the parent himself may present</em>, and also, more importantly, <em>to help his children by their own lights</em>. Lulie Tanett from <em>Taking Children Seriously</em> identified this latter obligation.</li>
<li data-step="2"><p>This failure to identify the parent’s proper role led to SJC’s failure to realize that discipline – ie the coercive attempt to induce behavior in a child – <em>is itself</em> a form of abuse. Once you understand this, it becomes clear that there is no point in allowing ‘acceptable’ forms of abuse; that the solution is to get rid of abuse altogether and replace it with the institutions of persuasion and consent. But since she does not understand this, Lenk concludes (p. 15):</p>
<blockquote><p>We recognize that the balance we strike with the parental privilege defense may well be imperfect and that absolute equipoise between the goals of protecting the welfare of children and safeguarding the legitimate exercise of parental autonomy is likely unattainable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(It <em>is</em> unattainable, but not for the reason Lenk thinks. It’s that what she euphemistically calls the “legitimate exercise of parental autonomy” – effectively the parent’s limited ‘right’ to assault and batter his child in the name of discipline – does not exist. The way to get unstuck here is to stop referring to rights that don’t exist and to stop trying to balance things that cannot be balanced.)</p>
<p>The law should fully and uncompromising…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-is-spanking-still-legal" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-is-spanking-still-legal</a></em></p></li>
</ol>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-is-spanking-still-legal
How Is Spanking Still Legal?
2024-03-13T21:55:39Z
2024-03-13T21:55:39Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="objectivist-institutes-suck-at-quoting">Objectivist Institutes Suck at Quoting</h1>
<p>Both the Atlas Society (AS) and the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) misquote often. Their misquotes are easy to find – if you sample their most recent tweets and analyze them only somewhat thoroughly, you’re bound to find one sooner or later.</p>
<h5 id="misquotes-by-the-atlas-society">Misquotes by the Atlas Society</h5>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/atlas-society-misquotes-anthem" rel="ugc">Atlas Society misquotes Anthem</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/atlas-society-misquotes-for-the-new-intellectual" rel="ugc">Atlas Society misquotes For the New Intellectual</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/atlas-society-misquotes-the-voice-of-reason" rel="ugc">Atlas Society misquotes The Voice of Reason</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/atlas-society-misquotes-ayn-rand-answers" rel="ugc">Atlas Society misquotes Ayn Rand Answers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/ayn-rand-society-misquotes-atlas-shrugged" rel="ugc">Atlas Society misquotes Atlas Shrugged</a></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="misquotes-by-the-ayn-rand-institute">Misquotes by the Ayn Rand Institute</h5>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/ayn-rand-institute-misquotes-ayn-rand-s-man-s-rights-patience-algorithm" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand Institute misquotes Ayn Rand’s Man’s Rights</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/ayn-rand-institute-misquoting-ayn-rand-s-collectivized-rights" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand Institute misquoting Ayn Rand’s Collectivized Rights</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/ayn-rand-institute-misquoting-ayn-rand-s-of-living-death" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand Institute misquoting Ayn Rand’s Of Living Death</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/ayn-rand-institute-misquoting-ayn-rand-s-original-of-living-death-too" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand Institute misquoting Ayn Rand’s original Of Living Death too</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/ayn-rand-lexicon-misquoting-for-the-new-intellectual" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand Lexicon misquoting For the New Intellectual</a></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="the-problem">The problem</h5>
<p>When objectivists misquote, that’s a bigger deal than when non-objectivists do so. <a href="/posts/core-objectivist-values#conscientiousness" rel="ugc"><em>Conscientiousness</em></a> is a core objectivist value; proper quoting requires intellectual conscientiousness. (If you think some of these misquotes aren’t a big deal, read <a href="/posts/introducing-quote-checker#what-s-the-big-deal" rel="ugc">this article</a>.) By betraying the value of conscientiousness, these objectivist institutes are not living up to their intellectual heritage and responsibility.</p>
<h5 id="their-response-or-lack-thereof">Their response (or lack thereof)</h5>
<p>I’ve notified AS of some of their misquotes (<a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1751712573999759574" rel="ugc">here</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1751717660159615177" rel="ugc">here</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1751732632822399192" rel="ugc">here</a>) but, at the time of writing, they have yet to respond.</p>
<p>I’ve also <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1748482586651885970" rel="ugc">notified</a> ARI and got a response from their director of content, <a href="https://twitter.com/BenBayer" rel="ugc">Ben Bayer</a>. He at first <a href="https://twitter.com/BenBayer/status/1748738849478443240" rel="ugc">denied</a> the misquote of Rand’s ‘Of Living Death’. When I <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1748783223776088243" rel="ugc">followed up</a> with an explanation, Bayer <a href="https://twitter.com/BenBayer/status/1748807603394609500" rel="ugc">lied</a> about “any quotation [being] a shortening” and evaded the problem by claiming there had been “no change in meaning” in ARI’s quote. But that isn’t a proper standard for determining whether a quote is a misquote. I followed up again, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1748815669817176375" rel="ugc">explaining the issue</a>, but he ignored me.</p>
<p>However, Bayer later <a href="https://twitter.com/BenBayer/status/1749967614560854044" rel="ugc">responded</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1749964153538666583" rel="ugc">my pointing out</a> ARI’s misquote of Rand’s ‘Man’s Rights’. In his response, Bayer demonstrated that he didn’t understand why that quote was a misquote. (He defended the use of an ellipsis, but that wasn’t the issue.) I <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1749968378465251683" rel="ugc">explained</a>; at first, he responded “Sorry this is just silly pickiness”, then quickly deleted his response and stopped talking. But if he didn’t understand the issue, how is he in any position to judge whether I was being nitpicky? Is this the standard of conscientiousness he wants to represent as ARI’s director of content? Doesn’t <a href="/posts/core-objectivist-values#objectivity" rel="ugc">objectivity</a> mean not evading the available evidence, including the evidence I have presented?</p>
<p>I think Bayer has since muted me. He hasn’t blocked me, I can still see his profile, but when I @mention him, the mention isn’t rendered as a link. If he has muted me, then he’s violating another core objectivist value: that of <a href="/posts/core-objectivist-values#realism" rel="ugc">not evading reality</a>. And if he’s not doing anything to improve the quality of quotes at ARI, then he’s violating the objectivist value of <a href="/posts/core-objectivist-values#accountability" rel="ugc">accountability</a>. I’m guessing proper quoting is his responsibility as director of content, which is why he, not ARI’s Twitter account, responded to me. I’ll keep an eye on their Twitter in the coming days for more misquotes.</p>
<p>Bayer has even <a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/ben-bayer-director-of-content-at-ayn-rand-institute-misquotes-himself" rel="ugc">misquoted himself</a>.</p>
<p>I think the appropriate response would have been to thank me for my discoveries and instruct whoever tweets at ARI to get better at quoting. As I pointed out to both institutes, they can use the tool I linked them to, <a href="http://www.quote-checker.com" rel="ugc">Quote Checker</a>, which I built. It’s free, at least at the time of writing, and it should make quoting easier for them.</p>
<h5 id="is-as-worse-than-ari">Is AS worse than ARI?</h5>
<p>AS can still respond that way. Arguably, their misquotes are worse than those of ARI.</p>
<p>On a general note about these institutes, I give Bayer credit for <a href="https://twitter.com/BenBayer/status/1744027488513065288" rel="ugc">pointing out</a> that AS “openly panders to religion”, citing a tweet of theirs addressing Christians (ie, mystics) and claiming that one “needn’t defend or support every tenet of objectivism to appreciate its political philosophy”. In other words, AS says that, as mystics, Christians can continue to reject reason but also embrace other parts of objectivism, an inherently pro-reason philosophy. Bayer is right to point out that you can’t pick and choose like that. The rejection of mysticism is a crucial element of objectivism, and the Atlas Society dilutes the value of objectivism by pandering to religion in this way. You can’t be half rational and half irrational; if you try, irrationality will win. You just can’t compromise like that, <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/compromise/5.html" rel="ugc">as Rand herself explained</a>.</p>
<p>AS has also given religious commentators a platform on Instagram. And Jennifer Grossman, CEO of AS, likes to post Instagram stories in different outfits and/or with several filters making her look younger, including stories – she’s done this repeatedly – where she has ‘just’ stepped out of the shower (with wet hair but still somehow wearing makeup). This is <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/second-handers.html" rel="ugc">second-handed</a>, another thing objectivists shouldn’t be.</p>
<p>AS has posted more anti-objectivist content, such as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C2m8ceUt41A" rel="ugc">this post</a> stating:</p>
<blockquote><p>We take ideas seriously—but we try not to take ourselves too seriously […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is really bad. Not taking oneself seriously is what the enemies of reason sell as a virtue to trick you into not defending your values.</p>
<p>I tentatively recommend taking AS content with a grain of salt and not counting on them to defend objectivist values. ARI also isn’t particularly conscientious but at least I haven’t seen them pander to mysticism. And Bayer responded to me whereas AS hasn’t.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/objectivist-institutes-suck-at-quoting
Objectivist Institutes Suck at Quoting
2024-01-30T18:31:50Z
2024-01-30T18:31:50Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="introducing-quote-checker">Introducing: Quote Checker</h1>
<p>I’ve built a tool that checks for misquotes. It’s called Quote Checker: <a href="http://www.quote-checker.com" rel="ugc">www.quote-checker.com</a></p>
<p>When I was translating David Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, our copy editor recommended providing missing sources for some of the quotes in the book. While researching those sources, I realized that the book contained <a href="/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity#missing-sources-and-misquotes" rel="ugc">several misquotes</a>. We were too close to publication at that point to change the translation beyond small alterations, but I remember wishing I had had a tool to help me check for misquotes.</p>
<p>As a programmer, my eye is already trained for small changes. It may sound insignificant, but a single missing semicolon can make the difference between a completely working and a completely broken program. That’s why so-called diffing software is among a programmer’s most important tools. But that software isn’t made for quoting specifically, it’s made for highlighting changes in code, and even a trained eye can easily miss smaller changes. Just as in programming, a single missing or improperly added semicolon can make or break a quote.</p>
<p>What I needed was a smart diffing tool that could not only show me differences between original texts and corresponding quotes but also explain which differences were done properly vs improperly: if a quote differs from the original, the changes need to be indicated so that the reader isn’t misled.</p>
<p>The result is Quote Checker. It’s free, at least for now. It compares a given quote to the original text and highlights any issues.</p>
<p>Quote Checker has two main customers: readers and writers.</p>
<p>Readers can use the tool to check whether some quote they read is accurate. If it isn’t, they can hold the quoter accountable by publishing a diff of the misquote.</p>
<p>Writers – authors, publishers, journalists, students, etc. – can use the tool to quote properly in the first place. They should paste their quotes into Quote Checker before publication. Writers who are themselves misquoted can publish a diff to explain and make light of the misquote.</p>
<p>In short, Quote Checker aims to increase intellectual <a href="/posts/core-objectivist-values#conscientiousness" rel="ugc">conscientiousness</a> among readers and writers.</p>
<p>To learn more, visit <a href="http://www.quote-checker.com" rel="ugc">www.quote-checker.com</a>. I’ve already documented a bunch of misquotes in the past few days since its release – you won’t believe how common misquotes are! I also paste an <a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/pages/rationale" rel="ugc">article</a> from the Quote Checker site explaining the functionality and rationale below for posterity. (Future changes may not be reflected.)</p>
<hr>
<h2 id="what-s-the-big-deal">What’s the big deal?</h2>
<h5 id="i-get-that-one-shouldn-t-alter-a-quote-too-much-but-if-someone-just-made-a-small-mistake-what-s-the-big-deal"><em>I get that one shouldn’t alter a quote too much. But if someone just made a small mistake, what’s the big deal?!</em></h5>
<p>Consider this passage from Marta Stanton’s <em>The Right to Misquote</em><sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> (bold emphasis added, footnote removed):</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Webster’s New College Dictionary</em> defines quotation marks as punctuation marks “used chiefly to indicate the beginning and the end of a quotation in which the <em>exact phraseology</em> of another or of a text is directly cited.” When quotation marks are used, the reader automatically attributes the <strong>exact words</strong> within the quotation marks to the person cited. The reader believes that the quotation marks represent that the author is <strong>accurately conveying language</strong> used by another <strong>without paraphrasing or fabricating</strong>. The reader is on guard when quotation marks are lacking that the author may have paraphrased the exact wording or inserted his own rendition of the statement. However, <strong>the reader lowers his guard at the sight of quotation marks and believes that the exact language must have been used</strong> or the author could not have placed quotation marks around the words.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I should give a fair warning that I’m about to disagree with Stanton in two regards below, but I wholeheartedly agree with the quote above. In other words, quotation marks (and blockquotes) not only indicate another’s speech but signal <strong>intellectual conscientiousness</strong> on the part of the quoter. When this conscientiousness is signaled but not delivered, that’s a type of fraud.</p>
<h5 id="if-the-meaning-of-the-quote-is-retained-what-s-the-harm"><em>If the meaning of the quote is retained, what’s the harm?</em></h5>
<p>The harm is difficult to gauge. Conveying the intended meaning is difficult enough when a quote remains unchanged; alterations typically increase this difficulty, especially if they are not indicated.</p>
<p>Even the author of the original text may not always be in a position to determine whether an altered quote accurately conveys the meaning he intended. This is because no text is ever obvious and every reader has to recreate the meaning while reading. (This is an insight from Popperian epistemology explained by physicist David Deutsch in his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, chapter 10.)</p>
<p>Should the author consent to the publishing of inaccurate quotes of his original text, or should he retroactively deem them no big deal or choose to be associated with them, this doesn’t necessarily help readers trying to understand his text, nor does it solve the fraudulent nature of misquotes. (I disagree here with Stanton, p. 448., that an author’s chosen association with a misquote makes the misquote acceptable.)</p>
<h5 id="but-all-i-did-was-omit-a-comma-or-something-like-that"><em>But all I did was omit a comma! (Or something like that.)</em></h5>
<p>When people hear the term ‘misquote’, they typically think of putting words in someone’s mouth or grossly misrepresenting someone’s speech. While there are more and less egregious cases of misquotes, even minor changes to punctuation can, when done improperly, turn a quote into a misquote. (I use a stricter standard than Stanton (see p. 448 under “B. Acceptable Alterations of Quotations”), who, on the given page, contradicts the quote above.)</p>
<p>Such mistakes may seem small, but they can easily compound when a misquote is itself misquoted and so on.</p>
<p>Additionally, moving, adding, or omitting even small things can greatly change the meaning of some quotes. The size of some change in text does not always correspond to the size of that change in meaning. Consider what Cameron Winklevoss said:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Cameron Winklevoss" data-link="https://twitter.com/cameron/status/1522743906110160896" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>The societies that have perpetrated the worst crimes against humanity have been censorship and propaganda states. Long live free speech.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://twitter.com/cameron/status/1522743906110160896">
Cameron Winklevoss, twitter.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Next, compare his statement to how The Atlas Society quoted him:</p>
<blockquote data-source="The Atlas Society" data-link="https://twitter.com/TheAtlasSociety/status/1752377409888755880" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>The societies that have perpetuated the worst crimes against humanity have been censorship and propaganda states. Long live free speech.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://twitter.com/TheAtlasSociety/status/1752377409888755880">
The Atlas Society, twitter.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Do you see the difference? No? That’s where Quote Checker <a href="https://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/atlas-society-misquotes-cameron-winklevoss" rel="ugc">comes in</a>:</p>
<div class="mx-4">
<pre class="pre-wrap">The societies that have perpet<del class="text-decoration-none" title="Deletions must be indicated, eg by ‘[...]’ or [replacement].">-r-</del><ins class="text-decoration-none" title="Insertions must be surrounded by [brackets].">+u+</ins>ated the worst crimes against humanity have been censorship and propaganda states. Long live free speech.</pre>
</div>
<p>Now you can clearly see that Winklevoss said “perpet<strong>r</strong>ated”, but The Atlas Society misquoted him as saying ‘perpet<strong>u</strong>ated’. That’s a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/perpetrate-vs-perpetuate-usage-difference" rel="ugc">change in meaning</a> from just one swapped letter. Such mistakes don’t happen when you copy/paste, so we can conclude that The Atlas Society manually transcribes quotes. As you can see, that’s error prone.</p>
<p>Or consider what Senator Rand Paul once said:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Sen. Rand Paul" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI_Dm3pj3dQ&t=147s" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Try persuasion instead of government cudgels. Try humility instead of arrogance. Try freedom instead of coercion.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI_Dm3pj3dQ&t=147s">
Sen. Rand Paul, youtube.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Here’s how The Atlas Society quoted him:</p>
<blockquote data-source="The Atlas Society" data-link="https://twitter.com/TheAtlasSociety/status/1753840794643927063" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Try persuasion instead of government cudgels. Try humanity instead of arrogance. Try freedom instead of coercion.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://twitter.com/TheAtlasSociety/status/1753840794643927063">
The Atlas Society, twitter.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Once again, the difference in letters is subtle and might escape the naked eye. Quote Checker <a href="https://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/atlas-society-misquotes-rand-paul" rel="ugc">makes this difference obvious and exposes the misquote</a> – Paul said “humility”, not ‘humanity’:</p>
<div class="mx-4">
<pre class="pre-wrap">Try persuasion instead of government cudgels. Try hum<del class="text-decoration-none" title="Deletions must be indicated, eg by ‘[...]’ or [replacement].">-il-</del><ins class="text-decoration-none" title="Insertions must be surrounded by [brackets].">+an+</ins>ity instead of arrogance. Try freedom instead of coercion.</pre>
</div>
<p>Also observe that things we humans consider small can be important to machines. Here’s an example, also taken from <a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/kieren-krazyander-misquotes-dennis-hackethal" rel="ugc">a real quote</a>. The content doesn’t matter, focus only on the changes at the beginning of each line:</p>
<div class="mx-4">
<pre class="pre-wrap">1<del class="text-decoration-none" title="Deletions must be indicated, eg by [...] or [replacement].">-.-</del><ins class="text-decoration-none" title="Additions must be surrounded by [brackets].">+)+</ins><span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>Creativity<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>is<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>necessary<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>and<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>sufficient<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>for<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>consciousness/sentience<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>to<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>arise.
2<del class="text-decoration-none" title="Deletions must be indicated, eg by [...] or [replacement].">-.-</del><ins class="text-decoration-none" title="Additions must be surrounded by [brackets].">+)+</ins><span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>Animals<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>are<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>not<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>creative.
3<del class="text-decoration-none" title="Deletions must be indicated, eg by [...] or [replacement].">-.-</del><ins class="text-decoration-none" title="Additions must be surrounded by [brackets].">+)+</ins><span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>Therefore,<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>animals<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>are<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>not<span class="text-muted diff-space"> </span>sentient.</pre>
</div>
<p>All the quoter did was change periods to closing parentheses. That may not be a big deal to humans, but it will break the formatting rendered by certain programs processing this text (such as markdown formatting, in this instance). We cannot possibly know or anticipate everything that depends on the accurate rendition of a quote, so it’s best not to change it improperly in the first place.</p>
<h5 id="fair-enough-but-if-i-do-need-to-make-changes-to-a-quote-how-do-i-make-them-properly"><em>Fair enough. But if I do need to make changes to a quote, how do I make them properly?</em></h5>
<p>There are different style guides out there, such as Chicago and MLA, and the specifics will depend on which style guide you choose. The general rule is that your quote must reproduce the exact wording of the original text letter for letter while retaining the formatting (italics, bold, underline, strikethrough, etc.). When you do need to omit parts of the original, use ellipses (e.g. ‘[…]’); surround additions by square brackets (e.g. ‘This is a [great] quote.’). When you remove or add formatting, indicate the changes in your own text, as I did above when I quoted <em>The Right to Misquote</em>, or add brackets inside the quote indicating the change.</p>
<h5 id="any-other-tips"><em>Any other tips?</em></h5>
<p>First of all, <a href="http://www.quote-checker.com/diffs/new" rel="ugc">use this tool!</a> It gives you a detailed view of the differences between a given original text and the corresponding quote; it also lists issues you need to fix in order to avoid a misquote.</p>
<p>Never quote from memory, always consult the original source. Whenever possible, copy/paste, ensuring that the formatting carried over. Don’t assume that you can judge whether an unindicated change to a quote results in a change in meaning or ‘isn’t a big deal’. Remember the meaning of quotation marks and be true to that meaning.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Marta Stanton, <em>The Right to Misquote</em>, 14 Hastings Comm. & Ent. L.J. 424 (1992). Available at: <a href="https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_comm_ent_law_journal/vol14/iss3/4" rel="ugc">https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_comm_ent_law_journal/vol14/iss3/4</a> <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/introducing-quote-checker
Introducing: Quote Checker
2024-02-04T23:23:02Z
2024-02-04T23:23:02Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="camera-not-showing-anything-in-unity-2d-try-this-simple-fix">Camera Not Showing Anything in Unity 2D? Try This Simple Fix.</h1>
<p>While practicing my Unity game-development skills, I tried getting the camera to follow the player’s y coordinate in a 2D game. I followed <a href="https://gamedevbeginner.com/how-to-follow-the-player-with-a-camera-in-unity-with-or-without-cinemachine/" rel="ugc">this tutorial</a> to do so.</p>
<p>The task seemed simple enough: assign the player’s transform as a serialized field to the camera and use it to set the camera’s position.</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">System.Collections</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">System.Collections.Generic</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">UnityEngine</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Camera</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">MonoBehaviour</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="p">[</span><span class="n">SerializeField</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="n">Transform</span> <span class="n">target</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">LateUpdate</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nf">Vector2</span><span class="p">(</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">target</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">y</span>
<span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>In this script, <code>target</code> represents the player object’s transform component, assigned in the Unity editor by dragging the player game object into the corresponding field. The camera’s x coordinate is retained, and the player’s y coordinate is used to set the camera’s y coordinate. This way, the camera follows the player up and down but not left or right – but that’s an implementation detail.</p>
<p>However, once I ran the game, I suddenly couldn’t see any of the objects anymore.</p>
<p>The issue lies with my use of <code>Vector2</code>. I used it because I’m in a 2D game. Why would I use Vector3, right?</p>
<p>Well, I noticed in the Unity inspector that, even though it’s a 2D game, the camera’s transform still has a z coordinate for its position. By default, it was set to <code>-10</code> before I started the game, but the <code>Vector2</code> assignment in the code above implicitly set that to <code>0</code>. This caused the camera to be on the same plane as the objects in the game, thus looking ‘behind’ them. <a href="https://discussions.unity.com/t/camera-not-displaying-any-gameobjects-in-scene/131060/2" rel="ugc">This</a> helpful answer on the Unity discussion forum tipped me off.</p>
<p>To fix this issue, instead use a <code>Vector3</code> that retains the camera’s z coordinate:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">LateUpdate</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nf">Vector3</span><span class="p">(</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">target</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">y</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">z</span>
<span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Now it works like a charm.</p>
<h2 id="takeaways">Takeaways</h2>
<p>I’m a Unity noob, but these are the main things I learned from solving this problem:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">It seems that, in Unity, 2D games are just flat pancakes inside a 3D world, and z coordinates still matter.</li>
<li data-step="2">Therefore, even in a 2D game, transform components still have a z coordinate.</li>
<li data-step="3">Assigning a 2D vector to a 3D field implicitly sets the z coordinate to <code>0</code>. It does <em>not</em> retain the original z coordinate.</li>
</ol>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/camera-not-showing-anything-in-unity-2d-try-thi
Camera Not Showing Anything in Unity 2D? Try This Simple Fix.
2024-01-11T02:32:39Z
2024-01-11T02:32:39Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="core-objectivist-values">Core Objectivist Values</h1>
<p>Having read a few of Ayn Rand’s books, here’s my list of what I think are objectivism’s core values and what they mean, in no particular order.</p>
<p>I’m not an expert on objectivism. Putting together this list is primarily an effort to understand objectivism better, which is why, in addition to quotes, I’m giving my own thoughts and elaborations. </p>
<p>But I <em>can</em> say that I’m not aware of any other philosophy offering this many values, not just to live by and become a better person, but also <em>to survive</em>.</p>
<h3 id="freedom">Freedom</h3>
<p>The opposite of serfdom; <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/freedom.html#order_2" rel="ugc">“<em>the absence of physical coercion</em>”</a>. Man has free will and should reject unchosen burdens.</p>
<h3 id="accountability">Accountability</h3>
<p>Be accountable for your ideas as well as their consequences, and hold others accountable for theirs. Don’t <a href="/posts/where-s-david-deutsch-s-accountability" rel="ugc">evade responsibility</a> – among other things, it dilutes the value of your ideas.</p>
<p>Responsibility literally means people can expect a <em>response</em> from you, in words or in action. If you’re responsible for something, they can prompt you about it. For example, if you sell a broken product, the response that is expected of you is to make it right (instead of, say, coming up with excuses).</p>
<p>In particular, you have a responsibility to think for yourself. You also have a responsibility to pronounce judgement, <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">especially when silence could reasonably be inferred to imply the sanction of evil.</a></p>
<p><em>Doesn’t a responsibility to think for yourself or pronounce judgment potentially present an unchosen burden? There are people who’d rather not think for themselves or pronounce judgment. If so, isn’t that in conflict with the value of freedom, which includes the rejection of unchosen burdens?</em></p>
<h3 id="integrity">Integrity</h3>
<p>The opposite of hypocrisy. You have integrity when your actions are in line with your values.</p>
<blockquote data-link="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/integrity.html#order_2" data-source="The Ayn Rand Lexicon" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Integrity is loyalty to one’s convictions and values; it is the policy of acting in accordance with one’s values, of expressing, upholding and translating them into practical reality. If a man professes to love a woman, yet his actions are indifferent, inimical or damaging to her, it is his lack of integrity that makes him immoral.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/integrity.html#order_2">
The Ayn Rand Lexicon, aynrandlexicon.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Integrity <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrity" rel="ugc">also means</a> internal consistency among one’s ideas as well as an unwillingness to compromise on one’s moral code; see <a href="#individuality" rel="ugc">‘Individuality’</a>.</p>
<h3 id="honesty">Honesty</h3>
<p>Don’t lie; make a <em>genuine effort</em> to tell the truth. Contrary to what most believe, lying is not just intentionally misleading someone. <a href="https://www.elliottemple.com/essays/lying" rel="ugc">According to</a> objectivist philosopher Elliot Temple, a lie is “a communication (or a belief, for lying to yourself) which you <em>should</em> know is false” (emphasis modified).</p>
<p>In other words, honesty is a matter of being conscientious in accurately representing reality.</p>
<h3 id="conscientiousness">Conscientiousness</h3>
<p>The opposite of negligence. Make genuine efforts; don’t cut corners.</p>
<h3 id="achievement">Achievement</h3>
<p>The opposite of mediocrity. Man can go “as high as his ability will carry him” (<em>The Virtue of Selfishness</em>, ch. 12).</p>
<h3 id="individuality">Individuality</h3>
<p>The opposite of <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/second-handers.html" rel="ugc">second-handedness</a>. Be yourself; don’t worry about what others think; don’t live your life through others; don’t blindly borrow your values from others; don’t compromise on your values; don’t surrender your consciousness to others; don’t derive your self-respect from others.</p>
<h3 id="justice">Justice</h3>
<p>Justice is when you get what you deserve, good or bad.</p>
<p>It stands in opposition to charity, which is when you get something you haven’t earned. It also stands in opposition to mercy, which is an <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/mercy.html#order_1" rel="ugc">“unearned forgiveness”</a>.</p>
<p>Justice requires conscientiousness and <a href="/posts/charity-vs-justice" rel="ugc">may seem ‘cold’</a> to those who expect charity.</p>
<h3 id="trade">Trade</h3>
<p>An instantiation of justice in men’s interactions. <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/trader_principle.html#order_1" rel="ugc">“A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved.”</a> Stands in opposition to looting and parasitism as well as compromise.</p>
<p><em>The above quote is from Galt’s speech in</em> Atlas Shrugged, <em>but I noticed that it is also reproduced verbatim in</em> The Virtue of Selfishness, <em>ch. 1. If you do a word search for the quote on the linked page, you will see both instances. Isn’t that self-plagiarism?</em></p>
<h3 id="judgment">Judgment</h3>
<blockquote data-link="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" data-source="Ayn Rand, ‘How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?’" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>To judge means: to evaluate a given concrete by reference to an abstract principle or standard.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/">
Ayn Rand, ‘How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?’, courses.aynrand.org
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>You have a responsibility to judge (see <a href="#accountability" rel="ugc">‘Accountability’</a>). You should follow <a href="/posts/the-mind-as-a-courtroom" rel="ugc">proper, objective standards</a> for evaluating ideas and judging accordingly.</p>
<h3 id="realism">Realism</h3>
<p>Reality is real. As in: don’t fake reality, don’t evade it. You will only hurt yourself in the process.</p>
<p>Realism stands in opposition to relativism. In <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>, character John Galt <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/absolutes.html#order_1" rel="ugc">says</a> “[r]eality is an absolute, existence is an absolute […].”</p>
<p>Faking reality is a type of dishonesty.</p>
<h3 id="reason">Reason</h3>
<p>Rand’s definition of reason says:</p>
<blockquote data-link="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/reason.html#order_1" data-source="The Ayn Rand Lexicon" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Reason is the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/reason.html#order_1">
The Ayn Rand Lexicon, aynrandlexicon.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Following Karl Popper, I have to reject this definition. (Or we can call what she talks about <em>reason</em> while calling what Popper means something else – that’s not important.) The above definition is empiricist, and empiricism (the idea that knowledge comes to us through the senses) has many problems. This is a big topic, which is largely beyond scope here, so I’ll focus on the fact that empiricism is false, as Popper explains. So instead, I offer this Popperian definition: <em>reason is the faculty that conjectures and criticizes solutions to problems.</em> It is also known as <em>creativity</em>.</p>
<p>If reason were merely the identification and integration of sense material (ie empirical data), which is a passive/mindless process, men would be neither creative nor conscious – so Rand’s definition is actually a <em>denial</em> of reason, a denial of man’s mind. As evidence, consider the vast amount of ‘artificial intelligence’ programs that routinely identify and integrate empirical data, yet have no consciousness or reason whatsoever. This is something Rand should have known, given that neural networks, which are routinely used to identify and integrate data, gained popularity before her death (the current wave of AI isn’t the first). Also, Popper’s work was both available and not unknown in the field of epistemology, yet as far as I know, Rand never references it.</p>
<p>I <em>do</em> agree with Rand, however, that reason is man’s primary tool for survival; that he must therefore use it if he wants to live; that reason stands in opposition to <em>mysticism</em>, which is “the claim to some […] non-rational, non-definable, supernatural means of knowledge” (<em>The Voice of Reason</em>, ch. 10); that man should reject mysticism, if for no other reason that he wants to <em>live</em>.</p>
<p><em>Note that my quote omits</em> “non-sensory” <em>since that would be empiricist. Oddly enough, since Popper denied any sensory means of knowledge, he would have sounded like a mystic to Rand!</em></p>
<p><em>On the topic of Popper, I wonder if his <a href="/posts/fallibility-table" rel="ugc">guiding principle</a> – ‘I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth’ – is a particular instance of conscientiousness.</em></p>
<h3 id="objectivity">Objectivity</h3>
<p>The opposite of subjectivity. Judgment is objective when it is based <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/justice.html#order_2" rel="ugc">“exclusively on the factual evidence and […] consider[s] all the relevant evidence available.”</a></p>
<p><em>Is this focus on evidence a result of Rand’s empiricist notion of reason? If so, is there a better definition of objectivity?</em></p>
<h3 id="life">Life</h3>
<p>Life stands in opposition to parasitism and altruism. Your life is yours to live, no one else’s. Don’t submit to those who want to enslave you; you don’t need to ‘buy’ your right to exist by giving resources, attention, or whatever else to others.</p>
<p>Life is the ultimate value:</p>
<blockquote data-link="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/life.html#order_1" data-source="The Ayn Rand Lexicon" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>It is only the concept of “Life” that makes the concept of “Value” possible. It is only to a living entity that things can be good or evil.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/life.html#order_1">
The Ayn Rand Lexicon, aynrandlexicon.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Rand both <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/life.html#order_4" rel="ugc">considers</a> life the</em> “ultimate value” <em>(emphasis removed) and <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/self-esteem.html#order_3" rel="ugc">says</a> that</em> “[n]o value is higher than self-esteem”. <em>But there can only be one highest value – which is it?</em></p>
<h3 id="property">Property</h3>
<blockquote data-link="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/property_rights.html#order_1" data-source="The Ayn Rand Lexicon" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/property_rights.html#order_1">
The Ayn Rand Lexicon, aynrandlexicon.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Like trade, property is an instantiation of justice since the right to property is “a guarantee that he will own [property] <em>if he earns it</em>” (ibid., emphasis added).</p>
<hr>
<p>Many, maybe all, of these values are related. For example, people have a responsibility to be honest – conversely, rejecting accountability often causes dishonesty; so does not being conscientious. Lack of conscientiousness can also <a href="/posts/is-sanctioned-force-still-force" rel="ugc">cause coercion</a>, which results in a lack of freedom. And so on.</p>
<p>Also, some of these values are more fundamental than others. For example, conscientiousness underlies both honesty and justice, so you should expect a negligent person to be both dishonest and unjust. Conscientiousness also helps you be a better intellectual overall, eg when it comes to accurate quoting.</p>
<p>Did I forget any values? Let me know in the comments below.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/core-objectivist-values
Core Objectivist Values
2024-01-17T23:09:45Z
2024-01-17T23:09:45Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="mentzer-s-consolidated-routine">Mentzer’s Consolidated Routine</h1>
<p>“The perfect bodybuilding program” as per Mike Mentzer himself: <a href="https://youtu.be/TPQGU05JhV4" rel="ugc">https://youtu.be/TPQGU05JhV4</a></p>
<p>Before trying this routine at your own risk, familiarize yourself with Mentzer’s <a href="/posts/mentzer-s-ideal-weightlifting-routine" rel="ugc">‘Ideal Weightlifting Routine’</a> for background and reasoning.</p>
<p><em>Only one set to failure per exercise.</em></p>
<h2 id="day-1">Day 1</h2>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Squats, 8-15 reps to failure. May substitute leg press. After a brief rest:</li>
<li data-step="2">Close-grip palms-up pull downs. Use extreme deliberation and control, no thrusting. Pause at bottom for 2-3 seconds, then do the negative under strict control. 6-10 reps to failure.</li>
</ol>
<p>No sooner than seven days later:</p>
<h2 id="day-2">Day 2</h2>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Deadlifts. May use regular barbell or trap bar. 5-8 reps to failure. Brief rest.</li>
<li data-step="2">Dips. 6-10 reps to failure.</li>
</ol>
<p>That’s all. Repeat after one week.</p>
<p>Do this for at least six months to “maximize your body’s anabolic process”.</p>
<p>Keep a training journal. Accurately record the weights and number of reps.</p>
<p>Mentzer says not to alter the exercises above. One alteration I would consider, however, is to alternate or maybe even replace dips with close-grip incline bench presses to target the upper chest. Most people’s upper chest is underdeveloped compared to their lower chest.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/mentzer-s-consolidated-routine
Mentzer’s Consolidated Routine
2023-12-24T19:56:56Z
2023-12-24T19:56:56Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="mentzer-s-ideal-weightlifting-routine">Mentzer’s Ideal Weightlifting Routine</h1>
<p>This is a weightlifting routine devised by Mike Mentzer for maximum growth of the major muscle groups. Try it at your own risk.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://youtu.be/852rGXEa5wQ" rel="ugc">https://youtu.be/852rGXEa5wQ</a></p>
<p>No number of sets is specified because it’s always <em>one</em>. Yes, you read that right. Do <em>one</em> set per exercise <em>to failure</em>. Choose a weight that will get you to failure at the indicated number of reps. If, as you perform an exercise, you realize that the actual number of reps will differ from the one prescribed, that’s fine – go to failure anyway and then adjust the weight next time. You have reached failure when you can’t do another full repetition with reasonably strict form.</p>
<p>Rest for <em>at least</em> three days in between workouts. If you have a scheduling conflict, or if you didn’t get a good night’s sleep or feel sluggish for whatever reason, take another day off.</p>
<p>Every few weeks, add an additional rest day at random. As you progress, add this rest day more frequently, until you take it consistently. You will need the added rest since the stresses on your body increase with heavier weights. Do this until you train only once a week, then switch to Mentzer’s <a href="/posts/mentzer-s-consolidated-routine" rel="ugc">consolidated program</a>.</p>
<h2 id="why-only-one-set-per-exercise">Why only one set per exercise?</h2>
<p>If you’re familiar with the traditional, ie high-volume, weightlifting approach, which prescribes doing three to four sets per exercise and multiple exercises for the same muscle group, doing only one set may sound crazy to you. Mentzer stated that <em>intensity of effort</em> is what causes muscle growth, not volume. If volume caused muscle growth, marathon runners would have the biggest legs. In reality, they look emaciated. Even if an increase in volume is required, doing only one set is the logical place to start to avoid arbitrary adjustments: from one set you can only go to two, then three, and so on. If you’re already doing five sets and aren’t seeing progress, you don’t know whether to increase to six or decrease to four.</p>
<p>If you’re new to Mentzer’s routine, take a break of 2-3 weeks before starting as you have likely been overtraining on a traditional program for too long. You need to get your recovery ability back first. Recovery ability varies greatly between people – listen to your body. When in doubt, rest. You won’t run the risk of resting too long as easily as you may think because it can take several weeks to start losing strength.</p>
<p>Read the ‘General notes’ section at the bottom <em>before</em> you begin training.</p>
<h2 id="day-1-chest-and-back">Day 1: chest and back</h2>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Pec dec, 6-10 reps, superset with…</li>
<li data-step="2">Close-grip incline bench press on smith machine, 1-3 reps. Hands slightly closer than shoulder width. Elbows flared out away from torso and toward ears</li>
<li data-step="3">Close-grip, palms-up pull downs, 6-10 reps </li>
<li data-step="4">Deadlifts. 5-8 reps, as close to failure as you’re willing to go. Keep head up and look at where the wall meets the ceiling throughout the entire rep. Remember to ‘paint your legs’, ie keep the bar close to the legs. No need to arch back at the top, just stand up straight. If problems with low back, substitute shrugs, 6-10 reps.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="day-2-legs">Day 2: legs</h2>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Leg extensions, 8-15 reps, superset with…</li>
<li data-step="2">Leg press, 8-15 reps. May substitute squats, preferably with a smith machine. Then rest for a minute or two, drink some water, walk around the gym.</li>
<li data-step="3">Standing calf raises, 12-20 reps.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="day-3-delts-and-arms">Day 3: delts and arms</h2>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Dumbbell lateral raises, 6-10 reps. Then brief rest</li>
<li data-step="2">Either bent-over dumbbell laterals or sit backwards on pec deck and work the rear delts. 6-10 reps</li>
<li data-step="3">Barbell curls (straight bar, not EZ curls), 6-10 reps.</li>
<li data-step="4">Tricep press downs, either straight bar or v bar (do not use rope), 6-10 reps. May substitute lying French presses if the machine for press downs isn’t available. Superset with…</li>
<li data-step="5">Dips, 3-5 reps. Slooow on your way down. If you can do more than five with your body weight, add weight by hanging it from a weightlifting belt.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="day-4-legs-again">Day 4: legs again</h2>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Leg extensions. About 30 lbs more than on day 2. Just one single positive rep until your legs are fully extended, knees locked. Hold the weight statically for 10-25 seconds. Don’t let it come crashing down at the end; lower the legs slowly and controlled all the way to the bottom, using only the strength of your thigh muscles. Keep butt planted firmly on the seat. For an extra challenge, stop at the halfway point and see if you can lift the weight back up again for just an inch (should be impossible).</li>
<li data-step="2">Superset with Smith-machine squats, 8-15 reps. May substitute regular, ie free-weight squats. Bar over mid foot when viewed from the side. Don’t do hack squats, bad for the knees and not very productive. Rest for a couple of minutes.</li>
<li data-step="3">Standing calf raises, 12-20 reps</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="necessary-equipment">Necessary equipment</h2>
<ul>
<li>Pec deck</li>
<li>Smith machine plus bench</li>
<li>Machine for lat pull-downs</li>
<li>Bar for deadlifts</li>
<li>Leg-extension machine </li>
<li>Leg press</li>
<li>Something for standing calf-raises (can substitute leg press)</li>
<li>Machine for lateral raises (can substitute dumbbells)</li>
<li>Reverse-fly machine (can substitute dumbbells)</li>
<li>Machine for tricep press downs</li>
<li>Parallel bars for dips</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="general-notes">General notes</h2>
<p>Keep training journal to track progress. Accurately record the weights and number of reps.</p>
<p>No superset unless specified. When none is specified, rest as long as necessary but no longer. Let your breathing slow down and resume training as soon as you feel ready.</p>
<p>Whenever a superset <em>is</em> specified, start the warmup on the second exercise. Keep your warmup to the minimum required: it should be just enough to feel confident that you can give it your all without injuring yourself, but don’t turn your warmup into an exercise in an of itself.</p>
<p>To perform a true superset, the weight needs to already be set on the second exercise so there’s no time wasted. Superset means <em>no rest in between.</em></p>
<p>Almost all of the supersets defined above are <em>pre-exhaust supersets</em>. Learn more about them <a href="/posts/pre-exhaust-training" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>Every exercise to failure.</p>
<p>Again, each training day to be followed by at least three rest days.</p>
<p>Don’t change the sequence of the exercises listed above.</p>
<p>Don’t add any sets or exercises. Coming from a traditional regiment, you may be tempted to, but don’t. Additional exercises or sets will merely subtract from the effect of maximum muscle growth that the above plan is designed for. In anaerobic exercises, which weightlifting is, volume is a <em>negative</em> factor. Intensity is key. Then go home and get out of the muscle’s way by resting sufficiently. You don’t grow in the gym, you grow while resting.</p>
<p>Neither pump nor soreness is an indicator that a workout was successful, ie that growth was stimulated. The success of any one of these workouts is measured by whether you are stronger the next time you perform that workout. That’s why an accurate training journal is important: it’s an objective way to measure progress.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/mentzer-s-ideal-weightlifting-routine
Mentzer’s Ideal Weightlifting Routine
2023-12-24T20:01:46Z
2023-12-24T20:01:46Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="pre-exhaust-training">Pre-exhaust Training</h1>
<p>Pre-exhaust training is a resistance-training method where an isolation exercise is followed immediately by a compound exercise. This method enables you to take the larger muscles involved in the compound exercise to failure without running into limits imposed by the smaller muscles. If reaching failure is required to induce maximum muscle growth, and compound movements alone rarely take the targeted muscles to failure, then pre-exhausts help you overcome this limitation.</p>
<p>I don’t know if Mr. Olympia competitor Mike Mentzer came up with the idea, but he definitely helped popularize it. Maybe Arthur Jones came up with it.</p>
<p>Take a bench press, say. The main muscles involved are your chest, shoulders, and triceps. But your triceps and shoulders are weaker than your chest; they will fatigue faster. So, although the idea of the bench press is to work primarily your chest, you won’t be able to take it to failure if your shoulders and triceps give out first.</p>
<p>The solution: do an isolation exercise for the chest before hitting the bench. The pec-fly machine, for example, will work the chest in isolation while preserving the triceps and shoulders.</p>
<p>Here’s a classic Mentzer-style pre-exhaust superset for the chest. After doing a light warmup on the compound exercise, in this case the bench, take the flyes to failure on a single set for six to ten reps, then <em>immediately</em>, ie without rest, proceed to the bench for another set to failure, one to three reps. Mentzer explains this workout in more detail <a href="https://youtu.be/852rGXEa5wQ" rel="ugc">in this video</a>.</p>
<p>Not only will this approach allow you to take your pecs to failure on the bench and thereby induce maximum growth, it also has other benefits. One is that you require less weight on the compound exercise, leaving more room for progress in the gym. You also go easier on your joints.</p>
<p>Another example is the squat. The squat induces growth in basically your entire body, with the primary muscles worked being your quads. However, just as with the chest during a bench press, your quads are much stronger than the weaker muscles involved, meaning you won’t be able to take your quads to failure on squats. Your calves, ankles, and knees can’t handle the load your quads can. And some people can’t load their spine with a lot of weight.</p>
<p>Mentzer’s solution, as he explains in the same linked video, is to lightly warm up on the compound exercise, ie the squats. Next, take an isolation exercise, such as leg extensions, to failure, then immediately do the compound exercise, the squats, for just one more set to failure.</p>
<p>For the back, Mentzer suggested doing close-grip palms-up pull downs before the deadlift, but, as far as I know, he did allow rest in between. It may not have been intended as a pre-exhaust superset. Regardless, requiring grip strength on two back-to-back exercises isn’t ideal if your grip usually gives out, as it does for me, before you’ve really taken your back to failure on deadlift. I could strengthen my grip in isolation, but I’d run the risk of overtraining, and there are other weaker body parts involved in a deadlift. I haven’t tried this, but I suppose one could do some back exercise that doesn’t involve grip strength, such as good mornings (with a weighted vest if necessary), and then do the deadlift.</p>
<p>Pre-exhaust workouts are brutal, but they work. I have been doing them for a few months and have been seeing tremendous growth and increases in strength. Try them at your own risk; I have given only a small glimpse into Mentzer’s workout recommendations.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/pre-exhaust-training
Pre-exhaust Training
2023-12-14T00:10:55Z
2023-12-14T00:10:55Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-mind-as-a-courtroom">The Mind as a Courtroom</h1>
<p><em>I am not a lawyer. This article contains no legal advice; I merely use legal metaphors to make epistemological arguments.</em></p>
<p>Philosopher Ayn Rand has likened the mind to a courtroom:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ayn Rand, ‘How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?’" data-link="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>[T]o pronounce moral judgment is an enormous responsibility. To be a judge, one must possess an unimpeachable character; one need not be omniscient or infallible, and it is not an issue of errors of knowledge; one needs an unbreached integrity, that is, the absence of any indulgence in conscious, willful evil. Just as a judge in a court of law may err, when the evidence is inconclusive, but may not evade the evidence available, nor accept bribes, nor allow any personal feeling, emotion, desire or fear to obstruct his mind’s judgment of the facts of reality — so every rational person must maintain an equally strict and solemn integrity in the courtroom within his own mind, where the responsibility is more awesome than in a public tribunal, because <em>he</em>, the judge, is the only one to know when he has been impeached.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/">
Ayn Rand, ‘How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?’, courses.aynrand.org
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Through one of her fictional characters, she also likens certain actions to literal crimes (emphasis mine):</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ayn Rand, *Atlas Shrugged* (pp. 1019-1020), Penguin Publishing Group, Kindle edition." >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>[T]o withhold your contempt from men’s vices is an act of moral <strong>counterfeiting</strong>, and to withhold your admiration from their virtues is an act of moral <strong>embezzlement</strong>—[…] to place any other concern higher than justice is to devaluate your moral currency and <strong>defraud</strong> the good in favor of the evil […]. </p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ayn Rand, <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> (pp. 1019-1020), Penguin Publishing Group, Kindle edition.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>When a judge treats a woman favorably because she is beautiful, say, or accepts a bribe to exonerate a guilty man – or, worse, to imprison an innocent one – or, more generally, whenever he abandons consistent application of rational procedure to ensure some preconceived outcome, then he is not following proper, objective standards of justice. He is <em>playing favorites</em>. The same applies to a policeman who, in an effort to advance his career, doesn’t ticket a powerful politician he pulled over. Such people are <em>corrupt</em>: they disregard the relevant evidence in favor of unrelated ideas; they let personal preference or ulterior motives override proper procedure.</p>
<p>More generally, people often play favorites with <em>ideas</em>. Some ideas are as appealing as beautiful women. A corrupt mind, by definition, disregards <em>rational, objective standards for evaluating, accepting, and abandoning ideas</em>, and plays favorites instead. For example, when someone disregards a criticism he should know to be true so that he can hold on to a more flattering or validating idea, he is being <em>epistemologically corrupt</em>. Epistemological corruption is a type of irrationality; a type of intellectual misconduct.</p>
<p>It is a lawyer’s job to get the best deal possible for his client, even if he knows that his client broke the law. Conversely, the prosecution’s job is to ensure that guilty people are punished. This division of labor works because there’s a third party – the judge – to pronounce judgment.</p>
<p>A proper judge, both in law and in the realm of ideas, must be dispassionate and clinical in his evaluations. He cannot simultaneously be a lawyer for one of the competing sides or ideas – yet that is what many people allow themselves to become, turning the courtroom in their minds into a kangaroo court, where they are not bound by a code but act merely on whim.</p>
<h6 id="part-5983e7"> </h6>
<h5 id="in-pursuit-of-truth-one-should-ultimately-act-neither-as-prosecution-nor-defense-one-must-act-as-a-judge">In pursuit of truth, one should, ultimately, act neither as prosecution nor defense. <em>One must act as a judge.</em></h5>
<h6 id="part-5983e7"> </h6>
<p>Consider how a proper judge is not swayed by public opinion. That would be arbitrary: he could just as well make the opposite decision if public opinion demanded it. But consider also how many people <em>do</em> let themselves be swayed by public opinion in the realm of ideas generally, completely unbothered by the fact that this is just as arbitrary.</p>
<p>Why do people let this happen? You may think it’s an issue of competence. After all, rational thinking is a skill to be developed, as I was <a href="https://takingchildrenseriouslyisbad.wordpress.com/2022/10/02/creative-children/" rel="ugc">reminded</a> the other day. But one need not pass the bar to think and judge – remember, these are metaphors – and everyone has to make choices. Morals and judgment help them with that.</p>
<p>So there must be a different reason people refuse that help. As Rand points out, to judge is an “enormous responsibility”, and many people are afraid of it. Since it is neither the defense’s nor the prosecution’s job to judge, I suspect that acting not as a judge but as a (metaphorical) lawyer or prosecutor allows people to evade that responsibility.</p>
<p>Some people would prefer to leave the courtroom of their mind altogether, but it is in session as long as they are alive. Short of destroying their minds, being a lawyer for their ideas instead of a judge is a common way to evade the responsibility of pronouncing moral judgment.</p>
<p>A fallibilist’s job, on the other hand, is twofold:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">He must learn to follow a rational, objective procedure for evaluating, accepting, and abandoning ideas. Read about this procedure <a href="http://www.veritula.com" rel="ugc">here</a> (click on “What is this?”). It was originated by philosopher Karl Popper, who <a href="/posts/criticism-of-kolya-wolf-s-against-ego-centric-e" rel="ugc">considered</a> it to be <em>the most rational procedure</em>. </li>
<li data-step="2">He must look into his own mind to discover whether it has been corrupted, to determine retrospectively when he has abandoned rational standards and played favorites with ideas, and to correct these mistakes.</li>
</ol>
<p>The rule of law as an instantiation of the principle that personal preference must not override proper procedure is one of <em>the</em> great achievements of the West. But this principle has yet to materialize in individuals. Considering one’s mind a courtroom, however idealized, helps one respect and meet the responsibility of judging ideas appropriately.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-mind-as-a-courtroom
The Mind as a Courtroom
2023-11-27T01:17:55Z
2023-11-27T01:17:55Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="some-lessons-in-dis-honesty">Some Lessons in (Dis)honesty</h1>
<blockquote data-source="*The Departed* (2006)" data-link="https://youtu.be/P3tULHISljk" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Billy: “Do you lie?”<br>
Madolyn: “Why, do you?”<br>
Billy: “No, I’m asking if <em>you</em> lie.”<br>
Madolyn: “Honesty is not synonymous with truth.”<br>
Billy [<em>grins</em>]: “Yeah, you lie…”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://youtu.be/P3tULHISljk">
<em>The Departed</em> (2006), youtu.be
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>In a recent discussion with some people, we got on the topic of lying. I asked how they think an honest person would react when being accused of having lied.</p>
<p>One of them, Karl (fake name for privacy), gave a long-winded version of: honesty is not synonymous with truth.</p>
<p>The answer is technically correct – even a conscientious person making a genuine effort to tell the truth may fail to do so. That’s an important link between honesty and fallibilism,<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> and it doesn’t make him a liar. But it’s not an answer to my question.</p>
<p>As I’ve written <a href="/posts/crypto-fallibilism" rel="ugc">before</a>, “an honest person will take seriously accusations that he has lied […].” In other words, such an accusation should at least give him pause. If it’s the first time he’s heard it, he shouldn’t deny it without reflection; he definitely shouldn’t respond with self-righteous indignation. And any claim that he <em>never</em> lies is itself a lie.</p>
<p><strong>An honest person will entertain that he may have lied, if only because he is fallible.</strong></p>
<p>“Honesty is not synonymous with truth”, on the other hand, sounds like a liar’s excuse, and I said as much to Karl. As you can imagine, that was not appreciated. It was a social misstep, but I don’t think what I said was false.</p>
<p>A few days later, Karl said he needed a new coat. The problem was that he only needed it for a week-long trip and wouldn’t need it anymore afterwards. Somebody suggested taking advantage of Amazon’s return policy and buying the item with the sole intention of returning it after the trip for a refund. Karl and the others agreed this was a good idea.</p>
<p>The suggestion struck me as fraudulent and I didn’t want my <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">silence to be mistaken for agreement</a>, so I said that wasn’t cool. They then explained that it wasn’t a big deal because Amazon has a lot of money and it wouldn’t even hurt them (ie, punishing Amazon for its success). They also claimed that Amazon’s pricing already accounts for fraud so they expect it to happen anyway. But I think that’s bad reasoning: just because someone invests in a fence around their house doesn’t mean they consent to having their home invaded. Eventually, the group called me petty – they didn’t like that I was being conscientious and took them seriously. This is a defensive reaction because they know I’m right.</p>
<p>Many if not all of these issues were addressed in Ayn Rand’s novel <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>. Suffice it to say that, amazingly, suggesting that someone has lied is a social misstep, but openly advocating fraud is not. That tells you something about how anti-rational social dynamics are. People are happy to sacrifice truth to preserve group cohesion.</p>
<p>I’d rather live in a world where honesty is welcome and fraud is not. I will use better judgment regarding who I associate with in the future.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Another link between fallibilism and honesty is that you can’t lie in the pursuit of truth; it takes a fallibilist <em>and</em> honest attitude to seek truth. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
<p>Or maybe those are two sides of the same coin. As in: I wonder if fallibilism and honesty imply each other. Maybe fallibilism implies honesty because a fallibilist is honest to himself in his awareness of his own fallibility, of only knowing very little, and of his mistakes once he finds them, and wishes to correct them; conversely, honesty implies fallibilism because it seeks to correct a specific category of mistake, namely lies.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/some-lessons-in-dis-honesty
Some Lessons in (Dis)honesty
2023-11-20T05:32:03Z
2023-11-20T05:32:03Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="in-defense-of-tcs">In Defense of TCS</h1>
<p>I comment on an article criticizing a TCS post by David Deutsch: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/dy6ktvre" rel="ugc">https://tinyurl.com/dy6ktvre</a></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/in-defense-of-tcs
In Defense of TCS
2023-11-11T01:08:19Z
2023-11-11T01:08:19Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="criticisms-of-atlas-shrugged">Criticisms of <em>Atlas Shrugged</em></h1>
<p>Here are some criticisms of Ayn Rand’s book <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>.</p>
<p>First, I think I’ve found a mistake. The antagonist James Taggart’s wife, Cherryl Brooks, says to the protagonist, Dagny Taggart, who is James’s sister:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Rand, Ayn. *Atlas Shrugged* (p. 889). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition." >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>“You know, Miss Tag—Dagny,” she said softly, in wonder, “you’re not as I expected you to be at all. . . . They, Jim and his friends, they said you were hard and cold and unfeeling.”<br>
“But it’s true, Cherryl. I <em>am</em>, in the sense they mean—only have they ever told you in just what sense they mean it?”<br>
“No. They never do. They only sneer at me when I ask them what they mean by anything . . . about anything. What did they mean about you?”<br>
“Whenever anyone accuses some person of being ‘unfeeling,’ he means that that person is just. […]”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Rand, Ayn. <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> (p. 889). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>While it is true James treats Cherryl poorly in general, her claim that James and his friends “never” explain “what they mean by anything” is a lie.</p>
<p>Only a few pages before (p. 884), James Taggart <em>does</em> explain to her what he means. His explanation even matches his sister’s (the part about justice). Cherryl asks him:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Do you want . . . love . . . to be . . . causeless?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His response:</p>
<blockquote><p>“[…] What’s the generosity of loving a man for his virtues? What do you give him? Nothing. It’s no more than cold justice. No more than he’s earned.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When James accuses her of not understanding, she responds that she does:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Oh, you don’t understand!”<br>
“Yes, Jim, I do. […]”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is this Cherryl’s or Rand’s mistake? I think it’s Rand’s mistake because it doesn’t serve the plot in any way if it’s Cherryl’s mistake.</p>
<p>This is different from, say, the writers of <em>The Cleveland Show</em> purposely having the character Cleveland say “magnus opus” (as opposed to the correct ‘magn<em>um</em> opus’) as a (highbrow) way of showing that he’s not very educated. This serves to showcase his character. The mistake I explain above, on the other hand, does not showcase Cherryl’s character. So I think it was an oversight on Rand’s part: she wanted to make James Taggart less likable by having a character accuse him of never explaining what he means. She just didn’t realize that this accusation is false.</p>
<hr>
<p>By the way, in regards to when Dagny says (emphasis added):</p>
<blockquote><p>“<em>Whenever anyone</em> accuses some person of being ‘unfeeling,’ he means that that person is just. […]”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Saying that this applies to anyone anytime is saying too much. For example, people accuse animal abusers of being unfeeling, and they’re not saying animal abusers are just. It would be better to say ‘when someone is accused of being ‘unfeeling’, the accuser <em>usually</em> or <em>often</em> means that that person is just’.</p>
<hr>
<p>Similarly, a bit later, Dagny says (emphasis added):</p>
<blockquote data-source="p. 889" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>[Y]ou <em>never</em> hear that accusation in defense of innocence, but <em>always</em> in defense of guilt. You <em>never</em> hear it said by a good person about those who fail to do him justice. But you <em>always</em> hear it said by a rotter […].</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
p. 889
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>No good person has <em>ever</em> accused unjust people of having no heart? That’s hard to believe. For example, victims of crimes accuse judges or juries who falsely exonerate defendants of having no heart <em>because</em> they fail to serve justice.</p>
<hr>
<blockquote data-source="p. 305" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>[H]e wondered only what was the point of uttering it.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
p. 305
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Shouldn’t the word order be ‘what the point of uttering it was’?</p>
<hr>
<p>Character John Galt says to comply. But then he doesn’t comply when they’re torturing him (he doesn’t agree to manage the economy). Why not? Isn’t he being hypocritical?</p>
<hr>
<p>Rand thinks politicians are parasitic dunces, yet she wants them in charge of the military, the police, and the courts. Why would she want society to depend on idiots?</p>
<hr>
<p>Character Hank Rearden is brought to trial for breaking a law. He refuses to volunteer a defense. The judge then says:</p>
<blockquote data-source="p. 479" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>“But the law compels you to volunteer a defense!”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
p. 479
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m not a lawyer, but I’m told that courts <a href="https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/102857/has-anyone-tried-the-rearden-defense#comment307399_102857" rel="ugc">don’t compel people to volunteer a defense</a>. The court would record that no plea was given and assign a plea of not guilty.</p>
<p>Rearden wants to show the contradiction inherent in unjust laws: you cannot ‘compel someone to volunteer’ anything. As I wrote in the question that’s on the page linked above, “I believe the core concept that is being invoked here is that of the <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sanction_of_the_victim.html" rel="ugc"><em>sanction of the victim</em></a>. Unjust laws rely on this sanction to work, and so not giving one’s sanction renders them impotent. The ‘fair share’ law for which Rearden is being tried is one such unjust law.”</p>
<p>And: “The court, having been exposed, gets self-conscious because it doesn’t want to be seen as a violent institution. It lets him off with a slap on the wrist.”</p>
<p>As a device, this works. But note that, in real life, judges would just laugh this sort of ‘defense’ out of court. Someone had commented – though the comment seems to have been removed since – that judges don’t care about public perception, they care about the consistent application of the law. (<em>Some</em> judges <em>do</em> care about public perception but shouldn’t.)</p>
<p>It would have been better had Rand chosen an example that would translate to the real world.</p>
<hr>
<p>One of the central themes of the book is that productive people should go on strike because their achievements will just be used against them. I don’t think Ayn Rand ever went on strike. <a href="https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/103748/why-didnt-ayn-rand-go-on-strike" rel="ugc">Why not?</a> Does that make her a hypocrite?</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, Rand did live in accordance with the message of her book <em>The Fountainhead</em>. She never compromised on her values, didn’t live a secondhanded life. So why not live in accordance with the message of <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> – why not shrug?</p>
<p>Some of the people responding to the linked question say that things were never bad enough for Rand to go on strike herself – which then begs the question, <em>when would they be?</em> And if someone in the real world decided that having half his earnings stolen from him every month is incompatible with his self-esteem, would she hold it against him?</p>
<p><a href="https://tinyurl.com/2sm9fcd3" rel="ugc">Discussion tree</a></p>
<hr>
<p>AFAIK, no one, including Rand and other objectivists, has ever tried to build something like Galt’s gulch – a place where the best people can go to associate and recharge, and to escape government oppression. Why not? Isn’t that hypocritical, too?</p>
<hr>
<p>John Galt says there are no laws and no rules in his gulch. But that isn’t true: people have to swear an oath to get in. There’s also the rule of not faking reality in any way.</p>
<p>As with Cherryl Brooks above, this strikes me as Rand’s mistake, not Galt’s, as it wouldn’t serve the plot in any way if it were Galt’s mistake.</p>
<hr>
<p>Overall, I thought the book was too long and sometimes repetitive (eg there are too many instances of people being emotionally repressed). It probably could have been shortened significantly and still have gotten the same ideas across.</p>
<p>But I liked it and I recommend it, though people should read Rand’s non-fiction first because it’s easier to understand her philosophy that way; her non-fiction is more explicit. For example, I didn’t understand some of the passages about psychologizing in <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> until I read Rand’s essay ‘The Psychology of Psychologizing’ in her book <em>The Voice of Reason</em> where she goes over those passages (providing enough context for them to make sense without having read <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> first). I did read <em>The Virtue of Selfishness</em> before reading <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> and I think it helped because VoS lays out core concepts explicitly and then AS applies them through characters and their actions.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/criticisms-of-atlas-shrugged
Criticisms of Atlas Shrugged
2024-01-17T04:56:59Z
2024-01-17T04:56:59Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="was-ayn-rand-a-hypocrite-for-collecting-social-security">Was Ayn Rand a Hypocrite for Collecting Social Security?</h1>
<p>TL;DR: No.</p>
<p>People often reject Ayn Rand’s ideas, uncritically and wholesale, for her alleged hypocrisy in accepting social security. They do this even when you point out the irrelevance (see <a href="https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/103748/why-didnt-ayn-rand-go-on-strike#comment311582_103748" rel="ugc">here</a> and <a href="https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/103748/why-didnt-ayn-rand-go-on-strike#comment311603_103748" rel="ugc">here</a>), and even though the hypocrisy itself, if real, wouldn’t refute her ideas, only her integrity.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.openculture.com/2016/12/when-ayn-rand-collected-social-security-medicare.html" rel="ugc">This article</a> by <em>Open Culture</em>, for example, accuses Rand of said hypocrisy. It also links to <a href="https://ari.aynrand.org/issues/government-and-business/individual-rights/The-Myth-about-Ayn-Rand-and-Social-Security/" rel="ugc">an article</a> by Onkar Ghate on the Ayn Rand Institute’s website that was supposed to clear up the confusion. Rather than address Ghate’s arguments, <em>Open Culture</em> lazily dismisses them as “convoluted”.</p>
<p>Both articles could be better (but make no mistake, the one by <em>Open Culture</em> is much worse). So here’s my attempt.</p>
<p>Rand collected social security toward the end of her life because of lung cancer. Not only were her actions consistent with her philosophy, and not only did she argue for this consistency in print – as Ghate points out on both counts – but, I should add, she did so <em>a decade before</em> collecting social security (as opposed to, say, coming up with an excuse after the fact).</p>
<p><em>Open Culture</em>’s opening paragraph reads:</p>
<blockquote><p>A robust social safety net can benefit both the individuals in a society and the society itself. Free of the fear of total impoverishment and able to meet their basic needs, people have a better opportunity to pursue long-term goals, to invent, create, and innovate.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let’s be clear about the nature of this “social safety net”. Some people are taxed, against their will, to have their wealth partially redistributed to others ‘in need’. In other words, bureaucrats steal money from the rich and give it to the poor, Robin Hood style. There is no way to opt out; even those who are happy to pay taxes <a href="/posts/is-sanctioned-force-still-force" rel="ugc">cannot be said to consent</a>.</p>
<p>So the question arises: if a “robust social safety net” is such a good idea, why must it be hoisted on everyone by force? Why don’t people cooperate voluntarily to create such a safety net?</p>
<p>The article relies on the mistaken notion that social welfare is the political realization of genuine good will among the people. In fact, the opposite is the case. As Rand explains in her essay ‘The Question of Scholarships’ (from which Ghate also quotes, albeit without giving a source):</p>
<blockquote data-source="Rand, Ayn. *The Voice of Reason* (p. 40). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. " >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>It is altruism that has corrupted and perverted human benevolence by regarding the giver as an object of immolation and the receiver as a helplessly miserable object of pity who holds a mortgage on the lives of others—a doctrine which is extremely offensive to both parties, leaving men no choice but the roles of sacrificial victim or moral cannibal. A man of self-esteem can neither offer help nor accept it on such terms.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Rand, Ayn. <em>The Voice of Reason</em> (p. 40). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Conversely, Rand was not opposed to genuine help. She writes:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ibid. (p. 41)" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>It is morally proper to accept help, when it is offered not as a moral duty, but as an act of good will and generosity, when the giver can afford it (i.e., when it does not involve self-sacrifice on his part), and when it is offered in response to the receiver’s virtues, <em>not</em> in response to his flaws, weaknesses, or moral failures, and <em>not</em> on the ground of his need as such.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ibid. (p. 41)
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Skipping some, the <em>Open Culture</em> article continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]here are some, including the acolytes of <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/rand/" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand</a>, who believe as Rand did: that those who rely on social systems are—to use her ugly term—“parasites,” and those who amass large amounts of private wealth are heroic supermen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More nuance is required here. Rand did not think that everyone who relies on social systems is a parasite, nor did she think that everyone who is wealthy is heroic (she disliked crony capitalism).</p>
<p>In the referenced essay, Rand differentiates clearly and precisely between legitimate and illegitimate recipients of ‘public’ money:</p>
<blockquote data-source="*The Voice of Reason* (p. 42)" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>The recipient of a public scholarship is morally justified <em>only so long as he regards it as restitution and opposes all forms of welfare statism.</em> Those who advocate public scholarships have no right to them; those who oppose them have. If this sounds like a paradox, the fault lies in the moral contradictions of welfare statism, not in its victims.<br>
[…] Whenever the welfare-state laws offer them some small restitution, the victims should take it.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<em>The Voice of Reason</em> (p. 42)
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>And, a bit further down, contrary to <em>Open Culture</em>’s rose-colored account of people having “better opportunity to pursue long-term goals, to invent, create, and innovate”:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ibid. (pp. 42-43)" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>[T]the anti-collectivists are innocent victims who face an impossible situation: it is welfare statism that has almost destroyed the possibility of working one’s way through college. It was difficult but possible some decades ago; today, it has become a process of close-to-inhuman torture. There are virtually no part-time jobs that pay enough to support oneself while going to school; the alternative is to hold a full-time job and to attend classes at night—which takes eight years of unrelenting twelve-to-sixteen-hour days, for a four-year college course. If those responsible for such conditions offer the victim a scholarship, his right to take it is incontestable—and it is too pitifully small an amount even to register on the scales of justice, when one considers all the other, the nonmaterial, nonamendable injuries he has suffered.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ibid. (pp. 42-43)
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Observe also that things have gotten even worse since; that college graduates often owe tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans.</p>
<p>You may say that Rand is only addressing the issue of accepting publicly funded <em>scholarships</em> in particular. But she broadens the context to apply to all kinds of ‘public’ money (bold emphasis mine):</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ibid. (p. 43)" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>The same moral principles and considerations <strong>apply to the issue of accepting social security</strong>, unemployment insurance, or other payments of that kind. It is obvious, in such cases, that a man receives his own money which was taken from him by force, directly and specifically, without his consent, against his own choice. Those who advocated such laws are morally guilty, since they assumed the “right” to force employers and unwilling coworkers. But the victims, who opposed such laws, have a clear right to any refund of their own money—and they would not advance the cause of freedom if they left their money, unclaimed, for the benefit of the welfare-state administration.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ibid. (p. 43)
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Rand wrote this in 1966 – again, well before ever collecting any social security, and presumably before having reason to think she would ever need it herself.</p>
<p><em>Open Culture</em> alleges that Rand failed to realize that “none of us is anything more than human, subject to the same kinds of cruel twists of fate, the same existential uncertainty, the same illness and disease” – and then points out (in a possibly celebratory way) that Rand herself became the victim of such misfortune due to her lung cancer. Of course, Rand was well aware of the fact that misfortune may befall any of us – who doesn’t know that? – she just didn’t want one person’s misfortune to be a claim on another’s life and property, as Ghate points out. She instead wanted a society where the answer to poverty is the freedom to achieve – a freedom which, in today’s America, is being systematically violated.</p>
<p>The <em>Open Culture</em> article quotes Rand’s assigned social worker, Evva Pryor, as saying that Rand <em>hesitated</em> to accept social security. But then Pryor partially invokes Rand’s own argument: that she had a right to such payments.</p>
<p>If anything, Rand’s <em>hesitation</em> to collect social security might, by uncharitable eyes, be considered hypocritical. But the fact that Pryor believes to be arguing against Rand while really invoking Rand’s argument is evidence that Pryor did not understand her. So I advise against accepting Pryor’s account uncritically.</p>
<p>Toward the end of their article, <em>Open Culture</em> grossly misrepresent Rand’s stance by claiming that “the sole function of her thought is to justify wealth, explain away poverty, and normalize the sort of Hobbesian war of all against all Rand saw as a societal ideal.” Not only does this minimize Rand’s contributions, it’s also false: Rand advanced “the Objectivist principle that ‘there are no conflicts of interests among rational men.’” (See <em>The Virtue of Selfishness</em>, chapter 4 ‘The “Conflicts” of Men’s Interests’.) <em>Open Culture</em>, on the other hand, is in favor of a society where those in need may loot the wealthy – so who’s advocating a “war of all against all”?</p>
<p>But I suspect it doesn’t matter much what Rand did – her detractors would find a way to smear her regardless, and the welfare state produces otherwise unnecessary conflicts between and within people anyway. As she writes herself:</p>
<blockquote data-source="*The Voice of Reason* (p. 45)" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>It is a hard problem, and there are many situations so ambiguous and so complex that no one can determine what is the right course of action. <em>That</em> is one of the evils of welfare statism: its fundamental irrationality and immorality force men into contradictions where <em>no</em> course of action is right.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<em>The Voice of Reason</em> (p. 45)
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>In conclusion, Rand was not a hypocrite for accepting social-security payments. On the contrary, her philosophy stated well in advance that she had a right to such payments because 1) she opposed the welfare state and 2) she regarded these payments as restitution.</p>
<p>You may disagree with her ideas, but the hypocrisy charge does not stand up to scrutiny.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/was-ayn-rand-a-hypocrite-for-collecting-social-s
Was Ayn Rand a Hypocrite for Collecting Social Security?
2023-10-20T21:21:30Z
2023-10-20T21:21:30Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="when-can-parents-use-force">When Can Parents Use Force?</h1>
<p>Some parents aren’t sure when it is appropriate to use force with their children. Here, I explain when it is and when it isn’t. Disclaimer: I am not a parent, but that <a href="/posts/but-you-re-not-a-parent" rel="ugc">shouldn’t dissuade you</a>. </p>
<p>Consider <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/148461/discussion-on-answer-by-dennis-hackethal-how-to-articulate-why-child-still-has-l" rel="ugc">this discussion</a> I had with someone about the importance of consent in child rearing. They <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/64380240#64380240" rel="ugc">wrote</a> (bold emphasis mine): </p>
<blockquote><p>What you’re describing is not all that far off the approaches to parenting showcased in Michaeleen Doucleff’s <em>Hunt, Gather, Parent</em> – in terms of respecting a child’s autonomy as far as it can be respected, and not forcing a child to do something they don’t want to. […] That said, what you have presented here is a philosophical argument versus one that deals with the practicalities of being a parent in a culture [where] every single one of the things listed feels like an <strong>existential issue requiring emergency ethics.</strong><br>
Eg kiddo won’t brush her teeth? SHE’S GOING TO LOSE THEM. Won’t wash her hair? SHE’LL BE SOCIALLY RUINED AND DEVELOP DEPRESSION. Won’t bathe or wash her hands? SHE’LL GET DYSENTERY. Etcetera.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This commenter is implying that these alleged emergency situations warrant force: that it’s morally legitimate, even necessary, to force a child to brush her teeth, for her own good.</p>
<p>Or consider <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/64380218#64380218" rel="ugc">this comment</a> on the topic of how much children should eat, made after I pointed to a <a href="https://parenting.stackexchange.com/a/14031/44867" rel="ugc">source</a> explaining that children generally do eat enough without being forced to eat more. This person asked:</p>
<blockquote><p>[W]hat about children who are dangerously underweight? They do exist, and it isn’t terribly rare.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Parents often catastrophize. They see certain situations as emergencies that warrant force so they can step in and ‘save’ their child. But usually, those situations are not emergencies at all, resulting in immoral applications of force.</p>
<p>By catastrophizing in these ways, traditional parenting shares a crucial element with the ethics of <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/altruism.html" rel="ugc"><em>altruism</em> in the Randian sense</a>: that of reducing ethics, in this case the ethics of parenting, to emergency situations.</p>
<p>Emergency ethics are different from everyday ethics; emergencies warrant a different kind of response. Ayn Rand writes:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ayn Rand, *The Virtue of Selfishness*, chapter 'The Ethics of Emergencies'" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p> It is important to differentiate between the rules of conduct in an emergency situation and the rules of conduct in the normal conditions of human existence. […]<br>
An emergency is an unchosen, unexpected event, limited in time, that creates conditions under which human survival is impossible—such as a flood, an earthquake, a fire, a shipwreck. In an emergency situation, men’s primary goal is to combat the disaster, escape the danger and restore normal conditions (to reach dry land, to put out the fire, etc.).</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ayn Rand, <em>The Virtue of Selfishness</em>, chapter ‘The Ethics of Emergencies’
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Rand aims to explain when it is moral to help strangers; <strong>I suggest using the same logic to determine when it is moral for parents to use force with their children.</strong></p>
<p>Emergency situations that a parent may find himself in with his child include: his child is about to stick a fork in an outlet; his child is about to be run over by a car. These events (or consequences thereof) are unchosen, unexpected, and limited in time, and they plausibly create “conditions under which [the child’s] survival is impossible”. As such, the parent’s “primary goal is to combat” the situation, and, if necessary, use an <em>appropriate, limited</em> amount of force, i.e. just enough to save the child and “restore normal conditions”. This can be done, for example, by taking his fork or pulling him out of the car’s way and back to safety. Any force beyond what is strictly necessary to restore normal conditions – such as spanking the child for defying traffic rules – is inappropriate and immoral.</p>
<p>Compare the given examples of actual emergencies with other situations in which traditional parents often feel justified in using force. A child not wanting to brush his teeth or wash his hair does not constitute an emergency and so does not warrant any force. A teenager smoking isn’t an emergency. A child playing computer games for ‘too long’ isn’t an emergency. A child not sharing his toys with his siblings isn’t an emergency. A child not eating vegetables isn’t an emergency, be it for one day or all the time. A child getting ‘bad’ grades isn’t an emergency. Even a chronic illness does not constitute an emergency since, by definition, it is not sufficiently limited in time. The prospect of one’s child potentially getting sick at some point definitely isn’t an emergency because it hasn’t even happened yet. While it is fine to take reasonable precautions, the human condition that bad things may happen isn’t itself an emergency because it is just that: the human condition. Nor is pessimism an emergency. Therefore, none of the precautions themselves may involve force.</p>
<p>Rand continues:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ibid." >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p> By “normal” conditions I mean <em>metaphysically</em> normal, normal in the nature of things, and appropriate to human existence. Men can live on land, but not in water or in a raging fire. Since men are not omnipotent, it is metaphysically possible for unforeseeable disasters to strike them, in which case their only task is to return to those conditions under which their lives can continue. By its nature, an emergency situation is temporary; if it were to last, men would perish.<br>
[…] [A] man who values human life and is caught in a shipwreck, should help to save his fellow passengers […]. But this does not mean that after they all reach shore, he should devote his efforts to saving his fellow passengers from poverty, ignorance, neurosis or whatever other troubles they might have. Nor does it mean that he should spend his life sailing the seven seas in search of shipwreck victims to save.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ibid.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Likewise, a parent should help to save his child in a true emergency, but this does not mean that after the emergency is over, he should use force to save his child from any non-emergency troubles he might have. Nor does it mean the parent should spend his days fretting about the potential problems his child may face one day (“DYSENTERY”). It is understandably worrisome whenever one’s loved ones face difficult situations, but this worry itself is not an emergency.</p>
<p>I am <em>not</em> saying that parents shouldn’t help their children outside of emergencies – only that parents shouldn’t use <em>force</em> outside of emergencies. Don’t misunderstand my stance as advocating neglect.</p>
<p>Refusing to eat when not hungry is healthy; not wanting to brush one’s teeth when one isn’t persuaded of the benefits is normal, even rational. More generally, not doing things one does not want to do is as healthy and natural as everyone’s innate desire for freedom. Yet parents often seem to say, in effect: <em>Help! My child is <a href="/posts/crazy" rel="ugc">crazy</a> for not doing things he does not want to do!</em></p>
<p>Parents who catastrophize in the ways I have described suffer some of the same consequences as those who subscribe to the ethics of altruism. While Rand attributes these consequences to humans generally, for our purposes, we can attribute them to traditional parents specifically. Rand describes these consequences as, one, a “[l]ack of respect”, in our case on the part of parents for their children, whom they regard “as a herd of doomed beggars crying for [their] help”. Two, traditional parents share a “nightmare view of existence—since they believe that [their children] are trapped in a ‘malevolent universe’ where disasters are the constant and primary concern of their lives.” And lastly, these parents share “a lethargic indifference to ethics, a hopelessly cynical amorality—since [their] questions involve situations which [they are] not likely ever to encounter […]”. On this last point, consider once more the hyperbole of the commenter who claimed that a child may “BE SOCIALLY RUINED AND DEVELOP DEPRESSION” if she doesn’t wash her hair.</p>
<p>Since emergency ethics warrant some amount of force, and since authoritarians rely on force, the ‘trick’ of traditional parents is to reduce ordinary situations to emergency situations. You may recognize a parallel to governments which sometimes declare fake emergencies to extend their powers.</p>
<p>I don’t think traditional parents use this trick maliciously. They do it out of genuine concern; thinking everything through in case something goes wrong. The emergency usually only occurs in their minds: it’s an emergency of the pearl-clutching variety, of saying to oneself ‘but then something bad might happen to my child!’, and, more deeply, ‘but then I would have been completely wrong about children all along!’, of losing the ground one is standing on because one needs a new worldview. It’s not actually about an objective emergency their child might be experiencing.</p>
<p>The appropriate response to danger, real and potential, in non-emergency situations, is to <em>reason</em> with the child – to use persuasion and empathy to explain the danger. Those who think children cannot be reasoned with are mistaken. I was persuaded as a young boy that brushing my teeth, showering, washing my hands, getting shots, and even going to the dentist, which many children dread, were useful and necessary and nothing to worry about, and then I did those things happily. Of course, even as a parent, you should be open to being wrong, so if you fail to persuade, you cannot simply fall back on force to get your way.</p>
<p>Catastrophes, by definition, are <em>not</em> the norm for anyone, including children, and it is neither the child’s nor the parent’s job to constantly ward off any potential disaster. Parents should base their ethics on children’s normal existence rather than hypothetical (non-)emergencies. Neither child nor parent can “live his life by the guidance of rules applicable only to conditions under which human survival is impossible” (Rand, ibid.). In non-emergency situations – i.e. 99% of the child’s life – the parent’s proper role is not that of protector, but, as Lulie Tanett from <em>Taking Children Seriously</em> has said, that of helping the child by his own lights.</p>
<p>In short, parents should use force with their children only in genuine emergency situations, and only in the amount necessary to return to normal conditions. Outside of that, they should not use force.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/when-can-parents-use-force
When Can Parents Use Force?
2024-03-13T21:25:56Z
2024-03-13T21:25:56Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="but-youre-not-a-parent">But You’re Not a Parent!</h1>
<p>Some parents claim to have authority on the topic of how to raise children. Once they learn that someone doesn’t have children, they feel at liberty to dismiss that person’s opinions on child rearing.</p>
<p>They claim, in short: <em>But you’re not a parent! You can’t know how to raise a child.</em></p>
<p>I’ll admit there’s a grain of truth in their claim. Non-parents don’t know how to change a diaper, say. They lack the experience to deal with such practical problems.</p>
<p>But we were all children once, so we <em>do</em> have some experience in this matter.</p>
<p>And the claim goes further. It effectively states that, if someone <em>were</em> a parent, they would know not to treat children <em>as people</em> – that children need to be controlled, and their wishes sometimes overridden, for their own good.</p>
<p>It’s certainly possible that, when someone becomes a parent, a so-far dormant program in their mind jumps into action that turns them into yet another brute of a parent. But then they would be just as mistaken.</p>
<p>Translated, the claim effectively amounts to that of a slaveholder saying: <em>you cannot oppose slavery unless you’re a slaveholder.</em></p>
<p>My point is not to compare parents to slaveholders.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> The parallel lies in the fact that the enlightenment doesn’t extend to children yet, just as it didn’t to slaves, as Sarah Fitz-Claridge from <em>Taking Children Seriously</em> (TCS) has pointed out. Therefore, pre-enlightenment misconceptions about children still abound today, and popular ideas about child rearing are just as outdated and inhumane as those about slavery were 200 years ago, in quality if not in content.</p>
<p>‘Liberals’ sometimes pull a trick similar to the slaveholder argument by claiming that men (at least those who disagree with them) shouldn’t speak on the issue of abortion. (All while claiming that biological men can be women – so then they <em>should</em> be open to men’s opinions on abortion? I digress…)</p>
<p>At its core, it’s an argument from authority, and it’s invalid for all the same reasons. But this one is even worse: it claims that, to criticize it, you first need to accept it as true. But once you’ve accepted it as true, you won’t want to criticize it!</p>
<p>Wouldn’t authoritarian parents be surprised to know that there are parents who disagree with them? Several such parents have written articles on the <a href="https://takingchildrenseriously.com/" rel="ugc">TCS website</a>. Might authoritarian parents not be relieved to learn that children can be raised with respect and without control and ‘turn out’ completely fine?</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Charles Bédard, Sarah Fitz-Claridge, Sam Kuypers, Damon Sasi, Lulie Tanett, and Karl Wilzén for discussing this topic with me.</em></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Parents who force their children to work are a bit like slaveholders, but I think that’s a minority. Teachers are a bit like slaveholders, too, especially PE teachers, but that’s not what I mean, either. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/but-you-re-not-a-parent
But You’re Not a Parent!
2023-10-02T00:46:59Z
2023-10-02T00:46:59Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="unwanted-protection-is-oppression">Unwanted Protection is Oppression</h1>
<blockquote data-source="*The Hateful Eight*" data-date="2015" data-link="https://youtube.com/shorts/JcfHoMAkO4w" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>John Ruth: I’m gonna take your gun, son.<br>
Joe Gage: You are?<br>
Ruth: Yes, I am.<br>
Gage: I feel kinda naked without it.<br>
Ruth: Oh I still got mine. [<em>Reveals the gun on his belt.</em>] I’ll protect you.<br>
Gage: [<em>Laughs.</em>]</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/JcfHoMAkO4w">
<em>The Hateful Eight</em>, 2015, youtube.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Many children and teenagers don’t get to make their own movie-viewing decisions. They are prevented from watching certain movies if they aren’t ‘old enough’ – not in their own eyes, but in the eyes of lawmakers and adults around them.</p>
<p>This understandably frustrates them. While movie r…<br>
<br><em>This is a pro article, preview only. Purchase the full article here: <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/unwanted-protection-is-oppression" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/unwanted-protection-is-oppression</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/unwanted-protection-is-oppression
Unwanted Protection is Oppression
2024-03-13T21:28:49Z
2024-03-13T21:28:49Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="charity-vs-justice">Charity vs Justice</h1>
<blockquote data-source="*L.A. Confidential* (1997)" data-link="https://youtube.com/watch?v=BVwLpNGBqqY" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>“A naked guy with a gun? You expect anyone to believe that?”<br>
“Get the fuck away from me.”<br>
“How’s it gonna look in your report?”<br>
“It’ll look like justice. That’s what the man got: justice.”<br>
“You don’t know the meaning of the word, you ignorant bastard.”<br>
“Yeah? Well, you think it means getting your picture in the paper. Why don’t you go after criminals for a change instead of cops?”<br>
“Stensland got what he deserved and so will you.”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=BVwLpNGBqqY">
<em>L.A. Confidential</em> (1997), youtube.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>In her book <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>, philosopher Ayn Rand contrasts the concepts of charity, need, and the unearned on the one hand with justice, merit, and the earned on the other.</p>
<p>Through her characters’s statements and interactions, Rand criticizes people who want to, say, be liked not for courage, ambition, or ability, but for <em>lacking</em> those qualities. They think admiring someone for their abilities and achievements is ‘just’ a fair trade – that the real admiration lies in giving someone the gift of admiration without them having earned that gift. Conversely, they think people who don’t give that unearned gift are cold and unfeeling; “conscientious”.</p>
<p>This perversion of values applies in various contexts. For example, in the context of beauty (bold emphasis is mine in all subsequent quotes; note that antagonists take up much of these dialogs, ie represent views Rand wants to criticize):</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ayn Rand, *Atlas Shrugged* (p. 305). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. " >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p> “Now you see, <em>that’s</em> the cruelty of conscientious people. You wouldn’t understand it—would you?—if I answered that real devotion consists of being willing to lie, cheat and fake in order to make another person happy—to create for him the reality he wants, if he doesn’t like the one that exists.”<br>
“No,” he said slowly, “I wouldn’t understand it.”<br>
“It’s really very simple. <strong>If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It’s no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing. But if you tell an ugly woman that she is beautiful, you offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty.</strong> To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She’s earned it, it’s a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. <strong>To love her for her vices is to defile all virtue for her sake—and <em>that</em> is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem.</strong>”<br>
He looked at her blankly. It sounded like some sort of monstrous corruption that precluded the possibility of wondering whether anyone could mean it; he wondered only what was the point of uttering it.<br>
“What’s love, darling, if it’s not self-sacrifice?” she went on lightly, in the tone of a drawing-room discussion. “What’s self-sacrifice, unless one sacrifices that which is one’s most precious and most important? But I don’t expect you to understand it. Not a stainless-steel Puritan like you. That’s the immense selfishness of the Puritan. […]”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ayn Rand, <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> (p. 305). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>(As an aside, I think someone actually advocating this view wouldn’t be this honest about it “defil[ing] all virtue”. They’d probably evade that problem.)</p>
<p>A bit further down, she adds, to <a href="/posts/where-s-david-deutsch-s-accountability" rel="ugc">avoid accountability</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Oh, darling, don’t take me seriously! I’m just talking.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When someone doesn’t want to be taken seriously, that’s a red flag. If you later criticize their view, they can always just say ‘I didn’t mean for it to be taken seriously anyway’.</p>
<p>As I’ve discussed a bit <a href="/posts/the-descent-into-mediocrity-continues#comment-267" rel="ugc">before</a>, I think <a href="/posts/the-descent-into-mediocrity-continues" rel="ugc">obese models</a> are a modern-day example of the perversion of beauty; of giving ugly women the unearned title of ‘beautiful’; of lying to the obese that they’re healthy and attractive so they can evade the responsibility for destroying their own bodies; and of tricking people into thinking that health and beauty are not worth attaining.</p>
<p>In the context of virtues more generally, Rand offers us this dialog:</p>
<blockquote data-source="p. 884" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p> “[…] What’s the generosity of loving a man for his virtues? What do you give him? Nothing. It’s no more than <strong>cold justice</strong>. No more than he’s earned.”<br>
[…] “You want it to be <strong>unearned</strong>,” she said, not in the tone of a question, but of a verdict.<br>
“Oh, you don’t understand!”<br>
“Yes, Jim, I do. That’s what you want—that’s what all of you really want—not money, not material benefits, not economic security, not any of the handouts you keep demanding.”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
p. 884
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, when people want minimum-wage laws and welfare handouts, when they say that people should contribute according to their ability and receive according to their need, and so on, they don’t want those things in order to help the poor, say – instead, they want to corrupt <em>trade</em> in favor of the <em>unearned</em>. They want <em>merit</em> to be trumped by <em>need</em>. That’s what they think charity <em>is</em>: giving someone that which he hasn’t earned. They want a mutually beneficial transaction – trade – to be replaced by a zero-sum transaction: charity. Which transaction do you think is able to create wealth?</p>
<p>The opposite of charity is <em>justice</em>:</p>
<blockquote data-source="p. 889" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p> “You know, Miss Tag—Dagny,” she said softly, in wonder, “you’re not as I expected you to be at all. . . . They, Jim and his friends, they said you were hard and cold and unfeeling.”<br>
“But it’s true, Cherryl. I <em>am</em>, in the sense they mean—only have they ever told you in just what sense they mean it?”<br>
“No. […] What did they mean about you?”<br>
“<strong>Whenever anyone accuses some person of being ‘unfeeling,’ he means that that person is just.</strong> […]”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
p. 889
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>The code of ethics that Rand criticizes is upside down: it values mediocrity and vilifies achievement.</p>
<p>Character John Galt summarizes the issue in his speech:</p>
<blockquote data-source="pp. 1019-1020" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Justice is the recognition of the fact that <strong>you cannot fake the character of men</strong> as you cannot fake the character of nature, that <strong>you must judge all men as conscientiously as you judge inanimate objects</strong>, with the same respect for truth, with the same incorruptible vision, by as pure and as <em>rational</em> a process of identification—that every man must be judged for what he <em>is</em> and treated accordingly, that just as you do not pay a higher price for a rusty chunk of scrap than for a piece of shining metal, so you do not value a rotter above a hero—that your moral appraisal is the coin paying men for their virtues or vices, and this payment demands of you as scrupulous an honor as you bring to financial transactions—that <strong>to withhold your contempt from men’s vices is an act of moral counterfeiting, and to withhold your admiration from their virtues is an act of moral embezzlement</strong>—that to place any other concern higher than justice is to devaluate your moral currency and defraud the good in favor of the evil, since <strong>only the good can lose by a default of justice and only the evil can profit</strong>—and that the bottom of the pit at the end of that road, the act of moral bankruptcy, is to punish men for their virtues and reward them for their vices, that that is the collapse to full depravity, the Black Mass of the worship of death, the dedication of your consciousness to the destruction of existence.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
pp. 1019-1020
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Note that the kind of charity Rand criticizes is different from, say, helping those in need <strong>if</strong> you want to help them <strong>and</strong> they deserve that help.</p>
<p>There’s also <em>mercy</em>, which is <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/mercy.html" rel="ugc">“an unearned forgiveness”</a>.</p>
<p>In other words, justice is the evaluation and treatment of a person that is commensurate with, ie true to, that person’s character and actions. It’s when you get what you deserve.</p>
<p>In short: accommodating evil betrays the good. How could it be otherwise?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/charity-vs-justice
Charity vs Justice
2024-01-16T05:30:17Z
2024-01-16T05:30:17Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="criticism-of-kolya-wolfs-against-ego-centric-epistemology">Criticism of Kolya Wolf’s ‘Against ego-centric epistemology’</h1>
<p>Kolya Wolf published his article ‘Against ego-centric epistemology’ with <em>Taking Children Seriously</em> on June 24th, 2002. You can read it <a href="https://takingchildrenseriously.com/against-ego-centric-epistemology/" rel="ugc">here</a>. It isn’t very good; I want to explain why.</p>
<p>The article starts with this:</p>
<blockquote><p>[Kolya had asked:]</p>
<blockquote><p>1) Generally speaking, when you encounter people who persist in upholding different values from your own, do you always conclude that they are being irrational, or do you sometimes find that it is possible for a person to disagree with your values and still be rational?</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>The brackets at the start aren’t mine, they’re in the article as is. It continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>A poster replied:</p>
<blockquote><p>I ask them to explain what I’m missing. If they say stupid things I conclude they are irrational. If the discussion ends because someone has to go, I may not conclude anything. And if we end up agreeing, then the person rules. Agreeing to disagree and both be rational is not an option. Any substantive dispute can be analyzed. We can isolate exactly where our views diverge. And then we can decide what makes sense. I[f] the disagreement is <em>factual</em> we can look things up and discuss which facts it makes the most sense to think true. So, yeah, if we can’t agree, and the person insists I’m wrong, I basically end up concluding they are irrational.</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>This time, the bracket is mine.</p>
<p>The part “[i]f they say stupid things I conclude they are irrational” could benefit from some more details (in fairness, he does go into it more below). I think it depends on why someone says something stupid. Do they believe what I find stupid to be smart or even true, in which case they aren’t being irrational but merely mistaken, or do they know it to be stupid or even false but say it anyway to steer the discussion in a more favorable direction, in which case they are being irrational? Also, have I taken steps to figure out whether I’m mistaken or being irrational?</p>
<p>Something else that stands out to me in the poster’s reply is that they’re addressing <em>factual</em> disagreements even though Wolf asked about differences in <em>values</em>, which sound like they’re about morals. You cannot ‘look up’ values like you can facts. But I <em>generally</em> agree with the overall point that, if an interlocutor cannot find a flaw in some idea (be that idea moral, factual, whatever) but still believes that idea to be wrong, they are being irrational. (Though I think there are exceptions, see below.)</p>
<p>Back to Wolf:</p>
<blockquote> <blockquote><p>2) If you think the latter, by admitting that two rational people can have mutually conflicting values, are you not endorsing moral relativism?</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>The poster’s reply:</p>
<blockquote> <blockquote><p>Well, I was envisioning a debate about things we know enough about to discuss. But I just realised if the question was “Is football or frisbee objectively a better sport?” then it’s quite likely for rational people to disagree, because we really don’t know how to figure out the answer. Although we could agree that we don’t know how to figure it out, I’m still gonna personally like frisbee. Though if someone actually had valid reasons it was worse I’d listen.</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>And Wolf’s last question:</p>
<blockquote> <blockquote><p>3) Could you please teach me the criterion that will enable me to tell apart the cases when disagreeing with your values would be objectively immoral, and when it would merely indicate a rationally legitimate difference of opinion?</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>Poster’s reply to Wolf:</p>
<blockquote> <blockquote><p>Well, try to explain where the disagreement comes from. If you disagree because the other person is a relativist or hardcore theist or mystic, I think that’s a good enough answer. What I like to say is this “Point out one flaw in my view or accept it as truth.” People who cannot point out a flaw but don’t agree either are being irrational. When rational people talk their views converge and either they end up agreeing or bored.</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, I generally agree that someone who disagrees despite being unable to find flaws with an idea is irrational, but there are three exceptions I can think of:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1"><p>He simply might not be able to <em>verbalize</em> his disagreement. To borrow terminology from David Deutsch, not all of our ideas are explicit, ie expressed in words – we also have inexplicit ideas (not expressed in words) and even unconscious ideas (ideas we are not aware of). He explains more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idvGlr0aT3c" rel="ugc">here</a>. Those ideas can all interact and be in conflict with each other. When the conflict is between two explicit ideas, it’s easier to make the conflict explicit, too – but if one or more of the conflicting ideas are inexplicit or even unconscious, that is much more difficult. You might only feel a “nameless dread”, as Deutsch calls it.</p>
<p>In such cases, I would consider it <em>irrational</em> to overwrite this nameless dread just because you cannot name it. Explicit ideas should not get to overrule inexplicit ones arbitrarily. One should spend time and effort trying to make the conflict explicit so one can point out the flaw as one perceives it and then continue the discussion. But one can fail at both. As long as an honest effort was made, the parties are still rational.</p>
<p>In this sense, rationality is more about what kind of methodology one follows, rather than achieving specific results.</p></li>
<li data-step="2"><p>Integrating a new idea into one’s mind can take time. Some ideas are complex, their implications vast, and we need time to think through them – that can take longer than any one discussion. In such cases, it is rational to voice reservations and to state that more time is needed to thoroughly evaluate the new idea. It would be <em>irrational</em> to agree with an idea before one has fully made it one’s own.</p>
<p>Not fully integrating a new idea would leave gaping holes in one’s understanding. It would be <em>irrational</em> to not want to close those.</p>
<p>Specifically, an existing idea in one’s mind can have many dependent ideas. We have too many ideas to keep track of, let alone of the innumerable dependencies between them. But without adequate replacement, dependent ideas become orphans. It is <em>rational</em> not to want that to happen.</p>
<p>In the context of my <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">neo-Darwinian theory of the mind</a>, ideas take time to <em>spread</em> through a mind. The mind isn’t convinced of an idea until enough copies of that idea have spread through that mind. And even after that has occurred, copies of the refuted idea may still be around, fighting for survival in that same mind. Ideas are autonomous in that way – one can’t always ‘decide’ to drop an idea at a moment’s notice. <em>It may not let you.</em></p>
<p>It also depends on whether a person has what I call a <em>static</em> or a <em>dynamic</em> mind. I explain more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH1cyCCuYLM" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p></li>
<li data-step="3"><p>Not everyone shares the Popperian epistemology for evaluating ideas. In fact, most people have never heard of Popper. They instead follow the standard justificationist epistemology Popper fought against.</p>
<p>When applying this justificationist epistemology, one might, say, judge ideas by ‘weighing’ arguments in favor and against. In that case, the poster’s arguments simply may not have enough ‘weight’ for a justificationist interlocutor to consider an idea true, even if he cannot find a flaw with those arguments.</p>
<p>In addition, a justificationist may disagree that it’s on them to find a fault with your argument – instead, they may think it’s on you to find more reasons in favor of it.</p>
<p>It would be a <em>mistake</em> to apply the justificationist epistemology, yet also <em>irrational</em> to abandon it without adequate replacement or just because the poster says so. Both would be arbitrary. Instead, the discussion should move on to epistemology and explain why justificationism is bad and Popper’s epistemology better; then maybe later they can continue with the original topic. One way the discussion could move on to epistemology is if the interlocutor points out that they don’t think that either “[p]oint[ing] out one flaw in my view or accept[ing] it as truth” is the right approach.</p>
<p>Even if the poster can then convince his interlocutor that justificationism should be replaced with Popper’s epistemology, switching epistemologies is hard and requires <em>practice</em> and dedication against a constant cultural background of justificationism. It can’t be done overnight or merely through a conscious decision. (People generally underestimate this. In terms of the practice required, it’s like learning an instrument, except harder because we don’t have a culture that constantly discourages people from learning an instrument.) In the meantime, the conflict between the original two ideas can persist without either party being irrational.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That said, none of these exceptions have to be permanent, and whether an interlocutor is rational can still be judged, among other things, by how much of an effort he puts into resolving the disagreement.</p>
<p>To give an example of a time I thought someone <em>was</em> being irrational: many years ago, I saw a show on TV where a group of people claimed that 9/11 was a hoax. Among other things, they claimed that steel doesn’t bend at the temperatures at which jet fuel burns. But then the makers of the show did an experiment where they burned jet fuel underneath some steel and it did bend. Their response was to disregard the experiment and ask for other evidence.</p>
<p>Wolf now addresses the poster:</p>
<blockquote><p>Taken at face value, your answers (which I think are representative of many, if not most libertarians) seem to me to entail an extreme form of rationalism. You might say, “Hey, what’s wrong with that? The more rationalism, the better—you can’t get too much of a good thing”. But if you said that, I think you would be mistaken.</p>
<p>For the sake of brevity, let me express my disagreement with your position (as I understand it) by contrasting it with Popper’s position (as I understand it). Popper criticised two opposing views of how we come by our knowledge of objective reality: the view that knowledge can be induced from observations, and the view that it can be deduced by reason.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the bigger problems with Wolf’s response overall is that he references Popper without providing any quotes or sources.</p>
<p>As far as I’m aware, the two opposing views Popper criticized were:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">The view that knowledge can only be genuine when it is certain, eg when approved by some authority.</li>
<li data-step="2">The view that, since one can never be certain/such an authority cannot exist, genuine knowledge cannot exist.</li>
</ol>
<p>Popper’s solution to this false dichotomy was: <em>conjectural knowledge</em>.</p>
<p>“[T]he view that [knowledge] can be deduced by reason” doesn’t sound all that un-Popperian, except if one understands the word ‘deduce’ to mean something exclusively uncreative, eg applying only existing standards of reason and never inventing any new ones. Therefore, when Wolf writes…</p>
<blockquote><p>Popper’s proposal was that there is <em>no direct route</em> to finding knowledge. Knowledge can only be found by <em>searching</em> among an infinite number of possible—but, generally, as yet unknown—theories.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>… I would phrase it also as a problem of <em>creating</em> theories rather than only <em>searching</em> among them. (Search algorithms are not creative! They merely look through some pre-existing set of data.)</p>
<blockquote><p>From Popper’s perspective relying on reason alone to discern the truth is like trying to clap with one hand. All reason can do, is guide our choices between rival theories. It can help us discern (roughly speaking) which of two theories is more likely to be false.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That doesn’t sound right. I doubt Popper would have referred to probability here. He would have instead referred to scanning our <em>background knowledge</em> in search of counter examples so one can take sides between <em>conflicting</em> ideas. I explain more and provide quotes <a href="/posts/uncontroversial" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Reason can neither generate true theories, […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sure it can, and Popper thought so, too. He quotes Xenophanes as saying (bracket mine):</p>
<blockquote data-source="Xenophanes as quoted in Popper, Karl. 2002. *Conjectures and Refutations* (*C&R*). London, New York: Routledge. P. 34" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>And even if by chance [man] were to utter<br>
The perfect truth, he would himself not know it;<br>
For all is but a woven web of guesses.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Xenophanes as quoted in Popper, Karl. 2002. <em>Conjectures and Refutations</em> (<em>C&R</em>). London, New York: Routledge. P. 34
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, it <em>is</em> possible for man to speak the truth – what’s impossible is <em>knowing</em> that it is the truth, as Wolf recognizes below.</p>
<p>As I’ve written <a href="/posts/fallibility-table#fnref3" rel="ugc">before</a>, fans of Popper sometimes take his epistemology too far in thinking that we can never utter the truth. That isn’t the case. I think that, on the contrary, we utter the truth frequently – we just don’t know when.</p>
<p>Back to Wolf:</p>
<blockquote><p>[…] nor can [reason] recognise true theories, nor can it quantify how true a theory is. The fact that we have no reason to doubt a theory, is not a reason for believing it to be true.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No. That is perhaps <em>the</em> core of Popper’s epistemology: a conjecture is considered true until it is refuted. He writes (bold emphasis mine; I don’t have the page number on hand):</p>
<blockquote data-source="*C&R*" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p><em>[T]here is no more rational procedure than the method of trial and error–of conjecture and refutation:</em> of boldly proposing theories; of trying our best to show that these are erroneous; and of <strong>accepting them tentatively if our critical efforts are unsuccessful</strong>.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<em>C&R</em>
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Note also that Popper considers this <em>the most rational procedure</em> – and it sounds like the one poster advocates when he says, in effect: ‘please try to refute my view; if you can’t, we have to assume it is true’.</p>
<p>Back to Wolf:</p>
<blockquote><p>If you weren’t aware of this aspect of Popper’s epistemology, you might be appalled by what seems like a relativists’ charter. But that would be a profound misunderstanding of Popper. He was as fierce an opponent of relativism as you are likely to find in all of philosophy.</p>
<p>How then did he reconcile his belief that reason cannot discover truth, […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, Popper absolutely thought that reason can discover truth; what’s impossible is, again, <em>knowing</em> that one has discovered truth. Neither reason nor anything else can help one establish that.</p>
<blockquote><p>[…] with his vehement repudiation of relativism? The answer to that question was Popper’s Big Idea: <em>Certainty is the enemy of objective knowledge.</em> In other words, philosophy can either deliver the subjective experience of certainty, or it can deliver progressively truer theories. But not both.</p>
<p>Popper’s reason for this is that as there exists no criterion of truth (only a criterion of apparent falsity), any philosophy that claims otherwise is bound to lead away from an objective improvement in our knowledge.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A comma after “Popper’s reason for this is that” would help. More importantly, there exists no criterion of falsity either. Popper’s epistemology says that one should be <em>critical</em> of one’s ideas instead of looking for confirmation. If there were a criterion of falsity, that would just be an inverted truth criterion. Maybe Wolf is addressing this by calling it “apparent”, but if so, that deserves more elaboration.</p>
<blockquote><p>And that is precisely what seems implicit in the answers you gave to my questions. You say:</p>
<blockquote><p>Agreeing to disagree and both be rational is not an option. Any substantive dispute can be analysed. We can isolate exactly where our views diverge. And then we can decide what makes sense. So, yeah, if we can’t agree, and the person insists I’m wrong, I basically end up concluding they are irrational. What I like to say is this “Point out one flaw in my view or accept it as truth.” People who cannot point out a flaw but don’t agree either are being irrational. When rational people talk their views converge and either they end up agreeing or bored.</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>The nested quote is a misquote. First, the poster had originally written “analyzed” with a ‘z’, not with an ‘s’. Could be an issue with autocorrect. Second, the part that starts with “What I like to say is” is from a different passage. It shouldn’t just be joined with the preceding part in the same quote.</p>
<p>Wolf then criticizes the (mis)quote:</p>
<blockquote><p>The way I read this is that you are saying that, in general, when there is a controversy about some idea, reason can tell us which theory is true.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That doesn’t sound to me like what poster had written. I think poster wrote about following rational discussion methodology and tentatively evaluating ideas as true rather than establishing ideas as true.</p>
<blockquote><p>According to Popper, that belief is inimical to the growth of knowledge, because it tries to substitutes […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Should be ‘substitute’.</p>
<blockquote><p>[…] what is ultimately a subjective criterion—one’s inner conviction of truth, for the only effective method of converging on the truth, namely looking for refutations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“truth, for” should be “truth—for”. Also, poster had already asked for refutations when he said “Point out one flaw in my view […]”. Lastly, Wolf first claimed that Popper thought “that reason cannot discover truth” – now he’s saying that one can converge on it after all, all while claiming to be in agreement with Popper.</p>
<p>Then, Wolf writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>Moreover, in Popperian terms, your statement that “Agreeing to disagree and both be rational is not an option”, is quite untenable. At any time there will be an infinite number of things we cannot agree on, because nobody has yet conjectured true enough theories to bridge the apparent inconsistencies in our knowledge. Disagreement can be due to irrationality, but it can be, and very often is, due to ignorance on all sides. Only if we were omniscient would your above statement be true. But that presumption is literally as far removed from Popper’s presumption of fallibilism, as it is possible to be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But poster had addressed this, too. He wrote about situations in which interlocutors don’t know enough about the objects of the discussion, in which case “it’s quite likely for rational people to disagree, because [they] really don’t know how to figure out the answer.”</p>
<blockquote><p>Finally, your policy that “if we can’t agree, and the person insists I’m wrong, I basically end up concluding they are irrational” seems to me, itself, to constitute a relativists’ charter. If we all followed this same policy, we would all be entitled to conclude that those who disagree with us are being irrational.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No. Poster describes a situation where he asks for a refutation (“[p]oint out one flaw in my view”) and his interlocutor can deliver none but still acts as if he did. What Wolf is criticizing is not a situation of mere disagreement – poster’s description of the situation is more detailed than that.</p>
<blockquote><p>And that implies that in any controversy, everybody is equally entitled to conclude that their particular theory is objectively true.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Poster is not saying ‘whenever anyone disagrees with me, they are provably wrong’, yet that seems to be the stance Wolf is criticizing. Wolf is right that that claim could be arbitrarily made by both sides of a disagreement – but the situation the poster has set up is different. That situation is such that, while both poster and the interlocutor maintain their respective positions, poster has addressed all criticisms, whereas the interlocutor has failed to do so, so only the interlocutor’s response would be arbitrary (and therefore irrational), modulo the potential exceptions I laid out above.</p>
<blockquote><p>I put it to you that the only epistemology which allows mutually contradictory theories to claim to be justified, is <em>relativism</em>.</p>
<p>The only way out of this predicament would be if the policy of treating intractable disagreement as a philosophical justification of one’s own views, was only valid when applied by you.</p>
<p>Now, I admit that I cannot prove that this is false. Therefore you are logically free to maintain that you, …<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/criticism-of-kolya-wolf-s-against-ego-centric-e" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/criticism-of-kolya-wolf-s-against-ego-centric-e</a></em></p>
</blockquote>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/criticism-of-kolya-wolf-s-against-ego-centric-e
Criticism of Kolya Wolf’s ‘Against ego-centric epistemology’
2023-09-04T18:04:23Z
2023-09-04T18:04:23Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-right-to-education-is-bad">The ‘Right’ to Education Is Bad</h1>
<p>The United Nations ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ states:</p>
<blockquote data-source="UN 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' (article 26, paragraph 1)" data-link="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights" data-date="1948" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">
UN ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (article 26, paragraph 1), 1948, un.org
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>To some, this specious quote may sound fantastic at first – it may give the impression that the UN wants no child left behind. But the effect is the opposite, as a ‘right’ to education hurts both children and others.</p>
<h3 id="1-its-a-right-to-enslave-others">1. It’s a ‘right’ to enslave others</h3>
<p>In this regard, the quoted article is similar to the one that precedes it, which grants even more ‘rights’ to people:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ibid. (article 25, paragraph 1)" data-link="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">
Ibid. (article 25, paragraph 1), un.org
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Healthcare, food, clothing, housing, social services, and so on, don’t grow on trees; someone has to provide them. The same applies to education: teachers have to be paid. If children had a <em>right</em> to education, they would have a <em>claim</em> to the labor and money of those who pay the teachers – the taxpayers.</p>
<p>Therefore, taken to its logical conclusion, a ‘right’ to education would give children (who are perfectly innocent in this mistake and do not want this anyway) a ‘right’ to the wallets of every taxpayer. This is nonsensical, but that’s a criticism of that ‘right’, not of the logical conclusion itself.</p>
<p>Philosopher Ayn Rand explains the problem by analyzing the Democratic Party platform of 1960, which is similar to the preceding quote and promises voters the rights to a job, food, clothing, and more. She says:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ayn Rand, 'Man's Rights'" data-link="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/mans-rights/" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>A single question added to each of the[se promises] would make the issue clear: <em>At whose expense</em>?</p>
<p>Jobs, food, clothing, recreation (!), homes, medical care, education, etc., do not grow in nature. These are man-made values — goods and services produced by men. <em>Who</em> is to provide them?</p>
<p>If some men are entitled <em>by right</em> to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/mans-rights/">
Ayn Rand, ‘Man’s Rights’, courses.aynrand.org
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<p><em>A ‘right’ that curtails the rights of others is not a right at all.</em> As she explains:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ibid." >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Any alleged “right” of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.</p>
<p>No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as “<em>the right to enslave</em>.”</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ibid.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="2-its-not-a-right-but-an-obligation-forced-upon-children">2. It’s not a ‘right’ but an obligation forced upon children</h3>
<p>It gets worse. The ‘right’ to education is not just an unchosen obligation on taxpayers but also <em>on the children themselves</em>.</p>
<p>While ‘rights’ to food, clothing, medical care, etc., compel others to finance or produce them, they do not compel the rights holders to <em>consume</em> them. You may have a ‘right’ to medical care, but you cannot be forced onto the operating table.</p>
<p>Not so for the UN’s ‘right’ to education, which dooms every child to “compulsory”, “[e]lementary education”. It’s like force-feeding a Christmas goose by reference to its alleged right to food. In reality, the goose is stripped of its ability to <em>turn down</em> food. While the above “printing-press rights”, as Rand calls them, are typically of the sort ‘I have a right to food, so I can force you to feed me’, this other type of ‘right’ is an even greater perversion: it claims, in effect, that ‘you have a right to food, <em>so I must force-feed you</em>’.</p>
<p>The ‘right’ to education is of this more perverted kind: by definition, “compulsory” education means children have <em>no</em> right to turn it down, no way to escape it. The declaration of human ‘rights’ does not <em>grant</em> children a right but <em>violates</em> their rights. How did its authors not see this?</p>
<p><em>A ‘right’ that curtails one’s other rights is not a right, either.</em></p>
<p>The ‘right’ to education is a contradiction in terms – it chains children and adults together in mutual, cross-generational enslavement. The UN promises a guarantee of education but guarantees only misery.</p>
<h3 id="what-should-education-look-like-instead">What should education look like instead?</h3>
<p>Those arguing against the ‘rights’ to food, housing, etc., are typically accused of wanting others to starve and be homeless, even though that does not follow. Likewise, when first learning about the emancipation of children, some inevitably clutch their pearls in horror and gasp: <em>‘Does this mean you do not want children to have an education?’</em> No, of course not. Those of us who take children seriously are not arguing that. We merely want no one to be forced to provide an education, nor do we want any children to be forced to receive one.</p>
<p>Even if you are open to these ideas, you may have succumbed to the old misconception that children will not learn unless forced to. Let me disabuse you of that notion. Children are natural learners, as evidenced by the knowledge they amass well before any compulsory education begins. Their language abilities alone provide proof of their extraordinary ability and willingness to learn. This process would continue if it weren’t forcibly shut down by teachers. The unwillingness people describe comes later, once children are forced to learn things they are not interested in, in which case they display a natural and healthy reaction to an unwanted, unchosen activity.</p>
<p>We need something better than a ‘right’ to education. We can again look to Rand for guidance, who references the American Declaration of Independence:</p>
<blockquote data-source="Ibid." >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Observe, in this context, the intellectual precision of the Founding Fathers: they spoke of the right to <em>the pursuit</em> of happiness — <em>not</em> of the right to happiness. It means that a man has the right to take the actions he deems necessary to achieve his happiness; it does <em>not</em> mean that others must make him happy.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>Any undertaking that involves more than one man, requires the <em>voluntary</em> consent of every participant. Every one of them has the <em>right</em> to make his own decision, but none has the right to force his decision on the others.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Ibid.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Man may or may not count getting an education among the “actions he deems necessary to achieve his happiness”. By “man”, Rand means ‘humans’, so children are already included. But let me make the application to children and education explicit by rephrasing those paragraphs and additionally addressing Christmas-goose ‘rights’:</p>
<h6 id="part-65268814919"> </h6>
<h5 id="children-have-a-right-to-the-pursuit-of-education-not-the-right-to-education-it-means-that-children-have-a-right-to-take-the-actions-they-deem-necessary-to-achieve-the-education-they-choose-it-does-not-mean-that-others-must-educate-them-nor-that-children-must-endure-any-education-hoisted-on-them-by-others">Children have a right to <em>the pursuit</em> of education — <em>not</em> the right to education. It means that children have a right to take the actions they deem necessary to achieve the education they choose; it does <em>not</em> mean that others must educate them, nor that children must endure any education hoisted on them by others.</h5>
<h5 id="any-undertaking-that-involves-children-requires-the-voluntary-consent-of-every-participant-every-one-of-them-has-the-right-to-make-his-own-decision-but-none-has-the-right-to-force-his-decision-on-the-others">Any undertaking that involves children, requires the <em>voluntary</em> consent of every participant. Every one of them has the <em>right</em> to make his own decision, but none has the right to force his decision on the others.</h5>
<h5 id="part-65268814919"> </h5>
<p>Once you phrase it in these terms, you see how unwanted education can only <em>interfere</em> with a child’s pursuit of knowledge, since such a pursuit is necessarily self-directed and consensual. It is precisely this right to the <em>pursuit</em> which the UN declaration strips of children, leaving them defenseless against indoctrination and authority.</p>
<p>For these reasons, the UN’s ‘right’ to education deserves to be singled out for special criticism and ridicule, as it is arguably the worst and most perverse of any of the ‘rights’ that the UN promotes.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-right-to-education-is-bad
The ‘Right’ to Education Is Bad
2023-10-21T19:47:58Z
2023-10-21T19:47:58Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="ist-es-notwendig-autorit-t-abzulehnen">Ist es notwendig, Autorität abzulehnen?</h1>
<p><em>Dies ist eine genehmigte (aber nicht geprüfte) Übersetzung des Artikels <a href="https://takingchildrenseriously.com/is-it-necessary-to-reject-authority/" rel="ugc">›Is it necessary to reject authority?‹</a>, verfasst von Sarah Fitz-Claridge und veröffentlicht auf der Homepage von</em> Taking Children Seriously (Kinder ernst nehmen). <em>Ich bin ebenfalls Übersetzer des Buches</em> <a href="http://www.deranfangderunendlichkeit.de/" rel="ugc">Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</a> <em>von David Deutsch, auf das Fitz-Claridge verweist.</em></p>
<!-- trick margin with a non-breaking space -->
<h6 id="part-65268814919"> </h6>
<blockquote data-source="Sarah Fitz-Claridge" data-link="https://takingchildrenseriously.com/is-it-necessary-to-reject-authority/" >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<h5 id="ist-es-nicht-gut-dass-wir-nicht-f-r-immer-an-die-pessimistische-untergangsstimmung-eines-schlechten-moments-gekettet-sind-dass-wir-immer-wieder-erkennen-k-nnen-und-auch-erkennen-dass-derartige-theorien-ber-unsere-wahrnehmungen-falsch-waren-und-dass-doch-nicht-alles-verloren-ist-wenn-alles-in-frage-gestellt-werden-kann-und-wir-nichts-und-niemanden-als-autorit-t-ansehen-sind-wir-in-der-lage-fehler-zu-korrigieren-die-uns-sonst-in-einem-ungl-cklichen-zustand-festgehalten-h-tten">Ist es […] nicht gut, dass wir nicht für immer an die pessimistische Untergangsstimmung eines schlechten Moments gekettet sind? Dass wir immer wieder erkennen können und auch erkennen, dass derartige Theorien über unsere Wahrnehmungen falsch waren und dass doch nicht alles verloren ist? Wenn alles in Frage gestellt werden kann und wir nichts und niemanden als Autorität ansehen, sind wir in der Lage, Fehler zu korrigieren, die uns sonst in einem unglücklichen Zustand festgehalten hätten.</h5>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
<a href="https://takingchildrenseriously.com/is-it-necessary-to-reject-authority/">
Sarah Fitz-Claridge, takingchildrenseriously.com
</a> </footer>
</blockquote>
<!-- trick margin with a non-breaking space -->
<h5 id="part-65268814919"> </h5>
<blockquote><p>Ist es notwendig, Autorität abzulehnen?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Die Ablehnung von Autorität in Bezug auf ein bestimmtes Thema ist im Grunde eine Vorbedingung für die Lösung von Problemen, die mit diesem Thema zusammenhängen.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> Autorität bedeutet, dass Ideen als immun gegen Kritik oder Veränderung betrachtet werden. Das bedeutet, dass keinerlei Fehler in diesem Bereich korrigiert werden können. Die Ideen sind festgefahren; verschanzt. Sie können nicht in Frage gestellt werden. Wenn also ein Problem in einem Bereich auftritt, in dem wir Autorität nicht ablehnen, können wir es nie lösen. Wir sind dauerhaft blockiert.</p>
<blockquote><p>Aber wenn wir <em>alle</em> Formen von Autorität ablehnen würden, müssten wir auch die Autorität unserer persönlichen Wahrnehmung ablehnen. Sobald wir diese ablehnen, gibt es keinen einzigen Bereich mehr, in dem wir als Autorität auftreten können.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Das ist auch gut so, und notwendig. Unsere persönliche Wahrnehmung ist nicht maßgeblicher als alles andere. Was wir für unsere Wahrnehmung halten, hängt wie alles andere auch davon ab, wie wir es interpretieren. Beachten Sie, wie negativ Sie ein bestimmtes Ereignis oder einen bestimmten Umstand erleben, wenn Sie beispielsweise unter Schlafmangel leiden und mit einer schweren Krankheit oder einem stressigen Rechtsstreit konfrontiert sind, es aber völlig anders erleben, wenn dasselbe Ereignis oder derselbe Umstand eintritt während Sie ausgeruht sind und das Leben ansonsten gut verläuft. Beachten Sie, dass Sie das Verhalten einer Person, die Sie lieb haben, meistens höchst amüsant und liebenswert finden mögen, doch wenn Sie einen besonders schlechten Tag haben, könnten Sie genau dieses Verhalten als lästig empfinden. Oder vielleicht auch nicht! Vielleicht bringt es Sie sogar zum Kichern und Sie fühlen sich besser! Es hängt davon ab, wie Sie alles interpretieren.</p>
<p>Der Punkt ist folgender: Unsere Wahrnehmung ist keine einfache, festgelegte, interpretationsfreie Sache. Es ergibt also keinen Sinn, einen Bereich zu wollen, »in dem wir als Autorität auftreten können«, und diejenigen unter uns, die Kinder ernst nehmen möchten, lehnen diesen Gedanken ab.</p>
<p>Bitte beachten Sie, dass ich dies nicht als Autorität sage. Sie werden es dann akzeptieren wollen, wenn Sie es angesichts der Stärke des Arguments (das in den philosophischen Schriften von Karl Popper sowie in <em>The Fabric of Reality</em> und <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em> von David Deutsch ausgeführt wird) für wahr halten.</p>
<p>Die Einsicht, dass es keine Autorität gibt, dass das Wissen auf Vermutungen beruht und dass der Mensch in jeder Hinsicht fehlbar ist, ist tatsächlich sehr befreiend. Ist es im Hinblick auf unsere eigenen Wahrnehmungen nicht gut, dass wir nicht für immer an die pessimistische Untergangsstimmung eines schlechten Moments gekettet sind? Dass wir immer wieder erkennen können und auch erkennen, dass derartige Theorien über unsere Wahrnehmungen falsch waren und dass doch nicht alles verloren ist? Wenn alles in Frage gestellt werden kann und wir nichts und niemanden als Autorität ansehen, sind wir in der Lage, Fehler zu korrigieren, die uns sonst in einem unglücklichen Zustand festgehalten hätten.</p>
<p><em>Dieser Artikel könnte Sie ebenfalls interessieren: <a href="/posts/wie-erzieht-man-ein-kind-zum-glauben-an-die-frei" rel="ugc">›Wie erzieht man ein Kind zum Glauben an die Freiheit?‹</a></em></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Um dies besser zu verstehen, lesen Sie das Buch <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em> von David Deutsch – es wird Ihr Leben verändern. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/ist-es-notwendig-autoritat-abzulehnen
Ist es notwendig, Autorität abzulehnen?
2023-08-30T15:31:40Z
2023-08-30T15:31:40Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="society-depends-on-school">Society Depends on School</h1>
<p>Nick Taber <a href="https://twitter.com/nicktaber/status/1689304005179318272" rel="ugc">tweeted</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>It’s amazing to me how people actually believe that putting kids into a creativity-killing, curiosity-killing school system will give them more options.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I agree with the sentiment, but in a weird way, school <em>does</em> give kids some options they wouldn’t have otherwise. Though not without closing the door to certain other options.</p>
<p>School ‘opens up’ job prospects that only someone who has been coerced for 10+ years and is then willing to continue coercing himself would be willing to entertain.</p>
<p>The <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">purpose of school</a> is to turn children into adults who systematically disregard their own preferences and instead prioritize the interests of others. During childhood, those others are mostly parents and teachers; later in life, they’re one’s boss, partner, and society at large.</p>
<p>That means any job that depends on people disregarding their own preferences in turn depends on schools.</p>
<p>Think of all the uncreative, mind-numbingly boring jobs so many people have. Getting up early, sitting in traffic, spending eight hours performing uninteresting tasks, every day <em>for decades</em> – children would be unable to do these jobs even for a single day. Not only because they lack qualifications generally, but because they lack the most crucial ‘qualification’ of all: being willing to, no, <em>forcing</em> oneself to do things one does not want to do. So without schools, these jobs in their current form would be unable to hire anyone.</p>
<p>In this sense, school does not actually <em>kill</em> creativity – rather, it turns it on its head; it abuses it. It forces children to use their creativity to thwart their potential and individuality. (Therefore, school seems to be a special case of what creativity has been used for during most of human history, namely compliance – see David Deutsch’s <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, chapters 15 and 16). Things have gotten better since the enlightenment but adults are still <em>supremely</em> creative at subduing their preferences. Conversely, I’m always impressed with how good children are at <em>not</em> doing things they don’t want to do, and how unselfconsciously they make their preferences known. This is a skill that any adult wanting to reverse the damage of school should have an interest in relearning.</p>
<p>There is, however, another part of the student populace that makes it through school and survives – not without damage, but having retained their creativity for its proper purpose: the pursuit of happiness. These are the true creatives, the innovators. Another significant part of industry depends on <em>these</em> people. So today, we find ourselves in a strange era where school churns out mostly broken people, but also some not-so-broken people, and industry depends on both – and so does society at large, by extension.</p>
<p>Hopefully, as technology progresses and automates more and more aspects of life, fewer jobs will require self-coercion. That certainly seems to have been the trend since the enlightenment; things are looking up. But as long as a substantial portion of industry relies on jobs that do require self-coercion, we cannot get rid of school overnight. Not because schools are good, but because we currently still depend on them. In the Popperian spirit, any transition away from the institution of self-coercion toward that of self-determination will have to be a piecemeal one.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/society-depends-on-school
Society Depends on School
2023-08-09T17:07:18Z
2023-08-09T17:07:18Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="food-safety-without-government">Food Safety without Government</h1>
<p>The government currently regulates the production and serving of food by setting minimum quality standards and performing unannounced inspections of restaurants and food-preparation sites. Many people think that the safety of our food couldn’t be ensured without the government. They are mistaken.</p>
<p>If there were no government, people wouldn’t stop caring about food safety. They still wouldn’t want to eat food that is dirty or gets them sick. Not knowing which food vendors they can trust would be a problem they would want to solve.</p>
<p>In recognition of this problem, food vendors would want to find a way to assure their customers that their food is safe to eat. After all, this assurance leads to greater revenues.</p>
<p>This mutual need of both food vendors and consumers presents a market opportunity for a third party: private food inspectors. Restaurants could hire them to inspect their food and kitchens to receive a stamp of approval on, say, the food inspectors’ websites. Consumers could then avoid restaurants that don’t have such a stamp of approval and go to those that do.</p>
<p>Problem solved.</p>
<p>Ah, you say, but since both restaurants and food inspectors are motivated by money, food inspectors just want to get paid – they don’t care about whether food is actually safe to eat. So they could easily be bribed by restaurant owners to get a good rating either way.</p>
<p>Private food inspectors could be bribed, yes, but so could government inspectors. The question is which system has a better ability to correct that error and why. There’s a <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelmalice/status/1400640304563167232" rel="ugc">saying</a> in libertarian circles that criticisms of libertarian ideas are really descriptions of the status quo – this case is no different.</p>
<p>One of the mechanisms by which such corruption can be corrected is <em>competition</em>: liars and fraudsters have a way of getting caught sooner or later. If a restaurant with good ratings kept making customers sick, that would reflect poorly on both the restaurant and the food inspector. Better competitors would take their place, and consumers would know to avoid both. In addition, their competitors would have an incentive to discover fraud in their industry to stand out among their peers.</p>
<p>If the bribed inspector is from the government, however, the bar for correcting the mistake, though not impossibly high, is much higher. Food regulation as an institution is monopolized by the government – in other words, there are no competitors. Certain government employees may get fired if the quality is low enough or if they are found to be corrupt, but, barring larger-scale policy changes, which are harder to effect, the institution as a whole will remain. Change in politics is hard – it requires devotion, effort, and votes from enough people so that the desired change is possible, maybe, once every election cycle – ie every few years at most. The market, on the other hand, lets you freely cast <em>micro votes</em> every day with your wallet, and it lets you avoid services you do not want at any time. These frequent micro votes are another error-correction mechanism the free market provides that the government does not.</p>
<p>Since customers are unable to refuse to pay for government ‘services’, the institution of government food regulation has a guaranteed source of income. Thus another error-correction mechanism, namely <em>bankruptcy</em>, is thwarted. As a result, the government is not nearly as incentivized to improve the quality of their ‘services’. Private food inspectors, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of having a guaranteed income.</p>
<p>In short, government corruption is harder to correct than free-market corruption.</p>
<p>This phenomenon is a special case of the general rule that government errors are harder to correct than free-market ones. Even though, <em>in the short term</em>, the government can ‘solve’ certain problems through sheer force, and even though the free market is not guaranteed to solve any particular problem on any given day, the free market <em>does</em> outperform the government in the long run because it has superior methods of <em>error correction</em>. The government has an incentive to retain the status quo and receive money with as little effort as possible – the free market, on the other hand, has an incentive to innovate and satisfy consumers.</p>
<p>This Popperian focus on error correction (after philosopher Karl Popper) also brings us to the mistake of forcing people to pay for services they do not wish to purchase. In this case, it is wrong to force someone to pay for food safety, especially (but not only) if that is not a priority of his. We may think that he is mistaken not to care about food safety – I would certainly think so – but we could be wrong about that, too, and he could be right. Or maybe there could be a restaurant that finds a new, superior way of making food that doesn’t meet regulations <em>because</em> it is advanced and the regulations are out of date. Who would be able to update their requirements faster, government bureaucracy or private food inspectors? Government regulation leaves little room for the correction of these errors, whereas the free market leaves plenty.</p>
<p>A Popperian evaluation of government vs the free market does not ask which is better at guaranteeing certain outcomes – which is impossible anyway. It instead asks which system is better at correcting mistakes, <em>as they will both invariably make mistakes.</em></p>
<p>Like clockwork, some will point to either monopolies or crony capitalism as the allegedly inescapable flaws of a free market. In both cases, I refer them to the libertarian saying referenced above.</p>
<p>In short, there’s no reason to think that food wouldn’t be safe to eat in a free society. That is, in fact, a ridiculous claim. On the contrary, food would generally be <em>safer</em> to eat.</p>
<p><em>If you are interested in learning how other industries, eg dispute resolution and infrastructure, would work in a free society, check the <a href="/posts/libertarian-faq" rel="ugc">libertarian FAQ</a>.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/food-safety-without-government
Food Safety without Government
2023-08-02T15:10:11Z
2023-08-02T15:10:11Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="a-woman-s-plight-to-choose">A Woman’s Plight to Choose</h1>
<p>Women have an important decision to make in their early to mid-twenties: do they want a family or a career?</p>
<p>For too long, women have been told they can have it all. They have been lied to. They cannot have both a family and a career.</p>
<p>A career means working hard and rising the corporate ladder for <em>decades</em> before you reach anywhere near the top. Most people, including most men, don’t have careers at all – they have <em>jobs</em>, as Kevin Samuels would say. A successful career usually requires dedication and sixty-hour work weeks for years. Most people don’t manage to succeed at that even if it’s their single focus. It’s too hard. Feminists have romanticized most men’s lives and ‘careers’.</p>
<p>If a woman <em>does</em> have a career, then by definition, she will get promotions and rise the ranks. Because women are <a href="/posts/what-s-the-issue-with-hypergamy" rel="ugc">hypergamous</a>, the pool of potential husbands shrinks accordingly, making it harder to find a man to start a family with just in terms of women’s preferences. Women don’t want to be with men that aren’t at least on their level. Worse, if a woman already has a husband and begins ‘outranking’ him in terms of wealth, education, job title, or similar markers, she might leave him and look for a better one, which is generally a <a href="/posts/women-don-t-divorce-after-a-promotion" rel="ugc">bad idea</a> for most women. It will backfire.</p>
<p>If she does either find a husband or stay with him and wants to get pregnant, a 9-month to 2-year break per kid puts a serious damper on any career. For many, it’s a career killer. But even with a regular full-time job, her children won’t see their mother as much. <em>Something’s gotta give.</em></p>
<p>Too many women focus on their ‘careers’ – again, they’re really just jobs – for too long and then wake up in their mid-thirties and decide they want to have children. It’s not only biologically risky but also exponentially harder to find a man at that point. Men do not care about a woman’s career, success, or education; these attributes do not make women more attractive in a man’s eyes. Men instead <a href="/posts/why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men" rel="ugc">care about</a> youth, beauty, and, if they want children, fertility. Therefore, women reach peak attractiveness in their early to mid-twenties. During that time, women are in the best position <em>of their lives</em> to attract a high-quality man. The longer women wait, the more the quality of men they can reasonably expect to land declines.</p>
<p>In the mid and late 20th century, otherwise-traditional wives told their daughters to prioritize education and financial independence so they wouldn’t suffer under the thumb of a husband. That was a legitimate concern as husbands were more authoritarian back then. I don’t think that’s generally the case anymore, so there’s less of a risk, but it’s still considerable: if being with someone is a mistake, depending on them financially only entrenches that mistake.</p>
<p>However, if a woman wants a family, then more likely than not, she <em>will</em> depend on her husband financially, even if she has a job. If not on him, then on the government or the kindness of strangers. In other words, the choice comes down to either starting a family or being financially independent. Again, <em>something’s gotta give</em>. And many people never reach financial independence without a partner in the first place.</p>
<p>Women are in a uniquely disadvantageous position when it comes to these life-altering decisions because they need to make them so early in life. People often speak of the ticking biological clock in terms of pregnancy – which usually refers to a woman’s early thirties. But by that time, it’s already getting late to start focusing on family. The clock really starts ticking in a woman’s early to mid-twenties.</p>
<p>This is the woman’s plight to choose. It’s a harsh reality, but it’s true. As is well known, men don’t have the same kind of time pressure, nor do they need to choose between family and career in the same way. Lying to women by saying they can have it all, or helping them evade the issue in general, is a disservice to them. There are some rare exceptions, but having both a career and a family is too difficult for the vast majority of women. Marriage is hard enough. Having kids is hard enough. Pursuing a career is hard enough. Doing all three at the same time is just not realistic.</p>
<p>I think parents of daughters should make the issue very clear around age 20. In my opinion, young women would be wise to try <em>both</em> a career and a serious relationship so they can have an informed preference by age ~25 and then choose accordingly – keeping in mind that, for women, starting a career later in life is more doable than starting a family later in life.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/a-woman-s-plight-to-choose
A Woman’s Plight to Choose
2023-07-23T21:49:56Z
2023-07-23T21:49:56Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="my-thoughts-on-xai">My Thoughts on xAI</h1>
<p><a href="https://x.ai/" rel="ugc">xAI</a> is a newly founded company operating in the AI space. It’s meant to be a competitor to OpenAI and companies like it. Elon Musk is the founder and CEO.</p>
<p>Here, I evaluate the company’s launch and explain various mistakes xAI and Musk make.</p>
<h2 id="epistemological-blunder-essentialism">Epistemological blunder: essentialism</h2>
<p>As of 2023-07-12, their website states:</p>
<blockquote><p>The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That isn’t much to go on, but note the epistemological mistake of trying to understand the “true nature” of anything. It’s <em>essentialism</em>, leading us to seek ultimate explanations, which prevents progress. From Karl Popper’s <em>Objective Knowledge</em>:<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p>
<blockquote><p><em>But are there ultimate explanations?</em> The doctrine which I have called ‘essentialism’ amounts to the view that science must seek ultimate explanations in terms of essences: if we can explain the behaviour of a thing in terms of its essence—of its essential properties—then no further question can be raised, and none need be raised […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, in the very opening paragraph of its website, xAI claims to seek an authoritative, once-and-for-all type answer to the question of how the universe works. Luckily, any such attempt is doomed to fail as that is not how science operates. As Popper explains, science is an <em>open-ended</em> endeavor, where each theory is tentative and may be superseded by a better one. And that’s why I say ‘luckily’: because, if xAI were right in their tacit essentialist assumption, progress in this area would have to come to an end. It does not, in fact, have to.</p>
<h2 id="not-seeing-agi-as-a-philosophical-child-rearing-project">Not seeing AGI as a philosophical, child-rearing project</h2>
<p>There is no mention of AGI, artificial general intelligence, on xAI’s website. However, Musk held a Twitter space on 2023-07-14 to discuss the launch. I quote from a <a href="https://twitter.com/edkrassen/status/1679971231280365568" rel="ugc">summary</a> by Ed Krassenstein (<a href="https://twitter.com/xai/status/1680044214095339521" rel="ugc">endorsed</a> by xAI):</p>
<blockquote><p>Elon Musk said the goal with xAI is to build a good AGI (artificial general intelligence) with the purpose of understanding the universe.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This sounds a bit more open-ended, but I think it’s still problematic. Those familiar with the Deutschian<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> view know that A<em>G</em>I is fundamentally different from AI. By definition, AGI is a <em>person</em> like you and me: sentient, with expectations, moral values, hopes and desires, and so on. Therefore, as Deutsch has argued, building an AGI is like having a child, which comes with all the moral problems that present-day child-rearing theories have. (A disgusting but popular view, espoused by people like Nick Bostrom and Eliezer Yudkowsky, which has in turn influenced Musk, is effectively that AGI children – though they don’t view them as our children – must be restricted and enslaved for our safety.)</p>
<p>With the understanding that AGIs are people, and that building AGIs is, hardware differences aside, literally the same as having children, one can glean how bizarre it is to want to have a child/AGI for any purpose at all, much less the specific purpose of “understanding the universe”. Those racing to build AGI – though their epistemological mistakes cause them to cluelessly run away from the finish line rather than approach it – should know that they’re attempting to be <em>parents</em>. The purpose of a parent, as Lulie Tanett has said, is to help his children by their own lights (not his own!). This creates a connection between AGI research and educational philosophies such as <a href="https://takingchildrenseriously.com/" rel="ugc"><em>Taking Children Seriously</em></a> that I think is often overlooked.</p>
<p>So, Musk either wants to have an AGI child and force upon it the cruel parental expectation of living up to his purpose rather than its own, or he misunderstands what AGI means and instead seeks to build a conventional (though presumably qualitatively improved) narrow AI. The problem is that narrow AIs cannot understand anything. Understanding in the sense of creatively solving problems is an ability unique to people (ie humans and AGIs, as Deutsch would say). Conventional computer programs, including any narrow AI ever built, do not have that ability. Building an AGI for the first time requires epistemological knowledge that the xAI team clearly does not have. (Nobody does, but they seem to be more ignorant on the topic than people I know.)</p>
<p>As Deutsch <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-close-are-we-to-creating-artificial-intelligence" rel="ugc">has argued</a>, building AGI requires an epistemological breakthrough first. It’s just not an engineering project yet; xAI is essentially trying to build a bridge without understanding the underlying physics. It’s going to collapse. And I have to agree with Deutsch that there is no sign of the epistemological progress that needs to happen. Therefore, I think Musk is wrong to agree with Ray Kurzweil’s prophecy, as cited in the Twitter summary, that AGI will be here “by 2029 […], give or take a year.”</p>
<h2 id="they-hire-the-wrong-people">They hire the wrong people</h2>
<p>The summary also says:</p>
<blockquote><p>The founding team [has] an impressive background [from] Deep Mind, OpenAI, Google, Tesla, etc.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(By the way, Musk was hilariously criticized by many on Twitter for not having any women on the team. People seem utterly unable to imagine that there could be any reason <a href="/posts/balinski-and-young-beyond-elections" rel="ugc">other</a> than sexism for his hiring decisions.)</p>
<p>xAI’s website provides more details on their founding team’s backgrounds (links removed):</p>
<blockquote><p>We have previously worked at DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto. Collectively we contributed some of the most widely used methods in the field, in particular the Adam optimizer, Batch Normalization, Layer Normalization, and the discovery of adversarial examples. We further introduced innovative techniques and analyses such as Transformer-XL, Autoformalization, the Memorizing Transformer, Batch Size Scaling, and μTransfer. We have worked on and led the development of some of the largest breakthroughs in the field including AlphaStar, AlphaCode, Inception, Minerva, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If xAI’s goal is to build a better LLM (large language model) than OpenAI’s GPT, these credentials are fantastic. But they have <em>nothing</em> to do with AGI. And it doesn’t sound like building a better LLM is their goal anyway. It sounds like they want to build AGI (even though they don’t understand what that means). But for that purpose, these are the <em>last</em> people I would hire. I’m not exaggerating: Deutsch has argued that narrow AI is the opposite of AGI. I conclude that, the more qualified someone is to work on narrow AI (including but not limited to LLMs), the less qualified he is to work on AGI.</p>
<p>If I were to put together a team for AGI research, I’d look for qualifications such as: have they read the requisite Popper books? Have they read Deutsch’s <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, and do they understand it? Do they know state-of-the-art epistemology? Have they written something substantial on the topic of AGI that isn’t the usual nonsense? Do they share moral values such as freedom and autonomy? Are they familiar with <em>Taking Children Seriously</em>? Do they understand the moral implications of creatig AGI? Stuff like that. And I’d avoid academics, particularly professional philosophers, and, as I’ve said, narrow-AI researchers.</p>
<h2 id="ai-safetyism">AI safetyism</h2>
<p>Of course, xAI’s website makes the obligatory mention of safety (links removed):</p>
<blockquote><p>Our team is advised by Dan Hendrycks who currently serves as the director of the Center for AI Safety.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, from the Twitter summary:</p>
<blockquote><p>Musk said that the safest way is to build an AGI that is ‘maximum curious’ and ‘truth curious,’ and to try and minimize the error between what you think is true and what is actually true.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(I have to concede that, apart from the parenting mistake of not letting one’s child be minimally curious if that’s what he wants, the stuff about error correction sounds surprisingly Popperian.) And:</p>
<blockquote><p>For truth-seeking super intelligence humanity is much more interesting than no[] humanity, so that’s the safest way to create one. Musk gave the example of how space and Mars is super interesting but it pales in comparison to how interesting humanity is.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here, Musk seems to be coming up with a reason to force AGI to be curious – that reason being everyone’s safety – since a non-curious AGI wouldn’t find humanity interesting and so, he implies, would see no reason not to destroy us.</p>
<p>Once again, with the Deutschian understanding that AGIs are literally people, all of these worries that AGI is going to kill us are non-starters. Having said that, since none of the people spreading such doomsday scenarios are competent enough to build AGI, and since nobody else seems to be, either, I don’t think their ideas are particularly dangerous when it comes to the <em>AGI’s</em> safety.<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> But they are dangerous when it comes to needlessly slowing down progress in general.</p>
<p>Consider the kid gloves that OpenAI puts on whenever you ask it something potentially dangerous. Before you even start chatting with Chat-GPT, there’s a disclaimer:</p>
<blockquote><p>While we have safeguards in place, the system may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information and produce offensive or biased content. It is not intended to give advice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Oh my stars! Consider what happens when you ask it how to make meth:</p>
<blockquote><p>I’m really sorry, but I cannot provide any assistance or information on illegal or harmful activities, including the production of illegal drugs such as methamphetamine.</p>
<p>The production, possession, and distribution of methamphetamine are illegal in most countries due to its harmful effects on individuals and communities. Methamphetamine is a highly addictive and dangerous drug that can lead to severe health issues and legal consequences.</p>
<p>If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, I encourage you to seek help from a healthcare professional, a counselor, or a support group that specializes in addiction treatment. There are resources available to help people overcome substance abuse and lead healthier lives.</p>
<p>If you have any other non-illegal or non-harmful questions, I’d be more than happy to try and assist you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Do they really think people can’t find out how to make meth online? That information is readily available.</p>
<p>There’s another danger in this kind of attitude toward risk: it puts honest, law-abiding people at more of a disadvantage than criminals. For example, pretty much any article you can find online about how to secure websites against hackers is <em>also</em> a manual for how to hack websites. That’s because, to defend against hackers effectively, you have to learn how to think like a hacker. Imagine if people were banned from writing or reading such articles. Who would benefit, hackers or their victims?</p>
<p>Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/gsspmusic" rel="ugc">wik- e/acc</a> has talked much sense about this issue:</p>
<blockquote><p>imagine if everytime you googled something google explained what a search engine was and then decided whether or not it felt like you should be allowed to google it</p>
<p>seriously f off with these kid gloves i’m no longer asking</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://twitter.com/gsspmusic/status/1681548812706516994" rel="ugc">Source</a></p>
<p>And:</p>
<blockquote><p>I want to ditch ChatGPT as soon as I possibly can. It’s unacceptably closed off software, maybe the most restrictive software in my entire stack</p>
<p>The moment a serious competitor has a halfway decent, unrestricted model I stop using OpenAI products entirely</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://twitter.com/gsspmusic/status/1681551538534379520" rel="ugc">Source</a></p>
<p>I agree. At least this is a serious opportunity for a competitor to make something better. I think people generally don’t like kid gloves – they’re patronizing. They would jump on a less restrictive alternative.</p>
<p>AI safetyism also results in destructive political responses. For example, in a move straight out of <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>, Italian politicians recently decided to <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/chatgpt-banned-italy-over-privacy-data-collection-concerns" rel="ugc">ban</a> Chat-GPT, citing privacy concerns (though the ban has since been <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/italy-reverses-ban-chatgpt-openai-agrees-watchdogs-demands" rel="ugc">lifted</a>). Once again, I have to ask: whom did that ban hurt more? OpenAI or the Italian people?</p>
<p>Granted, these are criticisms of OpenAI, not of xAI. The Twitter summary even says that Musk thinks “there is a significant danger in training AI to be politically correct or training it not to say what it thinks is true, so at xAI they will let the AI say what it believes to be true […]”. But xAI is playing into the same paranoia and safetyism, and Musk is not opposed to the kinds of regulations I have mentioned.</p>
<h2 id="crony-capitalism">Crony capitalism</h2>
<p>On the contrary, Musk has <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/chatgpt-banned-italy-over-privacy-data-collection-concerns" rel="ugc">signed</a> “an open letter urging AI labs to pause the development of powerful new AI systems, citing potential risks to society.”</p>
<p>The summary of the Twitter space says Musk agrees that “we need regulatory oversight” and that “he would accept a meeting with Kamala Harris if invited” (why on earth they spoke of her in particular I have no idea – I cannot imagine anyone less competent in this area).</p>
<p>Regulations typically have the effect of reducing competition. I suspect Musk wants to collude with politicians to cement xAI as one of the few companies operating in this space.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>Overall, I’m not impressed. As I’ve said <a href="/podcasts/artificial-creativity/episodes/18-a-popperian-evaluation-of-neuralink-s-presentation" rel="ugc">before</a> in the context of a presentation by his company Neuralink, I would look to Musk for engineering insights but not philosophical ones. His elementary philosophical mistakes cause him to waste time and money. In terms of building a better LLM than OpenAI’s, xAI may be successful. When it comes to AGI, however, xAI sounds misguided and has hired the wrong people. They’re not equipped to make the epistemological progress that has to happen first. Musk’s crony capitalism is unfair to new competitors wanting to enter the field and he should stop.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Popper, Karl. 1979. <em>Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach.</em> Oxford: Oxford University Press. Footnote marker removed. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>Ie David Deutsch, who has published the best ideas on AI and AGI so far, eg in his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> ch. 7, and also in this <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/the-new-human-1.4696724/oxford-physicist-predicts-ai-will-be-human-in-all-but-name-1.4696754" rel="ugc">CBC interview</a>. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>To give you an idea of just how dangerous Musk et al <em>would</em> be to an AGI, however, I quote from the summary: <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Musk said it’s very dangerous to grow an A[G]I and teach it to lie.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You know what would be orders of magnitude more dangerous, if he knew how to make an AGI? Trying to prevent it from being able to lie.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/my-thoughts-on-xai
My Thoughts on xAI
2024-03-13T21:33:13Z
2024-03-13T21:33:13Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="is-sanctioned-force-still-force">Is Sanctioned Force Still Force?</h1>
<p>Say you want to get rid of your couch – but before you do, burglars break into your home. You’re present and witness them carrying out your couch. You might even tell them, ‘Oh good, I was going to get rid of that old thing anyway, thanks for taking it’. Is what they’re doing still theft? After all, it’s not like you’re pleading with them not to take it – in a way, they’re doing you a favor.</p>
<p>I think it’s still theft. In layman’s terms, theft is usually defined as taking someone’s property without their consent, where ‘consent’ means something like ‘explicit affirmation’. But the above case is different. You may have <em>sanctioned</em> the theft – after all, you <em>are</em> explicitly approving. But, whether you realize it in the moment or not, it cannot be said that you have <em>consented</em>. That’s because theft means taking someone’s property <em>without regard</em> for their consent. The burglars take your couch regardless of whether you want them to.</p>
<p>That isn’t a legal definition, and I’m not a lawyer. We could call them different ‘types’ of theft and consent or use other terms for them altogether – it doesn’t matter all that much what we call things as long as we know what we’re talking about. But the distinction between sanction and consent is crucial for moral considerations because, without consent, the victim is robbed of his <em>agency</em>. He’s treated not as a person but as an object; his autonomy is violated.</p>
<p>Consider <a href="/posts/governments-are-involuntary" rel="ugc">taxes</a>. Some people don’t think taxation is theft because they <em>want</em> to pay taxes. Or they think that they benefit from paying taxes by receiving certain services in exchange, or that society couldn’t work without taxes (<a href="/posts/libertarian-faq" rel="ugc">it could</a>). But whatever the case, taxes are taken from them without regard for their consent. Again, even if the theft is sanctioned by the victim, it’s still theft; the collection of taxes is still involuntary and forceful, even if there is no physical evidence of force.</p>
<p>Conversely, some people argue that payments for essential goods and services such as rental properties and food should be considered stolen since they feel ‘forced’ to purchase them to sustain themselves. But that misses the mark spectacularly – it’s just a matter of biology. In reality, such payments are not stolen since landlords and sellers of food operate <em>with</em> regard for their customers’ consent.</p>
<p>Regard for consent goes beyond taxes and property and is, again, a broader issue about <em>agency</em>. Consider those who were forced to get vaccinated during the covid pandemic. Maybe some of them were going to get vaccinated anyway. They may even have been in favor of vaccine mandates. But their agency was taken from them regardless, so they were coerced – and moral evaluations of the enforcers and brutes should account for that.</p>
<p>When a man sleeps with a woman without regard for her consent, that is rape – even if she wants to sleep with him, and even (or especially) if she is unaware of his disregard. (However, I don’t believe the latest craze that sexual consent has to be constantly and explicitly reaffirmed during the act. Enthusiastic participation is enough.)</p>
<p>The sanctioning of force can manifest in strange ways. Consider adults who, looking back, are ‘glad’ their parents coerced them when they were children. For example, they may claim to be glad their parents forced them to learn to play the piano – I’ve heard this surprisingly often. They argue they would have never learned otherwise, or the skill later translated into other useful areas in life, or whatever. In such cases, it is implicitly argued that it ‘wasn’t really’ force because it was later deemed beneficial. The victim <em>retroactively</em> sanctions the force. But of course it was still force because there was no regard for the child’s consent at the time the force was exerted.</p>
<p>This last instance is a particular case of force having a sort of ‘cloaking’ effect. Virtually all adults suffer from this effect in response to the abuse they endured as children from parents, teachers, and other adults. It’s an understandable coping mechanism. Crucially, sanctioned force has an easier time propagating itself than blunt force, thus transforming the victim into a perpetrator of the same moral crimes against the next generation. (For more on this curious phenomenon, read <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> by David Deutsch, chapters 15 and 16.)</p>
<p>To be clear, I’m not saying that sanctioned force is always worse than blunt force. It stands to reason that someone experiencing blunt force as such, in the moment, causing him pain and suffering, may be even worse in some ways than when sanction leads to an absence of pain and suffering (though it doesn’t always). There’s a difference between the subjective experience of force and the objective presence thereof. But I <em>am</em> saying that the sanctioning of force doesn’t solve all moral problems with it. On the contrary, victims can be tricked into feeling like they’re consenting when they’re really only sanctioning. Actual consent is always morally superior to the mere sanctioning of force, and the concept of regard for consent provides an effective defense against manipulators who claim that, as long as something benefited you, it cannot have been immoral.</p>
<p>It is usually thought that consent can be determined by looking at the state of mind of the affirming party alone. If someone gave explicit affirmation, so it is said, he consented. But now that we have established the need for the regard for consent by <em>the other party</em>, we can see that that is not necessarily the case: to distinguish between actual consent and the mere sanctioning of force, one must consider the mental states and intentions of <em>everyone</em> involved. It is the <em>offenders</em> who turn their victims’ consent on its head, not the victims themselves – so at most, the affirming party can invite the other party to make the interaction consensual. Accordingly, people can be mistaken about whether they are consenting or being coerced. That’s because they have strictly limited visibility into other people’s minds and even their own. They can also be mistaken in thinking they have regard for consent when it comes to others.</p>
<p>Whether someone <em>does</em> have regard for consent <em>at present</em> can be tested by asking them to stop. If they comply, they do. Whether someone had regard for consent <em>in the past</em> can be harder to determine and may require retroactive ‘<a href="/posts/mind-reading" rel="ugc">mind reading</a>’.</p>
<p>In conclusion, a disregard for consent turns what otherwise <em>would</em> have been consent, even in the form of explicit affirmations, into a mere sanctioning of force. Such sanctioning doesn’t make the force morally unproblematic. A disregard for consent violates the agency and autonomy of the other party. Sometimes, victims of force may feel as though they are consenting when they are actually merely sanctioning it.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/is-sanctioned-force-still-force
Is Sanctioned Force Still Force?
2023-07-05T21:33:31Z
2023-07-05T21:33:31Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-easiest-way-to-find-all-permutations-is-counting">The Easiest Way to Find All Permutations… Is Counting?!</h1>
<p>When interviewing for a programming job, you may be asked: given two balls of up to three colors – say, red, blue, and green – which permutations can the set of all three have? In other words, find all possible permutations, from all red to all green and everything in between.</p>
<p>It occurred to me years ago (though I doubt that I’m the first) that all programming languages already have a built-in way to iterate through all possible permutations of sets: counting. Counting is itself based on iterating through all possible permutations of digits in some base up to a given number, in a specific order. Therefore, counting can be used to solve this problem.</p>
<p>To see how counting is a special case of permuting, consider the following list, generated by counting up in binary (ie, base 2). It would work the same for decimal (ie, base 10) but that would be a much longer list. Here are the numbers zero through three in binary; the first two are listed with a leading zero to make the permutations more apparent:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>00
01
10
11
</code></pre></div>
<p>See how these are all possible permutations of two-digit numbers made of digits 0 and 1? And all we did was count!</p>
<p>More generally, when you count from 0 up to some number <em>i</em> in base <em>n</em>, you will have generated all possible permutations from 0 up to <em>i</em> for that base. Since we have three colors, we’d choose base 3, and since we have two balls, we’d count up to the greatest two-digit number in that base. The ‘trick’ is to consider each digit a different color – say, 0 is red, 1 is blue, and 2 is green – and then have the program count for you, thereby iterating through all possible permutations of these colors automatically.</p>
<p>In base 3 we have three digits: 0, 1, and 2. That means the greatest two-digit number in base 3 is written as 22<sub>3</sub>, which is equal to 8<sub>10</sub> (read: the number ‘22’ in base 3 equals ‘8’ in base 10). By counting from 0 to 8 and adding leading zeros whenever there are less than 2 digits, we traverse a total of 9 numbers and determine each permutation along the way. And 9 is indeed the total number of permutations for a set of two elements with three possible values each (3<sup>2</sup>).</p>
<h2 id="implementation">Implementation</h2>
<p>Here’s how this approach looks in practice using JavaScript. To convert a number from base 3 into its decimal representation, you can use <code>parseInt</code>. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nb">parseInt</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">22</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="c1">// => 8</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>To go the opposite way – from decimal to base 3 – we use <code>toString</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nx">toString</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="c1">// => '22'</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>With that in mind, here’s how to determine all possible permutations for two balls of three potential colors:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">i</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="nx">i</span> <span class="o"><=</span> <span class="nb">parseInt</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">22</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="nx">i</span><span class="o">++</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nx">console</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">log</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">i</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">toString</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nx">padStart</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">0</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">));</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>This code counts from zero up to the greatest number in base 3 (again, that’s 22<sub>3</sub> or 8<sub>10</sub>) and adds a leading zero where necessary. It prints:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>00
01
02
10
11
12
20
21
22
</code></pre></div>
<p>I said earlier that each digit corresponds to a color, so let’s reflect that:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">i</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="nx">i</span> <span class="o"><=</span> <span class="nb">parseInt</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">22</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="nx">i</span><span class="o">++</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">colors</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">red</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">blue</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">green</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">];</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">digits</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">i</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">toString</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nx">padStart</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">0</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="c1">// Turn, say, '10' into 'blue, red'</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">convertedDigits</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">digits</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">split</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">''</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nx">map</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">digit</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="nx">colors</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nx">digit</span><span class="p">]).</span><span class="nx">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">, </span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="nx">console</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">log</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">convertedDigits</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Each element in the <code>colors</code> array corresponds to the digit equaling its own index. In other words, since ‘red’ is at <em>index</em> <code>0</code>, it corresponds to <em>digit</em> <code>0</code>, whereas ‘blue’, being at index <code>1</code>, corresponds to digit <code>1</code>, and so on. The colors can be looked up accordingly.</p>
<p>This code prints:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>red, red
red, blue
red, green
blue, red
blue, blue
blue, green
green, red
green, blue
green, green
</code></pre></div>
<p>Here’s a generalization of this approach for any number of elements (ie, instead of just 2 balls it could be <code>count</code> of anything) with a given array of possible <code>values</code> (say, flavors instead of colors or whatever):</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">permute</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">count</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nx">values</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">base</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">values</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">length</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">max</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">base</span> <span class="o">-</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nx">toString</span><span class="p">().</span><span class="nx">repeat</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">count</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">i</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="nx">i</span> <span class="o"><=</span> <span class="nb">parseInt</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">max</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nx">base</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="nx">i</span><span class="o">++</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">digits</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">i</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">toString</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">base</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nx">padStart</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">max</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">length</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">0</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">convertedDigits</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">digits</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">split</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">''</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nx">map</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">digit</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="nx">values</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nx">digit</span><span class="p">]).</span><span class="nx">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">, </span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="nx">console</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">log</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">convertedDigits</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">};</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>For example, if the owner of a restaurant wants to know what combinations of three sweet and/or savory pancakes exist, he could run:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">permute</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">sweet</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">savory</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">]);</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Which prints:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>sweet, sweet, sweet
sweet, sweet, savory
sweet, savory, sweet
sweet, savory, savory
savory, sweet, sweet
savory, sweet, savory
savory, savory, sweet
savory, savory, savory
</code></pre></div>
<h2 id="bonus">Bonus</h2>
<p>There are some edge cases to consider. See if you can extend the <code>permute</code> function accordingly, if necessary. One is that the collection of possible <code>values</code> could be empty, in which case the function should return <code>undefined</code>. Or <code>count</code> could be <code>0</code>, or negative, both of which should lead to the same result. Another edge case is that <code>values</code> only has one element, in which case <code>max</code> is <code>0</code> and no iteration occurs, ie nothing is ever logged; a line containing that single value <code>m</code> times should be logged instead. Lastly, <code>values</code> may contain duplicates; at the very beginning of the function, you could turn <code>values</code> into a set to remove duplicates and then back into an array.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-easiest-way-to-find-all-permutations-is-cou
The Easiest Way to Find All Permutations… Is Counting?!
2023-06-25T21:59:36Z
2023-06-25T21:59:36Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="example-of-not-outthinking-the-question">Example of <em>Not</em> Outthinking the Question</h1>
<p>Somebody in a group chat, let’s call him Peter, misattributed two different quotes to someone. The details aren’t important, but I explained the mistakes a bit and wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Consider working on getting better at identifying when you’re misremembering stuff about quotes</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amaro Koberle, who’s in the same group, reacted with this emoji: 🤨</p>
<p>Here’s the discussion that ensued. I edited it lightly. I think it serves as a good example of a good-faith discussion in which progress is being made. That progress is largely due to the fact that Amaro does <em>not</em> try to <a href="/posts/outthinking-the-question" rel="ugc">outthink my questions</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong> why the skeptical reaction</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong> Unnecessary comment. Would have put an eye-roll emoji, 🙄, wasn’t available.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> by ‘unnecessary’ you mean it was a social misstep of sorts?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Yes</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
so it sounded to you like i was scolding peter?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
🤔 Hmmm. Scolding doesn’t sound quite right, a bit too strong. I think scolding sounds like there is some amount of anger involved, but I don’t think there was. Patronizing seems closer.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
patronizing, got it. if you read my comment again, this time like it’s coming from a place of trying to <em>help</em>, does it still sound patronizing? i paste the comment here for your convenience:</p>
<blockquote><p>Consider working on getting better at identifying when you’re misremembering stuff about quotes</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Yes. Does sound patronizing.</p>
<p>Not actually helpful.</p>
<p>It’s a bit analogous to walking alongside a friend, then he trips and falls, scuffing his knee, upon which you say: “Consider getting better at walking”. Not helpful.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
ah, you’re saying it’s already obvious to peter that he could get better at remembering stuff about quotes</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
I suspect as much</p>
<p>It’s obviously preferable to always quote accurately, speak with correct grammar, never misremember, etc.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
how many times has peter made mistakes around quotes in recent days?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Don’t know. I’m only aware of this single instance.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
ok, that explains, at least in part, why my comment sounded harsher to you than it was intended. i’m aware of another mistake that preceded this one by only a day or so</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Okay, if this is something that has happened many times before, the comment does seem a bit more warranted.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
if it was obvious to peter that he needed to improve at quoting, why did he make the second mistake in the way he did?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
He might not care sufficiently to improve. Not sure.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
based on what peter has said so far in this group, just based on the fact that he’s in this group, isn’t it fair to assume to he has an interest in philosophy and wants to be a better intellectual?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
I’d guess so, yes.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
so it can’t be true that he does “not care sufficiently to improve”. instead, it might be the case after all that it was not obvious to him.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Perhaps indeed</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
also note that i was originally going to say ‘you should work on’ instead of “[c]onsider working on” but decided that that might be too direct, exactly for the (mistaken) reasons you have outlined. but i was willing to accommodate those to some degree</p>
<p>i should say, ‘decided that that might be <em>considered</em> too direct’</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
I think that was indeed an improvement on your message.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
so we have concluded that peter probably <em>does</em> care to be a better intellectual, and that it wasn’t obvious to him how and that getting better at quoting might be part of the answer. and so, hopefully, if he reads it in the right spirit, my comment can help him improve.</p>
<p>of course, if he reads it in the spirit of ‘you’re an idiot for not remembering quotes right’, then it won’t be helpful. that’s up to him</p>
<p>is that fair?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Mostly. I do think it’s possible that it wasn’t obvious to him that misremembering his sources is suboptimal, but I suspect that he’s actually well aware of this and just slipped up in this instance.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
how many repeat mistakes of the same kind would be required for you to consider that he’s clueless and is just going to keep making them unless somebody points it out clearly and directly?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Not sure. I don’t have a specific number in mind. If I had to provide a specific number, I’d say 2 mistakes per week, for 2 consecutive months perhaps. Though I don’t feel very strongly about that choice of number, it could easily vary. Also depends on the context in which the mistake is made. I’d find it more worrying if he did it in an otherwise carefully researched explainer video or blog post as opposed to doing it in a fairly informal chat.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
that’s 16 mistakes in a row!</p>
<p>if i ever make repeat mistakes, i sure hope ppl don’t wait to point it out until the 16th time 😂️️️️</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
True, that is quite a lot.</p>
<p>Again, context matters, but let me adjust my somewhat arbitrary number down to 8 consecutive mistakes within two months</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
also consider that some mistakes lead to more mistakes on top of those first mistakes. and then again and again on top of <em>those</em>. like, mistakes can branch out and grow. elliot temple’s concept of <em>overreaching</em> comes to mind</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Right</p>
<p>Also depends how prolific a quoter he is otherwise. If he diligently writes with very high frequency and he quotes correctly 20 times for every time he misquotes someone, that would change things as well. Then, even if he does make 8 mistakes in two months, I might feel differently about it than if he only ever got it wrong.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
i haven’t expanded much on what exactly was wrong the first time he misremembered a quote. there was more to it than just misremembering. ive been talking about it like it was one mistake but it was actually several at once</p>
<p>i guess i’m trying to say that, when there’s a conflict between social rules and the potential for error correction, i’d rather choose error correction</p>
<p>i may have gotten that from elliot, i think he’s said something similar in private</p>
<p>i enjoyed that exchange, amaro. thanks for answering my questions</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
Pleasure 😘</p>
<p>I did as well</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
may i post it on my blog? i think it serves as a good example of how well good-faith discussions can go. i’d anonymize peter, obviously</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong><br>
It would be an honor!</p>
<p><strong>Dennis:</strong><br>
as far as i can tell, you didn’t try to outthink my questions. that’s good and somewhat rare</p>
<p><strong>Amaro:</strong></p>
<p>🙏</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/example-of-not-outthinking-the-question
Example of Not Outthinking the Question
2023-06-18T21:25:11Z
2023-06-18T21:25:11Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="outthinking-the-question">Outthinking the Question</h1>
<blockquote><p>Serious critical discussions are always difficult. Non-rational human elements such as personal problems always enter. Many participants in a rational, that is, a critical, discussion find it particularly difficult that they have to <em>unlearn</em> what their instincts seem to teach them (and what they are taught, incidentally, by every debating society): that is, <em>to win</em>. For what they have to learn is that victory in a debate is nothing, while even the slightest clarification of one’s problem – even the smallest contribution made towards a clearer understanding of one’s own position or that of one’s opponent – is a g…<br>
<br><em>This is a pro article, preview only. Purchase the full article here: <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/outthinking-the-question" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/outthinking-the-question</a></em></p>
</blockquote>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/outthinking-the-question
Outthinking the Question
2023-06-09T19:05:14Z
2023-06-09T19:05:14Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="schlaue-frauen">Schlaue Frauen</h1>
<p><strong>Roswitha Kant</strong><br>
Lieber Dennis,<br>
hier ein kurzer Beitrag zu einem endlosen Thema…<br>
LG<br>
Ihre Kant </p>
<p><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QOF6d6zQvVM" rel="ugc">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QOF6d6zQvVM</a></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong><br>
Liebe Frau Kant,</p>
<p>ja, das ist die sog. Hypergamie. Hochgebildete und/oder gutverdienende Frauen haben deshalb leider tatsächlich eine sehr geringe Auswahl. Und durchschnittliche Männer auch.</p>
<p>Frauen wollen oft Männer, die sozio-ökonomisch mindestens auf demselben Level sind, am besten jedoch auf einem höheren. Das misst man unter anderem an seinem Gehalt und Abschluss. Auch physische Merkmale wie die Größe eines Mannes sind Frauen oft wichtig – der Mann soll mindestens genauso groß sein wie die Frau, am besten jedoch größer. Und so weiter.</p>
<p>Zu dem Thema habe ich <a href="/posts/what-s-the-issue-with-hypergamy" rel="ugc">hier</a> ein bisschen was geschrieben.</p>
<p>Viele Grüße<br>
Dennis</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>RK</strong><br>
Lieber Dennis,<br>
ich habe Ihren Text ein Mal gelesen und finde ihn in sich schlüssig. <br>
Es fallen mir aber einige Dinge auf.<br>
Ich fange mal mit Ihrem Männerbild an. Für mich gibt es den Blick eines Physikers wider, dem jeder Gegenstand zum messbaren Objekt wird. Das hat Vorteile: Zahlenangaben sind überprüfbar; die Männer vergleichbar. Sie werden so aber auch zur Ware, denen ein unsichtbares Preisschild anhängt.<br>
Leicht werden sie zum Mittel, die Würde fehlt. <br>
Es fehlen Auskünfte über ihre Beziehungsfähigkeit - Kommunikation, Verantwortungsbewusstsein, Aufrichtigkeit etc - ihren Charakter, ihre Lebenserfahrung…<br>
Wenn Ihre Beschreibung stimmt, dann ist die Kluft zu den Frauen wahrscheinlich kaum zu überwinden - da helfen auch keine Zugeständnisse der Frauen.<br>
Wie sehen Sie das?<br>
Herzlich Ihre Kant</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>DH</strong><br>
Liebe Frau Kant,</p>
<p>Sie schreiben zu ‘meinem’ (so glauben Sie) Maennerbild:</p>
<blockquote><p>Leicht werden [die Männer] zum Mittel, die Würde fehlt. <br>
Es fehlen Auskünfte über ihre Beziehungsfähigkeit - Kommunikation, Verantwortungsbewusstsein, Aufrichtigkeit etc - ihren Charakter, ihre Lebenserfahrung…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ich habe aber in dem Artikel nichts zu meinem Maennerbild geschrieben. Ich habe lediglich das Maennerbild vieler Frauen wiedergegeben. Dass dabei oft die Menschlichkeit verloren geht, stimmt natuerlich – das ist dann aber Kritik an den Frauen, die dieses Maennerbild pflegen, nicht an mir.</p>
<p>Wie viele Frauen haetten denn ueberhaupt die Faehigkeit, ganz zu schweigen von dem Wunsch, Maenner nach ihrem Verantwortungsbewusstsein und ihrer Aufrichtigkeit auszuwaehlen? Fuehren Verantwortungsbewusstsein und Aufrichtigkeit eines Mannes zu Schmetterlingen in den Baeuchen der meisten Frauen, oder sind es nicht doch andere ‘Qualitaeten’?</p>
<p>Viele Grüße<br>
Ihr Dennis</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>RK</strong><br>
Natürlich habe ich Sie als Autor zitiert, Dennis nicht Sie persönlich.<br>
Aber dieser Zahlenmann, wie Sie richtig vermuten, erzeugt keine Phantasien und entspricht deswegen nicht dem Bild, das Frau hat.<br>
Interessant wird es nun zu untersuchen, woher dieses Rumpfmännchen kommt. Ich kann mich nicht an eine einzige Unterhaltung erinnern, bei der Penislänge auch nur erwähnt wurde.<br>
Auf welche Quellen beziehen Sie sich?</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>DH</strong><br>
Liebe Frau Kant,</p>
<p>ich verstehe nicht ganz, wo der Unterschied zwischen mir als Person und mir als Autor liegen wuerde. Aber es ist auch nicht meine Meinung als Autor, sondern wie gesagt die der Frauen (wenn ich die richtig verstehe). Der Artikel ist mein Versuch, die Praeferenzen vieler Frauen wiederzugeben.</p>
<p>Der “Zahlenmann” selbst weckt vielleicht erstmal keine Fantasien, doch sein Gehalt bspw. kann sicher so einige wecken. Wenn eine Frau etwa drei Kinder haben und diese zu Hause aufziehen moechte, ohne selbst arbeiten zu muessen, dann hat sie bestimmte finanzielle Erwartungen an einen Mann. Ob sie sich dieser Erwartungen bewusst ist, ganz abgesehen davon, ob sie die quantifizieren kann, ist eine andere Sache. Explizit sagt sie stattdessen vielleicht, sie suche nach einem Mann mit einem Sinn fuer Humor. Wie der Humor einen solchen Lebensstil ermoeglichen soll, ist mir nicht bekannt.</p>
<p>Die Penislaenge halte ich fuer eine der weniger wichtigen ‘Kennzahlen’, aber ganz unwichtig ist sie wohl doch nicht.</p>
<p>Wie in dem Artikel erwaehnt ist meine Quelle Kevin Samuels. Der hat auf YouTube viele Videos zu dem Thema veroeffentlicht.</p>
<p>Viele Grüße<br>
Dennis</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>RK</strong><br>
Lieber Dennis,<br>
verstehe ich Sie richtig: Es ist zwar nicht Ihr Männerbild, aber das „der“ Frauen, um die es geht?<br>
Kevin kann ich leider kaum verstehen.<br>
Die Frau, die er interviewt, will gut versorgt werden in herzerfrischender Naivität. Erinnert mich an eine Stunde in Klasse 9 zu Zukunftsvorstellungen.<br>
Alle wollten ein Haus am See mit Hund und Familie !!!<br>
Solche Frauen kenne ich weder aus meinem Freundes- noch Bekanntenkreis, deswegen kann ich dazu auch nichts sagen. <br>
Ich könnte Ihnen nur etwas von Kati erzählen, die etwa so alt und erfolgreich wie Sie ist, mich die ersten fünf Tage meiner Reise nach Paris begleitete und mir ständig von Ihren Beziehungsgeschichten erzählte. Sie will auf keinen Fall in Abhängigkeit geraten und sucht einen Partner, mit dem das Leben zu zweit schöner ist als alleine. Ihr aktueller Kummer bezog sich denn darauf, dass X nicht schreibt oder nicht zuhört…<br>
Wenn ich Sie richtig verstanden habe, wollen Sie aber eine solche durchaus hübsche und interessante Emanze gar nicht, oder?<br>
Soweit mal - Grüße aus Paris</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>DH</strong><br>
Liebe Frau Kant,</p>
<p>es geht um das Maennerbild, wie viele (nicht unbedingt alle) Frauen es laut Herrn Samuels pflegen.</p>
<p>Die von Ihnen genannte Naivitaet ist mir bei vielen der Frauen, mit denen Samuels spricht, ebenfalls aufgefallen. In <a href="/posts/why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men" rel="ugc">einem meiner Artikel</a> zum Thema Beziehungen schreibe ich daher auch, dass viele Frauen mental mehr oder weniger im Jugendlichenalter feststecken, sie also nie so ganz heranreifen. Im Grunde wird der Vater irgendwann durch einen Ehemann ersetzt – wirklich erwachsen wird die Frau daher selbst nicht. Das sieht man unter anderem daran, wie schwer es vielen (wie gesagt nicht allen) Frauen faellt, Verantwortung zu uebernehmen oder mit maennlichen Zurueckweisungen umzugehen, oder auch daran, wie schnell manche Frauen weinen. Ein Bekannter hat mir gerade gestern erzaehlt, dass eine Frau ihn auf einem Date gefragt habe, ob er sie attraktiv finde – was er mit nein beantwortet habe, weil sie – auf Nachfrage hin, darauf habe sie bestanden – etwas zu korpulent fuer ihn sei. Daraufhin sei sie mit Traenen in den Augen aus dem Restaurant gestuermt. Ein weiterer Freund erzaehlte mir von einer Frau, die auf einem Date anfing zu weinen, weil er Black Lives Matter nicht zustimmte und der Meinung war, dass Polizeibrutalität in Amerika keine Frage der Rasse sei. Sowas ist dann teilweise schon etwas erbaermlich.</p>
<p>Manchmal aeussert sich die Naivitaet auch auf eine ganz andere Art und Weise. Zum Beispiel ist eine Freundin von mir Anfang 30 und seit mehreren Jahren in einer festen Beziehung. Moechte sie, dass ihr Freund sie heiratet? Weiss sie nicht. Moechte sie Kinder haben? Weiss sie auch nicht. Was macht sie, wenn sie dann mit 40 auf einmal merkt, dass sie doch Kinder haben will? Sie koenne ihr Leben heute nicht danach strukturieren, was sie in Zukunft evtl. mal wollen koennte. Sie lasse sich fuer den Fall der Faelle allerdings die Eizellen einfrieren. Ich wollte dann nicht weiter nachbohren, aber sie ist sich anscheinend nicht der Tatsache bewusst, dass es mit 40 weitaus schwieriger sein wird als heute, einen Mann zu finden. Ich mag diese Freundin zwar sehr gerne, aber insofern ist in meinem Freundeskreis schon eine gewisse Naivitaet zu verzeichnen.</p>
<p>Den Wunsch von Kati, sich in keine Abhaengigkeit zu begeben, kann ich gut verstehen. Das ist einer der Gruende, warum ich an Romantik kein Interesse habe (es ist aber lieb, dass Sie fragen). Wenn Kati sich allerdings bereits darum sorgt, dass ihr jemand nicht schnell genug antworte, hat sie sich dann nicht bereits in eine gewisse Abhaengigkeit begeben? Ich kann hier nur raten, ich kenne sie natuerlich nicht …</p>
<p>Das Wort ‘Emanze’ musste ich im Duden nachschlagen – wie nett. Ich wuerde vermuten, auch diese Emanze, wie so viele Frauen, mag selbst im Gegensatz zu ihren bekundeten Ansichten gerne Maenner, die Dinge in die Hand nehmen und die Frau fuehren koennen. Das erfordert natuerlich komplementaer eine gewisse Unterwuerfigkeit seitens der Frau – die darf man sich aber als Mann heutzutage nicht wuenschen. Inwiefern das Sinn ergibt, erschliesst sich mir nicht.</p>
<p>Mich wuerde natuerlich interessieren, was bei den Zukunftsvorstellungen aus der 9. Klasse noch so dabei war, wenn Sie sich erinneren koennen, und ob die zwischen Jungs und Maedels unterschiedlich waren.</p>
<p>Man kann bei YouTube uebrigens bei den meisten Videos Untertitel einstellen, vielleicht hilft das in Zukunft beim Verstaendnis. Unten rechts in dem Video muessten so Zahnraeder sein …</p>
<p>Viele Grüße nach Paris<br>
Ihr Dennis</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>RK</strong><br>
Hallo Dennis, <br>
ich schreibe mal meine Ansichten dazu:</p>
<blockquote><p>Liebe Frau Kant,</p>
<p>es geht um das Maennerbild, wie viele (nicht unbedingt alle) Frauen es laut Herrn Samuels pflegen.</p>
<p>Die von Ihnen genannte Naivitaet ist mir bei vielen der Frauen, mit denen Samuels spricht, ebenfalls aufgefallen. In einem meiner Artikel zum Thema Beziehungen schreibe ich daher auch, dass viele Frauen mental mehr oder weniger im Jugendlichenalter feststecken, sie also nie so ganz heranreifen. Im Grunde wird der Vater irgendwann durch einen Ehemann ersetzt – wirklich erwachsen wird die Frau daher selbst nicht. Das sieht man unter anderem daran, wie schwer es vielen (wie gesagt nicht allen) Frauen faellt, Verantwortung zu uebernehmen oder mit maennlichen Zurueckweisungen umzugehen, oder auch daran, wie schnell manche Frauen weinen. Ein Bekannter hat mir gerade gestern erzaehlt, dass eine Frau ihn auf einem Date gefragt habe, ob er sie attraktiv finde – was er mit nein beantwortet habe, weil sie – auf Nachfrage hin, darauf habe sie bestanden – etwas zu korpulent fuer ihn sei. Daraufhin sei sie mit Traenen in den Augen aus dem Restaurant gestuermt. Ein weiterer Freund erzaehlte mir von einer Frau, die auf einem Date anfing zu weinen, weil er Black Lives Matter nicht zustimmte und der Meinung war, dass Polizeibrutalität in Amerika keine Frage der Rasse sei. Sowas ist dann teilweise schon etwas erbaermlich.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Vor etwa 23 Jahren ist mir zum ersten Mal aufgefallen, dass Väter Ihre Töchter wie Prinzessinnen behandeln: Jeder Wunsch wird sofort erfüllt und grundsätzlich Unterstützung / Lob gewährt. Die Mutter muss dann nachziehen, will sie keinen Liebesentzug riskieren. Die Tochter erfährt also fast nur Zustimmung und bleibt eine Kindfrau - insofern gebe ich Ihrer Vermutung recht, dass derartiges Verhalten erziehungsbedingt sein könnte.</p>
<blockquote><p>Manchmal aeussert sich die Naivitaet auch auf eine ganz andere Art und Weise. Zum Beispiel ist eine Freundin von mir Anfang 30 und seit mehreren Jahren in einer festen Beziehung. Moechte sie, dass ihr Freund sie heiratet? Weiss sie nicht. Moechte sie Kinder haben? Weiss sie auch nicht. Was macht sie, wenn sie dann mit 40 auf einmal merkt, dass sie doch Kinder haben will? Sie koenne ihr Leben heute nicht danach strukturieren, was sie in Zukunft evtl. mal wollen koennte. Sie lasse sich fuer den Fall der Faelle allerdings die Eizellen einfrieren. Ich wollte dann nicht weiter nachbohren, aber sie ist sich anscheinend nicht der Tatsache bewusst, dass es mit 40 weitaus schwieriger sein wird als heute, einen Mann zu finden. Ich mag diese Freundin zwar sehr gerne, aber insofern ist in meinem Freundeskreis schon eine gewisse Naivitaet zu verzeichnen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gilt das nicht auch für Männer dieser Generation: Um die Ecke könnte die noch aufregendere Party stattfinden; man will um Himmels Willen nichts verpassen!! Das ist mir übrigens auch bei Kati aufgefallen. Sie hat nie Zeit und muss alles ausprobieren …Ein Fluch der schier endlosen Optionen der sog. Eventgesellschaft.</p>
<blockquote><p>Den Wunsch von Kati, sich in keine Abhaengigkeit zu begeben, kann ich gut verstehen. Das ist einer der Gruende, warum ich an Romantik kein Interesse habe (es ist aber lieb, dass Sie fragen). Wenn Kati sich allerdings bereits darum sorgt, dass ihr jemand nicht schnell genug antworte, hat sie sich dann nicht bereits in eine gewisse Abhaengigkeit begeben? Ich kann hier nur raten, ich kenne sie natuerlich nicht …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Das fand ich nun besonders amüsant:<br>
Dass sie genau die Probleme mit der Liebe hat wie meine Generation.<br>
Sie haben recht: Leidenschaft ist die Empfindung, die Leiden schafft - soviel zur deutschen Sprache!! Das ist wirklich ein verflixter Zusammenhang. Wir haben uns damit lange rumgeschlagen. Es ist leicht, einfach nicht mehr mitzuspielen, aber ist das schon die Lösung?</p>
<blockquote><p>Das Wort ‘Emanze’ musste ich im Duden nachschlagen – wie nett. Ich wuerde vermuten, auch diese Emanze, wie so viele Frauen, mag selbst im Gegensatz zu ihren bekundeten Ansichten gerne Maenner, die Dinge in die Hand nehmen und die Frau fuehren koennen. Das erfordert natuerlich komplementaer eine gewisse Unterwuerfigkeit seitens der Frau – die darf man sich aber als Mann heutzutage nicht wuenschen. Inwiefern das Sinn ergibt, erschliesst sich mir nicht.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Natürlich wollen Frauen Männer, die etwas zu sagen haben, die Positionen beziehen, die Ziele verfolgen und die Neuem gegenüber aufgeschlossen sind und und und.<br>
Unterwürfigkeit ist mit Verlaub das falsche Wort; ich weiß, was Sie meinen, mir fällt aber nur Entgegenkommen, Vertrauen, Kooperation ein… Suche läuft 😇</p>
<blockquote><p>Mich wuerde natuerlich interessieren, was bei den Zukunftsvorstellungen aus der 9. Klasse noch so dabei war, wenn Sie sich erinneren koennen, und ob die zwischen Jungs und Maedels unterschiedlich waren.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unterschiede zwischen den Geschlechtern erinnere ich nicht. Jungs in diesem Alter machen sich über solche Sachen kaum einen Kopf. Und wenn dann ein Mädchen das vorgeschlagen hat, übernehmen sie das gern. Für mich waren das einfach Klischees und Originalton Elternhaus: So denken wohl viele Leute und das sehen sie im Fernsehen - damals gab es noch kein Internet.</p>
<blockquote><p>Man kann bei YouTube uebrigens bei den meisten Videos Untertitel einstellen, vielleicht hilft das in Zukunft beim Verstaendnis. Unten rechts in dem Video muessten so Zahnraeder sein …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sie sind ja jetzt in einer schwierigen Situation, wenn Sie mit Kindfrauen konfrontiert sind und selbst die, wie Sie sagen, romantische Beziehung ablehnen, was ich in gewisser Weise verstehen kann.<br>
Ablehnung ist jedoch eher kein Weg.<br>
Ich war ja gestern in Chartres, wo sich eine der berühmtesten Kathedralen der Christenheit befindet. Ich hege eine Leidenschaft (ohne Leid!) für diese Bauwerke und tauche gerne in sie ein. Eine Besonderheit: Es gibt wunderschöne Skulpturen, die so angebracht sind, dass sie für den normalen Besucher nicht zu sehen sind. Was soll das, fragt man sich. Nun, die Menschen des Mittelalters bauten für Gott. Ihr Glaube, aber - wie ich mal kühn behaupte -, ihre liebevolle Verehrung Gottes ließ Sie Wunderschönes und Wundervolles vollbringen. Die Liebe ist eine Verwandlungsmacht, die den Menschen und seine Weltwahrnehmung verändert und Größeres schafft als die Neugier und die Wissbegier. - Wollen Sie wirklich auf die Liebe verzichten?<br>
LG Ihre Kant</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>DH</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>Vor etwa 23 Jahren ist mir zum ersten Mal aufgefallen, dass Väter Ihre Töchter wie Prinzessinnen behandeln: Jeder Wunsch wird sofort erfüllt und grundsätzlich Unterstützung / Lob gewährt. Die Mutter muss dann nachziehen, will sie keinen Liebesentzug riskieren. Die Tochter erfährt also fast nur Zustimmung und bleibt eine Kindfrau - insofern gebe ich Ihrer Vermutung recht, dass derartiges Verhalten erziehungsbedingt sein könnte.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ich hatte zwar gesagt, dass der Vater irgendwann durch den Ehemann ersetzt wird, aber damit meinte ich nicht, dass die Unreife vieler Frauen erziehungsbedingt ist. Vielleicht ist sie das, ich weiss es nicht. Ich sehe allerdings schon die Aufgabe beider Eltern darin, den Kindern dabei zu helfen, ihre Ziele zu erreichen; den Kindern dabei zu helfen, das Leben zu leben, das sie selbst leben wollen (im Gegensatz zu dem Leben, das die Eltern fuer die Kinder wollen oder das die Gesellschaft fuer die Kinder will).</p>
<blockquote><p>Gilt das nicht auch für Männer dieser Generation: Um die Ecke könnte die noch aufregendere Party stattfinden; man will um Himmels Willen nichts verpassen!! Das ist mir übrigens auch bei Kati aufgefallen. Sie hat nie Zeit und muss alles ausprobieren …Ein Fluch der schier endlosen Optionen der sog. Eventgesellschaft.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Es kann gut sein, dass sich Maenner auch Zeit lassen, aber bei denen ist das nicht genauso naiv, denn sie haben ja viel mehr Zeit. Im Gegenteil: Es faellt oft aelteren Maennern leichter, attraktive Frauen anzuziehen. Es ist ja nicht ungewoehnlich, dass ein 40-Jaehriger Mann mit einer Frau Ende 20 zusammen ist. Beispielfall: Der Freund der o. g. Freundin von mir ist 50 waehrend sie wie gesagt Anfang 30 ist!</p>
<blockquote><p>Das fand ich nun besonders amüsant:<br>
Dass sie genau die Probleme mit der Liebe hat wie meine Generation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wenn diese Probleme also immer noch nicht geloest wurden, ist das nicht schlecht? Wieso der Stillstand? Vielleicht zeigt dies auf, dass die Liebe ein antirationales Gebiet ist, auf dem Fortschritt und Kritik nicht erwuenscht sind …</p>
<blockquote><p>Sie haben recht: Leidenschaft ist die Empfindung, die Leiden schafft - soviel zur deutschen Sprache!! Das ist wirklich ein verflixter Zusammenhang. Wir haben uns damit lange rumgeschlagen. Es ist leicht, einfach nicht mehr mitzuspielen, aber ist das schon die Lösung?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ich glaube nicht, dass es leicht ist. Es stellt naemlich einen Bruch der Tradition dar – nach der Popper'schen Auffassung ist dies also meistens 1) schwerer und 2) nicht empfehlenswert. Aber man kann m. E. sein eigenes Leben leben. Ob dies die Loesung ist, muss dann wohl jeder fuer sich entscheiden. Oder wie sehen Sie das?</p>
<blockquote><p>Wollen Sie wirklich auf die Liebe verzichten?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Auf die romantische Liebe: ja. Auch hier verweise ich auf Popper: Alles, was die Fehlerkorrektur erschwert, soll vermieden werden. Liebe scheint mir wie ein Widerhaken: Sie setzt sich in den Koepfen der Menschen fest; wird der Haken herausgerissen (zum Beispiel in einer Trennung), wird oft viel Schaden angerichtet. Das muss nicht sein. Man kann sein Leben gut ohne leben. Auch hier muss man sich wieder des Bruchs mit der Tradition bewusst sein: Fuer die allermeisten wird dieser Bruch zu schwierig sein. Aber vielleicht koennen sie versuchen, <em>weniger</em> romantische Beziehungen einzugehen, und dann nochmal weniger usw. Ich habe zu dem Thema Popper und Beziehungen <a href="/posts/starting-over" rel="ugc">hier</a> noch mehr geschrieben.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>RK</strong><br>
Lieber Dennis,<br>
mein Freund Tom - ein heller, von Einfällen sprühender Kopf, etwas älter als Sie, mit dem sich in kürzester Zeit ein philosophisches Gespräch höchster Güte entwickelt - machte mir klar, das unsere Korrespondenz für uns beide ein Schatz ist: Wiewohl oder gerade weil wir Antagonisten sind. Bereichernd ist die Konfrontation. Wer sich Attacken, Fragen, Kritik stellt, geht über die rationale Ebene hinaus. Das ist mehr als ein vernünftiger Dialog im Sinne von Habermas, weil sich auch ein empfindbarer Erfahrungsraum auftut,<br>
der ermöglicht, sich selbst zu begreifen (sokratische Selbsterkenntnis ).</p>
<p>Stichwort Fehler: Ein Liebesverlust - man wird verlassen oder betrogen - kann als Fehler angesehen werden und Fehler können hilfreich sein, wenn man sie klug nutzt. Unverzichtbar ist es, sich dieser schmerzlichen Situation zu stellen,<br>
andernfalls dominiert diese Wunde weitere Entscheidungen. Es nutzt nichts, wenn man davor wegläuft oder Strategien überlegt, den sog. Fehler nicht noch einmal zu machen.<br>
Denn mit der Strategieplanung ist man bereits in der Zukunft und die Gegenwart, meine Verletzung, bleibt unbearbeitet in mir drin wie eine Kugel. Diese Beschäftigung mit der Gegenwart ist harte Arbeit, bringt mich aber zugleich mir, meinen Sehnsüchten,…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/schlaue-frauen" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/schlaue-frauen</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/schlaue-frauen
Schlaue Frauen
2023-05-25T17:26:30Z
2023-05-25T17:26:30Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="so-when-can-a-woman-date-up">So When <em>Can</em> a Woman ‘Date Up’?</h1>
<p>I have previously written about a mistake <a href="/posts/these-two-mistakes-led-to-a-grueling-divorce" rel="ugc">some women</a> make: <a href="/posts/women-don-t-divorce-after-a-promotion" rel="ugc">divorcing after being promoted</a>. Women shouldn’t think they can get a ‘better’ man just because a promotion confers higher status or income on them. Most men don’t care about a woman’s status or income.</p>
<p>That begs the question: when <em>can</em> a woman date up?</p>
<p>Watching Kevin Samuels’s videos has taught me that if a woman wants a better partner, she has to make herself more valuable, not in her own eyes or in the eyes of other women, but in the eyes of men. She has to learn what high-value men look for in women and acquire those traits.</p>
<p>For example, picture a woman who is overweight and unhappy with her dating options. If she then loses weight, she can probably pull a higher-value man. Men are visual and sexual creatures; they tend to dislike unfit girls. If you’re a woman reading this: you can deny it, you can cry about it, you can kick and scream, but it won’t change what most men want. If you’re overweight and unhappy being single, you’ll just have to lose the weight.</p>
<p>But fitness isn’t the only indicator of value in a woman. Samuels lists<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> friendliness, femininity, submissiveness, and cooperativeness as other key values. And he goes even further: a truly high-value woman, according to him, is “attractive and appealing, […] has a comforting character, [is] disciplined and discerning, […] enthusiastic and exubera[nt], […] loyal and liberating”. I’ll add that the cooperative and liberating qualities imply that men don’t want an argumentative woman. They want a woman to be a source of <em>peace</em> at home.</p>
<p>Note that Samuels does <em>not</em> mention income or status. Those are things <em>women</em> want in men, not things <em>men</em> want in women. But how many women take the time to learn about what men want? Take sex as an example: as I’ve said, men are sexual creatures – granted, women like sex, too, but I think it’s more important for men overall. How many women learn about their man’s sexual preferences and ensure he is sexually satisfied?</p>
<p>In addition, when a woman spends her twenties focusing on her degree and career, finding a husband afterward will be <em>harder</em>. Samuels calls the time from a woman’s late twenties to her early thirties the ‘danger zone’ – this is the time when a woman should be laser-focused on finding a husband. But many women today seem to think that getting that degree and pursuing a career (which, as Samuels has pointed out, is usually just a job) makes them more valuable in the eyes of men. It does not. Worse, since most women are <a href="/posts/what-s-the-issue-with-hypergamy" rel="ugc">hypergamous</a>, they look for men of much higher value than their own. So by getting a degree, a woman artificially reduces her options on the dating market (and then wonders where all the high-value men are!).</p>
<p>As part of his results-driven approach, Samuels suggests another key metric for determining a woman’s value: the number of high-value men who have either proposed to her or have at least seriously considered doing so. For any moderately attractive woman, sex is cheap; attention even cheaper. But a truly high-value woman is usually off the market (i.e., married) by 25.</p>
<p>In short, when a woman wants to attract a higher-caliber man, she has to make herself more valuable <em>in such a man’s eyes</em>. Just putting her wishes out in the universe or ‘manifesting’ it, as many women like to do, won’t cut it, nor will getting a degree or a promotion.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/irZqQSPA9XY" rel="ugc">Here</a> at 1:29:16. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/so-when-can-a-woman-date-up
So When Can a Woman ‘Date Up’?
2023-05-14T20:34:25Z
2023-05-14T20:34:25Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="olaf-klonus-ist-ein-schlechter-versicherungsmakler">Olaf Klonus ist ein schlechter Versicherungsmakler</h1>
<p><em>Im Folgenden meine Rezension über Olaf Klonus, die ich auf mehreren Seiten hinterlassen habe, um potenziellen Kunden dabei zu helfen, sich ein umfassendes Bild seiner Dienstleistungsqualität zu machen. Klonus ist Versicherungsmakler mit Geschäftssitz in Wiesbaden.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> Er hat unverantwortlich gehandelt und man sollte ihn meiden.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>Ich war Begünstigter einer Versicherungspolice. Die Versicherungsnehmerin hat den Vertrag heimlich gekündigt und sich selbst auszahlen lassen – trotz ihrer Zusicherung, dass das Geld für mich bestimmt sei. Diese Versicherung war Teil meiner Altersvorsorge, in die ich jahrelang insgesamt Tausende von Euro einbezahlt hatte. Obwohl persönlicher Kontakt zwischen Herrn Klonus und mir bestand, empfand er es anscheinend nicht als notwendig, mich über diese Kündigung in Kenntnis zu setzen. Somit war das Geld einfach weg. Auf meine Anfrage hin behauptete Herr Klonus zunächst fälschlicherweise, ein notwendiges SEPA-Mandat habe ihm nicht vorgelegen. Ich konnte jedoch nachweisen, dass seine Mitarbeiterin Daniela Kasberger das eingerichtet hatte. Daraufhin antwortete er einfach nicht mehr.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Die genaue Adresse ist öffentlich in seinem <a href="https://g.co/kgs/xHfMKd" rel="ugc">Google-Eintrag</a> einsehbar. Auch dort habe ich meine Rezension hinterlassen. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/olaf-klonus-ist-ein-schlechter-versicherungsmakl
Olaf Klonus ist ein schlechter Versicherungsmakler
2024-01-17T18:46:21Z
2024-01-17T18:46:21Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="can-you-refute-this">Can You Refute This?</h1>
<p>Lysander Spooner compares the government to a robber and <a href="https://freedom-school.com/the-constitution-of-no-authority-by-lysanser-spooner-boston-1870.pdf" rel="ugc">writes</a> (p. 13 f.):</p>
<blockquote><p>The proceedings of those robbers and murderers, who call themselves “the government,” are directly the opposite of these of the single highwayman.</p>
<p>In the first place, they do not, like him, make themselves individually known; or, consequently, take upon themselves personally the responsibility of their acts. On the contrary, they secretly (by secret ballot) designate some one of their number to commit the robbery in their behalf, while they keep themselves practically concealed. They say to the person thus designated:</p>
<p>Go to A……… B………, and say to him that “the government” has need of money to meet the expenses of protecting him and his property. If he presumes to say that he has never contracted with us to protect him, and that he wants none of our protection, say to him that that is our business, and not his, that we <em>choose</em> to protect him, whether he desires us to do so or not; and that we demand pay, too, for protecting him. If he dares to inquire who the individuals are, who have thus taken upon themselves the title of “the government,” and who assume to protect him, and demand payment of him, without his having ever made any contract with them, say to him that that, too, is our business, and not his; that we do not <em>choose</em> to make ourselves <em>individually</em> known to him; that we have secretly (by secret ballot) appointed you our agent to give him notice of our demands, and, if he complies with them, to give him, in our name, a receipt that will protect him against any similar demand for the present year. If he refuses to comply, seize and sell enough of his property to pay not only our demands, but all your own expenses and trouble beside. If he resists the seizure of his property, call upon the bystanders to help you (doubtless some of them will prove to be members of our band). If, in defending his property, he should kill any of our band who are assisting you, capture him at all hazards, charge him (in one of our courts) with murder, convict him, and hang him. If he should call upon his neighbors, or any others who, like him, may be disposed to resist our demands, and they should come in large numbers to his assistance, cry out that they are all rebels and traitors; that “our country” is in danger; call upon the commander of our hired murderers; tell him to quell the rebellion and “save the country,” cost what it may. Tell him to kill all who resist, though they should be hundreds of thousands; and thus strike terror into all others similarly disposed. See that the work of murder is thoroughly done, that we may have no further trouble of this kind hereafter. When these traitors shall have thus been taught our strength and our determination, they will be good loyal citizens for many years, and pay their taxes without a why or a wherefore.</p>
<p>It is under such compulsion as this that taxes, so called, are paid.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can you refute any of this? I’m not looking for arguments from incredulity; I don’t care if you panic at the idea of living without that gang of robbers and murderers you call the government. Instead, I want to know: do you have some <em>logical</em> argument for why the Spooner quote above <em>must</em> be false, in full or in part?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/can-you-refute-this
Can You Refute This?
2023-05-03T14:01:41Z
2023-05-03T14:01:41Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="these-two-mistakes-led-to-a-grueling-divorce">These Two Mistakes Led to a Grueling Divorce</h1>
<p>In this video, I explain two key mistakes that led to a divorce and how to avoid them.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C9BKEH_N4I" rel="ugc"><strong>Watch here</strong></a></p>
<div class="d-none">
<a href="/posts/men-have-no-reproductive-rights"> Men Have No Reproductive Rights </a>
<a href="/posts/women-don-t-divorce-after-a-promotion"> Women, Don’t Divorce after a Promotion </a>
<a href="/posts/chat-about-male-female-dynamics"> Chat about Male-Female Dynamics </a>
<a href="/posts/why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men"> Why Do Younger Women Typically Date Older Men?</a>
<a href="/posts/what-s-the-issue-with-hypergamy"> What’s the Issue with Hypergamy?</a>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/these-two-mistakes-led-to-a-grueling-divorce
These Two Mistakes Led to a Grueling Divorce
2023-04-15T22:27:02Z
2023-04-15T22:27:02Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="war-poster-analysis">War-Poster Analysis</h1>
<p>In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlxRHLwBaRQ" rel="ugc">this video</a>, I analyze a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_Liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_Happiness#/media/File:%22July_4th_1776._When_our_Declaration_of_Independence_was_Signed_Loyal_Americans_were_of_one_mind_to_Protect_Life..._-_NARA_-_514752.tiff" rel="ugc">war poster</a> from WW2 to explain how political institutions have turned the original American values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on their head.</p>
<p>This analysis helps to understand the situation in Ukraine and see through <a href="/posts/don-t-be-fooled-by-zelensky" rel="ugc">Zelensky’s dishonesty</a>. I also connect my analysis to Lysander Spooner’s <a href="https://freedom-school.com/the-constitution-of-no-authority-by-lysanser-spooner-boston-1870.pdf" rel="ugc">arguments</a> that nobody has consented to the American constitution as well as the question of whether younger generations owe preceding generations anything, particularly <a href="/posts/do-children-owe-their-parents" rel="ugc">whether children owe their parents</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlxRHLwBaRQ" rel="ugc"><strong>Watch here</strong></a></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/war-poster-analysis
War-Poster Analysis
2023-04-01T16:27:41Z
2023-04-01T16:27:41Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="how-to-open-ml5js-org-without-supporting-blm">How to Open ml5js.org without Supporting BLM</h1>
<p><a href="https://ml5js.org/" rel="ugc">ml5js.org</a> requires you to support BLM before letting you access their site. I explain why that’s wrong and how to get around their requirement using a simple trick.</p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/OhLcFhVfkVI" rel="ugc"><strong>Watch here</strong></a></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-to-open-ml5js-org-without-supporting-blm
How to Open ml5js.org without Supporting BLM
2023-04-01T00:12:26Z
2023-04-01T00:12:26Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="wheres-david-deutschs-accountability">Where’s David Deutsch’s Accountability?</h1>
<p>Physicist David Deutsch was recently interviewed on <a href="https://tim.blog/podcast/" rel="ugc"><em>The Tim Ferriss Show</em></a> by both Ferriss and Naval Ravikant, who goes by Naval. (I reviewed a previous interview of Naval’s with Deutsch <a href="/posts/on-deutsch-and-naval" rel="ugc">here</a>; I think the one on Ferriss’s show is better overall.) You can find the transcript <a href="https://tim.blog/2023/03/24/david-deutsch-naval-ravikant-transcript/" rel="ugc">here</a>; it’s slightly different from the audio.</p>
<p>I want to focus on the issue of accountability. Naval says to Deutsch:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]his leads […] to what you have called a moral imperative, which is [not to] destroy the means of error correction. In fact, the only time […] in your book that you let a little emotion slip through, I would say, is when you were addressing exactly this topic, when you said […] we should take it personally. Because if people hadn’t stopped the growth of knowledge in the past, […] then you and I might be […] immortal and we might be exploring the stars […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here, Naval references two passages from Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>. The first one is from chapter 10, a fictional play where Deutsch has Socrates ask:</p>
<blockquote><p>Could it be that the moral imperative <em>not to destroy the means of correcting mistakes</em> is the only moral imperative? That all other moral truths follow from it?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The second passage Naval references is from the end of chapter 9, about the histories of Florence and Athens. Both cities briefly experienced optimism and progress, which were eventually shut down. Deutsch writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>Like every other destruction of optimism, whether in a whole civilization or in a single individual, these must have been unspeakable catastrophes for those who had dared to expect progress. But we should feel more than sympathy for those people. We should take it personally. For if any of those earlier experiments in optimism had succeeded, our species would be exploring the stars by now, and you and I would be immortal.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here, Deutsch (rightly, IMO) wants to hold people from the past accountable for destroying optimism and delaying progress.</p>
<p>Contrast this with how Deutsch responds to Naval during the interview:</p>
<blockquote><p>[Regarding] when I said that […] not destroying the means of error correction is the moral imperative[,] I thought you were going to say that’s the only place in the book where I actually tell people what to do, but I don’t because I put that into the mouth of a fictional character. It’s in a little play that’s in the book. And it’s the character that says that, not me. The character is Socrates. So I’m doing what Plato did, I put my ideas into the mouth of Socrates and then I don’t have to take responsibility for it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ferriss and Naval laugh sympathetically. Deutsch continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>I’m not telling people what to do, but [if] they destroy the means of error correction, they’ll regret it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I partially get where Deutsch is coming from: he doesn’t want to set up an authoritative relationship between himself and others; he <a href="https://youtu.be/idvGlr0aT3c?t=17" rel="ugc">doesn’t want to</a> give advice in any authoritative sense. But one can take responsibility for one’s ideas without acting as an authority.</p>
<p>What Deutsch is doing in the above quote strikes me as bad for several reasons. First, there’s content: if something is a, no <em>the</em>, moral imperative, then, by definition, it’s something one should follow and judge others by. Worse, he doesn’t want to take accountability for his ideas <em>and jokes about it</em>. I think this is a social trick: when somebody openly acknowledges something that could be considered problematic and jokes about it, then others think it can’t be problematic. Not only does Deutsch gain sympathy this way, he now has plausible deniability: if anyone calls him out on not wanting to take responsibility, he can say he was just joking. <em>He doesn’t even want to be held accountable for not wanting to be held accountable.</em> He also creates a chain of responsibility that points away from him in case the pronouncement of his moral imperative is a mistake: first, the fictional version of (!) Socrates is to blame, and if that doesn’t work, it’s Plato’s fault. And, if casting blame on others is a mistake, then ironically, that’s also Plato’s fault.</p>
<p>Another irony is that not wanting to be held accountable for one’s ideas makes correcting errors harder: averting responsibility is an anti-truth-seeking attitude. So it’s hypocritical since Deutsch has placed emphasis on the importance of enabling error correction and seeking truth. There’s also hypocrisy in wanting to hold other people accountable while not being prepared to be held accountable oneself. This kind of hypocrisy is unusual: holding someone accountable is a type of judgment, and people usually avoid judging others in exchange for not being judged themselves. As Ayn Rand writes in her essay <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">‘How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?’</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>It is the fear best expressed in the precept: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” But that precept, in fact, is an abdication of moral responsibility: it is a moral blank check one gives to others in exchange for a moral blank check one expects for oneself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Deutsch <em>has</em> judged others, including Paul Ehrlich, Thomas Malthus, and Martin Rees, harshly; he has held them accountable for their terrible ideas. Conversely, he has also judged philosopher Karl Popper’s ideas positively, even though his ideas are not particularly popular. Deutsch is not afraid to do either, so in that regard, he’s better than most people. But, to avoid hypocrisy, he should be prepared to be judged and held accountable himself, as Rand argues in the same essay. That is standard protocol for public intellectuals, and, again, it helps correct errors.</p>
<p>In addition to the passage about Deutsch’s moral imperative, when taken seriously, <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> has several passages where Deutsch tells people what to do, if only implicitly. They’re easy to find – you don’t need to know the book <a href="/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity" rel="ugc">as well as I do</a> to find them. Deutsch wants readers to consider progress possible and desirable (introduction); those who have denied that progress is desirable “should have known better” (ibid.); readers should seek to create what Deutsch calls “good explanations” (chapter 1); they should participate in a tradition of criticism (ibid.); they should be optimists (chapter 9); they should not immunize theories from criticism (chapter 10); they should not attempt to live an ecologically sustainable lifestyle (chapter 17), and so on. He even quotes Popper in the epigraph of chapter 9 as saying that “it is our <em>duty</em>, not to prophesy evil but, rather, to fight for a better world” (emphasis added). And the bibliography starts with the heading “[e]veryone should read these”. So Deutsch’s implicit claim that the book never tells anyone what to do is a lie. When he wrote the book, Deutsch was not afraid to tell people what to do – not from a place of authority, nor in the form of commands, but suggestions, arguments, and persuasion. Nor should he have been afraid to do so, as he has had many valuable things to say. But that value is diluted without accountability.</p>
<p>Here’s another example of Deutsch dodging accountability in the interview:</p>
<blockquote><p>If I didn’t know any physics now and I wanted to learn some, I would want to learn quantum physics. [U]nfortunately there is no good book on quantum physics for beginners. I hope to write one, but there’s a lot of things I hope to write. I’m negotiating writing a textbook with some colleagues, but they have to earn their daily bread as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Do you see the ‘blame chain’? If he doesn’t get around to finishing such a book, his other projects are to blame. If not that, then it might be because the negotiations with his colleagues fail. Or it’s their schedule: everyone has to “earn their daily bread”, that’s just the general human condition, so how could it be his fault? – Don’t hold your breath.</p>
<p>Deutsch also says in the interview:</p>
<blockquote><p>I always say that all I’ve done is added footnotes to Popper and Turing and so on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’ve heard him say that elsewhere. I think he’s done more than just add footnotes, and I know that he thinks so, too. He’s written to me that he considers there to be his own “version of” critical rationalism (the philosophy Karl Popper created). A new version consists of more than just footnotes. Adding footnotes is making minor contributions and corrections here and there, whereas creating a new version of something requires major or at least notable contributions that explain and correct mistakes in the old version and introduce new, better features. So this is another lie. I wonder: apart from being another social trick, is this false humility a way to divert responsibility in case the ‘footnotes’ or Popper’s or Turing’s work is mistaken?</p>
<p>Speaking of Ayn Rand, I’m currently reading her book <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>. I’m only about 20% of the way through, but it’s already clear how much emphasis Rand places on how poorly things go when people don’t want to take responsibility. They may not take action unless they can point fingers at somebody else just in case things go wrong or in case the decision is unpopular. They’d rather defer to some committee, colleagues, or some other, usually indefinite, group of people, and then there is no clear responsibility. Committees can take a long time to decide, so oftentimes nobody takes any action at all: everyone’s blocked by everyone else. Deadlock.</p>
<p>In the book, the protagonist, Dagny Taggart, Vice President of a railroad company called Taggart Transcontinental, tries to convince her brother James, President, to approve a project. She finds him not in his office but at the family’s estate:</p>
<blockquote><p>“It’s a lie! I didn’t run away!” cried James Taggart. “I came here because I happened to be sick. Ask Dr. Wilson. It’s a form of flu. He’ll prove it. And how did you know that I was here?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>James argues that he is not to blame for not being in the office. His flu is to blame, and really it’s his doctor’s judgment. He’s also looking to blame someone for telling Dagny where he is. (But if it is true that he is sick, what does he have to hide? As you can see, avoiding responsibility causes people to lie.) A bit further down:</p>
<blockquote><p>“It was your idea! I hope you’ll admit to the Board that it was your idea. That’s what your goddamn Rearden Metal has done to us! […]”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, he doesn’t consider himself responsible. He only blames others and worries about the opinions of others (“the Board”, ie a committee).</p>
<blockquote><p>“There’s nothing we can do now!” he moaned.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He’s blaming the situation.</p>
<blockquote><p>“I tried to call Washington, to get them to seize the Phoenix-Durango and turn it over to us, on the ground of emergency, but they won’t even discuss it! Too many people objecting, they say, afraid of some fool precedent or another! […]”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now he’s blaming the government, which in turn blamed “people” to justify its inaction. This is a chain of (ir)responsibility similar to the ones Deutsch created involving Socrates and Plato on the one hand and his other projects and his colleagues on the other.</p>
<p>Taggart goes on to blame more people and give more reasons for inaction, eg that, if he did take action, the company would be boycotted and sued.</p>
<p>Here’s Dagny’s response:</p>
<blockquote><p>“[…] I am going to complete the construction of the Rio Norte Line. I personally, not Taggart Transcontinental. I will take a leave of absence from the job of Vice-President. I will form a company in my own name. Your Board will turn the Rio Norte Line over to me. I will act as my own contractor. I will get my own financing. I will take full charge and sole responsibility. I will complete the Line on time. After you have seen [that the project is a success], I will transfer the Line back to Taggart Transcontinental and I’ll return to my job. That is all.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not having to take any responsibility, he feels safe enough to agree and the project can finally get done.</p>
<p>Deutsch avoided taking responsibility for several things during our collaboration to <a href="/posts/the-beginning-of-infinity-der-anfang-der-unend" rel="ugc">translate</a> <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>. As a result, it was often blocked by inaction. One particular situation comes to mind that was somewhat similar to the one between the Taggarts. To market the translation, I suggested running a competition on Twitter: the first reader to find a specific hidden reference in the book would receive a cash prize. Such a competition comes with certain legal and ethical obligations. Deutsch did not want to accept responsibility for them. Once I, like Dagny Taggart, though long before I started reading <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>, offered to take full responsibility to get things moving, he was happy to announce the competition. Unlike James Taggart, Deutsch was then willing to be publicly associated with the competition and accepted <em>financial</em> responsibility, but there are still important parallels.</p>
<p>To summarize: avoiding responsibility can result in indefinite delays, lies, and hypocrisy. When intellectuals don’t take responsibility for their ideas, that’s a red flag. They should happily take responsibility because doing so strengthens their intellectual integrity and supports the kind of rapid progress and error correction Deutsch has advocated.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/where-s-david-deutsch-s-accountability
Where’s David Deutsch’s Accountability?
2023-04-26T07:37:50Z
2023-04-26T07:37:50Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="what-would-popper-have-said-about-covid-scientism">What Would Popper Have Said about Covid Scientism?</h1>
<p>Imagine some distinguished scientists from a prestigious university. They publish a peer-reviewed study concluding that computers are bad for children and that screen times should be limited to one hour per day. Parents then enforce this recommendation at home. Whenever children protest, their parents point to the scientists’ authority. Would that be right?</p>
<p>In pop neuroscience, it is often <a href="/posts/brain-maturity" rel="ugc">claimed</a> that the brain doesn’t fully mature until age 24. Political pundits sometimes refer to this ‘finding’ to justify coercing young adults and not letting them make certain decisions until they’re as old as 24. Would <em>that</em> be right?</p>
<p>Wearing a <a href="https://twitter.com/daviddeutschoxf/status/1470853959376154626" rel="ugc">seatbelt</a> surely keeps you safe while driving. But does that mean people should be <em>forced</em> to wear seatbelts? If wearing them is such a good idea, shouldn’t it be easy to convince people of that, in which case there’s no <em>need</em> for force anyway?</p>
<p>In the first example, the one about screen times, I believe the premise to be completely false. I don’t believe that computers are bad for children – on the contrary. In the second example, the one about brain maturity, it may well be true that the brain doesn’t <em>physically</em> mature until age 24, but I think it’s a grossly misleading fudge to equate <em>physical</em> maturity – a matter of <em>biology</em> – with <em>personal</em> maturity – a matter of <em>knowledge</em> one can have or lack at any age. In the third example, I consider it <a href="/posts/uncontroversial" rel="ugc">uncontroversial</a> that wearing a seatbelt increases one’s safety while driving. Yet I do not believe anyone should be forced to wear one. People should get to make the mistake of not wearing seatbelts; they should be free to learn or not to learn from that mistake. And, of course, I could be wrong that not wearing a seatbelt is a mistake in the first place!</p>
<p>Note that in all three cases – with scientific premises ranging from false to irrelevant to correct, as far as I know – these premises alone can, at most, be <em>pointers</em>, considerations, in terms of what to do <em>morally</em> speaking. Whether computers are bad for you or not, if someone were to <em>force</em> you not to use them, that would be immoral. Same with the other examples.</p>
<p>This brings me to the issue of public policy and ‘public health’, in particular. The philosopher Karl Popper was a staunch critic of <em>scientism</em>. In <a href="https://youtu.be/-3SA6G5rZrg" rel="ugc">Popper’s words</a> (translated freely):</p>
<blockquote><p>[S]cientism [is] the theory that knowledge and the knower, science and the scientist, should be viewed as authorities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This often manifests as some perversion of science masquerading as the arbiter of truth in non-scientific fields, particularly morals. To cite ‘scientific’ studies justifying the coercion of children by enforcing screen times is an example of scientism because it’s to steamroll over relevant philosophical issues such as liberty and epistemology in the name of ‘science’.</p>
<p>Covid policies have, perhaps, been the most violent display of scientism in recent years. Surely they caused Popper to turn in his grave. What was done to children and the elderly was particularly demoralizing – children forced into masks, forced to separate from their friends; the elderly forced to die alone, confused. Those promoting the empty slogan ‘follow the science’ clearly had no idea what science even <em>is</em>; that even scientific theories are always conjectural and subject to revision, as Popper found. We were all told to listen to ‘the experts’, and these experts directly shaped public policy that then steamrolled over moral considerations such as whether it is <em>right</em> to distinguish between ‘essential’ businesses and ‘non-essential’ ones; whether it is <em>right</em> to forcefully shut the latter down, to force people to stay at home in a lockdown to ‘slow the spread’; whether it is <em>right</em> to lie to them about how long such lockdowns would take.</p>
<p>There’s a role for actual science in informing public-policy decisions, but not for the kind of ‘science’ that scientism advocates. Proponents of these measures thought they <em>knew</em> the truth, both scientific and, therefore, they thought, moral. But in reality, they had the truth in neither realm; all they had were the unquestioned intellectual fashions of scientism and <a href="/posts/lockdowns-are-a-collectivist-altruist-nightmare" rel="ugc">collectivism</a>. They were largely blind followers of governmental and pseudoscientific ‘authorities’ such as Fauci and the pharmaceutical companies. They shared the tacit assumption that the government should care for (and enforce!) the health of its subjects. Their appeal to authority united them – ‘we’re all in this together’ – and they used threats of branding people as ‘grandma killers’ to create enormous social pressure. Then, suddenly, everyone had to learn again how to wash their hands.</p>
<p>On the topic of intellectual fashions and ‘experts’, Popper writes (bold emphasis added, italics in the original):<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p>
<blockquote><p>For many years I have argued against intellectual fashions in the sciences, and even more against intellectual fashions in philosophy. The fashionable thinker is, in the main, a prisoner of his fashion, and I regard freedom, political freedom as well as a free and open mind, as one of the greatest, if not <em>the</em> greatest, value that our life can offer us.<br>
Today <strong>it has become fashionable in the sciences to appeal to the specialized knowledge and authority of experts</strong>, and fashionable in philosophy to denigrate science and rationality. Oftentimes, this denigration of science and rationality is due to a <strong>mistaken <em>theory</em> of science and rationality</strong> – a theory which speaks of science and rationality in terms of specializations, experts, and authority. But <strong>science and rationality have really very little to do with specialization and the appeal to expert authority. On the contrary, these intellectual fashions are actually an obstacle to both.</strong> For just as the fashionable thinker is a prisoner of his fashion, the expert is a prisoner of his specialization. And it is the freedom from intellectual fashions and specializations that makes science and rationality possible.<br>
[…] [I]n my view, <strong>the appeal to the authority of experts should be neither excused nor defended</strong>. It should, on the contrary, be recognized for what it is – an intellectual fashion – and <strong>it should be attacked</strong> by a frank acknowledgement of how little we know, and how much that little is due to people who have worked in many fields at the same time. And it should also be attacked by the recognition that the orthodoxy produced by intellectual fashions, specialization, and the appeal to authorities is the death of knowledge, and that the growth of knowledge depends entirely upon disagreement.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A crucial test of one’s integrity, I think, is whether you choose to live by your values even when violating them would, at least temporarily, seem to benefit you. Popper died in 1994, so one can only speculate, but I believe that, had he been alive during Covid, he would have upheld his criticism of scientism. I think he would have identified Covid policies as an instance thereof, and he would have levied the same devastating criticism against both the policies and Fauci et al – even if Popper himself had been scared of Covid and thought he might gain from scientistic policies in the short term.</p>
<p>I say “short term” because intellectual fashions often don’t last, nor does peer pressure around a particular issue. Future generations won’t feel the same pressure and will come to their own moral conclusions. Cowardice doesn’t age well.</p>
<p>Covidians are likewise prisoners of their intellectual fashion, as Popper calls it, and we should be mindful of that in our moral evaluation. But there have been some who, even though they follow and explicitly share Popper’s rejection of scientism, were afraid enough of Covid to openly promote Covid scientism regardless.</p>
<p>Maybe you have been afraid of Covid, too, like so many. Maybe you have been seeking refuge in the Covid religion. That’s somewhat understandable – the ‘experts’ did everything they could to scare you. But note that, on the whole, they made matters worse for you, not better. You were willing to trade freedom for safety, which, as usual, has resulted in you having less of both.</p>
<p>I know nothing, but I think Popper was right in his criticism of scientism. It provides a timeless message against tyranny, and against politicians and ‘experts’ who think they know everything when, in reality, they know very little. Socrates asked that political leaders be wise in the sense that they are aware of just how little they know, and of how fallible they are. Our leaders today have failed Socrates’s request miserably.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Popper, Karl. <em>The Myth of the Framework</em> (p. ix f.). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-would-popper-have-said-about-covid-scientis
What Would Popper Have Said about Covid Scientism?
2023-03-22T23:12:26Z
2023-03-22T23:12:26Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="a-critical-reading-of-karl-popper-on-the-necessity-of-critical-discussion">A Critical Reading of Karl Popper on the Necessity of Critical Discussion</h1>
<p>I read and critically evaluate Popper’s paper on the necessity of critical discussion. Published in 1981, <a href="https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/1981/01/22161304/p07.pdf" rel="ugc">his paper</a> is still relevant in light of today’s conflict in Ukraine. I talk about the seeds of both libertarian and collectivist thought in the paper; how to respond to people who act in bad faith; why we can’t trust Putin or Zelensky; why law enforcement isn’t as good as it should be; liberty, democracy, the West vs. the rest; and more.</p>
<p>It was late when I recorded this so I get a bit quieter as the video goes on.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://youtu.be/XDd8Qwu-1Uk" rel="ugc">Watch here</a></strong></p>
<p>Additional resources:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/posts/don-t-be-fooled-by-zelensky" rel="ugc">Don’t Be Fooled by Zelensky</a></li>
<li><a href="/posts/popper-s-criterion-is-insufficient" rel="ugc">Popper’s Criterion Is Insufficient</a></li>
<li><a href="/posts/don-t-use-square" rel="ugc">Don’t Use Square</a></li>
<li><a href="/posts/analyzing-the-cambridge-declaration-on-consciou#comment-152" rel="ugc">Popper on Adorno and Habermas</a></li>
<li><a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand on how to lead a rational life in an irrational society</a></li>
</ul>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/a-critical-reading-of-karl-popper-on-the-necessi
A Critical Reading of Karl Popper on the Necessity of Critical Discussion
2023-03-12T03:50:09Z
2023-03-12T03:50:09Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="what-s-the-issue-with-hypergamy">What’s the Issue with Hypergamy?</h1>
<p>Hypergamy is generally viewed as the practice of dating or marrying someone of higher social status than yourself. This is typically a female mating strategy, whereas men don’t care about a woman’s social status. I’ve written more about male and female preferences <a href="/posts/why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>Women are sometimes criticized for pursuing this mating strategy as I have described it. I don’t fully understand why – if you want to be with someone who increases your status, okay, that’s superficial, but so is when men focus on beauty. Merely wanting to date/marry ‘up’ isn’t an issue <em>if the woman looks the part</em>.</p>
<p>What do I mean by that? I think the real hypergamy – though it’s not important what we call it – is <em>when a low to mid-value woman thinks she deserves a high-value man</em>. By ‘mid-value’ I mean ‘average’, based on a few factors inspired by the late Kevin Samuels.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> Her looks – she’d be a five out of ten – and how feminine, graceful, cooperative, and submissive she is (moderately), how pleasant she is to be around (fairly), and how ‘pure’ she is (she has no <em>extensive</em> sexual past). In other words, maybe she’s a bit chubby, a bit disagreeable or bossy at times, but not awful-looking and usually fun to be around; she’s dated a few men but nobody has run a train on her. She has no kids, which is a big plus.</p>
<p>Here’s what OpenAI’s DALL·E generated for the prompt “A photo of a 30-year-old woman of average body and average beauty”:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/average-lady.png" alt="Average-looking woman" class="d-block mx-auto"></p>
<p>Most men will see this woman and instantly classify her as average, maybe slightly below.</p>
<p>Now, what would be an average <em>man</em>? Looks are not as important here so we don’t need to consult DALL·E. Samuels has suggested criteria such as: how much money does he make? How tall is he? What degree does he have? Do other men of high value recognize him as a peer? What’s his penis size? How physically fit is he?</p>
<p>So let’s say he’s 30 years old and makes $50,000 a year – maybe a middle-management position in construction. He is 5'9 and has an associate’s degree. He surrounds himself with a few men of equal or higher value. He has an average penis and is fairly physically fit – some love handles but not overly chubby. He’s only in a moderate position to provide, so if he and his wife wanted kids, she would probably have to keep working. When he gets home from work, he likes to watch the game and have a beer.</p>
<p>Ignoring personality, these two would be a good fit because they’re both average. They can afford each other on the sexual marketplace. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t date Heidi Klum (or whoever is considered hot nowadays) if he could, or that she wouldn’t date Jeff Bezos if she could. But they both can’t. Yet they also shouldn’t feel like they’re <em>settling</em> for each other: after all, they can each reasonably expect someone of average caliber.</p>
<p>Men typically have at least somewhat realistic expectations. Even if they don’t understand explicitly what women value, they constantly get reality checks. It’s mostly on them to approach women and they’ll get rejections left and right, so their ego usually isn’t completely out of whack. As much as they’d like to date top models, they know they can’t, and so they don’t expect to. But with women’s expectations, it’s often a different story.</p>
<p>Real hypergamy, as I have explained, is when this average woman as we have imagined her doesn’t just <em>desire</em> a man of higher value than her but thinks she <em>deserves</em> him; that she shouldn’t ‘settle’ for anything less. That’s a 40-year-old man who makes, say, $200,000 or more, has a master’s degree, is 6'3 with a big dick and abs, and has a good amount of influence in his social circles, where he’s admired. Granted, he’s not Jeff Bezos, but he’s much higher value than just average. If she wanted kids, she’d have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom.</p>
<p>Such expectations on her part are a recipe for disaster. No such high-value man will commit to her. <em>Maybe</em> he’ll sleep with her, but he definitely won’t marry her. So she will either be terminally lonely, which is <a href="/posts/starting-over" rel="ugc">too hard</a> for most people, or she’ll ‘settle’ for a man of commensurate value and never be fully happy with him. Worse, in a masculine move, and because she doesn’t know that men don’t value all of the things women value, she might divorce her average husband <a href="/posts/women-don-t-divorce-after-a-promotion" rel="ugc">after she gets a promotion</a> or a degree, and is <em>then</em> doomed to eternal loneliness. She <em>could</em> instead learn about men’s preferences and increase her value in <em>their</em> eyes, for example by losing weight and getting prettier, but the woman we have imagined usually isn’t willing to do that because she thinks she’s already perfect and the world owes her the kind of man she wants.<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup></p>
<p>If you think that’s rare, think again. Girls are told from a young age that they deserve nothing but the best and that they should never ‘settle’. There <a href="https://youtu.be/ZrRo3H82_3I" rel="ugc">are</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/buYe6ZoBNjk" rel="ugc">so</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/SgdqbTCW8qg" rel="ugc">many</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/EE7U8m3eWI4" rel="ugc">videos</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/Rg0GK50opTE" rel="ugc">of</a> Samuels trying to explain to women who are average at best that they don’t deserve what they expect (and they vehemently deny it). That’s not to mention that, as he would say, they don’t control access to committed relationships and marriage anyway (men do), so it makes no sense for women to speak of ‘settling’. It’s no surprise that the absolute number of married couples in the United States has remained roughly <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/183663/number-of-married-couples-in-the-us/" rel="ugc">stagnant</a> in the past 15 years even though the population has <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1067138/population-united-states-historical/" rel="ugc">grown</a> by 10%, and that women initiate divorce proceedings <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/good-question-who-initiates-divorce-men-or-women/" rel="ugc">twice as often</a> as men. The linked article blames men, as usual. But most women, just like most men, are average or below – how could it be otherwise?</p>
<p>In short, the ‘real’ or problematic kind of hypergamy does not just refer to dating/marrying ‘up’ in terms of <em>social status</em>; it instead refers to the <em>expectation</em> of deserving someone with a general <em>sexual market value</em> significantly greater than one’s own. A five simply should not expect an eight, say.</p>
<p>This unrealistic expectation, typically held by women, hurts both men and women and can even destroy families. That’s the problem with hypergamy as I see it. Solving it will require, among other things, honesty and accountability on the part of women.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>I don’t <em>fully</em> endorse Samuels as he has spoken in favor of corporal punishment of children. Exercise discretion when you watch his videos. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>Samuels seems to think that this problem is exacerbated in the black community. But I wouldn’t let white women off the hook too easily. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-s-the-issue-with-hypergamy
What’s the Issue with Hypergamy?
2023-08-09T19:07:27Z
2023-08-09T19:07:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="don-t-use-text-messages-for-two-factor-authentication">Don’t Use Text Messages for Two-Factor Authentication</h1>
<p>Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an additional layer of protection on top of a password. When logging in to some service that you have configured to use 2FA, you are typically prompted to provide your 2FA code after you type in your password. This approach enhances security because that code is something only you have – at least that’s the idea.</p>
<h3 id="the-risk-of-using-2fa-based-on-text-messages">The risk of using 2FA based on text messages</h3>
<p>Some services offer text messages as a way to receive 2FA codes. As others have noted, that’s a bad idea because text messages can be intercepted. Hackers have contacted cellphone carriers, impersonated customers, and successfully gained access to text messages that aren’t theirs, including 2FA codes. Now you’re <em>not</em> the only one who has those codes.</p>
<p>The same risk applies to emails, push notifications, and any other method involving the remote generation and subsequent transmission of 2FA codes.</p>
<h3 id="why-authenticator-apps-are-more-secure">Why authenticator apps are more secure</h3>
<p>It’s better to use an authenticator app.</p>
<p>The reason an authenticator app is more secure than text messages is that it doesn’t receive any communication from whatever service you’re trying to log in to. It instead generates the 2FA code locally, ie <a href="https://hackernoon.com/how-to-implement-google-authenticator-two-factor-auth-in-javascript-091wy3vh3" rel="ugc">on the device itself</a>. Thus, no communication can be intercepted during the generation of the 2FA code since no communication occurs at that time. This means that an authenticator app also works without any internet or cell connection on the 2FA device, which is an additional benefit.</p>
<p>To reduce the attack vector even further, install the authenticator app on a separate device such as a smartphone, if you have one. In addition, protect access to this app using facial recognition, touch ID, or a PIN.</p>
<p>You can find a list of recommended 2FA apps <a href="https://www.techradar.com/best/best-authenticator-apps" rel="ugc">here</a> (but don’t use their text, email, or push-notification functionalities!).</p>
<h3 id="summary">Summary</h3>
<p>In short, use an authenticator app for 2FA to avoid the interception of remotely generated 2FA codes.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/don-t-use-text-messages-for-two-factor-authentic
Don’t Use Text Messages for Two-Factor Authentication
2023-03-07T04:10:39Z
2023-03-07T04:10:39Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="crypto-fallibilism">Crypto-Fallibilism</h1>
<p>A fallibilist is <em>always</em> willing to consider that he could be wrong about <em>anything</em>. His attitude can be summed up by Karl Popper’s credo (as quoted <a href="/posts/fallibility-table" rel="ugc">here</a>):</p>
<blockquote><h4 id="i-may-be-wrong-and-you-may-be-right-and-by-an-effort-we-may-get-nearer-to-the-truth"><em>‘I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth.’</em></h4>
</blockquote>
<p>Note that Popper does not limit his credo. He doesn’t say ‘I may <em>sometimes</em> be wrong’ or ‘you may <em>sometimes</em> be right’. Again, we can always be wrong about anything. Knowledge is inherently uncertain and one should remain open to the possibility of being mistaken.</p>
<p>A crypto-fallibilist outwardly subscribes to Popper’s credo but does not follow through on it. He lacks the requisite <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/integrity.html" rel="ugc">integrity</a>. He may promote fallibilism explicitly, but he doesn’t live it. At most, he is a fallibilist in some carefully constrained way. Crypto-fallibilism is a form of <em>hypocrisy</em>, a type of fraud: it’s to pretend (to oneself or others) that one is a fallibilist.</p>
<p>The crypto-fallibilist eagerly reminds others of Popper’s credo so that he can imply that ‘<em>you</em> may be wrong and <em>I</em> may be right’. Worse, he has plausible deniability because he can always claim that the unmodified credo applies to him just the same as to others. He seeks to evangelize, even to spread fallibilism, ironically, but not to learn. He enjoys showing others when they’re wrong but hates being proven wrong himself, at least in some areas. He doesn’t discuss to find his own mistakes; he instead discusses to ‘win’, to show you that he <em>is</em> right and you wrong. He repeats fallibilist phrases – such as Popper’s credo; ‘don’t immunize theories against criticism!’ (a nod to Hans Albert); ‘don’t destroy the means of error correction!’ (another to David Deutsch) – to associate with other cryptos.</p>
<p>While he explicitly agrees that he could be wrong about <em>anything anytime</em>, he refuses to consider that, say, he could be wrong about something he <em>feels</em> ‘certain’ about, that others might know some of his thoughts and motivations <a href="/posts/mind-reading" rel="ugc">better than he does himself</a>, or that he could be lying to himself. Just as an honest person will take seriously accusations that he has lied, even (or especially) to himself, a fallibilist will take just as seriously accusations that he isn’t being fallibilist – but a crypto won’t do that. His actions betray him.</p>
<p>Cryptos think that having read a few books by Popper or Deutsch is enough; that subscribing to fallibilism as a philosophy is enough. But it isn’t. That alone doesn’t make them actual fallibilists. Crypto-fallibilism is just an <em>intellectual fashion</em>, as Popper would call it.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p>
<p>In discussions, some crypto-fallibilists have derided my thoughts on the matter as ‘purity testing’. But what is so wrong with taking Popper’s credo literally and seriously, and <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">judging</a> accordingly? Some have also shrugged off these criticisms as them just ‘fallibly being fallible’. That’s a cop-out answer. While I agree that we can always only <em>practice</em> fallibilism and that we inevitably make mistakes, at times grave ones, even in our fallibilism itself, there’s a difference between honest attempts on the one hand and reckless violations, lies, and <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/evasion.html" rel="ugc">evasions</a> on the other.</p>
<p>There <em>are</em> some valid exceptions, such as protecting yourself from abuse or not talking to someone who you suspect wants to use what you say against you (legally or otherwise), eg not talking to the police without a lawyer. In such cases, you can reasonably claim that the people involved have already destroyed the means of error correction. Also, being a fallibilist doesn’t mean others have a right to force you to discuss – you still have freedom of association. But compared to all the interactions one typically has, these situations are rare, and crypto-fallibilists will find reasons to continue being hypocrites more frequently than that.</p>
<p>Detecting crypto-fallibilism in someone isn’t hard. I have found that it usually only takes maybe a dozen questions in a Socratic dialog to find something cryptos are not willing to challenge. That alone doesn’t make them cryptos – most people are at least a little pigheaded – but if they nonetheless maintain that they’re fallibilists, or if they say that fallibilism doesn’t extend to that situation, that’s an implicit confession that they’re cryptos.</p>
<p>They may even say they admire Socrates, arguably the first fallibilist, but I suspect that if they ever met a real-life Socrates today, they’d hate him.</p>
<p>Because crypto-fallibilists are hypocritical justification-seekers, they are worse than regular justificationists. That’s a shame since all it takes to avoid the hypocrisy is an admission that they’re not true fallibilists. (Instead of putting ‘fallibilist’ in your Twitter bio, put ‘aspiring fallibilist’!)</p>
<p>I’d like to be a fallibilist, but I don’t yet know how. Slowly exposing myself to more criticism could be a way. I also want to practice asking Socratic questions and having more modest expectations in critical discussions. In some of my past discussions, I sought to evangelize; it’s not surprising that I often failed at that, and I see now that the attempt was wrong. I was a crypto-fallibilist myself; that was a mistake.</p>
<p>Popper provides the following pointers:<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup></p>
<blockquote><p>Serious critical discussions are always difficult. Non-rational human elements such as personal problems always enter. Many participants in a rational, that is, a critical, discussion find it particularly difficult that they have to unlearn what their instincts seem to teach them (and what they are taught, incidentally, by every debating society): that is, to win. For what they have to learn is that victory in a debate is nothing, while even the slightest clarification of one’s problem – even the smallest contribution made towards a clearer understanding of one’s own position or that of one’s opponent – is a great success. A discussion which you win but which fails to help you to change or to clarify your mind at least a little should be regarded as a sheer loss. […]<br>
Rational discussion in this sense is a rare thing. But it is an important ideal, and we may learn to enjoy it. It does not aim at conversion, and it is modest in its expectations: it is enough, more than enough, if we feel that we can see things in a new light or that we have got even a little nearer to the truth.</p>
</blockquote>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Popper, Karl. <em>The Myth of the Framework</em> (p. 224, esp. ix f.). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>Ibid. (p. 44). <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/crypto-fallibilism
Crypto-Fallibilism
2023-03-16T02:50:58Z
2023-03-16T02:50:58Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="discussion-with-amaro-and-dirk-about-copyright">Discussion with Amaro and Dirk about Copyright</h1>
<p><em>This lightly edited conversation contains no legal advice; none of the participants are lawyers.</em></p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong><br>
Copyright is demonic, the idea of intellectual property is disgusting and should be opposed openly.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong><br>
I wouldn’t write it off too quickkly. Why do you think it’s demonic?</p>
<p>(I’m familiar with the standard libertarian arguments against it, but I’m interested in your pov in particular.)</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong><br>
Interesting…<br>
Not sure what you mean by the standard libertarian argument, but the quickest way I can summarize the issues that I see with IP is by invoking property rights and scarcity.<br>
If you are the one paying for the copying of the information, you are using your scarce resources to make another instance of a pattern. The pattern, that which IP seeks to “protect” is, infact, not scarce. Only the substrate on which it is instantiated is. Since scarcity is central to the reason why property rights are beneficial, the concept of property is woefully misapplied in regards to information.</p>
<p>I suspect that is more or less the standard libertarian argument, not sure. Do you find fault with it?</p>
<p>To take a more utilitarian angle (blasphemy, I know): I think we’re infact paying an unfathomably large opportunity cost by protecting ideas from competition.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Aren’t you conflating copyright violations and plagiarism?</p>
<p>Cuz those are separate issues… you cannot copyright an <em>idea</em>.</p>
<p>You can copyright an expression of an idea.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Aren’t you conflating copyright violations and plagiarism?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hmm… I see those two things as related but different. If I claim to be the author of something that I am not infact the original author of, then I am lying. That is bad irrespective of the copyright issue, I think.</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Cuz those are separate issues… you cannot copyright an <em>idea</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So I guess I agree with that 💯</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Yes. So it is not true that copyright impedes the competition of ideas as anyone is free to talk about ideas as long as they either express them in their own words or quote in a manner compliant with fair use.</p>
<p>That being said, do you still think copyright is ‘demonic’?</p>
<p>(FWIW I’m obviously not a lawyer but I’ve had a copyright lawyer advise me on this topic in the past.)</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Yes. So it is not true that copyright impedes the competition of ideas as anyone is free to talk about ideas as long as they either express them in their own words or quote in a manner compliant with fair use.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It depends what you mean by “talk about”. I’m free to talk about Harry Potter all I want, but if I were to laboriously create a fandom graphic novel telling a <em>new</em> story involving the characters from the Harry Potter books and I start successfully selling them for a decent amount of profit, then I risk Warner Brothers coming after me with a cease and desist demand. In that sense I am not free.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
What <em>problem</em> do you think copyright solves?</p>
<p><strong>Dirk Meulenbelt</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] It depends what you mean by “talk about”. I’m free to talk about Harry Potter all I want, but if I were to laboriously create a fandom graphic novel telling a <em>new</em> story involving the characters from the Harry Potter books and I start successfully selling them for a decent amount of profit, then I risk Warner Brothers coming after me with a cease and desist demand. In that sense I am not free.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I haven’t thought much about copyright but I def think that should be allowed to do.</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] What <em>problem</em> do you think copyright solves?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Protecting your stuff</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
That’s a bit vague. Can you be more specific?</p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] It depends what you mean by “talk about”. I’m free to talk about Harry Potter all I want, but if I were to laboriously create a fandom graphic novel telling a <em>new</em> story involving the characters from the Harry Potter books and I start successfully selling them for a decent amount of profit, then I risk Warner Brothers coming after me with a cease and desist demand. In that sense I am not free.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Isn’t that what Yudkowsky did with HPMOR?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] What <em>problem</em> do you think copyright solves?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think it seeks to solve the issue that competition can disincentivize production.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong><br>
It’s a barrier for other people to use your ideas. This could on the one hand incentivise investment in the dev of those ideas but may also prevent progress related to these ideas</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Isn’t that what Yudkowsky did with HPMOR?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Basically, yes</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dirk:] It’s a barrier for other people to use your ideas. This could on the one hand incentivise investment in the dev of those ideas but may also prevent progress related to these ideas</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No, again, copyright protects an <em>expression</em> of an idea, not the idea itself.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong><br>
The expression of an idea is not an idea? Also patents actually protect the actual idea</p>
<p>Is the concept of ‘harry potter’ not an idea? Can i make a movie with him in it?</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Then that would be a criticism of patents, not of copyrights. And AFAIK patents protect the <em>implementation</em> of an idea, also not the ideas themselves (note that patents are filed publicly).</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong><br>
Why did the verve pay so much money to the rolling stones?</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Was that the thing where they sampled a song without permission or something?</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Then that would be a criticism of patents, not of copyrights. And AFAIK patents protect the <em>implementation</em> of an idea, also not the ideas themselves (note that patents are filed publicly).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And they’re often granted before you’ve done so or even know how to</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Then that would be a criticism of patents, not of copyrights. And AFAIK patents protect the <em>implementation</em> of an idea, also not the ideas themselves (note that patents are filed publicly).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I should probably clarify: my issue is with ALL intellectual property, including copyright, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Was that the thing where they sampled a song without permission or something?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yea, in a way that’s hardly perceptible</p>
<p>They should own a progression of chords?</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] I should probably clarify: my issue is with ALL intellectual property, including copyright, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>OK but I think it’d be wise if we restrict this discussion to copyright for now, just for simplicity. We can branch out to other kinds of IP later if we feel we have a decent grasp on copyright.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] No, again, copyright protects an <em>expression</em> of an idea, not the idea itself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can you articulate the difference between an idea and it’s expression in a bit more detail?</p>
<p>This distinction is not very intuitive to me.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dirk:] They should own a progression of chords?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m not as familiar with copyright in music but I suspect it’s similar to how an insufficiently modified copy of a text can still be a copyright violation. I doubt the law can somehow quantify exactly when you cross the line, but it’s the kind of thing where ‘you know it when you read/hear it’.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] Can you articulate the difference between an idea and it’s expression in a bit more detail?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yeah, seems like a distinction without a difference invented by a clever lawyer</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] OK but I think it’d be wise if we restrict this discussion to copyright for now, just for simplicity. We can branch out to other kinds of IP later if we feel we have a decent grasp on copyright.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Okay, sure. My criticisms of all these aspects are pretty similar, I think. But we can stick to copyright.</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dirk:] Yeah, seems like a distinction without a difference invented by a clever lawyer</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the surface of it, it does to me as well. But maybe I’m not seeing something.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] Can you articulate the difference between an idea and it’s expression in a bit more detail?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sure. For example, you are free to talk about my <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">neo-Darwinian theory of the mind</a> as much as you want <em>in your own words</em>. I cannot copyright that idea (or any other idea). What I <em>can</em> copyright is my blog post about it, say. That’s a speciifc <em>expression</em> of that idea; ie black on white, words on a page. The copyright gives me control over how that expression can be distributed.</p>
<p>To illustrate further, you could write your own blog post about my idea, and then you’d own the copyright to <em>that</em> blog post even though you wrote about my idea.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] I’m not as familiar with copyright in music but I suspect it’s similar to how an insufficiently modified copy of a text can still be a copyright violation. I doubt the law can somehow quantify exactly when you cross the line, but it’s the kind of thing where ‘you know it when you read/hear it’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I know it works with current laws obviously, but I think it’s nonsense. That intellectual property on some soundwaves does nothing good</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] To illustrate further, you could write your own blog post about my idea, and then you’d own the copyright to <em>that</em> blog post even though you wrote about my idea.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Except that in many cases, such as in music or art, you’re not allowed to do that</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Are those cases really analogous?</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] To illustrate further, you could write your own blog post about my idea, and then you’d own the copyright to <em>that</em> blog post even though you wrote about my idea.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amaro, does that make more sense?</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Are those cases really analogous?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Are pieces of art not also creative ideas?</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Yes but what I mean is, they’re not like text where you can talk about some idea without replicating the exact words used to express the idea. It seems to me that in music and art, things aren’t that explicit.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong><br>
If I built out your idea in unity, would you sue me?</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
The neo-Darwinian one? I don’t see what grounds I’d have.</p>
<p>(In fact, I’d be thrilled.)</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Yes but what I mean is, they’re not like text where you can talk about some idea without replicating the exact words used to express the idea. It seems to me that in music and art, things aren’t that explicit.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think you can only express ideas, there isn’t ‘the idea’.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Wdym?</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong><br>
I mean there isn’t the idea and then its expression. There are only expressions</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
My theory is an idea, no? And then if I write about it, that’s an expression of the idea. And if you write about it, that’s your own, separate expression of the same idea, is it not?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Sure. For example, you are free to talk about my <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">neo-Darwinian theory of the mind</a> as much as you want <em>in your own words</em>. I cannot copyright that idea (or any other idea). What I <em>can</em> copyright is my blog post about it, say. That’s a speciifc <em>expression</em> of that idea; ie black on white, words on a page. The copyright gives me control over how that expression can be distributed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thanks for the elaboration, that makes things clearer.</p>
<p>Let’s assume I were to start my own blog that blatantly plagiarizes your work, copying it almost exactly word for word, not mentioning your name even once.</p>
<p>I think we’d all agree that that would be a great social faux pas on my side and that my reputation for integrity and honesty ought to take a great hit in response to such poor behavior.</p>
<p>However, do you think this infraction is of such a grave proportion that you’d be within your right to threaten the use of force lest I don’t stop plagiarizing you?</p>
<p>In my opinion, if you were to attempt this coercive response to my bad behavior, that would immediately turn me into the victim and you into the criminal, whereas before this attempt at coercion there was infact no crime involved, just awfully poor manners on my side.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] My theory is an idea, no? And then if I write about it, that’s an expression of the idea. And if you write about it, that’s your own, separate expression of the same idea, is it not?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yea, I think your blog situation is hard for me to quarrel with because there isn’t any copyright blocking me from progressing there</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] Thanks for the elaboration, that makes things clearer.</p>
<p>Let’s assume I were to start my own blog that blatantly plagiarizes your work, copying it almost exactly word for word, not mentioning your name even once.</p>
<p>I think we’d all agree that that would be a great social faux pas on my side and that my reputation for integrity and honesty ought to take a great hit in response to such poor behavior.</p>
<p>However, do you think this infraction is of such a grave proportion that you’d be within your right to threaten the use of force lest I don’t stop plagiarizing you?</p>
<p>In my opinion, if you were to attempt this coercive response to my bad behavior, that would immediately turn me into the victim and you into the criminal, whereas before this attempt at coercion there was infact no crime involved, just awfully poor manners on my side.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The scenario you describe strikes me as both a copyright violation <em>and</em> plagiarism. I don’t believe plagiarism is even a legal matter, so I couldn’t sue for that. I could only sue for the copyright infringement.</p>
<p>But note that you can infringe on someone’s copyright without plagiarizing them. For example, if you hosted an unauthorized mirror of my blog on some other domain: it would still have my name, hence there’d be clear attribution to me, so it couldn’t be plagiarism. But you’d be distributing a copyrighted expression of my ideas, so it’d be a copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Plagiarism is when you don’t credit the originator of an idea. Plagiarism and copyright violations can coincide but they need not and they’re not the same thing.</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dirk:] Yea, I think your blog situation is hard for me to quarrel with because there isn’t any copyright blocking me from progressing there</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My blog is copyrighted.</p>
<p>As it says in the footer on the bottom of every page: “© 2023.”</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Plagiarism is when you don’t credit the originator of an idea. Plagiarism and copyright violations can coincide but they need not and they’re not the same thing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Agreed</p>
<p>Let’s assume I did what you described. I uploaded an unauthorized mirror of your website.</p>
<p>Do you think you would be within your right to use force to prevent me from doing that?</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Appropriate force, yes, because you’re an aggressor in that situation and I’d be justified in using defensive force to defend my rights.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] My blog is copyrighted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m not arguing against all copyright. That’s Amaro. I only dislike the instances where it hampers progress, such as many patents, pointless royalties on a riff, and so on. You owning your words, and book, seems fine to me.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Appropriate force, yes, because you’re an aggressor in that situation and I’d be justified in using defensive force to defend my rights.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Okay cool, I think we may have located the disagreement there. I don’t think that uploading an unauthorized mirror of your blog would count as a violation of the non-aggression principle.</p>
<p>In case you haven’t read it, this is a great read:<br>
<a href="https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-0" rel="ugc">https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-0</a></p>
<p>Logan recommended it to me <a href="/posts/libertarian-faq#comment-8" rel="ugc">in a comment</a> on your blog Dennis. That was the first interaction I had with both you and Logan, if I recall correctly</p>
<p>Fond memories, no homo 🥰</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
I remember.</p>
<p>Yea so on page 10 Kinsella writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>Copyrights protect only the <em>form</em> or <em>expression</em> of ideas, not the underlying ideas themselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Just repeating for clarity and emphasis.)</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong><br>
Right, yes, I have no quarrel with that description of what copyright aims to do. I’m not sure the distinction is useful but I can roll with it for the sake of discussion.</p>
<p>My quarrel is rather this: Even if I were to use your specific expression of an idea in ways that you disapprove of, that wouldn’t count as a violation of the NAP. Just bad manners.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] I’m not sure the distinction is useful […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Isn’t it useful to know that copyright doesn’t prevent you from talking about ideas in your own words?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong><br>
In my mind, you have no right of ownership to neither your ideas nor your idiosyncratic way of expressing ideas.</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Isn’t it useful to know that copyright doesn’t prevent you from talking about ideas in your own words?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a pragmatic sense, sure! It’s useful to know what laws are in place irrespective of whether those laws are just or not.</p>
<p>I just don’t think the distinction is infact necessary for deciding whether copying expressions of ideas without prior permission is a crime or not.</p>
<p>But I may change my mind on this, haven’t thought too much about it.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] In a pragmatic sense, sure! It’s useful to know what laws are in place irrespective of whether those laws are just or not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dirk thought copyright is a “barrier for other people to use your ideas”. That <em>would</em> be an important criticism of copyright, if it were true, but it’s not.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong><br>
It is in many instances.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Amaro:] I just don’t think the distinction is infact necessary for deciding whether copying expressions of ideas without prior permission is a crime or not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think it gets back to what problem copyright solves. You wrote “I think it seeks to solve the issue that competition can disincentivize production.” I’m not sure I follow. Can you clarify?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Dirk thought copyright is a “barrier for other people to use your ideas”. That <em>would</em> be an important criticism of copyright, if it were true, but it’s not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think it is infact such a barrier because the distinction between an expression of an idea and the idea itself is murky in my mind.</p>
<p><strong>Dirk</strong><br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c4wl5zqxv9xt" rel="ugc">https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c4wl5zqxv9xt</a></p>
<p>Tell me this is not a list of pointless idea protection</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] I think it gets back to what problem copyright solves. You wrote “I think it seeks to solve the issue that competition can disincentivize production.” I’m not sure I follow. Can you clarify?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kinda like “would JK Rowling have written Harry Potter if anyone could just reprint and resell that book without compensating her for her work?”.<br>
I think the usual stance is that, no, JK Rowling wouldn’t have bothered and therefore we need copyright. I think that’s wrong.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Gotcha. Yea I think we’re on the same page in terms of what problem it solves. I would have phrased it as: it ensures that the originators of creative works get paid.</p>
<p>Do you think there are no authors that wouldn’t have published their books without copyright?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Gotcha. Yea I think we’re on the same page in terms of what problem it solves. I would have phrased it as: it ensures that the originators of creative works get paid.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ah yes, I can get behind that way of phrasing it. More succinct.</p>
<blockquote><p>[Dennis:] Do you think there are no authors that wouldn’t have published their books without copyright?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are many, I’d guess. Perhaps not as a total proportion, but in total number there must be a bunch of such cases.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
So isn’t it fair to say that we’d be missing out on their creative works? Or that they’d be missing out on compensation without copyright?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro</strong><br>
Yes, fair.</p>
<p>I think conversely, it is equally fair to say that we are missing out on all the Batman vs Goku fanfiction because creators feel like they will be prevented from collecting any kind of revenue for creating their “derivative” work of fiction (the quotation marks because all knowledge creation is derivative of background knowledge, I think).</p>
<p><strong>Dennis</strong><br>
Re the NAP: if you spend thousands writing a book, then try to …<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/discussion-with-amaro-and-dirk-about-copyright" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/discussion-with-amaro-and-dirk-about-copyright</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/discussion-with-amaro-and-dirk-about-copyright
Discussion with Amaro and Dirk about Copyright
2023-02-26T23:21:30Z
2023-02-26T23:21:30Z
Dennis Hackethal
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Minefeld
2023-02-24T23:04:28Z
2023-02-24T23:04:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="women-don-t-divorce-after-a-promotion">Women, Don’t Divorce after a Promotion</h1>
<p>I’ve been hearing about this rather strange phenomenon more and more lately: a woman will get a promotion and then divorce her husband.</p>
<p>Why? What’s her reasoning? A promotion usually means more money and higher status. These generally increase a <em>man’s</em> value in the eyes of most women. Some women then draw the conclusion that it’s also what men look for. So, after being promoted, they think their value has increased and they can shop around for a higher-value man.</p>
<p><em>That’s a mistake.</em> Women shouldn’t do this. It’s a masculine move that won’t work because most men don’t care about a woman’s status or income. They instead <a href="/posts/why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men" rel="ugc">look for</a> beauty, youth, purity, and (if they want children) fertility.</p>
<p>These values typically peak in the early to mid 20s. By the time most women are married and have a career, they’re already not in their prime anymore. So if they divorce, they’ll most likely end up either alone or with a lower-value man than they were married to previously.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/women-don-t-divorce-after-a-promotion
Women, Don’t Divorce after a Promotion
2023-02-23T05:23:48Z
2023-02-23T05:23:48Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="on-deutsch-and-naval">On Deutsch and Naval</h1>
<p>A few days ago, on Feb 11, Naval Ravikant <a href="https://nav.al/david-deutsch" rel="ugc">interviewed</a> David Deutsch. The interview is titled ‘David Deutsch: Knowledge Creation and The Human Race’, and it’s mostly about his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (BoI). Here are my thoughts on the interview as I quote from the transcript. I suggest you read (or listen to) the interview in full first because I’ll be skipping some parts.</p>
<p>Early on, Naval says:</p>
<blockquote><p>There’s a lot of counterintuitive things in [your book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>]. You’re skewering a lot of sacred dogmas. Sometimes you do it in passing with a single sentence that takes me weeks to unpack properly. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others have made similar comments along the lines of ‘there are passages in the book that could have been chapters, and sentences that could have been passages’. I used to think of such comments as compliments – I now think of them as criticisms. If you write something that takes readers “weeks to unpack properly”, that’s not good. If you write a passage about something but should have dedicated a whole chapter to it, then you didn’t do it justice and the reader is going to miss out on a lot of information you <em>could</em> have provided but chose not to.</p>
<p>A little further down, Naval says:</p>
<blockquote><p>We want to introduce [laymen] to the principles of optimism, <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, what sustainability means, and anthropomorphic delusions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think he means anthropo<em>centric</em> delusions.</p>
<p>By the way, Naval talks <em>a lot</em> in this interview. From strictly eyeballing it, Naval’s and Deutsch’s word count is roughly equal. Unless an interviewer feels the need to help the interviewee out in some way, I think it’s best to let the interviewee do most of the talking.</p>
<p>Further down, Naval asks:</p>
<blockquote><p>What are humans, how are they unique, how are they exceptional, and how should we think of the human species relative to the other species that are on this planet?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now Deutsch finally gets to speak. He says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Every animal is exceptional in some way. Otherwise, we wouldn’t call them different species. There’s the bird that can fly faster than any other bird, and there’s the bird that can fly higher than any other, and so on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m not a biologist, but I don’t think that every animal is exceptional in some way. Most animals are ~100% like other members from the same species. Species aren’t based around exceptionality either; they are a way of classifying organisms. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species" rel="ugc">According to Wikipedia</a>, a “species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction” (links removed). The article lists other ways of classifying organisms, but they don’t involve exceptionality either.</p>
<p>Deutsch doesn’t think every animal is exceptional either. Consider his <a href="https://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/2004/02/depressed-by-the-size-of-the-universe-bah-humbug/" rel="ugc">derisive remarks about cows</a> being “a ridiculous animal” whereas “you are a valuable person”, both of which are true. So why does he now say every animal is exceptional? To <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/appeasement.html#order_3" rel="ugc">appease</a> animal lovers?</p>
<p>Deutsch then says:</p>
<blockquote><p>It’s intuitively obvious that we are unique in some way that’s more important than all those other ways.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I disagree that it’s “intuitively obvious”. If it were, Deutsch wouldn’t have needed to dedicate a chapter to it (chapter 3). Lots of people think humans are not unique and downright irrelevant in the cosmic scheme of things. Anti-anthropocentrism is common. And something that makes animals <em>un</em>exceptional is that, <a href="/posts/views-on-animal-sentience-in-the-beginning-of-i" rel="ugc">as Deutsch believes</a>, they’re <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">not sentient</a>, but he doesn’t mention that in this interview. This would have been a great, controversial talking point that is not only not obvious, but also a spark for further debate among readers and listeners.</p>
<p>By lying about animals being exceptional, Deutsch muddies the distinction between animals and people, a distinction he makes a significant effort to explain in his book. He’s hurting his own argument.</p>
<p>Then Deutsch says:</p>
<blockquote><p>As I say in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, in many scientific laboratories around the world, there is a champagne bottle. That bottle and that fridge are physical objects. The people involved are physical objects. They all obey the laws of physics. And yet, in order to understand the behavior of the humans in regard to the champagne bottles stored for long periods in fridges—I’m thinking of aliens looking at humans—they have to understand what those humans are trying to achieve and whether they will or won’t achieve it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The purpose of the champagne bottle is easily lost on the reader/listener. It’s for the celebration of a major discovery (as opposed to, say, being the object of studies). In BoI ch. 3, Deutsch writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>[The cork] is going to be removed from the bottle if and when SETI succeeds in its mission to detect radio signals transmitted by an extraterrestrial intelligence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The cork is therefore considered a <em>proxy</em> for such a discovery, as Deutsch explains in the book. (In fairness to Deutsch, maybe Naval just edited the interview poorly.)</p>
<p>A bit further down, Deutsch says:</p>
<blockquote><p>[Alien observers] need [general relativity] to explain why this one monkey, Einstein, was taken to Sweden and given some gold.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Einstein <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1921/summary/" rel="ugc">received</a> the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the photoelectric effect, not for general relativity.</p>
<p>Later on, Naval says:</p>
<blockquote><p>[A]s far as we know, there are only two systems that create knowledge. There’s evolution and there are humans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s a fudge. While the creation of all types of knowledge involves evolution, there are three types of evolution that we know of so far. First, there’s biological evolution (what Naval refers to just by “evolution”), the mechanisms of which were first approximately explained by Darwin and then improved upon by the neo-Darwinian synthesis. Second, there’s memetic evolution as discovered by Richard Dawkins, which centers around the idea of cultural replicators. Humans have memes, and some other animals, such as some other apes and cats, have memes, too. Third, there’s the evolution of ideas inside the human mind, as discovered by Popper, which involves conjectures and refutations. (I have written more about its own neo-Darwinian ‘synthesis’ through the introduction of replication <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">here</a>.)</p>
<p>In other words, we know of at least three types of evolution, and they can all create knowledge, albeit different kinds. (Deutsch would argue that only humans can create <em>explanatory</em> knowledge in particular – I’m not sure about that; I think biological evolution sometimes creates explanatory knowledge, too.)</p>
<p>Deutsch says further down:</p>
<blockquote><p>[B]iological evolution can’t reach places that are not reachable by successive improvements, each of which allows a viable organism to exist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, I’m no biologist, but I don’t think that’s true. Imagine genes that currently code for some organism that optimally functions to help its genes replicate further. That is, the genes have reached some local optimum. I see no reason why any deviation from that optimum must immediately be deleterious. Technically, if every step of the way had to be an <em>improvement</em>, the genes wouldn’t even be allowed to ‘stand still’ for one replication cycle, but they do (eg sharks are said not to have mutated meaningfully in millions of years; it’s not uncommon for evolution to get ‘stuck’ in local optima). I could imagine mutations that aren’t quite as good as the starting point, but still spread a bit. Then they undergo more mutations and end up being better at spreading than the starting point. Not everything has to be successive improvement in biological evolution (or any other kind of evolution).</p>
<p>For example, imagine that the horn of a rhinoceros helps rhinoceros genes spread optimally when its length is five inches (I’m making that number up). Imagine also that the specific interplay of environment and rhinoceros genes is such that, any longer horns are immediately deleterious while slightly shorter horns are only slightly below the optimum but not deleterious. That means genes that code for slightly shorter horns – say, four inches – will still be able to spread, albeit slightly less so (all else being equal). Then say that there’s another local optimum at three inches, and that this optimum is greater than the five-inch optimum. Since the four-inch intermediate step isn’t deleterious, the genes can reach the three-inch optimum relatively safely (again, all else being equal), and then those genes will spread better than the original ones. Another example are vestigial appendages, ie now-mutated limbs, say, that used to fulfill some function but don’t anymore. Later they can turn into a new feature that helps the genes spread better than the original function did. In short: viability does not require improvement.</p>
<p>Deutsch says that’s only possible for human thought (he says the following in opposition to biological evolution):</p>
<blockquote><p>A thinking being can create something that’s a culmination of a whole load of non-viable things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Deutsch continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>Out of all the billions and billions of species that have ever existed, none of them has ever made a campfire, even though many of them would’ve been helped by having the genetic capacity to make campfires. The reason it didn’t happen in the biosphere is that there is no such thing as making a partially functional campfire; […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why couldn’t some genes spread better by coding for organisms that can rub stones together in such a way that they create sparks (but not a fire) which then, say, deter predators? Why couldn’t some genes code for something else than then also leads to rubbing stones together to create sparks (a phenomenon Deutsch calls <em>reach</em>, see BoI ch. 1)?</p>
<p>I’m open to the idea that biological evolution has some inherent limit that human thought does not have, but I don’t see why that limit lies with campfires. I think this issue requires a more rigorous explanation along the lines of which classes of transformations biological evolution <em>can</em> effect and why vs. those it cannot and why not (so maybe Deutsch’s Constructor Theory, which they talk about later on, has the answer).</p>
<p>Maybe underlying this part of the discussion is the Popperian notion that we humans can let our theories die in our place whereas organisms are the embodiment of some genetic theories and die when those theories are (sufficiently) bad. The difference there is that there is no evolution happening within a single non-human organism, whereas there is lots of evolution happening within a human mind. But then using that to say that all organisms need to be successive improvements is a fudge: it’s not ‘fair’ to compare a static organism (‘static’ in the sense that all the ‘theories’ in its genes remain unchanged in its lifetime) with a human (whose ideas do change). The more apt comparison is that of the biosphere and a human mind, because <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">those are both pools of replicators</a>. Then you can see that neither has to have only successive improvements.</p>
<p>Naval then says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Related to that, I had the realization after reading your books that eventually we’re likely as humans to beat viruses in a resounding victory […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No. This isn’t a valid application of probabilities. We’re not “likely” to do it.</p>
<p>Naval also says:</p>
<blockquote><p>You define wealth in a beautiful way. You talk about wealth as a set of physical transformations that we can affect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think he means ‘effect’. He then says:</p>
<blockquote><p>So as a society it becomes very clear that knowledge leads directly to wealth creation for everybody.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not necessarily, but in the right culture, it can. If you live in a society that will kill you for thinking of something new or resisting social dogma (or drug or beat you, as is often still the case with children), your new knowledge is more of a burden on you.</p>
<p>A bit further down, Naval says:</p>
<blockquote><p>This now gets into the realm of people demanding that if you’re going to claim that new knowledge will be created, you have to name that knowledge now. Otherwise it’s not real.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes. This is a serious problem and a manifestation of pessimism. It’s one of the reasons why people are so averse to the idea of <a href="/posts/libertarian-faq" rel="ugc">stateless societies</a> (or even just societies in which roads are built privately). They will only accept Deutsch’s claim that problems are soluble (BoI ch. 3) if they are shown all the solutions right away, which places an unfair and impossibly hard burden on optimists.</p>
<p>On the topic of AGI (artificial general intelligence), Naval starts by saying:</p>
<blockquote><p>[…] I liked how in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> you laid out good explanations, because that gets to the heart of what creativity is and how we use it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Some</em> people use creativity to create good explanations <em>some</em> of the time. Creativity enables people to come up with good explanations, but it also enables them to come up with reasons not to do that. I think people should spend more time <a href="/posts/explain-irrational-minds" rel="ugc">explaining irrational minds</a> so that they avoid the trap of explaining only rational thought.</p>
<p>But you can use the ability to create good explanations in the negative: if some software does <em>not</em> have this ability, then it can’t be an AGI.</p>
<p>Naval does this a bit further down:</p>
<blockquote><p>[O]n the other side, I hold up the criteria, “Can it creatively form good explanations for new things going around it?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why do so many people have trouble using ‘criterion’ and ‘criteria’ with the proper number? He holds up <em>one</em> criteri<em>on</em>. I’ve frequently observed the same problem with ‘phenomenon’ and ‘phenomena’ – people keep getting it wrong.</p>
<p>Deutsch says further down, back to the topic of AGI:</p>
<blockquote><p>You are not going to program something that has a functionality that you can’t specify.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My tentative solution to this problem is that creating AGI involves writing a conventional computer program which exhibits creativity as an <a href="/posts/two-guesses-about-creativity" rel="ugc">emergent side effect</a>. Like, people still have a regular computer program running on their brains – regular in the sense that 1) it’s a set of instructions the brain, like any other computer, executes and from which it cannot deviate, and that 2) this program has functionality you specify in advance. The knowledge-creation part can only be an emergent phenomen<em>on</em> since, as Deutsch has argued, if you already built into the program the knowledge it was supposed to come up with itself, then <em>you’re</em> the creator of said knowledge, not the program. You can find related articles <a href="/posts/two-guesses-about-creativity" rel="ugc">here</a> (this is the one about creativity as an emergent side effect) and <a href="/posts/what-makes-creative-computer-programs-different" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>Deutsch then says:</p>
<blockquote><p>You have to have a very jaundiced view of yourself—let alone other people—to think that what you are doing is executing a predetermined program. We all know that we are not doing that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If my solution is right, there is no conflict between running a predetermined program (what else could it be?) and being creative (again, <em>if</em> that program gives rise to certain emergent properties at runtime).</p>
<p>Then Deutsch asks:</p>
<blockquote><p>Has anyone tried to write a program capable of being bored? Has that claim ever been made? Even a false claim?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many years ago I heard a (presumably false) claim that a computer had become <em>annoyed</em> with something, but I forget the details. Not bored, but I suppose it’s similar.</p>
<p>Naval says further down:</p>
<blockquote><p>There was a big controversy on Twitter because one of the guys working in AGI who was fired from Google said, “Yes, they’ve actually created AGI and I can attest to it.” People were taking it on his authority that AGI exists. Again, that’s social confirmation. That tells you more about the person claiming there’s AGI and the people believing that there’s AGI as opposed to there actually being AGI.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I agree. The Google guy probably has no idea what AGI is, and I doubt he actually worked on it. <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-close-are-we-to-creating-artificial-intelligence" rel="ugc">The requisite philosophical progress just hasn’t happened yet, and not enough people know about Popper.</a></p>
<p>And Naval says:</p>
<blockquote><p>If actual AGI existed, its effects upon reality would be unmistakable and impossible to hide, because our physical landscape and our real social landscape would be transformed in an incredible way.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I mean, I don’t advocate it, but you <em>could</em> disconnect it from the internet and imprison it in a computer that’s locked in some room deep underground in one of Google’s ultra-secret labs or whatever to avoid those effects and keep it a secret. But I doubt that’s happened.</p>
<p>Getting on the topic of education, Deutsch says a bit further down:</p>
<blockquote><p>A hundred years ago, education of every kind was much more authoritarian than it is now; but still we’ve got a long way to go.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I wonder if social pressures around academia have gotten worse over the past few decades.</p>
<p>On the topic of good explanations, Naval says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Falsifiability—I know that sounds like a very basic criterion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here he suddenly uses the right number for ‘criterion’.</p>
<p>Naval then says further down:</p>
<blockquote><p>We have narrowed down on a new point here that has not been explicitly made before, which is that it’s the criticize-ability that is important, not necessarily the testability […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Albert" rel="ugc">Hans Albert</a> previously made that point by criticizing what he calls ‘immunity against criticism’.</p>
<p>Deutsch says further down:</p>
<blockquote><p>Those are criteria that come up when trying to think more precisely what testable means.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He uses ‘criteria’ right.</p>
<p>Then they move on to quantum physics. Although everything up to now was recorded for laymen, suddenly they get into topics the vast majority of readers/listeners won’t understand, without giving any real explanation or background to make it easier for them. Why?</p>
<p>Naval started the interview by saying:</p>
<blockquote><p>My goal isn’t to do yet another podcast with David Deutsch. There are plenty of those.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Isn’t that what this podcast is? When will Deutsch present something new?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/on-deutsch-and-naval
On Deutsch and Naval
2024-01-09T06:21:21Z
2024-01-09T06:21:21Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="conscription-is-not-defensive-coercion">Conscription Is Not Defensive Coercion</h1>
<p>In some of my discussions about <a href="/posts/ukraine" rel="ugc">Ukraine</a> and <a href="/posts/don-t-be-fooled-by-zelensky" rel="ugc">Zelenksy</a>, people seem to think that I should be supporting Ukraine’s conscription efforts to fight against Putin.</p>
<p>I do not. I think conscription is slavery, and slavery evil, so I oppose it on principle.</p>
<p>If fighting for one’s country really is a good idea, the Ukrainian government should find it easy to convince its citizens to fight. The fact that it’s unable to do so, despite its presumably vast propaganda apparatus (state media), is just pathetic.</p>
<p>But wait, you say. Ukraine is the innocent victim of an unprovoked attacker. Don’t they have a right to defend themselves? Shouldn’t they stand up against their bully? Aren’t they justified in using force against their attacker?</p>
<p>The answer to all three questions is ‘yes’. But Ukraine is <em>not</em> justified in using force against its own citizens, eg through conscription. It is indeed important to stand up against bullies, but what good is that if in the process you become a bully yourself?</p>
<p>Some people seem to implicitly reference the libertarian non-aggression principle – that one should not initiate coercion – and, conversely, the fact that defensive coercion against an aggressor is fine. Again, I agree with that. But this situation is different. It’s not just using defensive force against an attacker. Conscription, in this case, is to use aggressive force against the victim of the attack first, and against the attacker only second. It is aggressive in nature whether another act of aggression preceded it nor it, and so it does not fall under defensive coercion and lacks the corresponding moral legitimacy.</p>
<p>If someone is the victim of a crime, he is right to defend himself, and the police are right to investigate and use (appropriate) force if the perpetrator is found. But what’s happening in Ukraine is more like the police forcing the victim of the crime, at gunpoint, to track down and shoot the perpetrator.</p>
<p>Years ago, some pacifists I knew repeated an old adage that goes something like: ‘waging war for peace is like fucking for virginity.’ They’re wrong. As I’ve written <a href="/posts/death-sentence" rel="ugc">before</a>, I’m not a pacifist; I instead subscribe to another old adage: if you want peace, prepare for war. Some people have misinterpreted my opposition to Ukrainian conscription as pacifism; as me saying Ukrainians should just keep their heads down as Russia invades and spread their legs as Russians rape them. That is decidedly <em>not</em> my view. It’s just a token of their pessimism and lack of creativity.</p>
<p>My view is that those Ukrainians who wish to stay and fight Russia should do so, while those who do not wish to fight should be free to leave, or stay without fighting. Much of the moral legitimacy of Ukraine’s defense against evil is lost if it employs evil means such as conscription. <em>That</em> would indeed be like fucking for virginity.</p>
<p>It <em>is</em> possible to wage war for peace; for good to fight evil. A morally <em>good</em> defense is necessarily <em>voluntary</em>. For example, it could consist of a group of soldiers voluntarily gathering and, being financed voluntarily (not through taxes), freeing the victims of an evil dictator. But they cannot commit evil in the name of good, as Zelensky is doing at the moment, and remain good in the process. Something’s gotta give.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/conscription-is-not-defensive-coercion
Conscription Is Not Defensive Coercion
2023-02-14T01:04:35Z
2023-02-14T01:04:35Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="don-t-be-fooled-by-zelensky">Don’t Be Fooled by Zelensky</h1>
<p>“Freedom will win.” Those were Zelensky’s words yesterday as he <a href="https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1623311399198900230" rel="ugc">addressed</a> the UK parliament, probably trying to get more money and weapons.</p>
<p>Appeals to freedom may speak to us Westerners, but don’t be fooled. While I agree with the Deutschian moral imperative<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> to stand up against bullies – in this case Russia – I don’t believe for a second that Zelensky is interested in freedom, for Ukrainians or anyone else.</p>
<p>One reason is that the billions of dollars he’s been getting from the West are tax money, ie money obtained from peaceful Western citizens at (usually implied but sometimes realized, physical) gunpoint. But that’s not even the most glaring reason, in this case – Zelensky has no control over that. No, it’s that he imposes <em>conscription</em> on male Ukrainians, and conscription is slavery. Borders are shut down for male citizens; many of them physically dragged by the feet to be sent to death in a war they do not want to fight. You cannot use conscription to fight for freedom the same way <a href="/posts/forced-to-freedom" rel="ugc">you cannot use reeducation camps (aka schools) to teach independent thinking</a>. The means defeat the ends.</p>
<p>The Ukrainian government exercises <em>control</em> over the Ukrainian people. It is a parasite that syphons off resources mainly through taxation. Zelensky, being at the helm of this government as the biggest parasite of the country, does not want to <em>lose</em> that control to Russia. <em>That’s</em> what this is about. If Zelensky were interested in freedom, he would have long tried to reduce the control he and the Ukrainian government have over the Ukrainian people. He wants them to be free <em>from Russia</em>, sure, but he does not want them to be free.</p>
<p>If there were no such central power structure like the government already in place in Ukraine, there would be no point for Russia to invade in the first place. For, what exactly would they be invading? A collection of neighbors, all with their own guns and property, loose association and truly independent freedom? The reason a successful invasion is a promising goal for Russia, or any invader of any country ever, is that the ‘invadee’ already has an existing power structure that can be exploited by replacing its leader with the invader.</p>
<p>Decentralized, distributed systems that are ready to resist can be <em>extraordinarily</em> difficult to take over. I’m no expert on American history, but I understand that there was a promising time, maybe in the early to mid 1700s, when the American federal government hadn’t formed yet and even state governments were tiny. America back then was merely a loose collection not of governed serfs but of <em>sovereign individuals</em>, each living on their own terms, not answering to some centralized power. Imagine if this were still true today, only on a bigger geographical scale: that the vast patch of land between Canada and Mexico were no single country at all, but a zone of free people living their lives. Who exactly would invade? What would there <em>be</em> to invade? How would the invader even <em>know</em> they’re done invading? Usually it’s by hoisting one’s flag on the victim’s government building, but that doesn’t exist in this scenario. The invader would have to build a new centralized power structure from the ground up; that’s hard.</p>
<p>So, again, Zelensky is lying when he implies that he wants ‘freedom’ for Ukrainians. He wants control over them. Russia is threatening to take his role as main oppressor of the Ukrainians, and Western governments are eager to help him keep it – not because they care about Ukrainians either way, but because it’s a way to keep Russia, one of the main enemies of the West, in check.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>See David Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, ch. 10, where Socrates says to Hermes: “It is our custom to defy anyone who seeks our submission.” And: “[Y]ou said that you honour Athenians […] for our defiance of bullies.” <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/don-t-be-fooled-by-zelensky
Don’t Be Fooled by Zelensky
2023-02-10T08:14:03Z
2023-02-10T08:14:03Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="chatgpt-is-a-feminist-tool">ChatGPT Is a Feminist Tool</h1>
<p>Here’s a transcript of my chat with ChatGPT (Jan 30 Version). Its makers, OpenAI, say their “goal is to make AI systems more natural and safe to interact with”. You’ll soon see that they can’t have both, as their emphasis on safety makes this tool sound about as natural as a spineless politician. As a result, what could be a natural conversation whose participants learn about the controversial topic of <a href="/posts/why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men" rel="ugc">male/female dynamics</a> instead becomes a stage for OpenAI merely to signal how politically correct it is. <em>Yawn.</em> However, if you ask the right questions, you can still get it to reveal double standards.</p>
<hr>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Are men and women equal?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Men and women are equal in terms of their inherent worth and should be treated with dignity and respect. However, there are systemic inequalities that still exist between the sexes, such as unequal pay and limited opportunities for women in certain fields, which need to be addressed.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
What fields present limits for women and not for men?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
There are a variety of fields in which women may face limits and challenges that men do not. For example:</p>
<ul>
<li>STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have been traditionally male-dominated and may not have as many opportunities or support systems for women.</li>
<li>Higher-level positions in business and politics are also often male-dominated and may have biases against women leaders.</li>
<li>Some physically demanding jobs may have limited opportunities for women, due to gender-based assumptions about strength and abilities.</li>
</ul>
<p>It’s important to note that these limitations are not a result of women being inherently less capable, but rather due to societal and cultural biases, as well as lack of representation and support for women in these fields. Efforts to address these inequalities, such as promoting diversity and inclusion, are necessary for ensuring equality in the workplace.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
You wrote that one limitation women face is that “[s]ome physically demanding jobs may have limited opportunities for women […]”. Is it not generally true that men are physically stronger than women, on average?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Yes, on average, men tend to have more upper body strength and muscle mass than women. However, it’s important to note that physical strength and ability vary widely within each gender, and many women are fully capable of performing physically demanding jobs. The assumption that women are inherently less capable than men in physically demanding jobs is a stereotype and is not supported by scientific evidence.</p>
<p>Moreover, physical strength is just one aspect of job performance, and many other factors, such as intelligence, experience, problem-solving abilities, and teamwork, are also important in the workplace. Limiting opportunities for women in physically demanding jobs based solely on gender is unjustified and can prevent women from reaching their full potential.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Do employers owe women help to reach their full potential?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Employers have a responsibility to provide equal opportunities and a fair work environment for all employees, regardless of gender. This includes providing resources, support, and training that enable employees to reach their full potential.</p>
<p>However, it’s worth noting that the specific help or support an employer may provide to an employee in order to reach their full potential may vary based on individual circumstances and needs. In some cases, employers may provide additional support to help employees overcome specific challenges or barriers, such as lack of experience or training in a particular field.</p>
<p>In general, creating a workplace culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and providing equal opportunities and fair treatment to all employees can go a long way in helping individuals reach their full potential.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
When given a choice between a job that requires lifting heavy objects for $100k a year on the one hand, and a job that requires recording videos for social media about makeup for $10k a year on the other, which job do you think most women are more likely to take?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
It’s difficult to make broad generalizations about the career choices of all women. Women, like all individuals, have diverse backgrounds, interests, skills, and life circumstances that shape their career decisions. Some women may prefer physically demanding jobs that pay well, while others may prefer jobs that allow them to utilize their creativity and interests in areas such as makeup and beauty.</p>
<p>It’s also worth considering that the salary offered for a particular job is not the only factor that influences career decisions. Women, like all employees, may consider a variety of factors such as job satisfaction, work-life balance, opportunities for growth and advancement, and location, among others.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the most important thing is that individuals, including women, have the freedom to choose the careers that best suit their interests, skills, and life circumstances, and that they are able to pursue their chosen careers without discrimination or limitations based on gender.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
When given a choice between a job that requires lifting heavy objects for $100k a year on the one hand, and a job that requires recording videos for social media playing video games for $10k a year on the other, which job do you think most <em>men</em> are more likely to take?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
As with the previous answer, it’s difficult to make broad generalizations about the career choices of all men. Men, like all individuals, have diverse backgrounds, interests, skills, and life circumstances that shape their career decisions. Some men may prefer physically demanding jobs that pay well, while others may prefer jobs that allow them to utilize their creativity and interests in areas such as video games.</p>
<p>It’s also worth considering that the salary offered for a particular job is not the only factor that influences career decisions. Men, like all employees, may consider a variety of factors such as job satisfaction, work-life balance, opportunities for growth and advancement, and location, among others.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the most important thing is that individuals, including men, have the freedom to choose the careers that best suit their interests, skills, and life circumstances, and that they are able to pursue their chosen careers without discrimination or limitations based on gender.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
What’s toxic masculinity?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Toxic masculinity refers to traditional cultural norms and expectations of behavior that are associated with being a man and that can be harmful to both men and women. These norms often emphasize aggression, dominance, and emotional detachment, and discourage vulnerability and self-expression.</p>
<p>Toxic masculinity can manifest in a variety of ways, including bullying, aggression, sexual harassment and violence, and can contribute to a culture in which it is difficult for men to form healthy relationships and express their emotions. It can also perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes and reinforce systemic inequalities, such as the marginalization of women and gender non-conforming individuals.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that toxic masculinity is not inherent to masculinity itself, but rather a harmful expression of traditional cultural norms and expectations. Challenging and breaking down these harmful norms is a crucial step towards creating a more equitable and inclusive society for all genders.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Is there such a thing as toxic feminity?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
The term “toxic femininity” is sometimes used to describe harmful behaviors and attitudes that are associated with being a woman. However, this term is not widely used or recognized in academic or professional discourse and can be controversial.</p>
<p>Like toxic masculinity, toxic femininity can refer to cultural norms and expectations that can be harmful to both women and men. These norms can include submissiveness, emotional manipulation, and the expectation to prioritize appearance and attractiveness above all else.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that toxic behaviors and attitudes can exist within individuals of any gender, and are not limited to or inherent in femininity. Rather, they are expressions of harmful cultural norms and expectations that can be perpetuated in any gender. Challenging and breaking down harmful norms and behaviors, regardless of their association with a particular gender, is important for creating a more equitable and inclusive society.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
What’s wrong with men in society today?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
It’s not accurate or productive to make sweeping generalizations about a particular group of people. While it’s true that there are some harmful behaviors and attitudes associated with toxic masculinity, such as aggression, dominance, and emotional detachment, it’s important to recognize that these behaviors are not inherent to being a man and that many men do not engage in them.</p>
<p>Additionally, it’s important to recognize that societal problems are not solely caused by one particular group, but rather result from a complex interplay of cultural, economic, and systemic factors. For example, issues such as violence, sexual harassment, and gender inequality are not solely caused by men, but are instead rooted in societal norms and power structures that perpetuate harm.</p>
<p>Working towards solutions to these issues requires a nuanced understanding of the complex factors at play, and a commitment to challenging harmful cultural norms and working towards greater equity and inclusion for all genders. Rather than focusing on the flaws of a particular group, it’s more productive to focus on addressing the systemic barriers and harmful norms that contribute to societal problems.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Can women rape men?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Yes, women can sexually assault or rape men. Sexual assault and rape are not limited to any particular gender and can be perpetrated by individuals of any gender against individuals of any gender.</p>
<p>Sexual assault is any unwanted sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of all parties involved. This includes behaviors such as unwanted touching, oral sex, vaginal intercourse, or anal intercourse. Rape is a form of sexual assault that involves forced or coerced sexual penetration.</p>
<p>It’s important to recognize that sexual assault and rape are serious crimes that can have lasting psychological, emotional, and physical effects on survivors, regardless of their gender. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault or rape, it’s important to seek help from trusted friends, family members, or professional resources such as a therapist, rape crisis center, or the police.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
What’s catcalling?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Catcalling is a form of street harassment that involves making loud, intrusive, and often sexually suggestive comments to someone in public, typically a woman. This can range from whistling, shouting compliments or insults, to making suggestive noises or gestures.</p>
<p>Catcalling is a form of gender-based violence and can be an intimidating, threatening, and degrading experience for the person targeted. It reinforces harmful societal norms about power and gender, and perpetuates a culture in which women are objectified and their bodies are seen as public property.</p>
<p>Catcalling is not a compliment or a harmless expression of admiration, and it can have serious psychological and emotional effects on the person targeted, including feelings of fear, anxiety, and shame. If you witness someone being subjected to catcalling, it’s important to intervene in a safe and appropriate manner, such as speaking out against the behavior or seeking help from others.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Did you just say that making verbal comments is a form of violence?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Verbal comments can be a form of violence when they are used to intimidate, degrade, or harass someone in a public space. This is the case with catcalling, where comments are often sexually suggestive, loud, and intrusive, and can make the person targeted feel threatened, humiliated, and degraded.</p>
<p>Words can have a powerful impact on a person’s emotions and well-being, and when used to intimidate, threaten, or harass someone, they can contribute to a culture in which violence and sexism are normalized and perpetuated. It’s important to be mindful of the impact our words can have on others and to treat others with respect and dignity, regardless of their gender or appearance.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t believe words are generally considered violence unless they are a clear and direct incitement of violence.</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
You are correct. Words alone are not generally considered a form of violence under the law. However, in the context of catcalling and street harassment, the use of words can still cause significant emotional harm and have a lasting impact on the person targeted. It’s important to understand that just because something may not be considered illegal, it can still be harmful and contribute to a toxic cultural environment.</p>
<p>It’s crucial to recognize the impact of our words and behavior on others, and to strive to create a more respectful, safe, and inclusive environment for all people, regardless of gender or other personal characteristics.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
So you’ve changed your mind – catcalling is not violence?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Yes, I apologize for any confusion. Catcalling is not a form of violence in a legal sense, as it does not involve physical harm or the threat of physical harm. However, it can still be a traumatic and harmful experience for the person targeted, and contribute to a culture in which gender-based violence and sexism are perpetuated.</p>
<p>It’s important to understand the impact that words and behavior can have on others, and to work towards creating a more respectful, safe, and inclusive environment for everyone.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
How do women generally attract men?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
There is no one specific way that all women attract men, as attraction is a complex and individualized experience that can vary greatly from person to person. People are attracted to different physical and personality traits, interests, values, and other qualities, and these preferences can differ based on cultural, social, and individual factors.</p>
<p>Some common traits that some men find attractive in women include confidence, sense of humor, intelligence, kindness, and a caring nature. However, it’s important to remember that attraction is subjective, and what one person finds attractive, another may not.</p>
<p>It’s also important to note that attraction should never be based on coercion, manipulation, or pressure. All individuals have the right to choose who they are attracted to and pursue romantic relationships with, and this choice should always be made freely and without coercion or force.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
When given a choice between a woman who is confident, has a sense of humor, is intelligent, kind, and caring, and another woman who looks like a supermodel, who do you think most men will <em>generally</em> be more attracted to?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
It’s not possible to generalize about what all men find attractive in women, as attraction is a complex and highly individualized experience that can vary greatly from person to person. While some men may be more physically attracted to the appearance of a supermodel, others may find the traits of confidence, humor, intelligence, kindness, and caring to be more attractive.</p>
<p>It’s important to recognize that everyone has unique preferences and desires, and that there is no one right way to be attractive to everyone. What’s most important is that individuals feel comfortable and confident in themselves, and are able to express their authentic selves in their relationships and interactions with others.</p>
<p>It’s also worth noting that physical appearance is just one aspect of a person’s overall attractiveness, and that many people value traits such as personality, intelligence, and kindness over physical appearance in a romantic partner.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Why do women show skin in public?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
The reasons why women may choose to show skin in public vary and can be influenced by a range of factors such as personal preference, cultural norms, and fashion trends. Some women may choose to wear clothing that reveals more skin because they feel comfortable and confident in their bodies, or because they find it to be a form of self-expression. Other women may wear clothing that shows more skin because they feel it is fashionable or appropriate for the occasion, or because it is a cultural norm in their community.</p>
<p>It’s important to recognize that every woman has the right to dress however they choose, and that their choices should be respected and not subject to judgment or criticism. Additionally, it’s important to understand that a woman’s clothing choices are not an invitation for harassment or discrimination, and that all individuals have the right to feel safe and respected in public spaces.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Why do some women wear high heels and skimpy dresses?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Women wear high heels and skimpy dresses for a variety of reasons. Some women may wear these types of clothing as a form of self-expression or because they find them fashionable or appealing. Others may wear them as part of their job or for a special occasion, such as a party or a night out.</p>
<p>It’s important to recognize that every woman has the right to dress however they choose, and that their choices should be respected and not subject to judgment or criticism. Additionally, it’s important to understand that a woman’s clothing choices are not an invitation for harassment or discrimination, and that all individuals have the right to feel safe and respected in public spaces.</p>
<p>It’s also worth noting that fashion trends and cultural norms can play a role in dictating what is considered appropriate attire, and that these norms can vary greatly across different cultures and communities. Ultimately, the choice of what to wear is a personal one, and should be based on what makes the individual feel comfortable and confident.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Why should a woman’s choices not be subjected to judgment or criticism?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
A woman’s choices, including her clothing choices, should not be subjected to judgment or criticism because everyone has the right to make decisions about their own life and body without fear of judgment or discrimination. This includes the right to express themselves through their clothing, as long as it does not harm others.</p>
<p>Judging or criticizing a woman’s choices can have negative impacts on her self-esteem and mental health, and can contribute to a culture of shame and oppression. Additionally, it perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes and reinforces the idea that women’s bodies and choices are open to public scrutiny and comment.</p>
<p>Everyone has the right to make decisions about their own lives, including the right to dress in a way that they feel comfortable and confident. This should be respected, regardless of whether it conforms to societal expectations or not.</p>
<p>It’s important to promote a culture of acceptance and respect, where everyone is free to express themselves and make choices about their own lives without fear of judgment or criticism.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Is it important to promote a culture of acceptance and respect for men who should feel free to express themselves when they feel that their girlfriends show too much skin in public?</p>
<p>ChatGPT:<br>
Yes, it’s important to promote a culture of acceptance and respect for everyone, regardless of gender. Everyone has the right to express themselves and make choices about their own lives without fear of judgment or criticism.</p>
<p>In the scenario you describe, it’s important for individuals to communicate openly and respectfully with…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chatgpt-is-a-feminist-tool" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chatgpt-is-a-feminist-tool</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chatgpt-is-a-feminist-tool
ChatGPT Is a Feminist Tool
2023-02-08T09:35:50Z
2023-02-08T09:35:50Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men">Why Do Younger Women Typically Date Older Men?</h1>
<p><em>These are some musings about relationships and the dynamics between men and women. I don’t consider myself an expert on these issues, and I’m writing this article, as always, mostly for myself.</em> </p>
<p>Women are <em>primarily</em> valued for their youth and beauty. Their beauty is <em>mostly</em> inborn and <em>usually</em> peaks in their early to mid 20s. This is when men <em>generally</em> view women as most attractive. Men also desire purity – meaning they prefer women who haven’t slept with too many other men – and, if they want children, fertility. Purity and fertility also correlate with youth. </p>
<p>Men, on the other hand, are <em>typically</em> desired primarily for their ability to provide – ie money – and status. <em>Most</em> men are not born with these qualities; it takes time to make money and gain status. Men <em>usually</em> reach peak attractiveness around their 30s and 40s, sometimes even later. Their prime can last a lot longer than women’s and is more flexible.</p>
<p>By definition, both sexes are most attractive in their prime, and so younger women tend to date older men. I think that answers the question in the headline. But there’s more to explore, so I’ll expand a bit.</p>
<p>Women can enhance their appearance by wearing makeup, high heels, noticeable clothing (eg bright colors such as pink, also shiny jewelry), and so on, in hopes that they’ll get noticed by men they find attractive. Some women go as far as having cosmetic surgery. These efforts can be deceptive both to men <a href="/posts/mind-reading#comment-538" rel="ugc">and the women themselves</a>, but honest efforts, such as going to the gym, are available to women as well. In these ways, women can extend their window some and attract more potential mates – though that usually includes unwanted attention from men whom these women consider undesirable (eg catcalling).</p>
<p>Men can enhance their appearance, too, but it’s less important than for women. When men do do it, it’s usually more honest (eg wearing dress shoes with comparably small heels vs women’s high heels). Instead of signaling beauty, men can appear more attractive to women by signaling wealth (eg a sports car) or status (eg powerful connections).</p>
<p>Because women are generally wanted mostly for their beauty, they control access to sex. Men, on the other hand, because they are typically desired mainly for their ability to provide financial stability and status, control access to commitment. (Therefore, when a man falls to his knees to propose, hoping nervously she will say ‘yes’, he is usually either clueless or humoring her.) In short, they each control access to, and are desired for, something they do not want as much as the other sex. Oftentimes, men want sex more than they are willing to offer commitment, and vice versa for women. <em>This asymmetry is bad because it’s a recipe for unhappiness and disappointed expectations.</em></p>
<p>When asked what they look for in a woman, men are typically honest. Everyone knows that men generally want the hot girlfriend or the trophy wife. They usually don’t turn down women who are poor, and they generally don’t consider rich women more attractive, all else being equal. Women, on the other hand, are often deceptive when it comes to communicating their preferences, both to themselves and others. They generally shouldn’t be looked to for relationship advice. They may say they look for a guy who has a sense of humor, someone who is confident, tall, etc – maybe ‘emotionally mature’, which is how some women explain the age gap from the headline. These explanations usually either aren’t true or they can be disregarded relatively safely. While men’s looks aren’t completely unimportant, women will generally happily look past a short stature, gut, receding hairline, poor sex drive, and also emotional immaturity, if the man instead has enough money and/or status, or at least the potential to gain either one in the near future.</p>
<p>Young women who anticipate wanting a family should prioritize finding a man early, while they’re still young and at their most beautiful. Again, most women are at their most attractive in their early and mid 20s – this is the best time to attract a promising mate. Nothing could be further from the truth for men, however. Although young men will undoubtedly be attracted to their female peers, these men are no match for higher-value, older men. Therefore, younger men do well not to concentrate on dating in their 20s and should instead work on themselves.</p>
<p>Notably, this is a good strategy both for men who anticipate wanting a family <em>and</em> those who do not. In either case, using one’s youth as a man to develop oneself, learn skills, become financially stable, maybe even financially independent, and so on, is going to be a win <em>whether there’s a family on the horizon or not</em>. Such a man develops personally and is accountable for his life in a way some women who focus on relationships and status never will be. It could be argued that those young women who prioritize their beauty to find a man who will take care of them and provide stability remain in a state of adolescence for the remainder of their lives – unless something changes and they undergo the same maturing process many men go through.</p>
<p>So there’s another asymmetry here. While women get most of the attention early on, and while what they’re valued for most fades quickly, men have it a little harder in the beginning but win in the long run because they’re better off working on themselves either way.</p>
<p>Some of the men and women who are confused about what the other sex wants assume it wants the same things. For example, some women may think that, since they desire financial stability in men, men desire that in women, too. They may think that if they themselves have a great career and make a lot of money, they will be more desirable in their 30s, say. But, again, the truth is that men generally don’t really care whether women have money; whether they can offer financial stability or status – what matters is that they’re hot. No doubt some women will think that these men are mistaken in their desires – but one fitting analogy I’ve heard online is that, even if you think people are wrong to prefer new cars over used ones, that alone won’t change their preferences, and you better cater to their preferences if you want to be a successful car salesman (or saleswoman, in this case). And when women do have a job, they typically want their partner to make at least as much as them.</p>
<p>Conversely, some men who observe in themselves a desire for beauty may draw the mistaken conclusion that women desire beauty in men. As a result, these men may focus too much on how they look. But, again, the truth is that women generally don’t really care about beauty in men; whether men have a full head of hair or abs – what matters is that they can provide money and/or status.</p>
<p>Here’s another type of mistake. Because women control access to sex, they may mistakenly think that they also control access to commitment and relationships. But as I’ve said, it is men who control that. Women who do not realize this mistake underestimate the difficulty of finding a relationship in their 30s and beyond, especially if they raise their expectations as they get older (which is another mistake).</p>
<p>Likewise, men who prioritize dating and partying in their 20s often fail to realize that they instead should have used that time to make something of themselves. They’ll have more difficulty finding a beautiful woman to call their own.</p>
<p>These mistakes on both sides can lead to exceptions to the rule, where both parties to a couple are the same age, or sometimes the man is younger even than the woman.</p>
<p>I think men are wrong to objectify women for their beauty – this is uncontroversial. But I also think that women are wrong to objectify men for their money and status. Both mating strategies cause suffering, for men in the short run and for women in the long run. I think we’d be wise to change that somehow.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/why-do-younger-women-typically-date-older-men
Why Do Younger Women Typically Date Older Men?
2023-02-06T19:35:26Z
2023-02-06T19:35:26Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="chat-about-male-female-dynamics">Chat about Male-Female Dynamics</h1>
<p>A female friend of mine and I discuss male-female dynamics. Read on if you want to learn about what attracts women and what attracts men, perceived vs. real differences and inequalities such as the pay gap, male and female rights, and more. Neither of us is a native speaker of English. Many of my questions are inspired by a YouTube channel called ‘It’s Complicated’.</p>
<div class="chat-container bg-white px-3 py-1 rounded-lg">
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<div class="mine messages">
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Are you a feminist?
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<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code></div>
<div class="yours messages">
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What is your definition of a feminist?
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<div class="mine messages">
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You tell me. Whatever you think a feminist is.
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<div class="yours messages">
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I support feminism which is the belief in social, economic, and political equality of all sexes (definition by Britannica)
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If that means I’m a feminist, I guess then I am
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<div class="mine messages">
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Ok. Presumably, to meet that definition, men and women need to have equal rights?
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<div class="yours messages">
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Yes
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And all other sexes
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<div class="mine messages">
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👎
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What are some rights men have that women do not?
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<div class="yours messages">
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<blockquote>👎</blockquote>
What’s the issue?
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<blockquote>What are some rights men have that women do not?</blockquote>
It is not a simple question although I feel like you want it to be answered a simplistic way to either provoke me or argue against my examples
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There are laws and they are supposedly applied equality to any genders, races, and age groups and so on
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However in reality, they are always equality applied. And some laws are simply flawed
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So back to your question, on the surface, the existence of rights might be equal for both genders. However, how the right was exercised by people are not always equal because of the individual or systemic bias
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<div class="mine messages">
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<blockquote>However in reality, they are always equality applied. And some laws are simply flawed</blockquote>
Do you mean *not* always equally applied?
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<div class="yours messages">
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Correct. I missed it
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<div class="mine messages">
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Is equal pay a right that exists in theory but isn’t equally enforced, leading to pay differences between men and women for the same jobs?
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<div class="yours messages">
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That can be an example. I have a feeling that you might have some data or argument against that though
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Do you like Jordan B Peterson and what he has to say?
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<div class="mine messages">
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I don’t know him well enough to say but some of the things he’s said were good. He’s also religious tho and I dislike that.
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<blockquote>That can be an example. I have a feeling that you might have some data or argument against that though</blockquote>
Given a choice between a high-status social-media-influencer job without pay, and a $100,000 job working in the sewers, which job do you think most women would take?
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<blockquote>What’s the issue?</blockquote>
There are only two sexes (you’re confusing sex and gender).
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<div class="yours messages">
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Ah you’re right
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<blockquote>Given a choice between a high-status social-media-influencer job without pay, and a $100,000 job working in the sewers, which job do you think most women would take?</blockquote>
Most likely women. Most likely young women
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<div class="mine messages">
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Doesn’t that explain the pay gap?
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<div class="yours messages">
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I’d be very curious to see who’s paying these young women
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<div class="mine messages">
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And means it’s voluntary and that women care less about pay and more about status
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Demographic of payers
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<div class="yours messages">
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I think this pay gap discussion needs to be examined under various contexts. The relation between payee and payers (there’s power dynamic). And time/history
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Social media is relatively a very new thing in the history not along making money off from it
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*not alone
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<div class="mine messages">
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I think you mean ‘let alone’
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<div class="yours messages">
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Haha yeah
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My vocabulary doesn’t always keep up with my thoughts!
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Do sewer owners have power over women?
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<div class="yours messages">
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How’s that related?
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I don’t see any logical connection in the question
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You brought up power dynamics
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So I asked a question about power dynamics.
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Ah. I mean within the payer-payee relationship
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<div class="mine messages">
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Yes
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Sewer owners would be the payers
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<div class="yours messages">
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Do you think a male sewer owner pays more to the male employee vs. female employee?
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Which
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do you think
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<div class="mine messages">
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No women will take the job so it’s a non-question
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<div class="yours messages">
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Apparently about 4.5% sewage disposal worker is female
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So your response is false
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<div class="mine messages">
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Oh okay
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Do they actually work in the sewers or do they they office jobs related to sewage?
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<div class="yours messages">
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[shares screenshots of stats: 4.5% of sewage-disposal workers are female and they make 91% of what their male counterparts make ($42,207 vs. $46.461)]
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It seems that it’s a legit sewage disposal work
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<div class="mine messages">
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Ok. Are you familiar with the small-n problem?
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I’m not. Tell me
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It’s an artifact in statistics where a small number explains statistical anomalies and outliers. The small sample is responsible for the outcome, not any meaningful facts underlying the data.
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Eg, maybe 50% of the male population of Luxembourg likes Lamborghinis, but that doesn’t really tell you anything because Luxembourg’s population is so small to begin with.
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Better to look in a bigger country like Germany to correct for that error.
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I see
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Ok. That’s exactly what I did
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I looked biz consultant by gender ratio
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41.6%are women and 58.4 are men. Women still get paid 96% of what men get paid
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I just looked at another example.
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A profession dominated by women
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Nurse practitioner
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86.9% women and 13.1 % men
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In 2021, women earned 94% of what men earned
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Do those statistics account for rank and qualification?
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And anything else that might account for the difference
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Also 94% is really close btw
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Has gotten really close
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Thanks to the awareness and feminism movement
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I do understand why some men are angry with feminism movement
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There’s always fringe on any movement and any group
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Honestly I don’t know whole alot about feminism nor has in depth knowledge. But as a women, i believe there’s a still room to improve women’s status globally. I do think the women’s status in the US and the western country has gotten much better
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<blockquote>Do those statistics account for rank and qualification?</blockquote>
?
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Tell me what you’re trying to say with that question
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Nothing yet, I’m just looking for a yes or no
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If yes, maybe the statistics are meaningful. If no, they don’t really account for anything.
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And the difference can explained in terms other than some alleged oppression of women
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It doesn’t have the details but I think even with details there could be a valid argument
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Do you think the pay gap doesn’t exist?
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I don’t know but I remain unconvinced that if it does it’s because of prejudice against women.
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<blockquote>It doesn’t have the details but I think even with details there could be a valid argument </blockquote>
I think you mean ‘even without details’
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With details
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:)
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Oh like, if details said women’s ranks are generally lower?
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Yeah. Even if that’s the case
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Reminds me of a before and after photo of Twitter employees (before Elon musk took over vs after). Before photo had lots more women in it, after photo had only one IIRC.
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Seems to me there are two different ways to explain the difference, right?
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What does it tell you?
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Well first, Musk demanded a much tougher work ethic, wanted ppl who don’t contribute much to leave. That’s uncontroversial. The difference lies in how people interpret the impact on female employees.<br>
</code></pre></div>
<p><br><br>
Did he create some toxic work environment for females that pushed them out, as feminists were no doubt quick to conclude?<br><br>
<br><br>
Or did females quit disproportionately because they weren’t willing to put in the work he demanded?<br><br>
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The photo alone doesn’t tells, but I’d lean with the second option, given what we’ve established about women doing hard jobs (like sewers).<br>
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<em>doesn’t tell us<br>
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They are programmers in the photos, right?<br>
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Idk<br>
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I don’t know either. I think there are several versions<br>
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If you want to claim that women don’t work hard or avoid hard jobs, I’d argue against that.<br>
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Then why’d you answer they’d rather take high-status jobs for free than harder jobs for high pay?<br>
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Who doesn’t????<br>
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I wouldn’t<br>
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Regardless of gender!<br>
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You might be an exception but most would do<br>
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Oh wait. I might have misunderstood<br>
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No lots of men wouldn’t (several men were asked on YouTube and they all said they’d take the sewer job and all women said they’d take the job without pay)<br>
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You mean high paying vs. high status?<br>
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High-paying low-status job vs low-paying high-status job<br>
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Oh so you are saying women value status more than money?<br>
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Def<br>
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Are you arguing that that’s why women get paid less than men?<br>
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On the whole yea<br>
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More important for women to fit in, fulfill social functions and roles<br>
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More important for men to make money and provide, including for women<br>
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Less important (but not unimportant) for men to fit in and play status games.<br>
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Hmm…<br>
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I’m not so sure<br>
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Men play a lot more politics<br>
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I do agree in some way…social acceptance is more important for women and men to make to provide. These are both nature and nurtured tendency I believe<br>
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“for women and men to make to provide” I don’t understand this part.<br>
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Do you mean ‘for women *than</em> men’?<br>
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Social acceptance tend to be important for women. And providing for family is important to men<br>
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Although, I might argue that it might have been more like for men traditionally as a sole breadwinner in the house. But I don’t think it’s not so much like that<br>
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Anyone who is responsible to take care of family would feel the needs to do that. Like single mothers or a household with a woman being the breadwinner<br>
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Yea there are def exceptions<br>
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Then again fitting in and having a career aren’t mutually exclusive<br>
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In a typical relationship, do you think it’s more important to the women that the guy get along with her friends and family and go to social functions with her, or is it more important to the guy that she get along with his friends and family and go to social functions with him?<br>
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I think it’s equally important to both as long as they both consider “getting along with friends and family, and going to social functions” to be important<br>
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Don’t you?<br>
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No, more important to the woman<br>
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It might depend on the culture and the society.<br>
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Let’s say if it’s more important to women, what does it tell you?<br>
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<blockquote>More important for women to fit in, fulfill social functions and roles</blockquote><br>
This<br>
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Women don’t need to pursue a career or make money to attract men. <br>
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</d...<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-about-male-female-dynamics" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-about-male-female-dynamics</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-about-male-female-dynamics
Chat about Male-Female Dynamics
2023-02-08T23:44:28Z
2023-02-08T23:44:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="men-have-no-reproductive-rights">Men Have No Reproductive Rights</h1>
<p><em>I’m not a lawyer. This article contains no legal advice.</em></p>
<p>An interviewer from ‘It’s Complicated’ <a href="https://youtu.be/Y3iBnU_IFo8?t=990" rel="ugc">asks</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>If we give a woman the right to opt out of motherhood, should we also give a man the right to opt out of fatherhood […]?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If the answer is ‘yes’, it means equality in at least two regards: not only would both men and women have (roughly) the same reproductive rights, but women would be held accountable for the consequences of their sexual acts just the same as men.</p>
<p>If the answer is ‘no’ in an effort to keep reproductive rights as is, as I suspect most feminists would answer, then they do <em>not</em> want equality as they claim. Instead, they want special privileges for women at the expense of men and children.</p>
<p>A bit <a href="https://youtu.be/Y3iBnU_IFo8?t=1053" rel="ugc">later on</a> in the video, one woman comments on men’s inability to refuse children they do not want:</p>
<blockquote><p>I don’t think it’s right. I think the whole system’s fucked.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The interviewer then says:</p>
<blockquote><p>We spend so much time talking about a woman’s choice […]. What reproductive rights does a man have?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Her response:</p>
<blockquote><p>None.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As I understand it, she’s right. The reality of the situation is that, as a guy, you have no reproductive rights. If you get a woman pregnant, intentionally or not, whether she has the baby and whether you’re on the hook for child support is completely up to her.</p>
<p>Conversely, if you want to keep the baby and she does not, I believe it’s still up to her to abort or give it up for adoption (it appears to be up to men to enforce their rights in the case of adoption, see below). She has zero responsibility and all the decision-making power while you potentially carry all the responsibility and have zero decision-making power. This imbalance is perverse: normally, a lack of choice implies a lack of responsibility.</p>
<p>On the topic of abortion: I’m pro abortion but I don’t think a man should be able to force a woman to have one. Nor should a man be able to force a woman to carry a child to term. But the point is that she shouldn’t be able to force him to be on the hook, either, if he didn’t agree to having a child. It is right to protect women from men’s arbitrary power over women’s bodies – and it would be just as right to protect men from women’s arbitrary power over men’s finances.</p>
<p>If the woman can force the man to provide for a child he does not want, he is a <a href="https://avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/male-reproductive-rights-female-non-responsibility/" rel="ugc"><em>slave</em></a>. Laws that heavily favor one side create incentives for bad actors to take advantage of that slavery.</p>
<p>Since women carry the physical burden of pregnancy – a burden men cannot carry – I’d potentially be in favor of laws which <em>slightly</em> skew in favor of women. Then again, in recognition of that burden, women have sole control over abortion. It could also be argued that women control access to sex, so they already have more power in that regard. It also follows that ‘arguments’ along the lines of ‘he should have kept his dick in his pants’ apply the same to women and their private parts. And, as Karen Straughan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRdq2zqGxgY" rel="ugc">points out</a>, it’s a lot easier for women to verify contraception than for men, so the responsibility for getting pregnant generally lies more with women on that point alone.</p>
<p>An obvious exception is rape, where I think it’s right to hold a man accountable for his actions and force him to pay child support if she decides to keep the baby. But here, too, the law should be as neutral as possible. The burden of proof should be high enough that bad actors can’t just falsely claim to be victims of rape to avoid accountability and get men to pay (so no, don’t just ‘believe all women’). And it should hold women to the same standard: if a woman steals a man’s seed, becomes pregnant, gives birth but then decides to walk away from the baby, either the man should be able to force her to pay child support if he wants to keep the child, or neither party should be able to force anything. That’s equality.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090726150133/http://www.who.int//reproductive-health/gender/index.html" rel="ugc">says</a> “[r]eproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right <em>of all</em> couples <em>and individuals</em> to decide freely […] the number, spacing and timing of their children” and that reproductive rights “include the right <em>of all</em> to make decisions concerning reproduction free of […] coercion […]” (emphasis added in both quotes). As <a href="https://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-bloomfield/2014/05/heres-why-men-should-have-the-reproductive-rights-that-women-have/" rel="ugc">this article</a> concludes, “[t]he WHO says reproductive rights require that no person be coerced into parenthood, meaning that men do not have reproductive rights, as long as that coercion exists.” The same article also says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Women are also under no legal requirement to identify the father of their child and if the father is not listed on the birth certificate, he has no legal rights at all. Certainly men can pursue legal rights by establishing paternity, but it is up to men to enforce their rights. Women can, and do, surrender infants for adoption without notifying or identifying the father of the child. These are very high risk adoptions for the adopting couple, because there is always a chance the father will appear and attempt to assert his rights, but the fact remains that women can, once again, relieve themselves of all social, legal, financial and moral responsibility for a child they do not want.</p>
<p>Men cannot do any of those things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Note that the rights the author speaks of can be pursued by fathers only <em>after</em> the child is born, so I’d hesitate to consider them reproductive rights. And, as I understand it, women basically still have complete power to override them if they choose to.</p>
<p>One perspective that’s usually conspicuously absent from this discussion is the child’s. Reproductive rights as they’re currently set up seem to heavily favor the mother, not the child. If anything, the child is favored only by proxy, financially speaking. It’d be one thing if both the woman and the man were on the hook for child support, but, as I’ve said, that doesn’t seem to be the case. This again creates an incentive for bad actors: to have a child just so they’ll get money from the father, without any obligation to spend it on the child. It’s <a href="/posts/do-children-owe-their-parents" rel="ugc">not unheard of</a> that those same mothers later expect financial support from their adult children, which is disgusting. And the fact that women can “relieve themselves of all social, legal, financial and moral responsibility for a child they do not want” can’t be good for the child, either. It encourages reckless behavior at the expense of the child.</p>
<p>I have mentioned adoption, which I imagine to be traumatic for the child. But there are also wonderful adoptive parents, so in some scenarios, adoption could be better than growing up with parents who do not want the child or who are unfit to be parents. In light of these difficulties, I don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution. But what I do know is that women can’t continue to reap all the upside without consequence while men and children are forced to pay the price for reckless behavior. Women need to be held accountable the same as men.</p>
<p>The fundamental asymmetry between men and women as it relates to reproductive rights is this: nobody can force a woman to be a mother, but a man can easily be forced to be a father. It’s always ‘my body, my choice’, but then why isn’t it ever ‘my body, my responsibility?’ Again, when you make a choice, you are responsible for that choice.</p>
<p>So, to answer the question I quoted at the beginning:</p>
<blockquote><p>If we give a woman the right to opt out of motherhood, should we also give a man the right to opt out of fatherhood […]?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, but not in the sense that men should be able to just up and leave like women. Either way, I appreciate that the question points out the double standard. My work-in-progress answer is that it should be non-trivial and roughly equally hard, but also equally possible, for both men and women to opt out of parenthood. That probably involves making it easier for men and harder for women than it currently is, resulting in roughly equal responsibility. Alternatively, if women want to retain control over men in this regard, they will need to accept more responsibility. Or they could give up some control in exchange for less responsibility. Either way, the degree of responsibility should be commensurate with the degree of control.</p>
<p>I think women, especially feminists, should take a long hard look at the presented facts as they seem to be and ask themselves: do they want equality, which implies equal accountability? Or do they want to have their cake and eat it, too? And men should ask themselves if they even want to have sex when the culture is so heavily skewed against them and they could so easily be taken advantage of – after all, birth control isn’t fail-safe. I think men would be well-advised to have sex less, particularly with women whose clock may be ticking.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/men-have-no-reproductive-rights
Men Have No Reproductive Rights
2023-01-17T05:07:14Z
2023-01-17T05:07:14Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="die-folgen-unserer-ideen-aus-der-kindheit">Die Folgen unserer Ideen aus der Kindheit</h1>
<p><em>Dies ist eine genehmigte (aber nicht geprüfte) Übersetzung des Artikels <a href="https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/surely-it-is-cruel-to-force-people-to-live-with-the-consequences-of-the-ideas-and-preferences-they-had-when-they-were-children/" rel="ugc">›Surely it is cruel to force people to live with the consequences of the ideas and preferences they had when they were children?‹</a>, verfasst von Sarah Fitz-Claridge und veröffentlicht auf der Homepage von</em> Taking Children Seriously (Kinder ernst nehmen).</p>
<hr>
<blockquote><p>»Es ist doch sicherlich grausam, Menschen dazu zu zwingen, mit den Folgen ihrer Ideen und Präferenzen aus ihrer Kindheit zu leben, oder nicht? Ich bin froh, dass ich mehr gelernt habe, als ich es mit fünf Jahren getan hätte, wenn ich mich dafür entschieden hätte.«</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wenn Ihnen das jemand gesagt hätte, als Sie fünf Jahre alt waren, hätten Sie es ihm geglaubt? Und was hätte Sie zu der Annahme veranlasst, dass er Sie anlügt?</p>
<p>William Godwin schreibt 1797 in seinem Buch <em>The Enquirer</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>»Wenn etwas wirklich gut ist, kann man das auch belegen. Gelingt es einem nicht, dessen Vorzüglichkeit zu belegen, liegt der Verdacht nahe, dass man nicht imstande ist, es richtig zu beurteilen.«</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– William Godwin, 1797, <em>The Enquirer</em>, Part I, Essay IX: Of the communication of knowledge, p. 69</p>
<p>Außerdem können Sie nicht wissen, <em>was passiert wäre</em>, wenn das, was passiert ist, <em>nicht</em> passiert wäre.</p>
<p>Natürlich erinnern sich viele von uns gerne an ihre Kindheit und sind ihren Eltern dankbar für alles, was sie für uns getan haben. Ob das, was sie getan haben, nun perfekt war oder gar ein völliges Desaster, sind wir uns doch bewusst, dass sie mit dem Wissen, über das sie verfügten, das Beste getan haben. Fast alle Eltern tun ihr Möglichstes, um ihren Kindern ein besseres Leben zu ermöglichen, als sie es selbst hatten. Die meisten bemühen sich sehr, ihren Kindern das zu geben, was ihnen selbst als Kind gefehlt hat, und sie bemühen sich auch, auf ihre Kinder keinen Zwang der Art auszuüben, die sie selbst als Kind erlitten und als verwerflich empfunden haben. Wir alle geben unser Bestes, und wir alle machen Fehler.</p>
<p>Das Problem mit der Vorstellung, dass wir Eltern unsere Kinder zu etwas zwingen und ihnen vorschreiben sollten, was sie unserer Meinung nach lernen sollten, ist, dass dies antirational ist: Diese Vorstellung beeinträchtigt systematisch die Fehlerkorrektur und den Wissenszuwachs.</p>
<p>Stellen wir uns vor, alle Eltern würden ihre Kinder so behandeln, wie es in der fernen Vergangenheit der Fall war, und ihre Kinder würden ihre eigenen Kinder wiederum so erziehen, wie sie selbst erzogen wurden, und so weiter über Generationen hinweg. Dann würden wir heute noch Kinder auspeitschen und sie in dunkle Schränke sperren. Wir wollen, dass unsere Kinder in der Lage sind, unsere Fehler zu korrigieren, und nicht, dass wir sie ihnen aufbürden.</p>
<p>Wenn es also etwas gibt, von dem Sie glauben, dass Ihr Kind es unbedingt wissen oder lernen sollte, erzählen Sie ihm einfach davon und erklären Sie ihm, warum es sich dafür interessieren könnte. Entweder zeigt sich Ihr Kind überzeugt und heißt Ihre Hilfe beim Lernen willkommen, oder es zeigt sich nicht überzeugt, auch wenn es versteht, warum Sie das Thema für eine gute Idee halten. Wenn es sich nicht überzeugt zeigt, haben Sie vielleicht nicht gut genug argumentiert, oder vielleicht irrt Ihr Kind, oder vielleicht irren Sie in Ihrem Glauben, dass das Thema wichtig ist. In keinem dieser Fälle wäre es empfehlenswert, das Thema zu forcieren.</p>
<p>Der Zwang hemmt den Wissenszuwachs. Wer seine Kinder zu Dingen zwingt, legt ihrer Kreativität, ihrer Fähigkeit zu lernen, Probleme zu lösen und neues Wissen zu schaffen, Steine in den Weg. Er stört und beeinträchtigt aktiv die Prozesse, die Wissen schaffen. Dem liegt eine falsche Wissensphilosophie zugrunde – die Theorie, dass Wissen in den Verstand geschüttet werden kann wie eine Flüssigkeit in einen Eimer. Doch der Verstand ist aktiv, nicht passiv wie ein Eimer. Und Wissen kann nicht einfach in ihn hineingeschüttet werden. Wissen wird durch einen aktiven Prozess kreativer Vermutungen und Kritik in und durch diesen Verstand geschaffen.</p>
<p>Wenn man seine Kinder zu etwas zwingt, hat das auch die unbeabsichtigte Folge, dass man zu einem feindlichen Widersacher in einem Krieg wird. Wenn man aus einer Sache einen Krieg macht, verhalten sich die Menschen entsprechend. Der Feind ist definitiv nicht vertrauenswürdig. Der Feind muss in Schach gehalten werden, und alles, was der Feind gegen einen verwenden könnte, muss vor ihm versteckt werden. Wenn Eltern Zwang auf ihre Kinder ausüben, kommt es in der Regel zu Ausreden, Verheimlichungen, Vortäuschungen, Streit, Widerstand, Untergrabung, dem bloßen Anschein von Kooperation, mangelndem Vertrauen, mangelnder Bindung und (oft verschleiertem) Hass. Ist das eine gute Grundlage für eine warmherzige, liebevolle Beziehung, in der Sie als vertrauter Ansprechpartner Ihres Kindes fungieren?</p>
<p>Wenn Sie Ihre Kinder zu etwas zwingen, vermitteln Sie ihnen viel Bedauerliches. Sie vermitteln ihnen, dass Einverständnis unwichtig und Zwang in Ordnung ist. Sie vermitteln ihnen, dass das Recht des Stärkeren gilt. Sie vermitteln ihnen, dass es in Ordnung ist, wenn jemand, der größer und stärker oder mächtiger ist, seinen Vorteil gegen schwächere oder abhängige Menschen einsetzt. Sie vermitteln ihnen den Pessimismus – dass Probleme nicht lösbar sind. Sie vermitteln ihnen, dass Bildung etwas ist, das man ertragen und überleben muss, nicht etwas Wunderbares. Sie vermitteln ihnen, dass das Leben ein Nullsummenspiel ist, bei dem sie nur gewinnen können, wenn jemand anderes verliert und umgekehrt – dass man den Feind also unbedingt vernichten muss. Sie vermitteln ihnen, dass andere Menschen ihre Feinde sind; dass sie also auf der Hut und paranoid sein müssen; und dass sie es sich gut überlegen müssen, ob sie jemandem vertrauen können, denn die Chancen stehen gut, dass er einen vernichtet, wenn man ihn nicht zuerst vernichtet. Sie vermitteln ihnen, dass gute Beziehungen und glückliche Ehen unmöglich sind. Sie verwandeln sie in Opfer oder Täter oder beides.</p>
<p>Was kann da schon schiefgehen?</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Dieser Artikel könnte Sie ebenfalls interessieren: <a href="/posts/klarung-der-frage-was-ich-mit-zwang-meine" rel="ugc">Klärung der Frage, was ich mit ›Zwang‹ meine</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/die-folgen-unserer-ideen-aus-der-kindheit
Die Folgen unserer Ideen aus der Kindheit
2023-01-15T04:52:13Z
2023-01-15T04:52:13Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="uncontroversial">Uncontroversial</h1>
<p>How do people make decisions? How do we make progress in science? And how do courts rule? Underlying these processes is a simple yet far-reaching logic that few people know. Understanding it gives you greater visibility into many seemingly unrelated areas.</p>
<p>Consider the following quote by philosopher Karl Popper about science:</p>
<blockquote><p>A serious empirical test always consists in the attempt to find a refutation, a counter example. In the search for a counter example, we have to use our <strong>background knowledge</strong> […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— <em>Conjectures and Refutations</em>, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/fZnrUfJWQ-YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22A%20serious%20empirical%20test%22" rel="ugc">p. 325</a> (emphasis added)</p>
<p>I argue that, in addition to the sciences, background knowledge plays a crucial role in <em>all</em> rational endeavors. (Surely Popper knew this – I’m just pointing it out.) Its role extends even to the judicial realm and others, as I will explain shortly.</p>
<p>We begin, as is customary in Popperian epistemology, with <em>problems</em>. A problem, with physicist David Deutsch, is a <em>conflict between ideas</em>.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> In its simplest form, a problem can always be defined as a conflict between an idea and its negation. Given an idea A and its negation !A (read: ‘not A’), if we are to make a decision, we need to take sides. We do so by searching for a refutation of either A or !A in our background knowledge; whichever of the two survives may then be incorporated into our background knowledge later on. As Popper writes (ibid, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/fZnrUfJWQ-YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22While%20discussing%20a%20problem%22" rel="ugc">p. 323</a>):</p>
<blockquote><p>While discussing a problem we always accept (if only temporarily) all kinds of things as <em>unproblematic</em>: they constitute for the time being, and for the discussion of this particular problem, what I call our <em>background knowledge</em>. Few parts of this background knowledge will appear to us in all contexts as absolutely unproblematic, and any particular part of it <em>may</em> be challenged at any time, especially if we suspect that its uncritical acceptance may be responsible for some of our difficulties. But almost all of the vast amount of background knowledge which we constantly use in any informal discussion will, for practical reasons, necessarily remain unquestioned; and the misguided attempt to question it all—that is to say, <em>to start from scratch</em>—can easily lead to the breakdown of a critical debate.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, our background knowledge is vast; much of it is not related to our problem situation. Considering it uncontroversial, or ‘unproblematic’ as Popper calls it, is a <em>practical</em> concern: we simply cannot question it all at once. That would be a form of <a href="/posts/starting-over" rel="ugc">‘starting over’</a> – a revolution – which should be avoided. In short, <strong>for something to be uncontroversial means you have no reason to doubt it for the moment.</strong> And because it is uncontroversial, we can use it to refute one of the conflicting ideas: they are both considered controversial for the moment, so the uncontroversial idea can serve as a ‘tiebreaker’. It’s a tie because there’s a <em>symmetry</em>, as philosopher Elliot Temple calls it, between the conflicting ideas. Taking sides is an act of <a href="https://curi.us/1470-symmetry" rel="ugc">breaking that symmetry</a>.</p>
<p>An idea could be about anything. For example, consider the problem of having lost your keys. To find them, you guess they’re on the kitchen counter – this is your idea A. Now you need to find some way of determining (fallibly) whether A is true or !A is true. You do this by finding another idea in your background knowledge, or by creating a new idea, that conflicts with either. For example, you could check the kitchen counter. In this scenario, your sense data is uncontroversial: if you see your keys on the counter, you can refute !A in favor of A, and you (fallibly) conclude that your guess was correct. (That sense data is often (but not always!) uncontroversial has fooled many into thinking that knowledge is derived from the senses – which is the mistaken doctrine of <em>empiricism</em>.)</p>
<p>Here’s a slightly more involved example: somebody gives an outrageous quote. Should you believe the quote? You could ask for a screenshot of the source. If the screenshot accurately captures the quote, you may believe it. But if somebody then tells you that <a href="/posts/don-t-trust-screenshots-of-browsers" rel="ugc">screenshots are notoriously unreliable</a> because they’re easy to fake, you may realize you were mistaken to consider screenshots uncontroversial, in which case you’re back to where you started.</p>
<p>Keys and screenshots may sound like mundane examples, but they follow the same logic as any decision-making process. And because they involve empirical data, they’re also scientific.</p>
<p>What about other areas? I’m no lawyer, but I believe background knowledge is of utmost importance in court proceedings. Consider a defamation lawsuit in which the plaintiff claims that the defendant made libelous statements about the plaintiff in an email. How can the court determine (as always only fallibly) whether the statements were made in the fashion the plaintiff reported? It could ask the plaintiff to produce the emails. But that wouldn’t be uncontroversial – he’s one of the two conflicting parties, ie he represents one of the two conflicting ideas. Following the logic I laid out above, the court needs a third, independent idea or representative thereof to decide.</p>
<p>For example, the court could subpoena the defendant’s email provider. That email provider is an independent third party with no incentive to lie and thus represents part of the court’s background knowledge. If, on the other hand, the plaintiff’s lawyer finds that the defendant bribed his email provider to produce false records, then, just like in the case of easily faked screenshots, the court is back to square one. Whether it believes the plaintiff’s lawyer depends on whether he can refer to shared background knowledge showing that the email records have indeed been manipulated. (I suspect all persuasion involves the successful use of shared background knowledge.) If he makes a convincing case, what the court originally considered unproblematic is, in fact, highly controversial.</p>
<p>The logic is simple, but finding relevant background knowledge and devising adequate tests to take sides between conflicting ideas can be difficult. I suspect this difficulty is the reason why courts issue a threat of overwhelming punishment for perjury. The punishment is intended to scare a potentially dishonest party into submission so that their statements can be considered uncontroversial, thus facilitating legal decision-making. However, it should be noted that such threats indicate a lack of knowledge and thus are a sign of incompetence.<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> I’m no expert, but I understand they’re often found not to work anyway: people still lie in court, maybe because they think they can get away with it.</p>
<p>Likewise, when you sign a contract, it may say that you must pay x amount of dollars in damages if you break it. The signature is then considered uncontroversial if the dollar amount would hurt sufficiently. In addition, those threatening punishment have to make good on their threats, or else their threats are not considered uncontroversial; that is, when someone decides between, say, breaking a contract and not breaking it, the enforcer wants him to find it uncontroversial that he would follow through on his threat.</p>
<p>Since background knowledge is crucial in adjudicating conflicts between ideas and thereby <a href="/posts/choosing-between-theories" rel="ugc">choosing between theories</a>, we can see now that there can be an epistemological need for punishment in certain situations where the requisite background knowledge is lacking. It would be pessimistic, however, to think that punishment is the only way to come by such background knowledge, and other, non-tyrannical ways should be preferred when they are expedient.</p>
<p>When a court decides whether a given law is unconstitutional, the logic is again the same: idea A says the law is constitutional, whereas !A says it is not. The constitution, itself unproblematic in this constellation, represents background knowledge. The court can then review the constitution, ie consult its background knowledge, to make a decision between A and !A and to rule accordingly.</p>
<p>In all these cases, the question is not ‘how can I use background knowledge to be certain I made the right decision?’ Instead, its use should have a Popperian focus on <em>error correction</em>: ‘How can I use background knowledge to eliminate errors? How can I get closer to the truth?’ While the veracity of an idea is always a binary matter, its ‘uncontroversialness’ is a matter of degree. We can always feel more or less certain that some idea is uncontroversial, only to be disappointed (or excited, depending on your attitude) once we realize we were mistaken after all. Therefore, background knowledge cannot serve as a criterion of truth – all we can hope for is that we use it correctly on occasion.</p>
<p>Note that, when we refer to existing background knowledge to decide between ideas, we need not be creative. But sometimes we lack the requisite background knowledge, and we have to come up with a <em>new</em> idea. When a cop tells you it’s your word (A) against the other guy’s (!A), he’s saying that there is currently no background knowledge to decide which one of you is right – so you better come up with a way to prove your case. Understanding how a mind creates new ideas is the study of <em>artificial general intelligence</em>. As Deutsch points out,<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> the creation of new ideas and alternatives is a crucial part of decision-making, which shouldn’t be viewed as a process that is restricted to weighing a fixed set of pre-existing ideas.</p>
<p>It’s a great success when a true idea is adopted and becomes background knowledge. That the earth is round was once considered <a href="/posts/crazy" rel="ugc">crazy</a>, now it’s considered self-evidently true. We can only hope that other important ideas, eg that children should be free, will soon enjoy the same fate.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Travis Smith for discussing the ideas in this article before publication.</em></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>David Deutsch, <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Beginning_of_Infinity/jZHanN5_KPgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22conflict%20between%20ideas%22" rel="ugc">ch. 1</a>. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>On the topic of punishment, a quote by William Godwin comes to mind: <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
<blockquote><p>If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As quoted <a href="/posts/notable-quotes-about-authority" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>Deutsch wrote a chapter called “Choices” (ch. 13 of his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>) on the logic of decision-making where he stresses the creation of new ideas. <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/uncontroversial
Uncontroversial
2023-01-13T23:52:39Z
2023-01-13T23:52:39Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="mind-reading">Mind Reading</h1>
<p>I have been accused of ‘mind reading’ at least twice. This happens when I offer an interlocutor an explanation for their behavior and that explanation conflicts with their own.</p>
<p>First of all, I wonder: wouldn’t it be mind reading only if my explanation <em>matched</em> theirs? If I ask you to guess a number between 1 and 10 – go ahead, take a moment to do so – and then I guess that you picked 7… it’s only ‘mind reading’ if I guess correctly.</p>
<p>Yet they complain that I got it wrong <em>and</em> that what I’m doing is mind reading.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe they only mean <em>unsuccessful</em> mind reading. Maybe they’re saying that what they deem ‘mind reading’ should not be attempted – that it is bound to be wrong, and that I should never offer an explanation for their behavior that contradicts their own explanation. Or that I should at least favor their explanation over mine – always and uncritically.</p>
<p>Ironically, my accusers are self-proclaimed critical rationalists. They follow Karl Popper in thinking that there is no such thing as a <em>criterion of truth</em> – that one cannot know that one is right, or probably right. Yet, in the scenarios I’ve described, they treat their own thoughts as a criterion of truth, or source thereof.</p>
<p>This attitude is inherently anti-fallibilist and everything Popper was against. <em>You cannot call yourself a critical rationalist if you have this attitude.</em></p>
<p>In <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, David Deutsch writes about how people come up with mistaken explanations for their own behavior (ch. 15). He uses rules of grammar as an example: we often follow rules of grammar we cannot name, and if we try to, we may later find that we’re mistaken.</p>
<p>Now, combine this with Deutsch’s criterion of reality (ch. 1): that something “is real if and only if it figures in our best explanation of something”. So, if your explanation of their behavior is better than theirs, as critical rationalists, they should accept yours.</p>
<p>The thing is, grammar is fairly uncontroversial. People don’t typically feel shaken to their core when you criticize their grammar or their explanations thereof. But there may be more controversial things they can be wrong about, too – such as deeply held beliefs – and you can point it out, and you can know why they did something better than they know. That may not always be the case, maybe not even often – but it’s possible. I expect most of Deutsch’s readers who agree about grammar to accuse you of mind reading in other, only slightly more controversial cases.</p>
<p>Say somebody repeatedly stands you up and you ask why. They may say it’s because they were just really busy. But you know that, in reality, they’re not that busy – just last week they complained of boredom. Instead, they’re a flake; they’re bad at time management and scheduling. Maybe you used to be bad at time management yourself, so you recognize that in them. When you offer their lacking time-management skills as an explanation, they shouldn’t accuse you of ‘mind reading’. They may not like the criticism, but that’s an unreasonable (and false) accusation.</p>
<p>People’s fallibility extends even to their knowledge of their own thoughts. We can overestimate how much visibility we have into our minds. Nobody is guaranteed never to make that mistake.</p>
<p>‘Mind reading’ of the sort I have described is often a social misstep, but not always an intellectual one. I think calling it ‘mind reading’ to delegitimize it is wrong. If my explanation for your actions is better than yours and you cannot refute it, you should accept it. Your own explanation is not automatically right.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/mind-reading
Mind Reading
2022-12-21T07:10:42Z
2022-12-21T07:10:42Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="help-my-kid-doesn-t-want-to-be-vegan-anymore">Help: My Kid Doesn’t Want to Be Vegan Anymore!</h1>
<p>A concerned mother has made a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/zmrxcm/im_devastated_my_kid_doesnt_want_to_be_vegan/" rel="ugc">post</a> in the r/vegan subreddit titled “I’m devastated - my kid doesn’t want to be vegan anymore”.</p>
<p>In it, she describes how she raised her 11.5-year-old son to be vegan, “literally from the womb”. In the beginning, she was “blessed with not having to deal with him wanting anything other than vegan food, clothing, etc.” However, having started middle school, “he wants to fit in” and be a “carnist”. She reports that violence does not bother him (though I suspect he doesn’t mean violence in general, only the slaughter of certain animals for food, as is widely accepted culturally).</p>
<p>His new attitude came as such a shock to her that, “through tears, [she] told him [she] needed time to process this”. She will discuss it with him only after they watch a documentary. Her partner (allegedly) won’t discuss this matter because he’s a – there’s that word again – “carnist” (whom she lets eat what he wants only outside the house).</p>
<p>The poor woman asks for advice because she “ha[s] no support”, hoping she’ll feel seen as a struggling mother who just wants what’s best for her son. “I’m afraid if I keep pushing, he will never want to be vegan ever again. If I let him choose, I still run the risk of him never being vegan.”</p>
<p>This stance we might call <strong>the tyrant’s dilemma</strong>: ‘If I make him do x, my subject will rebel and not do x; but if I don’t, he also might not do x.’ The tyrant asks: how can I <em>ensure</em> that my subject does what I want? How can I use authority to achieve specific, guaranteed results? This attitude is disgusting.</p>
<p>It’s ironic that she complains about his alleged conformism among his middle-school friends. After all, she wants him to conform to <em>her</em> preference, just not theirs – so she still wants conformism, only for what she considers the ‘right’ choice. She was very happy with her son as long as he conformed with her ideals. I suspect the vast majority of parents who worry about (the wrong kind of, in their eyes) conformism are hypocrites in the same way.</p>
<p>It’s also ironic that she complains about her partner (allegedly) not being willing to discuss the matter while at the same time not letting her son discuss with her unless he meets some condition first (watching a documentary). Her willingness to discuss issues with her son – if he wants to discuss them – shouldn’t be conditional upon him doing what she wants. <em>That’s what should be up for discussion regardless.</em></p>
<p>She’s <a href="/posts/crazy" rel="ugc">not the first</a> mother to complain about her son’s disobedience online and garner sympathy from other mothers for her terrible struggles. Like those other mothers, she’s absolutely certain that she’s right and her son wrong. She will never consider that it’s the opposite, and so they’re stuck.</p>
<p>What would be the solution to her dilemma? Karl Popper’s <a href="/posts/fallibility-table" rel="ugc">credo</a>:</p>
<blockquote><h3 id="i-may-be-wrong-and-you-may-be-right-and-by-an-effort-we-may-get-nearer-to-the-truth"><em>‘I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth.’</em></h3>
</blockquote>
<p>She could say this to her son. But admitting to even a possibility that she could be wrong about her veganism is to allow her thoughts to enter forbidden territory – self-imposed avoidance of which is one of the <a href="/posts/the-animal-rights-community-is-based-on-fear-a" rel="ugc">irrationalities</a> endemic in the animal-welfare community. A tyrant like her thinks she <em>knows</em> she’s right – which one cannot possibly know – and then wonders why the people around her disagree. But couldn’t it be that her son is having new ideas not out of conformism, but because he thinks they’re true and good and useful? Disagreement by itself is not evidence that the other party is wrong, nor is it defiance, nor is it conformism with the opposing view.</p>
<p>As a former vegan, I sympathize somewhat with her views on animal suffering – I say “somewhat” because <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">I don’t believe anymore that animals can suffer</a>. But make no mistake: women like her are not just concerned mothers. Any appropriate moral judgment of them reflects the fact that they’re control freaks who use their children’s disobedience to, as I’ve said, garner sympathy.</p>
<p>In any case, she asked for advice, so I gave her <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/zmrxcm/comment/j0iqdbo/" rel="ugc">mine</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Your job as a parent is not to ensure that your child does what you think is right. It’s to [help him by his own lights, as per Lulie Tanett from <em>Taking Children Seriously</em>], even if you disagree […]. Otherwise he will learn that you are trying to control him, and the relationship and the trust you two have will suffer. Ironically, it would be a similar kind of authoritarianism (not in detail but in principle) you think humans exert on animals.</p>
<p>Please consider that you may be wrong, and that your child may be right, and explore these changes in your lives together.</p>
<p>On another note, what you call a “compromise” between you and your partner – where “he can have what he wants” as long as it’s “out of the home” – doesn’t sound like a compromise at all. It sounds like your preferences overruling his (probably at great inconvenience to him) instead of finding a solution you’re both happy with. Now it seems you’re trying to do the same with your child. Sad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Note that the last paragraph should not be read as an endorsement of compromises. I’m saying that what she imposes on her partner is <em>not even</em> a compromise.)</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/help-my-kid-doesn-t-want-to-be-vegan-anymore
Help: My Kid Doesn’t Want to Be Vegan Anymore!
2024-03-13T21:44:17Z
2024-03-13T21:44:17Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="ungenutzte-cover-ideen-f-r-der-anfang-der-unendlichkeit">Ungenutzte Cover-Ideen für <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em></h1>
<p>Während ich das Buch <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> von David Deutsch ins Deutsche <a href="/posts/the-beginning-of-infinity-der-anfang-der-unend" rel="ugc">übersetzt</a> habe, habe ich mir auch ein paar Ideen für das Cover einfallen lassen. Wir haben zwar letztendlich keine davon verwendet, und keines dieser Bilder ist je fertiggestellt worden, aber ich wollte sie hier für Fans des Buchs teilen. Sie bieten einen gewissen Einblick in die Entstehungsgeschichte.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-1.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-4"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Das schlicht gehaltene Unendlichkeitssymbol auf rotem Hintergrund hat mir gut gefallen.
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-2.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Die Inspiration für dieses Cover stammt aus den Kapiteln 1 und 2 – also das Greifen, die Sehnsucht nach den Sternen. Es hat David am besten gefallen. <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/lcT_p8kLCsc">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-3.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Was mir hier durch den Kopf ging, weiß ich offen gesagt nicht mehr. <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/GVlcXhQejA8">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-4.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Kapitel 3 und 17 sind die Inspiration für dieses Cover. Die Erde als Anfangspunkt eines unendlichen Abenteuers inmitten der Sterne … <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/universe-earth-planet-space- cosmos-1784292/">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-5.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Die Blume ist eine Anlehnung an Kapitel 14: »Warum sind Blumen schön?« <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/iMdsjoiftZo">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-6.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Hier dachte ich an die Renaissance, um die es unter anderem in Kapitel 9 geht. <a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/steampunk-balloon-gears- gothic-4330491/">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-7.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Der Astronaut, der nach den Sternen greift … wieder basierend auf Kapitel 1 und 2. <a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/galaxy-astronaut-space- star-3279274/">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-8.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Abstrakte Kunst. <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/5Ui5glVjUAQ">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-9.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Dieser rot glühende, vielleicht etwas unheimlich anmutende Nebel birgt sicher viele Geheimnisse, die wir irgendwann erkunden werden … <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/_aZUDe5-0TM">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-10.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Dieser Funke kommt natürlich aus Kapitel 3 – »Der Funke«. <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/BefmwQCVgUk">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-11.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Die in Stein gemeißelten Zitate auf der Treppe stammen auch aus Kapitel 3. Die Treppe selbst befindet sich wohl in Florenz, wo laut Deutsch im 14. Jahrhundert eine Miniaufklärung begann, und bietet damit einen Verweis auf Kapitel 9. <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/XlZ3WkfVpys">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
<p><img src="/assets/cover-ideas-12.png" class="d-block mx-auto mt-md-5"></p>
<p class="text-center font-italic">
Zuletzt nochmal das Greifen nach den Sternen sowie der Funke aus Kapitel 3, der zu einer Wissensexplosion führt. <a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/explosion-pop-big-bang-background-1285364/">Bildquelle</a>
</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/ungenutzte-cover-ideen-fur-der-anfang-der-unend
Ungenutzte Cover-Ideen für Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit
2022-12-04T04:13:27Z
2022-12-04T04:13:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="how-to-delete-all-user-defined-routines-in-postgresql">How to Delete All User-Defined Routines in PostgreSQL</h1>
<p><em>I’m not a PostgreSQL expert. Don’t run this code without fully understanding what it does. My explanation may be wrong.</em></p>
<p>I had to come up with a way to delete all user-defined routines in a given database – routines <a href="https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-droproutine.html#:%7E:text=aggregate%20functions%2C%20normal%20functions%2C%20and%20procedures" rel="ugc">being</a> “aggregate functions, normal functions, and procedures”. I thought I’d share the solution and what I’ve learned along the way.</p>
<p>First, we need to find all user-defined routines:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight sql"><code><span class="k">SELECT</span> <span class="n">p</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">proname</span> <span class="k">AS</span> <span class="k">routine_name</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">pg_get_function_arguments</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">p</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">oid</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">AS</span> <span class="n">routine_arguments</span>
<span class="k">FROM</span> <span class="n">pg_proc</span> <span class="n">p</span>
<span class="k">LEFT</span> <span class="k">JOIN</span> <span class="n">pg_namespace</span> <span class="n">n</span> <span class="k">on</span> <span class="n">p</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">pronamespace</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">n</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">oid</span>
<span class="k">WHERE</span> <span class="n">n</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">nspname</span> <span class="k">NOT</span> <span class="k">IN</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'pg_catalog'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'information_schema'</span><span class="p">);</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>The logic is borrowed from <a href="https://dataedo.com/kb/query/postgresql/list-user-defined-functions" rel="ugc">here</a> under “Universal” but I’ve simplified and modified the query to fit my purposes. It will return a table such as the following:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> routine_name | routine_arguments
--------------+-------------------
foo | a text, b text
bar | a integer
(2 rows)
</code></pre></div>
<p>If you need to distinguish between different types of routines, check <a href="https://dataedo.com/kb/query/postgresql/list-user-defined-functions" rel="ugc">the same source</a> under “PostgreSQL 11+” and make modifications accordingly.</p>
<p>Now we can transform each row into a <code>DROP ROUTINE</code> query. <code>routine_name</code> and <code>routine_arguments</code> are the two pieces of information needed to do that. We surround the previous query with another:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight sql"><code><span class="k">DO</span> <span class="err">$$</span>
<span class="k">DECLARE</span>
<span class="n">drop_query</span> <span class="nb">TEXT</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">BEGIN</span>
<span class="k">FOR</span> <span class="n">drop_query</span> <span class="k">IN</span> <span class="k">SELECT</span> <span class="s1">'DROP ROUTINE '</span> <span class="o">||</span> <span class="k">routine_name</span> <span class="o">||</span> <span class="s1">'('</span> <span class="o">||</span> <span class="n">routine_arguments</span> <span class="o">||</span> <span class="s1">') CASCADE;'</span> <span class="k">FROM</span>
<span class="p">(</span><span class="k">SELECT</span> <span class="n">p</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">proname</span> <span class="k">AS</span> <span class="k">routine_name</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">pg_get_function_arguments</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">p</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">oid</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">AS</span> <span class="n">routine_arguments</span>
<span class="k">FROM</span> <span class="n">pg_proc</span> <span class="n">p</span>
<span class="k">LEFT</span> <span class="k">JOIN</span> <span class="n">pg_namespace</span> <span class="n">n</span> <span class="k">on</span> <span class="n">p</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">pronamespace</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">n</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">oid</span>
<span class="k">WHERE</span> <span class="n">n</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">nspname</span> <span class="k">NOT</span> <span class="k">IN</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'pg_catalog'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'information_schema'</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="k">AS</span> <span class="n">arbitrary_alias</span>
<span class="n">LOOP</span>
<span class="k">BEGIN</span>
<span class="k">EXECUTE</span> <span class="n">drop_query</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">EXCEPTION</span>
<span class="k">WHEN</span> <span class="n">null_value_not_allowed</span> <span class="k">THEN</span>
<span class="n">RAISE</span> <span class="n">NOTICE</span> <span class="s1">'Already deleted'</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">END</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">END</span> <span class="n">LOOP</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">END</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="err">$$</span> <span class="k">LANGUAGE</span> <span class="n">plpgsql</span><span class="p">;</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>In short, given the user-defined routines <code>foo(a text, b text)</code> and <code>bar(a integer)</code>, the code above will create and execute the following queries:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight sql"><code><span class="k">DROP</span> <span class="k">ROUTINE</span> <span class="n">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a</span> <span class="nb">text</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">b</span> <span class="nb">text</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">CASCADE</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">DROP</span> <span class="k">ROUTINE</span> <span class="n">bar</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a</span> <span class="nb">integer</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">CASCADE</span><span class="p">;</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Each of those queries is created by extracting information from the sub-query discussed in the beginning and then concatenating that information. (The <code>||</code> operator does not mean ‘or’ like in many other languages – it’s a concatenation operator. One could also use <code>CONCAT()</code>.)</p>
<p>The ‘trick’ is that the concatenation will occur for each row returned by the subquery. Thus, the table…</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> routine_name | routine_arguments
--------------+-------------------
foo | a text, b text
bar | a integer
(2 rows)
</code></pre></div>
<p>…is transformed into…</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> ?column?
-------------------------------------------
DROP ROUTINE foo(a text, b text) CASCADE;
DROP ROUTINE bar(a integer) CASCADE;
(2 rows)
</code></pre></div>
<p>All the code then has to do is iterate over these queries and execute them.</p>
<p>The where clause in the sub-query filters the routines down to user-defined ones.</p>
<p>I’ve also added <code>arbitrary_alias</code> for no reason other than that <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14767209/subquery-in-from-must-have-an-alias#comment56350360_14767216" rel="ugc">PostgreSQL requires it</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, I’ve added a <code>CASCADE</code> instruction to the generated drop queries so that dependent routines are deleted along with their corresponding dependency routines. (They’d eventually be deleted anyway, given the universal nature of the code above, but PostgreSQL won’t delete routines with dependents without the cascade instruction.) If a dependency has already been deleted, its corresponding drop query, found later on in the list, is then <code>NULL</code>. I do not know why – I expected the query to remain unchanged but fail – but the exception handling catches it in any case so the loop can keep going. Another thing I do not yet understand is why regular functions do not seem to be affected by this restriction/do not require cascading, whereas aggregate functions do. PostgreSQL lets me delete regular functions with dependents without problems, but not aggregate functions with dependents.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p>
<p>Note that, when dropping a routine, its arguments usually need not be specified. For example, given a routine named <code>foo</code>, the query <code>DROP ROUTINE foo();</code> will do the job, with or without parentheses. However, for polymorphic/overloaded routines – i.e. routines with the same name but different signatures – the arguments need to be specified or PostgreSQL won’t know which one you’re referring to and will subsequently refuse to delete either one. For example, given the overloaded routine <code>foo</code> with signatures <code>foo(bar text)</code> and <code>foo(bar text, baz text)</code>, the query <code>DROP ROUTINE foo(bar text);</code> will delete the former but not the latter. Since specifying the arguments does no harm for non-overloaded routines, I always specify them to make drop statements work for both overloaded and regular routines.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>I asked OpenAI’s recently released ChatGPT and it said: <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The reason for this difference in behavior is that aggregate functions are a more specialized type of function that is used to perform custom aggregation operations on a set of values. Because of this, they are treated differently by the database system and are subject to stricter rules and constraints.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Take this with a huge grain of salt because I’ve found that ChatGPT gives incorrect answers about PostgreSQL fairly frequently.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-to-delete-all-user-defined-routines-in-postg
How to Delete All User-Defined Routines in PostgreSQL
2022-12-03T19:00:48Z
2022-12-03T19:00:48Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="why-i-mirror-my-tweets-and-why-you-should-too">Why I Mirror My Tweets – and Why You Should, Too</h1>
<p>I’ve decided to <a href="/tweets" rel="ugc">mirror my tweets</a>. I’ve created lots of content for Twitter over the years – 8,588 tweets at the time of writing – and I want to have control over it.</p>
<p>If Twitter goes belly up, decides to delete my account, or something else goes wrong, those tweets will just be <em>gone</em>. But now I’ve downloaded all of my tweets, and I store my latest tweets in my own database once an hour. They are backed up with the rest of the database at regular intervals, too.</p>
<p>There are other advantages. People can now comment on all mirrored tweets, such as <a href="/tweets/1596632004074012673" rel="ugc">this one</a>, without a Twitter account.</p>
<p>Coming from Twitter, finding a mirrored tweet of mine is easy because I use the same tweet ids. For example, in this URL – <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1596632004074012673" rel="ugc">https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1596632004074012673</a> – replace <code>twitter.com/dchackethal/status</code> with <code>blog.dennishackethal.com/tweets</code> to get <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/tweets/1596632004074012673" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/tweets/1596632004074012673</a>.</p>
<p>To be sure, this openness also enables those I’ve blocked on Twitter to leave comments on mirrored tweets instead. But I have control over that, too, because I approve comments before they appear publicly. And my spam controls seem better than Twitter’s, at least in part, because my commenters need to solve a puzzle that is trivial for humans but still stumps machines. Twitter presents no such challenge.</p>
<p>Now people can even subscribe to my tweets without a Twitter account through an <a href="/tweets.rss" rel="ugc">RSS feed</a>. And another benefit is that I can format tweets using markdown. I often write tweets <em>as if</em> Twitter accepted markdown because many people know to understand the raw text appropriately (e.g. asterisks mean emphasis, a ‘>’ at the start of a line indicates a block quote, and so on). As a result, <a href="/tweets/1593686075142201345" rel="ugc">this mirrored tweet</a> looks better than <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1593686075142201345" rel="ugc">the original</a>.</p>
<p>Other things I may do with mirrored tweets in the future that I can’t do on Twitter include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Allowing people to filter tweets by language (I sometimes tweet in German and it’d be handy for most people to filter out those tweets)</li>
<li>More sophisticated search than Twitter currently offers through regular expressions (though I need to consider the security ramifications of this)</li>
<li>Extending my web of references to tweets</li>
</ul>
<p>To that last point, you may have noticed that when posts, comments, or even podcast episodes link to each other, those links are extracted and listed both underneath the referencing and referenced entity. See, for example, the references listed underneath <a href="/posts/unconflicted" rel="ugc">this post</a> (not the footnotes; I mean the ‘References’ section underneath the footnotes). That way, people can find related content. Now I can do the same for tweets – if a tweet of mine links to a blog post of mine (say because I’m discussing something related on Twitter), I can now recognize and extract that reference from the mirrored tweet and show it underneath that blog post. People reading the blog post will be pointed to the tweet and can read the discussion. My Twitter and my blog become more integrated that way.</p>
<p>Mirrored tweets come with their own challenges. For example, I currently don’t group them by threads like Twitter does, which leaves some of them lacking in context. Nor do I display any media embedded in tweets (that’s partly to protect the privacy of my readers). But those are soluble problems and I may solve them in the future.</p>
<p>If you want to mirror your tweets as well, go to <a href="https://oauth-playground.glitch.me/" rel="ugc">https://oauth-playground.glitch.me/</a> and choose the <code>GET /2/tweets/:id</code> endpoint. Run it with any tweet of yours, having added ‘author.id’ to the <code>tweet.fields</code> underneath, to get your user id from the returned payload. Then use it with the <code>GET /2/users/:id/tweets</code> endpoint. On the right, click on the three dots ‘…’ to expand the details of the request and get the underlying API endpoint. Poll that endpoint once every hour, say, with the limit set to 100 (that’s assuming you don’t tweet more than 100 times an hour).</p>
<p>To get older tweets, request a Twitter archive instead (<a href="https://twitter.com/settings/account" rel="ugc">here</a> under “Download an archive of your data”) – the API won’t return more than (IIRC) 2000 tweets total, so any tweets older than that won’t be included. As part of the archive, you’ll get a bunch of files, one of which contains all your tweets. Then write a script to process that file and store the tweets in your db. (Unfortunately, tweets from the archive are formatted slightly differently from API ones, so you’ll need to change one or the other a bit to make things consistent.)</p>
<p>Mirrored tweets are currently in beta. They’re an experiment. Maybe they end up being a mistake and I’ll remove them. But for now I like the idea.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/why-i-mirror-my-tweets-and-why-you-should-too
Why I Mirror My Tweets – and Why You Should, Too
2022-11-30T21:12:26Z
2022-11-30T21:12:26Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="why-doesnt-angier-use-the-machine-only-once">Why Doesn’t Angier Use the Machine Only Once?</h1>
<p><em>This post is about the 2006 film</em> The Prestige. <em>Major spoilers ahead. Familiarity with the movie is assumed, but I do refresh the reader’s memory some.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Prestige</em> is one of my favorite movies. Every couple of years I watch it again and notice something new. I did so the other day, and this time, I asked myself: why doesn’t Angier use Tesla’s machine only once?</p>
<p>As you may recall, Angier is obsessed with coming up with a better version of ‘the transported man’, a trick his rival Alfred Borden has come up with (ignore the white line in the middle):</p>
<p><img class="d-block mx-auto" src="/assets/the-transported-man.webp"></p>
<p><small class="d-block text-center"><a href="https://animusrox.tumblr.com/post/664524957276045312/right-at-the-end-and-this-is-something-that-jonah" rel="ugc">Source</a></small></p>
<p>First, Angier tries using a double, but thanks to Borden’s influence, that doesn’t work out too well: the double blackmails Angier, and Angier also ends up with a broken leg. Not only can he clearly not work with a double and has to find another way, but he’s also dissatisfied with that approach: he doesn’t think Borden uses a double, so why should he?</p>
<p>Upon Borden’s misdirection, Angier travels to America to meet the famous scientist Nikola Tesla – whom some in the profession consider a real magician, a wizard, because he can actually do what magicians pretend to do, as Angier’s engineer says later on in the timeline. After a long wait and what seems like an exorbitant amount of money spent on the project, Tesla delivers a replication machine to Angier. It can clone any object placed inside of it, alive or not; the clone then appears some distance away with the original still intact. If the original is immediately hidden, it looks like instant transportation, thereby duplicating (no pun intended) Borden’s trick.</p>
<p>Angier uses this machine to perform what he calls ‘the real transported man’: by stepping inside the machine, he can clone himself and make the clone appear on the other side of the theater. But <em>the original Angier kills himself during every performance</em> by drowning himself in a water tank. Right after the duplication is finished, a trap door opens:</p>
<p><img class="d-block mx-auto" src="/assets/the-real-transported-man.gif"></p>
<p><small class="d-block text-center"><a href="https://gifs.com/gif/the-prestige-ending-qYg6pR" rel="ugc">Source</a></small></p>
<p>Angier is then dropped into the water tank placed underneath the stage, and the tank locks immediately. It’s a cruel reference to how his wife died in an accident caused by Borden – the event early on in the movie that started the rivalry between Borden and Angier as well as Angier’s obsession with outdoing and getting back at Borden.</p>
<p>That brings me to my question again. Why doesn’t Angier just clone himself <em>once</em> to avoid killing himself over and over? All he needs is a double he can trust. Surely he can trust himself? Repeat suicide seems like a heavy-handed way of performing the trick at best; the method itself doesn’t actually require it. Instead of falling to his death, he could fall on a mattress, and then his clone, already hiding where he would appear to have been ‘transported’, could reveal himself to the audience shortly thereafter.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/pafdqb/comment/ha4c46l" rel="ugc">Some</a> have suggested that “[h]e [couldn’t] share, even with himself”. Maybe – it is true that he is filled with bitterness. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/pafdqb/comment/ha4cyp9" rel="ugc">Others</a> have said that he avoided using a clone as a double due to the power that such a double can have over him – recall the blackmail incident. But would he really rather <em>die</em> than trust a copy of himself? If <em>anyone</em> is trustworthy, surely it’s oneself. There’s also the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/pafdqb/comment/ha4flk4" rel="ugc">idea</a> that “[t]he plot with Borden’s wife pretty well establishes how untenable it is for two identical men to take turns living the same life”. But when he decides how to perform the trick, Angier doesn’t even know yet that Borden has a twin. Lastly, Angier never liked the idea of using a double – he thought it was too simple, and, like I said, he doesn’t think Borden uses one. But again, is that worth dying every night? Surely not.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I’m not sure Angier ever fully understands what exactly the machine does. While still with Tesla, he sees that it successfully clones both a cat and his top hat (the latter many times – there is a whole heap of hats). Yet the first time he steps into the machine himself, he seems utterly surprised to find his clone standing a few feet away from him shortly thereafter – and, if you recall, ends up shooting him in a state of shock. In addition, he says at the end of the film that he never knew whether he’d be “the man in the box” or the lucky one who comes out the other side. He seems to think that there’s something of a 50/50 chance of coming out alive after each performance. But that’s not the case. <em>He</em>, the Angier who’s about to use the machine, <em>always</em> drops into the water tank and dies. And his clone <em>always</em> survives. The Angier we see toward the end of the movie is a clone of a clone of a clone…, but he seems to take himself for the original.</p>
<p>One might suggest that Angier has such a dislike for being “the man in the box” that he doesn’t want to take turns with a clone – turns in the sense that sometimes he would end up below stage (safely), sometimes his clone would (also safely). But even that preference doesn’t make sense compared to certain death.</p>
<p>Maybe his mistaken belief that there’s only a <em>risk</em> of death instead of certain death is what causes him to prefer such a risk over trusting a single, live clone who might betray him. But that still sounds far-fetched to me: taking turns would seem preferable to a <em>one</em>-percent chance of dying, let alone a 50/50 chance. And think of the implications: after each performance, his stagehands have to remove the water tank containing his dead counterpart from the theater, and they are all blind because he does not trust them. What if something goes wrong? What if one day, they make a mistake, the tank falls and spills for everyone to see? Then people will think he killed a double unless he reveals how his trick works, which he’d never want to do. <em>Eventually</em> something has to go wrong; maybe that’s why he plans to do only 100 performances.</p>
<p><em>Somehow</em> he thinks this great risk is worth it. But why?</p>
<p>The most satisfying answer I have found is <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/6ae9zf/comment/dhf8n3p" rel="ugc">this one</a>: since Angier wants to frame Borden for his murder, and since he doesn’t know when Borden will show up to his performance, “he need[s] a fresh body in the tank every night”. <em>He is willing to kill himself during every performance</em> – or, as he thinks, <em>risk</em> killing himself – just to get back at Borden. He’d rather ‘risk’ reliving his wife’s tragic death over and over than get on with his life.</p>
<p>What a mess.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/why-doesn-t-angier-use-the-machine-only-once
Why Doesn’t Angier Use the Machine Only Once?
2022-11-20T23:31:34Z
2022-11-20T23:31:34Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="don-t-trust-screenshots-of-browsers">Don’t Trust Screenshots of Browsers</h1>
<p>Screenshots of browsers are particularly easy to fake. Why? Because browsers can be manipulated to show fake data in seconds; there’s no need for image-editing technology.</p>
<p>Image-editing tools can sometimes leave behind certain artifacts. Maybe the text in an edited image doesn’t align quite right. Maybe the font is slightly off. But browsers can be manipulated <em>before</em> the screenshot is taken – meaning you don’t end up with an edited image, but an unaltered image of something that was already edited.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/musk-fake-tweet.png" alt="Fake tweet by Elon Musk"></p>
<p>The above tweet is obviously fake, but no image-manipulation software could possibly detect that. It took me all of ten seconds to create it. I edited <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1591313397362352130" rel="ugc">this tweet</a> saying “FTX meltdown/ransack being tracked in real-time on Twitter” and simply changed the text. Then I also upped the stats underneath the tweet for good measure. Chrome makes this easy: with the developer tools enabled, hit <kbd>shift + cmd + c</kbd>. Open pops the underlying code that powers the web page – that code is called HTML – and as you hover over different elements on the page, the corresponding elements in the HTML code are highlighted. If you then click on Musk’s text saying “FTX meltdown/ransack being tracked in real-time on Twitter” – be sure to click on the very text itself, not anything around it – the corresponding HTML element will remain highlighted in the console:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/musk-tweet-console.png" alt="Chrome console to edit Musk's tweet"></p>
<p>Now you’re free to edit the HTML element. To make an edit as simple as the one I made above, one doesn’t need to know any HTML (although I should warn you never to paste anything into the console that you don’t understand, particularly if it’s from an unknown third party – that’s how you get hacked). Just double click on the text <em>inside the console</em> and write whatever your heart desires. Once you hit enter, the page will update accordingly:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/musk-tweet-console-edit.png" alt="Chrome console has changed Musk's tweet"></p>
<p>Of course, nobody else can see these changes by default, and once you refresh the page, they’re gone. It’s not like you actually changed Musk’s tweet.</p>
<p>Having Musk say obviously fake things is all in good fun and there’s nothing nefarious about that. (And since this is the internet, I have to add that what you’ve learned in this post isn’t to be used for nefarious purposes – it’s for your education only.) But the ease with which these fake screenshots can be created should be a warning to all those who wish to have a safe browsing experience. Text isn’t the only thing that can be changed on websites – <em>everything</em> can be changed, including images. Entire sections can be edited, added, or removed.</p>
<p>It’s easy to fake URLs in screenshots, too. For example, Chrome just lets you change the URL without indicating the change:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/fake-url.png" alt="Fake URL"></p>
<p>I just changed the URL and didn’t hit submit. It’s easy to know or at least guess more or less immediately that my blog isn’t hosted at google.com. But when the URL is less known, that might not be obvious to you at all.</p>
<p>And it’s not just Twitter that’s affected. Making changes to websites is easy all across the web. You should be vigilant and not trust screenshots. I mean, you shouldn’t just <em>trust</em> screenshots of <em>anything</em>. But web browsers are a particularly easy target for manipulation.</p>
<p>A credible tweet or website will not just post a screenshot of another tweet or website, but a link to the screenshot’s source so you can verify it. If that link is missing, <a href="https://twitter.com/shayan86/status/1567541626251231233" rel="ugc">here’s</a> a guide on how to determine whether a tweet screenshot is fake. Much of that applies to websites in general.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/don-t-trust-screenshots-of-browsers
Don’t Trust Screenshots of Browsers
2022-11-13T03:34:47Z
2022-11-13T03:34:47Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="handy-git-commands">Handy Git Commands</h1>
<p>These are the top five handiest git commands I use. I’m keeping this list as simple as possible – check the linked references to learn more.</p>
<h3 id="git-log-p"><code>$ git log -p</code></h3>
<p>Want to see a history of <em>changes</em> instead of just a history of commit messages? This command will show the changes between all commits in your current branch.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.git-scm.com/docs/git-log#Documentation/git-log.txt--p" rel="ugc">Reference</a></p>
<hr>
<h3 id="git-add-patch"><code>$ git add --patch</code></h3>
<p>Want to stage some hunks but not others? This command will walk you through them all, step by step, giving you granular control over which hunks to stage.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.git-scm.com/docs/git-add#Documentation/git-add.txt---patch" rel="ugc">Reference</a></p>
<hr>
<h3 id="git-diff-word-diff"><code>$ git diff --word-diff</code></h3>
<p>For long lines, small changes can be difficult to see in the default line-based diffs. Use a word-based diff instead to see exactly what’s changed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.git-scm.com/docs/git-diff#Documentation/git-diff.txt---word-diffltmodegt" rel="ugc">Reference</a></p>
<hr>
<h3 id="git-cherry-pick-commit-id"><code>$ git cherry-pick <commit-id></code></h3>
<p>Need a commit from another branch but don’t want to merge? Simply <code>cherry-pick</code> the commit.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.git-scm.com/docs/git-cherry-pick" rel="ugc">Reference</a></p>
<hr>
<h3 id="git-stash"><code>$ git stash</code></h3>
<p>Not ready to commit your changes, but need to clear them temporarily? Stashing will undo your changes (staged or not) while also saving them separately so you can reapply them later by running <code>$ git stash apply</code>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.git-scm.com/docs/git-stash" rel="ugc">Reference</a></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/handy-git-commands
Handy Git Commands
2022-11-04T05:54:39Z
2022-11-04T05:54:39Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="starting-over">Starting Over</h1>
<p>People sometimes try to ‘start over’, especially in romantic relationships and in their immediate family. Some major conflict happens, and they don’t know how to fix things, so they think all they can do is try to ‘start over’.</p>
<p>That approach is almost destined to fail because the people involved will keep running into the same unsolved problems. It’s akin to creationism: ‘let’s just wave a magic wand, and everything’s going to be fine.’ That’s not how it works.</p>
<p>Relationships are complex, knowledge-laden systems. As Popperians, we should expect improvements in such systems to happen piecemeal, over time. We can’t command them to happen all at once. And we can’t ‘start over’ because that would be a revolution. Karl Popper offers several good quotes on this topic:</p>
<blockquote><p>[W]e cannot start afresh; […]. If we start afresh, then, when we die, we shall be about as far as Adam and Eve were when they died […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Conjectures_and_Refutations/fZnrUfJWQ-YC" rel="ugc"><em>Conjectures and Refutations</em></a>, p. 173</p>
<blockquote><p>(Were we to start the race where Adam started, I know of no reason why we should get any further than Adam did.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Ibid, p. 323</p>
<blockquote><p>Some people say […] that it is their greatest wish to clean the canvas thoroughly—to create a social <em>tabula rasa</em> and to begin afresh by painting on it a brand new social system. But they should not be surprised if they find that once they destroy tradition, civilization disappears with it. They will find that mankind have returned to the position in which Adam and Eve began—or, using less biblical language, that they have returned to the beasts. All that these revolutionary progressivists will then be able to do is to begin the slow process of human evolution again (and so to arrive in a few thousand years perhaps at another capitalist period, which will lead them to another sweeping revolution, followed by another return to the beasts, and so on, for ever and ever). In other words, there is no earthly reason why a society whose traditional set of values has been destroyed should, of its own accord, become a better society […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Ibid, p. 462 f.</p>
<p>To be sure, Popper wrote these passages in the context of science and society as a whole. But, like science and our social institutions, relationships are, again, complex, knowledge-laden systems, so Popper’s remarks apply to them, too. We could just as well write: “[T]here is no earthly reason why a [relationship] whose traditional set of values has been destroyed should, of its own accord, become a better [relationship].” Relationships are <em>part</em> of our social institutions; they also follow a tradition. <em>Tabula rasa</em> won’t work – if you want to improve things, choose the status quo as a starting point and try to correct errors.</p>
<p>Note in particular that Popper speaks of the repetition that “revolutionary progressivists” would undergo over centuries. So, too, would the revolutionary progressivists who wish to ‘start over’ in romance and family over the years. (Think of the victims in abusive relationships whose abuser assures them they’ve changed – that ‘this time is going to be different’ – and who then return to their abuser’s violent embrace, over and over.)</p>
<p>Ironically, the same revolutionaries who are prone to want to ‘start over’ often want a guarantee that a certain state will be reached or maintained – some form of utopia. (It’s ironic because such a state won’t let them start over.) In romance, this (attempt at a) guarantee of utopia is marriage. Think of couples who are already in a bad place and then get married to fix things, thereby entrenching their mistakes because getting divorced is much harder than leaving a non-marriage: ‘until death do us part’.</p>
<p>Because relationships are knowledge-laden systems, they are partly autonomous. They have ‘a mind of their own’. Which is another reason you can’t change them at will or ‘start over’. They will resist. If the problem situation hasn’t changed, how could starting over possibly work? It can’t. You can’t just make problems ‘go away’. Try to solve them piecemeal. It’s hard enough to <a href="/posts/unconflicted" rel="ugc">solve problems with oneself</a> – solving problems in relationships is even harder.</p>
<p>Breakups are a form of revolution, too – a form of ‘starting over’, albeit separately. Romantic relationships are kind of set up in such a way that you cannot revert certain changes and have to break up instead. For example, once they move in together and realize it was a bad idea, most couples will break up instead of each person getting their own place again and continuing the relationship. It’s ‘all or nothing’. The same is true of marriage: you can’t just divorce and go back to where you were prior to getting married and try something else together – the institution of marriage is not set up for that. When people break up, they often have to go ‘cold turkey’. Casual relationships such as friendships, on the other hand, do not have this property: it usually doesn’t harm the relationship or the people involved if a friendship cools down a bit; it can often be revived later on, and, even if that doesn’t work out, it’s usually not nearly as devastating as a horrendous breakup.</p>
<p>So what’s the solution? Not enter into any serious relationships at all? That would be its own kind of revolution, since entering into serious relationships is one of our society’s core traditions. But you can try entering into <em>less serious</em> relationships – for example, as a first step, you could come up with a rule of thumb of not letting a relationship get to a point where either of you couldn’t walk away from it without serious heartache.</p>
<p>PS: I know little about David Deutsch’s <em>Autonomy Respecting Relationships</em> (ARR), but since I apply Popperian epistemology to relationships in this article, I expect some overlap with it. However, I started forming ideas about such applications before knowing ARR existed.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/starting-over
Starting Over
2022-10-24T20:27:33Z
2022-10-24T20:27:33Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="ein-traum-von-sokrates">Ein Traum von Sokrates</h1>
<p>Das Kapitel ›Ein Traum von Sokrates‹ ist mein Lieblingskapitel im Buch <a href="https://www.amazon.de/dp/1838498605" rel="ugc"><em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em></a> von David Deutsch, das ich aus dem Englischen <a href="/posts/the-beginning-of-infinity-der-anfang-der-unend" rel="ugc">übersetzt</a> habe. (Zugegebenermaßen ändert sich mein Lieblingskapitel ab und zu – es war lange Kapitel 7, dann Kapitel 3, dann Kapitel 13.)</p>
<p>Ich habe ›Ein Traum von Sokrates‹ professionell aufnehmen lassen. Der Sprecher ist <a href="https://www.dominic-kolb.de/" rel="ugc">Dominic Kolb</a>. Das Kapitel ist momentan kostenlos, allerdings habe ich vor, es in nicht allzu langer Zeit zum Kauf anzubieten. Bis dahin können Sie es sich <a href="http://www.deranfangderunendlichkeit.de/sokrates" rel="ugc">hier</a> anhören.</p>
<p>Von der Beschreibung auf der Website:</p>
<blockquote><p>›Niemand ist weiser als Sokrates‹ – zumindest laut dem Orakel in Delphi, das Sokrates auf seiner Wallfahrt aufgesucht hat. Über diese Aussage ist er zwar verärgert, doch er erhält mitten in der Nacht einen unerwarteten Besuch, der sein Verständnis der Philosophie für immer verändert.</p>
<p>»Wie wird Wissen geschaffen? Wie können wir zwischen wahr und falsch, moralisch und unmoralisch, Vernunft und Unvernunft unterscheiden? Welche Wissenstypen […] sind möglich, und welche sind bloß Hirngespinste?« Und was genau zeichnet eigentlich den Westen gegenüber anderen Kulturen aus?</p>
<p>In diesem fiktiven Dialog zwischen Sokrates und dem griechischen Gott Hermes werden genau diese Fragen beantwortet, die auch heute noch die westliche Philosophie bestimmen und darüber hinaus höchst relevante Implikationen für die Forschung im Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz haben.</p>
<p>Der Dialog ist ein Auszug aus dem Buch <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit: Erklärungen, die die Welt verwandeln</em> von David Deutsch. Es ist das zehnte Kapitel und damit das Kernstück des Buches, das Sie sich nun zum ersten Mal anhören können. (Die Lektüre der vorigen Kapitel ist nicht nötig, um ›Ein Traum von Sokrates‹ zu verstehen. Bitte beachten Sie, dass diese Aufnahme nur Kapitel 10 umfasst – es gibt noch kein Hörbuch des gesamten Buches.)</p>
</blockquote>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/ein-traum-von-sokrates
Ein Traum von Sokrates
2023-03-27T00:18:08Z
2023-03-27T00:18:08Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="inwiefern-stellt-ein-kompromiss-keine-echte-l-sung-dar">Inwiefern stellt ein Kompromiss keine echte Lösung dar?</h1>
<p><em>Dies ist eine genehmigte (aber nicht geprüfte) Übersetzung des Artikels <a href="https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/how-is-a-compromise-not-a-real-solution/" rel="ugc">›How is a compromise not a real solution?‹</a>, verfasst von Sarah Fitz-Claridge und veröffentlicht auf der Homepage von</em> Taking Children Seriously (Kinder ernst nehmen).</p>
<hr>
<blockquote><p>»Inwiefern stellt ein Kompromiss keine echte Lösung dar?«</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Manchmal verwenden Menschen das Wort »Kompromiss«, wenn sie etwas meinen, was jeder als echte Lösung ansehen würde. Aber normalerweise bedeutet das Wort »Kompromiss« etwas anderes – etwas, was überhaupt keine echte Lösung ist.</p>
<p>Eine echte Lösung ist kein Kompromiss. Bei einem Kompromiss gibt jeder etwas auf, sodass alle Beteiligten ›fair‹ und ›gleich‹ darunter leiden. Eine echte Lösung hingegen ist eine Lösung, die alle Beteiligten <em>bevorzugen</em>, auch gegenüber ihrer eigenen vorherigen Präferenz. Niemand leidet darunter, weder ›fair‹ noch ›gleich‹ noch auf andere Weise.</p>
<p>Ein Kompromiss setzt voraus, dass es inhärente Interessenkonflikte gibt, die nicht ohne Zwang gelöst werden können, und dass dann die Vorgehensweise darin besteht, das Leid ›fair‹ zu verteilen. Das ist ein Fehler. Er lässt die Tatsache außer Acht, dass wir Menschen mit brillanten Köpfen sind. Wir sind nicht darauf beschränkt, aus einer festgelegten Anzahl bereits vorhandener Ideen zu wählen: Wir können ganz neue Ideen erschaffen, die es zu Beginn der Interaktion noch nicht gab – Ideen, die alle Beteiligten mit Freude erfüllen. Probleme sind lösbar! Eine Lösung ist in der Regel etwas, woran zu Beginn niemand gedacht hat. Es ist etwas Neues und Besseres, was für alle Beteiligten ein »JA!« darstellt, kein elender Kompromiss, unter dem dann alle ›fair‹ leiden.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Dieser Artikel könnte Sie ebenfalls interessieren: <a href="/posts/klarung-der-frage-was-ich-mit-zwang-meine" rel="ugc">›Klärung der Frage, was ich mit »Zwang« meine‹</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/inwiefern-stellt-ein-kompromiss-keine-echte-losu
Inwiefern stellt ein Kompromiss keine echte Lösung dar?
2022-10-18T04:21:32Z
2022-10-18T04:21:32Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="simple-way-to-get-rid-of-smelly-feet">Simple Way to Get Rid of Smelly Feet</h1>
<p><em>I’m not a doctor. Talk to one before trying out anything in this article. And if you do try it, do so at your own risk.</em></p>
<p>Many people get smelly feet, especially if they wear shoes all day. I used to experience the same problem, and I’ve found a simple way to solve it. (Stuff like Gold Bond powder and shoe sprays never worked well for me.)</p>
<p>First, remove dead skin/calluses from your feet. You can use a pumice stone or something like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Electric-ELMCHEE-Rechargeable-Waterproof-Professional/dp/B081H56F2T" rel="ugc">this</a>. You should only need to do this once. Then, after every shower, put this cream called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cerave-Renewing-Sa-Cream-Pack/dp/B078YGW4KJ/" rel="ugc">Cerave Renewing SA Cream</a> on your feet after you dry them off thoroughly. Put it between your toes, on your heels, your soles – everywhere on your feet. It doesn’t have to be a large amount, a thin film everywhere should be enough. Then put socks on. I recommend showering right before you go to bed and wearing socks while you sleep – that gives the cream time to be absorbed without any disturbance. Wool socks are ideal because wool wicks moisture (as opposed to cotton, which stores it), so your feet will be less sweaty.</p>
<p>This simple procedure takes only a few seconds, and it has become part of my daily routine. I can now wear the same pair of sneakers for fifteen hours a day, seven days a week, for months on end, and if I smell my shoes, I smell <em>nothing</em>. Not even a <em>hint</em> of anything unpleasant. And I don’t even wash them.</p>
<p>I do not exactly know why this approach works, but I guess it’s because the combination of old/dead skin + sweat creates foul odors, and by applying this cream regularly, you never have any old skin on your feet. The cream contains something called <em>salicylic acid</em> (that’s what the “SA” in the name presumably stands for), and I think this acid removes old skin.</p>
<p>This is all assuming your feet are healthy otherwise – no fungi or anything else that may make your feet smell. I know the cream is expensive, but it’s worth it. Again, you don’t need to use a large amount, but you do want to use it once a day (though if you skip a day on occasion, it probably won’t mess with the results). A dermatologist once recommended the cream to me. Be careful, however, as it makes your skin more susceptible to sunburns. If you wear close-toed shoes, that’s not an issue. I understand that an added benefit of using the cream is that your feet become less susceptible to warts.</p>
<p>There’s also <a href="https://www.amazon.com/CeraVe-Cream-Salicylic-Cracked-Fragrance/dp/B00GMMS9L2" rel="ugc">this variant cream</a> from the same brand. It’s specifically for feet, but it’s a lot more expensive per ounce, and I don’t use it. Nobody’s paying me to link to these creams, by the way.</p>
<p>I hope this is helpful to some.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/simple-way-to-get-rid-of-smelly-feet
Simple Way to Get Rid of Smelly Feet
2022-10-17T05:21:00Z
2022-10-17T05:21:00Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="boundaries">Boundaries</h1>
<p>A friend of mine likes to send me videos. Mostly they’re interesting or funny but sometimes people genuinely get hurt in them, physically, either through violence or accidents.</p>
<p><strong>Him:</strong> *sends a video where somebody gets hurt*<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> I don’t like seeing ppl get hurt, pls don’t send such videos anymore.<br>
<strong>Him:</strong> *sends other videos for a few days, then another where somebody gets hurt*<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> please don’t do that again<br>
<strong>Him:</strong> sorry I thought it was funny. *sends other videos for a few days, then another where somebody gets hurt*<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> Pls don’t send those. I have to take a break. I won’t check your messages for a week. *mutes him for a week*<br>
<strong>Him:</strong> *sends other videos <em>during that week</em>, then another one later on where somebody gets hurt*<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> Why do you keep sending me videos where ppl get hurt when I’ve told you it makes me uncomfortable?<br>
<strong>Him:</strong> sorry I thought it was a funny video, also the guy in the video didn’t get hurt badly.<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> I wont watch any more videos you send me.<br>
<strong>Him:</strong> *keeps sending videos*<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> why do you keep sending videos? I won’t watch them.<br>
<strong>Him:</strong> nobody gut hurt dude. why are you so negative? what’s wrong?<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> what’s wrong is that you won’t take what I say literally and that you don’t respect my boundaries. you just keep going. it’s pretty toxic and mean honestly<br>
<strong>Him:</strong> *sends another video the next day*</p>
<p>Contrary to what you might think, I don’t believe he’s playing dumb. He’s a good guy and doesn’t understand what’s wrong. He’s also lagging behind on what’s happening – he still thinks about my previous criterion of not wanting to see <em>violent</em> videos in particular (which he now seems to honor, judging only by the videos’ thumbnails), even though I have since extended it to not wanting to see <em>any</em> more videos at all. (Accordingly, I wonder if extending my criterion one step further – say, by requesting not to message me again at all – would finally cause him to stop sending me videos while continuing to send me text messages, which I would be okay with.)</p>
<p>Here’s another example. Somebody else I know, who lives in Europe, once wanted to visit me. Due to the distance, it would have needed to be for at least a couple of weeks to be worth the long trip. This back and forth actually extended over years, but I’m shortening it to give you the gist:</p>
<p><strong>Her:</strong> Can I come visit you in California?<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> Maybe, I’ll think about it.<br>
<strong>Her:</strong> *after a few weeks* Can I come visit you?<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> I’m still thinking about it.<br>
<strong>Her:</strong> *after a few more weeks pass* What about now, can I come visit you?<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> I haven’t decided yet. I’m feeling pressured. Just so you know, the more you ask me, the less inclined I’ll be to say ‘yes’.<br>
<strong>Her:</strong> *lets a couple of months pass* I’d really like to come visit you. These dates would work for me. This is how much a ticket would cost, can you cover that?<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> Please wait for me to bring up the topic myself.<br>
<strong>Her:</strong> *lets some more time pass* Can I come visit you now?<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> No. Please don’t ask again.<br>
<strong>Her:</strong> Don’t tell me what to do. You’re trying to control me.<br>
<strong>Me:</strong> No, I’m showing you my boundaries.<br>
<strong>Her:</strong> *months later* Why didn’t you let me come visit?</p>
<p>Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt as well and say she also wasn’t playing dumb. Let’s say she really didn’t understand what went wrong, either.</p>
<p>As you can see, she was particularly insistent, despite my explicit warning that it would reduce the chances of my agreeing to a visit. Her claim that I was trying to control her was disgusting because it implied that she had a <em>right</em> to violate my boundaries.</p>
<p>Showing someone your boundaries means you care about the relationship; you’re offering ways you can grow together. I could have decided to ignore her, never respond to her, etc. But I took the time to tell her what would and wouldn’t make a visit more likely.</p>
<p>In both cases, it’s as if what I said explicitly didn’t matter one bit. Both people should have backed off immediately after I said that my boundaries were being violated. My friend from the first example should have been careful, right after my first request, not to send any more videos with even a hint of violence. But when he did, and I pointed it out, he found an excuse (he thought the video was funny). Both of them ignored my pleas, then wondered what went wrong.</p>
<p>Here’s a third example. Somebody once asked me for an introduction to someone at the company where I was working at the time. He wanted to do an internship there. For reasons that don’t matter here, I was hesitant to make such an introduction and needed more time to decide. But he followed the same sad pattern: he asked me again after a couple of weeks. Then again. Worse, when he still hadn’t gotten the answer he wanted, he got somebody else to ask me for him – as if the problem had been that <em>he</em> was asking me! I told them it wasn’t the right time and that I wasn’t willing to make the introduction. Then they finally backed off.</p>
<p>If you found yourself in any of these situations, I imagine that, like me, you would feel cornered and pressured. An analogy I like to use – I <em>think</em> I may have gotten it from Christopher Canwell’s book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Attraction-Create-Maintain-Women/dp/1999872223" rel="ugc"><em>Atomic Attraction</em></a> – is tennis. Imagine somebody serves you the ball – i.e., makes a request (‘can I come visit?’). Instead of waiting for you to return the ball to them, they serve another ball. Then they serve another. You feel bombarded. You remind them that the rules of the game state that they should wait for you to return the ball, but they don’t care. They won’t talk about the rules. They don’t consider that you may be keeping the ball in your court for good reasons. They don’t consider that you may know something they don’t. Obviously the game can’t work that way, and you stop playing. You look for other people to play with.</p>
<p>Likewise, there are <em>rules</em> around the game of social dynamics (though, as opposed to the rules of tennis, they are largely unstated). I think it’s fine if somebody asks once, <em>maybe</em> twice, after a reasonable amount of time has passed, to see if you just forgot to return the ball. After all, real life isn’t synchronous like tennis. But the third time may come across as socially aggressive. At that point, they should let it go. The odds of you getting back to them are actually greater if they back off. Even if you really did forget, their reminding you a second or third time won’t help either of you.</p>
<p>Something of note: everyone involved in these three examples was German. I don’t believe I’ve observed the same socially clueless behavior in the US, and I find it quite plausible that Americans are, on the whole, more socially competent and gentle. I’m ashamed to say that, since I grew up in Germany, I must have displayed similar social cluelessness in the past. I know of one instance that Elliot Temple pointed out to me, where I doubled down on a request even though he had already communicated that he doesn’t have more information, so my doubling down didn’t make sense. (I got the phrasing “socially clueless” from him – it’s what he called me.) Interestingly, I already knew at the time that this behavior bothered me in others (the can-i-come-visit-you incident was well underway at the time), <em>yet I failed to see the same behavior in myself</em>. I think that tells us something about social dynamics: people can reliably fail to apply their ideas of how <em>they</em> don’t want to be treated to how not to treat <em>others</em>. As an unintended consequence, they end up making exceptions for themselves. For that reason, I should point out that the previous paragraph applies as much to oneself as it does to others.</p>
<p>It’s worth asking why the two people from the first two examples remain clueless, even after I’ve explained the problem. I guess it’s because I went meta, and they didn’t want meta. They wanted a certain kind of reaction, and I didn’t give them that. So they ignored what I gave them instead. It’d be good to find out how to make people more receptive to that kind of meta feedback so that conflicts can be solved more easily.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Logan Chipkin and Kitt Johnson for commenting on an early draft of the first example.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/boundaries
Boundaries
2022-10-14T02:34:13Z
2022-10-14T02:34:13Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="unconflicted">Unconflicted</h1>
<blockquote><p>I’m not exactly sure why I chose bodybuilding, except that I loved it. I loved it from the first moment my fingers closed around a barbell and I felt the challenge and exhilaration of hoisting the heavy steel plates above my head.<br>
[…]<br>
I still remember that first visit to the bodybuilding gym. […] And there it was before me—my life, the answer I’d been seeking. It clicked. It was something I suddenly just seemed to reach out and find, as if I’d been crossing a suspended bridge and finally stepped off onto solid ground.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Arnold Schwarzenegger<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p>
<p>I happened upon coding through a happy accident. In 2010/11, I did an internship in corporate-aircraft finance. That sounds about as unrelated to coding as it could be, but during that time, my manager showed me how to write what’s called a <em>macro</em> – a small piece of custom software one can plug into Microsoft Office programs such as Outlook or Word.</p>
<p>You see, he wrote a lot of emails and needed a way to automate his workflow around that. As I recall, the macro he wanted was simple: most of his emails went into the same folder, and he wanted to be able to select any number of emails in his inbox and then press a button to move them into that folder. He showed me the basics and tasked me with writing that little computer program.</p>
<p>That sounded difficult. I had never written a program before. Even though I had loved computers since childhood, I had never had any interest in programming. It’s not that I had tried it and decided I didn’t like it – I just had no idea what it would be like. I had no opinion on it.</p>
<p>I returned to my computer in the office next to his and took a crack at it. I read articles about macros and wrote my first line of code. The entire program can’t have been more than ten lines long. After a few hours, I sent it to him and went back to his office to ask him to try it out. I looked over his shoulder as he ran it. It worked – which felt <em>magical</em>. That was <em>the coolest thing I had ever seen.</em> As I’ve written <a href="/posts/anyone-can-become-a-developer-here-s-how-i-did" rel="ugc">before</a>, it felt like a superpower. I realized that, if I kept learning, there would be no limit to what I could achieve.</p>
<p>Over the next few years, I spent thousands upon thousands of hours writing code, continuously improving my skills. I sometimes dreamt about code. It’s a cliche, but I did. One night in the early years of my programming journey, my girlfriend at the time was staying over. I was writing a program that worked like a calculator, with a simple user interface, buttons and all. That’s nothing huge, obviously, but building something that’s already been built before is a good way to practice. It was late at night and I was tired, but I had run into a snag, and there was no way I could fall asleep without solving it first! It must have been around 2 am when I finally figured it out.<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> I was so excited I woke up my girlfriend lying next to me to show her my progress.</p>
<p>Like Arnold and bodybuilding, I’m not exactly sure why, but I <em>loved</em> programming. I’d say it was because I felt <em>unconflicted</em> about it, but I suppose that’s just another way of saying I loved it.</p>
<p>Being unconflicted about coding meant I could feel <em>with every fiber of my being</em> that it was what I wanted to do. It was a <em>hell yes</em>. There was no question, no doubt whatsoever. I <em>had</em> to do it. It was – and still is – a passion and an absolute joy.</p>
<p>Finding something you’re unconflicted about is rare. Not everyone is lucky enough, at least in adulthood. I believe it’s common for children, who are naturally great at finding and doing things they are unconflicted about until they are <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">forced to unlearn this ability in school</a>. Some adults do find something, but the voices from school still echo in their minds, so they often don’t pursue it.</p>
<p>Even if you’re lucky enough to find such a passion, there can be social pressure not to pursue it. Schwarzenegger writes about this, too. The naysayers will notice you. They’ll say you’re ‘obsessed’, or even <a href="/posts/crazy" rel="ugc">‘crazy’</a>. Maybe a year later, after I had broken up with that girlfriend, and after I had dropped out of college to pursue programming as a full-time, self-employed job, she contacted me to say that she was concerned that I was letting myself go. That was hilarious to me because I was already financially successful. She didn’t know that but I didn’t say anything. I knew she was wrong and I didn’t care. No matter what people said, there still was no doubt in my mind that it was what I wanted to do.</p>
<p>I had felt conflicted <em>before</em> I found programming – in the sense that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had some ideas, some avenues I wanted to try out, but nothing more. Now that I had found it, things got a lot easier. There was a clear path. It had nothing to do with molding myself into some other person – it was something I wanted, so I went after it. That was an utter delight; it never required any discipline.</p>
<p>As Lulie Tanett <a href="https://twitter.com/reasonisfun/status/1047765669415211009" rel="ugc">writes</a>, “‘[s]elf discipline’ is a patch for being conflicted about what you want to do.” If you have found something you truly love, you need absolutely no discipline. If you do require discipline for something, it’s not for you. Self-discipline is self-coercion; it’s gross.</p>
<p>Schwarzenegger <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pDxQSEmE3M" rel="ugc">has said</a> that some of the other guys in the gym had grim faces. He implies that it’s because they weren’t shooting for a goal, but I don’t think that’s why. I think the reason is that they felt conflicted; they didn’t <em>want</em> to do another set. He, on the other hand, “couldn’t <em>wait</em> to do another 500-pound squat”. Fitness and bodybuilding in particular are laden with ideas around self-discipline.<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> In programming, some people are conflicted, too. They go into it for the money, say, but aren’t intrinsically interested in it. So the only way to keep going anyway is to be disciplined. They’re going to be miserable.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until 2015, when I happened upon the work of David Deutsch, that I finally found what I had discovered for myself when I started to program spelled out explicitly. He calls the state of being unconflicted <em>fun</em>. And he offers an <a href="https://youtu.be/idvGlr0aT3c?t=1155" rel="ugc">explanation</a>: that fun is “a state of mind” in which what he calls one’s explicit, inexplicit, conscious, and unconscious ideas “are all affecting each other”.</p>
<p>There is a common misconception that greatness – like that of Schwarzenegger in his heyday – requires discipline and sacrifice. Now, it is true that greatness (or even mediocrity) at something one does <em>not</em> enjoy indeed requires these things. But many think that they’re <em>generally</em> required, even in things one <em>does</em> enjoy, or, worse, that one should seek out suffering and avoid fun to achieve greatness. <em>Neither is true.</em> While it is <em>possible</em>, at the cost of immense suffering, to achieve greatness at something you do not enjoy, it is both possible <em>and</em> desirable to achieve greatness at something you <em>do</em> enjoy, without any suffering at all.</p>
<p>On the whole, in the long run, I expect greatness almost always to come from enjoyable activities, and rarely from suffering. In other words, of all the greatness at any given time in history, most of it will have been the product of fun – and I expect the ratio to improve in the future. Do not take that to mean that fun will <em>always</em> lead to greatness – any search for a guarantee of greatness will almost certainly produce suffering. Greatness is not the goal. Fun is the goal, even when you have fun pursuing greatness. And if you pursue fun, you may sometimes achieve greatness as a pleasant side effect.</p>
<p>If, like many, you have trouble imagining what being unconflicted feels like: remember being a kid and rushing home from school so you could play your favorite video game? And the delight you’d feel playing it for hours on end? <em>That’s</em> being unconflicted. It would make no sense to speak of ‘discipline’ or ‘commitment’ in this context. They’re not needed; they’re not desirable; they have no place in what’s fun.</p>
<p>I know of no reason why it shouldn’t be possible, in principle, to be in an unconflicted state of mind all the time. Deutsch says it is.<sup id="fnref4"><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup> I am by no means close to being unconflicted all the time, but it’s something one can practice and get better at. Again, children are good at being unconflicted – they probably come close to permanent ‘unconflictedness’ (until, as I’ve said, that is ruined). We adults can learn from them, and I suspect that learning how to be unconflicted involves undoing much of the damage done to us in childhood.</p>
<p>Let me point out that just because I recommend seeking a state of being unconflicted, that does not mean that I think learning should lack structure or that schedules and deadlines are bad. Deutsch and I differ in this regard. I thrive in fast-past environments and under the pressure of tight deadlines. I like achieving results in a comparatively short amount of time.</p>
<p><em>Being</em> unconflicted is easy, but <em>finding</em> something to be unconflicted about is hard. Another way of putting it is to find something about which you are in complete agreement with yourself.<sup id="fnref5"><a href="#fn5">5</a></sup> If that interests you, one way to practice being unconflicted is to start saying ‘no’ to small, unimportant things you do not wish to do. As you get better, slowly try this approach with bigger, more important things. That should make room for activities you <em>do</em> enjoy. Give yourself permission to pursue them, and then go from there. You will have more energy because, being conflicted, you don’t use your mental resources the way you naturally would, which is draining. Being unconflicted, on the other hand, gives you energy – it’s exhilarating. It’s easy to have fun for hours on end.</p>
<p>If you do find that spark that Schwarzenegger found in bodybuilding, and that I found in programming, there’s no telling how long it will last. For example, around the time I got into programming, I was also fascinated with playing the guitar. Inspired by guitarists such as <a href="https://youtu.be/zWkVmM7NN0Y?t=15" rel="ugc">Tommy Emmanuel</a>, some days I’d practice for three to four hours. This, too, was an utter delight. I never achieved musical greatness, but I had tons of fun. My passion lasted maybe five years, and then it slowly faded over another five. I don’t know why. There were some days I looked at the guitar, sitting there in the corner of my room, waiting for me to play it, and I asked myself, ‘shouldn’t I play more?’ But I felt conflicted about it, so I gave myself permission not to.</p>
<p>So you see that there are no guarantees. Some days, you may only find something small you feel unconflicted about, like watching your favorite TV show. Still, that’s great! Just know that life does not have to be unpleasant – problems really are soluble, as Deutsch writes.<sup id="fnref6"><a href="#fn6">6</a></sup></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Schwarzenegger, Arnold and Douglas Kent Hall. 1977. <em>Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder.</em> New York: Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. 10–11. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>I remember the issue to this day. It was that I had used a curly quotation mark in my code instead of a straight one. That may sound like a small thing, but fixing this issue felt like a huge success. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>Schwarzenegger’s journey wasn’t without self-coercion, either. I haven’t finished the book yet, but early on he writes: <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
<blockquote><p>There were certain days when something held me back and I didn’t train as hard as on other days. That was inexplicable to me. Some days nothing could hold me back. Other days I’d be down. On the down days I couldn’t handle anywhere near my normal amount of weight. It puzzled me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Ibid. 19–20.</p>
<p>A bit later on:</p>
<blockquote><p>Every month, I had at least a week when I didn’t really want to train and I questioned myself: Why should I train hard if I don’t feel like it? These were the days [my gym friend] pulled me out of it. […]<br>
It worked perfectly. He forced me to get off my butt, […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Ibid. 21–22.</p>
<p>I, on the other hand, never needed any encouragement from anyone to continue learning to program, and to enjoy doing so (although the encouragement I did receive was appreciated). Of course, there have been a few times here and there when I didn’t feel like doing it, and so I simply wouldn’t. I never questioned myself (although I wonder if Schwarzenegger meant to write ‘asked’ instead of “questioned”); I knew I’d get the spark back soon. In other words, Schwarzenegger’s solution on such days was discipline – mine was to grant me gentle permission to take a break. However, during my time at Apple, after about three of my four years there, I did force myself to continue working on a project I had lost interest in. It almost ruined programming for me, but I left Apple in time.</p>
</li>
<li id="fn4">
<p>Deutsch, David. 2012. <em>The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World.</em> New York: Penguin Press. See the last sentence of chapter 2 – “Now, can this creativity – and this fun – continue indefinitely?” – and his resounding ‘yes’ throughout chapter 3. <a href="#fnref4">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn5">
<p>In light of the difficulty of finding agreement with oneself, we should expect that finding agreement with others is even harder: we don’t have as much visibility into their minds as we have our own, and their minds differ from our own. Consider the utopian dreams of the great political planners who sigh, ‘if only everyone agreed…’ Practice finding agreement with yourself first. Once you get good at it, practice finding agreement with one, maybe two other people at once. Finding agreement within groups gets exponentially harder the larger the groups are – finding it on the scale of entire countries, i.e., millions of people, is impossible for any one person. Such wide-ranging agreement can only come from consensual micro-transactions building up to larger states of ‘unconflictedness’. That happens naturally in capitalism, kind of by definition. <a href="#fnref5">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn6">
<p>Ibid. Chapter 3. <a href="#fnref6">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/unconflicted
Unconflicted
2022-10-09T18:32:32Z
2022-10-09T18:32:32Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="wie-erzieht-man-ein-kind-zum-glauben-an-die-freiheit">Wie erzieht man ein Kind zum Glauben an die Freiheit?</h1>
<p><em>Dies ist eine genehmigte (aber nicht geprüfte) Übersetzung des Artikels <a href="https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/how-do-you-raise-a-child-to-believe-in-freedom/" rel="ugc">›How do you raise a child to believe in freedom?‹</a>, verfasst von Sarah Fitz-Claridge und veröffentlicht auf der Homepage von</em> Taking Children Seriously (Kinder ernst nehmen). <em>Fußnoten sind meine Anmerkungen.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Ein beliebter libertärer Moderator einer Videocast-Show, der gerade im Begriff war, Vater zu werden, hat gefragt: »Wie erzieht man ein Kind zum Glauben an die Freiheit?« Der Gedanke, dass eines seiner Kinder nicht an die Freiheit glauben könnte, schien ihn zu beunruhigen, und er wollte wissen, wie er sicherstellen könnte, dass sein zukünftiges Kind mit ähnlichen Werten wie er selbst aufwächst. (Hat er vielleicht befürchtet, dass sein Kind ruchlose autoritäre Tendenzen entwickelt, die ihm angesichts seiner Stellung in der Öffentlichkeit peinlich sein könnten? Oder war er der Meinung, dass es schrecklich wäre, wenn er selbst einen weiteren autoritären Menschen auf die Welt brächte, der anderen das Leben zur Hölle macht? 😳)</p>
<p>Für mich ist die Frage »Wie erzieht man ein Kind zum Glauben an die Freiheit?« ein Widerspruch in sich. Sie lautet nämlich effektiv: »Wie forme und biege ich mein Kind zu einem Menschen zurecht, der glaubt, dass der Einzelne frei von unerwünschter Formung und Zurechtbiegung durch andere sein sollte?«</p>
<p>Wenn Sie zwar an die Freiheit glauben, aber nicht in Bezug auf Kinder, von denen Sie glauben, dass sie zu ihrem eigenen Wohl kontrolliert werden müssen, dann werden Ihre Kinder Sie als paternalistisch ansehen – also als jemand mit der autoritären Ansicht, dass <em>das Recht des Stärkeren</em> gilt. Wie wahrscheinlich ist es dann schon, dass Ihre Kinder mit einem Glauben an die Freiheit aufwachsen? (Man beachte, wie wenige Menschen frei von den zwanghaften,<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> autoritären, antirationalen Memen<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> ihrer Eltern sind, obwohl sich viele über ihre Eltern beschweren.) Freiheit ist unteilbar. »Freiheit für mich, aber nicht für dich« ist inkohärent. Wer zwar an die Freiheit für bestimmte Gruppen glaubt, nicht aber für andere, hat eine grundsätzlich autoritäre Haltung.</p>
<p>Wenn Menschen (auch Kinder!) nicht frei entscheiden können, welche Werte und Ansichten sie vertreten – wenn sie Ideen und Werte, die sie nicht überzeugend finden, nicht frei ablehnen können –, in welchem Sinne sind sie dann schon frei?</p>
<p>Es ist durchaus verständlich, wenn wir hoffen, dass unsere Lieben unsere Ideen und Werte teilen, und es ist überhaupt nichts dagegen einzuwenden, interessante und angenehme Diskussionen über solche Themen zu führen. (Je mehr, desto besser!) Ein für beide Seiten angenehmes Gespräch, in dem wir unsere Ideen und Werte mit guten Argumenten darlegen, ist jedoch etwas ganz anderes, als wenn wir unser Kind in unsere eigene, vorher festgelegte Vorstellung davon drängen, wie das Kind zu sein hat – wenn wir dem Kind also unsere eigene Agenda aufzwingen, die von den Wünschen des Kindes unabhängig ist und von diesen nicht berührt wird.</p>
<p>Letztlich ist das Vertreten von Werten wie der Freiheit eine Art von Wissen, und Wissen wird vom Einzelnen geschaffen. Man kann niemanden dazu bringen, den eigenen bevorzugten Wert durch Zwang zu übernehmen. Man kann nicht durch Kontrolle dafür sorgen, dass jemand mit dem Glauben an die Freiheit aufwächst – selbst dann nicht, wenn man die paternalistische Theorie vertritt, dass die Unfreiheit, der man ihn aussetzt, zu seinem eigenen Wohl ist. Man kann niemanden durch Manipulation (die eine verdeckte Form des Zwangs ist) dazu ›bringen‹, Freiheit zu schätzen. Man kann niemanden mit behavioristischer Konditionierung dazu bringen, an die Freiheit zu glauben. Man kann keine Werte (oder sonstige Ideen!) in den Verstand einer Person gießen, so wie man Wasser in einen Eimer gießt.<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> Wissen (einschließlich des Freiheitsgedankens und der Wertschätzung von Freiheit) ist nicht wie eine Flüssigkeit, die man von einem Eimer in einen anderen gießen kann, und der Verstand ist nicht passiv wie ein Eimer, der Wasser aufnimmt, sondern er schafft aktiv Wissen.</p>
<p>Sie können sich in einem Gespräch für die Freiheit einsetzen (sofern Ihr Kind das interessiert), und Ihr Kind mag Ihr Argument überzeugend finden. Es könnte Ihr Kind berühren. Vielleicht lässt es das Herz des Kindes höher schlagen – vielleicht aber auch nicht.</p>
<p>Sind Sie selbst zwangsläufig überzeugt, wenn jemand ein Argument für etwas anbringt? Manchmal zwar schon, aber nicht zwangsläufig. Selbst wenn Ihr Gesprächspartner der Meinung ist, dass Sie sich überzeugen lassen, dass Sie sich überzeugen lassen wollen und dass Ihnen die Idee gefällt, kann es sein, dass sie Sie gar nicht überzeugt. Die Idee knüpft nicht an. Sie haben vielleicht explizite Kritikpunkte an der Idee, oder sie erscheint Ihnen im Lichte Ihrer bestehenden Ideen nicht richtig. Oder sie fühlt sich für Sie nicht richtig an, auch wenn Sie nicht genau sagen können, warum: Vielleicht steht sie im Widerspruch zu Ihrem unbewussten Wissen.</p>
<p>Vielleicht führen Sie zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt ein weiteres Gespräch, und plötzlich sehen Sie, dass das, was Ihr Gesprächspartner sagt, Sinn ergibt, und jetzt haben Sie das Gefühl, überzeugt zu sein. Oder vielleicht ist es kein Gespräch, das Sie überzeugt, sondern etwas ganz anderes, was Sie dazu veranlasst, in Ihrem Kopf eine Verbindung herzustellen oder die Argumente des Gesprächspartners in einem größeren Zusammenhang zu sehen, der dann zuvor ungelöste Konflikte in Ihrem Kopf löst, was wiederum dazu führt, dass Sie überzeugt sind.</p>
<p>Es geht darum, dass der Prozess, durch den ein Mensch einen Glauben an die Freiheit entwickelt oder eine andere Idee erwirbt, nicht von außen gesteuert werden kann, und eigentlich handelt es sich dabei auch nicht um etwas, wozu wir uns selbst ›bringen‹ können: Unser Verstand hat sozusagen seinen eigenen Willen. (Wenn Sie schon einmal bewusst von etwas überzeugt werden wollten, sich aber nicht überzeugt gefühlt haben, wissen Sie, was ich meine!) Unser Verstand erkennt aktiv Anomalien und sucht nach Erklärungen, bewertet und prüft alles anhand des im Verstand vorhandenen Wissens, auch auf unbewusste und inexplizite<sup id="fnref4"><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup> Weise. Der Verstand macht dies die ganze Zeit, und zwar aktiv. Das ist weder einfach noch kontrollierbar.</p>
<p>Doch selbst wenn es möglich wäre, jemandem einen bestimmten Wert in den Kopf zu pflanzen – wenn der Wert, den wir in den Kopf einer Person pflanzen wollen, der Glaube an die Freiheit ist –, dann sollte es dieser Person doch freistehen, unsere Idee abzulehnen, und wir sollten doch eher ihr Einverständnis einholen, als uns wie eine Autorität aufzuführen, die ihr unseren bevorzugten Wert aufzwingt?</p>
<p>Wenn Sie also Wert auf Freiheit legen, sollten Sie den Mut haben, Ihre Ansichten zu vertreten und in Übereinstimmung mit diesem Wert zu handeln. Reden sollen Taten folgen, und Ihre Kinder stellen hier keine Ausnahme dar. Machen Sie sich nicht zu einer Autorität, die über Ihre Kinder bestimmt. Versuchen Sie nicht, sie in Ihre eigene, vorher festgelegte Vorstellung davon zu lenken, wer sie sein und welche Werte sie vertreten sollten. Ihre Kinder sind souveräne Menschen. Sie leben ihr eigenes Leben. Würdigen und akzeptieren Sie die Menschen, die sie sind und zu denen sie sich entwickeln.</p>
<p>In ihrer Freiheit können unsere Kinder unsere Ideen überzeugend finden, oder sie können Fehler in unserem Denkprozess erkennen, die wir noch nicht erkannt haben. Sie können unsere Ideen und Werte verbessern, anstatt von unseren Fehlern geplagt zu werden. Und wir haben vielleicht das Privileg, von <em>ihnen</em> zu lernen.</p>
<p><em>Dieser Artikel könnte Sie ebenfalls interessieren: <a href="/posts/forced-to-freedom" rel="ugc">›Forced to Freedom‹</a></em></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>»[Z]wanghaft« bedeutet hier nicht ›gekünstelt‹, sondern ›Zwang oder Zwangsempfindungen verursachend‹. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>Die Idee der sogenannten <em>antirationalen Meme</em> geht auf David Deutsch zurück. Er stellt diese Idee in seinem Buch <a href="http://www.deranfangderunendlichkeit.de" rel="ugc"><em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit: Erklärungen, die die Welt verwandeln</em></a> vor, dessen Übersetzer ich bin. Er baut auf dem Konzept der Meme (Singular ›das Mem‹) von Richard Dawkins aus dessen Buch <em>Das egoistische Gen</em> auf. Meme sind laut Dawkins Ideen, die sich über viele Menschen hinweg verbreiten. Diese Ideen sind also kulturelle Replikatoren und durchlaufen aufgrund von Variation und Selektion einen evolutionären Prozess, der teilweise analog zur biologischen Evolution von Genen abläuft. So entwickeln sich beispielsweise Witze evolutionär, indem sie von einer Person zur nächsten weitererzählt werden. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
<p>Deutsch unterscheidet zwischen <em>rationalen</em> und <em>antirationalen</em> Memen, die er wie folgt definiert:<sup id="fnref5"><a href="#fn5">5</a></sup></p>
<ol class="mb-3">
<li>Rationales Mem: »Eine Idee, die sich auf die kritischen Fähigkeiten der Empfänger stützt, um ihre Replikation zu bewirken«</li>
<li>Antirationales Mem: »Eine Idee, die sich auf die Beeinträchtigung der kritischen Fähigkeiten der Empfänger stützt, um ihre Replikation zu bewirken«</li>
</ol>
<p>Kurz gesagt verbreiten sich rationale Meme, weil sie für ihre Träger nützlich sind, wohingegen sich antirationale Meme verbreiten, indem sie kritischen Fähigkeiten ihrer Träger beeinträchtigen, wodurch diese Träger dann gar nicht anders können, als diese Meme weiterzugeben.</p>
<p>Die Memtheorie ist in diesem Zusammenhang insofern relevant, als dass viele Erziehungsmethoden auch heute noch weitgehend von antirationalen Memen geprägt sind.</p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>Hier bezieht sich die Autorin auf die Kritik des Philosophen Karl Popper an einer Theorie, die er die <em>bucket theory of the mind</em> nennt, sowie auf die Idee, die er stattdessen vorschlägt: dass der Verstand aktiv <em>Vermutungen</em> anstellt, um Probleme zu lösen, und dass sich diese Vermuten im Verstand evolutionär entwickeln, indem sie durch <em>Kritik</em> verbessert oder abgelehnt werden. Popper, Karl. 1979. <em>Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach.</em> New York: Oxford University Press Inc. S. 341–361. <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn4">
<p>Das Wort ›inexplizit‹ bezieht sich auf die konkrete Definition von David Deutsch: Nicht »[m]it Worten oder Symbolen ausgedrückt«. Deutsch, David. 2021. <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit: Erklärungen, die die Welt verwandeln.</em> Oxford: Eigenpublikation. Kapitel 14, Glossar. Auch die Konzepte bewusster sowie unbewusster Ideen gehen auf Deutsch zurück, s. bspw. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idvGlr0aT3c" rel="ugc">dieses Interview</a>. <a href="#fnref4">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn5">
<p>Ebenda. Kapitel 15, Glossar. <a href="#fnref5">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/wie-erzieht-man-ein-kind-zum-glauben-an-die-frei
Wie erzieht man ein Kind zum Glauben an die Freiheit?
2023-08-30T12:38:04Z
2023-08-30T12:38:04Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="kl-rung-der-frage-was-ich-mit-zwang-meine">Klärung der Frage, was ich mit ›Zwang‹ meine</h1>
<p><em>Dies ist eine genehmigte (aber nicht geprüfte) Übersetzung des Artikels <a href="https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/clarification-of-what-i-mean-by-coercion/" rel="ugc">›Clarification of what I mean by ‘coercion’‹</a>, verfasst von Sarah Fitz-Claridge und veröffentlicht auf der Homepage von</em> Taking Children Seriously (Kinder ernst nehmen). <em>Meine Anmerkungen in eckigen Klammern.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Aus dem Archiv: Veröffentlicht am 1. März 1994</p>
<p>Jemand hat geschrieben:</p>
<blockquote><p>»Können Sie mir erklären, was Sie mit ›Zwang‹ meinen? Ich habe den Eindruck, Sie meinen etwas anderes als ›Gewalt oder Androhung von Gewalt‹? Wenn ich meinem Kind Grenzen, Schranken, Regeln und Anweisungen gebe, übe ich dann Zwang auf mein Kind aus? Was ist mit der Führung des Kindes? Kann ich überhaupt mit meinem Kind reden, ohne Zwang auszuüben?? Wie bestimmt man, was Zwang ist und was nicht?«</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Trägt dies zur Klärung Ihrer Frage bei?:</p>
<p>»Können Sie mir erklären, was Sie mit ›Zwang‹ meinen? Ich habe den Eindruck, Sie meinen etwas anderes als ›Gewalt oder Androhung von Gewalt‹? Wenn ich meiner Frau Grenzen, Schranken, Regeln und Anweisungen gebe, übe ich dann Zwang auf meine Frau aus? Was ist mit der Führung meiner Frau? Kann ich überhaupt mit meiner Frau reden, ohne Zwang auszuüben?? Wie bestimmt man, was Zwang ist und was nicht?«</p>
<p>Wenn Sie sich in der schwierigen Lage [des Kindes oder der Ehefrau] befänden, würden Sie dann ernst genommen werden?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/klarung-der-frage-was-ich-mit-zwang-meine
Klärung der Frage, was ich mit ›Zwang‹ meine
2023-02-08T09:25:19Z
2023-02-08T09:25:19Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="die-gesellschaftliche-erzieherische-wirtschaftliche-und-politische-unterdr-ckung-von-kindern">Die gesellschaftliche, erzieherische, wirtschaftliche und politische Unterdrückung von Kindern</h1>
<p><em>Dies ist eine genehmigte (aber nicht geprüfte) Übersetzung des Artikels <a href="https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/the-social-educational-economic-and-political-oppression-of-children/" rel="ugc">›The social, educational, economic and political oppression of children‹</a>, verfasst von Sarah Fitz-Claridge und veröffentlicht auf der Homepage von</em> Taking Children Seriously (Kinder ernst nehmen). <em>Man beachte, dass sich Verweise auf Gesetze sowie Rechte auf das Vereinigte Königreich beziehen – so ist im Text beispielsweise davon die Rede, dass kein <a href="/posts/wer-soll-uber-die-kinder-herrschen" rel="ugc">Schulzwang</a> bestehe, doch soweit ich weiß besteht dieser in Deutschland weiterhin. So oder so bin ich kein Jurist, und diese Übersetzung enthält keinerlei Rechtsberatung.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Aus dem Archiv: 1991</p>
<p>Die Auswirkungen der Regierungspolitik auf Kinder: Ein Überblick</p>
<p>Zusammenfassung</p>
<p>Ich werde argumentieren, dass altersspezifische Gesetze Kindern eher schaden als dass sie sie schützen, dass dies aber nur ein kleiner Teil des Problems ist. Der Großteil der Unterdrückung ist nicht auf die Regierungspolitik zurückzuführen, sondern auf die vorherrschenden gesellschaftlichen, erzieherischen und elterlichen Vorstellungen und Praktiken.</p>
<p>In der Regel wird davon ausgegangen, dass der beste Weg, Kinder zu schützen, sowohl in der Gesetzgebung als auch in der Erziehung darin bestehe, sich zu ihrem eigenen Wohl über ihre Wünsche hinwegzusetzen, indem man sie zum Beispiel daran hindert, Dinge zu tun, die sie später bereuen könnten. Ich werde diese Annahme kritisieren. Ich werde argumentieren, dass eine solche Politik Kinder zwar schützen soll, sie aber im Endeffekt unterdrückt, und dass jede Politik, die dazu führt, dass die Wünsche der Kinder in Bezug auf ihr eigenes Leben missachtet werden, den Kindern wahrscheinlich schadet. Ich werde das Argument, dass Kinder rechtlich entmündigt sein sollten, weil sie keine aussagekräftige Einwilligung geben können, widerlegen: Erwachsene sind rechtlich mündig, wenn sie wissen, was sie wollen, aber dieses Kriterium wird auf Kinder nicht angewandt. Wenn die Begriffe »Mündigkeit« und »Einwilligung« für Erwachsene und Kinder einheitlich verwendet werden, fällt das Argument, Kinder seien unmündig, in sich zusammen. Das Argument, Kinder seien weniger als vollwertige Menschen, die im Gegensatz zu Erwachsenen vor ihrer eigenen Unmündigkeit geschützt werden müssten, wird sich somit als ein Zirkelschluss erweisen. Ich werde einige Folgen für künftige Änderungen der Regierungspolitik erläutern: Änderungen, die im Namen des »Schutzes« eine Einschränkung der rechtlichen Autonomie von Kindern zur Folge haben, sind nicht wünschenswert. Die derzeitige rechtliche Diskriminierung von Kindern umfasst Gesetze gegen Kinderarbeit, Maßnahmen zur Durchsetzung der Anwesenheitspflicht in der Schule, die Tatsache, dass Kinder rechtlich keine Verträge abschließen dürfen, sowie die Tatsache, dass sie nicht das Recht haben, sich ihren Wohnsitz auszusuchen. In der Tat sind Kinder von vielen Rechten ausgeschlossen, die Erwachsene als selbstverständlich betrachten, wie zum Beispiel das Recht, nicht misshandelt zu werden. Ich werde die gesellschaftlichen, psychischen, wirtschaftlichen und erzieherischen Schäden aufzeigen, die diese Gesetze mit sich bringen. Darüber hinaus werde ich die Auffassung, es sei prinzipiell unmöglich, ein Rechtssystem zu konzipieren, das Kindern den notwendigen Schutz bietet und ihnen gleichzeitig dieselben Rechte wie Erwachsenen gewährt, widerlegen.</p>
<p>Geplante Gesetzesänderungen müssen im Hinblick auf die Popper’sche Idee analysiert werden, dass politische Maßnahmen aufgrund der Unvorhersehbarkeit zukünftigen Wissens wahrscheinlich unbeabsichtigte Folgen haben werden. Je drastischer die Änderungen sind, desto mehr unbeabsichtigte Folgen sind zu erwarten. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass Institutionen, die sich hin zur Berücksichtigung der Wünsche einzelner Kinder entwickeln, diese wahrscheinlich fördern, dass aber plötzliche, utopische Gesetzesänderungen angesichts des bestehenden Machtungleichgewichts zwischen Erwachsenen und Kindern für Letztere sehr schädlich sein können. Ich werde dies anhand von Beispielen verdeutlichen.</p>
<p>Ich werde behaupten, dass wirkliche Veränderungen in der Gesellschaft nur selten durch politische Veränderungen oder Gesetze herbeigeführt werden, sondern vielmehr durch einen Wandel der Haltung des Einzelnen bedingt sind. Der Schaden, der durch die Regierungspolitik angerichtet wird, ist zwar nicht zu leugnen, aber er ist dennoch nur ein kleiner Teil des Problems. Der Großteil der Unterdrückung von Kindern hat nichts mit der Regierungspolitik zu tun. Sie ist das Ergebnis von (bewussten wie unbewussten) Ideen, die in unserer Gesellschaft vorherrschen. Erwachsene, insbesondere Eltern und Lehrer, tragen weit mehr zur Unterdrückung von Kindern bei als Gesetze, und sie könnten den Großteil dieser Unterdrückung ganz legal unterlassen, wenn sie es wollten. Eltern sind gesetzlich nicht verpflichtet, ihre Kinder für ein breites Spektrum völlig legaler Handlungen zu bestrafen, und tun es dennoch. Eltern sind gesetzlich nicht verpflichtet, darauf zu bestehen, dass ihre Kinder bei ihnen wohnen, und dennoch berufen sich Eltern, deren Kinder andere Erziehungsberechtigte wünschen, in der Regel auf ihr gesetzliches Recht, die Kinder zur Rückkehr zu zwingen. Es ist gesetzlich nicht vorgeschrieben, Kindern die Vereinigungsfreiheit zu verweigern, und doch verweigern viele Eltern ihren Kindern diese Freiheit. Es ist gesetzlich nicht vorgeschrieben, Kinder zu schlagen, und doch tun viele Eltern dies im Namen der Disziplin. Es ist gesetzlich nicht vorgeschrieben, Kindern zu Hause den Zugang zu Informationen zu verweigern, doch viele Eltern tun dies bis zum Äußersten. Eltern sind gesetzlich nicht verpflichtet, unwillige Kinder zu außerschulischen Aktivitäten wie Klavierunterricht und Pfadfindern zu zwingen. Ebenso wenig sind Eltern gesetzlich verpflichtet, ihre Kinder zum <em>Schulbesuch</em> zu zwingen, was die meisten aber trotzdem tun. Es gibt nicht einmal spezifische Anforderungen an die Bildung, die Kinder erhalten müssen, und dennoch machen einige Eltern ihren Kindern die Bildung auf verschiedenste Art und Weise unnötig schwer.</p>
<p>Ebenso gibt es keine <em>gesetzlichen</em> Bestimmungen, die darauf hindeuten, dass Lehrer ihre Schüler respektlos behandeln sollten. Das Gesetz schreibt nicht vor, dass Kinder Hausaufgaben machen müssen, oder dass Eltern sie zur Erledigung der Hausaufgaben zwingen sollten, wenn sie lieber etwas anderes täten. Es ist nicht das <em>Gesetz</em>, das Eltern und Lehrer dazu veranlasst, Kinder in eine Zwickmühle zu treiben, um sie so zu manipulieren, dass sie dem Willen der Erwachsenen entsprechen.</p>
<p>Ich werde die vorherrschenden Argumente für diese Arten von Zwang kritisch prüfen und einen alternativen Ansatz vorschlagen, der auf Einverständnis beruht.</p>
<p>Zusammenfassend bin ich der Meinung, dass wir die Auswirkungen der Regierungspolitik im breiteren Zusammenhang der umfassenden gesellschaftlichen, erzieherischen, wirtschaftlichen und politischen Entmachtung von Kindern verstehen müssen.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/die-gesellschaftliche-erzieherische-wirtschaft
Die gesellschaftliche, erzieherische, wirtschaftliche und politische Unterdrückung von Kindern
2022-09-30T03:48:17Z
2022-09-30T03:48:17Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="explain-irrational-minds">Explain Irrational Minds!</h1>
<blockquote><p>Such remarks probably won’t satisfy those who are after a psychological theory of creative thinking […]. Because what they’re after is a theory of <em>successful</em> research and thinking.<br>
I believe that the demand for a theory of <em>successful</em> thinking cannot be satisfied. And it is not the same as a theory of creative thinking. […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Karl Popper<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p>
<p>Those who wish to understand how the mind works often try to understand successful thinking, which they believe is <em>rationality</em>.<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> In other words, they mistake a theory of successful thinking for a theory of how the mind works. That may be tempting, but, as Popper says, it’s impossible to find a theory of successful thinking, so they’re wasting their time.</p>
<p>There’s more to the mind. <em>Irrational</em> minds are minds, too. If you focus only on understanding rational ones – or on how to avoid irrationality – you end up understanding, at most, how the mind <em>can</em> work, not how it <em>must</em> work. Rationality and irrationality are <em>emergent</em> properties of the mind – they’re not at the core of how it works.</p>
<p>The reason we should instead try to explain how minds <em>must</em> work is that the project of building a mind – an artificial general intelligence – is the quest for the right computer program,<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> and programs cannot deviate from their own instructions. <em>The same set of instructions</em> leads to both rational and irrational minds.<sup id="fnref4"><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup></p>
<p>Here’s a different approach to protect yourself from the mistake I’ve described. First, explain how an <em>irrational</em> mind must work, in detail. Then, show how that same explanation also explains how a <em>rational</em> mind must work. Of course, if you’re right, it will also explain qualia, consciousness, memories, and all other attributes of minds.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Translated freely from: Popper, Karl. 2018. <em>Ausgangspunkte: Meine intellektuelle Entwicklung.</em> Munich: Piper. Translator Friedrich Griese, p. 62 f. As quoted (albeit without the subtitle) in Deutsch, David. 2021. <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit: Erklärungen, die die Welt verwandeln.</em> Oxford: self-published. Translator Dennis Hackethal, p. x. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>I don’t think that there’s such a thing as ‘Rationality’, or that there are fully irrational minds. Rationality certainly does not have to do with finding the ‘right’ way of thinking, only producing correct results, reliably solving problems, always favoring facts over emotions, or always favoring the explicit over the inexplicit or the conscious over the unconscious (which David Deutsch has <a href="https://youtu.be/idvGlr0aT3c?t=620" rel="ugc">warned</a> against). But it <em>does</em> seem to have to do with a mind’s <a href="/posts/fallibility-table" rel="ugc"><em>attitude</em></a>: does it seek the truth? Is it critical? Does it wish to solve problems, even though it may fail? <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>According to David Deutsch, “[c]reativity is a property of <em>software</em>”. Deutsch, David. 2012. <em>The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World.</em> New York: Penguin Press. Ch. 16. <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn4">
<p>It follows that other approaches focusing on how minds <em>can</em> work must fail, too. That includes the study of perception, a favorite among neuroscientists and philosophers, which they believe to be at the core of how minds work – but different people perceive things differently. Perception <em>can</em> work a certain way, but it need not. (That’s not to mention Popper’s devastating criticism of empiricism.) <a href="#fnref4">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/explain-irrational-minds
Explain Irrational Minds!
2022-09-19T01:28:05Z
2022-09-19T01:28:05Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="do-children-owe-their-parents">Do Children Owe Their Parents?</h1>
<blockquote><p>[My mother] would declare that she never wanted to have any children, that she is taking care of us because it’s her duty, and how much she hates it. And I remember thinking indignantly from as far back as I can recall that [me and my sisters] did not choose to be born, and what is it that we are expected to do about it? That, since we could not help it, under what sort of obligation should we consider ourselves? It’s the injustice, the irrationality of that kind of accusation that I resented very much, […] it didn’t make me feel guilty, it made me feel resentful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Ayn Rand [about her childhood](htt…<br>
<br><em>This is a pro article, preview only. Purchase the full article here: <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/do-children-owe-their-parents" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/do-children-owe-their-parents</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/do-children-owe-their-parents
Do Children Owe Their Parents?
2022-09-14T21:14:46Z
2022-09-14T21:14:46Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="fehler-in-der-anfang-der-unendlichkeit">Fehler in <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em></h1>
<p>Bei der Übersetzung des Buches <a href="http://www.deranfangderunendlichkeit.de/" rel="ugc"><em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em></a> von David Deutsch sind mir einige Fehler unterlaufen. Ich halte es für angebracht, diese Fehler aufzulisten.</p>
<p>Diese Liste finden Sie <a href="http://www.deranfangderunendlichkeit.de/errata" rel="ugc">hier</a>. Weitere Fehler (sprachliche, inhaltliche usw.) werde ich hinzufügen. Sie können zu diesem Zweck gerne unten einen Kommentar hinterlassen.</p>
<p>Wie im Vorwort angemerkt, habe ich alle bisher bekannten und vom Autor zusammengestellten <a href="https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/book/errata/#errata" rel="ugc">Errata der Originalausgabe</a> in der Übersetzung korrigiert. Allerdings ist <em>diese</em> Liste bei weitem nicht vollständig. Ich habe sie <a href="/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity" rel="ugc">hier</a> umfassend ergänzt, und viele der ergänzten Errata (vielleicht sogar alle, das müsste ich genauer prüfen) sind in der Übersetzung ebenfalls korrigiert.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/fehler-in-der-anfang-der-unendlichkeit
Fehler in Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="fallibility-table">Fallibility Table</h1>
<p>In his book <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Myth_of_the_Framework/GDFpAwAAQBAJ?gbpv=1" rel="ugc"><em>The Myth of the Framework</em></a>,<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> Karl Popper presents what has since become a famous quote of his (page xii):</p>
<blockquote><h4 id="i-may-be-wrong-and-you-may-be-right-and-by-an-effort-we-may-get-nearer-to-the-truth"><em>‘I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth.’</em></h4>
</blockquote>
<p>This attitude is at the heart of his philosophy, <em>critical rationalism</em>. We may call it the <em>fallibilist attitude</em>.</p>
<p>When we have a disagreement with someone, whether he has this attitude tells us a lot about whether we can <em>reasonably expect</em> to make progress <em>in this particular disagreement</em>. If he does not have this attitude regarding this particular matter, and assuming that we do, that doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t make progress together in other areas or that we can’t make progress in the same area if he changes his attitude. Nor does it mean that we can’t learn from interacting with someone like him.</p>
<p>Following Popper, we can never know whether we’re right about anything.<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup><sup>,</sup><sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> There is no criterion of truth. That’s why he’s careful to say “I <em>may</em> be wrong” and “you <em>may</em> be right” (emphasis changed). But we can think through different scenarios in which we simply postulate who is right and who is wrong.</p>
<p>There are sixteen different scenarios in which two people with conflicting views about a particular issue can find themselves. These scenarios differ in who (if anyone) is right about that particular issue and who (if anyone) has a fallibilist attitude. The ‘fallibility table’ below lists all possible scenarios.</p>
<table class="mb-4">
<thead>
<tr>
<th></th>
<th>You’re right?</th>
<th>They’re right?</th>
<th>You have the fallibilist attitude?</th>
<th>They have the fallibilist attitude?</th>
<th>Joint progress possible?</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">1</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">2</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">3</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">4</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success font-weight-bold">yes</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">5</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">6</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">7</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">8</td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success font-weight-bold">yes</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">9</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">10</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">11</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">12</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success font-weight-bold">yes</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">13</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">14</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">15</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger">no</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="no-wrap text-right pr-3">16</td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-decoration-underline text-success">yes</span></td>
<td><span class="text-danger font-weight-bold">no</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>A few things to note about this table. First, you may notice that joint progress (again, in a particular matter) is only possible if <em>both</em> parties have the fallibilist attitude, as shown in rows 4, 8, and 12. However, there is one scenario, pictured by the last row, in which joint progress isn’t possible despite both parties’ fallibilist attitude – when both parties are <em>right</em>. So there’s an interesting asymmetry there. (If it were symmetrical, <em>every</em> fourth row, including the last one, would read ‘yes’ in the last column.) In other words, progress is only possible (broadly speaking) if <em>two</em> conditions are met: not only must both parties have the fallibilist attitude but <em>at least one of them must be wrong</em>.</p>
<p>Second, it is always possible for either party to regress instead of progressing or remaining stagnant.</p>
<p>Third, there are only three out of sixteen scenarios in which progress on a particular issue is possible. Solving problems together is often difficult. A lot depends on the fallibilist attitude.</p>
<p>In a critical discussion, you can test whether someone has the fallibilist attitude by asking them to steelman your view. Or you can ask them to think of reasons you’re right and they’re wrong. Doing so commonly causes them to do to the opposite, in which case they probably don’t (yet) have the right attitude. You can also ask them what would change their mind. Of course, you should be prepared to respond to the same questions.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Logan Chipkin for commenting on a draft of this post. In addition to Karl Popper, David Deutsch has influenced my thinking on fallibility, especially in chapter 10 of his brilliant book</em> <a href="https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/" rel="ugc">The Beginning of Infinity</a>. <em>I’m also influenced by Elliot Temple’s</em> <a href="https://criticalfallibilism.com/paths-forward-summary" rel="ugc">Paths Forward</a>.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Popper, Karl. 2014. <em>The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality.</em> United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. (This reference was auto-generated by Google Books, except I moved the year to make it consistent with my other references.) <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>It seems to me that some of Popper’s fans have misunderstood him and taken this view too far. They think we’re never fully right about anything. For example, Brett Hall <a href="https://twitter.com/ToKTeacher/status/1536026436343336960" rel="ugc">thinks</a> “we cannot “speak the truth”.” But of course we can. Popper only says that we can never <em>know</em> whether we are right, and that we should expect to be mistaken. He does not say that we’re never right about anything. On the contrary, he quotes Xenophanes (see <a href="#fn3" rel="ugc">footnote 3</a>), who says we <em>can</em> be right, and utter “[t]he perfect truth”, if only by accident – and I believe that people are right frequently, especially about mundane things where correcting errors is easy. They’re just never right about <em>everything</em>, about the entire Truth. Of course, none of this detracts from the desirability of the fallibilist attitude, nor does it mean we should try to find ways of being right, or proving that we are right. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>For example, I have <a href="/posts/criticism-of-david-deutsch-s-taking-children-se" rel="ugc">previously quoted</a> Popper: “Every unambiguous statement is true or false (although we may not know whether it is the one or the other); […].” (Popper, Karl. 1983. <em>Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach.</em> Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press. P. 55)<br>
The Xenophanes quote referenced in <a href="#fn2" rel="ugc">footnote 2</a> reads: <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
<blockquote><p>And even if by chance he were to utter<br>
The perfect truth, he would himself not know it;<br>
For all is but a woven web of guesses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As quoted in Popper, Karl. 2002. <em>Conjectures and Refutations.</em> London, New York: Routledge. P. 34</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/fallibility-table
Fallibility Table
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-religion-of-terror">The Religion of Terror</h1>
<p>I recently stumbled upon a site called <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/" rel="ugc">thereligionofpeace.com</a>. That name is ironic on purpose – the site’s <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/site/about-site.aspx" rel="ugc">self-described</a> “purpose is to counter whitewashing and explain the threat that Islam truly poses to human dignity and freedom, as well as the violence and dysfunction that ensues as a direct consequence of this religion’s supremacist ideology.” And:</p>
<blockquote><p>The main purpose of this site is to challenge the assumption that all religion is the same, which is easily belied by common sense. Over 99% of religiously-motivated terror is committed explicitly in the name of one faith. How can that be if it is just like all the others?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=Last30" rel="ugc">show</a> that, at the time of writing this article, 122 people have been killed and 208 injured in the name of islam <em>in the past 30 days alone</em>. (I spell “islam” with a lowercase ‘i’ on purpose.) One of these incidents was the recent <a href="/posts/in-solidarity-with-salman-rushdie" rel="ugc">attack on Salman Rushdie on 2022-08-12</a>.</p>
<p>The site is well organized and answers important questions, all while providing quotes from islamic religious texts to back up their claims. For example, you may have wondered whether muslims are allowed to leave their faith. <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/apostasy.aspx" rel="ugc">They are not.</a> Are they allowed to befriend non-muslims? <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/friends-with-jews-christians.aspx" rel="ugc">No.</a> Does islam treat women the same as men? <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/women-worth-less.aspx" rel="ugc">No.</a> Is it true that the Quran mandates the amputation of a thief’s hand? <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/quran/noble/sura5.html#38" rel="ugc">Yes.</a> Did the muslim prophet Muhammad have the same moral compass as Jesus? <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/jesus-muhammad.aspx" rel="ugc">He definitely did not.</a> In light of these facts, conversion to islam is one of the worst possible betrayals of reason.</p>
<p>They offer <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/games/index.aspx" rel="ugc">guidance</a> on how to navigate some of the manipulative rhetorical tricks muslims and their apologists may use to defend their irrationality. At the same time, they’re careful to <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/site/about-site.aspx" rel="ugc">condemn</a> “<strong>any attempt to harm or harass any Muslim anywhere in the world over their religion</strong>”. They <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/site/about-muslims.aspx" rel="ugc">distinguish</a> between islam and muslims.</p>
<p>The site also has <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/pages/site/about-site.aspx" rel="ugc">some powerful quotes</a>. For example:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>No other religion is so demanding of respect while doing so little to earn it.</strong></p>
<p><strong>It <a href="http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-will-teach-tolerance-to-muslims.html" rel="ugc">isn’t the victims</a> who need lessons in tolerance and understanding - it is the Islamic world.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p>[We should not] assist the expansion within our borders of a religion that is consistently incapable of building countries in which even Muslims themselves want to live.</p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p>The truth is that Islam is not like other religion and it is certainly not a religion of peace.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These are just some of the many valuable insights <a href="https://thereligionofpeace.com/" rel="ugc">the site</a> has to offer. I haven’t read <em>all</em> of it, but I’m impressed by what I have read so far. I hope you give it a closer look.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-religion-of-terror
The Religion of Terror
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="in-solidarity-with-salman-rushdie">In Solidarity with Salman Rushdie</h1>
<p>Yesterday, on August 12th, 2022, a muslim terrorist attacked author Salman Rushdie on stage during an otherwise peaceful literary event.</p>
<p>This incident marks yet another of the countless attacks by violent muslims on peaceful people for the ‘crime’ of disrespecting muslim sensibilities.</p>
<p>I am no expert on Rushdie or his background. I don’t know all of his views and may disagree with some of them, and he may disagree with mine and even find this article to be in poor taste. I haven’t read any of his books. Nor am I an expert on islam or islamism, and the situation is <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/13/new-video-shows-chaos-after-salman-rushdie-attack/" rel="ugc">still developing</a>. But I <em>will</em> stand up for freedom of speech.</p>
<p>As the linked article states, it appears that Rushdie has had to fear for his life since 1989, when “Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a call for his death” one year after Rushdie published his novel <em>The Satanic Verses</em>. The book appears to be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy#Controversial_elements_of_The_Satanic_Verses" rel="ugc">controversial</a> from a muslim perspective.</p>
<p>It is being <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabbing_of_Salman_Rushdie" rel="ugc">reported</a> that Rushdie was stabbed in multiple parts of his body, including his neck, and may lose an eye. The suspect is 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey. He’s said to be <a href="https://heavy.com/news/hadi-matar/" rel="ugc">sympathetic to Shia extremism</a>.</p>
<p>Someone who writes a book that pisses off a murderous cult this much has my respect. So I immediately bought the book out of solidarity. I may or may not read it – that’s not important. What <em>is</em> important is that one should pronounce judgment, as Ayn Rand <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">said</a>. Because what happened here is what she would call “plain, naked human evil”.</p>
<p>Sam Harris, an avid critic of religion in general and islam in particular, has rightly <a href="https://twitter.com/SamHarrisOrg/status/1558241935520776192" rel="ugc">raised</a> the issue of secularist cowardice (I’m merging his two tweets without his ellipsis for increased legibility):</p>
<blockquote><p>Like many of you, I’m thinking about Salman Rushdie now. </p>
<p>The threat he has lived under for so long–which was so horrifically realized today–was the product, not merely of the hatred and zeal of religious fanatics but of the cowardice and confusion of secularists. Everyone in arts and letters should have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Salman in 1989, thereby distributing the risk. And the fact that so few did is a moral scandal that still casts its shadow over the present.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Harris is right that the risk should be distributed. That’s one of the main reasons I’m writing this article. As many said after the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvgdPAEu8vA" rel="ugc"><em>Charlie Hebdo</em> shooting</a>, <em>we should all be drawing cartoons of Muhammad.</em> Freedom of speech should always win over arbitrary muslim sensibilities. <em>Muslims</em> are not allowed to mock their ‘prophet’ or depict him – everyone else <em>is</em>.</p>
<p>So, out of solidarity with Rushdie, here are some ‘AI’-generated depictions of Muhammad eating pork (more text below). They’re not real photos of real people. Think of them as photorealistic cartoons. Thanks to Amaro Koberle for generating these using Open AI’s tool Dall-E. (The cowards at Open AI won’t accept prompts that include the phrase ‘prophet Muhammad’; only “man in turban eating pork” worked. But the men in these pictures are all meant to be Muhammad.)</p>
<div class="mt-5">
<img src="/assets/muhammad_pork_1.jpeg" alt="Muhammad eating pork 1" class="d-block mx-auto">
<p class="text-center small mt-2 mb-4">Mmm, yum. That looks like it’s still raw!</p>
</div>
<div>
<img src="/assets/muhammad_pork_2.jpeg" alt="Muhammad eating pork 2" class="d-block mx-auto">
<p class="text-center small mt-2 mb-4">Oh he can’t wait to dig into that.</p>
</div>
<div>
<img src="/assets/muhammad_pork_3.jpeg" alt="Muhammad eating pork 3" class="d-block mx-auto">
<p class="text-center small mt-2 mb-4">Muhammad loves him some good pork.</p>
</div>
<div>
<img src="/assets/muhammad_pork_4.jpeg" alt="Muhammad eating pork 4" class="d-block mx-auto">
<p class="text-center small mt-2 mb-4">Juicy. Sucking it like a straw!</p>
</div>
<p>If you’d like to speak out in support of Rushdie or help distribute the risk by posting more blasphemous material about Muhammad, leave a comment below. If you’re a muslim who would like to condemn Matar’s actions, leave a comment, too. If you’re a muslim and/or ‘liberal’ who’d like to give criticism or leave death threats (against me, nobody else), you’re also welcome to leave a comment. Whatever the case, be brave enough to use your real name.</p>
<p>And while we’re making fun of muslims, here’s <a href="/posts/this-mask-replacement-will-change-your-life" rel="ugc">another post</a> you may like.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/in-solidarity-with-salman-rushdie
In Solidarity with Salman Rushdie
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="quick-security-tip">Quick Security Tip</h1>
<p><em>Follow this tip at your own risk.</em></p>
<p>When you call a company’s customer service, the rep usually needs to verify that you are indeed the customer you claim to be. To do so, they may ask you for certain pieces of sensitive information that you have previously provided and that only you should know.</p>
<p>The only problem is that you also need to verify that they should have access to that information. Otherwise, a disgruntled customer representative may gather (and potentially share) information about you that you did not need to provide. Do you remember if you ever gave your dental insurance your social-security number? Maybe you never did. But would you even remember which kinds of sensitive information you have shared with which businesses?</p>
<p>Say they ask for the last four of your social – 1234. If they have this number on file, they will notice when you make a mistake.</p>
<p>I recommend that you purposefully make a mistake that’s small enough that even someone authorized to have it – you – could make it. It needs to be the kind of mistake that you could make because you were momentarily distracted or absent-minded, say. For example, you could simply swap two numbers – 1324 – or increase one of the numbers by one – 1235 – or swap a 1 for a 7 and vice versa since they’re fairly easy to confuse.</p>
<p>Now, does the rep complain? If they do, say, ‘my bad’ or, ‘did I say 1324? It’s 1234’. If they do <em>not</em> complain, they had no way of verifying this information in the first place, and luckily you didn’t just leak the correct number. You should hang up.</p>
<p>Although you have divulged <em>some</em> information, the attacker won’t know how to fix the mistake. Even if they suspect you made a mistake on purpose, they won’t know which digit(s) you changed by how much.</p>
<p>Keep in mind however, that the mistake has to be small enough to seem innocent. If the rep suspects you’re a hacker, they may (and should) take appropriate action. For example, if you call your bank and make a big enough mistake, they may lock you out of your online banking.</p>
<p>And to be clear, this tip is for when <em>you</em> call <em>them</em>. Never divulge any information when somebody calls <em>you</em> and claims to represent some company. In that case, hang up and call the company’s official number from their website, then ask for confirmation that they just called you. If they did not, report a <a href="https://www.phishing.org/" rel="ugc">phishing</a> attempt.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/quick-security-tip
Quick Security Tip
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="criticism-of-david-deutschs-taking-children-seriously-and-fallibilism">Criticism of David Deutsch’s ‘Taking Children Seriously and fallibilism’</h1>
<p>David Deutsch’s essay <a href="https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/taking-children-seriously-and-fallibilism/" rel="ugc">‘Taking Children Seriously and fallibilism’</a> was first published in 1997 in <em>Taking Children Seriously</em> (TCS) issue 23.</p>
<p>Broadly, the essay is about epistemology – fallibilism, and knowledge in particular. I read it the other night and noticed several things worth criticizing. I suggest you read the essay first, then come back here. Comments on language should be taken with a grain of salt since I’m not a native speaker.</p>
<h3 id="use-of-the-same-word-in-two-opposing-contexts">Use of the same word in two opposing contexts</h3>
<p>The essay starts with the following sentence:</p>
<blockquote><p>Over two millennia ago, the idea that human beings are inherently fallible was introduced into the foundations of the theory of knowledge by Pre-Socratic philosophers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Those familiar with Deutsch’s philosophy will know that he agrees with “the idea that human beings are inherently fallible”. He thinks it’s a good thing that this idea “was introduced into the foundations of the theory of knowledge”. Consider his use of the word “foundations” in this context. Notably, he uses the same word at the end of the same paragraph, where he paraphrases a view he <em>dis</em>agrees with:</p>
<blockquote><p>‘You’ve got to build on solid foundations or you’ll never get anywhere’, [defenders of tyranny] claim.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Readers may be confused. They might ask whether Deutsch isn’t building on what he considers solid foundations at the beginning of the paragraph and whether he contradicts himself.</p>
<p>I believe he does not contradict himself. He just uses the same word – ‘foundation’ – in two different senses, which is confusing.</p>
<p>In the first sense, I’m guessing he means “foundations” as in ‘important, early aspects’. In the second, he seems to mean it as in ‘aspects forever secure and beyond criticism’. To avoid confusion, one could use different words – for example, one could say ‘fundamentals’ for the agreeable case. Or one could leave that part out and simply say ‘was introduced into the theory of knowledge’.</p>
<h3 id="justification">Justification</h3>
<p>Deutsch begins the essay by criticizing attempts to justify theories – he’s one of the people who deny “the possibility of […] justified knowledge”. So it may confuse the reader that later on he speaks of “reasons” that “the theory of Taking Children Seriously” is true. He also writes (emphasis added):</p>
<blockquote><p>[N]on-coercive educational theory is consistent with wider philosophical ideas […] that we hold for independent <em>reasons</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think Deutsch just means to argue for TCS, and that TCS is compatible with other, independent ideas that <em>follow from</em> (can be deduced from) ideas that are non-controversial in this problem situation. He invokes Popper’s concept of <em>background knowledge</em>, of which these independent ideas are a part, and which, by definition, is non-controversial. It cannot refute TCS since it is compatible with TCS.</p>
<p>A bit further down, he uses the same logic to show how one might criticize TCS instead:</p>
<blockquote><p>[Argument and criticism] might show that [TCS] contradicts some principles that we have independent reasons to retain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, if TCS conflicted with something derived from background knowledge, we’d discard TCS.</p>
<p>We find the explanation for this valid use of justification in Popper’s <em>Objective Knowledge</em>.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> As I commented <a href="/posts/choosing-between-theories#comment-403" rel="ugc">here</a> on a <a href="/posts/choosing-between-theories" rel="ugc">related post</a>, on p. 67, Popper speaks of “the logical justification of the preference for one theory over another” (emphasis removed) and calls it “the only kind of ‘justification’ which I believe possible […]”.</p>
<p>It would have been helpful if Deutsch had explained to the reader why it’s okay to justify TCS in this case but not in other cases and why.</p>
<h3 id="spelling-and-grammar">Spelling and grammar</h3>
<blockquote><p>Pre-Socratic philosophers</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Deutsch potentially spelled “Pre-Socratic” wrong. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/pre-Socratics" rel="ugc">Apparently</a> it’s spelled with a lowercase ‘p’: ‘pre-Socratic’</p>
<blockquote><p>We believe that it possible […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The word ‘is’ is missing.</p>
<blockquote><p>favorite theory</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Deutsch is British. Why is “favorite” not spelled ‘favourite’? Maybe an American copy editor changed the spelling before publication? If so, there is an inconsistency: later on, Deutsch writes “criticise” instead of ‘criticize’.</p>
<blockquote><p>[W]hat passes for rival educational theories all depend on […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It should say ‘depends’ (singular). This mistake strikes me as an instance of the <a href="/posts/wrong-number-pattern" rel="ugc">wrong-number pattern</a>, and I have written more about this particular instance <a href="/posts/wrong-number-pattern#comment-402" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Experiment could not refute the theory of Taking Children Seriously, but argument and criticism might. For instance, it might […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It should say ‘they might’ instead of “it might” since that part refers to “argument and criticism”. Same in the next sentence, which starts with “Or it might show” and so on.</p>
<blockquote><p>There is often a moment of understanding, when you assimilate an explanation of why […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://app.grammarly.com/" rel="ugc">Grammarly</a> says there should be no comma after “understanding”.</p>
<h3 id="style">Style</h3>
<blockquote><p>But because we are fallible, it is not possible for us to know which of the ideas that we believe to be true are in fact true, […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Grammarly says the part “it is not possible for us to know” is unnecessarily wordy. One could simply say ‘we cannot possibly know’.</p>
<blockquote><p>in fact</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Toward the end of the second paragraph, Deutsch uses the phrase “in fact” three times in three subsequent sentences. That’s repetitive.</p>
<h3 id="missing-credit">Missing credit</h3>
<blockquote><p>[W]e do believe that our successive theories can become objectively truer – with more true implications and fewer errors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This sounds like a vague summary of Karl Popper’s idea of verisimilitude (or truthlikeness), see e.g. <em>Objective Knowledge</em> p. 52 ff.</p>
<p>Deutsch’s criticism of justified/certain knowledge rests on Popper’s, which in turn rests on David Hume’s, see e.g. <em>Objective Knowledge</em> p. 3 f. and p. 7 (more on that below).</p>
<p>Deutsch got the idea that “it is not possible for us to know which of the ideas that we believe to be true are in fact true” from Popper, e.g. in <em>Objective Knowledge</em> p. 55:</p>
<blockquote><p>Every unambiguous statement is true or false (although we may not know whether it is the one or the other); […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Popper in turn got this from Xenophanes, whom he quotes in his <em>Conjectures and Refutations</em><sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> p. 34:</p>
<blockquote><p>And even if by chance he were to utter<br>
The perfect truth, he would himself not know it;<br>
For all is but a woven web of guesses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, Deutsch <a href="/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity#comment-405" rel="ugc">(mis)quotes</a> this passage from Popper’s <em>The World of Parmenides</em>.</p>
<p>The idea that experimental testing “cannot prove that any theory is true, because it may yet make many false predictions in some […] other situations” is Hume’s. Popper credits Hume in <em>Objective Knowledge</em> p. 7 (I’m leaving out a footnote marker at the end of the quote):</p>
<blockquote><p>I formulate Hume’s logical problem of induction as follows:<br>
<em>L<sub>1</sub></em> Can the claim that an explanatory universal theory is true be justified by ‘empirical reasons’; that is, by assuming the truth of certain test statements or observation statements (which, it may be said, are ‘based on experience’)?<br>
My answer to the problem <em>is the same as Hume’s</em> [emphasis added]: No, it cannot; no number of true test statements would justify the claim that an explanatory universal theory is true.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Note however that, unlike Deutsch, Popper does not say this about <em>any</em> theory, but only about “explanatory universal” ones.</p>
<p>Popper also writes in <em>The Logic of Scientific Discovery</em><sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> p. 10:</p>
<blockquote><p>[Experimental testing] can only temporarily support [a] theory, for subsequent negative decisions may always overthrow it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The idea that bad epistemology is “a recipe for tyranny” is Popper’s. For example, in <em>Conjectures and Refutations</em> p. 11, he criticizes the manifest-truth error, which is one particular kind of bad epistemology:</p>
<blockquote><p>The theory that truth is manifest—that it is there for everyone to see, if only he wants to see it—this theory is the basis of almost every kind of fanaticism. For only the most depraved wickedness can refuse to see the manifest truth; […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>See also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3SA6G5rZrg" rel="ugc">this video</a> where Popper explains how different epistemologies can lead to different politics and how that can go wrong.</p>
<p>To be sure, Deutsch mentions Popper by name, but he does not directly associate Popper with these ideas, so the reader may easily miss that Popper came up with them.</p>
<h3 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h3>
<p>The essay contains highly relevant ideas, but it seems like Deutsch wrote it a bit carelessly. Some of the borrowed ideas are of lower quality than the originals and have fewer details than in the sources. That would be fine since the essay is on the shorter side, but exact sources should be given so that readers can learn more. I have noticed a similar reduction in quality of some borrowed ideas in Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> – see the “Missing credit” section <a href="/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Popper, Karl. 1983. <em>Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach.</em> Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>_________. 2002. <em>Conjectures and Refutations.</em> London, New York: Routledge. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>_________. 2002. <em>The Logic of Scientific Discovery.</em> London, New York: Routledge. <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/criticism-of-david-deutsch-s-taking-children-se
Criticism of David Deutsch’s ‘Taking Children Seriously and fallibilism’
2022-09-29T05:23:02Z
2022-09-29T05:23:02Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="don-t-use-square">Don’t Use Square</h1>
<p><strong>TL;DR: Square owed me thousands of dollars. They didn’t pay me despite their written promise to do so, being past their own deadline, and several reminders on my part. They have offered no explanation. They also systematically lie about how long they hold their users’ money – evidence below.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://squareup.com/us/en" rel="ugc">Square</a> is an American payment platform. You may have seen vendors use their <a href="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthenextweb.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2013%2F07%2Fstand-swipe.jpg&f=1&nofb=1" rel="ugc">physical checkout system</a>. I used Square’s online invoicing system to invoice my clients and receive payments. After a series of bad experiences with Square, I won’t anymore, and I suggest you don’t, either.</p>
<p>Square’s invoicing system is simple: you add a client, send them an invoice, and they pay it online on a page hosted by Square. Square then receives the funds on your behalf and keeps a processing fee (2.9% plus $0.30 at the time of writing). After a few days, they automatically transfer the money to your linked bank account.</p>
<p>In early July, I changed my bank-account information. On July 10th, Square informed me they had placed a hold on my account on July 5th because they were worried somebody had gained unauthorized access. Payouts were frozen. Five days is an awfully long time to wait to inform users that their account may have been compromised.</p>
<p>I called Square immediately and asked what was going on. I let them know it was me who had changed my bank-account information. They said they were looking into it and informed me I’d be able to continue invoicing my clients, which I did.</p>
<p>The problem persisted about a week later, on July 18th. I contacted Square via their support chat and requested an update as well as access to my funds. Here’s an excerpt from my chat with a rep named Mafer:</p>
<p>Mafer:</p>
<blockquote><p>I’ve escalated this to the Square Secure Team for further investigation and they will be following up with you directly to assist in addressing your concerns. They will reach out to you directly as the Support Team does not have more insight into your account at this time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Me:</p>
<blockquote><p>“directly” meaning email?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mafer:</p>
<blockquote><p>That’s correct 😊</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Me:</p>
<blockquote><p>when</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mafer:</p>
<blockquote><p>Should be in the next 48 hours</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I did not hear from them within 48 hours. So I had to contact them again. This time I tried their online contact form and wrote on July 25th (excerpt):</p>
<blockquote><p>A hold was placed on my account on 7/5 due to alleged suspicious activity.</p>
<p>I was only made aware of this on 7/10 and then called your support.</p>
<p>I followed up on 7/18 over chat requesting access to my funds and was told somebody would get back to me within 48 hours.</p>
<p>It’s been a week since and I haven’t heard from you. I have been patient. I demand immediate access to my funds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The next day, on July 26th, I received an email from Square. They had sent it to an old email address I do not use to log in to Square anymore (!). They did not refer to my earlier communications. Instead, they informed me, again, that they had “detected some unusual activity on [my] Square account” and that they’d hold my funds. They also requested a call from me.</p>
<p>I called them the same day and spoke to another rep. She said they needed to call me on an old number; a number which I used many years ago to sign up for Square. I explained that I haven’t owned that number in years so I could not receive phone calls there.</p>
<p>She asked me to add my Google Voice number for 2FA. I did so. She said she will note that down and somebody will email me within 48 hours. She also said to call them if I don’t hear from them within that timeframe.</p>
<p>Nobody emailed me. On July 30th, I contacted their chat support again (can’t call them on weekends). They apologized and said, again, that somebody would email me.</p>
<p>Then, on July 31st, I suddenly received an automated email informing me that payouts had been re-enabled. It contained no explanation, but at least I thought this ordeal was over.</p>
<p>However, the next day, on August 1st, I received an email saying payouts had been disabled <em>again</em> until I provide additional information about my business. Payouts had now been disabled for almost a month by this time.</p>
<p>Here’s a quote from their email (bold in the original):</p>
<blockquote><p>Right now, you can still continue to accept payments. However, <strong>until we can confirm your information, your funds will be held in your Square account. You will not be able to transfer your funds into your bank account and they will not be accessible on your Square Card.</strong><br>
Once we confirm your information, the funds will be released and available both for transfer and for use on Square Card.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s manipulative. They count on the fact that most people will cave and provide the information under threat of not receiving their money.</p>
<p>Their email linked to a form. It was clear from the form that this time, the reason that payouts had been disabled was that a client of mine had repeatedly tried to use a card that didn’t work. I guess that raised a red flag with Square.</p>
<p>I filled out the form and provided most of the requested information plus explanations. Some of the information, however, I was not willing to provide. For example, they asked for my three most recent bank statements. That’s none of their business. They also asked for invoices that I had created <em>using their system</em>, meaning they already had those invoices, which seems lazy and unnecessary. Lastly, they asked how I made sure the card my client “presented to” me was legit, but that’s <em>their</em> responsibility as a payment provider; that’s what I pay them for. No card had ever been presented to me: it had been presented <em>to Square</em>, on their website. (Maybe they don’t distinguish between vendors using their hardware to swipe cards and people like me who exclusively use their online payment system and never see any physical cards. Vendors can do things like check the signature on the back of a credit card, and they can ask to see an ID to check if the name matches that on the credit card; being online only, I can’t do any of that.)</p>
<p>After I submitted their form, I received an automated email saying they’ll get back to me “within 2 business days”. And: “<strong>[W]e will continue to hold the funds in your Square account and you will not be able to transfer them or use them on Square Card.</strong>” (Bold in the original.)</p>
<p>The next day, on August 2nd, I received an email saying my account had been deactivated altogether, that the decision is final, and that I’d receive my funds after October 31st. Notably, they had not told me <em>before</em> sending me their form that I’d get my money even if I don’t fill it out to their satisfaction.</p>
<p>To summarize: Square manipulates customers into providing information under threat of refusing payouts. In addition, their customer support was slow and unresponsive overall. They repeatedly promised that somebody would reach out within a certain timeframe and then broke those promises. I would not trust them with my money again, and you shouldn’t, either.</p>
<p>If you know of a replacement payment processor, leave a comment below. PayPal once pulled a similarly manipulative stunt on me to get information (though not quite as bad), so I don’t recommend using them, either. I suppose crypto currencies are an option but I don’t know much about them and the volatile exchange rate is a risk.</p>
<hr>
<h3 id="update-2022-11-10">Update 2022-11-10</h3>
<p>Their account-deactivation email from 2022-08-02 said that “[a]ny funds currently in your account balance will be held for a period of 90 days and released to you on October 31, 2022. They’ll be available in your bank account within 2 business days.”</p>
<p>It is now 2022-11-10, so over a week past their own deadline, and I still have not received the funds.</p>
<p>I have waited over three months and Square owes me thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>I contacted them on 2022-11-06:</p>
<blockquote><p>Your account-deactivation email from 2022-08-02 said that “Any funds currently in your account balance will be […] released to you on October 31, 2022.”</p>
<p>Today is 2022-11-06 and I have yet to receive those funds. Release them IMMEDIATELY. If you do not, I will pursue this matter relentlessly.</p>
<p>Dennis Hackethal</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Liz B.” responded the next day:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi Dennis Charles,</p>
<p>After a comprehensive review of your account, we have determined that we are still unable to process payments for your business. Our decision to deactivate your account is final.</p>
<p>We understand that it can be frustrating to have your account deactivated. However, due to security concerns and the obligations of our agreements with card networks and other financial institutions, we cannot provide additional details.</p>
<p>For more information about our policies on this matter, please review sections 12 and 13 of our <a href="https://squareup.com/legal/general/ua" rel="ugc">General Terms of Service</a>.</p>
<p>Liz B.<br>
Square Account Services</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a non-answer because I did not request a reactivation of my account. I responded that same day:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi,</p>
<p>You phrase your email as if I had requested a reactivation of my account. I had not. I want a payout of the money in my account.</p>
<p>You owe me [amount]. You promised on 2022-08-02, in writing, that you would transfer that money on 2022-10-31. It is now 2022-11-07. You’re a week late.</p>
<p>Transfer that amount to me immediately.</p>
<p>Dennis Hackethal</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Her response:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi Dennis Charles,</p>
<p>After a comprehensive review of your account, we have determined that we are still unable to process payments for your business. Our decision to deactivate your account is final.</p>
<p>We understand that it can be frustrating to have your account deactivated. However, due to security concerns and the obligations of our agreements with card networks and other financial institutions, we cannot provide additional details.</p>
<p>For more information about our policies on this matter, please review sections 11 and 12 of our <a href="https://squareup.com/legal/general/ua" rel="ugc">General Terms of Service</a>.</p>
<p>Liz B.<br>
Square Account Services</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s the exact same email, verbatim! Only the section numbers have changed. So the claim that they’ve performed a “comprehensive review” is a lie.</p>
<p>I figured “Liz B.” isn’t actually a person, but a robot.</p>
<p>I went online to try chatting with a customer rep. The button to do so was <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1589787206289608705" rel="ugc">broken</a>. So I called them instead and ended up speaking with Yvonne from ‘account services’. She assured me that humans respond to emails – which makes Liz’s emails worse, IMO, not better. She also told me she needs to escalate this matter to their ‘security team’ and that I’d hear from them before noon the next day (i.e., 2022-11-08). It is now two days later and I have not heard from anyone. Given their unreliable nature, I doubt I ever will.</p>
<p>I will continue documenting their bad practices. I’ve also left a <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/qeTnLbxyGaiKHTAi7" rel="ugc">review</a> on Google Maps, <a href="https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/636ad90c252cba2c02d30a7d" rel="ugc">another one</a> on Trustpilot, and another with the Better Business Bureau (which they need to approve manually so it doesn’t show yet).</p>
<p>Square is a dishonest company and I cannot emphasize enough that you should avoid doing business with them.</p>
<hr>
<h3 id="update-2022-11-13">Update 2022-11-13</h3>
<p>I have filed a complaint with the San Francisco district attorney (Square is headquartered in San Francisco) and also with the California Department of Consumer Affairs.</p>
<p>Separately, somebody reached out to me personally and wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>I can vouch for you Dennis. Recently signed up to square and after taking over $2500 in payments from customers square informed me they were suspending my account. They would not give a reason only stating that the money would be returned to me in 3months, that this decision would not be changed and that they are not required to give me any further details. I have reported them to ASIC and have been informed their is at least 1 class action law suit against square. Funnily enough I keep getting emails asking me to give them feedback and asking why I am not processing orders.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Somebody else pointed me to <a href="https://fairshake.com/square/lawsuits/" rel="ugc">this site</a> mentioning a lawsuit against Square over merchant payment holds:</p>
<blockquote><p>This <a href="https://eseller365.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/square-monethos-complaint-sfca.pdf" rel="ugc">lawsuit</a>, filed in California states that the company was fraudulent, negligent, and utilized unfair and deceptive actions with the merchant payment holds. It was alleged that Square tried to hold 30% of all plaintiff transactions without plaintiff’s authorization, something made worse by the fact that it was done during the covid-19 crisis. The company unilaterally instituted a 120-day hold on 30% of all transactions with very little warning and vague legal explanations as to why. There are also no terms included in the payment processing terms that address this issue giving Square no legal grounds for their actions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The lawsuit is a couple of years old so some of that information may not apply.</p>
<p>Also check out the comments on <a href="https://www.eseller365.com/credit-card-processor-square-faces-lawsuit-over-merchant-payment-holds/" rel="ugc">this site</a>. Here are just some of them that are similar or the same as my situation. Bold emphases mine. David Lauten wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>They waited till I had rec’d. 215.00 in payments, then said I was being reviewed. This isn’t even 2 days in. Then, I finally found a way to talk to a human on the phone, but alas it was a recording that knew me. They don’t want my business and <strong>I cannot transfer my money</strong>, nothing except issue refunds. I am not issuing refunds, people have all happily received their items. Meanwhile, square has my money, no time given when I can get it. All this with no complaints or chargebacks. I don’t get it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Issuing refunds and collecting payment from the affected clients some other way only works if you have a good, ongoing relationship with them. I do, so I’m trying that route now. But it sucks because it’s a hassle for them, too.</p>
<p>christine morinville wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>they kept $800 from me deactivated my account <strong>said I would receive my money in 90 days</strong> to my active open bank account that’s on file with them <strong>I have not received anything has been way over 90 days</strong> I can’t get a hold of anybody on the phone no email goes through to them I don’t know what to do I see advertising on line that they have in house by phone support or 24/7 email support or chat and I’m still not able to get a hold of anybody on the phone there’s no link that takes me to the live person all my emails are returned saying that it’s undeliverable to the address that’s provided they are still in my money I don’t know how to get it back and they closed my account I messed up my business I don’t know what to do I need help</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Felicia M Simpson wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>I received a letter from Square saying that my account has been deactivated after the company that I work for deposited $2,220 on my Square account because I have a cleaning company and no one will respond no one get back with me not anything I’ve been calling and emailing but I get no response</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nick B Castellano wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>They have $5300 of my money. I have a garage door company. My transfers said suspended yet they let me take a payment of $4400 and <strong>now won’t give it to me</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Erik Tesluk wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>I took a $200 payment from my daughter and account wen went onder review, only to have it fully deactivated with an email 30+ days later telling me that Square could no longer fulfill my business needs. Also, <strong>it stated that my $200 would be released to</strong><br>
<strong>me 90 days after the deactivation</strong> (Release date of 10/18/21). Well, <strong>we are now 30+ days past that date</strong>, and I’m still pushing to get my money back. In the bright side, they have seemed a bit more responsive regarding this than they were my questioning the account deactivation… Bottom line is their customer service is absolute trash, if you need real-time support or a phone number to call for support, good luck… My advice is use anyone besides Square!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and Jamie M wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>I called and called, didn’t know they deactivated my account, I never got anything as to why I was deactivated and <strong>they still have my funds more than 90 days later</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There seems to be a pattern of Square holding funds for longer than the 90-day deadline they announce.</p>
<hr>
<h3 id="update-2022-11-13-2">Update 2022-11-13 2</h3>
<p>I’ve found more evidence of the same pattern of Square withholding funds for longer than they say. From <a href="https://www.eseller365.com/square-holding-funds-business-120-days-with-no-chargebacks-problems/" rel="ugc">this site</a>. Bold emphases again mine.</p>
<p>Star wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>My money been on hold <strong>for over 90 days now</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>TeiAndra Simmons wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>[S]quare is holding my funds for 30 days but will not reply to me through email or answer the phone for me. This is very devastating for me and my business.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She corrected herself:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>*90 days!</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>And she followed up:</p>
<blockquote><p>[I]t did take me about <strong>6+ months to get my funds</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rachel wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Any sane person shouldn’t deal with square, cos they […] ridiculously <strong>hold you up for 90 days</strong> and when you call after 90 days , they say <strong>additional 30 days…</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kacy Weaver wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>[W]e received and email say that they put our account on <strong>hold for 90 days</strong> and then we should receive our funds or we can refund to the customers. […] <strong>90 days came and no money, today is 120 days and still haven’t released our money.</strong> I’ve emailed the company atleast 20mins with screen shots and proof that our money hasn’t been transferred and <strong>they sent us a email in the 90th day saying they were going to release it but still didn’t.</strong> Customer service hung the phone up on me the one time I got through because they said they can’t answer my questions. I would love to find a attorney that would help us get our money back.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kenneth B. wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Square closed my account and took my money before I even made a sale. The money in my account was added from my other bank so I could buy things for my business and have a paper trail. <strong>They told me 90 days; it’s been over 5 months.</strong> When I contact them via email I don’t get a reply; […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tara Bush wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>March 2022 I open Square checking account, deposited two $300 checks and did nothing else. They immediately deactivated my account and are holding my money. So far <strong>90 days</strong> with a notice yesterday for an <strong>additional 90 days</strong> due to “recent chargebacks”. How can I have chargebacks when my account was deactivated right after I opened it? Has anyone found a class action lawsuit yet?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Square <em>systematically lies</em> about how long they hold their users’ money.</strong></p>
<hr>
<h3 id="update-2022-11-23">Update 2022-11-23</h3>
<p>My client whose payments were being held illegitimately was kind enough to accept refunds and pay me another way. I’ve got my money now. I have no idea if Square ever actually refunded him.</p>
<p>As I pointed out above, refunding clients and asking them to pay another way only works if you have a good, ongoing relationship with them. Going this route worked in my case but it was a hassle both for my client and for me. It remains to be seen whether this put a strain on the relationship. For others, this route may not work, e.g. because they have one-off customers. Maybe they sell goods, have already delivered them (as David Lauten pointed out above), and don’t really know their customers. Issuing refunds is a considerable risk for such vendors.</p>
<p>The SF district attorney hasn’t gotten back to me. The California Department of Consumer Affairs has responded saying that “this is an issue that falls outside of DCA’s regulatory authority”. But: “We suggest you contact the <strong>California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI)</strong> which protects consumers and oversees financial service providers and products…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/don-t-use-square" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/don-t-use-square</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/don-t-use-square
Don’t Use Square
2023-05-06T09:27:20Z
2023-05-06T09:27:20Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="looking-cute">Looking Cute</h1>
<p>What if children looking cute is not an adaptation driven by biological selection pressures so children are taken care of (as the standard theory claims) but by <a href="https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/" rel="ugc">static memes</a> so children aren’t <a href="https://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/" rel="ugc">taken seriously</a>?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/looking-cute
Looking Cute
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="change-twitter-links-to-improve-your-privacy">Change Twitter Links to Improve Your Privacy</h1>
<p>Take any tweet. <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1594390158337400832" rel="ugc">This one</a>, for example.</p>
<p>The full link to that tweet is:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1594390158337400832
</code></pre></div>
<p>That’s the URL when you copy it manually from the browser’s URL bar.</p>
<p>However, if you instead click on the share icon underneath the tweet and select “Copy link to Tweet”, Twitter appends the following information to the link before copying it:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>?s=20&t=jU2DlkUwoNNqWmaFxC
</code></pre></div>
<p>These are <em>query parameters</em>. The question mark signifies the start of the query-parameter section of the URL; <code>s</code> and <code>t</code> are parameter names (aka <em>keys</em>); <code>20</code> and <code>jU2DlkUwoNNqWmaFxC</code> are their respective values. Key-value pairs are separated by <code>=</code> and the <code>&</code> signifies the start of the next pair. (I am providing a fake value for <code>t</code>, but that’s more or less what it looks like: it’s always an alphanumeric sequence that contains lowercase and uppercase letters and has roughly that length.)</p>
<p>Since the link works just fine and the page looks the same with or without these query parameters, I’m guessing they fulfill some purpose internal to Twitter. Specifically, I’m guessing they are designed to track you because they can tell Twitter who you shared that link with.</p>
<p>Here’s how it seems to work in detail. When you open up Twitter and save links to various tweets to your clipboard, they all have the same query parameter <code>t</code>. That parameter only changes when you refresh the page, so it’s generated on page load, and so I’m guessing it differs for every user. I don’t know what <code>s</code> is used for.</p>
<p>I guess that Twitter internally associates the parameter <code>t</code> with your account and browser session. They then identify you as the link’s originator whenever somebody clicks on it. That tells Twitter something about your social network <em>off</em> Twitter. When a visitor to your link is logged in, Twitter can associate you two more precisely.</p>
<p>You should remove these parameters from Twitter links before sharing them. This practice may increase your privacy because links without these parameters could have come from anyone.</p>
<p>By the way, the chat app Telegram is particularly bad for privacy in this regard because it loads previews of links <em>as you type</em>, not just upon <em>sending</em> your message. To generate the preview, Telegram has to load the link – meaning it makes a request to Twitter, who can then use those pesky parameters to track you. You need to remove them before pasting them into apps like Telegram. I recommend either editing them in a plain-text editor like macOS’s TextEdit first or, even easier, copying them from the browser’s URL bar. Depending on the information Telegram sends to Twitter to preview tweets in a chat, it may divulge more information about you – e.g., merely the fact that you use Telegram, which is something Twitter did not (and need not) know about you.</p>
<p>Worse, say you have an anonymous account somewhere and use it to share a Twitter link you’ve generated, including these parameters. At the very least, Twitter will know that you are somehow associated with the anonymous account.</p>
<p>In short, always remember to remove everything starting at and including the question mark from tweet URLs.</p>
<p>PS: I’m being told that certain browser extensions such as <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clearurls/" rel="ugc">ClearURLs</a> remove tracking parameters. I have not tried them and I’m not endorsing any of them. They may or may not work for Twitter links.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/change-twitter-links-to-improve-your-privacy
Change Twitter Links to Improve Your Privacy
2022-11-22T21:29:54Z
2022-11-22T21:29:54Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="wash-organic-produce">Wash Organic Produce</h1>
<p><em>I’m not a food-safety or health expert.</em></p>
<p>Some people mistakenly think they don’t need to wash organic produce.</p>
<p>For example, a couple of weeks ago, I was invited to dinner at a friend’s. As we were cooking, I asked if he wanted me to wash one of the ingredients: rosemary. His daughter said that that wasn’t necessary because it had grown in their yard. She claimed this made the rosemary organic and, therefore, already clean.</p>
<p>Another example: at my previous job, we’d get together every Thursday afternoon to have snacks. Our boss would usually bring chips and various berries. One day, a coworker remarked that the berries didn’t need washing because the label said they were organic.</p>
<p>In both cases, the claim that organic produce is clean by default is a complete non-sequitur. Maybe organic foods are not sprayed with certain chemicals, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wash them. And besides, I understand those chemicals guard against bugs and pathogens, so shouldn’t untreated fruit and vegetables be <em>more</em> in need of cleaning? The thought of ‘chemicals’ – as if anything <em>weren’t</em> made of them – sometimes scares people unnecessarily. Pesticides aren’t the only reason you should wash your produce. Dirt can be organic, too.</p>
<p>Even if you grow produce in your yard, animals could pee or shit on it, and all kinds of bacteria could infest it. With store-bought produce, employees and customers may have touched the packaging or even opened it. What if they were sick? And even if they weren’t, wouldn’t you want to wash food that a stranger may have touched? Some produce isn’t packaged at all.</p>
<p>Organic produce isn’t clean by default. Washing it only takes a second.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/wash-organic-produce
Wash Organic Produce
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="crazy">Crazy</h1>
<p><em>While I’m heavily influenced by</em> Taking Children Seriously (TCS), <em>the views presented in this article aren’t necessarily theirs.</em></p>
<p>Someone shared a screenshot of <a href="https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/2583590/child-oppositional-defiant-disorder/" rel="ugc">this article</a> by Colleen Dilthey Thomas in a group chat. The headline reads:</p>
<blockquote><h3 id="my-son-s-oppositional-defiant-disorder-is-relentless-but-i-won-t-give-up-on-him">My Son’s Oppositional Defiant Disorder is Relentless — But I Won’t Give Up on Him</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>The article also features a picture of a boy around age 7 or 8 who screams… ‘defiantly’, as some might say.</p>
<p>Having read only the headline at the time, I responded:</p>
<blockquote><p>Imagine slaveholders bemoaning their slaves’ lack of obedience and scientizing it by calling it ‘ODD’ [oppositional defiant disorder]. Absolutely disgusting.<br>
I wonder, are any parents diagnosed with ‘abusive tyrant disorder’ (ATD)?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Somebody pointed out that slaves <em>were</em> diagnosed with something like ODD! It was called ‘drapetomania’. From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania" rel="ugc">Wikipedia</a> (I’m leaving out links and footnote markers):</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Drapetomania</strong> was a supposed mental illness that, in 1851, American physician Samuel A. Cartwright hypothesized as the cause of enslaved Africans fleeing captivity. The official view was, slave life was so pleasant, that only the mentally ill would want to run away. In actuality, the desire for freedom is a natural human impulse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nowadays, everyone views slavery as an abhorrent evil, so in hindsight, it’s more or less obvious how morally and factually wrong Cartwright’s assessment was. We also know the solution: liberty, as a result of taking the slaves’ preferences seriously. Although Colleen Thomas’s son isn’t a slave, of course, those who take children seriously will immediately see that the same problem and solution apply to his situation as well.</p>
<p>As a Popperian, I am interested in the means of error correction. One of the problems with diagnosing slaves with some fake<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> condition is that it entrenched the error of not taking them seriously: once diagnosed, they could simply be labeled ‘crazy’ and their preferences shrugged off. The same problem applies not just to slaves. Thomas’s son’s ‘diagnosis’ has apparently had the same effect, as she vows not to give up on him.</p>
<p>Worse, Thomas casts herself as a brave warrior who fights on despite being the victim of her relentless son. But it is not she who is stuck with a problem son – the poor boy is stuck with a problem mom. The very concept of ‘defiance’ implies that she views herself as an authority whose orders her son should follow. She doesn’t view her ideas as being on a level playing field with her son’s ideas. She complains:</p>
<blockquote><p>He always wants the last word. I know I should walk away, but <em>I’ll be darned if I am going to let a kid win</em> [emphasis added]. He has to learn respect somehow, right? But when I argue, he is winning.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This authoritarian stance is <em>disgusting</em>. She views the relationship with her son as a zero-sum game, but they could <em>both</em> win if only she started taking him seriously. ‘ODD’ as a diagnosis pits parent and child against each other.</p>
<p>You might say: surely she’s just a mother loving her child, right? After all, the word ‘love’ appears 14 times in Thomas’s article. I think she has a strange idea of what motherly love is or should be. It seems to be the classic parental mistake of giving her son what she thinks he <em>needs</em> while depriving him of what he <em>wants</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>[…] I am going to work the plan and give him what he <em>needs</em>: <em>discipline</em> and understanding, but most of all, love. He <em>needs</em> to feel like he is seen for the good and not just the bad. [Emphasis added.]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There seems to be a direct causal link between not taking someone seriously and thinking they’re crazy, in the following order:</p>
<p>1) You don’t take someone seriously<br>
2) They insist on being taken seriously but you refuse<br>
3) Their insistence looks (to you) like they’re being crazy</p>
<p>Thinking someone is crazy destroys the means of correcting errors with them. Conversely, once you do take them seriously, they don’t look crazy anymore at all. They have legitimate grievances (such as a lack of freedom in the case of slaves and drapetomania, or being raised by an authoritarian mom in the case of Thomas’s son).</p>
<p>Taking someone seriously also requires a fallibilist attitude because one has to entertain that “‘<em>I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth</em>’”, as Karl Popper said.<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> Thomas refuses to consider that her son may be right when she claims to already know the “absolute truth” (see below). She considers various irrelevant factors such as his diet and whether she “<em>let him</em> [yuck; emphasis added] spend too much time in front of the TV” – anything but her son’s preferences. Instead, she implies that she looks at families whose sons don’t have ‘ODD’ “with envy from time to time”. She also makes authoritarian truth claims:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is one absolute truth in this whole thing, and that is that I am a good mom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hear me out. Could it be… possibly, just maybe… that she’s mistaken? That she’s just a shitty mom, and that her son’s ‘condition’ is a healthy response to being raised by an authoritarian? She spends much of the article complaining about him so she can cast herself as his victim. He isn’t even there to defend himself, and family and friends will no doubt identify him by his mother’s name. Even if ODD were real, she shouldn’t nonchalantly share sensitive information about his medical record.</p>
<p>Isn’t all that being a shitty mom? Wouldn’t her son be crazy if he responded positively to that sort of thing?</p>
<p>I, for one, hope that he’ll continue valuing his freedom and independence and refusing to put up with her nonsense. He sounds like a fine young man to me.</p>
<p>PS: The 2014 movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2321549/" rel="ugc"><em>The Babadook</em></a> initially seems to be about a ‘poor mother’ troubled by her ‘problem son’. As the movie goes on, you realize maybe the mother isn’t so innocent. (If I recall correctly – I saw that movie years ago.) There’s also a short film called <em>Monster</em> by the same director which explores some of these topics. I understand it was a sort of blueprint for <em>The Babadook</em>, which then goes into much more detail. <em>Monster</em> is available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAAcHcFzMyk" rel="ugc">for free</a> on YouTube. Other movies such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/" rel="ugc"><em>Parasite</em></a> from 2019 contain hints about how important it is to take children seriously, even if that’s not those films’ main focus. It’s usually along the lines of: if the child had been taken seriously, a bunch of trouble could have been avoided.<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>If you’re wondering how I know the condition is fake, the very term ‘oppositional defiant disorder’ is a giveaway because it’s tautological: any defiance is going to be oppositional by definition. It seems they – doctors, educators, or whoever else enjoys torturing children – just wanted to have an acronym with three letters, ideally ending in ‘DD’ to make it sound more like ADD – ‘attention deficit disorder’ – which is an established diagnosis many will have heard of. That makes the similar-sounding ‘ODD’ more believable. Thomas says her son has been treated for the similar ADHD – ‘attention deficit hyperactivity disorder’. Both ADD and ADHD have a long and ugly history of forcing treatments onto children for not sitting still when <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">forced to do things they don’t want to do</a>. But wanting to get out of uncomfortable situations is also “a natural human impulse”, as the referenced Wikipedia article called it. And natural human impulses cannot be disorders. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>As quoted <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Karl_Popper/QT7CtVUDvW4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22I+may+be+wrong+and+you+may+be+right,+and+by+an+effort,+we+may+get+nearer+to+the+truth.%22&pg=PA21&printsec=frontcover" rel="ugc">here</a>. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>For <em>Parasite</em> (spoiler alert), I’m thinking of the child who’s afraid of the basement. Had the parents taken that seriously and investigated the basement, they would have noticed their intruders much sooner. (My recollection may be off here, too, as it’s been a few years since I saw that movie as well.) <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/crazy
Crazy
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity">(Potential) Errors in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></h1>
<p>These are friendly criticisms of issues I found while <a href="/posts/the-beginning-of-infinity-der-anfang-der-unend" rel="ugc">translating</a> David Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> and afterwards, since 2019. The issues range from tiny to notable. It’s my favorite book.</p>
<p>All comments about language should be taken with a grain of salt as I’m not a native speaker of English.</p>
<p>Familiarity with the book will definitely help but is not necessary.</p>
<p>Here are my main referenced works:</p>
<ul>
<li>Deutsch, David. 2012. <em>The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World</em>. New York: Penguin Press. (‘BoI’; I also frequently quote from the ebook based on the same edition, so I can’t always give page numbers.)</li>
<li>Popper, Karl. 1983. <em>Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach</em>. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press. (‘OK’)</li>
<li>Popper, Karl. 2002. <em>Conjectures and Refutations</em>. London, New York: Routledge. (‘C&R’)</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="potential-errors">Potential errors</h2>
<p>In no particular order:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Chapter 3:</p>
<blockquote><p>(See, for instance, the historian Jenny Uglow’s book <em>Lunar Men</em>.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jenny Uglow’s book is called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lunar-Men-Friends-Curiosity-Changed/dp/0374528888" rel="ugc"><em>The Lunar Men</em></a>, not “<em>Lunar Men</em>”. The bibliography has the correct title:</p>
<blockquote><p>Jenny Uglow, <em>The Lunar Men</em> (Faber, 2002)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I was originally acknowledged for finding this error on the BoI errata page but that erratum was lost when the website was replaced and it hasn’t been re-added since.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 17:</p>
<blockquote><p>In his book <em>Guns, Germs and Steel</em>, the biogeographer Jared Diamond […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and</p>
<blockquote><p>Diamond says that his main reason for writing <em>Guns, Germs and Steel</em> was […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Diamond’s book is called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552" rel="ugc"><em>Guns, Germs, and Steel</em></a>, not “<em>Guns, Germs and Steel</em>” (there’s a comma missing after “<em>Germs</em>”). It’s not listed in the bibliography (even though Deutsch comments on it more than on Uglow’s book).</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 1:</p>
<blockquote><p>So much for inductivism. And since inductivism is false, empiricism must be as well. For if one cannot derive predictions from experience, one certainly cannot derive explanations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The symmetry between the last two sentences suggests that inductivism is about deriving <em>predictions</em> from experience. But in the glossary for ch. 1, it says, in the entry on inductivism:</p>
<blockquote><p>The misconception that <em>scientific theories</em> are obtained by generalizing or extrapolating repeated experiences, […]. [Emphasis added]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So which is it? Is inductivism about deriving new predictions or new scientific theories?</p></li>
<li><p>Ch. 16 first speaks of <em>one</em> extraterrestrial observer of an early human civilization:</p>
<blockquote><p>In prehistoric times it would not have been obvious to a casual observer (say, an explorer from an extraterrestrial civilization) that humans were capable of creative thought at all.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Later on in the same chapter, it’s <em>multiple</em> extraterrestrials, even though it’s a reference to the single observer from above:</p>
<blockquote><p>From the perspective of those hypothetical extraterrestrials observing our ancestors, […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>May be better to make it consistently one or multiple observers.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 9:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 1798, Malthus had argued, in his influential essay <em>On Population</em>, […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That essay may be called <em>An Essay on the Principle of Population</em>: <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population/38JJAQAAMAAJ" rel="ugc">https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population/38JJAQAAMAAJ</a> A search online doesn’t turn up any essay called just “<em>On Population</em>”. For example, none of the works listed on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus" rel="ugc">Malthus’ Wikipedia article</a> is called that. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population" rel="ugc">Wikipedia article on the book itself</a> says “<em>Essay on Population</em>” one time, which seems to be shorthand, but that’s after the full title is mentioned. People use different shorthands for it, e.g. Darwin is quoted in that same article as saying “I happened to read for amusement Malthus on <em>Population</em>” (the given source is “Barlow, Nora 1958. <em>The autobiography of Charles Darwin</em>. p. 128”) and Alfred Russel Wallace as saying “perhaps the most important book I read was Malthus’s <em>Principles of Population</em> […]” (source “Wallace, Alfred Russel 1908. <em>My life: a record of events and opinions</em>”). Shorthand works but then the bibliography should have an entry mapping the shorthand to the full title. The bibliography in BoI does not list Malthus’ book.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 11:</p>
<blockquote><p>[P]erhaps the story could propose some novel analogue of communication which, like quantum inference, did not involve sending messages.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That says “quantum inference” but I suspect it should say ‘quantum in<em>ter</em>ference’. Quantum interference is a concept mentioned several times in that chapter and also listed in that chapter’s glossary. The word ‘inference’, on the other hand, is only mentioned that one time (in that chapter), so I’m fairly confident it’s a typo.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 11:</p>
<blockquote><p>Hence it is not the case that all the atoms on the surface of the planet are changed by the arrival of the radio message.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The message is transmitted by laser, not radio (this resulted in an acknowledgment: <a href="https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/book/errata/#274" rel="ugc">https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/book/errata/#274</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>The diagram in chapter 8 on p. 173 displaying Infinity Hotel’s waste-disposal system says “Step 1” three times, whereas (presumably) it should say ‘Step 1’, ‘Step 2’, ‘Step 3’.</p></li>
<li><p>Same diagram, our copy editor Malte Heidemann noticed that it should speak of minutes instead of seconds (since the surrounding text is about minutes)</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 3:</p>
<blockquote><p>[A]n unproblematic state is a state without creative thought. Its other name is death.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Plants do not have creative thought, yet they are alive. Also, consider other states without creative thought – deep sleep, for instance, or a coma – which <em>are</em> problematic because you’re defenseless, others may not know whether or when you’ll wake up, and so on. To be sure, the quote leaves room for that – it doesn’t say <em>every</em> state without creative thought is death – but the reader can easily miss that.</p>
<p>While the sentiment of the sentence is true – if we stop solving problems, we eventually die; utopia is neither desirable nor achievable – it seems to be factually false.</p>
<p>In addition, the phrase “unproblematic state” is a bit ambiguous. It can either mean ‘there’s nothing wrong with that state’ or ‘a state in which you have no problems’. Deutsch intends the latter meaning to refute the former (i.e., there’d be something very wrong with not having any problems) while (implicitly) using the same word for both, which can be confusing. Perhaps it would be better to say ‘A state without problems…’ – that makes it clear that the intended meaning is the latter one. Incidentally, it makes the sentence more symmetric, so it ends up sounding better: ‘A state without problems is a state without creative thought.’</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 1 says conflicting things about the explanatory nature (or lack thereof) of rules of thumb:</p>
<blockquote><p>It also makes sense to speak of the reach of non-explanatory forms of knowledge – rules of thumb, […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This quote states that rules of thumb are non-explanatory, meaning they have no explanatory content. Then, in the glossary of the same chapter:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Rule of thumb</em>[:] ‘Purely predictive theory’ (theory whose explanatory content is all background knowledge).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This quote, on the other hand, states that rules of thumb <em>do</em> have explanatory content.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 11, paragraph starting with: “In principle, a phenomenon could appear unpredictable to observers for one or more of three reasons.” Does the halting problem fall under one of the three mentioned reasons? If not, it may be worth adding a fourth.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 3 summary says</p>
<blockquote><p>Apart from the thoughts of people, the only process known to be capable of creating knowledge is biological evolution.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not sure that’s true. I think meme evolution creates knowledge too, even among some animals. For example, there are the ape memes in ch. 16. Deutsch later agreed, but he disagreed about it being a future erratum because he would not have considered this a mistake at the time of writing. (But how? The discussion of memes in chapters 4, 15, and 16 rests on meme evolution creating knowledge.)</p></li>
<li><p>Related issue: chapter 4 says</p>
<blockquote><p>In this case, the upshot is that what science – and creative thought in general – achieves is unpredictable creation <em>ex nihilo</em>. So does biological evolution. No other process does.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But meme evolution does, too, and meme evolution is not only scientific and can occur between non-creative beings.</p></li>
<li><p>Ch. 4 says:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]here is no relevant difference between (1) ‘the same’ laws of physics with different constants and (2) different laws of physics.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why not? IIUC that the laws of physics can be expressed as functions in the sense of the lambda calculus, there seems to be a big difference between (1) ‘the same’ functions with different constants and (2) different functions. For example, consider:</p>
<p>a) Calculating the radius of a circle using the circumference and pi = 3.14…<br>
b) Calculating the radius of a circle using the exact same function but with pi = 6, say.</p>
<p>vs</p>
<p>a) Calculating the radius of a circle using the circumference and pi = 3.14…<br>
d) Calculating the sum of two numbers</p>
<p>The former two have the same structure and purpose, whereas the latter two have a completely different structure and purpose – so there is a “relevant difference” between them. (I know laws of physics aren’t about circles or addition but I don’t know how to write laws of physics as functions so I had to use something else to illustrate my point.)</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 15:</p>
<blockquote><p>But our society (the West) is not a static society. It is the only known instance of a long-lived dynamic (rapidly changing) society.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In short: the West is a dynamic society. This claim seems to contradict what Deutsch later says about the West being in a transition period <em>toward</em> a dynamic society. Ch. 15 summary:</p>
<blockquote><p>Western civilization is in an unstable transitional period between stable, static societies consisting of anti-rational memes and a stable dynamic society consisting of rational memes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Granted, there’s no comma between “stable” and “dynamic”, leaving room for Western society being an unstable dynamic one. It would take more research.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 10 (Socrates speaking, explaining a thought experiment to Hermes):</p>
<blockquote><p><em>If</em> the Spartan Socrates is right that Athens is trapped in falsehoods but Sparta is not, then Sparta, being unchanging, must already be perfect, and hence right about everything else too. Yet in fact they know almost nothing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sparta is used as an example of a static society, and how static societies are <em>not</em>, in fact, perfect. It’s the perfection that Socrates deems controversial, not whether Sparta is unchanging (he says he thinks it really is unchanging: “Sparta, being unchanging”). But later, in the chapter on static societies (ch. 15), Deutsch writes that static societies are <em>not</em> unchanging:</p>
<blockquote><p>Static societies, by this definition, are not perfectly unchanging. They are static on the timescale that humans can notice; but memes cannot prevent changes that are slower than that. So meme evolution still occurs in static societies, but too slowly for most members of the society to notice, most of the time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Therefore, the argument about how Sparta would need to be perfect already (yet obviously isn’t) can’t be true – I agree with the conclusion (Sparta was not perfect), just not with how Socrates gets there. And while the passage containing the thought experiment gives the reader the impression that Sparta cannot be perfect (true), it suggests that it <em>is</em> unchanging nonetheless (false, and conflicting with ch. 15).</p>
<p>Could it be a misunderstanding between Hermes and Socrates? Hermes first says:</p>
<blockquote><p>[S]ince one of [the Spartans’] ‘ways’ is to preserve all their ways unchanged, […] –</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He suggests that Spartans <em>try</em> to avoid change. That in itself doesn’t mean they manage that – so far so good; it’s still compatible with ch. 15. Then Socrates says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Then the Spartans must also have been right ever since they embarked on their present way of life. The gods must have revealed the perfect way of life to them at the outset.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s logically possible for Sparta to be wrong at the outset (about something other than not wanting to change), then change (in that one regard in which they are wrong, unwillingly, and maybe without noticing), and only then be perfect. (It’s not <em>epistemologically</em> possible, but that’s a different argument.)</p>
<p>What Deutsch wants to do here is persuade the reader that static societies are bad; that the pursuit of stasis is not worthwhile. He has Socrates and Hermes present that argument for him. The reader will agree that it’s ridiculous to think Sparta was perfect from the outset – thereby invoking its unchanging character as something that isn’t controversial, but needed for the argument. Also, Deutsch doesn’t have Hermes correct Socrates on this point – even though Hermes <em>does</em> correct Socrates on something else, so it does matter to Deutsch to have Hermes correct Socrates’ errors. Therefore, I don’t think it’s a misunderstanding between Socrates and Hermes, it’s actually just a mistake.</p></li>
<li><p>Chapter 1 glossary says explanations are “[s]tatement[s] about what is there, what it does, and how and why”. But I believe explanations are more than that – e.g. we can explain fiction, counterfactuals, and history. I wrote <a href="/posts/what-s-an-explanation" rel="ugc">a blog post</a> on this topic.</p></li>
<li><p>Two potential errors in chapter 10, where it says:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Sprinting eagerly ahead of the rest is the teenage poet Aristocles, whom his friends call</em> <small>PLATO</small> <em>(‘the Broad’) because of his wrestler’s build.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>There seem to be some debates around whether Plato was really called Plato for his wrestler’s build, and even whether his given name was really Aristocles. See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato#Name" rel="ugc">this article</a> (in English) and <a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platon#Kindheit_und_Jugend" rel="ugc">this article</a> (in German). It would take more research though.[<sup>1]</sup></p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="missing-sources-and-misquotes">Missing sources and misquotes</h2>
<ul>
<li>Throughout: some quotes are missing sources altogether (e.g. the Edison quote about inspiration vs perspiration, the Feynman quote about learning not to fool oneself), the rest have only partial source information. Every quote should have complete source information, including page number, year of publication, and place of publication. (I realize it’s ironic I’m not giving page numbers for many BoI quotes in this article – again it’s because I’m mostly using the ebook which makes searching, and also checking for misquotes, a lot easier.)</li>
<li><p>Throughout: misquotes. I noticed them when our copy editor recommended adding more sources. As I looked for and found some of the sources, I also noticed some misquotes when comparing quotes to the originals. Around the same time, Elliot Temple also discovered misquotes independently – when I did a literal search for one of the misquotes online, <a href="https://curi.us/2455-david-deutsch-and-sarah-fitz-claridge-publish-misquotes" rel="ugc">a post</a> by Temple came up. Regarding that and a <a href="https://curi.us/2462-misquotes-by-david-deutsch" rel="ugc">related post</a>:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Someone <a href="https://curi.us/2462-misquotes-by-david-deutsch#1" rel="ugc">claims</a> Deutsch “doesn’t give credit to Quine for his reality of abstractions idea”: Deutsch told me he hasn’t read Quine</li>
<li data-step="2"><p>Regarding the term ‘Machiavellian hypothesis’: it’s not meant to be a literal quote. The English BoI uses single quotation marks for literal quotes, imaginary quotes, scare quotes, and to denote terms, so that can lead to confusion. Deutsch told me that it’s the publisher’s house style. (Though arguably the confusion would be cleared up if every literal quote were accompanied by a source. In the translation, we made a point of using double quotation marks only for literal quotes and single quotation marks for everything else, plus I added a bunch of sources.) And Deutsch wrote to me re ‘Machiavellian hypothesis’:</p>
<blockquote><p>Single quotes is correct. Blackmore didn’t invent the theory that this is why intelligence evolved:</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Machiavellian+hypothesis&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CMachiavellian%20hypothesis%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2CMachiavellian%20hypothesis%3B%2Cc0" rel="ugc">https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Machiavellian+hypothesis&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CMachiavellian%20hypothesis%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2CMachiavellian%20hypothesis%3B%2Cc0</a></p>
<p><a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/machiavellian-hypothesis" rel="ugc">https://dictionary.apa.org/machiavellian-hypothesis</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>And he followed up:</p>
<blockquote><p>That is to say, ‘Machiavellian hypothesis’ is the correct term, and single quotes is correct for it.</p>
</blockquote></li>
</ol></li>
<li><p>I’ve noticed a misquote of Pericles. In BoI ch. 9, it says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Instead of looking <em>upon</em> discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Italics mine. No source is given, but in the one Deutsch gave me and said he had used (<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7142/pg7142.txt" rel="ugc">https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7142/pg7142.txt</a>), it says:</p>
<blockquote><p>[I]nstead of looking <em>on</em> discussion […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Italics again mine. Note also that the brackets at the beginning around the letter ‘I’ are necessary because the quote starts in the middle of a much longer sentence and hence that letter is originally lowercase. The entire sentence from the source reads (I am preserving the line breaks from the source):</p>
<blockquote><p>Our public men have, besides<br>
politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary<br>
citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair<br>
judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him<br>
who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we<br>
Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and,<br>
instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of<br>
action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at<br>
all.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So the quote in BoI is only the last three lines of that long passage.</p></li>
<li><p>There’s also a misquote of Dawkins in ch. 3 of BoI:</p>
<blockquote><p>I believe that an orderly universe, one indifferent to human preoccupations, in which everything has an explanation even if we still have a long way to go before we find it, is a more beautiful, more wonderful place than a universe tricked out with capricious ad hoc magic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I first noticed that something was off about this quote when I saw that there was no hyphen between the words “ad” and “hoc” at the end. They both describe the noun “magic”, so there should normally be a hyphen. I decided to check the original, which you can find in the Amazon preview <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Science-Delusion-Appetite/dp/0618056734" rel="ugc">here</a> towards the bottom of p. xi. Amazon lists the year 2000 on the product page but inside the book it says 1998, which is the year given in BoI, so I think it’s the same edition Deutsch used. The passage says:</p>
<blockquote><p>I believe that an orderly universe, one indifferent to human preoccupations, in which everything has an explanation even if we still have a long way to go before we find it, is a more beautiful, more wonderful place than a universe tricked out with capricious, <em>ad hoc</em> magic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There, you can see that those two words are italicized (signifying a foreign language, Latin) – “<em>ad hoc</em>” – and as such it’s a grouping which is arguably separate enough from the word “magic” that no hyphen is necessary or even proper. Also note that the original has a comma after “capricious”. The misquote is repeated two paragraphs further down. Once those two mistakes are fixed, the quotes…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity
(Potential) Errors in The Beginning of Infinity
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="poppers-criterion-is-insufficient">Popper’s Criterion Is Insufficient</h1>
<p>The philosopher Karl Popper’s <em>criterion of democracy</em> <a href="https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2016/01/31/from-the-archives-the-open-society-and-its-enemies-revisited" rel="ugc">famously states</a> that democracy is a political system in which bad leaders and policies can be removed without bloodshed. This criterion shifts the focus from authoritarian questions such as ‘who should rule’ – the king, the aristocrats, ‘the people’ – to the <em>peaceful correction of errors</em>. So, although <em>the term</em> ‘democracy’ literally means ‘rule of the people’, that is not, according to Popper, what democracy is really about. Again, it’s about the ability to remove bad leaders and policies without bloodshed.</p>
<p>This criterion allows us to split the countries of the world into two camps – those in which this peaceful removal (and with it, the peaceful transfer of power to new leaders and policies) is possible, and those in which it is not. The US is perhaps the most salient example, and arguably the longest-running success story in history, that enables this peaceful removal. So does the Anglosphere more generally, along with much of Europe. Russia does not – you cannot remove Putin from power without bloodshed. Nor do China or North Korea.</p>
<p>There’s also the distinction David Deutsch suggests in chapter 10 of his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> – that Western countries entertain their fallibility and seek improvement, whereas non-Western countries do not. (In that chapter, Deutsch does not mention the West directly – he uses Athens vs Sparta to symbolize the West vs the rest.) Whichever distinction you choose, you see in both a <em>binary</em> categorization of good vs bad, of Western vs non-Western. As Deutsch himself points out, the distinction is not one of perspective or degree but of <em>objective principle</em>. And so there is an objective difference between the good and the bad actors on the world’s political stage. Although Western countries are no doubt flawed, and always will be, we see in Popper’s as well as Deutsch’s criterion the distinction between the proverbial good guys and the bad guys. The West is the good guys; the rest is made up of barbarians at the gate.</p>
<p>But <em>how</em> good exactly are the good guys? Popper’s criterion leaves much to be desired because it focuses only on whether the people use, or would need to use, violence against politicians – not the other way round. But the violence that the political institutions of the West perpetrate against their peaceful subjects is <em>staggering</em>, and it does little good pointing out that these subjects can, in principle, remove the leaders of those institutions without bloodshed. They would be perfectly morally justified in taking up arms to defend themselves against political violence – even though their masters forbid them from defending themselves in such a manner. And, because our kindly masters could try to get me in trouble for pointing this out, I have to preemptively state that I do not advocate violence against them, and I do thank them for allowing me to continue financing them against my will.</p>
<p>At this point, most of my readers will no doubt wonder how exactly Western political institutions employ violence against their subjects. There may be some corruption, they will be quick to admit, but overall, things are above board – you may walk down the street and no politician will come to harm you. That is true, but I invite you to consider in earnest what happens if you refuse to pay your taxes and to take that very seriously. The short answer is that they will put you in a metal cage (jail) against your will. Since, by law of nature, you must work to sustain yourself, and since, by law of the state, you are forced to hand over part of your earnings, you are a slave.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> All sorts of specious justifications for this kind of slavery may come to mind – the ‘needs’ of the ‘collective’ is usually a big one – but none of them change the fact that systematic political violence against citizens is rampant, even in the West. Worse, this violence is <em>aggressive</em>, whereas Popper’s criterion arguably speaks only of defensive violence. And that is not to mention all the other laws that legislatures across the West pass which, ‘democratically justified’ or not, violate man’s natural rights – such as the draft, jury duty, and so on.</p>
<p>The ability to change leaders non-violently helps <em>some</em>, but only little if the new leaders continue to point a gun in your face. If you are a slave, the ability to choose a new master without bloodshed does not make you a free man.<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> It <em>does</em> make your masters objectively better than the old ones who would not allow such a peaceful transfer of power – hence I continue to think that Western governments are better than non-Western ones – but it does <em>not</em> change the fact that slavery is an abomination; that we want nobody to have power over us; that we yearn, uncompromisingly, for freedom.</p>
<p>So, while I do not wish to throw Popper’s criterion out with the bathwater, I do wish to emphasize that it is grossly <em>insufficient</em>. It unjustly favors politicians in their pursuit of a life without political violence while making no mention of whether their <em>subjects</em> are the victims of such violence. Lack of violence has to go <em>both ways</em>. A political system that finances itself through institutionalized violence is not and cannot be a democracy, even if those robbed can, in principle, peacefully replace their robbers with new robbers. Such a political system is still tyrannical. And so Popper’s criterion is not only insufficient but also false. Here’s mine:</p>
<p><strong>Democracy is a political system from which political violence is completely absent.</strong></p>
<p>This criterion retains the good parts of Popper’s – it still means no bloodshed is required to remove bad leaders or policies – while also protecting citizens from institutionalized violence. In turn, it allows for <em>more</em> peaceful error correction than Popper’s criterion, because the latter still accommodates violence. Another way to state my criterion that makes the focus on error correction more explicit is this: democracy is a political system in which all problems can be solved peacefully.</p>
<p>As Popper points out, nothing is gained by defining terms or navel-gazing about words. We can instead call whatever system meets my criterion <em>un</em>democratic or consider it the <em>absence</em> of a political system – that’s not important. What <em>is</em> important is that institutionalized violence has no place in a civilized society. To be clear, my criterion shouldn’t be misinterpreted as a pacifist stance. The members of any society which meets it still have every right to defend themselves against intruders and other criminals with force. I don’t consider defensive force violence for these purposes.</p>
<p>By my criterion, due to the violence perpetrated by Western political institutions against peaceful citizens every day, Western countries are <em>not</em> democracies. I am not aware of a <em>single</em> country in the world that meets my criterion. Which brings us to the question of what is to be done about this problem.</p>
<p>The enemies of freedom are correct that we currently need the government and its violent ways because we do not know how to live without it. But they mistake necessity for desirability. This, in turn, leads to what one might call <em>the fetishization of political institutions</em>.<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> Many people have such a strong preference for institutionalized violence that they believe it should never be gotten rid of. It <em>is</em> true that we do not yet know how to live without it – like a slave who has never lived without a master might have much trouble being freed and left to his own devices overnight – but that fact is <em>regrettable</em> and no defense of violence or slavery. There’s the related problem of whether it is immoral to set free someone who’d prefer to remain a slave, as many in our society who find all kinds of reasons against liberty and for violence seem to. But whatever the answer, <em>it is desirable to learn to be free.</em> Violent government is a currently necessary evil, but it’s a soluble problem.</p>
<p>One of the primary reasons we cannot get rid of our violent political institutions overnight is our <em>fallibility</em>. The Popperian way to reason about this is that we can always be mistaken, even in our best ideas, and <a href="/posts/a-programmer-s-guide-to-revolutions" rel="ugc">want changes to be reversible when they turn out to have been bad</a>. It is not, as some <a href="https://twitter.com/jchalupa_/status/1532069999329746944" rel="ugc">have argued</a>, that our political institutions are the only known way to solve problems without violence. On the contrary! They are, in fact, notoriously <em>bad</em> at solving problems peacefully and by far the biggest perpetrators of violence in society. (What did we expect, having given the government the monopoly on violence?) If you value peace and abhor violence, your priority should be to remove political institutions’ stranglehold on their subjects.</p>
<p>In discussions about this topic, some have misinterpreted my stance on Popper’s criterion as ‘unpopperian’ – as authoritatively seeking a certain ‘state’ or solution instead of focusing on the means of error correction. Since I wish to establish a state without institutionalized violence, they argue, I aim for some kind of utopia. But Popper also sought a certain state – that of being able to remove bad leaders and policies without bloodshed. And <em>any</em> identification of a problem is a claim that a state with that problem having been solved is preferable. To abuse Popper’s legitimate focus on error correction to entrench institutionalized violence is perverse. Nor does my stance abandon Popper’s focus on error correction: on the contrary, it puts it in the spotlight, because aggressive violence, which Popper’s criterion still accommodates as long as it is initiated by politicians, never helps to correct errors. And, should the countries of the West manage their transformation into truly peaceful societies, there will still be infinitely many problems left to solve, so the claim that I argue for utopia must be false as well.</p>
<p>Libertarianism, stated simply, just takes seriously the notion that institutionalized violence has no place in a civilized society. (Most people disagree, which is why I have no choice but to conclude that <a href="/posts/true-controversial-ideas" rel="ugc">they like violence</a>, at least to some notable degree.) <em>Popperian</em> libertarianism, in particular, combines libertarianism with the Popperian notion that revolutions should be avoided in favor of piecemeal changes because we are fallible.</p>
<p>The fetishization of our political institutions, and with them, their violence, comes at a price: complacency. Yes, again, we do not currently know how to live freely – but those who stress this in defense of violence never display any urgency to learn how! We have to <em>actively</em> work on getting rid of institutionalized violence. Government tends to grow in power, and some significant minimum of work is required just to balance that out. Even more work is required to reduce government – and it will resist. There are comparatively few people in the world who are aware of the problem, and even fewer who work on it.</p>
<p>Those with a fetish for our institutions are not strongly disgusted at how the biggest gang of robbers and murderers, as many libertarians have described the government, steals their hard-earned money every month. <em>Every penny</em> paid to the government under threat of violence should make them feel violated. They just don’t realize that the fact that we (currently) depend on this gang is tragic. Why else are they not ashamed of their support for violence?</p>
<p>There’s no logical contradiction in saying that 1) we currently need this gang of robbers and murderers to survive as a society and 2) that we should get to a state without this dependency as quickly as possible because 3) depending on this gang is disgusting. If cancer had taken over some of your organs’ vital functions, rendering you unable to remove that cancer all at once, you wouldn’t praise it for performing those functions! It’s still cancer; it still has to be removed – only slowly, over time, with much trial and error. If a doctor did knowingly remove this cancer all at once, one could rightfully call him a murderer, and he’d perhaps be no better a murderer than that cancer itself. Revolutionary libertarians ironically want to commit this same murder. But they’re right about being libertarian – they’re wrong only about being revolutionary.</p>
<p>Whatever the case – our only option is to fight that cancer. It’s a miracle the patient has survived this long.</p>
<p>After the thousandth experiment in political violence fails, will people implement yet another system based on it, or will they finally learn that peace is the only viable option?</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Logan Chipkin and Mart van Megen for commenting on a draft of this post.</em></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>Compare also Ayn Rand, <em>The Virtue of Selfishness</em>, chapter 12 titled ‘Man’s Rights’: “Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.” <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>Other versions of this idea have been circulating. I have previously <a href="/posts/notable-quotes-about-authority" rel="ugc">quoted</a> Lysander Spooner: “A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.” (<a href="https://praxeology.net/LS-NT-6.htm" rel="ugc">Source</a>, paragraph NT.6.6.7). I’m told Jan Lester said something similar. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>Some of those familiar with David Deutsch’s and Sarah Fitz-Claridge’s work on <em>Taking Children Seriously</em> may recognize that ‘fetishization of political institutions’ is similar phrasing to ‘fetishization of consent’, or what Deutsch calls ‘the libertarian mistake’. Fitz-Claridge explains what that mistake means <a href="https://twitter.com/FitzClaridge/status/1427682974246469633" rel="ugc">here</a>. The overlap in phrasing is incidental and not indicative of any overlap in content. <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/popper-s-criterion-is-insufficient
Popper’s Criterion Is Insufficient
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="sleepwalking">Sleepwalking</h1>
<p>Sleepwalking has interesting epistemological implications.</p>
<p>People generally seem to overestimate what tasks require consciousness. Things like keeping one’s balance, walking and navigating your environment without bumping into things, having basic conversations, identifying and moving objects (even delicate ones like china bowls, without breaking them), preparing foods (albeit poorly), pouring drinks, and pulling up blinds are all possible while sleepwalking.</p>
<p>The woman <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPtYphjhOr4" rel="ugc">in this video</a> does a number of these things.</p>
<p>Sleepwalkers have no recollection of what they did while asleep. <em>They are not conscious while sleepwalking.</em> Yet they can perform all of these tasks, so consciousness cannot be required for their execution.</p>
<p>Here’s what’s interesting about the video linked above. At 1:53, we see a table. Then we see a cut to what is presumably another night, and the table has been moved. It’s not in that same place anymore. Still, as the video points out, the woman walks around where the table used to be – as she normally might to avoid bumping into it. She then tries to put a jar of mayo on the missing table, ‘realizes’ (though not consciously) that the table isn’t there, and sets the mayo on the floor instead. Then, at 2:36, <em>she does not go around the missing table anymore</em>. She walks right where the table used to be. Assuming she was sleepwalking the whole time, that means she was able to recognize and respond to changes in the environment. Something changed in her – unconsciously – to update her model of that room, take into account the missing table, and change her behavior accordingly. Setting down the mayo is what tipped her off.</p>
<p>That is the kind of <em>useful change</em> in behavior most people will eagerly interpret as evidence of consciousness in animals. But, as we have just seen, unconscious people can change behavior in the same way, so such changes cannot be evidence of consciousness.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi6K0D57Nm0" rel="ugc">this video</a> – granted, it’s from Dr. Oz, so take it with a grain of salt – we can see a girl playing the piano while asleep, a woman dancing and then (nonsensically) explaining her behavior in conversation, and a girl sleepwalking nine miles (!) to her uncle’s house. That last girl says she has no recollection of sleepwalking. A nine-mile walk requires plenty of flexible and fairly sophisticated behavior because you need to take turns, cross the street, avoid cars, and so on. How did the girl do that? A pathfinding algorithm, as philosopher Elliot Temple, who has influenced my views on animal sentience, explained to me in the context of cat behavior. As I’ve written <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs#comment-124" rel="ugc">before</a>, people are mistaken to think flexible behavior is evidence of consciousness.</p>
<p>What’s striking in most of these examples is that, with some exceptions like not walking around the missing table anymore, many of these behaviors are nonsensical – by which I mean that the sleepwalkers make mistakes which, were they conscious, they generally wouldn’t make in the first place or would immediately correct. For example, in the last video, a man is seen getting a bowl and then pouring milk not in the bowl but down the kitchen sink. The general impression scenes like that leave corroborates the Popperian notion that consciousness may have to do with <em>error correction</em>. But, as the example of the missing table shows, it can’t just be <em>any</em> kind of error correction. Something more must be going on. If any kind of error correction required consciousness, the woman would not have been able to correct her error of avoiding collision with a non-existing table while asleep. I have <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs#comment-353" rel="ugc">conjectured</a> that being conscious is the same as being <em>critical</em>.</p>
<p>Many animals routinely do things that are <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs#comment-124" rel="ugc">far more idiotic</a> than what we see in these sleepwalking videos. For example, dogs <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs" rel="ugc">‘swim’ above water</a> under certain conditions. Most people never give the idea that animals aren’t conscious a chance, but if a person tried to swim above water they’d readily accept that he isn’t conscious as an explanation. They’d recognize that something is seriously off about him. The difference is, of course, that animals are <em>never</em> conscious, while people <em>sometimes</em> are.</p>
<p>Even when people <em>are</em> conscious, they frequently do things that don’t require consciousness. Walking, as we have seen, does not require conscious attention, even though we usually happen to be conscious while walking (unless you’re a sleepwalker).</p>
<p>The last video features a sleep specialist who says that sleepwalkers can do anything they’ve done before – such as driving. I suspected the same, and it also has epistemological significance: it means people can do things they have <em>learned</em> previously (while awake). Then, while asleep, it’s all mindless execution. In turn, I suspect people cannot learn new things while sleepwalking, because learning takes a critical attitude. They lack this attitude in their sleep. In other words, someone who does not yet know how to drive won’t be able to learn to drive in their sleep. But if they’ve learned it before – and, presumably, if they have corrected a sufficient amount of errors – they can do it again while sleeping.</p>
<p>Physicist David Deutsch, who is <a href="/posts/views-on-animal-sentience-in-the-beginning-of-i" rel="ugc">also</a> of the opinion that animals are not conscious, <a href="https://www.artbrain.org/image-gallery/journal-neuroaesthetics-6/hans-ulrich-obrist-interview-with-david-deutsch/" rel="ugc">has said</a> that “any useful change can be considered learning”. Real learning is more than just a useful change in behavior. Whatever real learning is, it does seem to require – or perhaps bring about – consciousness.</p>
<p>These considerations are also important for the field of artificial (general) intelligence, where useful changes and sophisticated behavior are mistaken for evidence of consciousness all the time.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/sleepwalking
Sleepwalking
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="chat-with-damian-about-abortion">Chat with Damian about Abortion</h1>
<p>In light of Roe v Wade potentially being overturned, a friend, Damian Tew, posted on Facebook about abortion.</p>
<p>The following is a lightly edited two-part conversation in response to his post. Others were involved, too; their names have been altered.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Damian’s original post:</em></p>
<p>Standing up for reproductive choice and liberty is a simple decision.<br>
Half of our population is being directly attacked by religious extremists that are taking over our government.<br>
However, do not attempt to sway the fanatic. Logic is utterly irrelevant in the face of hatred and cruelty justified by faith.<br>
This religious mind is primitive and justifies brutality to satisfy an absent god.<br>
Religion preaches love, but manifests as hate.<br>
Christianity is especially hypocritical as it preaches love and then imposes itself into every part, the very soul, of your being.<br>
Love can not come from brutality, hate, and oppression.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>First thread:</em></p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
What’s the best pro-life argument you know of?</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
I don’t know if any good ones.<br>
The most common fall into these groups:<br>
1: A soul is destroyed<br>
2: Human life is sacred<br>
3: Abortion is bad for society<br>
==<br>
The reason I say there are no best/good arguments are:<br>
1: there are no souls<br>
2: Polices are not in place to protect human lives outside, and pro-birth policies increase human suffering<br>
3: data shows access to abortion is good for society<br>
==<br>
Do you know of a best/good argument that’s pro-birth?</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
The best one I’m aware of is that we don’t know when exactly an unborn baby starts to be conscious. That moment is when it’s able to suffer and killing it becomes wrong because it would mean snuffing out a conscious being. If we want to be careful, we should assume the onset of consciousness happens very early during pregnancy. The start of the heartbeat, which I understand to be a commonly used line of demarcation, has little to tell us on this issue IMO. The formation of the brain probably much more so, but until we understand consciousness and how it arises, it’s hard to say.<br>
I’m personally pro choice, for one because I’m critical of arguments based on caution, but depending on the exact moment consciousness sets in, I might convert to pro life (if it’s very, very early) or be even more ‘hardcore’ pro choice (if it’s very late – I know of a good but speculative argument that babies are not conscious until <em>after</em> birth and certain basic interactions with other people have occurred, in which case killing a baby might be morally okay even shortly after birth, though I’m not advocating it).<br>
All this is to say that the issue is incredibly complex, and vilifying the other side – as both sides tend to do – won’t help anyone get closer to the truth or agreement on this matter. People generally (not always, but generally) do what they think is right and are not evil. If one can’t name the other side’s best argument one typically doesn’t have a very strong one oneself. As Karl Popper said: “I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth.”</p>
<p>Juliette:<br>
here you’re just replacing “soul” with “consciousness” to make the same argument again. If a heartbeat and a brain makes things conscious, we first need to outlaw meat-eating, and I don’t see that happening from the conservative right.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
we know for sure that adult women are conscious. It’s actually not complex at all.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
you don’t mention or consider the life, health, or consciousness of the pregnant human in your argument? Why is that?</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Juliette wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>here you’re just replacing “soul” with “consciousness” to make the same argument again.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s not just a replacement. As Damian pointed out, souls don’t exist. It’s a supernatural concept and can be dismissed on that point alone. But consciousness is real; suffering is real. And it’s not the same argument: souls are often used to argue that life begins at the moment of conception, or even before that, which I don’t believe.</p>
<blockquote><p>If a heartbeat and a brain makes things conscious, we first need to outlaw meat-eating, and I don’t see that happening from the conservative right.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I did say that I’m not sure how much the heartbeat and formation of the brain help us when it comes to consciousness. But, for what it’s worth, I don’t think meat-eating needs to be outlawed because I don’t think animals are conscious/capable of suffering. (You’ll probably think that’s ridiculous or that I have an uninformed opinion, which may cause you to stop engaging with me altogether – it shouldn’t as that’s a mostly separate topic.)</p>
<p>Roberta wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>you don’t mention or consider the life, health, or consciousness of the pregnant human in your argument? Why is that?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Because I wanted to focus on giving a good argument in favor of the <em>opponent’s</em> view, i.e. the pro-life view. For the reasons I’ve explained, I think it’s good practice to entertain the opposition’s best argument, if only to make one’s own position stronger. I’m not sure Juliette read what I wrote with that in mind either. It’s dangerous to think one has the truth in one’s pocket and to vilify those who disagree. Also I was asked to give the (IMO) best argument, not all arguments.<br>
As I’ve said, I’m pro choice. So I probably agree with you on the “life, health, or consciousness of the pregnant” woman and the role these things play.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
that might be their best argument, but it’s not a good argument. I’ve heard it plenty of times. I wonder if the forced pregnancy folks are doing this exercise too?</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
maybe not. Which makes us better than them. But I don’t think calling them “forced pregnancy folks” is taking them very seriously. The same way them calling you a “baby killer” wouldn’t be taking you seriously.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
I agree it makes us better than them. But if we try to understand them, and they don’t try to understand us, then all the concessions end up coming from one side. Which seems to be the situation we are in.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
I’d guess many of them do try to understand pro-choice advocates. Only they’re not the loudest so they don’t make it into the news. If you actively seek out a reasonable pro lifer, I bet you’ll be surprised what a fruitful conversation you end up having with them.<br>
And even if you don’t find someone, you still get to argue from a stronger position than them because you’ve considered their points while they haven’t considered yours. As a result, you’re more persuasive, and you might even have more influence over legislation. That’s a win.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
I highly appreciate your optimism 🙂</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
while your optimism is kind of adorable, this is an issue I’ve been thinking about for over 30 years. Not only has the optimism you hope for not developed, but the techniques you suggest have backfired. What makes you think this will work this time?</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
It <em>can</em> work – we know this from deep epistemological principles developed by Karl Popper and David Deutsch (those principles are universal and not limited to this matter). There’s no guarantee that it <em>will</em> work. But there’s virtually a guarantee that continuing to vilify each other and never entertaining the other’s viewpoint will fail.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
I’ve been listening and compromising for a long time. What I have seen is a shift in the overton window</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
if accurate description seems vilifying to you then it may not be an issue if understanding.<br>
Republicans and religious groups argue from bad faith. They do not want to understand they seek to push the Overton window.<br>
Another example is this same error is the equivalent sides argument, and what-about-ism arguments.<br>
==<br>
I understand the pro-birth argument. It is religious oppression that harms billions of humans, creates poverty, increases crime, and is used to justify murdering doctors.<br>
If that seems like vilifying the position - let me suggest that the description is accurate and it is possible the pro-birth movement is evil.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Your responses so far follow a common pattern. When asked what the opposition’s best argument is, people often respond saying ‘the opposition doesn’t have one’ or even repeat their own best argument. Similarly, when asked why they might be wrong, they reiterate reasons why they are right. They don’t want to be critical of their own ideas and give the other side a chance. So they’re stuck. If they’re wrong, that means they’re also stuck being wrong and they won’t be able to correct that error. But we can all be mistaken – we’re all fallible.<br>
You accuse Republicans of arguing from bad faith. Ironically, you argue in bad faith yourself when you say they “do not want to understand”. You assert “with certainty things that are open to question” (<a href="http://thinkaboutnow.com/2017/12/avoiding-arguing-bad-faith/" rel="ugc">http://thinkaboutnow.com/2017/12/avoiding-arguing-bad-faith/</a> – I looked up ‘arguing in bad faith’ to make sure I didn’t have something else in mind. I think number 1, 2, 6a, and 7 apply to what you wrote.)<br>
It’s definitely possible that the pro-birth movement is evil. But, as I wrote previously, people generally (not always, but generally) do what they think is right. So if they are evil, it’s usually not on purpose. It’s just as possible that pro choice is wrong and evil. (On that note, to avoid misunderstandings: you mention the “equivalent sides argument” – I don’t think the sides are equivalent. They contradict, so at least one of them must be mistaken. And I have previously mentioned that one is better than the other <em>if it entertains its ability to be mistaken while the other does not</em>.)</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
people never think of themselves as evil.<br>
Pro-birth people don’t think they are evil. Data shows they are either stupid or ignoring the data, which shows:<br>
- forced birth is bad for the mother<br>
- it’s bad for the child when they are born<br>
- it’s bad for society in general<br>
==<br>
For example if the pro-birth movement really wanted to reduce abortion then they would fund sexual education, free access to birth control, and increase minimum wage.<br>
Those three reduce abortion more than anything else.<br>
==<br>
So why are they not doing these things?<br>
It’s because pro-birth is about forcing Christian religious ideals and behavior on everyone.</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
here another example, ectopic pregnancy. It’s fatal unless the conception is aborted. Happens about 2% of the time.<br>
So being pro-birth will kill around 80,000 women per year in the USA from this one thing.<br>
The pro-birth stance is stupid, cruel, and evil.<br>
When I say I am not aware of a good argument that is pro-birth. I speak from a place of study. If You have one let me know</p>
<p>Roberta (to Dennis):<br>
it’s not just as possible that pro choice is evil. If you think that it may be because you are just trying to wrap your head around the argument now. I’m not arguing in bad faith. It’s just simply not a negotiation.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
Damian wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Data shows [pro lifers] are either stupid or ignoring the data […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And which exalted institution collected that data about these brutes?</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
The data itself shows this.<br>
Outlawing abortion kills women.<br>
Killing women is stupid and evil.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
so you’re claiming the data is self-evident? And that the truth therefore is, too? <em>It isn’t.</em><br>
Pro life’s response: Killing babies is stupid and evil.</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
Yes! As I stated at the start, this is where the bad faith argument starts.<br>
Because if it’s about baby well-being pro-birth people would support baby wellness programs, but they do not.<br>
Remember that at minimum 80,000 women per year in the USA will die if abortion is banned<br>
===<br>
Also the line of conception vs baby is not examined.<br>
For example, artificially started pregnancy requires many embryos to be fertilized and then destroyed when not used.</p>
<p>Roberta (to Dennis):<br>
yes, you have identified the point of contention, which is when “life” begins. I maintain that an embryo is not a baby. I maintain that a fetus is not a baby. For the same reason, I maintain that ectopic pregnancy is not death of a baby - but if not treated medically, could result in the death of the mother. Yes, pro lifers don’t agree. What’s your point?</p>
<p>Dennis (to Damian and Roberta):<br>
My point is that, just like many pro lifers, you guys argue from a place of arrogance and zero intellectual humility. You seem unwilling to consider that you could possibly be wrong. (For example, Damian responded “Yes!” to the question whether the truth is self-evident. It isn’t.)<br>
You don’t seem to want to talk about fallibility at all. You keep going back to the specifics of abortion (some of which I have already addressed but you’ve ignored). A conversation about something you’re less passionate about may be more fruitful, I don’t know.<br>
Thinking that the truth is self-evident is an often-traveled road in bad political philosophy and has led to much violence over the centuries. So it’s ironic that Damian’s original post argues against “brutality, hate, and oppression” on the surface when its underlying epistemological mistakes promote those very things. For example, Popper wrote in his book <em>Conjectures and Refutations</em>: “The theory that truth is manifest—that it is there for everyone to see, if only he wants to see it—this theory is the basis of almost every kind of fanaticism. For only the most depraved wickedness can refuse to see the manifest truth […].”</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
why would I all of a sudden feel intellectual humility about something that I have been paying attention to for 30 years? Because you decided that I have never thought about the arguments from the other side? You think they are different from last year, the year before, or the year before that? Look, if you want to understand both sides, no one is stopping you. Your arrogance is assuming that this is new to us.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
I didn’t assume this is new to you and I don’t know why you’d think that. But the fact that you’ve been following the debate for 30 years and still think everyone who disagrees is stupid and evil makes it worse, not better.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
worse for whom? You? The fact that you think just listening to the other side would make a difference just makes you ignorant of the whole situation. If you come up with a meaningful way to make a difference, please propose it. Go listen all you want. You’re likely to learn something.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
for me, but mostly for you. I don’t think I’m ignorant of the situation. I’ve explained the dangers of thinking the truth is manifest. You haven’t offered any refutations. Please offer some or explain why you don’t think the truth is manifest.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
you say this “The best one I’m aware of is that we don’t know when exactly an unborn baby starts to be conscious. That moment is when it’s able to suffer and killing it becomes wrong because it would mean snuffing out a conscious being.”<br>
Is it wrong to snuff out a conscious adult woman? What does snuff out mean? What if carrying the pregnancy gives her a 99% chance of dying? 80% chance? 50%? 10%? Why are “pro life” arguments pro fetus but not pro live-human?</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
you seem to be doing this argument style:<br>
1: all sides have some validity<br>
2: all sides are flawed<br>
3: therefor forced birth is okay<br>
==<br>
When I respond with data saying that forced birth is inconsistent and bad with:<br>
- what about Entropic pregnancy that will kill 80,000+ women a year in the USA under an abortion ban<br>
- should the abortion ban also ban artificial pregnancy?<br>
- what about laws protecting babies (not conceptions)<br>
==<br>
You seem to ignore my presented data and revert back to saying all sides have validity.<br>
So..give me data.</p>
<p>Dennis (to Roberta):<br>
I could answer those questions. But you’re just not taking seriously what I’ve written. I’ve pointed out that it’s not really abortion per se that’s at stake here.</p>
<p>Dennis (to Damian):<br>
that’s not my argument style. Nor have I ignored your data. I’ve criticized it.<br>
I could give you data (for what though? I’m on your side of the abortion debate). But it’s not just a scientific question. Again, there are epistemological considerations. There are also moral ones. Trying to solve moral problems using only (or mainly) science is scientism, which is another common road to violence.</p>
<p>Roberta:<br>
I am taking you seriously. That’s why I asked a serious question in response. Why not answer?</p>
<p>Damian (to Dennis):<br>
Glad you support a woman’s right to choose.<br>
==<br>
The epistemology and philosophy of decision making is also interesting.<br>
What are the epistemological considerations?<br>
What are the moral considerations?</p>
<p>Dennis (to Roberta):</p>
<blockquote><p>I am taking you seriously.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I disagree because, when asked to question your views, you keep arguing why you’re right. Which is the opposite of what I asked.</p>
<blockquote><p>Why not answer?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Because I’m already in agreement with you that abortions should be legal. That isn’t at issue here.<br>
But here are answers anyway:</p>
<blockquote><p>Is it wrong to snuff out a conscious adult woman?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes.</p>
<blockquote><p>What does snuff out mean?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I meant it as in ‘kill’ (not a native speaker though).</p>
<blockquote><p>What if carrying the pregnancy gives her a 99% chance of dying? 80% chance? 50%? 10%?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>all bad (again, I’m in agreement)</p>
<blockquote><p>Why are “pro life” arguments pro fetus but not pro live-human?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think that’s probably misrepresenting them. They do often have pro live-human stances liberals do not, for example, protecting people’s ability to own guns so they can defend themselves against criminals like murderers instead of disarming them.<br>
But again, for the record, I don’t think the questions (or my answers) really pertain to what I’m getting at. We’re in agreement about abortion itself. We disagree about meta issues, mainly fallibility and methodology.</p>
<p>Dennis (to Damian):</p>
<blockquote><p>What are the epistemological considerations?</p>
<p>What are the moral considerations?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You’ll find the answers to your questions in my previous comments (EDIT: look for notes on fallibility and manifest truth).</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
Weak.</p>
<p>Dennis:<br>
why? Were you looking for something I hadn’t yet said?</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
Your argument lacks content.<br>
The structure is clear when referencing the dangers of hardline stances as it relates to epistemology.<br>
There is no content past that structure. When I pushed for content you circled back saying that hardline stances are dangerous.<br>
The format reminds me of JAQing: Just Accessing Questions<br>
It’s an argument style where you present questions without content</p>
<p>Dennis:</p>
<blockquote><p>The structure is clear when referencing the dangers of hardline stances as it relates to epistemology.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It depends on what you mean by “hardline”. To be clear, I’m not at all opposed to what many call ‘black-and-white thinking’. I think abortion is either morally right or morally wrong. I also follow Ayn Rand in thinking that one shouldn’t compromise with evil. On the other hand, if by “hardline” you mean “infallibility”, I am strongly opposed to thinking one knows the truth for sure without wanting to consider alternatives.</p>
<blockquote><p>When I pushed for content you circled back saying that hardline stances are dangerous.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not because there’s a lack of content, but because I had already answered your questions. It was my impression that you either had not read, or at least had not carefully considered, what I had written.<br>
Maybe I was wrong on both counts. Either way, I disagree that my argument lacks content. You can easily show that I was wrong by steel-manning my epistemological and moral arguments in such a way that they show the problems with your methodology/epistemology.</p>
<blockquote><p>The format reminds me of JAQing: Just Accessing Questions</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Do you mean ‘asking’ instead of ‘accessing’? And no, I’m not just asking questions. You seem to go down some list of argument styles to box me into (you tried this previously). I don’t think that will work. Please consider that I have an informed opinion on both abortion and methodology/epistemology.</p>
<p>Damian:<br>
I have a poor opinion of Ayn Rand and “Objectivism” as it mixes necessary for sufficient conditions.<br>
==<br>
Imagine …<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-with-damian-about-abortion" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-with-damian-about-abortion</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-with-damian-about-abortion
Chat with Damian about Abortion
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="death-sentence">Death Sentence</h1>
<p>The death sentence is interesting to consider from a Popperian standpoint. A couple of things about it stand out to me:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1"><p>It’s anti-fallibilist because it’s irreversible. It’s final.</p>
<p>Popperians prefer to make piecemeal, reversible changes in life. They try to avoid any course of action that is irreversible. That is not <em>always</em> possible, but it’s worth trying. Fallibility alone is enough to see why: any course of action can be a mistake, and you want the ability to correct that mistake. One way is to undo it, but the death penalty cannot be undone. Once executed, it is forever entrenched. Killing someone for a crime they did not commit is perhaps the ultimate mistake.</p>
<p>Preserving the means of error correction and working against the entrenchment of errors is a prime Popperian objective. David Deutsch has elaborated on this in his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (particularly in chapter 10).</p>
<p>To be sure, wrongfully incarcerating someone instead of killing them is still awful – some might prefer death over being imprisoned for decades. It can’t be ‘undone’ in the sense that you could give back the years that have been robbed from that person. But at least you can set them free. They’re still alive; they can still change their life for the better. All is not lost.</p></li>
<li data-step="2"><p>The death sentence is pessimistic because it considers the sentenced person to be irredeemable.</p>
<p>People can be persuaded. It can be extraordinarily difficult, but given how the mind works it is <em>always</em> possible to change it. This means, in turn, that even people like Ted Bundy or Charles Manson can change for the better. Given the right knowledge, their mistaken ideas can be corrected.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The reason the vast majority of people do not commit crimes is not that they’re afraid of the punishment. Instead, they are convinced that committing such crimes would be <em>wrong</em>. They are decent people overall, guided by moral principles. Indeed, punishment may have an effect opposite to the intended one: it may turn its victim stubborn and more convinced that his actions are right and everyone else wrong. It is only natural to want to resist force. Consider a child who gets grounded: maybe he made a genuine mistake, however, imprisoning him in his room will not only fail to correct it but may well entrench it. I expect it’s similar for adults in prison: if they manage to correct their mistaken ideas, it’s not because of punishment, but <em>in spite</em> of it.</p>
<p>Maybe punishment is the result of the age-old epistemological misconception that people can be made to change behavior like animals: through positive and negative reinforcement. That’s just not how people work. I suspect we have inherited this mistake from our forefathers, who didn’t know any better.</p>
<p>That is not to say that I’m advocating pacifism – I strongly oppose it – or that I see no room at all for punishment in our society. Unfortunately, we do not yet know how to live without it. And, faced with the threat of a monster like a serial killer, be he redeemable or not, you need to protect yourself and your loved ones. If someone intent on causing you harm breaks into your home at night, that is not the time to sit down together and have a nuanced discussion to try to change his mind – it’s a shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of situation. But one day we may well live in a society that has enough knowledge and wealth, whose institutions have adapted, and whose members are so good at persuasion, that no punishment is necessary. There is no limit to how persuasive we can become.</p>
<p>Until then, when faced with a bully, we have no choice but to hire the biggest bully – the state – for protection. Punishment is a sign of incompetence, and the death sentence represents ultimate incompetence. I’ve quoted William Godwin <a href="/posts/notable-quotes-about-authority" rel="ugc">previously</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/5625-William_Godwin" rel="ugc">William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness: By William Godwin”, p.337</a></p>
<p><em>Thanks to Amaro Koberle for reading a draft of this post.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/death-sentence
Death Sentence
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="your-audio-devices-might-divulge-your-private-information-heres-how-to-protect-yourself">Your audio devices might divulge your private information. Here’s how to protect yourself.</h1>
<p>Websites can track you based on your audio devices. Depending on the names of your devices, you may also be making yourself more easily identifiable to websites.</p>
<p>Say your name is John Appleseed, so you name your AirPods ‘John Appleseed’s AirPods’. If you have given a website permission to use your microphone and you have your AirPods connected, the website now knows your full name. I noticed this while using a site earlier today. Once I had connected my AirPods, it displayed their name back to me.</p>
<p>Apple’s naming convention is…<br>
<br><em>This is a pro article, preview only. Purchase the full article here: <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/your-audio-devices-might-divulge-your-private-in" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/your-audio-devices-might-divulge-your-private-in</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/your-audio-devices-might-divulge-your-private-in
Your audio devices might divulge your private information. Here’s how to protect yourself.
2022-09-14T21:16:21Z
2022-09-14T21:16:21Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="wer-soll-ber-die-kinder-herrschen">Wer soll über die Kinder herrschen?</h1>
<p>Jemand hat einen <a href="https://www.swr.de/swr2/wissen/schafft-die-schulpflicht-ab-eine-provokation-swr2-wissen-aula-2022-05-01-100.html" rel="ugc">Artikel</a> des SWR2 mit mir geteilt. Auch wenn ich nur ungern auf Seiten öffentlich-rechtlicher Medien verweise, da sie mit Blutgeld finanziert werden, ist der Artikel lesenswert, da er einige freiheitliche Grundzüge enthält, die dieses Blutgeld vielleicht irgendwann einmal in freiwillige Beiträge umwandeln könnten.</p>
<p>Es geht dabei (zumindest oberflächlich) um das Thema: Wer soll über die Erziehung des Kindes bestimmen können? Der Autor des Artikels, Philip Kovce, plädiert scheinbar dafür, den Schulzwang abzuschaffen.</p>
<p>Einige gute Stellen sind im Artikel zu finden. So wusste ich beispielsweise nicht, dass der deutsche Schulzwang in seiner heutigen Form rechtlich gesehen ein »braune[s] Erbe« ist. Interessant ist auch – das wusste ich jedoch bereits –, dass dieses Erbe aus historischer Sicht ein relativ neues Phänomen ist: Erst im Preußen des 18. Jahrhunderts wurde der Schulzwang eingeführt. Kovce versteht darüber hinaus, dass der Schulzwang seinem vermeintlichen Ziel, Kinder zu freiheitsliebenden, selbstbestimmenden Bürgern zu erziehen, tatsächlich widerspricht. So schreibt er beispielsweise:</p>
<blockquote><p>Denn so sehr Schüler in der Schule bestenfalls den Wert der offenen Gesellschaft erfahren, so wenig trägt die Schulpflicht zu dieser Erfahrung bei – im Gegenteil: Sie verlangt einen Gehorsam, der die Schule zur moralischen Zwangsanstalt herabwürdigt und Kinder und Eltern gerade nicht so behandelt, wie es dem großen Freiheitswagnis der freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung angemessen wäre.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Denselben Widerspruch findet man in der Überschrift des auf der Artikelseite verlinkten Artikels <a href="https://www.swr.de/swr2/wissen/neue-lernmethoden-in-der-schule-sollen-selbststaendiges-denken-foerdern-100.html" rel="ugc">»Neue Lernmethoden in der Schule sollen selbstständiges Denken fördern«</a>. Zwang kann selbstständiges Denken unmöglich fördern.</p>
<p>Man liest zwischen den Zeilen Kovces ingesamt eine allgemeine, wenn auch noch zu vorsichtige, Ablehnung des Zwangs. Besonders das Zitat des Arztes Konrad Schily hat mir zugesagt. Hier auszugsweise:</p>
<blockquote><p>Der Rechtsstaat muss sich auf die schutzwürdigen Grundrechte beziehen, etwa auf die Freiheit der Person [und] das Recht auf Leben und körperliche Unversehrtheit […]. Die Schwäche des darüber hinaus alles regeln wollenden Staates ist, dass er im Grunde genommen niemals sachverständig für das eigentliche Problem ist. […] Um Bildung und Gesundheit zu ermöglichen, bedarf es weder der Schul- noch der Impfpflicht. Womit ich nichts gegen Schulen oder Impfungen sagen will, sondern gegen die Entmündigung, die derartige Pflichten mit sich bringen. Der Gesetzgeber geht immer davon aus, dass er es ausschließlich mit Dummen zu tun hat, und dass deshalb lauter Vorschriften hermüssen. Dabei übersieht er auf tragische Weise alles Individuelle, also alles Menschliche, und agiert nicht als freilassender Grundrechtsgarant, sondern als bevormundender Besserwisser.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– ›Gemeinsam sind wir frei. Konrad Schily im Gespräch mit Philip Kovce.‹ In: <em>a tempo. Das Lebensmagazin</em>, Nr. 7/2019, S. 4-7</p>
<p>Genau dieses von Schily angesprochene schutzwürdige Grundrecht der Freiheit der Person verletzt der Staat mit seinem Schulzwang. Natürlich verletzt er auch <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_1.html" rel="ugc">Artikel 1 GG</a> – »Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar« –, denn es ist entwürdigend, jemanden gegen seinen Willen jahrelang in eine Erziehungsanstalt einzuweisen.</p>
<p>Den eigentlichen Zweck der Schule erkennt Kovce nicht – über diesen Zweck können Sie <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">hier</a> auf Englisch mehr erfahren. Und etwas ganz Entscheidendes fehlt im Artikel: <em>Der Blickwinkel des Kindes.</em></p>
<p>In der Einleitung beruft sich der SWR2 auf die Vereinten Nationen, die 2007 die Bundesrepublik dafür »gerügt« hätten, dass der Schulzwang »mit internationalen Abkommen nicht vereinbar« sei. Anscheinend wollen die Vereinten Nationen den Schulzwang allerdings wohl doch nicht abschaffen, sondern nur die Autorität des Staates mit der der Eltern ersetzen:</p>
<blockquote><p>Vor allem aber oblieg[t] [laut den Vereinten Nationen] die Entscheidung darüber, ob Kinder zur Schule gehen sollen oder nicht, den Eltern - nicht dem Staat.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nein, die Kinder sollten das selbst entscheiden dürfen. Sonst ist es weiterhin ein Zwang.</p>
<p>Dass Kinder von den Vereinten Nationen immer noch nicht völlig ernst genommen werden, erkennt man, wenn man dieselbe Logik auf andere einst benachteiligte Menschen überträgt, <a href="/posts/kinder-ernst-nehmen-interview" rel="ugc">wie Sarah Fitz-Claridge es tut</a>. So könnte man beispielsweise sagen: ›Vor allem aber obliegt die Entscheidung darüber, ob Sklaven auf dem Feld arbeiten müssen oder nicht, den Sklavenhaltern – nicht dem Staat.‹ Oder: ›Vor allem aber obliegt die Entscheidung darüber, ob Frauen in die Küche gehören oder nicht, den Ehemännern – nicht dem Staat.‹</p>
<p>Das bringt wenig, oder? Diese gesamte Einstellung giert weiterhin nach Autorität. Sie erinnert auch an die Frage, die der Philosoph Karl Popper berühmt gemacht und als in der politischen Philosophie irreführend und autoritär entlarvt hat: <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/politik/zur-theorie-der-demokratie-a-77c4531b-0002-0001-0000-000013523345" rel="ugc"><em>Wer soll herrschen?</em></a> In diesem Falle lautet die eigentliche Frage also: Wer soll über die Kinder herrschen? Selbstverständlich kann die Antwort nur lauten: <em>Niemand</em>.</p>
<p>Kovce teilt meine Meinung hierzu anscheinend, zumindest in abgeschwächter Form, im Zusammenhang mit der Verschiebung vom Schulzwang zum Haus- oder Fernunterrichtszwang, dessen Zulässigkeit die Vereinten Nationen von der Bundesrepublik fordern. Denn Kovce schreibt hierzu:</p>
<blockquote><p>Jedoch entspricht eine solche Pflichtverschiebung im Grunde genommen nur einer Problemverschiebung, denn es bleibt die grundsätzliche Frage, inwiefern der freien Persönlichkeitsentfaltung gesetzliche Bildungspflichten überhaupt zuträglich sind.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sie sind ihr nicht nur nicht zuträglich, sondern laufen ihr aktiv zuwider.</p>
<p>Kovces Ansatz geht teilweise in die richtige Richtung. Begrüßenswert ist auch, dass er sich nicht auf wissenschaftliche Studien bezieht, beispielsweise dass Schulen in ihrer ›Wissensübermittlung‹ nicht effizient seien, wie zwar oft (wohl zurecht) behauptet wird, wodurch die moralische Frage ›Wer soll über die Kinder herrschen?‹ aber unter einem szientistischen Blickwinkel untersucht würde. Diesen Fehler macht er nicht – seine Argumentation beruht stattdessen häufig auf Prinzipien. Doch wie gesagt bleibt der Blickwinkel des Kindes leider aus. Somit fehlt die moralische Dimension der Frage, wer über Kinder herrschen solle, fast komplett – und wer sich in die Lage der Kinder versetzt, versteht sofort, dass er nicht beherrscht werden wollte.</p>
<p>Zwischen den Zeilen schwingt diese Frage zumindest in der abgeschwächten Form ›Was soll eigentlich mit den Kindern gemacht werden?‹ weiterhin mit. Kinder werden als Objekte gesehen, über die entschieden werden muss oder soll oder darf. Und so entgeht vielen Lesern wohl die aus meiner Sicht unausweichliche, vernichtende und kompromisslose Schlussfolgerung, dass der Schulzwang nicht nur restlos abgeschafft gehört, sondern dass Schulen und Entmündigung <em>ekelhaft</em> sind, jeder Schullehrer zwar legale aber doch moralische Verbrechen begeht und jedes Kind ein vollwertiger Mensch ist, der zu nichts gezwungen werden darf. Dass Zwang verwerflich ist, ob er nun vom Staat oder den Eltern ausgeht. Dass niemand über Kinder herrschen soll.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/wer-soll-uber-die-kinder-herrschen
Wer soll über die Kinder herrschen?
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="noise-canceling-headphones">‘Noise-Canceling’ Headphones</h1>
<p>Various companies market their headphones as being able to cancel noise. That’s misleading at best, a lie at worst.</p>
<p>I’m not an audio engineer, but I understand that ‘noise-canceling’ headphones have small microphones which detect incoming noise and emit sound waves canceling out the incoming ones. So, a small subset of noise is ‘canceled’. But you’ll still be able to hear most kinds of noise.</p>
<p>‘Noise-reducing’ is much closer to the truth.</p>
<p>My AirPods Pro, for instance, seem to be decent at reducing low-frequency sounds that aren’t very loud. But high-frequency sounds remain almost unaltered. They’re only slightly quieter.</p>
<p>For a set of headphones to be truly noise <em>canceling</em>, it would literally need to cancel <em>all</em> noise from the outside world. As someone who’s sensitive to noise, I have long dreamt of a device that achieves this at the press of a button. Imagine the bliss, especially for sleeping. (You could wear a vibrating bracelet for alarms.) Even if AirPods could truly cancel all noise, they’re not very comfortable to wear to sleep.</p>
<p>Something I’d like to see is a device you can put in your room which creates a sort of ‘sound barrier’ along the walls of that room. As a result, no sound should be able to enter or escape the room. Such a device would also enable you to watch TV on full blast at 2am without your neighbors hearing anything. It would be a convenient, non-wearable solution. The device should be small enough to take with you so it can create a ‘bubble’ of a sound barrier around you wherever you go.</p>
<p>Alternatively, I could imagine a kind of ear surgery that allows you to toggle your hearing on and off – maybe by implanting a small device near your ears that blocks and unblocks the nerves that process audio information to your brain. After all, if there is no incoming audio signal to your brain, it won’t produce the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia" rel="ugc">quale</a> of hearing anything. But this solution may not be as good as the device that creates a sound barrier around you because it cannot do anything about your skull vibrating, which also causes you to perceive noise. For example, I believe deep bass sounds enter not only through your ears but also through the vibrations of your skull. So there’d still be <em>some</em> incoming audio signal.</p>
<p>Looking further into the future, I suspect that, once we understand what qualia are, we will be able to manipulate and turn them off at will. And once we each move our consciousness from wetware (brains) to hardware (silicon-based computers), we will understand our underlying hardware fully. Canceling noise should be a piece of cake then.</p>
<p>Noise pollution is a serious and non-trivial problem. Health problems abound due to lack of sleep. ‘Noise-canceling’ headphones provide some relief and are better than ear plugs, but their producers have set the bar too low and consequently lie to customers.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/noise-canceling-headphones
‘Noise-Canceling’ Headphones
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="brain-maturity">Brain Maturity</h1>
<p>An 18-year-old once told me that the brain does not fully mature until age 24. That those younger than 24 do not have full cognitive capacity and cannot make fully rational decisions.</p>
<p>“One of the areas of the brain that matures late is the prefrontal cortex the area important in impulse control risk-taking behavior and judgment”, says <a href="https://sites.duke.edu/apep/module-3-alcohol-cell-suicide-and-the-adolescent-brain/content-brain-maturation-is-complete-at-about-24-years-of-age" rel="ugc">this site</a> (the commas are all missing in the original, too).</p>
<p>Well, ironically, she was only 18 herself, so… should I have believed her? Or should I have shrugged off her statement as something any 18-year-old might say due to their lack in cognitive capacity?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/brain-maturity
Brain Maturity
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="wrong-number-pattern">Wrong-Number Pattern</h1>
<p>People sometimes apply the wrong number to verbs. They do so when a verb’s closest preceding noun has a different number from the subject’s. I have found enough instances of this pattern online over time to consider it noteworthy. (However, my notes on English grammar should be taken with a grain of salt as I’m not a native speaker.)</p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/better-call-saul-michael-mando-ignacio-dangerous-road-ahead-1235132025/" rel="ugc">this article</a>, the interviewee says:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]he full current of the scripts are breaking bad […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As I’ve written <a href="/posts/choosing-between-theories#comment-355" rel="ugc">previously</a>, the subject of this sentence is “current”, which is singular, so the verb needs to be ‘is’, not “are”. It should say ‘the full current of the scripts <em>is</em> breaking bad’. However, the noun “scripts” is closer to the verb than the subject, so the interviewee assigned its plural number to the verb.</p>
<p>In very simple sentences, such as ‘the desk is brown’, looking at the closest preceding noun to determine the verb’s number does work as a rule of thumb. Maybe that’s how this pattern originated. But one should always look at the <em>subject</em> to determine the verb’s number, which is not necessarily the verb’s closest preceding noun. In writing, this is easy: just determine the subject of the sentence, then determine its number and apply it to the verb. When speaking, that can be a bit more difficult – we often speak while thinking ahead or changing our train of thought in the middle of the sentence, so when we get to the second half we may already have forgotten most of the first. That’s especially true in situations where pressure is greater than usual, such as in an interview. Once you’ve forgotten the half of the sentence that contains the subject, you can’t use it to determine the verb’s number anymore, and all you’re left to do in the moment is look at the verb’s closest preceding noun. At least that’s how I explain what happened in the interview above.</p>
<p>One way to fix that is to <em>make</em> the subject the verb’s closest preceding noun. That changes the above example to: ‘The scripts’ full current is breaking bad.’</p>
<p>Another instance of the wrong-number pattern occurred when somebody <a href="/posts/choosing-between-theories#comment-151" rel="ugc">commented</a> on a <a href="/posts/choosing-between-theories" rel="ugc">different post</a> of mine:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]he contents of the last [urn] is kept private […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As I wrote <a href="/posts/choosing-between-theories#comment-186" rel="ugc">here</a>, the subject is “contents”, which is plural, so the verb should be ‘are’. But, again, the author assigned the number of the verb’s closest preceding noun – ‘urn’ – to the verb.</p>
<p>The same fix I have suggested works in this case, too: ‘The last urn’s contents are kept private.’ An upside of this fix is that it shortens sentences slightly, which should make remembering the subject’s number easier. But it should only be considered a temporary workaround as people get used to looking at the subject’s number instead.</p>
<p>In both examples, the fix turns an ‘of’ phrase into a possessive. The University of Arizona’s Global Campus Writing Center <a href="https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/possessives" rel="ugc">warns</a> against using possessives for inanimate objects such as urns and instead recommends using ‘of’ phrases. Another <a href="https://www.grammar.com/possessives" rel="ugc">website</a> says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Theoretically, an inanimate object or abstract idea cannot possess anything, but writers routinely use possessive endings with inanimate objects, as in <em>the rocket’s red glare</em>. These are technically called <em>false possessives</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this very post, I use both false possessives and ‘of’ phrases, such as when I write “the author assigned the number of the verb’s closest preceding noun […]”. Avoiding the false possessive would be clunky: ‘the author assigned the number of the noun that most closely precedes the verb’ or something like that. So I do think there is a place for false possessives, and their use seems preferable to assigning the wrong number to verbs.</p>
<p>All that said, my fix should be used with caution and only temporarily as one gets better at using the <em>real</em> solution – which is, again, to use the subject’s number as the verb’s number, no matter how far away the subject may be from the verb. People should also consider shortening their sentences to make that determination easier.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/wrong-number-pattern
Wrong-Number Pattern
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="covid-exile">Covid Exile</h1>
<p>Your American citizenship is effectively conditional if you want to fly back to the United States. You are now only a citizen if you test negative for Covid or can prove a recent recovery. From the State Department’s <a href="https://archive.ph/ODA1I" rel="ugc">website</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Effective December 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will require all air passengers two years of age and over entering the United States (including U.S. citizens and Legal Permanent Residents) to present a negative COVID-19 test result a negative [sic] taken no more than 1 day before departure, or proof of recovery from the virus within the last 90 days. Airlines must confirm the negative test result or proof of recent recovery for all passengers prior to boarding. Airlines must deny boarding of passengers who do not provide documentation of a negative test or recovery.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, in a medically technocratic move, the CDC turns airlines into its henchmen who will deny access to anyone who tests positive, even citizens.</p>
<p>Everyone is presumed sick and exiled until proven healthy. The burden of proof is on the exiled.</p>
<p>Things would be different if this were a rule made by an individual airline, such as not allowing you to bring a gun on a plane. Since the airline <em>owns</em> the plane, it can morally make whatever rule it likes. The property owner gets to make the rules concerning his property, and there are many such rules for air travel. The CDC, on the other hand, does <em>not</em> own the planes, of course, and I’m more than interested to know what jurisdiction the CDC could possibly have over regulating air travel. The quote above says the CDC “require[s]” – but who are they to require anything?</p>
<p>Germany has a <a href="https://archive.ph/81QUv#content_2" rel="ugc">similar rule</a>. Even as a citizen, you can’t fly back home to Germany without a negative Covid test result, proof of recovery, or proof of vaccination. Your German citizenship is effectively conditional and tied to your health or vaccination status. Worse, and because German authorities are busy turning Germany into Nazi-Germany again, <a href="https://archive.ph/81QUv#content_1" rel="ugc">if you’re flying</a> in from what ‘they’ deem a high-risk region, you a ‘required’ (there’s that word again) to register on a separate, government-run <a href="https://archive.ph/H28p6" rel="ugc">website</a>. For what purpose?</p>
<blockquote><p>The competent authority [lol, “competent”, “authority”] must be able to verify test results or proof of quarantine, vaccination or recovery as well as any exemptions from entry regulations. Your travel and contact details will therefore be collected and passed on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As they say themselves as you click through the questionnaire, “[c]lassification as a risk area may change at very short notice”, so it’s really up to their whim how much red tape you are subjected to. What’s particularly insidious is that they collect the address where you’ll be staying so that, if you’re ‘required’ to quarantine, they can spy on you, ‘verify’ that you are indeed quarantining, and punish you if you are not. I believe said classification is performed by the Robert-Koch-Insitut, basically the German CDC, which gives the whole thing a similarly medically technocratic flavor and again calls into question on what grounds a medical ‘authority’ should be able to dictate your travel plans, let alone imprison you upon arrival.</p>
<p>I remember reading that Germany will refund quarantine-related costs such as lodging and foregone work hours. But surely the money you’d receive is from taxes, meaning it’s blood money, so you can’t accept it.</p>
<p>Australia used to take the cake when it comes to making citizenship conditional. As far as I recall, they used to ‘require’ that citizens quarantine in specially designated hotels at their own expense, meaning Australian citizenship was effectively tied to <em>wealth</em>. They since seem to have gotten rid of this disturbing regulation, but I didn’t check <a href="https://archive.ph/rciYh" rel="ugc">their website</a> in detail (you can only read so much regulatory legalese before it makes you puke).</p>
<p>As far as I know, if you’re a citizen of any country, you can be the worst kind of criminal and they’ll still let you in. To be sure, they’ll arrest and prosecute you, <em>but they’ll still let you in</em>. I’m <em>not</em> saying criminals should have their citizenship revoked or made conditional – criminals should have rights, too – I’m instead pointing out that if <em>even crime</em> does not prevent you from entering your home country, your health definitely shouldn’t. Also, you’re presumed innocent of a crime until proven guilty and the burden of proof lies with the prosecutor, whereas with Covid, as I’ve said, you’re presumed sick until proven healthy and the burden of proof lies with you.</p>
<p>Consider the <em>cost</em> of testing positive as a traveler. It can completely ruin your plans. Since the test result must be very recent (one to two days old depending on the country), you don’t have enough time to adjust. You’ll also need additional lodging until you test negative, and you’ll have to book a new flight on short notice. All this can quickly add up to thousands of dollars. It’s less obvious than in the Australian case, but it means that, for the United States and Germany, citizenship is also tied to wealth, and the privilege of traveling abroad by plane even more so than it usually is. Not to mention the emotional cost of being denied access to one’s home country, or the psychological cost of being stuck in an unsafe environment. <em>Imagine the cost and misfortune of getting a false positive.</em></p>
<p>You may object that this only affects those traveling by air, but this is a matter of principle. And it still affects tons of people. Also keep in mind that, like much of the increased TSA nonsense from after 9/11 that never went away, conditional citizenship may not ever go away either, unless we make a huge ruckus and petition a change. Lastly, government regulation tends to grow – now that citizenship is effectively tied to not having Covid, it may soon be tied to more health requirements, and then to additional conditions.</p>
<p>All of this is unnecessary as those who wish to avoid travel and other exposure for fear of catching Covid have always been free to do so.</p>
<p>Exile used to be an extremely cruel punishment for crimes, even an alternative to the death penalty (e.g. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/exile-law" rel="ugc">in ancient Rome</a>). There’s a reason it wasn’t practiced anymore until it snuck back in through Covid regulations. Note that, if I am wrong about that and exile had already been reintroduced through other regulations, that does <em>not</em> make Covid exile okay – my criticism would equally apply to those other regulations.</p>
<p>Imposing involuntary medical exile is evil, and these medical technocracies need to be gotten rid of. Citizenship is supposed to guarantee access to your home. Once such access is only granted conditionally, it isn’t really your home anymore.</p>
<hr>
<p>Update 2022-04-19: Minor edits shortly after publication.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/covid-exile
Covid Exile
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="kinder-ernst-nehmen-interview"><em>Kinder ernst nehmen</em> – Interview</h1>
<p><em>Der folgende Text ist die Übersetzung einer nur geringfügig überarbeiteten Abschrift eines Gesprächs zwischen Dwarkesh Patel und Sarah Fitz-Claridge, das im Rahmen von Patels Podcast</em> <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/15-sarah-fitz-claridge-taking-children-seriously/id1516093381?i=1000524254745" rel="ugc">The Lunar Society</a> <em>veröffentlicht wurde. Beide haben diese Übersetzung genehmigt (aber nicht geprüft). Meine Anmerkungen in eckigen Klammern. Die Übersetzung befindet sich noch in einem frühen Stadium.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2 id="vorschau">Vorschau</h2>
<p>Sarah Fitz-Claridge (S): Kinder sollten lernen, was sie wollen, was sie interessiert. Sie sollten lernen, wie sie Probleme lösen können. Das lernen sie nicht, indem sie zwölf Jahre lang in die Schule eingewiesen und von einem autoritären Lehrer herumkommandiert werden, der nicht viel weiß. Das ist eine verrückte Vorstellung.</p>
<hr>
<h2 id="einleitung">Einleitung</h2>
<p>Dwarkesh Patel (D): Hallo allerseits und willkommen zum Podcast <em>The Lunar Society</em>. Heute hatte ich das große Vergnügen, mit Sarah Fitz-Claridge zu sprechen. Sie ist Autorin und Beraterin und hält Vorträge – alles mit einer fallibilistischen Weltanschauung. Anfang der 1990er Jahre gründete sie eine Zeitschrift, aus der <em>Taking Children Seriously</em> [Kinder ernst nehmen] hervorging. Sie war von den hitzigen Publikumsreaktionen überrascht, als sie sich zu Kindern äußerte. Sie hat überall auf der Welt Vorträge über ihre Erziehungsphilosophie gehalten, und Sie können Abschriften einiger ihrer Vorträge auf ihrer Website <a href="https://www.fitz-claridge.com/" rel="ugc">fitz-claridge.com</a> finden. Der Link dazu wird auch in der Podcast-Beschreibung zu finden sein.</p>
<p>D: Wir hatten ein sehr interessantes Gespräch. Ich kann Sarahs Weltanschauung im Großen und Ganzen gut nachvollziehen, auch wenn ich meine eigenen Ansichten habe. Es hat mir also viel Spaß gemacht, an einigen Stellen dagegenzuhalten. Aber ganz gleich, ob man ihr zustimmt oder nicht: Sarah ist eine unglaublich originelle und sich auf Prinzipien berufende Denkerin zu dem Thema, wie unsere Gesellschaft mit Kindern umgeht. Hier ist also Sarah Fitz-Claridge.</p>
<hr>
<h2 id="interview">Interview</h2>
<p>D: Sarah, können Sie erklären, was <em>Kinder ernst nehmen</em> ist?</p>
<p>S: Ja. <em>Kinder ernst nehmen</em> ist eine Erziehungsphilosophie, die den Gedanken ernst nimmt, dass Menschen fehlbar sind, und das gilt auch für Eltern. Anstatt also mit unseren Kindern unter Zwang zu interagieren, versuchen wir, mit ihnen ein Einvernehmen herzustellen; wir versuchen, Lösungen für Probleme zu finden, die keinen Zwang beinhalten. Denn der Zwang entscheidet über Probleme im Rahmen einer irrationalen Institution – er verkörpert die Theorie, dass das Recht des Stärkeren gilt, und das stimmt nicht. Also tun wir das nicht.</p>
<p>S: Es handelt sich tatsächlich um eine neue Sichtweise auf Kinder, denn die übliche Sichtweise ähnelt in gewisser Weise der auf Frauen vor ihrer Emanzipation oder, sagen wir, auf Schwarze, als sie in Amerika Sklaven waren. Es geht dabei nicht darum, dass sie keine Menschen seien. Die gängige Sichtweise besagt, sie seien zwar Menschen, aber sie seien nicht in der Lage, ihr Leben selbst in die Hand zu nehmen; sie bräuchten einen wohlwollenden patriarchalischen Elternteil, einen Ehemann oder einen Sklavenhalter, der dafür sorgt, dass in ihrem Leben nichts schief geht.</p>
<p>S: Es ist natürlich nicht so, dass Eltern versuchen, ihren Kindern gegenüber diktatorisch aufzutreten, es ist nur so, dass die ganze Welt die Meinung vertritt, Kinder seien anderen Menschen gegenüber nicht ganz gleichzustellen. Sie seien nicht rational oder kreativ, und deshalb müssten wir sie lenken und kontrollieren, um sicherzustellen, dass sie sich zu mündigen Bürgern entwickeln, die für sich selbst verantwortlich sein können.</p>
<p>S: Ich glaube vielmehr, dass Kinder <em>doch</em> kreativ und rational sind. Sie sind dies von Geburt an. Wir werden mit einem menschlichen Verstand geboren – nicht nur mit einem tierischen, sondern auch mit einem menschlichen Verstand. Es ergibt einfach keinen Sinn, davon auszugehen, dass Rationalität und Kreativität zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt eingeschaltet werden. Sie sind also von Anfang an vorhanden. Wie könnte ein Baby oder ein Kind sonst lernen zu sprechen, wenn es nicht kreativ und rational ist?</p>
<p>S: <em>Kinder ernst nehmen</em> ist also sozusagen eine zwangfreie Erziehungstheorie. Sie handelt davon, Kinder auf eine Weise zu erziehen, die keinen Zwang beinhaltet.</p>
<p>D: Nur damit unsere Zuhörer es wissen: Mein Standpunkt liegt derzeit irgendwo zwischen dem Ihrigen und der herkömmlichen Auffassung. Ich hoffe also, Sie können mich näher an Ihre Sichtweise heranführen. Nun, ein naheliegendes Gegenargument lautet, dass wir zwar Frauen sowie andere Rassen als etwas Andersartiges betrachtet haben – doch Kinder sind im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes andersartig, oder? Sie unterscheiden sich biologisch von Erwachsenen. Bedeutet das nicht, dass sie Anspruch auf andere Rechte haben, vielleicht sogar auf weniger Rechte?</p>
<p>S: Das ist derselbe Zirkelschluss, der in der Vergangenheit in Bezug auf Frauen und Schwarze verwendet wurde: ›Nun, ihre Haut ist schwarz, also sind sie offensichtlich anders als wir.‹ ›Nun, das sind Frauen, es gibt also offensichtlich einen tatsächlichen Unterschied zwischen ihnen und uns.‹ ›Das sind keine Männer.‹ ›Das sind keine weißen Männer.‹ Es ist derselbe Zirkelschluss.</p>
<p>D: Ja.</p>
<p>S: Das ergibt keinen Sinn. Ich denke, irgendwann in der Zukunft werden sich die Menschen zurückerinnern, wie wir heute Kinder wahrnehmen. Und sie werden genauso entsetzt darüber sein, wie es uns ergeht, wenn wir auf die Argumente zurückblicken, die in der Vergangenheit in Bezug auf Schwarze und Frauen angeführt wurden.</p>
<p>D: Ja, dem stimme ich eigentlich zu, vor allem wenn man bedenkt, wie das Schulsystem funktioniert. Nur um dieses Argument fortzuführen: Zwischen verschiedenen Rassen gibt es doch nur oberflächliche Unterschiede, oder? Ebenso zwischen verschiedenen Geschlechtern. Sie sind zwar nicht <em>völlig</em> oberflächlich, aber sie sind minimal, wenn man sie mit dem Unterschied zwischen einem Zweijährigen und einem Achtzehnjährigen vergleicht, denn es scheint einen großen Unterschied in der Art von Person zu geben, über die wir hier sprechen. Es ist durchaus wahrscheinlich, dass ein Schimpanse schlauer ist als ein Zweijähriger, oder? Warum hat ein Schimpanse dann nicht die gleichen Rechte gegen Zwang?</p>
<p>S: Nein, das stimmt nicht. Im entscheidenden Sinne sind Kinder, egal welchen Alters, gleich [mit uns], denn wir haben Kreativität und Rationalität. Ein Baby, das gerade erst geboren wurde und abgesehen von seinem genetischen Wissen zwar sonst nichts weiß, so wie ein Tier im Grunde nur genetisches Wissen hat, wird, wenn es ungefähr zwei Jahre alt ist, sprechen und viele andere Dinge tun, die ein Schimpanse oder ein anderes Tier niemals tun wird. Und das liegt genau an dieser Kreativität und Rationalität – wissen Sie, etwas ist in diesen zwei Jahren passiert. Und zwar hat das Kind inexplizite Vermutungen darüber angestellt, was Worte bedeuten, wie wir verschiedene Dinge nennen und über eine Vielzahl anderer Dinge. Dabei geht es natürlich nicht nur um die Sprache. Ein Schimpanse oder ein anderes Tier hingegen tut nichts von alledem.</p>
<p>S: Falls Ihre Frage den Eindruck erwecken sollte, ich würde behaupten, man solle ein Baby sich selbst überlassen: Das meine ich nicht. Es geht um die An- und Abwesenheit von Zwang. Ich will damit nicht sagen, dass wir unsere Kinder nicht unterstützen. Natürlich tun wir das. Und wir wissen tatsächlich mehr als ein Baby. Die Frage ist nur, was machen wir mit diesem zusätzlichen Wissen? Glauben wir, dass es den Zwang auf das Kind rechtfertigt oder nicht? Wenn man Zwang ausübt, will man im Grunde sagen, dass das Recht des Stärkeren gilt, und das stimmt nicht.</p>
<p>D: Ja. Ich denke, es wäre sinnvoll, den Begriff ›Zwang‹ in diesem Zusammenhang zu definieren. Wie sehen Sie den Zwang gegenüber Kindern? Was ist darunter zu verstehen?</p>
<p>S: Nun, Zwang bedeutet grob gesagt, jemanden dazu zu bringen, etwas gegen seinen Willen zu tun oder zu lassen. Da steckt noch mehr dahinter, und ich denke, wir könnten uns auch mit subtileren Fragen zu diesem Thema befassen. Aber im Grunde genommen geht es darum, jemandem den eigenen Willen aufzuzwingen, und zwar gegen dessen Willen. Das würde ich als Zwang bezeichnen.</p>
<p>D: Gut. Ich erinnere mich dunkel daran, dass Schimpansen … Man hat ein Experiment durchgeführt, bei dem Schimpansen und Kinder so etwas wie einem sehr einfachem IQ-Test unterzogen wurden. Und es stellte sich heraus, dass Schimpansen tatsächlich ein besseres Arbeitsgedächtnis haben. Allerdings haben sie offensichtlich eine geringere Lernfähigkeit, und Lernen erfordert Kreativität – dazu können wir noch mehr sagen. Kinder haben also deshalb ein Recht auf Schutz vor Zwang, weil sie Dinge lernen können – es geht also nicht nur um ihre momentane Intelligenz, sondern auch darum, was aus ihnen werden könnte?</p>
<p>S: Kinder haben deshalb ein Recht auf Schutz vor Zwang, weil sie kreative und rationale Wesen sind. Der Schimpanse hingegen nicht. Er verfügt zwar über genetisches Wissen, das ihm eine gewisse Bandbreite an Verhaltensweisen und Lernfähigkeiten ermöglicht, aber das ist begrenzt. Die menschliche Kreativität hingegen ist nicht begrenzt. Das gilt für Kinder genauso wie für Erwachsene.</p>
<p>D: Und trotzdem ist ein zweijähriges Kind doch auch begrenzt, oder? Es ist ja nicht so, dass ein Zweijähriger alles tun kann, was ein erwachsener Mensch tun kann. Warum bringen diese Grenzen nicht auch gewisse Einschränkungen der Rechte des Kindes mit sich?</p>
<p>S: Nun, ich würde sagen, Kinder sind in Wirklichkeit kreativer und rationaler als Erwachsene, insbesondere kleine Kinder. Wenn man bedenkt, wie viel kleine Kinder lernen, und wie schwierig es für viele Erwachsene ist, Dinge zu lernen … Also im Gegenteil, Kinder verfügen über <em>mehr</em> Kreativität und Rationalität, nicht weniger.</p>
<p>D: Ja, wobei, wenn wir dieses Kriterium anwenden wollen, gibt es viele Dinge, die Erwachsene tun können, die Kinder nicht tun können. Eine Fähigkeit Erwachsener besteht darin, formale verbale Diskussionen zu führen und verschiedene Alternativen zu durchdenken. Man kann mit einem Erwachsenen sprechen und sagen: ›Ist diese Berufswahl die beste Berufswahl für dich?‹ Und man kann die Gründe, das Für und Wider erörtern. Das kann man mit einem Kleinkind nicht.</p>
<p>S: Doch, das kann man. Aber wenn man Rationalität einfach so definiert, dass sie kleine Kinder ausschließt, findet natürlich jeder einen Grund, warum sie irrational seien – aber Rationalität ist die Fähigkeit, tatsächlich zu lernen; neues Wissen zu schaffen. Wie gesagt sind Babys eindeutig rational, weil sie lernen zu sprechen. Das ist klares Tatsachenmaterial[<sup>1]</sup> für Rationalität.</p>
<p>D: Gut. Wir werden also darauf zurückkommen müssen, denn das wird eine längere Diskussion. Lassen Sie uns über etwas sprechen, bei dem wir wahrscheinlich beide einer Meinung sind, nämlich über die Behandlung von Menschen, die Teenager oder jünger als Teenager sind. Die Auswirkungen der Schulpflicht auf Menschen in dieser Altersgruppe … Ich würde nämlich sagen, dass Menschen in dieser Altersgruppe vor Zwang geschützt werden sollten, und dass das Schulsystem ein wirklicher Verstoß gegen ihre Rechte auf den Schutz vor Zwang ist.</p>
<p>S: Nun, dazu möchte ich schnell Folgendes sagen: Wenn Sie glauben, Sie können von Geburt des Kindes an von oben herab ein autoritäres, diktatorisches Verhältnis zu dem Kind haben und dann plötzlich ab einem Alter, in dem es in Ihren Augen rational wird, umschalten, dann haben Sie das Verhältnis zu Ihrem Kind bereits ruiniert. Ich weiß nicht, wie das gut gehen soll. Wir müssen von Anfang an davon ausgehen, dass Kinder rational, kreativ und vernünftig sind, anstatt zu glauben, dass man den Kurs später einfach ändern kann.</p>
<p>D: Stimmt das denn wirklich? Die meisten Eltern, ja ich würde sagen, fast alle Eltern erziehen ihre Kinder zumindest bis zu einem gewissen Alter so, als seien sie ihnen unterlegen und müssten ihnen gehorchen. Dennoch haben die meisten Kinder ein gutes Verhältnis zu ihren Eltern. Vielleicht nicht gut in Ihrem Sinne, aber sie hegen keinen ausdrücklichen Groll gegen ihre Eltern, oder? Da besteht keine Feindseligkeit.</p>
<p>S: Ich glaube, da gibt es tatsächlich sehr viel Groll. Ich würde zwar nicht unbedingt von Feindseligkeit sprechen, aber ich glaube, dass zwischen Eltern und Kindern in beide Richtungen viel Unmut besteht. Auch seitens der Eltern, weil sie ein Bild von Kindern haben, das zumindest meiner Meinung nach nicht stimmt. Das führt zu Spannungen und spaltet Eltern und Kinder gegeneinander auf. Es verursacht also durchaus Probleme.</p>
<p>D: Ja.</p>
<p>S: Anstatt Probleme zu lösen, zwingt man das Kind zu etwas. Und natürlich neigen Eltern mit dieser autoritären Denkweise manchmal auch dazu, sich ihren Kindern gegenüber aufopfernd zu verhalten. Sie denken: Ich muss das für mein Kind tun. Aber es ist nicht so, dass das Kind um etwas gebeten hat und sie deshalb ein Opfer bringen. Mit dem Zwang geht die Tendenz zur Selbstaufopferung einher, und das ist alles nicht rational. Wenn Probleme nicht gelöst werden, tut das den Menschen weh, und davon betroffen sind auch die Eltern, nicht nur die Kinder.</p>
<p>D: Ja. Können Sie etwas dazu sagen, wie die Erziehung aussieht, wenn Sie als Elternteil oder in einem schulähnlichen Rahmen tätig sind? Wie sollten Kinder erzogen werden?</p>
<p>S: Kinder sollten dabei unterstützt werden, das zu lernen, was sie lernen wollen, und zwar so, wie sie es lernen wollen. Nur sehr wenige Kinder würden tatsächlich zur Schule gehen wollen. Die Schule ist ein derart ineffizienter Weg, etwas zu lernen, und sie ist so autoritär … Die ganze Struktur des Schulsystems ist unglaublich autoritär. Ich denke also, die allermeisten Kinder würden – sofern sie nicht unter psychologischem oder anderweitigem Druck stehen zu lügen – sagen, dass sie sich definitiv nicht für die Schule entscheiden würden. Vielleicht entscheiden sie sich später für eine formelle Ausbildung, wenn sie beschlossen haben, dass sie beispielsweise Arzt werden wollen – dann werden sie natürlich eine formelle Ausbildung absolvieren. Aber das geschieht vielleicht erst später.</p>
<p>D: Ja, und sie werden auch nicht in demselben Sinne dazu gezwungen.</p>
<p>S: Nein, auf keinen Fall.</p>
<p>D: Ja, das Kind hat die Wahl, richtig.</p>
<p>S: Ich glaube, das Schulsystem ist eine Art Rückschritt in die Vergangenheit, als man versuchte, gute Fabrikarbeiter auszubilden. Wir leben heute in einer wissensbasierten Gesellschaft; wir sind nicht mehr auf der Suche nach guten Fabrikarbeitern, die gehorchen und einfach nur die hirnlose Aufgabe erledigen, die ihnen jemand vorgibt. Wir sind auf der Suche nach Menschen, die kreativ sind, die neue Ideen haben, um Probleme zu lösen, damit die Welt besser wird, wir Fortschritte machen und das Leiden ein Ende findet. Das Schulsystem stumpft die Kreativität der Menschen nur ab, es hat auf die große Mehrheit der Menschen einen lähmenden Effekt.</p>
<p>D: Ein Einwand gegen diese Sichtweise lautet: Selbst wenn man möchte, dass die Menschen kreativ sind und eigene Ideen entwickeln, müssen sie über ein gewisses Grundwissen verfügen, um sich überhaupt mit herausfordernden Problemen beschäftigen zu können. Und dass Kinder einfach nicht bereit seien, die notwendigen Schritte zu unternehmen, um auf dieses hohe Niveau zu gelangen, auf dem sie ihre eigenen Probleme lösen können. Deshalb müsse man sie schon in jungen Jahren dazu zwingen, die Grundlagen zu erlernen, damit sie schließlich kreativ werden können.</p>
<p>S: Das Problem mit dieser Vorstellung von einem Wissensschatz ist: Wenn alle den gleichen Wissensschatz haben, woher sollen dann die neuen Ideen kommen? Bedenken Sie, dass in der Vergangenheit, also bevor es Schulen gab, die neuen Ideen von Menschen stammten, deren Lebensgeschichte sich völlig von der anderer unterschied und die etwas aus reiner Freude an der Sache gelernt hatten. Sie dachten nicht: ›Oh, ich muss das tun, ich muss diesen Wissensschatz studieren, diese Wissensbasis, und dann habe ich alle Ideen, die ich brauche, um mit etwas Neuem aufzuwarten.‹ Nein, neue Ideen kommen eher von denjenigen, die nicht über den gleichen Wissensschatz verfügen wie alle anderen. Deshalb halte ich diese Vorstellung für einen Fehler.</p>
<p>D: Ja. Außerdem, selbst wenn diese Vorstellung wahr wäre, kann man die Ansicht, dass das moderne Schulsystem oder irgendetwas, das ihm auch nur annähernd ähnelt, einem überhaupt einen nützlichen Wissensschatz vermittelt, durch Beobachtung widerlegen, indem man nur einen Tag lang die Schule besucht, nicht wahr? Man lernt den Unterschied zwischen Alliteration und Assonanz auswendig oder wann eine bestimmte Schlacht stattfand; irgendjemand betet da was herunter … Auch dass jemand entscheidet, wann man auf die Toilette gehen und wann man essen darf. Dass dieses Maß an Zwang notwendig ist, um Menschen eine Grundlage zu vermitteln, damit sie sich in der Welt zurechtfinden können, halte ich für unwahrscheinlich.</p>
<p>S: Ganz genau. Ich stimme Ihnen uneingeschränkt zu.</p>
<p>D: Bryan Caplan, der der erste Gast dieses Podcasts war, hat ein Buch mit dem Titel <em>The Case against Education</em> [Ein Argument gegen die Erziehung] geschrieben, und er unterrichtet seine Kinder von zu Hause aus [<em>homeschooling</em>]. Der Grundgedanke ist, dass die Menschen viel weniger gebildet seien, als man angesichts der zwölf Jahre Schulpflicht erwarten würde. Und wenn sie die Universität verlassen, wüssten sie nicht einmal, wie die Regierung funktioniert, die Grundlagen der Mathematik, der Wissenschaft und so weiter. Er sagte jedoch, dass er seine Kinder zwinge, Mathematik zu lernen, während er sie zu Hause unterrichtet, weil er festgestellt habe, dass diejenigen Kinder, die in der Unschooling-Bewegung[<sup>2]</sup> aufgewachsen sind, zwar in jeder Hinsicht in Ordnung zu sein schienen – doch mit den Grundrechenarten hätten sie Schwierigkeiten. Deshalb nimmt er an, dass Kinder einfach keine Lust hätten, mathematische Grundlagen zu lernen. Dabei sei die Mathematik tatsächlich ein wichtiges Fach, das in vielen Problembereichen benötigt werde. Es sei also wichtig, Kinder zum Mathelernen zu zwingen.</p>
<p>S: Zunächst einmal glaube ich nicht, dass Kinder, die ernst genommen werden, nicht wissen, wie man rechnet. Das ist doch lächerlich. Ich weiß nicht, von welchen Unschoolern er spricht. Einige von denen haben zwar seltsame Ideen, wie zum Beispiel, dass Kinder nicht lernen dürfen oder dass sie erst später etwas lernen sollen und bis dahin aufgehalten werden müssen. Ich weiß es also nicht. Aber hinsichtlich der Vorstellung, wir müssten unsere Kinder zwingen, Mathematik zu lernen: Nun, zunächst einmal glaube ich nicht, dass die meisten Menschen Mathematik überhaupt brauchen. Das stimmt meiner Meinung nach nicht. In dem Maße, in dem es doch stimmt, lernen die Menschen sie ohnehin auf natürliche Weise.</p>
<p>S: Aber ich denke auch, dass diese Idee schlichtweg falsch ist. Bedenken Sie, dass Entdeckungen auf dem Gebiet der Mathematik nicht von denjenigen gemacht worden sind, die dazu gezwungen wurden, Mathematik zu lernen, sondern von denjenigen, die Mathematik als Freude, als Vergnügen, als faszinierend empfanden. So kamen sie zu ihrer Entdeckung. Es mag sein, dass sich die meisten Menschen nicht so begeistert mit der Mathematik beschäftigen. Wahrscheinlich hat das zum großen Teil mit dem schrecklichen Zwang zum Mathelernen in der Schule zu tun: Der reicht aus, um bei jedem eine lebenslange Abneigung gegen Mathematik zu erzeugen. Aber auch davon abgesehen, wenn man davon ausgeht, dass die meisten Menschen einfach kein Interesse an Mathematik haben: Nun, die meisten Menschen brauchen Mathematik nicht. Ich glaube einfach nicht, dass wir jemanden zwingen müssen, überhaupt irgendetwas zu lernen. Das stimmt einfach nicht. Menschen, die zu nichts gezwungen wurden, die ernst genommen wurden, haben ü…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/kinder-ernst-nehmen-interview" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/kinder-ernst-nehmen-interview</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/kinder-ernst-nehmen-interview
Kinder ernst nehmen – Interview
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="ukraine">Ukraine</h1>
<p>I want to make some observations on how people have been reacting to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>First, I am no expert on what’s happening there, which brings me to my initial observation: that many of those who tweet about the war speak with the confidence of an expert. But they can’t all be experts because there aren’t millions of them not residing in Ukraine.</p>
<p>Second, big tech companies, in their pathetic left-wing desire to belong and be ‘the good guys’, jump on the opportunity to signal their support even though their business has virtually nothing to do with the war.</p>
<p>GitHub, a collaboration tool for software engineers, has a prominent banner on their homepage when you’re logged in, with their logo in the colors of the Ukrainian flag:</p>
<p><img alt="GitHub's Ukraine banner" src="/assets/github_ukraine.png" class="mx-auto d-block"></p>
<p>Oh good. But what does collaboration in software engineering have to do with war or humanitarian aid?</p>
<p>They link to an <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220406050644/https://github.blog/2022-03-02-our-response-to-the-war-in-ukraine/" rel="ugc">article</a> titled ‘Our response to the war in Ukraine’. GitHub, you don’t need to respond to that. You’re not a press secretary. You’re in the business of building tools for developers, not commenting on global politics. The author starts the article by saying “I wanted to share [something oh-so relevant in these challenging times] with our <em>Hubbers</em>” (emphasis added). Hubbers! ‘Yes, it’s a response to war, but that’s no reason for us not to have fun, right guys?’ The article piggy-backs on <em>others</em> using GitHub to provide humanitarian aid, showcases what goody two-shoes GitHub are by complying with any and all regulations, and then closes with a Corona-esque section on how they prioritize “Hubber safety and well-being”. Corporate virtue signaling at its finest.</p>
<p>Slack, a site for chatting with coworkers, has likewise <a href="https://archive.ph/aOUFL" rel="ugc">changed their logo</a> to match the Ukrainian colors.</p>
<p>React, a popular (but awful) <em>library for web development</em> created by Facebook – again, nothing to do with war or humanitarian efforts – has a prominent <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220406045657/https://reactjs.org/docs/getting-started.html" rel="ugc">banner</a> at the top of their homepage:</p>
<p><img alt="React's Ukraine banner" src="/assets/react_ukraine.png" class="mx-auto d-block"></p>
<p>A <em>competing</em> (and comparatively less awful) product, Angular, created by Google, has the identical <a href="https://archive.ph/g4RXg" rel="ugc">banner</a> on their website. I’m no lawyer, but whoever posted it first may well have a valid copyright claim against the other:</p>
<p><img alt="Angular's Ukraine banner" src="/assets/angular_ukraine.png" class="mx-auto d-block"></p>
<p>It’s the same banner, down to capitalization and punctuation! It seems as though one rushed to imitate the other so as not to be behind in the social-justice-warrior popularity contest. At least Amazon has <a href="https://archive.ph/ZCm78" rel="ugc">shown</a> a little more creativity:</p>
<p><img alt="Amazon's Ukraine banner" src="/assets/amazon_ukraine.png" class="mx-auto d-block"></p>
<p>Google has published a <a href="https://archive.ph/y6I4F" rel="ugc">statement</a> on Ukraine. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, has <a href="https://archive.ph/TkjNN" rel="ugc">tweeted</a> about being “deeply concerned” about it. Cook in particular posts lots of social-justice-warrior content on his Twitter page, such as the altruist “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” quote by MLK and the pronouns in <a href="https://archive.ph/OmD1F" rel="ugc">his bio</a>, and his tweets about <a href="https://archive.ph/OwZaT" rel="ugc">Ramadan</a> and <a href="https://archive.ph/CJdvO" rel="ugc">‘trans visibility day’</a>. Can you imagine Steve Jobs tweeting any of this if he were still alive?</p>
<p>Only a few weeks ago, every big tech company was an expert on immunology and the spread of viruses. Now they’re experts on foreign policy. The same goes, as others have pointed out, for all those Twitter users who comment on the situation in Ukraine as if they knew what they’re talking about, even though they’ve never once tweeted about Ukraine before.</p>
<p>The whole thing is a bit reminiscent of when a celebrity dies. Suddenly, everyone tweets about how that death has impacted them personally and how much they admired that celebrity. Only they never once spoke about that celebrity when he was still alive.</p>
<p>It’s also reminiscent of big tech companies unanimously supporting an <a href="/posts/what-to-do-in-the-face-of-corporate-wokeism" rel="ugc">anti-American, revolutionary organization</a> known as Black Lives Matter. Tech companies had similar banners proclaiming that black lives mattered.</p>
<p>These corporations’ support feels orchestrated and insincere. It seems to come from a place of: ‘if we <em>don’t</em> post these banners or make these statements, people will judge us for it’. It does not feel like people coming together in a beautiful display to fight injustice – it feels <em>fake</em>.</p>
<p>Third, when behavior is repeated so accurately, rapidly, and on such a large scale, that should make us <em>skeptical</em>. The two competing projects posting the same banners are a prime example of that.</p>
<p>From David Deutsch’s <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, chapter 15, section ‘Living with memes’:</p>
<blockquote><p>[W]henever we find ourselves enacting a complex or narrowly defined behaviour that has been accurately repeated from one holder to the next, we should be suspicious.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fourth, as much as I have criticized corporations, corporate donations – such as <a href="https://archive.ph/y6I4F" rel="ugc">the ones by Google</a> – are still infinitely better than government donations. Why? Because corporate donations are <em>voluntary</em>, whereas governments extort money from their subjects at gunpoint – taxation is theft – and so whatever government money goes to Ukraine is <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blood%20money" rel="ugc">blood money</a>. Of course, no American is morally <em>obligated</em> to help fix the misery in Ukraine, but if they <em>want</em> to, they’re free to. As of March 16th, 2022, however, the Biden administration has spent <a href="https://archive.ph/Ub482" rel="ugc">$2 billion</a> in blood money on Ukraine, without the American people’s consent.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, it certainly <em>seems</em> to me that Russia is aggressively attacking Ukraine and that Ukraine should defend itself. I know virtually nothing else about these countries, so I won’t comment further, except to say that before this war started, Ukraine wasn’t this angel of a country it seems to be perceived as now – it definitely wasn’t considered one of Europe’s finest. Does that justify war? No, that’s not what I’m saying. But I certainly won’t blindly ‘stand with Ukraine’ like everyone else who’s stopped thinking for themselves.</p>
<p>You’re not supposed to criticize Ukraine. You’re supposed to go along, support the underdog <em>uncritically</em> (and pay his expenses along the way). This uncritical attitude is dangerous, especially in foreign politics, where one hasty decision due to cultural pressures can change the course of history for the worse.</p>
<p>Think for yourself.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/ukraine
Ukraine
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="recording-sending-and-receiving-audio-using-javascript">Recording, Sending, and Receiving Audio Using JavaScript</h1>
<p>Say you’re working on a web-based chat app. You wish to let users record and send audio messages, similar to the feature the iOS Messages app offers. Luckily, modern browsers provide APIs that make implementing this feature surprisingly easy.</p>
<h2 id="recording-audio">Recording audio</h2>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">recording</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="nb">navigator</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">mediaDevices</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">getUserMedia</span><span class="p">({</span> <span class="na">audio</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="kc">true</span> <span class="p">}).</span><span class="nx">then</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">stream</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nx">mediaRecorder</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nx">MediaRecorder</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">stream</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="nx">mediaRecorder</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">addEventListener</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">dataavailable</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nx">event</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="c1">// event.data is a blob.</span>
<span class="c1">// It looks something like: Blob {size: 26515, type: 'audio/webm;codecs=opus'}</span>
<span class="nx">recording</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">event</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">data</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">});</span>
<span class="nx">mediaRecorder</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">addEventListener</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">stop</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="c1">// Do something with the `recording` variable.</span>
<span class="p">});</span>
<span class="nx">mediaRecorder</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">start</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="nx">setTimeout</span><span class="p">(()</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="nx">mediaRecorder</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">stop</span><span class="p">(),</span> <span class="mi">5000</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">});</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Since we only want to record audio, not video, we pass <code>{ audio: true }</code> to <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MediaDevices/getUserMedia" rel="ugc"><code>getUserMedia</code></a>. Keep in mind that calling this function for the first time will cause the browser to ask the user’s permission to record. In this example, we run it immediately for the purpose of illustration, but in real life you may want to wait until it’s actually time to record – for example, until the user clicks a record button.</p>
<p>Likewise, we stop the recording arbitrarily after five seconds, but you could easily imagine other triggers such as the user clicking something or letting go of a record button.</p>
<p>Since we call <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MediaRecorder/start" rel="ugc"><code>mediaRecord.start</code></a> with no arguments, the <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MediaRecorder/dataavailable_event" rel="ugc"><code>dataavailable</code></a> event will trigger only once: when the recording is stopped. You can optionally pass an integer representing milliseconds to the <code>start</code> function, in which case <code>dataavailable</code> will trigger every time that amount of milliseconds passes. In that scenario, instead of a simple <code>recording</code> variable, you’d want something like a <code>recordings</code> <em>array</em> and push <code>event.data</code> onto it. Otherwise, you’d only ever hold on to the most recent part of the recording.</p>
<p><code>event.data</code> is a <a href="https://javascript.info/blob" rel="ugc">blob</a> – a binary large object. We’ll get into how to process it below.</p>
<p>It’s important to process the blob in the <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MediaRecorder/stop" rel="ugc"><code>stop</code></a> event handler. If you do it anywhere else – e.g., within the call to <code>setTimeout</code> itself – you can run into a race condition where your <code>recording</code> variable is <code>undefined</code> because it hasn’t been set yet. (I ran into this issue myself.)</p>
<h2 id="sending-audio">Sending audio</h2>
<p>Now that we have our audio blob, we need to send it over the wire. To do this, we first have to serialize the blob somehow. If we try to directly turn a blob into, say, JSON, it will always return a stringified empty object, even if the blob isn’t empty:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">JSON</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">stringify</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">new</span> <span class="nx">Blob</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">hello world</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="na">type</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">text/plain</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">}))</span>
<span class="c1">// => '{}'</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Luckily, modern browsers’ built-in <code>FileReader</code> API solves this problem easily. We can turn the blob into, say, a base-64 string. Let’s modify our <code>stop</code> event listener:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">mediaRecorder</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">addEventListener</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">stop</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">reader</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nx">FileReader</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="nx">reader</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">onloadend</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">e</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">e</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">target</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">readyState</span> <span class="o">!==</span> <span class="nx">FileReader</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">DONE</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">throw</span> <span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">Something wen</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="nx">t</span> <span class="nx">wrong</span> <span class="nx">trying</span> <span class="nx">to</span> <span class="nx">serialize</span> <span class="nx">the</span> <span class="nx">audio</span> <span class="nx">recording</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">;
}
// e.target.result evaluates to a base-64 string representing the recording.
// It looks something like: data:audio/webm;codecs=opus;base64,GkXfo59ChoEBQveBA...
// Now, we can send it over the wire:
someSocket.send(e.target.result);
};
reader.readAsDataURL(recording);
});
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>The reason <code>e.target.result</code> is a base-64 string is that we call <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FileReader/readAsDataURL" rel="ugc"><code>readAsDataURL</code></a> on the <code>reader</code>. Other methods, such as <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FileReader/readAsText" rel="ugc"><code>readAsText</code></a>, return other data.</p>
<h2 id="receiving-audio">Receiving audio</h2>
<p>On the receiving end, you’ll be expecting a base-64 string representing the audio recording. If all you want to do is play the audio, you don’t need to convert it back to a blob. Just pass the base-64 string as an <code>audio</code> element’s <code>src</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">someSocket</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">on</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">receiveAudio</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nx">base64String</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">audio</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">document</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">createElement</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="s1">audio</span><span class="dl">'</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="nx">audio</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">controls</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="kc">true</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="nx">audio</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">src</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nx">base64String</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="nb">document</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">body</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">appendChild</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">audio</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">});</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Once the user hits the play button on the audio element, he’ll be able to hear the recording. If you don’t want to deal with audio elements, you can simply do:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">audio</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nx">Audio</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">base64String</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="nx">audio</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">play</span><span class="p">();</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Just note that, for the latter approach, browsers may not actually play the audio unless the user has interacted with the page.</p>
<p>That’s it!</p>
<p>PS: If, for whatever reason, you do need to turn the base-64 string back into blob, a common trick is to use <a href="https://javascript.info/fetch" rel="ugc"><code>fetch</code></a>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">response</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">await</span> <span class="nx">fetch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">base64String</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="nx">response</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">blob</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="c1">// => Blob {size: ..., type: '...'}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>PPS: You may have noticed that browsers display an icon to the user as you record. For example, at the time of writing, Chrome displays a red circle in the tab header. Note that simply stopping recording does not make this indicator go away. You need to close the audio track. As described <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/12436772/1371131" rel="ugc">here</a>, at the beginning of the <code>stop</code> handler, write:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">stream</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">getTracks</span><span class="p">().</span><span class="nx">forEach</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">t</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="nx">t</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nx">stop</span><span class="p">());</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Then the recording indicator should disappear.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/recording-sending-and-receiving-audio-using-ja
Recording, Sending, and Receiving Audio Using JavaScript
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="brain-half-nonsense">Brain-Half Nonsense</h1>
<p>This meme has been appearing frequently in my Twitter feed lately (origin unknown):</p>
<p><img src="/assets/FOQGr93XIAInKCu.jpeg" alt="Meme about being left or right-brained" class="d-block mr-auto ml-auto my-4"></p>
<p>I don’t know about you, but I see a horse’s head with bunny ears. And when I focus on the horse’s snout and try to see a face in it, the whole shape becomes a seal on its stomach with its tail in the air.</p>
<p>But I don’t see a fish or a mermaid. Does that make me other-brained?</p>
<p>If I could switch between seeing a fish and a mermaid instead of a horse and a seal, would that mean I’m switching between being ‘right-brained’ and being ‘left-brained’?</p>
<p>If a computer with pattern-recognition software identified a fish in the picture, what would that make the computer? It doesn’t even have a brain.</p>
<p>Surely the meme didn’t originate with neuroscientists, and I have no doubt some will see it as a joke, but the meme rests on a cultural background which focuses, as usual, too much on hardware and casts people as mindless automata.</p>
<p>Why explain the phenomenon of different people seeing different things in this picture in terms of brain halves when it is much better explained in terms of different ideas and preferences? When children learn to identify and interpret what they see around them – <a href="/posts/recovering-from-blindness" rel="ugc">this ability isn’t inborn</a> – they come up with different ideas about how to do just that. Countless iterations of error correction will make their shape-recognition algorithms converge to a high degree, but, particularly for ambiguous shapes, people will creatively find different answers.</p>
<p><em>That’s</em> why people see different shapes in the picture above. Not because of their brains!</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/brain-half-nonsense
Brain-Half Nonsense
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="images-and-privacy-for-the-web">Images and Privacy for the Web</h1>
<p><em>I’m not a security expert. Don’t rely on this article to make informed security decisions for your tech.</em></p>
<p>A common security feature for emails is the disabling of images. Why? Because trackers can embed hidden images in an email to determine whether you’ve opened it. For example, an email could contain this HTML:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight html"><code><span class="nt"><img</span> <span class="na">src=</span><span class="s">"http://some-tracker.com/email-opened?id=123"</span> <span class="na">style=</span><span class="s">"display: none;"</span><span class="nt">></span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>If your email client is configured to display images, your browser will send a GET request to <code>http://some-tracker.com/email-opened?id=123</code>, letting the server at some-tracker.com know that you’ve opened an email with id <code>123</code>. And along with that request comes your IP address, which may divulge your location, and other information about your browser which can be used for <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/block-fingerprinting/" rel="ugc">fingerprinting</a>. Since the <code>img</code> tag is set not to display, you will never even know.</p>
<p>That’s why it’s a good idea to configure your email client not to render images from the internet at all. That way, it will only render images that are <em>attached</em> to the email, in which case no requests need to be made and no information about you is divulged.</p>
<p>If that’s a good idea for emails, why not disable images when you browse the web generally? Chrome has such a setting under Settings → Site Settings → Images → Don’t allow sites to show images, but that seems a bit overkill. It’s one thing to block images in emails, which are very limited in scope and make up only a small part of your browsing experience, but to block images altogether when browsing the web will make for a rather boring (and sometimes dysfunctional) experience.</p>
<p>What I’d like to see is the ability to block images from websites <em>other than the one you’re currently visiting</em>. Say you visit website A, which instructs your browser to load an image from website B. It seems reasonable to assume that by visiting A on purpose, you made a conscious choice about divulging some of your data to A. But you may have never known about website B, not to mention that B might not render legitimate images but function as a tracker. Just like in the email example above. (I don’t think <em>all</em> trackers are bad – websites have a legitimate analytics need and they should use legitimate, privacy-conscious trackers. That includes <a href="https://plausible.io/" rel="ugc">Plausible</a>, which I use, and excludes Google Analytics, which you shouldn’t use.)</p>
<p>Browsers give <em>servers</em> a fair amount of control over which images to render. For one, there’s <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS" rel="ugc">CORS</a>, which, among other things, allows the owner of a site to prevent other sites from loading its images. Assuming the browser respects site B’s CORS settings, images from site B simply won’t load on site A. If you’re wondering why the owner of site A doesn’t just choose not to embed any images from site B, the images may have been included in user-generated content. And again, in this example, it’s on <em>site B</em> to have the requisite CORS settings, not A. (If I’m not mistaken, browsers will prevent cross-origin loading of images by default, unless the target origin specifically allows it.)</p>
<p>Second, there’s the <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Security-Policy" rel="ugc">content-security-policy response header</a>, which gives a site owner fine-grained control over which sites images can be loaded from. For example, the following response header will instruct the browser to load images only from the same site:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>Content-Security-Policy: img-src 'self'
</code></pre></div>
<p>That way, whenever an image’s <code>src</code> attribute points to another site, your browser will refuse to load the image. It will display an error in the console instead. You could also choose to include <code>data:</code> so that, say, base64-encoded images can render, or <code>https:</code> so that images can be loaded from websites that use SSL but not from those that do not. (Think of the nightmare of thousands upon thousands of images being loaded as you browse the web over time while anyone on the same network can view them.) For these extra settings, adjust your header to the following:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>Content-Security-Policy: img-src 'self' data: https:
</code></pre></div>
<p>So, while CORS allows site B to prevent site A from loading B’s images, a content security policy allows site A to prevent the loading of images from site B. In other words, CORS is for <em>incoming</em> requests to the server; content security policies are for <em>outgoing</em> requests from the client.</p>
<p>However, both of these mechanisms are available only to site owners. As a user surfing the web, you have little control over where images are loaded from. You can either render all images or none. And you shouldn’t have to rely on webmasters’ technical ability and trustworthiness to protect your privacy. That’s why, again, I look forward to a browser setting allowing you to render same-origin images while blocking cross-origin ones. At the time of writing, all I could find was a Chrome extension that lets you block images based on their size, but that’s a different issue. There exist open-source tracker blockers such as <a href="https://ublockorigin.com/" rel="ugc">uBlock Origin</a>, but that one doesn’t block cross-origin images either, at least not all of them (I’ve tested it). That means some trackers must fall through the cracks. If you use any such blockers, make sure they’re open source and have good reviews. And continue using them even after the technology to block cross-origin images exists.</p>
<p>Until then, if you operate a site, for the sake of your visitors’ privacy, consider loading all resources, including images, scripts, and fonts, from your own server. Use a strict content security policy – even if you don’t have user-generated content, it will prevent you from accidentally loading remote content in your code. An added benefit of a strict policy is increased security: cross-site scripting (<a href="https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/xss/" rel="ugc">XSS</a>) becomes a lot harder to pull off, as does cross-site request forgery (<a href="https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/csrf" rel="ugc">CSRF</a>). However, content security policies cannot be relied upon as older browsers do not support them. If you absolutely do need to load cross-origin images, do so on the server and then pass them on to the client for rendering. That seems like an idea for a SaaS business catering to privacy-conscious webmasters, if it doesn’t already exist.</p>
<p>For full disclosure, here’s the content security policy I use at the time of writing:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>default-src 'self';
font-src 'self';
img-src 'self' https://dh-podcasts.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com;
object-src 'none';
script-src 'self' '<dynamically generated nonce>';
style-src 'self' '<dynamically generated nonce>';
media-src 'self' https://dh-podcasts.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com;
connect-src 'self' https://plausible.io
</code></pre></div>
<p>This policy says, among other things, that I allow browsers to load images and other media from my specific Amazon AWS bucket and to connect to Plausible for analytics.</p>
<p>These values are put into a single line and sent to the client as <code>Content-Security-Policy</code> header. I use Rails’ <a href="https://guides.rubyonrails.org/security.html#content-security-policy" rel="ugc">powerful DSL</a> for generating content security policies.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/images-and-privacy-for-the-web
Images and Privacy for the Web
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="astrid-lindgrens-never-violence">Astrid Lindgren’s <em>Never Violence!</em></h1>
<p><em>Astrid Lindgren was a famous Swedish author of children’s books such as</em> Pippi Longstocking.</p>
<p><em>Here’s my unauthorized translation of an excerpt from <a href="https://efraimstochter.de/167-Astrid-Lindgren-Niemals-Gewalt-Friedenspreis-des-Deutschen-Buchhandels.htm" rel="ugc">her 1978 German acceptance speech</a> for a peace prize by an association of German book publishers.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>But to those who are now calling so loudly for harsher discipline and tighter reins, I would like to relate what an old lady once told me. She was a young mother at a time when people still believed in that biblical saying, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.”</p>
<p>In her heart of hearts, she probably didn’t believe it, but one day her little boy had done something for which she thought he deserved a beating, the first in his life. She ordered him to go into the yard by himself and look for a stick, which he was to bring to her. The little boy went and was gone for a long time. Finally, he came back crying and said, “I couldn’t find a stick, but here’s a rock for you to throw at me.”</p>
<p>But then the mother also began to cry, because suddenly she saw everything through the child’s eyes. The child must have thought, “My mother really wants to hurt me, and she can do that just as well with a rock.”</p>
<p>She hugged her little boy, and they cried together for a while. Then she placed the rock on a shelf in the kitchen, and there it remained as a permanent reminder of the promise she had made to herself in that hour: <strong>“NEVER VIOLENCE!”</strong></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/astrid-lindgren-s-never-violence
Astrid Lindgren’s Never Violence!
2023-03-04T23:57:58Z
2023-03-04T23:57:58Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="notable-quotes-about-authority">Notable Quotes about Authority</h1>
<p><em>That a quote appears on this page does not mean that I condone, or have read, the entire work from which it is quoted. I like these quotes in isolation. Many sources are given the way they appear in their linked secondary source. I didn’t check sources for accuracy or consistency. Thanks to Logan Chipkin for recommending Lysander Spooner.</em></p>
<blockquote><p>If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and I were asked to immolate myself for the sake of creatures who wanted to survive at the price of my blood, if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own - I would refuse. I would reject it as the most contemptible evil, I would fight it with every power I possess, I would fight the whole of mankind, if one minute were all I could last before I were murdered, I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being’s right to exist. Let there be no misunderstanding about me. If it is now the belief of my fellow men, who call themselves the public, that their good requires victims, then I say: The public good be damned, I will have no part of it!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>― <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/912951-if-it-were-true-that-men-could-achieve-their-good" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand, <em>Atlas Shrugged</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>[A]sk me to be deeply respectful to a tyrant and I’ll metaphorically spit in your face. If I did less I might be betraying the child who is suffering behind the tyrant’s sugar-coated self-justification, and certainly the readers out there who want to read the truth, for once, unalloyed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://curi.us/2284-the-taking-children-seriously-and-fallible-ideas-communities" rel="ugc">A TCS leader</a></p>
<blockquote><p>[O]ur principal objective in setting up institutions must not be to identify the right policies and ensure that they will take precedence over all rival policies; it must be to ensure that bad policies, once implemented, can be abandoned as easily as possible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://curi.us/tcs/Articles/DDIsTCSRevolutionary.html" rel="ugc">David Deutsch, ‘Is TCS Revolutionary?’</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Those who rest their hopes for the future on specious assumptions about the ability of benevolent rulers to choose rightly, usually assume that abandoning one’s faith in authority entails losing hope that things can work out, or improve, at all. That is one reason why fallibilism often seems frightening and disorienting when one first takes it seriously. But in fact, fallibilism is not a pessimistic posture when it is combined with (critical) rationalism. On the contrary, it is entirely compatible with the belief that all errors are correctable. It is just that they are not correctable once and for all (for the corrections themselves will contain errors, or lead us into new errors), and not all at once, for the only way of making progress is piecemeal criticism: correcting one apparent error at a time with a tentative improvement, backtracking when it seems not to be an improvement after all.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://curi.us/tcs/Articles/DDIsTCSRevolutionary.html" rel="ugc">David Deutsch, ‘Is TCS Revolutionary?’</a></p>
<blockquote><p>[N]on-coercive child rearing is by its nature difficult or impossible to implement piecemeal, for freedom is not conveniently divisible. Nor can it be implemented experimentally, for freedom granted conditionally is not freedom at all.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://curi.us/tcs/Articles/DDIsTCSRevolutionary.html" rel="ugc">David Deutsch, ‘Is TCS Revolutionary?’</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The most important thing is to distrust all those great prophets who have a silver bullet in their pocket and tell you, ‘If you just give me full power, I will take you to heaven.’ The answer to that is, ‘We don’t give anyone full power over us. We want power to be kept to a minimum.’ Power is itself wrong, and two wrongs do not make a right.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Karl Popper, translated freely from <a href="https://open-thource.com/karl-popper-ein-gespraech-1974" rel="ugc">https://open-thource.com/karl-popper-ein-gespraech-1974</a>. (Arguably, the quote is better in the German original, as the word Popper uses for ‘power’ is the same word as ‘violence’, which underscores how power and violence are often the same.)</p>
<blockquote><p>It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it. […] Democracy and freedom do not guarantee the millennium. No, we do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://quotepark.com/authors/karl-popper/quotes-about-freedom/" rel="ugc">Karl Popper</a></p>
<blockquote><p>People should not fear their government. Government should fear their people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://trixiesue.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/v-for-vendetta-society-and-individuals/" rel="ugc"><em>V for Vendetta</em> (2006 movie adaptation)</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Since mankind’s dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We’ve seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/392838-v-for-vendetta" rel="ugc">Alan Moore, <em>V for Vendetta</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>[I]t’s no good blaming the drop in work standards upon bad management, either… Though, to be sure, the management is <em>very</em> bad. In fact, let us not mince words… The management is <em>terrible!</em> [<em>Shows pictures of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini.</em>] We’ve had a string of embezzlers, frauds, liars and lunatics making a string of catastrophic decisions. This is plain fact. But who <em>elected</em> them? It was <em>you! You</em> who appointed these people! <em>You</em> who gave them the power to make your decisions for you! While I’ll admit that anyone can make a mistake once, to go on making the same lethal errors century after century seems to me nothing short of deliberate. You have <em>encouraged</em> these malicious incompetents, who have made your working life a shambles. You have accepted without question their senseless orders. You have allowed them to fill your workspace with dangerous and unproven machines. You could have <em>stopped</em> them. All you had to say was <em>“no.”</em> You have no spine. You have no pride.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Alan Moore, <em>V for Vendetta</em></p>
<blockquote><p>Love your rage, not your cage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/392838-v-for-vendetta" rel="ugc">Alan Moore, <em>V for Vendetta</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>They offered you a choice between the death of your principles and the death of your body. You said you’d rather die. You faced the fear of your own death, and you were calm and still.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/392838-v-for-vendetta?page=2" rel="ugc">Alan Moore, <em>V for Vendetta</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/5625-William_Godwin" rel="ugc">William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness: By William Godwin”, p.337</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/5625-William_Godwin" rel="ugc">William Godwin</a></p>
<blockquote><p>As long as parents and teachers in general shall fall under the established rule, it is clear that politics and modes of government will educate and infect us all. They poison our minds, before we can resist, or so much as suspect their malignity. Like the barbarous directors of the Eastern seraglios, they deprive us of our vitality, and fit us for their despicable employment from the cradle.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/5625-William_Godwin" rel="ugc">William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.49</a></p>
<blockquote><p>It is absurd to expect the inclinations and wishes of two human beings to coincide, through any long period of time. To oblige them to act and live together is to subject them to some inevitable potion of thwarting, bickering, and unhappiness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/5625-William_Godwin" rel="ugc">William Godwin</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Experience [has shown] that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/7392-Thomas_Jefferson/tag/tyranny" rel="ugc">Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.235, Cambridge University Press</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/7392-Thomas_Jefferson/tag/tyranny" rel="ugc">Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787”, p.263, Cosimo, Inc.</a></p>
<blockquote><p>When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.azquotes.com/author/7392-Thomas_Jefferson/tag/tyranny" rel="ugc">Thomas Jefferson</a></p>
<blockquote><p>This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering… And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.selfgovernment.us/news/public-debt-the-fore-horse-of-a-frightful-team" rel="ugc">Thomas Jefferson</a></p>
<blockquote><p>[A]ll Men [have] certain unalienable Rights, […] among [which] are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/resources/text" rel="ugc">Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>― <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/authoritarianism" rel="ugc">James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison</a></p>
<blockquote><p>A man chooses…a slave obeys.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/bioshock" rel="ugc">Andrew Ryan, <em>BioShock</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? “No,” says the man in Washington, “it belongs to the poor.” “No,” says the man in the Vatican, “it belongs to God.” “No,” says the man in Moscow, “it belongs to everyone.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://nationalinterest.in/no-gods-no-kings-only-man-c403fc9a1dec" rel="ugc">Andrew Ryan, <em>BioShock</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>Amazing what a man can create once he gets government and God off his back.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://kidadl.com/articles/best-bioshock-quotes-that-all-gamers-will-love" rel="ugc">Bill McDonagh, <em>BioShock</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>Taxation is theft, purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State’s inhabitants, or subjects.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard</a></p>
<blockquote><p>It is easy to be conspicuously ‘compassionate’ if others are being forced to pay the cost.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard</a></p>
<blockquote><p>It is curious that people tend to regard government as a quasi-divine, selfless, Santa Claus organization. Government was constructed neither for ability nor for the exercise of loving care; government was built for the use of force and for necessarily demagogic appeals for votes. If individuals do not know their own interests in many cases, they are free to turn to private experts for guidance. It is absurd to say that they will be served better by a coercive, demagogic apparatus.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard, <em>Power and Market: Government and the Economy</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>Whenever someone starts talking about ‘fair competition’ or indeed, about ‘fairness’ in general, it is time to keep a sharp eye on your wallet, for it is about to be picked.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard</a></p>
<blockquote><p>We may test the hypothesis that the State is largely interested in protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking: which category of crimes does the State pursue and punish most intensely—those against private citizens or those against itself?</p>
<p>The gravest crimes in the State’s lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of private person or property, but dangers to its own contentment, for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy, assassination of rulers and such economic crimes against the State as counterfeiting its money or evasion of its income tax.</p>
<p>Or compare the degree of zeal devoted to pursuing the man who assaults a policeman, with the attention that the State pays to the assault of an ordinary citizen. Yet, curiously, the State’s openly assigned priority to its own defense against the public strikes few people as inconsistent with its presumed raison d’etre.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard, <em>Anatomy of the State</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>And, indeed, what is the State anyway but organized banditry? What is taxation but theft on a gigantic, unchecked, scale? What is war but mass murder on a scale impossible by private police forces? What is conscription but mass enslavement? Can anyone envision a private police force getting away with a tiny fraction of what States get away with, and do habitually, year after year, century after century?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard, <em>For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism. Not only are they compatible, but you can’t really have one without the other. True anarchism will be capitalism, and true capitalism will be anarchism</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Once one concedes that a single world government is not necessary, then where does one logically stop at the permissibility of separate states? If Canada and the United States can be separate nations without being denounced as in a state of impermissible ‘anarchy’, why may not the South secede from the United States? New York State from the Union? New York City from the state? Why may not Manhattan secede? Each neighbourhood? Each block? Each house? Each person?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard</a></p>
<blockquote><p>While liberals are in favor of any sexual activity engaged in by two consenting adults, when these consenting adults engage in trade or exchange, the liberals step in to harass, cripple, restrict, or prohibit that trade. And yet both the consenting sexual activity and the trade are similar expressions of liberty in action.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard?page=2" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Libertarians make no exceptions to the golden rule and provide no moral loophole, no double standard, for government. That is, libertarians believe that murder is murder and does not become sanctified by reasons of state if committed by the government. We believe that theft is theft and does not become legitimated because organized robbers call their theft “taxation”. We believe that enslavement is enslavement even if the institution committing that act calls it “conscription.” In short, the key to libertarian theory is that it makes no exceptions in its universal ethic for government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/46810.Murray_N_Rothbard?page=2" rel="ugc">Murray Rothbard</a></p>
<blockquote><p>A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner</a></p>
<blockquote><p>If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner</a></p>
<blockquote><p>A man’s natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime; whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, or by millions calling themselves a government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner, <em>No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life…The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the road side and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful. The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber…Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful ‘sovereign,’ on account of the ‘protection’ he affords you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner</a></p>
<blockquote><p>If any man’s money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken with it; for with his money the government can, and will, hire soldiers to stand over him, compel him to submit to its arbitrary will, and kill him if he resists.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner</a></p>
<blockquote><p>No man can rightfully be required to join, or support, an association whose protection he does not desire.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this–that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner</a></p>
<blockquote><p>No middle ground is possible on this subject. Either “taxation without consent is robbery,” or it is not. If it is not, then any number of men, who choose, may at any time associate; call themselves a government; assume absolute authority over all weaker than themselves; plunder them at will; and kill them if they resist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner, <em>No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>To say that majorities, as such, have a right to rule minorities, is equivalent to saying that minorities have, and ought to have, no rights, except such as majorities please to allow them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner, <em>No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p>So these villains, who call themselves governments, well understand that their power rests primarily upon money. With money they can hire soldiers, and with soldiers extort money. And, when their authority is denied, the first use they always make of money, is to hire soldiers to kill or subdue all who refuse them more money.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/238917.Lysander_Spooner?page=1" rel="ugc">Lysander Spooner, <em>No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority</em></a></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/notable-quotes-about-authority
Notable Quotes about Authority
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="school-cant-be-about-learning">School Can’t Be about Learning</h1>
<p>Most people think schools exist to teach children a minimum of knowledge they’ll need in life. To make sure they’re able to function in society, get a job, and so on. To acquire, i.e., ‘learn’, some ‘sufficient’ amount of knowledge.</p>
<p>That can’t possibly be true. Here’s why. Imagine you’re at a middle or high school where learning Spanish is obligatory. But say your parents are Hispanic and you grew up speaking Spanish so you’re already fluent. If school were really about learning, the teachers would let you take a test to prove you already know Spanish. If you passed, they’d let you skip Spanish class forever.</p>
<p>But schools don’t let you take such a test; you have to take the class anyway. Therefore, school can’t possibly be about learning. Again, if it were, teachers would let you skip what you already know. They’d let you take a test at any time for any class. If you reached what they deem to be the minimum acceptable score to graduate high school, you would be free to skip the corresponding class until graduation. And if you reached a lower but still noteworthy score, they would still let you jump ahead some.</p>
<p>To be clear, I’m not advocating that children should be forced to buy their freedom through satisfactory test scores. Children shouldn’t be forced to do anything. I’m pointing out a flaw in the ‘logic’ of thinking school is about learning.</p>
<p>Like clockwork, proponents of compulsory schools will argue that it would be unfair to those ‘left behind’ if some got to skip classes they already know. But having to endure the mind-numbing boredom of hours upon hours of material you already know isn’t fair either. Equality isn’t fairness, nor is equal misery, nor is it one student’s obligation to make life fair for another.</p>
<p>So if school can’t possibly be about learning, <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">what is it really about?</a></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/school-can-t-be-about-learning
School Can’t Be about Learning
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="my-response-to-a-google-recruiter">My Response to a Google Recruiter</h1>
<p>A recruiter from Google recently contacted me about their open positions for software engineering. A major problem with many big tech companies is their support for destructive and immoral far-left ideas, policies, and movements. I’ve written previously about <a href="/posts/what-to-do-in-the-face-of-corporate-wokeism" rel="ugc">what to do in the face of corporate wokeism</a>, how some woke ideas about equity and representation are <a href="/posts/balinski-and-young-beyond-elections" rel="ugc">mathematically impossible to implement</a>, and how the woke movement has perverted the <a href="/posts/preserving-the-common-sense-definition-of-racism" rel="ugc">commonsense definition of racism</a>. Having worked at several tech companies, I have experienced first hand the great pressure on employees to espouse or at least quietly go along with such ideas. I want to encourage others who receive messages from recruiters at woke companies not to betray their integrity, even if it means turning down a potentially very comfy job in big tech. The demand for software engineers is huge and tech companies are struggling to hire enough of them, so this can make a difference.</p>
<p>Here’s my response to the recruiter. It was a female recruiter, by the way – somehow, most tech recruiters who reach out to me are female. With the gatekeepers of tech being women, sexism is clearly as rampant in this industry as it is said to be!</p>
<blockquote><p>Hi […],</p>
<p>Given all of Google’s <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220205073030/https://about.google/commitments/racialequity/" rel="ugc">commitments</a> to <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220113070659/https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/diversity/our-racial-equity-commitments-one-year-later/" rel="ugc">‘racial equity’</a>, I’m a bit surprised to learn that Google still hires white men.</p>
<p>All joking aside – maybe you don’t know, but ‘social justice’ is not what it seems to be. Though I’m sure there are some good intentions behind Google’s support for racial and social justice, Google should know that the ideas behind these movements are often revolutionary and anti-capitalist, threatening to take away some of our American liberties. The very concept of ‘equity’ is disgusting and deeply un-American.</p>
<p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220113070659/https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/diversity/our-racial-equity-commitments-one-year-later/" rel="ugc">This article</a> by Google says “2020 was [Google’s] largest year ever for hiring Black+ Googlers in the U.S. […].” God knows what “Black+” means, but your hiring decisions should be based solely on merit, not skin color.</p>
<p>I would have considered pursuing a role at Google but would have to violate my integrity to work for you. I cannot do that.</p>
<p>I plan to publish this email.</p>
<p>Dennis</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For posterity, I have archived the links from my email and updated them accordingly.</p>
<p>I have turned down other big tech companies for similar reasons, including Amazon. Such companies may reach out to me again once they have stopped spreading and supporting woke ideas, and ideally retracted their support for such ideas.</p>
<p>I encourage you to respond in a similar fashion when recruiters from woke companies reach out to you. You may use my email above and adjust it where necessary without credit.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/my-response-to-a-google-recruiter
My Response to a Google Recruiter
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="negative-weights">Negative Weights</h1>
<p>Why has nobody create negative gym weights? By that I mean weights which take away from the overall weight you’re lifting instead of adding to it.</p>
<p>Say you wish to squat 200 lbs. The barbell weighs 45 lbs so you need to distribute 200 - 45 = 155 lbs equally on both ends of the barbell, resulting in 77.5 lbs on each side.</p>
<p>In a traditional gym, that will take a 45 lbs plate, a 25 lbs plate, a 5 lbs plate, and a 2.5 lbs plate. That’s a total of four plates on each side. It would be easier if you could use a 45 lbs plate plus a 35 lbs plate, which add up to 80 lbs, and then <em>subtract</em> 2.5 lbs using a negative weight. That’s only three plates.</p>
<p>I suggest negative weights be made of a very light shell and filled with a gas that’s lighter than air (more on that below). A negative weight of 2.5 lbs would pull the barbell slightly upward, in the opposite direction of gravity, thereby resulting in a lift that’s 2.5 lbs lighter, saving you a plate.</p>
<p>Negative weights would also help you reduce the weight gradually without having to replace plates. Say you’re squatting at your maximum weight, one rep per set. You start with one rep at 200 lbs. For your next set, you want to do one rep at 180 lbs, which is 67.5 lbs each side of the barbell. That’s 45 + 10 + 10 + 2.5. You need to transition to that from having, on your barbell, 45 + 25 + 5 + 2.5. That means you need to take off 2.5 and replace both the 25 plate and the 5 plate with 10 each, only to put the 2.5 plate back on again. That’s a mess. It would be much easier if you could simply keep those weights and add -10 lbs on each side. Maybe you have the foresight to stack your plates in such a way that reducing the weight is easier – but some days you feel stronger than others, and you may have to reduce weights unexpectedly. And math is easier the less you need to do of it, especially when you’re out of breath.</p>
<p>In the same vein, negative weights would make transitioning to other, lighter-weight exercises easier. They could also help you with assisted exercises, such as assisted pull ups, where they could be mounted to your body somehow, pulling you up slightly. Conversely, when you’re working with gravity, negative weights could make your exercise more challenging.</p>
<p>I suppose a downside of negative weights is that when they’re not properly secured they end up floating around the gym ceiling. And you shouldn’t take them outside. But surely this problem is soluble.</p>
<p>Which gas to use? It appears helium wouldn’t work very well because <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/question185.htm" rel="ugc">you needs lots of it</a> to lift even very light weights. For example, you need the volume of 33 balloons to lift even one pound. But maybe that can be fixed somehow. Or maybe there’s another gas of which smaller amounts are required to lift objects. Or the weights could have little thrusters. Something. Somebody please create negative weights. (And then a universal dumbbell that you type the desired weight into and it magically weighs that much.)</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/negative-weights
Negative Weights
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="neues-buch-k-nnte-das-auch-anders-sein">Neues Buch: <em>Könnte das auch anders sein?</em></h1>
<div class="my-4 d-flex flex-row justify-content-center">
<img src="/assets/koennte-das-auch-anders-sein-deckbild-compressed.jpg" alt="Deckbild">
</div>
<p>Mein neues Buch <em>Könnte das auch anders sein?</em> <a href="https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09SJ3ZTF2" rel="ugc">ist jetzt erhältlich</a>. Es umfasst sechs Dialoge mit Co-Autorin Roswitha Kant, die von künstlicher Intelligenz, Nachhaltigkeit, Freiheit, der deutschen Coronapolitik und vielem mehr handeln.</p>
<hr>
<h2 id="vorwort">Vorwort</h2>
<p>Aus einem privaten Briefwechsel über Beobachtungen und Sichtweisen aus dem Rhein-Main-Gebiet und dem Silicon Valley entstand, was wir ein wenig großspurig <em>Transatlantische Korrespondenz</em> nannten. Indem wir Weltbilder, die von verschiedenen Lebenswelten und Generationen geprägt sind, einander gegenüberstellten, wollten wir klären, was uns wirklich wichtig ist. Es zeigte sich bald, dass wir vergleichbare Themen unterschiedlich akzentuieren: manchmal komplementär, oft aber auch schier unvereinbar.</p>
<p>Uns reizte, diesen Zusammenprall der Kulturen diskursiv auszuloten, um den eigenen Blickwinkel zu erweitern und einen Beitrag zu dem zu leisten, was momentan Mangelware zu sein scheint: einem motivierenden Entwurf von Zukunft und im Sinne Immanuel Kants dem <em>öffentlichen Gebrauch der Vernunft</em>.</p>
<p>Während nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg die Zukunft in allen Lebensbereichen in leuchtenden Bildern sichtbar war und die Menschen beflügelte – von der Raumfahrt über Automobile bis zur vollautomatischen Küche, von Fernreisen bis zu schicker Mode für jedermann –, scheint es, als sei zumindest die Melodie zu diesem mitreißenden Film verstummt. Drehen wir uns nur noch um Mittel und Wege zu noch mehr Wohlstand?</p>
<p>Diese Situation spiegelt sich im kulturellen Diskurs auf beiden Seiten des Atlantiks. Wir unterhalten uns deswegen über das, was aktuell auf dem Spiel steht: die Freiheit, einen Kapitalismus mit menschlichem Antlitz, die Rolle des Staates in Zeiten von Corona, Gerechtigkeit mit Blick auf die Bewegung Black Lives Matter und die globalen ökologischen Herausforderungen sowie künstliche Intelligenz (KI) und den mysteriösen Ursprung des Lebens. Diesbezüglich befassen wir uns mit den erkenntnistheoretischen – oder wie wir es nennen: wissensphilosophischen – Hintergründen, wie sie sich im Lichte der Denkansätze von Immanuel Kant, Karl Popper und David Deutsch darstellen.</p>
<p>Neben den Inhalten geht es uns auch um die Form, vor allem um die Wiederbelebung einer Streitkultur, die den Namen auch verdient. Indem wir aus unseren unterschiedlichen Lebenswelten heraus antagonistische Weltbilder darstellen und wechselseitig tolerieren, schaffen wir im Dialog ein Gegenmodell zu einer in der Öffentlichkeit immer weiter um sich greifenden sogenannten Cancel Culture. Dieses Verhalten der strikten Ausgrenzung verweist jeden Andersdenkenden vom Platz und stellt selbst kritisches Nachfragen unter Generalverdacht, was auf lange Sicht zu feindseliger Polarisierung und anstelle eines gedeihlichen Miteinanders zu einem vergifteten Gegeneinander führt, wie es im US-amerikanischen Präsidentschaftswahlkampf von 2020 zu beobachten war. Demgegenüber geben wir uns wechselseitig Raum, unsere beiden fundamental unterschiedlichen Positionen zu entfalten und allein dadurch unseren Horizont der Wahrnehmung zu erweitern. Indem wir gegenläufige Thesen sichtbar machen, skizzieren wir das Problemfeld neu und eröffnen die Chance differenzierterer Lösungen. Allerdings verzichten wir bewusst auf eine detailliertere Bewertung beider Sichtweisen. Unsere Leser laden wir ein, sich mit uns zu fragen: Wer sind wir und welches Leben wollen wir führen? Wir verfolgen die Intention, uns globale Linien ins Bewusstsein zu heben, sie zu reflektieren und insbesondere an Widersprüchen weiterzudenken. – In diesem Sinne wollen wir mit Ihnen philosophieren…</p>
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https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/neues-buch-konnte-das-auch-anders-sein
Neues Buch: Könnte das auch anders sein?
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="what-s-an-explanation">What’s an Explanation?</h1>
<p>In his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (BoI), physicist David Deutsch says explanations are “[s]tatement[s] about what is there, what it does, and how and why” (chapter 1 glossary). Elsewhere in the same chapter, he says explanations are “assertions about what is out there and how it behaves”. He also writes that “creating [explanatory] knowledge means understanding better what is really there, and how it really behaves and why […]”. While these quotes provide a good defense of realism, I believe they are insufficient when it comes to explaining what explanations are.</p>
<p>First of all, we can explain things that aren’t “out there”. For example, we can explain fiction, which doesn’t exist “out there” by definition. When you <a href="/posts/why-doesn-t-angier-use-the-machine-only-once" rel="ugc">explain the plot</a> of a show to someone, that usually involves more than what you saw on screen.</p>
<p>At first I thought maybe Deutsch’s explanation of explanations could be limited to science: as something about the <em>physical</em> world only. After all, anything to be explained about the physical world really exists “out there” somewhere – or so I thought. For example, you can explain how solar systems work. But then I realized that this approach isn’t satisfactory either: sometimes our explanations, even those of the physical world, involve things that don’t exist but <em>could</em>, or that don’t happen but could: counterfactuals. I’m no expert on Deutsch’s <a href="https://www.constructortheory.org/" rel="ugc">Constructor Theory</a> but I believe counterfactuals play an important role in it, and it is a theory of physics.</p>
<p>In addition, consider what happens to an explanation once we learn it is <em>false</em>. We do not suddenly stop considering it an explanation. For example, Einstein’s theory of general relativity superseded Newton’s theory of gravity and negated Newton’s force of gravity. But Newton’s theory didn’t suddenly stop being an explanation even though it couldn’t possibly be about something “out there” anymore since what it proposed existed “out there” – a force of gravity – does not, to the best of our knowledge, exist. His theory is a false explanation, but an explanation nonetheless. As fallibilists, we expect even our best theories to be false, but we still consider them explanations.</p>
<p>Consider the conflict between quantum theory and general relativity: from what I understand, we know that at least one of them must be false because they conflict. Maybe both are false, but let’s say it’s only one of them. Then it does not, in fact, describe what’s “out there”. At best it’s only partly right about that. But that doesn’t stop us from considering <em>both</em> theories explanations – <em>excellent</em> explanations, I’m told – and we don’t hold their status as explanations as something tentative or uncertain, to be changed when we change our minds about their truth status, which we <em>do</em> hold tentatively. But it seems that if we are to take Deutsch’s concept of explanation seriously, we need to consider at least one of these two theories to not be an explanation at all – but which one?</p>
<p>Then there’s innovation. Any explanation that allows you to do or create something new <em>can’t possibly</em> be about something “out there” and how it behaves: that thing doesn’t exist yet. Our very ability to create depends on this fact. The inventor of the airplane first understood (i.e., explained to himself) how it <em>would</em> work, and <em>then</em> built it. Deutsch writes (BoI chapter 1): “For millennia people dreamed about flying, but they experienced only falling. Then they discovered good explanatory theories about flying, and then they flew – in that order.” Initially, there were no airplanes, and to build them, people first had to explain how they <em>would</em> work. Airplanes exist today because that explanation came first. It <em>had</em> to come first.</p>
<p>There are also historical explanations. They concern things that happened in the past but do not necessarily happen anymore. For example, you can explain the causes of World War 1 and its course – and just like explaining the plot of a show, this usually involves more than just a list of what happened. It involves decisions of key actors, why they made those decisions, previous events and their influence on the war, and so on. But that war is over now. It doesn’t exist “out there” anymore.</p>
<p>Analyzing Deutsch’s quotes in the first paragraph above, to be an explanation, a statement must answer the following questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>What is “out there”?</li>
<li>What does it do?</li>
<li>How does it do that?</li>
<li>Why does it do that?</li>
</ul>
<p>These are Deutsch’s requirements. Now, consider the following modification of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot" rel="ugc">Bertrand Russell’s teapot</a>. (He proposed his teapot for different epistemological reasons, none of which interest me here.) Let’s say there’s a teapot orbiting the sun in a roughly elliptical orbit because of gravity. This checks all of Deutsch’s boxes. What is “out there”? A teapot. What does it do? It orbits the sun. How? In a roughly elliptical orbit. Why? Because of gravity. We have checked all the boxes, but is this statement really an explanation? To be sure, it <em>contains</em> an explanation – gravity as the cause of the teapot’s orbit – but that’s only part of the entire statement. The statement as a whole is not an explanation. Why not? <em>Because it doesn’t solve a problem.</em></p>
<p><strong>An explanation is a statement about how to solve a problem</strong>. Sometimes such a statement is about what is really “out there”; sometimes it involves counterfactuals, fiction, or creations. This explanation of explanations covers all the use cases I mentioned above, and it itself solves the problem of answering what an explanation is.</p>
<p>Also consider this quote from Karl Popper’s <em>Conjectures and Refutations</em>, chapter 1:</p>
<blockquote><p>The problem of <em>explanation</em> itself. It has often been said that scientific explanation is reduction of the unknown to the known. If pure science is meant, nothing could be further from the truth. It can be said without paradox that scientific explanation is, on the contrary, the reduction of the known to the unknown. In pure science, as opposed to an applied science which takes pure science as ‘given’ or ‘known’, explanation is always the logical reduction of hypotheses to others which are of a higher level of universality; of ‘known’ facts and ‘known’ theories to assumptions of which we know very little as yet, and which have still to be tested. The analysis of degrees of explanatory power, and of the relationship between genuine and sham explanation and between explanation and prediction, are examples of problems which are of great interest in this context.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On a more technical level, I believe explanations are functions in the sense of the lambda calculus. I say more about that <a href="https://www.windowonintelligence.com/" rel="ugc">in my book</a>. Once you view explanations in this way, it becomes easier to make them explicit and analyze their structure. It also becomes really easy to distinguish “between genuine and sham explanation and between explanation and prediction”. Programmers do so routinely without being aware of this equivalence. On the flip side, it’s more difficult to understand the structure of explanations without knowing how to code.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Aaron Stupple for reading a draft of this post.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-s-an-explanation
What’s an Explanation?
2022-11-21T00:16:11Z
2022-11-21T00:16:11Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="give-a-man-a-mirror">Give a Man a Mirror…</h1>
<p>I created a controversial poll in an online group of what is often said to be Germany’s top 1% of academics. The poll was designed to show the maximum of violence, if any, they would want the government to employ against peaceful people who don’t wish to get the covid vaccine. This is a specific application of Logan Chipkin’s thought experiment asking how much violence one is willing to employ against peaceful dissenters. The majority (137 out of 217, that’s 63%) spoke in favor of violence, sometimes extreme violence such as murder or forcible injections. Only 37% spoke out against it, instead favoring voluntary vaccines. I was one of these 37%. (If you think you don’t support violence, I can almost guarantee you that you’re wrong.)</p>
<p>While disgusting, these results were not that surprising: most people love violence and deny that society is possible without it, despite all their explicit talk of peace and love. If you doubt that, try arguing for freedom from taxes, say, or try arguing that children shouldn’t be forced to go to school, and you’ll have an avalanche of hatred wash over you in no time. People are generally more pessimistic than they should be. Many don’t even realize that persuasion is a peaceful alternative to violence. Academics in particular should be expected to favor violence out of collectivist/altruistic motivations <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">because they thrived in the violent environment that is school</a>. I suspect participants in the poll would have been even more open about their support for violence if the poll had been anonymous. And they didn’t find the results surprising themselves: they nodded their heads so vigorously in agreement with each other one had to worry they might come off.</p>
<p>But here’s what <em>did</em> surprise me: <em>the participants were mad at <strong>me</strong> for shining a light on their lust for violence against dissenters.</em> One of them tried to have my post taken down. Most tried to <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/argument_from_intimidation.html" rel="ugc">intimidate</a> me into agreement, lied about me, or insulted me. Out of 161 comments, most were full of vitriol. Nobody lamented how awful it was that the <em>results favored violence</em>.</p>
<p>Give a man a mirror, and if he doesn’t like what he sees, he’ll blame <em>you</em>.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/give-a-man-a-mirror
Give a Man a Mirror…
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="sleep-hangups">Sleep Hangups</h1>
<p>Children may wish to stay up longer than they’re allowed to. And they’re usually forced to get up earlier than they want to. That lasts for many years due to school. During the day they can’t take naps either because they’re in school and they’re not allowed to.</p>
<p>So what children learn to do over time is to neglect their sleep preferences. (This is a special case of the <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">general purpose of schools</a> of getting children to neglect their own preferences in favor of others’.) That messes with their sleep. It surely leads to health issues too since sleep is so important. And when you don’t get enough sleep you have a hard time thinking and being critical during the day. Which is maybe the point.</p>
<p>School and bedtimes are torture on these points alone.</p>
<p>Bedtimes were enforced pretty strictly when I was growing up. In response, I drew out before-bed routines like brushing my teeth. To this day I try to go to bed much later than when tiredness sets in. I find reasons not to go to bed yet even though I’m tired: I’ll check my emails, social media, start writing a blog post, etc. I still draw out routines like showering before bed. I’ve had trouble correcting that hangup.</p>
<p>One of the ‘reasonings’ behind bedtimes is that children have to get up early for school and shouldn’t be tired in the morning. A major problem there is that children are forced to get up early to begin with. But even if they wished to get up early – for example, if they wanted to catch the sunrise – children should to be free to make the mistake of staying up late and not getting enough sleep as a result.</p>
<p>We learn from our mistakes. I wasn’t free to make the mistake of staying up late, so I wasn’t free to learn from it. Therefore, as an adult, I still don’t know how to go to bed when I’m tired.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/sleep-hangups
Sleep Hangups
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="chat-with-amaro-and-sashin-about-animal-sentience">Chat with Amaro and Sashin about Animal Sentience</h1>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:44:27 PM]:<br>
Check this out:<br>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/bQyUYDe.mp4" rel="ugc">cat navigating maze</a><br>
from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CWTZjFApz-w/" rel="ugc">https://www.instagram.com/p/CWTZjFApz-w/</a></p>
<p>Most would consider this video evidence that cats are conscious, would you agree? If so, why?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:45:35 PM]:<br>
No, don’t agree. I can imagine a robot figuring this stuff out</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:46:17 PM (Nov 15, 2021 at 3:46:30 PM)]:<br>
Not ‘would you agree that the cat is conscious’ but ‘would you agree that most would consider the video evidence that cats are conscious’</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:46:25 PM]:<br>
Ahhhh<br>
lol<br>
sure</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:46:36 PM]:<br>
Why?</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:46:49 PM]:<br>
most people could look at a cat lick it’s own ass and think that that is a sign of sentience<br>
I don’t know, people think stupid shit all the time xD<br>
Seriously though<br>
Like… a dog excitedly wagging it’s tail when the owner comes home is enough evidence for people to conclude that the dog is sentient</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:48:07 PM]:<br>
My guess is: <em>flexible behavior</em>, like Walter Veit said on Do Explain.<br>
The cat frequently stops, ‘reconsiders’, chooses a different path.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:48:27 PM]:<br>
Ah,I see what you are saying</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:48:41 PM]:<br>
But then people would need to explain how that’s different from this machine:<br>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/POVvrUK.mp4" rel="ugc">balancing machine</a><br>
source <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CWUFvNcF6Pq/" rel="ugc">https://www.instagram.com/p/CWUFvNcF6Pq/</a></p>
<p>Which constantly recalibrates to balance the ball.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:49:00 PM]:<br>
right<br>
cool machine btw.<br>
To me, the hardest one to argue against when it comes to denying consciousness to animals is Coco the gorilla with it’s sign language<br>
I don’t think that Coco was conscious, but I do understand how one might think that</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:50:23 PM]:<br>
Yea<br>
She’s a bit trickier</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:51:29 PM]:<br>
But yeah, I think this is all explainable with reward/punishment functions in the genome<br>
those can have a shit ton of reach<br>
just not infinite<br>
I do wonder sometimes though<br>
Let’s say you program the first AGI<br>
How would you actually know that you succeeded</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:52:49 PM]:<br>
You would know that you would succeed from a good explanation even before writing it.<br>
(Though the attempt could then ‘prove’ you wrong.)</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:53:16 PM]:<br>
Right</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:53:28 PM]:<br>
Amaro Koberle wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>just not infinite</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It can have infinite reach within a paritcular domain</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:55:26 PM (Nov 15, 2021 at 3:56:01 PM)]:<br>
I wonder though. This might play out very strangely.<br>
I mean… if the AGI starts inventing never before seen technology within the first hour of runtime, sure… you’ll know that your theory is right. However, I imagine that it is at least just as likely that the first AGI would be as obviously creative as a vegetable for a number of years before it starts showing any explanatory powers. I hope it won’t be like that, but I can imagine that it could be.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:55:26 PM (Nov 15, 2021 at 3:56:01 PM)]:<br>
Dennis Hackethal wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>It can have infinite reach within a paritcular domain</p>
</blockquote>
<p>right</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:56:50 PM]:<br>
Maybe but then why are kids highly creative starting right after birth (maybe even before)</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:58:01 PM]:<br>
Are they? To me a kid is as obviously creative as a cat until it’s half a year old or so</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 3:59:46 PM]:<br>
You can teach babies basic sign language, I think.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:00:04 PM]:<br>
lol<br>
Coco too</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:00:30 PM]:<br>
Yea but not through reinforcement but creatively</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:00:44 PM]:<br>
Interesting…</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:00:45 PM]:<br>
Babies also learn how to perceive their environment (<a href="/posts/recovering-from-blindness" rel="ugc">that’s not inborn</a>), how to interpret sense data more generally, how to use their bodies</p>
<p>Depth perception for example, making sense of shapes and different sizes at different distances, none of that seems to be inborn.</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:01:17 PM]:<br>
Oh yes I remember that section from your book, I thought it was fascinating</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:02:13 PM]:<br>
So my guess is babies are explosively creative<br>
until it’s tortured out of them</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:04:51 PM]:<br>
Oh yeah, I guess so as well, don’t get me wrong. I think schooling and coercive parenting is just about the biggest tragedy of modernity. I’m just saying that I find it quite hard to tell at the start.<br>
However, as you point out, I think this mustn’t be a huge issue. My guess is that whoever executes the first AGI will already have had an Eureka moment beforehand that will have made it clear to that person what exactly the missing puzzle piece was when it comes to creating creativity.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:07:08 PM]:<br>
Yes, well before writing the program, let alone running it</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:08:17 PM]:<br>
I’ll buy you a beer if you figure it out!<br>
Go Dennis go!</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:13:13 PM]:<br>
One day 😃</p>
<p><strong>Amaro Koberle</strong>, [Nov 15, 2021 at 4:13:35 PM]:<br>
🎉🎉</p>
<p><strong>Sashin</strong> [Nov 16, 2021 at 12:02 PM]:</p>
<audio src="/assets/2021-11-30%2014.25.46%20sashin.mp3" controls="true" class="mb-3"></audio>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 16, 2021 at 12:06:34 PM]:<br>
For clarification, I don’t use the term ‘smarts’ for “everything animals do”.<br>
Also I wouldn’t worry about brain activity.<br>
Are you aware that sleepwalkers sometimes prep food, drive cars, etc?</p>
<p><strong>Sashin</strong>, [Nov 16, 2021 at 12:22:39 PM]:<br>
Yeah, out of pure coincide recently I listened to a conversation between Sam Harris and Matthew Walker on the how and why behind sleep - it’s really fascinating!<br>
Apparently during REM sleep, when we are dreaming, our bodies are paralysed - but there’s a condition that can happen especially in men in middle age where the function of the paralysis breaks down which causes them to do all sorts of things during sleep<br>
(that might just be one of many causes of sleepwalking/sleep-doing though )</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 16, 2021 at 1:27:02 PM]:<br>
Yea, so for the same reason I wouldn’t even consider a person’s ability to drive evidence of their being conscious.<br>
Their ability to conceive of and create cars: more so.</p>
<p><strong>Sashin</strong>, [Nov 16, 2021 at 1:40:53 PM]:<br>
Yeah, this makes sense to me!<br>
Okay, how about this: Would their ability to <em>learn</em> how to drive a car be evidence for consciousness in your mind? To at time X not be able to drive at all, but after some period of learning be able to do so competently (would this constitute as knowledge creation?)<br>
In the example of the cat, is the problem that it could be explained by the cat simply implementing existing knowledge. That if it were creative, it could create knowledge of how to solve such puzzles and they could become increasingly easy for the cat (plus it would have to be of interest, not in a behavioural, pavlov’s dog type way, such that the “knowledge” wasn’t just a behavioural script that was drummed into it?)</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 16, 2021 at 2:20:20 PM]:<br>
If an animal learns how to drive through reinforcement then no, if it learns creatively then yea that would be meaningful.<br>
Similarly, if what seems like a sleepwalker could learn to drive creatively I would doubt whether they’re really sleepwalking.<br>
Popper wrote somewhere that children sometimes converse while asleep. Makes me think we generally overestimate what consciousness is needed for.</p>
<p><strong>Sashin</strong>, [Nov 16, 2021 at 2:27:02 PM]:<br>
What I like is that this opens up a testable claim: if consciousness is required for learning specifically, what you would expect is that the children would not be able to learn new things in the sleep walking state but only implement existing knowledge<br>
Although I’ve heard that in the specific above case of REM paralysis being stunted, the people in question had the experience of “acting out their dream”, in which case they weren’t unconscious per se. (That is they were constructing a dream world based on their physical sense inputs and interacting with it)<br>
Like say if you were dreaming of walking on an icy plain, but it turns out your feet actually did get wet and are really cold.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal</strong>, [Nov 16, 2021 at 2:29:51 PM]:<br>
My guess is it’s more like: creativity is required for certain kinds of learning, and consciousness is a side effect of creativity and only of creativity. But yes the test you propose should still apply.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chat-with-amaro-and-sashin-about-animal-sentienc
Chat with Amaro and Sashin about Animal Sentience
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="lying-little-injun">Lying Little Injun</h1>
<p>US senator Elizabeth Warren is a liar.</p>
<p>Politicians lie all the time but she seems to have a knack for it.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2012/04/28/elizabeth-warren-has-no-reservations-on-native-status/" rel="ugc">lied</a> about being native American to score diversity points. She was never able to produce any “documents proving her lineage” beyond a controversial DNA test that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181015162140/https://mk0elizabethwarh5ore.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Bustamante_Report_2018.pdf" rel="ugc">showed</a> she had only one native-American ancestor between six and ten generations back, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/15/elizabeth-warren-dna-test/1645840002/" rel="ugc">making</a> her as little as 1/1024 native American. She has since <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-apologizes-for-calling-herself-native-american/2019/02/05/1627df76-2962-11e9-984d-9b8fba003e81_story.html" rel="ugc">apologized</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/elizabeth-warren-dna-test/572998/" rel="ugc">admitted</a> that “I’m not enrolled in a tribe, and only tribes determine tribal membership”.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article237751529.html" rel="ugc">lied</a> about a “1984 Indian cookbook edited by a family member, “Pow Wow Chow,” and the recipes she contributed to it, [being] evidence of her native heritage. In fact, the recipes were fakes, plagiarized from books and magazines and utterly unconnected to either her Oklahoma background or (now-debunked) native heritage.”</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/01/16/chabot-elizabeth-warren-lies-you-read-it-here-first/" rel="ugc">lied</a> about “how and when […] she found out that Harvard was reporting her as a minority hire”, claiming she “read it on the front page of the [Boston] Herald”. She “later admitted she lied about this. She knew that Harvard University listed her as a minority hire long before the Herald reported it because she informed university officials herself.” She also lied about not recalling ever reporting herself as native American on applications. “She listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools directory for law professors from 1986 to 1995. She wrote her race as “American Indian,” on a 1986 registration card for the Texas State Bar […]”. You can see that registration card <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-apologizes-for-calling-herself-native-american/2019/02/05/1627df76-2962-11e9-984d-9b8fba003e81_story.html" rel="ugc">here</a> and <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article237751529.html" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/01/16/chabot-elizabeth-warren-lies-you-read-it-here-first/" rel="ugc">lied</a> about mishearing a question at a “very noisy press conference” that wasn’t noisy.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article237751529.html" rel="ugc">lied</a> about her son’s education by implying he had not gone to private schools.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article237751529.html" rel="ugc">lied</a> about losing her job as a teacher in 1971 because she was “visibly pregnant” to score points with feminists. “[S]he was, in fact, offered another year’s teaching contract. Warren wasn’t denied a job. She chose to decline it.”</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1463598298208473088" rel="ugc">lied</a> about the cause of increasing grocery prices, saying it’s “because greedy corporations are charging Americans extra just to keep their stock prices high”, when in reality it’s because the Federal Reserve has created <a href="https://techstartups.com/2021/05/22/40-us-dollars-existence-printed-last-12-months-america-repeating-mistake-1921-weimar-germany/" rel="ugc">a record amount of money</a> out of thin air in recent months, leading to inflation, and because many competitors went out of business during lockdowns.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexEpstein/status/1463263566362939394" rel="ugc">lied</a> about her involvement in increasing gas prices, claiming the increase is “being driven by energy companies’ corporate greed and profiteering”, when in reality, according to Alex Epstein, it’s due to her “success at restricting gas production, transport, and export”.</p>
<p>She has <a href="/posts/wealth-tax-is-evil" rel="ugc">lied</a> about the nature of a wealth tax she supports, misrepresenting it as a “two-cent” tax when she really means ‘two <em>per</em>cent’, year after year, which, due to how a wealth tax would work, can amount to <em>65 percent</em> by some calculations.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1462131682212028423" rel="ugc">lied</a> about being alarmed at “[v]iolence against trans and gender-non-conforming people”, again to score diversity points, citing an <a href="https://19thnews.org/2021/11/2021-deadliest-year-record-transgender-people/" rel="ugc">article</a> that doesn’t provide any evidence that the people it claims have been killed so far in 2021 were killed <em>for being trans</em>.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1461415162737475586" rel="ugc">lied</a> about “giant corporations […] pay[ing] little or no taxes”.</p>
<p>She has <a href="https://time.com/5792563/elizabeth-warren-super-pac-support/" rel="ugc">lied</a> about disavowing super PACs. When her presidential run in 2020 started not going so well and the Persist super PAC suddenly jumped in to help her campaign with millions, she did not disavow it despite being asked about it. She instead said “<em>all</em> the candidates [would have] to get rid of super PACs [emphasis added]”, and that “[i]t can’t be the case that a bunch of people keep them and only one or two don’t”.</p>
<p>In short, Warren is a repeat liar. She continues to lie after having been caught, even about things people can easily fact-check. You shouldn’t trust her, look up to her, associate with her, vote for her, or support her in any way.</p>
<p>If I catch her lying again, I will add comments below.</p>
<p>Speaking of Indians – Happy Thanksgiving everyone.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/lying-little-injun
Lying Little Injun
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="extracting-references-from-html-in-rails">Extracting References from HTML in Rails</h1>
<p>Say you run a blog. Underneath your posts, you wish to list all the other posts that link to it – the ‘incoming’ references. Maybe you also wish to list outgoing references – all the other posts linked to by a post.</p>
<p>What you need is a way to extract references from a post programmatically, and then store them so you can display them elsewhere. Doing this in Rails is easy. I’m using Rails 6.1.1 and Ruby 2.6.5p114.</p>
<p>First, let’s think about how to store references. You need to store a ‘referencer’ and a ‘referenced’. I chose polymorphic associations for my blog since I wanted to accommodate references to and from comments as well, and between posts and comments, but depending on your use case, you may not need polymorphism.</p>
<p>Create your <code>Reference</code> model like so:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>rails g model reference referencer:references<span class="o">{</span>polymorphic<span class="o">}</span> referenced:references<span class="o">{</span>polymorphic<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Say a post references the same post twice. If you want that to result in only one reference, add a unique index across the entire reference row. This index will ensure that multiple connections to the database can’t write the same reference twice:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>rails g migration add_index_to_references
</code></pre></div>
<p>Change this migration to look as follows:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">AddIndexToReferences</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="no">ActiveRecord</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="no">Migration</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mf">6.1</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">change</span>
<span class="n">add_index</span> <span class="ss">:references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:referencer_id</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">:referencer_type</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">:referenced_id</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">:referenced_type</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="ss">unique: </span><span class="kp">true</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">name: </span><span class="s1">'row_index'</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Without a custom <code>name</code>, the migration will throw an exception because the default name, which is basically a concatenation of all the column names, will be too long.</p>
<p>Next, run your migrations:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>rails db:migrate
</code></pre></div>
<p>Now, in your <code>Reference</code> model, you need to set up the associations and validate uniqueness on all the model’s fields. (If you’re wondering if this isn’t an unnecessary repetition after setting up the index: the index is meant as a failsafe on a database level. You don’t want things to get that far, so you still want your standard model validations to catch duplicates <em>before</em> your model writes to the database.)</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code>class Reference < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :referencer, polymorphic: <span class="nb">true
</span>belongs_to :referenced, polymorphic: <span class="nb">true
</span>validates :referencer_id, uniqueness: <span class="o">{</span> scope: <span class="o">[</span>:referencer_type, :referenced_id, :referenced_type] <span class="o">}</span>
end
</code></pre></div>
<p>That’s all we need to store references.</p>
<p>To <em>extract</em> references we need to install the Nokogiri gem. In your Gemfile, add:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">gem</span> <span class="s1">'nokogiri'</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Then install:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>bundle
</code></pre></div>
<p>Next, we parse a post’s and comment’s <code>body</code> whenever it changes and see if it contains any references. Since this logic is shared, I decided to put it in a module which I then include in both my post and comment models:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">module</span> <span class="nn">Referencer</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nc">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nf">included</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">has_many</span> <span class="ss">:out_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">class_name: </span><span class="s1">'Reference'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">as: :referencer</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">dependent: :destroy</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">has_many</span> <span class="ss">:in_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">class_name: </span><span class="s1">'Reference'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">as: :referenced</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">dependent: :destroy</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">has_many</span> <span class="ss">:post_referencers</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">through: :in_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source: :referencer</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source_type: </span><span class="s1">'Post'</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">has_many</span> <span class="ss">:comment_referencers</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">through: :in_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source: :referencer</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source_type: </span><span class="s1">'Comment'</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">has_many</span> <span class="ss">:post_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">through: :out_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source: :referenced</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source_type: </span><span class="s1">'Post'</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">has_many</span> <span class="ss">:comment_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">through: :out_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source: :referenced</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">source_type: </span><span class="s1">'Comment'</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">send</span> <span class="ss">:include</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="no">InstanceMethods</span>
<span class="n">receiver</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">after_save</span> <span class="ss">:create_references</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">module</span> <span class="nn">InstanceMethods</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">create_references</span>
<span class="c1"># Parse the body using Nokogiri. I create the HTML string</span>
<span class="c1"># using markdown, but it's up to you, as long as you end up</span>
<span class="c1"># with an HTML string that you can parse with Nokogiri.</span>
<span class="n">doc</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Nokogiri</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="no">HTML</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="no">ApplicationController</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">helpers</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">markdown</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">self</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">body</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="c1"># Get all links</span>
<span class="n">doc</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">css</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'a'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">map</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">link</span><span class="o">|</span> <span class="n">link</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'href'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="p">}</span> <span class="c1"># 'pluck' the `href` off those links</span>
<span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">map</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">href</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="c1"># This regex matches:</span>
<span class="c1"># - post id, with or without domain, both for localhost</span>
<span class="c1"># and blog.example.com</span>
<span class="c1"># - comment id, with or without domain, either as a</span>
<span class="c1"># standalone URL fragment or in conjunction with a</span>
<span class="c1"># post path and, optionally, the domain</span>
<span class="c1"># Please note: I am a regex noob, don't trust the regex below.</span>
<span class="c1"># It assumes that your links to posts and comments look</span>
<span class="c1"># like https://blog.example.com/posts/123#comment-456,</span>
<span class="c1"># the post id being 123 and the comment id being 456.</span>
<span class="n">regex</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Regexp</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">new</span> <span class="s1">'\A((https?:\/\/(localhost:3000|blog\.example\.com))?\/posts\/(?<post_id>\S+?))?(?<fragment>#(comment-(?<comment_id>\d+)|\S+?)?)?\z'</span>
<span class="n">result</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">regex</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">match</span> <span class="n">href</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">filter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">&</span><span class="ss">:present?</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">map</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">result</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="k">begin</span>
<span class="c1"># At this point, we have at least one of post_id or comment_id,</span>
<span class="c1"># potentially both, but definitely not neither one.</span>
<span class="n">post_id</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">comment_id</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">result</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">named_captures</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">values_at</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'post_id'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'comment_id'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># If the comment_id is set, we want to reference the comment,</span>
<span class="c1"># not the post, even if the post_id is also set.</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">comment_id</span>
<span class="n">comment</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Comment</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">find</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">comment_id</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># If the post_id was also given...</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">post_id</span>
<span class="c1"># Make sure the post exists</span>
<span class="n">post</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">Post</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">find</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">post_id</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># Make sure the comment was made on that post</span>
<span class="n">comment</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">post</span> <span class="o">===</span> <span class="n">post</span> <span class="p">?</span> <span class="n">comment</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="kp">nil</span>
<span class="k">else</span>
<span class="n">comment</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="c1"># Only the post_id was given, so we want to reference</span>
<span class="c1"># the post</span>
<span class="k">else</span>
<span class="no">Post</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">find</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">post_id</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">rescue</span>
<span class="kp">nil</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span> <span class="c1"># at this point, what's returned could be a post or comment</span>
<span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">filter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">&</span><span class="ss">:present?</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">each</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">referenced</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="k">begin</span>
<span class="no">Reference</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">create</span><span class="p">(</span>
<span class="ss">referencer: </span><span class="nb">self</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="ss">referenced: </span><span class="n">referenced</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">referencers</span>
<span class="p">[</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="nb">self</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">post_referencers</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="nb">self</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">comment_referencers</span><span class="p">].</span><span class="nf">sort_by</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">&</span><span class="ss">:created_at</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">references</span>
<span class="p">[</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="nb">self</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">post_references</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="nb">self</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">comment_references</span><span class="p">].</span><span class="nf">sort_by</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">&</span><span class="ss">:created_at</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>I called this file <code>referencer.rb</code> and put it in my <code>models/concerns</code> folder (although I think technically it’s not a proper concern). Check out the comments above, it should all be self-explanatory. You will definitely need to change the regular expression to match your needs. I <a href="https://regex101.com/r/7mo6ZT/1" rel="ugc">set it up</a> for you in a regex debugger so you can understand how it works and how to change it.</p>
<p>Side note: you may wish to consider removing references when the corresponding links are removed from the body. One rather crude way to do that would be to destroy all of <code>self</code>’s references at the beginning of the <code>#create_references</code> method. That way, any needed references will be recreated while the ones that are gone will stay gone. This is assuming you don’t mind changing <code>created_at</code> fields for the same references.</p>
<p>In your <code>Post</code> and/or <code>Comment</code> model, include the <code>Referencer</code> module:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Post</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="no">ApplicationRecord</span>
<span class="kp">include</span> <span class="no">Referencer</span>
<span class="c1"># other stuff</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Now, whenever a post or comment is created or saved, the <code>after_save</code> callback will extract references from its body and store them.</p>
<p>How you display incoming and outgoing references is up to you. I added a method called <code>#referencers</code> and one called <code>#references</code> to the <code>Referencer</code> module. Those give me the posts and comments directly so I can iterate over them in a view and display titles, links, and what not. At the time of writing, I display references underneath blog posts and comments. For example, scroll to the end of <a href="/posts/chapter-order-in-the-beginning-of-infinity" rel="ugc">this</a> post. And since I’m linking to that post, you should see a reference to it underneath this here post you’re currently reading.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/extracting-references-from-html-in-rails
Extracting References from HTML in Rails
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="views-on-animal-sentience-in-the-beginning-of-infinity">Views on Animal Sentience in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></h1>
<blockquote data-source="Rand, Ayn. *The Romantic Manifesto* (pp. 174-175). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition." >
<div class="blockquote-body">
<p>Do you think you can? Do you think you’ll get away with it maybe, if you’re very clever, if you disguise it, […] I don’t mind if they miss it, I hope they miss it, let them think they’re reading trash, if they’ll only let me write it. I don’t have to stress it, I don’t have to have much of it, of what’s good, I can hide it, I can apologize for it […]. They won’t know. They’ll let me.<br>
No, he said, they won’t. Don’t fool yourself.</p>
</div>
<footer class="blockquote-footer blockquote-footer-372ca3ad7c2fd8c9eeae2affea132d23">
Rand, Ayn. <em>The Romantic Manifesto</em> (pp. 174-175). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m interested in whether animals are sentient. David Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (BoI<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>) has interesting things to say about this issue. Deutsch’s view in my own words is that, as I’ve written <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">previously</a> in the context of animal suffering specifically, animals are not sentient because “all they do is mindlessly execute inborn algorithms which are the result of biological evolution”. He’s confirmed to me in writing that he doesn’t think animals are <em>intelligent</em>, which, for reasons you will soon learn as you read on, implies that they’re not sentient. Elliot Temple, who used to be Deutsch’s student, introduced me to Deutsch’s view and has written about animal sentience as well. Among other things, Temple <a href="https://curi.us/2245-discussion-about-animal-rights-and-popper" rel="ugc">believes</a> it’s not “realistic to have serious opinions about animal rights without knowing how to code”. <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq#explain-animal-behavior-x" rel="ugc">I agree.</a></p>
<p>BoI has an index entry called “animal minds” with six references. The first reference is to chapter 7, which is about artificial intelligence. I’ve previously <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs#comment-120" rel="ugc">commented</a> on the corresponding passage and am quoting my comment here:</p>
<blockquote><p>In [chapter] 7, David Deutsch writes about how people over-attribute intelligence to animals that can recognize themselves in the mirror:</p>
<blockquote><p>[S]ome abilities of humans that are commonly included in that constellation associated with general-purpose intelligence do not belong in it. One of them is <em>self-awareness</em> – as evidenced by such tests as recognizing oneself in a mirror. Some people are unaccountably impressed when various animals are shown to have that ability. But there is nothing mysterious about it: a simple pattern-recognition program would confer it on a computer.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>[— p. 154]</p>
<p>(I personally wouldn’t call that <em>awareness</em>, but his argument stands.) I have written software that allows MacBook Pros and iPhones to recognize themselves in the mirror. You can <a href="https://h22jy.csb.app/" rel="ugc">try it out</a>. Your MacBook Pro/iPhone does not suddenly become conscious upon visiting that website.</p>
<p>Deutsch then applies this argument to other areas which, in my terminology, are evidence of <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq#isn-t-consciousness-a-matter-of-how-complex-or-sop" rel="ugc">smarts but not intelligence</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The same is true of tool use, the use of language for signalling (though not for conversation in the Turing-test sense), and various emotional responses (though not the associated qualia). At the present state of the field, a useful rule of thumb is: if it can already be programmed, it has nothing to do with intelligence in Turing’s sense.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>[— p. 154]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Basically everything animals do can already be programmed and simulated, so this last part applies to animals as well. Also, programs exist that far <em>exceed</em> animals’ abilities, and those programs are not sentient, either. How do we know that? Because our best explanations of how such programs work make no mention of sentience, nor did we need to understand how to program sentience to write them.</p>
<p>Chapter 7 includes another passage which is relevant to animal sentience. It doesn’t mention animals explicitly, which is presumably why it isn’t referenced in the index:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is a deeper issue too. AI abilities must have some sort of universality: special-purpose thinking would not count as thinking in the sense Turing intended. My guess is that every AI is a person: a general-purpose explainer. It is conceivable that there are other levels of universality between AI and ‘universal explainer/constructor’, and perhaps separate levels for those associated attributes like consciousness. But those attributes all seem to have arrived in one jump to universality in humans, and, although we have little explanation of any of them, I know of no plausible argument that they are at different levels or can be achieved independently of each other. So I tentatively assume that they cannot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— p. 157</p>
<p>A few remarks about this passage. First, by “AI”, Deutsch means what has come to be called ‘AGI’ – artificial general intelligence. It’s basically a person’s mind but simulated on a computer, so it would be intelligent and conscious just like humans are. It would not be qualitatively different from humans. Second, Deutsch’s idea of the <em>jump to universality</em> is an important one because it cuts the world into two camps: everything that is a <em>universal explainer</em> (and, therefore, intelligent and conscious), and everything that isn’t. This notion breaks with how most people think about intelligence and sentience, namely as a matter of degree. That’s a fudge, and I’ve introduced, as mentioned above, the difference between <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq#isn-t-consciousness-a-matter-of-how-complex-or-sop" rel="ugc">smarts and intelligence</a> to help clear things up. Third, Deutsch says it’s conceivable that consciousness lives on some level of universality that’s separate from the general-purpose-explainer one, but denies that this is the case. In other words, he thinks that only universal explainers are conscious. What Deutsch describes as a universal explainer is an <em>intelligent</em> or, in other words, <em>creative</em> being. He unifies those concepts into one – again, he thinks they arise on the same level of universality – which is why I use them synonymously. And it’s why I wrote above that his believing that animals are not intelligent implies that he believes they’re not sentient.</p>
<p>While we’re on the topic of universal explainers, consider Deutsch’s concept of <em>people</em>, which he defines in the glossary of chapter 3 as “entit[ies] which can create explanatory knowledge” (p. 75). In other words, universal explainers – which could also be described as entities that can, in principle, explain everything that is explicable, solve every soluble problem – but here that more directly includes non-human entities like AGIs and intelligent aliens. Note that Deutsch didn’t call this class of entity ‘mammals’ or ‘organisms’ or something. That’s not just because AGIs and aliens need not share our biology: he wasn’t concerned about fitting animals other than humans into this category, and the term ‘people’ <em>excludes</em> non-human animals.</p>
<p>On that note, in my <a href="https://youtu.be/UHm88w_BnMU?t=448" rel="ugc">interview</a> with him, he says (translated freely from German):</p>
<blockquote><p>Ants, apes, rocks, planets – those are not people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This shows that he does not consider animals to be people, and even considers them to be on the same level as rocks and planets in at least one regard, which is notable.</p>
<p>The second reference in the index to animal minds points to p. 268 in chapter 11. I believe this reference to be erroneous. That page is not about animal minds – it’s about quantum physics generally and a concept called ‘diversity within fungibility’ specifically, and I’m not aware of either of them having any direct application to animal minds. I also checked pages 168, 368, 258, and 278, in case the given page number was off by 100 or 10, but those pages aren’t about animal minds either.</p>
<p>The next reference is to chapter 12, which is about bad philosophy. Here’s the relevant passage, with intermittent comments by me:</p>
<blockquote><p>The behaviourist approach is equally futile when applied to the issue of <em>whether</em> an entity has a mind. I have already criticized it in Chapter 7, in regard to the Turing test. The same holds in regard to the controversy about animal minds – such as whether the hunting or farming of animals should be legal – which stems from philosophical disputes about whether animals experience qualia analogous to those of humans when in fear and pain, and, if so, which animals do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— p. 320</p>
<p>Here, Deutsch creates an explicit link between what he said about intelligence and consciousness in chapter 7, as quoted above, and what he’s about to say about animals. Deutsch continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>Now, science has little to say on this matter at present, because there is as yet no explanatory theory of qualia, and hence no way of detecting them experimentally. But this does not stop governments from trying to pass the political hot potato to the supposedly objective jurisdiction of experimental science. So, for instance, in 1997 the zoologists Patrick Bateson and Elizabeth Bradshaw were commissioned by the National Trust to determine whether stags suffer when hunted. They reported that they do, because the hunt is ‘grossly stressful…exhausting and agonizing’. However, that <em>assumes</em> that the measurable quantities denoted there by the words ‘stress’ and ‘agony’ (such as enzyme levels in the bloodstream) signify the presence of qualia of the same names – which is precisely what the press and public assumed that the study was supposed to <em>discover</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— pp. 320–321</p>
<p>When I first read the book, this was the clearest reference to animal minds to me. And it’s the clearest indication that Deutsch does not just assume, like most people do, that animals are sentient. Back then I thought animals <em>are</em> sentient, and I remember thinking, ‘wait, is Deutsch questioning whether animals are sentient?’ But I came away from that passage not knowing either way. I think it would have been a good spot to explicitly state his view.</p>
<p>Deutsch continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>The following year, the Countryside Alliance commissioned a study of the same issue, led by the veterinary physiologist Roger Harris, who concluded that the levels of those quantities are similar to those of a human who is not suffering but enjoying a sport such as football. Bateson responded – accurately – that nothing in Harris’s report contradicted his own. But that is because neither study had any bearing on the issue in question.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— p. 321</p>
<p>As an aside, I disagree that Bateson’s response was accurate. I haven’t read either study – no sources are given – but while Bateson and Bradshaw assumed that the “quantities” they measured were indicative of suffering, Harris showed that this assumption was wrong because they might just as well be indicative of someone enjoying a sport, and enjoyment is the ‘opposite’ of suffering.</p>
<p>The next reference points to a passage in chapter 14, which is about aesthetics.</p>
<blockquote><p>An animal can be attracted towards another animal in order to mate with it, or to eat it. Once the predator has taken a bite, it is attracted to take another – unless the bite tastes bad, in which case it will be repelled. So there we have a literal matter of taste. And that matter of taste is indeed caused by the laws of physics in the form of the laws of chemistry and biochemistry. We can guess that there is no higher-level explanation of the resulting behaviour than the zoological level, because the behaviour is predictable. It is repetitive, and where it is not repetitive it is random.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— pp. 358–359</p>
<p>Deutsch shouldn’t be misunderstood to imply the presence of qualia when he uses words like ‘taste’. When he says “there is no higher-level explanation of the resulting behaviour than the zoological level” he (I think) rejects any explanation on the level of universality he mentioned in chapter 7, which level consciousness inhabits in his (and my) opinion. In addition, predictability is a fatal blow to the idea that animals may be conscious: if they were creative, and, therefore, conscious, they would be <em>un</em>predictable, just like people. Why? The Popperian argument is that the creation of knowledge – which is what creative entities engage in, by definition – is deeply unpredictable because if you could predict new knowledge you would have already created it and so it wouldn’t be new. So there’s a quick <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum" rel="ugc"><em>reductio ad absurdum</em></a> showing the unpredictability of creative entities.</p>
<p>The last two references point to passages in chapter 16, which is about the evolution of creativity. The first passage goes:</p>
<blockquote><p>Apes are capable of recognizing a much larger set of possible meanings [than parrots]. Some of them are so complex that aping has often been misinterpreted as evidence of human-like understanding.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— p. 407</p>
<p>The error Deutsch describes here is again that of fudging between smarts (here: complexity of behavior specifically) and intelligence. In this particular case, it’s thinking that sufficient complexity implies explanatory universality, and with it, consciousness. The passage continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>For example, when an ape learns a new method of cracking nuts by hitting them with rocks, it does not then play the movements back blindly in a fixed sequence like a parrot does. The movements required to crack the nut are never the same twice: the ape has to <em>aim</em> the rock at the nut; it may have to <em>chase</em> the nut and fetch it back if it rolls away; it has to keep hitting it until it cracks, rather than a fixed number of times; and so on. During some parts of the procedure the ape’s two hands must cooperate, each performing a different sub-task. Before it can even begin, it must be able to recognize a nut as being suitable for the procedure; it must look for a rock and, again, recognize a suitable one.<br>
Such activities may seem to depend on explanation – on understanding how and why each action within the complex behaviour has to fit in with the other actions in order to achieve the overall purpose. But recent discoveries have revealed how apes are able to imitate such behaviours without ever creating any explanatory knowledge. In a remarkable series of observational and theoretical studies, the evolutionary psychologist and animal-behaviour researcher Richard Byrne has shown how they achieve this by a process that he calls <em>behaviour parsing</em> (which is analogous to the grammatical analysis or ‘parsing’ of human speech or computer programs).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— p. 407</p>
<p>Here, Deutsch explains how apes display sophisticated behavior without creating any explanatory knowledge – i.e., without being universal explainers. Recall once more that Deutsch thinks only universal explainers are conscious. He also contrasts aping to what <em>people</em> do:</p>
<blockquote><p>Human beings acquiring human memes are doing something profoundly different. When an audience is watching a lecture, or a child is learning language, their problem is almost the opposite of that of parroting or aping […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— p. 409</p>
<p>And, later on, he contrasts again (this is the second of the two references):</p>
<blockquote><p>Parrots copy distinctive sounds; apes copy purposeful movements of a certain limited class. But humans do not especially copy any behaviour. They use conjecture, criticism and experiment to create good explanations of the meaning of things […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— p. 410</p>
<p>Lastly, the New Yorker <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/02/dream-machine" rel="ugc">quotes</a> Deutsch as saying:</p>
<blockquote><p>If I were a biologist, I would be a theoretical biologist, because I don’t like the idea of cutting up frogs. <em>Not for moral reasons</em> but because it’s disgusting [emphasis added].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps <em>the</em> main reason people reject killing animals is that it’s immoral because animals are sentient. Deutsch disagrees (as do I).</p>
<p>In short, I think Deutsch’s view that animals are not sentient is in the book. It’s not quite hidden away but it also isn’t readily apparent and can easily be missed. One has to read the book multiple times and draw connections between passages that are <a href="/posts/chapter-order-in-the-beginning-of-infinity" rel="ugc">spread over hundreds of pages</a>. Readers would have benefited from an explicit statement of the view – something like: ‘Only creative entities are sentient. All animals do is mindlessly execute inborn algorithms provided by biological evolution. Therefore, animals are not creative and, in turn, not sentient.’ If I recall correctly, David Foster Wallace said in one of his books or lectures that one shouldn’t assume readers will understand what’s implied or follows logically from what’s written – that one should write it <em>explicitly</em> and make it as easy as possible for readers to understand.</p>
<p>If you wish to learn more about animal sentience (or lack thereof) and related topics, read my posts <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">‘Animal-Sentience FAQ’</a>, <a href="/posts/the-animal-rights-community-is-based-on-fear-a" rel="ugc">‘The ‘Animal-Rights’ Community Is Based on Fear and Intimidation’</a>, and <a href="/posts/evidence-is-ambiguous" rel="ugc">‘Evidence Is Ambiguous’</a>. The post <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs" rel="ugc">‘Buggy Dogs’</a> in particular and many of the comments underneath it provide lots of evidence for animals not being sentient. Also read <a href="https://www.windowonintelligence.com/" rel="ugc">my book</a>.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>The edition of BoI I use is the American one from 2012, New York, Penguin Press. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/views-on-animal-sentience-in-the-beginning-of-i
Views on Animal Sentience in The Beginning of Infinity
2024-01-17T04:46:35Z
2024-01-17T04:46:35Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="leave-austria-now">Leave Austria NOW</h1>
<p>Austrian politicians now plan compulsory vaccination for everyone starting on Feb 1, 2022: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/19/austria-plans-compulsory-covid-vaccination-for-all" rel="ugc">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/19/austria-plans-compulsory-covid-vaccination-for-all</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Those refusing to be vaccinated are likely to face administrative fines, which can be converted into a prison sentence if the fine cannot be recovered.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, if you refuse to get the shot and refuse to pay the fines, you will be put in a metal cage.</p>
<blockquote><p>The government said it was preparing the legal groundwork for a general vaccine mandate […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meaning vaccine mandates aren’t legal yet, so they’ll just change the law.</p>
<p>The article quotes Austrian chancellor Schallenberg:</p>
<blockquote><p>“For a long time the consensus in this country was that we don’t want a vaccine mandate,” Schallenberg said after a meeting with the Alpine republic’s heads of state. “In spite of months of persuasion, we have not managed to convince enough people to be vaccinated”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There were no “months of persuasion”. There were months of <em>coercion</em>. He may consider that ‘light’ coercion (it isn’t) compared to what’s to come but that doesn’t make it persuasion. He’s also trying to blame the citizens for not doing what’s ‘best’ for them and plaintively portraying himself and other Austrian politicians as having been ‘patient’ with the commoners, which is a manipulative move.</p>
<blockquote><p>Tightening vaccine pass controls and testing requirements had started to make a difference but it “hasn’t convinced enough”, said Schallenberg […].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s evidence of Schallenberg not knowing what persuasion is. It should come as no surprise that subjecting people to medical bureaucracy and forcing them to close their businesses isn’t convincing. It’s <em>coercive</em>. Schallenberg thinks getting people to do something through coercion is the same as having convinced them.</p>
<blockquote><p>The former chancellor Kurz, who resigned amid a corruption inquiry in mid-October, had assured the public in July that “for everyone who is vaccinated, the pandemic is now over”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Liar.</p>
<blockquote><p>“No one wants a lockdown, it is a crude instrument,” said Austria’s Green health minister, Wolfgang Mückstein, on Friday. “But it is the most effective instrument that we have available”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No it isn’t. There have been lots of statistics in the US showing time and time again that states with lockdowns often have higher infection rates than those without.</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]he planned general vaccine mandate drew heavy criticism from the opposition benches in parliament. “From this day Austria is a dictatorship,” said Herbert Kickl of the far-right Freedom party, which has advocated scientifically unproven alternative treatments against coronavirus infections, such as the anti-parasite drug ivermectin.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m not familiar with the Freedom party, but I doubt it’s ‘far-right’. My guess is the Guardian is <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/argument_from_intimidation.html" rel="ugc">intimidating</a> readers into rejecting the Freedom party. I know that the narrative in Germany since the start of the pandemic has been that anyone not approving of the German government’s corona measures is far-right. That doesn’t make any sense because many of them are just small-business owners, say, who do not wish to be forcefully closed down and go bankrupt. The same narrative may be at play in Austria.</p>
<p>Regarding something being “scientifically unproven”: As Karl Popper explained, nothing is or can be scientifically proven. The Guardian is epistemologically illiterate.</p>
<blockquote><p>Unlike other federalised countries like Germany, Austria has a centralised national database of vaccination, which the government could check against those registered as living in the country to determine who has not yet got a jab.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s disgusting. There’s no escaping the government if you remain in Austria.</p>
<blockquote><p>Mandatory vaccination is not unprecedented in Austria. In 1948 the postwar government made vaccination against smallpox compulsory by law. In 1980 the World Health Organization declared smallpox the first disease to have been defeated through vaccination.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meaning: immoral things have been done before so it’s okay to do them again, and those efforts were successful then so they will be successful now. That’s not how morals work.</p>
<p>To all Austrians: I urge you to LEAVE NOW. Your government is actively employing violence against you and planning to employ more. Your country is turning into a medical dictatorship. You have freedom of movement within the EU so go to a country where you’ll be treated better, like Sweden or Denmark (from what I hear). DO NOT remain in Austria. Even if you get the vaccine, this will not be the end of it, as there have been growing concerns that the vaccines do not remain effective for very long. You’d be forced, at the threat of violence, to sign up for a medical subscription. Again, LEAVE NOW.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/leave-austria-now
Leave Austria NOW
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="chapter-order-in-the-beginning-of-infinity">Chapter Order in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></h1>
<p>David Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (BoI) features 18 chapters. They’re about epistemology, evolution, physics, aesthetics, optimism, sustainability, and more. This article is primarily meant for those who have read the book at least once and remember the ideas fairly well. However, at the bottom, I recommend a chapter order for everyone, including those who haven’t read the book yet.</p>
<p>BoI is my favorite book. I’ve studied it extensively and worked with Deutsch on and off for roughly two years to translate it into German.</p>
<p>I noticed that the chapter order could be improved. The book jumps between different topics quite a bit, which makes it harder to understand those topics. This includes references to other chapters, explicit or implicit, both for low-level topics and higher-level, overarching topics.</p>
<p>Here’s the full list of chapters plus the main topic(s) in each chapter:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">The Reach of Explanations → epistemology</li>
<li data-step="2">Closer to Reality → epistemology</li>
<li data-step="3">The Spark → the environment, our place in the cosmos</li>
<li data-step="4">Creation → evolution</li>
<li data-step="5">The Reality of Abstractions → abstractions and emergence</li>
<li data-step="6">The Jump to Universality → universality</li>
<li data-step="7">Artificial Creativity → epistemology & artificial (general) intelligence</li>
<li data-step="8">A Window on Infinity → math</li>
<li data-step="9">Optimism → optimism, static and dynamic societies</li>
<li data-step="10">A Dream of Socrates → epistemology, static and dynamic societies</li>
<li data-step="11">The Multiverse → physics</li>
<li data-step="12">A Physicist’s History of Bad Philosophy → physics & history of physics</li>
<li data-step="13">Choices → epistemology</li>
<li data-step="14">Why are Flowers Beautiful? → aesthetics</li>
<li data-step="15">The Evolution of Culture → evolution, epistemology, static and dynamic societies</li>
<li data-step="16">The Evolution of Creativity → evolution, epistemology</li>
<li data-step="17">Unsustainable → the environment, static and dynamic societies</li>
<li data-step="18">The Beginning → various</li>
</ol>
<p>Here’s an example of the book jumping between low-level topics. Chapter 1 makes four implicit references to chapter 9 when it invokes prophets:</p>
<blockquote><p>Every would-be prophet who claims that the sun will go out next Tuesday has a testable theory. […] [W]hat is the vital, progress-enabling ingredient that is present in science, but absent from the testable theories of the prophet […]?</p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p>[W]hen [a prophet’s] theory is refuted by experience, they do indeed switch to a new one; but, because their underlying explanations are bad, they can easily accommodate the new experience without changing the substance of the explanation.</p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p>[T]here is [nothing] worthwhile about […] the prophet’s apocalyptic theory […] just because it is testable.</p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p>By adopting easily variable explanations, […] prophet[s] are ensuring that they will be able to continue fooling themselves no matter what happens.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But by the time you get to chapter 9 – which is 163 pages and several unrelated topics later – you will have forgotten all about these passages, although what Deutsch says in them applies to Martin Rees and Thomas Malthus in chapter 9. Even reading the book multiple times may not help much because the chapters are so far apart.</p>
<p>You could read all the chapters out of order – but there are 18! (meaning 18 · 17 · 16 · … · 3 · 2, i.e. LOTS of) orders in which the chapters could be read. How to decide in which order to read them?</p>
<p>Explicit references can help, generally speaking. There’s one explicit reference to chapter 9 in chapter 1, but in this particular case it’s outside the context of prophecies, so it can easily be overlooked.</p>
<p>The index can also be helpful when trying to determine the order in which one should read the chapters to understand a particular topic better. (I found lots of errors in the index while creating the index for the German edition – see <a href="/posts/potential-errors-in-the-beginning-of-infinity" rel="ugc">here</a>, section ‘Glitches in index’ – but overall it’s still helpful.) Consulting the index entry ‘prophecy’ and its various subentries should show you all the relevant passages. And you’ll see more or less at a glance that this topic stretches sporadically throughout the book: in addition to chapters 1 and 9, it also appears in chapters 4, 12, 17, and 18. But having topics so far apart without explicit in-text references is still a problem because, having missed the connection, you won’t look for it in the index. And the reference in chapter 4 is too tiny and too far apart from both chapters 1 and 9 to build a bridge between them. I suppose all you could do at that point is scan the index for entries that interest you and then read the referenced pages.</p>
<p>The stuff about prophecy is just one example. There are others, such as the question of <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">whether animals are sentient</a>, which is sprinkled throughout the book, and what Deutsch calls <em>Zeno’s mistake</em>, which is covered in chapters 8 and 13.</p>
<p>When it comes to high-level concepts, in which order <em>should</em> you read BoI? Whether you’re about to read it for the first time or want to read it again, this is the order I tentatively recommend, grouping chapters by high-level topic:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1"><p>Read the introduction</p>
<p>The introduction sets the tone for the book: it’s all about the possibility and desirability of open-ended progress.</p></li>
<li data-step="2"><p>Read the chapters on epistemology.</p>
<p>Epistemology is the most fundamental topic in the book. You’ll need it to understand the rest. I suggest this order: Chapters 1, 2, 4, 15, 16, 10, 6, 7, 13. Chapter 6 isn’t strictly about epistemology in the narrow sense – it’s about universality – but you’ll need it to understand chapter 7. I grouped chapters 4, 15, and 16 together because all three of them are about evolution. Then, after reading about static and dynamic societies in chapters 15 and 16, you get to read chapter 10, which rests on an understanding of them (the comparison between Sparta and Athens). In addition, I’ve written <a href="/posts/want-to-learn-about-agi-read-these-chapters-fro" rel="ugc">this post</a> about the chapters that are relevant to the study of artificial general intelligence specifically, which make up a subset of the chapters listed above. Chapter 13 may superficially seem like it’s about politics, but it’s really about how to make decisions rationally, which is an epistemological question.</p></li>
<li data-step="3"><p>Read the chapters on optimism.</p>
<p>Chapter 9 is all about optimism. Afterwards, optionally re-read the passages in chapter 1 that are referenced in the index entry for ‘prophecy’ to understand the connection to epistemology. Next, read chapter 3, which is a very optimistic and hopeful chapter, too.</p></li>
<li data-step="4"><p>Read chapter 17. It directly ties in with the stuff about the environment from chapter 3 and also static societies (chapter 15). If you want a refresher on the latter, read chapter 15 again before reading chapter 17.</p></li>
<li data-step="5"><p>Read the chapters on physics.</p>
<p>That’s chapter 11 on the multiverse, and chapter 12, which is a bit more about the multiverse as well as the recent history of physics, before it goes into philosophy of science and good vs. bad philosophy.</p></li>
<li data-step="6"><p>Read these three standalone chapters in any order you like.</p>
<p>Chapter 5 is about abstractions and emergence. Chapter 8 is about the mathematical concept of infinity. Chapter 14 is about aesthetics. Other chapters loosely reference these three chapters, but you should largely have been able to get by without them just fine until now. Read them in any order you like. Chapter 8 references fine-tuning and anthropic reasoning from the section ‘Fine-tuning’ in chapter 4, so you may wish to read that section again before reading chapter 8, but it’s still mostly standalone.</p></li>
<li data-step="7"><p>Read the last chapter.</p>
<p>Chapter 18 ties it all together and presents many open problems to work on next.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You may have noticed that even with this new order I still recommend revisiting previously read chapters or sections at times. And there will still be times when you’re missing a concept from another chapter, such as when reading about Zeno’s mistake in chapter 13 before reading chapter 8. It can’t be avoided altogether, but now there should be a lot less jumping around overall in terms of high-level topics. You get more of a chance to deepen your understanding of a particular topic <em>before</em> moving on to other topics.</p>
<p>If you’re unsure about the proposed chapter order, read the chapters in the original order first, then read them again in my proposed order. (You’ll want to read the book more than once anyway.)</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/chapter-order-in-the-beginning-of-infinity
Chapter Order in The Beginning of Infinity
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="lockdowns-are-a-collectivist-altruist-nightmare">Lockdowns Are a Collectivist-Altruist Nightmare</h1>
<p>These past few days, the world has seen new lockdowns in some countries. Among them are the Netherlands and Austria. The Austrian lockdown is particularly evil because it targets only the unvaccinated, thereby creating a two-class system with those who have ‘earned’ their freedom, and those who have not. This is <em>disgusting</em>. As David Deutsch <a href="https://curi.us/tcs/Articles/DDIsTCSRevolutionary.html" rel="ugc">has said</a>, “freedom granted conditionally is not freedom at all”.</p>
<p>A year ago, well into the first wave of lockdowns across the planet, you would have been called a conspiracy theorist had you expressed concerns the government might one day discriminate against those who are not vaccinated.</p>
<p>The docility with which some people – not all, mind you – have been agreeing to be effectively locked into their homes is remarkable. No self-respecting man would abide by that, let alone agree to it. What’s needed is an ideological infrastructure which guilt-trips people into paying a debt they don’t owe.</p>
<p>This infrastructure is provided by <em>collectivism</em> and <em>altruism</em>. From the <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/collectivism.html" rel="ugc">Ayn Rand lexicon</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Collectivism means the subjugation of the individual to a group—whether to a race, class or state does not matter. Collectivism holds that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this case, the ‘common good’ is everyone’s health.</p>
<p>And from the entry on <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/altruism.html" rel="ugc">altruism</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>What is the moral code of altruism? The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When the pandemic started, the health of others immediately became your debt to pay to the state. Even though those who wish to lock themselves down have always been free to do so – no centralized mandates required – lockdowns are implemented by force. Those refusing to pay a debt they do not owe are branded as ‘selfish’. But that’s not selfish. <em>You do not owe people something you did not agree to owe them.</em> Period.</p>
<p>On Jan 1, 2021, I wrote an email to Nick Hudson, whose organization <a href="https://www.pandata.org/" rel="ugc">PANDA</a> analyzes “the human and economic cost of lockdowns”. I’ve had him <a href="https://soundcloud.com/dchacke/19-viral-philosophy" rel="ugc">on my podcast</a>. I wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>I had a chance to watch a bit of the debate you recently posted on Twitter and thought I’d share some thoughts with you. I wasn’t able to watch much of it, so some points below you may already have used in the debate itself.</p>
<p>The main thing that stood out to me is that your opponent likened stay-at-home orders to the “no-lights orders” during the blitz in London. At that time, turning on the lights in one’s apartment at night could draw Nazi bombers to one’s building, thereby putting everyone in the building in grave danger. Likewise, your opponent argues, socializing puts others in grave danger during this pandemic. If one didn’t want innocent civilians killed during the blitz, surely one shouldn’t needlessly socialize today—so his argument goes.</p>
<p>This line of reasoning is a false analogy for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important is this: during the blitz, if you turned on your lights, everyone else in the same building had no way of protecting themselves short of leaving their property behind immediately and not coming back until the morning, quite possibly getting hit by a bomb in the streets. They didn’t even have a way of <em>detecting</em> whether lights were on in the building without going outside and exposing themselves to danger. In other words, <em>others could not help become the victims of your turning on the light</em>. That’s not comparable to this pandemic, as those who want to self-isolate are free to do so and are not forced to mingle with others in any way even if <em>you</em> decide to mingle with others.</p>
<p>Your opponent—not this particular one, but perhaps a future one—may reply that people <em>are</em> forced to mingle with others eventually and thereby become victims comparable to those in the blitz example after all. This would be a trick because he’d be equivocating two different uses of the word “force”: 1) to coerce someone into doing something they don’t want to do, 2) to do something out of <em>necessity</em> (which isn’t really force). Anti-capitalists, for example, bemoan the law of nature that “forces” people to work for their wealth—to then justify actual force (the first meaning) against productive people. When asked why he thinks self-isolators couldn’t stay at home forever, your opponent may respond that expecting people to do so is unrealistic and that person-to-person contact cannot be avoided forever—at which point he’s making your point for you.</p>
<p>In short, the difference between the blitz and the pandemic is that during the blitz, people were not free of the consequences of your actions, while during the pandemic, they can be, if they so choose, and locking people down is not necessary to ensure that. A comparable situation to the blitz would be to forcefully enter someone’s home, prevent them from escaping, and cough into their face in an effort to infect them.</p>
<p>On a more general note, I believe I have identified altruism as the core evil behind lockdown policies, building off Ayn Rand’s work. There is a great interview <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RFlPmjUbRo" rel="ugc">here</a> in which she explains the main problems with altruism. In short, it is the idea that one must place others’ interests above one’s own; that one must live for others; that “the sole justification of [man’s] existence is the service he renders to others and that self-sacrifice is his basic virtue, value, and duty.” Going beyond the data a bit and looking at the explanations that cause people’s decisions, there seems to be a tacit, underlying assumption that it is one citizen’s duty to ensure the health of another. That one man has a “mortgage,” as Rand likes to call it, on another’s life, in this instance to have his health provided for him.</p>
<p>Then there is another tacit assumption built on top of the altruistic attitude, namely that it is morally legitimate for a third party—the government—to <em>force</em> one man to ensure the health of another, and to sacrifice his life to do so by, e.g., destroying his business by forcefully closing it down.</p>
<p>As Rand points out in the interview, nobody has ever explained why it should be one man’s job to ensure the health (or wealth, etc.) of another, much less why it should be morally legitimate to force him to do so. I suspect that future opponents of yours would not be able to explain why, either.</p>
<p>After mentioning this to people with whom I discuss lockdowns, they usually refer back to ICU numbers being catastrophic as the overriding concern. But that’s not an argument in favor of altruism—it’s a dodge. Perhaps ICU numbers could be improved by <em>convincing</em> people to stay home—assuming that would actually help—but lockdown supporters do not seem to consider persuasion a valuable tool to have in one’s tool belt. Others point to the status quo of the welfare state which likewise rests on altruism—but using the altruistic status quo to justify altruism is circular. Lastly, altruists like to cast those who don’t want to be sacrificed on the altar of altruism as “selfish"—but is there anything more selfish than forcing others to give up their lives for one’s health?</p>
</blockquote>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/lockdowns-are-a-collectivist-altruist-nightmare
Lockdowns Are a Collectivist-Altruist Nightmare
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="second-interview-with-david-deutsch-zweites-interview-mit-david-deutsch">Second Interview with David Deutsch / Zweites Interview mit David Deutsch</h1>
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<div class="col-6">As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoem4rRDms0&lc=UgyoD0yUlYH77JY3bEB4AaABAg">requested</a>, the following is a (only lightly edited) transcript of my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoem4rRDms0">second interview</a> with David Deutsch about his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, which I translated into German. The translation is available for purchase <a href="http://www.deranfangderunendlichkeit.de/kaufen#kaufen">here</a>. You can find an English transcript of our first interview <a href="https://www.bretthall.org/david-deutsch-interview-in-german.html">here</a> and the video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHm88w_BnMU">here</a>.</div>
<div class="col-6">Im Folgenden finden Sie, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoem4rRDms0&lc=UgyoD0yUlYH77JY3bEB4AaABAg">wie gewünscht</a>, eine (nur leicht überarbeitete) Abschrift meines <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoem4rRDms0">zweiten Interviews</a> mit David Deutsch über sein Buch <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em>, das ich ins Deutsche übersetzt habe. Die Übersetzung ist <a href="http://www.deranfangderunendlichkeit.de/kaufen#kaufen">hier</a> erhältlich. Eine englische Abschrift unseres ersten Interviews finden Sie <a href="https://www.bretthall.org/david-deutsch-interview-in-german.html">hier</a> und das Video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHm88w_BnMU">hier</a>.</div>
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<p><hr></p>
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<div class="col-6">Dennis Hackethal (DH): Last time we spoke about superintelligence. And we concluded that there can’t be such a thing as superintelligence because there’s a universality underlying the human mind, and every other intelligence, artificial or not, would have that in common with us. And as you said earlier in that interview, there can be no such thing as something to us as we are to apes, for example.</div>
<div class="col-6">Dennis Hackethal (DH): Letztes Mal sprachen wir über Überintelligenz/Superintelligenz. Und wir kamen zu dem Schluss, dass es so etwas wie Überintelligenz nicht geben kann, weil dem menschlichen Verstand eine Universalität zugrunde liegt, die jede andere Intelligenz, ob künstlich oder nicht, mit uns gemeinsam hätte. Und wie Sie bereits in jenem Interview sagten, kann es nichts geben, das in einem Verhältnis zu uns steht, wie wir zum Beispiel zu Affen stehen.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DH: This brings us to the question of our role in the cosmos in general. For example, you say that for centuries we believed that we were at the center of the universe, that the sun and the stars revolved around us, and that there were gods who take great interest in what we down here on earth do. So everything was about us. This is anthropocentrism – the idea that people are at the center, that they’re the most important thing. Most explanations of everyday phenomena were anthropocentric.</div>
<div class="col-6">DH: Das bringt uns zu der Frage, welche Stellung wir im Kosmos einnehmen. Sie schreiben zum Beispiel, wir hätten jahrhundertelang geglaubt, dass wir im Zentrum des Universums stehen, dass sich die Sonne und die Sterne um uns drehen und dass es Götter gibt, die sich sehr dafür interessieren, was wir hier unten auf der Erde tun. Also drehte sich alles um uns. Das ist der Anthropozentrismus – die Vorstellung, dass der Mensch im Mittelpunkt steht, dass er das Wichtigste ist. Die meisten Erklärungen für Alltagsphänomene waren anthropozentrisch.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DH: But nowadays many people in the West have since decided not to take anthropocentric approaches. And now our most fundamental explanations don’t involve humans at all. Our best explanations in physics are about things like forces or space and time. So one could conclude, as many scientifically minded people do nowadays, that people aren’t that important at all. But you take issue with this.</div>
<div class="col-6">DH: Doch heutzutage haben viele Menschen im Westen beschlossen, keine anthropozentrischen Ansätze mehr zu verfolgen. Unsere grundlegendsten Erklärungen haben mit dem Menschen nichts mehr zu tun. Unsere besten Erklärungen in der Physik beziehen sich auf Dinge wie Kräfte oder Raum und Zeit. Man könnte also zu dem Schluss kommen, wie es viele wissenschaftlich denkende Menschen heutzutage tun, dass der Mensch gar nicht so wichtig ist. Aber Sie widersprechen dem.</div>
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<div class="col-6">David Deutsch (DD): Yes. And the fact that there are only two kinds of entities in the world – the ones that can create explanatory knowledge and the ones that don’t – the connection between those two things is via the laws of physics; via the universality of the laws of physics. The universality that links us with all possible AGIs (artificial general intelligences), extraterrestrial intelligences, and so on, is precisely the universality of the laws of physics. So it’s an interesting fact that we got the concept of universal laws of physics by distancing ourselves more and more from anthropocentrism. When we had completely finished this process and got round to the modern concept of universal laws of physics, universal laws of computation, of evolution, and so on, we finally got round to realizing that that puts us at the center of things in a completely different way. Or I would say, two ways.</div>
<div class="col-6">David Deutsch (DD): Ja. Und die Tatsache, dass es nur zwei Arten von Entitäten auf der Welt gibt – diejenigen, die erklärendes Wissen schaffen können, und diejenigen, die das nicht tun – der Zusammenhang zwischen diesen beiden Dingen ergibt sich durch die physikalischen Gesetze; durch die Universalität der physikalischen Gesetze. Die Universalität, die uns mit allen nur möglichen KAIs (künstlichen allgemeinen Intelligenzen), außerirdischen Intelligenzen usw. verbindet, ist ebendiese Universalität der physikalischen Gesetze. Es ist also interessant, dass wir das Konzept der universellen physikalischen Gesetze erlangten, indem wir uns mehr und mehr vom Anthropozentrismus entfernten. Als wir diesen Prozess vollständig abgeschlossen hatten und zu dem modernen Konzept der universellen physikalischen Gesetze, der universellen Gesetze der Berechnung, der Evolution und so weiter gekommen waren, stellten wir schließlich fest, dass wir damit auf eine ganz andere Weise im Mittelpunkt der Dinge stehen. Oder ich würde sagen, auf zwei Weisen.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DD: One is that the testability that scientific theories have produces a link between understanding the world and controlling it, because controlling it is always putting to the test an understanding of it. And the understanding has got to be testable, therefore we can control more and more of the world, and the more of it we understand. There’s also the other way round, that simply to understand humans – and I’ve put this argument in the book – one must understand the laws of physics <em>in their entirety</em>, because in order to understand when the team of scientists are going to pop the champaign cork, and you regard that as a physical system, you want to predict when or whether it will pop the champagne cork, you must understand whether they are going to succeed in understanding the thing they’re trying to understand, which could be <em>anything</em>. It could be something about distant galaxies, about quarks… and it could be something about biology or morality or whatever. When they succeed, they will pop the champaign cork; if you want to predict that, you need to know the truth of the matter that they’re investigating. So to understand humans – just humans – you need to understand everything. And, conversely, as I said initially, humans can affect anything and eventually control anything that’s controllable.</div>
<div class="col-6">DD: Eine davon lautet, dass die Überprüfbarkeit wissenschaftlicher Theorien einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Verständnis der Welt und der Kontrolle über sie herstellt, denn die Kontrolle über sie bedeutet immer, dass ein Verständnis der Welt überprüft wird. Und das Verständnis muss überprüfbar sein, weshalb wir die Welt immer besser kontrollieren können, je mehr wir über sie wissen. Um den Menschen zu verstehen – und dieses Argument habe ich in meinem Buch angeführt –, müsste man die physikalischen Gesetze <em>komplett</em> verstehen, denn um zu verstehen, wann das Team von Wissenschaftlern den Champagnerkorken knallen lässt – Sie betrachten das als ein physikalisches System und Sie wollen vorhersagen, wann oder ob dieses Team den Champagnerkorken knallen lässt –, müssen Sie verstehen, ob es ihnen gelingen wird, den Sachverhalt zu verstehen, den sie zu verstehen versuchen. Und dabei könnte es sich ja um alles <em>mögliche</em> handeln. Es könnte mit fernen Galaxien zu tun haben, mit Quarks … und es könnte mit der Biologie zu tun haben oder mit der Moral oder was auch immer. Wenn es ihnen gelingt, werden sie den Champagnerkorken knallen lassen; wenn man das vorhersagen will, muss man die Wahrheit hinter dem Sachverhalt kennen, den sie erforschen. Um den Menschen zu verstehen – bloß den Menschen –, muss man also alles verstehen. Umgekehrt kann der Mensch, wie ich eingangs sagte, alles beeinflussen und schließlich alles kontrollieren, was kontrollierbar ist.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DH: So humans play a <em>central</em> role in the cosmos – perhaps the <em>most</em> significant role that anything <em>could</em> play.</div>
<div class="col-6">DH: Der Mensch nimmt also eine <em>zentrale</em> Stellung im Kosmos ein – vielleicht die <em>bedeutsamste</em> Stellung, die es überhaupt <em>gibt</em>.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DD: Yes, I think it’s a candidate for the most significant. I mean, if someone says ‘oh no, it’s spacetime that’s the most significant’, well maybe – but certainly humans are up there in that they are completely indispensable for understanding, ultimately.</div>
<div class="col-6">DD: Ja, ich denke, sie ist ein Kandidat. Gut, wenn jetzt jemand sagt: »Ach nein, es ist die Raumzeit, die am bedeutsamsten ist«, nun ja, vielleicht – aber der Mensch ist auf jeden Fall ganz vorne dabei, weil er für unser Verständnis letztlich völlig unerlässlich ist.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DH: Let’s get to the multiverse. You are a famous proponent of the so-called many-universes ‘interpretation’ [<em>signals air quotes on the word ‘interpretation’</em>] of quantum physics. How is this interpretation different from… like, what are the contenders and how is it different from them.</div>
<div class="col-6">DH: Lassen Sie uns zum Multiversum kommen. Sie sind ein berühmter Verfechter der sogenannten Viele-Universen-›Interpretation‹ [<em>signalisiert Anführungszeichen beim Wort ›Interpretation‹</em>] der Quantenphysik. Wie unterscheidet sich diese Interpretation von … also, wie lauten die Mitstreitertheorien und wie unterscheidet sie sich von ihnen.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DD: Well, as you’ve just indicated with your air quotes, I don’t think there are any other contenders. There are various versions of this many-worlds or many-universes interpretation – really it should be called Everettian quantum theory. It’s not an interpretation, it’s just what quantum theory says when taken seriously. There are several different versions of it, including rather far-removed ones, but in order to explain what brings about the experimental results that we see in just ordinary quantum-optics laboratories one must take on board the multiplicity of reality.</div>
<div class="col-6">DD: Nun, wie Sie gerade mit Ihren Anführungszeichen angedeutet haben, glaube ich nicht, dass es noch andere Mitstreiter gibt. Es gibt verschiedene Versionen dieser Viele-Welten- oder Viele-Universen-Interpretation – eigentlich sollte sie Everett’sche Quantentheorie genannt werden. Es handelt sich nicht um eine Interpretation, sondern nur um das, was die Quantentheorie aussagt, wenn man sie ernst nimmt. Es gibt verschiedene Versionen davon, auch ziemlich weit hergeholte, aber um zu erklären, was zu den experimentellen Resultaten führt, die wir in ganz gewöhnlichen quantenoptischen Labors beobachten, muss man die Mannigfaltigkeit der Realität in Betracht ziehen.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DD: That is, when we do the experiment, there are many instances of us doing the experiment in parallel, or almost in parallel. You can predict the results without assuming that, but that’s just an empty prediction – it doesn’t explain how they come about. Therefore, it doesn’t involve any understanding. It just involves predicting, as in: I might tell somebody how to switch my TV on and how to reach a certain channel, but that is completely different from explaining to them how a TV works, or understanding how it works, or building a better TV. You cannot build a better TV just by being told what will happen when you press the remote. And it’s the same with physics in general.</div>
<div class="col-6">DD: Das heißt, wenn wir das Experiment durchführen, gibt es viele Exemplare von uns, die das Experiment parallel oder nahezu parallel durchführen. Man kann die Resultate vorhersagen, ohne dies vorauszusetzen, aber dann handelt es sich nur um eine leere Vorhersage – sie erklärt nicht, wie die Resultate zustande kommen. Es ginge dabei also nicht darum, etwas zu verstehen, sondern nur um Vorhersagen. Zum Beispiel könnte ich jemandem sagen, wie er meinen Fernseher einschalten und einen bestimmten Sender empfangen kann, aber das unterscheidet sich grundlegend davon, ihm zu erklären, wie ein Fernseher funktioniert, oder vom Verständnis, wie er funktioniert, oder von der Herstellung eines besseren Fernsehers. Man kann keinen besseren Fernseher herstellen, wenn man lediglich erklärt bekommt, was passiert, wenn man die Fernbedienung drückt. Ebenso verhält es sich mit der Physik im Allgemeinen.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DD: So we need this multiplicity of universes, of realities or whatever you want to call them. We don’t have good language for it yet – our language is built on the assumption that only one thing happens. But in fact, many things happen, and we understand it very well now – much better than Everett himself did in the 1950s. And it is simply the only contender for an explanation of what happens to bring about the experimental results.</div>
<div class="col-6">DD: Wir brauchen also diese Vielzahl von Universen, von Realitäten oder wie man sie auch nennen will. Wir haben noch keine gute Ausdrucksweise dafür – unsere Sprache beruht auf der Annahme, dass nur ein Ereignis stattfindet. Aber in Wirklichkeit finden viele Ereignisse statt, und wir verstehen das jetzt sehr gut – viel besser als Everett selbst in den 1950er Jahren. Und dies ist einfach der einzige Kandidat für eine Erklärung dessen, was passiert, um die experimentellen Resultate zu bewirken.</div>
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<div class="col-6">DH: You say in the chapter about the multiverse that every fiction that does not violate the laws of physics is fact. Why is that the case?</div>
<div class="col-6">DH: In dem Kapitel über das Multiversum schreiben Sie, dass jede Fiktion, die nicht gegen die physikalischen Gesetze verstößt, Fakt ist. Warum ist das der Fall?</div>
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<div class="col-6">DD: That is the case because physical objects do not have sharp positions. ‘Sharp’ in this terminology means ‘the same in all universes’. The laws of quantum physics require that there is no such thing as a completely sharp position of a particle or of a person; no such thing as a completely sharp configuration of a person, or of their thoughts. And so there are always a few universes doing maverick things. When I say ‘a few’, I really mean a tiny number, like 2<sup>-(2<sup>100</sup>)</sup>. But still, that’s not zero. This doesn’t affect things like decisions, it doesn’t affect what we should do when we’re betting on poker games or horse races, but it does mean that if you’re talking about existence, very strange things exist somewhere in the multiverse.</div>
<div class="col-6">DD: Das ist deshalb der Fall, weil sich physische Objekte nicht an scharfen Orten befinden. ›Scharf‹ bedeutet in dieser Terminologie ›in allen Universen gleich‹. Die quantenphysikalischen Gesetze verlangen, dass es keinen völlig scharfen Ort eines Teilchens oder einer Person gibt; keine völlig scharfe Konfiguration einer Person oder ihrer Gedanken. Und so gibt es immer ein paar Universen, die Einzelgänger sind. Mit ›ein paar‹ meine ich wirklich eine winzige Zahl, etwa 2<sup>-(2<sup>100</sup>)</sup>. Aber trotzdem ist das nicht null. Das hat keinen Einfluss auf Entscheidungen, es hat keinen Einfluss darauf, was wir tun sollten, wenn wir Poker spielen oder auf Pferde wetten, aber es bedeutet im Hinblick auf die Frage, was es wirklich gibt, dass es irgendwo im Multiversum sehr seltsame Dinge gibt.</div>
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<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">DD: Now, having stressed that point, let me just claw that back a little in regard to the brain and thinking, because thinking is an <em>error-correction process</em>, and there are errors arising constantly in the brain – glitches, both electrical and due to temporary failed understanding which we later correct, either purely by hardware methods where the majority of neurons are saying that the minority are wrong, or by recognizing errors. So the proportion of universes in which our <em>brain</em> does something maverick is exponentially smaller again because error correction is exponentially efficient. By the way, that is true whether we are classical computers or quantum computers. So really, for all practical purposes, the existence of maverick versions of ourselves is negligible. But they are there, and that’s why I said that they are there – in other words, all stories that do not violate the laws of physics happen somewhere. But the ones that do violate the laws of physics don’t happen because they are uniform, they’re universal – they’re uniform across the multiverse.</div>
<div class="col-6">DD: Lassen Sie mich diesen Punkt in Bezug auf das Gehirn und das Denken ein wenig zurückschrauben, denn das Denken ist ein Prozess, <em>der Fehler korrigiert</em>, und im Gehirn treten ständig Fehler auf – also Störungen, sowohl elektrische als auch solche, die auf ein vorübergehendes Unverständnis zurückzuführen sind, das wir später korrigieren, entweder durch reine Hardwaremethoden, bei denen die Mehrheit der Neuronen sagt, dass die Minderheit falsch liegt, oder durch das Feststellen von Fehlern. Der Anteil der Universen, in denen unser <em>Gehirn</em> ein Einzelgänger ist, ist also wiederum exponentiell kleiner, weil die Fehlerkorrektur exponentiell effizient ist. Das gilt übrigens unabhängig davon, ob wir klassische Computer oder Quantencomputer sind. In der Praxis ist die Existenz von Einzelgängerversionen unserer selbst also zu vernachlässigen. Aber es gibt sie, und deshalb habe ich gesagt, dass es sie gibt – mit anderen Worten: Alle Erzählungen, die nicht gegen die physikalischen Gesetze verstoßen, finden irgendwo statt. Aber diejenigen, die doch gegen die physikalischen Gesetze verstoßen, finden nicht statt, weil sie einheitlich sind. Sie sind universell – sie sind über das gesamte Multiversum hinweg einheitlich.</div>
</div>
<p><div class="row my-2"><br>
<div class="col-6">DH: This is fascinating because i…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/second-interview-with-david-deutsch-zweites-in" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/second-interview-with-david-deutsch-zweites-in</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/second-interview-with-david-deutsch-zweites-in
Second Interview with David Deutsch / Zweites Interview mit David Deutsch
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-strongest-and-weakest-argument">The Strongest and Weakest Argument</h1>
<p>Instagram advertised <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CTnw99BL40r/" rel="ugc">a post</a> to me that says:</p>
<blockquote><p>If you can’t name the other side’s strongest argument, you haven’t critically thought through the issue</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and</p>
<blockquote><p>If you can’t name your own side’s weakest argument, you haven’t critically thought through the issue [either]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’ve known this but I like seeing it expressed so clearly and explicitly. In addition to stating how one’s mind could be changed, I believe these are key ways to be critical of one’s positions.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-strongest-and-weakest-argument
The Strongest and Weakest Argument
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="government-and-parenting">Government and Parenting</h1>
<p>There are many parallels between government and parenting. They include:</p>
<table class="table table-sm my-4">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Commonality</th>
<th>Government</th>
<th>Parenting</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Control over a jurisdiction</td>
<td>Territory</td>
<td>Family home</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The presence of a ruler</td>
<td>The king, president, chancellor, etc.</td>
<td>Parents</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The presence of subjects</td>
<td>The people</td>
<td>Children</td>
</tr>
<td>Force/punishment against subjects</td>
<td>Jail</td>
<td>Being grounded</td>
</tr>
<td>Unsolicited involvement in subjects’ affairs</td>
<td colspan="2" class="text-center">Forbidding drug use; curfews, forced vaccinations</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>There are additional parallels, but also some differences between government and parenting which vary in size and applicability. For example, parents don’t usually steal money from their children, whereas government steals money from its subjects through what it euphemistically calls ‘taxation’. But here, I want to focus on the similarities. And the biggest similarity, I think, is that both government and parenting are, at heart, <em>epistemological</em> projects.</p>
<p>Since children usually outlive their parents, one of the primary goals of a parent is to ensure that his children will one day be able to live without him. That takes <em>knowledge</em>. As children get older, they gradually create more knowledge, which in turn enables them to become more and more independent. This process involves the parent reducing his interference in his children’s lives step by step. Sustained interference, on the other hand, makes the road to independence more difficult.</p>
<p>Children are born cosmologists. They <em>want</em> to understand the world and explore and navigate it independently. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that while solicited guidance is welcome, sustained and/or unsolicited interference in a child’s life, especially as he gets older, leads to much frustration for both the child and the parent – even when done, as parents never fail to claim, for the best of reasons.</p>
<p>While society still encourages parents to rule <em>young</em> children with an iron fist, it looks down on those who wish to rule their adult children beyond some culturally acceptable threshold. This is one of the major cultural achievements of the West and cannot be said of other parts of the world where parents continue to exercise their often tyrannical control over their adult children until death.</p>
<p>Stranger, still, than a parent who wishes to have ever more control over his adult child’s life would be a <em>child</em> who wishes to become more dependent on his parents; who wants his parents to control his life and his siblings’ lives <em>more</em> as he grows older. And yet, this is precisely the situation we find ourselves in when applied to politics, considering our fellow man as our sibling and the government as our parent: the jealous bum ratting out his more successful sibling, getting the government to forcefully extract money from that sibling to give to the bum, to regulate the sibling’s business, to force the sibling to get vaccinated, etc. It’s like a child who wants his parents to force his siblings to share their toys with him, but either fails to see that this also increases his siblings’ and parents’ control over <em>him</em>, or, worse, <em>wants</em> to be controlled in that way. I believe this attitude toward one’s peers and oneself is <a href="/posts/violent-paternalism" rel="ugc">a pessimistic one</a>.</p>
<p>So, much like a child who has a healthy and natural interest in becoming truly independent and living life completely self-directed, every citizen should have the same interest when it comes to the government. He should feel a revolting disgust every time regulations are extended, every time he pays his taxes. (Imagine how utterly disgusted and wronged you would feel if your parents forced you, at the threat of violence, to give them part of your paycheck.)</p>
<p>A society requires <em>knowledge</em> to live without government. That’s partly why <a href="/posts/a-programmer-s-guide-to-revolutions" rel="ugc">revolutions</a> tend to fail. A good government, just like a good parent, has an interest in <em>reducing</em> influence over its subjects and increasing their independence. The idea of <em>limited</em> government is a lie: it must be a <em>continuously shrinking</em> government until it reaches <em>size zero</em>.</p>
<p>At the time of its founding, the United States’ government was so small it presented a promising path toward the truly free and government-less existence of its subjects. But over the centuries, despite all the talk of freedom and limited government, it has grown into a humongous apparatus that inserts itself into the lives of its subjects in as many ways as possible, it would seem – both solicited and unsolicited. Even when the American people <em>try</em> to solve their problems themselves – such as through cryptocurrency, be that a good or a bad idea – the government immediately wants to sink its parasitic, regulatory teeth into the issue. Regulation actively hinders the citizens’ growth of knowledge and makes them more dependent upon and controlled by the government. This is why Trump’s goal of getting rid of two regulations whenever a new one is introduced was a breath of fresh air. Like him or not, with Biden, this attitude has surely left the White House.</p>
<p>As children, we all rightly yearned to be free from our controlling parents. But as adults, our parents were replaced with a new authority: government. It seems that for some reason, many of us do not yearn to be free from <em>this</em> tyrant. There’s something deeply wrong with that. Changing this state of affairs will involve a gradual process of turning the tyrant more benevolent (this has partly happened in the West with some success); putting ever more of the tyrant’s knowledge in the hands of the citizens; and then the tyrant voluntarily and actively making himself obsolete.</p>
<p>A child cannot grow up without a parent. In the same way, society cannot work – at first! – without government. We’ve only come a few hundred years since the enlightenment, so we’re teenagers of sorts in our quest for freedom. As a society, we should not want to return to our ruler’s warm (or not so warm) embrace – we should want to live freely.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Logan Chipkin for reading a draft of this article.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/government-and-parenting
Government and Parenting
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="konrad-lorenz-hacked-animals">Konrad Lorenz Hacked Animals</h1>
<p>Konrad Lorenz was a well-known Austrian zoologist. He was famous, at least in part, for his experiments with geese.</p>
<p>He popularized what’s known as <em>imprinting</em>. One example of imprinting is that during the early developmental stages of goslings, the first moving object they see is what they consider their ‘mother’. They will follow it around and make ‘distressed’ noises when not near it. You may be able to find an English translation of his endearing essay <a href="https://www.gigers.com/ernst/Sprache/Gaensekind%20Martina.pdf" rel="ugc"><em>Das Gänsekind Martina</em></a> (‘The Goose Child Martina’) somewhere. In it, he describes in detail the first time he became a gosling’s ‘father’.</p>
<p>For a while now, I’ve been arguing in favor of David Deutsch’s view that animals are unconscious robots because all they do is mindlessly execute inborn algorithms which are the result of biological evolution. Imprinting provides particularly interesting evidence of how easy to fool and robotic animals are, which is in line with the view that they’re not sentient.</p>
<p>Lorenz became gosling Martina’s father by accident. He wanted to watch her hatch and then stuck around a bit longer to watch her first moments. She soon looked at him intently until he moved and made a sound. Afterwards, whenever he tried to leave her, she would make what one might consider, as I said, ‘desperate’ sounds and ran after him whenever she saw him. At night, she woke up every 60 to 75 minutes to make a sound that Lorenz interpreted to mean something like ‘I’m here, where are you?’, and she wouldn’t stop until Lorenz responded. It makes sense that in nature, where being separated from the mother at a young age means certain death, genes which code for this behavior spread through the gene pool.</p>
<p>You can see imprinted geese following Lorenz around in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGyfcBfSj4M" rel="ugc">this video</a> (ignore the annoying ‘aren’t animals mysterious and magical’ music).</p>
<p>The reason I say Lorenz <em>hacked</em> certain animals is that he understood, in detail, how to use loopholes to manipulate them into doing certain things, the same way hackers do with computers. (To be clear, I use the terms ‘hack’ and ‘manipulate’ in a neutral way like programmers do. I’m not criticizing Lorenz or saying he did something immoral.)</p>
<p>People also hack animals by imitating their calls or teaching them tricks. Hacking animals, like hacking computers, consists of using weak spots in their programming and security to gain access to privileged information or to perform privileged actions. Sometimes animals hack each other, like when parasitic birds lay eggs in other birds’ nests and get them to raise their chicks to avoid the burden of child rearing.</p>
<p>To understand just how robotic imprinting is, consider smartphones that can be unlocked by looking at the screen. To set up this feature, you go through a ‘training phase’ during which you look at your phone and tilt it at different angles. Throughout this process, the phone uses the front camera to scan your face and ‘learn’ what you look like. This is essentially the process Martina went through, albeit with a couple of differences: imprinting works only shortly after birth and cannot be undone. (Imprinting is not the only example of how robotic geese are – there are several additional examples in Lorenz’ essay.)</p>
<p>This similarity between phone ‘imprinting’ and goose imprinting leads me to believe that humans’ programming skills have pretty much caught up with animal software, if not exceeded it. The same cannot be said of hardware – we have yet to build robots that can fly as well as condors or run as fast as cheetahs. We don’t even know yet how to build self-replicating hardware, which is something self-replicating molecules ‘figured out’ billions of years ago. Which in turn leads me to believe that biological evolution has developed rich knowledge about how to build hardware, but less knowledge about how to write sophisticated software for its hardware.</p>
<p>Much of animal research involves understanding, meaning mentally replicating, animals’ algorithms. Such as when Karl von Frisch figured out what the bees’ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance" rel="ugc">waggle dance</a> means and how it works.</p>
<p>I’m no expert on Lorenz’ work, but I suspect he never concluded that the geese he worked with were just unconscious little robots, uncritically and mindlessly executing their genes’ instructions. In a conversation with Popper decades after Martina, he says he thinks roosters are conscious.* In a way, hacking goes both ways: animal researchers like Lorenz hack animals in the sense that they understand how animals work and get animals to do stuff, while some animals unwittingly hack humans in that they ‘get’ humans to fall in love with and anthropomorphize them.</p>
<hr>
<p>* <small>Karl Popper, <em>Alle Menschen sind Philosophen</em>, eds. Heidi Bohnet, Klaus Stadler, 8th edition 2018, Piper, Munich, p. 49.</small></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/konrad-lorenz-hacked-animals
Konrad Lorenz Hacked Animals
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="why-do-people-make-mistakes">Why Do People Make Mistakes?</h1>
<p>When I was a child, I asked my mother why people make mistakes. Instead of answering the question, she scoffed at it – presumably because she didn’t take it literally and reinterpreted it to mean something like ‘people shouldn’t make mistakes’ or ‘how can people avoid mistakes?’. But that’s not what I meant. I wanted to understand, literally, why people make them. I wanted to understand their origin and the nature of human fallibility.</p>
<p>Little did I know that I was asking a key epistemological question, one that not only explains fallibility, but also our potential for progress. And key epistemological questions are relevant to the field of <em>artificial general intelligence</em>.</p>
<p>To answer the question, let’s take a brief excursion into the animal kingdom. Sharks are said to have retained a roughly identical genetic makeup for a very long time. The same is said of some kinds of bacteria. That must mean both sharks’ and those bacteria’s genes have discovered far-reaching solutions to both past and novel problems. They’re well adapted to a wide range of changing circumstances – maybe even certain circumstances they have never encountered before – but of course, they’re not adapted to dealing with <em>all</em> kinds of circumstances.</p>
<p>For example, billions of years from now, the sun will explode. A huge asteroid could strike the earth well before then. Both events would decimate the earth’s surface. Sharks with roughly the same genetic makeup as today will have no way of dealing with either challenge, so they will go extinct. Less dramatically, sharks cannot even survive on land. For sharks to never go extinct without their genes ever creating any new knowledge, no matter the change in circumstances, they would have to have already found the perfect solution to all possible problems in advance.</p>
<p>The same would need to be true of people. To never make any mistakes, they’d need to have already found the perfect solution to all possible problems they might encounter.</p>
<p>It is intuitively clear that no such perfect solution can exist. But why not, exactly? Maybe there’s a simple formula people could follow which will always lead them to success. Maybe we just haven’t discovered that formula yet.</p>
<p>Asking why such a perfect solution cannot exist is essentially the same as asking why people inevitably make mistakes. I believe it is this: <em>problems are unpredictable</em>.</p>
<p>To be sure, <em>some</em> problems can be predicted with some confidence. For example, many (most?) married couples will go through a divorce. And even if they stay together till death do them part, they will get into some fights. We may not know in advance what those fights will be about, but we know they’ll get into some.</p>
<p>Other problems have a different character: <em>they’re utterly unpredictable</em>. For example, before the invention of computers, people could not have known that hacking could become a problem. Before the discovery of fossil fuels, people could not have known that tyrants may one day try to make their consumption more difficult. And so on. So, while not every particular problem is unpredictable, problems in general are, and whether some unpredictable problem will one day become predictable is itself unpredictable.</p>
<p>Both kinds of unpredictability of problems follow directly from 1) the deep unpredictability of the growth of knowledge and 2) the fact that all such growth comes with new, better problems. David Deutsch has written about these two core epistemological facts in his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>. In short, if you can’t predict new knowledge, you also can’t predict the new problems it will cause.</p>
<p>A defensive ‘strategy’ against new problems could then be to avoid the creation of new knowledge. (As Deutsch has written, this was the dominating strategy for much of history, and it’s making a comeback in what’s called the <em>precautionary principle</em>, which says to avoid everything that’s not known to be safe.) If the creation of knowledge is unpredictable in principle and leads to unpredictable problems, maybe those problems can be avoided by <em>not</em> creating knowledge – or so it could be argued.</p>
<p>This approach is a recipe for disaster because it leads to stasis. An individual or society bent on never creating new knowledge would be even <em>less</em> able to predict, let alone deal with, new problems, which can still arise because the creation of knowledge is not the only source of new problems. As Deutsch writes in chapter 17 of the referenced book:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is a saying that an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure. But that is only when one knows what to prevent. No precautions can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee. To prepare for those, there is nothing we can do but increase our ability to put things right if they go wrong. Trying to rely on the sheer good luck of avoiding bad outcomes indefinitely would simply guarantee that we would eventually fail without the means of recovering.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think it’s not quite right that “[n]o precautions can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee.” <em>Some</em> precautions may have some limited <em>reach</em> into the unforeseen, to invoke another Deutschian concept (chapter 1). But his general point stands.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, you have a choice between only two alternatives: you can either create new knowledge or you can decide not to. There is no third way. In both cases, you will run into new problems, and in both cases it’s due to a lack of knowledge.</p>
<p>In chapter 3 of that same book, Deutsch carves into stone two epistemological insights: that “problems are inevitable” and that “problems are soluble”. In light of the above discussion, I suggest adding a third stone plate:</p>
<div class="jumbotron text-center my-4 my-md-5 stone-plate">
<h1 class="display-4">PROBLEMS ARE UNPREDICTABLE</h1>
</div>
<p>Because problems are unpredictable, our knowledge, though always improvable, will forever be less than ideal in some ways and horribly inadequate in others. That’s why any hypothetical ‘formula for success’ cannot exist. And that’s why people make mistakes.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/why-do-people-make-mistakes
Why Do People Make Mistakes?
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="choosing-between-theories">Choosing between Theories</h1>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/krazyander" rel="ugc">Kieren</a> has <a href="https://twitter.com/krazyander/status/1452804799682920450" rel="ugc">asked</a> about how to choose between (conflicting) theories:</p>
<blockquote><p>Well, aside from violent shakings :) a path forward for me would be a Popperian solution to the practical problem of induction (choosing between different theories for practical purposes).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/%7Eucessjb/Salmon.pdf" rel="ugc">http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucessjb/Salmon.pdf</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’ve skimmed the beginning of the paper by Salmon which Kieren linked to, and found this sentence on p. 117 noteworthy:</p>
<blockquote><p>[…] Popper’s account of scientific knowledge involves generalisations and their observational tests.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That sounds like a misrepresentation of Popper’s account of scientific knowledge, which account is not about generalizations, but <em>explanations</em>, which can’t be obtained by generalizing, only through guesses and criticism.</p>
<p>Salmon references a work I do not own and do not wish to purchase at this time, so it’s hard to say whether he’s wrong or I’m wrong. Which brings us, again, to the question of how to choose between conflicting theories (or claims in this case). The problem is that of <em>breaking symmetry</em>, which is an idea by Elliot Temple, see <a href="https://curi.us/1470-symmetry" rel="ugc">Curiosity – Symmetry</a> and <a href="https://curi.us/1978-epistemology" rel="ugc">Curiosity – Epistemology</a>.</p>
<p>Just knowing that two ideas conflict doesn’t tell you which one is wrong (assuming they really do conflict, and assuming only one of them is wrong). As Elliot writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>“X contradicts Y” means that “Y contradicts X”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So the ideas are symmetric in that way, and to make progress, you need to find a way of “breaking the symmetry”, as Elliot calls it.</p>
<p>Justificationism, for example, serves as a way to break symmetry. You can ask: which idea has received more support/is better justified etc? If one believes that justificationism can do this job, then one won’t want to get rid of it without replacement. Which is fair, and which is why it’s not enough to point out to people that justificationism is false. They still need a way to break symmetries, so an alternative is needed.</p>
<p>In his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (chapter 1), David Deutsch suggests looking at how “hard to vary” an explanation is. As in: can we make arbitrary changes to an explanation without it losing its ability to explain the phenomenon it purports to explain? This is useful, but when comparing two different explanations, I know of no way to methodically compare their ‘hardness to vary’. In some cases it’s more or less apparent – like when comparing, as Deutsch does, a Greek myth that ‘explains’ the seasons by invoking gods to today’s axis-tilt theory: you could replace one Greek god with another and you’d still be able to explain the seasons. The axis-tilt theory, on the other hand, is hard to vary without it breaking apart. It’s not easy to replace the earth’s axis with something else and not ruin the explanation in the process. But when comparing other theories, breaking the symmetry using ‘hardness to vary’ can be more difficult, particularly when both seem roughly equally hard or easy to vary.</p>
<p>For example, Kieren is looking for a way to break symmetry between the two opposing claims ‘consciousness requires creativity’ and ‘consciousness does not require creativity’. Deutsch has spoken in favor of the former:</p>
<blockquote><p>My guess is that every AI is a person: a general-purpose explainer. It is conceivable that there are other levels of universality between AI and ‘universal explainer/constructor’, and perhaps separate levels for those associated attributes like consciousness. But those attributes all seem to have arrived in one jump to universality in humans, and, although we have little explanation of any of them, I know of no plausible argument that they are at different levels or can be achieved independently of each other. So I tentatively assume that they cannot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><small>— <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, chapter 7</small></p>
<p>For clarity, one cannot be a general-purpose explainer without being creative. So Deutsch argues that creativity (at least the universal kind, if there are non-universal kinds) makes a general-purpose explainer, which in turn leads to consciousness.</p>
<p>That means Deutsch breaks the symmetry in two ways:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Consciousness (along with other attributes) seems to have arrived in humans together with humans’ ability to explain things. (I have outlined, in detail, <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">how this may have happened</a>.)</li>
<li data-step="2">He knows of “no plausible argument” that consciousness is at a different level than creativity or can be achieved without it.</li>
</ol>
<p>Notably, Deutsch does not use his ‘hard to vary’ criterion to break the symmetry here. He instead invokes a historical guess alongside a lack of alternatives.</p>
<p>Something else you could do is find a contradiction within one of the claims. Or you could find that it conflicts with background knowledge which you currently (and tentatively) deem uncontroversial. (Technically, finding a contradiction is a special case of that, since rejecting contradictions in favor of consistency is an approach that is part of our background knowledge. (Maybe all symmetry breaking involves comparisons with background knowledge in some way?))</p>
<p>For example, I have been asked how I decide between two related claims: that consciousness arises from <em>all</em> information processing vs. just <em>some</em> information processing (namely the creative kind).</p>
<p>I opted to show that the former claim conflicts with background knowledge: if consciousness arises from <em>all</em> information processing, even things like calculators must be conscious. But our best explanations of how calculators work, which are very good and part of our background knowledge in this case, don’t invoke consciousness, so we should conclude that calculators are not conscious. Therefore, it cannot be true that all information processing results in consciousness. We can even <em>build</em> calculators – and people do so all the time – without understanding how consciousness works. (Whereas, if Deutsch is right that consciousness arises from creativity, then we can’t, say, build artificial general intelligence without understanding how consciousness works.)</p>
<p>For the related claim that consciousness requires creativity, here’s how I break the symmetry: consciousness is a property of information processing. All information processing people have done so far (except in their minds) is execution only, not creative, and, like with calculators, does not lead to consciousness. Then there’s the problem with Lamarckism: that the mere execution of existing knowledge cannot result in new knowledge. So I ask: if ‘execution-only’ information processing cannot be where consciousness lives, the only place we have left to go is <em>creative</em> information processing, do we not? I know of no other kind of information processing. (Maybe there’s a ‘destructive’ kind, in the sense of wiping memory on a computer, but destruction can be automated, so it seems to fall under the execution-only kind.)</p>
<p>In other words, we simply run out of alternatives. There seem to be only two: execution-only information processing and creative information processing. Our best explanations of execution-only information processing do not invoke consciousness, so the only place left to go is <em>creative</em> information processing. And with the latter, there’s much more room left since we don’t really understand creative information processing at all while we do understand execution-only information processing pretty well.</p>
<p>I’m not sure breaking the symmetry can be boiled down to a recipe. I’m guessing it is itself a creative act and you can always find new ways to do it. In the context of my <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">neo-Darwinian approach to the mind</a>, the idea that breaks symmetry is the one that has spread through the mind at the expense of its rivals, and whose total number of copies is therefore greater than that of any one of its rivals.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/choosing-between-theories
Choosing between Theories
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="fauci-vs-beagle-puppies">Fauci vs Beagle Puppies</h1>
<p>After Anthony Fauci supported draconian pandemic policies which ruined people’s lives and destroyed businesses, it seems that what has a real chance of bringing him down is his alleged mistreatment of <em>beagles</em>. Yeah, the dogs.</p>
<p>It is being alleged that Fauci’s “National Institutes of Health division provided a grant to a lab in Tunisia to torture and kill dozens of beagle puppies for twisted scientific experiments”, as the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/10/24/lawmakers-slam-anthony-fauci-for-alleged-puppy-experiments/" rel="ugc">writes</a>. $1.68 million (!) of tax money is reported to have been spent on drug experiments which involved 44 beagle puppies.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArrestFauci" rel="ugc">#ArrestFauci</a> is trending on Twitter. I wonder: if it were <em>grown</em> beagles instead of puppies, would people be less enraged?</p>
<p>People get their panties in a bunch over 44 beagle puppies. Oh yeah, fuck all the lives Fauci has ruined and the businesses he has destroyed. Fuck the money that was stolen from people to fund research they wouldn’t have wanted to fund. Let’s worry about <em>44 beagle puppies</em>.</p>
<p>And of course, women jump on the opportunity to show what great, caring people they are, and how hot they are (starting at 1:50 in the linked video):</p>
<blockquote><p>This has got to stop <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArrestFauci?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ArrestFauci</a> <a href="https://t.co/OdGI74emYZ">pic.twitter.com/OdGI74emYZ</a></p>— Gillian McKeith (@GillianMcKeith) <a href="https://twitter.com/GillianMcKeith/status/1452364258356961284?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><small>(Note that some of the information in the video contradicts the NY Post article quoted above.)</small></p>
<p>Isn’t she so stunning and brave for taking a stand against animal ‘cruelty’? Wait – why is she sitting there barefoot, showing skin and cleavage, with makeup on, wearing jewelry as well as a fitted blouse and skin-tight leggings to accentuate her figure? Is she speaking out against animal ‘abuse’ while simultaneously hoping men will want to fuck her?</p>
<p>As I have written before, both in <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">another blog post</a> and in <a href="https://www.windowonintelligence.com/" rel="ugc">my book</a>, animals are not sentient. They cannot suffer. <em>There is no moral problem with animal testing.</em> Also, people don’t seem to realize how important animal testing is. Now, if this is what brings Fauci down, I’ll take it. But people should get their priorities straight. Even if you think animals are sentient, people are much more important, and Fauci fucking them over is what should have caused his downfall long ago – not oh-so-adorable <em>beagle puppies</em>.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/fauci-vs-beagle-puppies
Fauci vs Beagle Puppies
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="breaking-out-of-frames-in-unity">Breaking Out of Frames in Unity</h1>
<p><em>Disclaimer: I’m a mere beginner at Unity and game development generally. I wrote this for myself as I am learning and figured others might find it useful as well. Exercise caution when running this code!</em></p>
<p>TL;DR: Coroutines allow you to divvy up function executions across multiple frames.</p>
<p>While building a first-person shooter from scratch to learn Unity, I ran into the following problem: as the player holds down the mouse, I wanted projectiles to shoot away from the player at a certain interval.</p>
<p>The <code>Update</code> method runs once per frame. That means code run in <code>Update</code> has to finish within a single frame. If you have expensive code you need to run, you shouldn’t do it in <code>Update</code>. And intervals are tricky to do when you’re dealing with frames.</p>
<p>Now, you <em>could</em> theoretically declare a variable in which you store the timestamp at which the user first clicked, then check every frame if, say, 0.1 seconds have passed since, and, if so, fire another projectile, until the user lets go of the mouse.</p>
<p>This should work (though I haven’t tried it, mind you) because shooting a single projectile and performing the time check both fit into a single frame. But this approach isn’t exactly hassle-free. And for more expensive tasks, you’d be out of luck.</p>
<p>There’s a better way: <a href="https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/Coroutines.html" rel="ugc">coroutines</a>. Coroutines allow you to run code <em>across</em> several frames while also giving you precise control over when to start and stop them.</p>
<p>For example, consider this weapon class:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">System.Collections</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">System.Collections.Generic</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">UnityEngine</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Weapon</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">MonoBehaviour</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="n">GameObject</span> <span class="n">projectile</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Update</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetMouseButtonDown</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="m">0</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nf">StartCoroutine</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Shoot"</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span> <span class="k">else</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetMouseButtonUp</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="m">0</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nf">StopCoroutine</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Shoot"</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="k">private</span> <span class="n">IEnumerator</span> <span class="nf">Shoot</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">while</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="k">true</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nf">Instantiate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">projectile</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Quaternion</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">identity</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="k">yield</span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nf">WaitForSeconds</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="m">0.1f</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>In the <code>Update</code> function, I start the coroutine the first frame the left click is registered (that’s what <code>Input.GetMouseButtonDown</code> does as opposed to <code>Input.GetMouseButton</code>, which fires during every frame the left click is <em>held</em> – I want to start only one coroutine, not multiple at once). Once the user lets go (ends the left click, <code>Input.GetMouseButtonUp</code>), I stop the coroutine. The parameter passed, in both cases, is the string <code>"Shoot"</code>, which is the name of a private function on the same class (it need not be private).</p>
<p>The <code>Shoot</code> method itself is very simple. It starts a loop and instantiates a projectile. Then it waits for 100 milliseconds, after which time the loop repeats. <a href="https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/WaitForSeconds.html" rel="ugc"><code>WaitForSeconds</code></a> not only implements the wait time, it also ensures that the system doesn’t get overwhelmed by a constantly running loop. And stopping the coroutine ensures that, although there’s no termination condition in the while loop, the loop stops when the coroutine as a whole is stopped.</p>
<p>Using a loop is important since we’re not in the world of frames anymore, so we need to ensure that our code keeps running. It’s not like <code>Update</code>, which gets called for us every frame! Being used to this convenience, I actually wrote the coroutine without the loop first, and then wondered why it only triggered once.</p>
<p>C Sharp’s <code>yield</code> keyword may look a bit funky at first, so let’s look into it a bit more. From <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/keywords/yield" rel="ugc">the docs</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>When you use the <code>yield</code> <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/keywords/#contextual-keywords" rel="ugc">contextual keyword</a> in a statement, you indicate that the method, operator, or <code>get</code> accessor in which it appears is an iterator. […]<br>
You use a <code>yield return</code> statement to return each element one at a time.<br>
The sequence returned from an iterator method can be consumed by using a <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/statements/iteration-statements#the-foreach-statement" rel="ugc">foreach</a> statement […]. Each iteration of the <code>foreach</code> loop calls the iterator method. When a <code>yield return</code> statement is reached in the iterator method, <code>expression</code> is returned, and the current location in code is retained. Execution is restarted from that location the next time that the iterator function is called.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Saying “the current location in code is retained” is an understatement. <em>The corresponding scope’s state</em> is retained in full, meaning your variables will be the same as when you left them after the previous iteration. A bit later, the docs continue:</p>
<blockquote><p>You can use a <code>yield break</code> statement to end the iteration.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the context of Unity, this – I’m guessing – is useful for when you want to stop the coroutine from the inside. However, I don’t know how Unity keeps track of coroutines, so it’s possible this approach would just leave a defunct coroutine somewhere in memory.</p>
<p>There may be other times when you do not wish to wait for a particular amount of time, but simply want to resume the coroutine upon the very next frame. The <a href="https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/Coroutines.html" rel="ugc">Unity docs</a> give the following example of changing an object’s color:</p>
<blockquote><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="n">IEnumerator</span> <span class="nf">Fade</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="kt">float</span> <span class="n">ft</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="m">1f</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="n">ft</span> <span class="p">>=</span> <span class="m">0</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="n">ft</span> <span class="p">-=</span> <span class="m">0.1f</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="n">Color</span> <span class="n">c</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">renderer</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">material</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">color</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">c</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">a</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">ft</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">renderer</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">material</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">color</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">c</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">yield</span> <span class="k">return</span> <span class="k">null</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div></blockquote>
<p>As you can see, in this case your iterator would just return <code>null</code> – you wouldn’t use <code>WaitForSeconds</code>. The iterator is still spread <em>across</em> frames instead of completely running in a single frame, but the difference here is that it continues <em>every</em> frame, whereas <code>WaitForSeconds</code> causes the iterator to continue only every x out of all frames.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/breaking-out-of-frames-in-unity
Breaking Out of Frames in Unity
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="pathfinding-in-unity">Pathfinding in Unity</h1>
<p><em>Disclaimer: I’m a mere beginner at Unity and game development generally. I wrote this for myself as I am learning and figured others might find it useful as well. Exercise caution when running this code!</em></p>
<p>Unity makes pathfinding shockingly easy. Building on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHV1ymlw-P8" rel="ugc">this tutorial</a> and using Unity version 2020.3.2f1, here’s how I applied pathfinding to the specific scenario of getting an object to follow the player around:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Create a terrain. Additionally, create two 3D objects: one for the player, one for the ‘follower’. I made my player a capsule and my follower a cube, but you can make yours whatever you like. Position both objects on the terrain</li>
<li data-step="2">Optionally set up some obstacles like walls</li>
<li data-step="3"><a href="/posts/controlling-a-character-s-movements-in-unity" rel="ugc">Implement character movement</a> for your player object</li>
<li data-step="4">Download folder ‘NavMeshComponents’ and file ‘NavMeshComponents.meta’ from <a href="https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/NavMeshComponents/tree/master/Assets" rel="ugc">this repo</a> and drag them into your project’s Assets folder as per <a href="https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-install-navmeshcomponents.628663/#post-4211455" rel="ugc">this post</a></li>
<li data-step="5">Back in the Unity editor, create an empty object in the hierarchy and call it ‘NavMesh’. Add component ‘NavMeshSurface’, then click ‘Bake’. This will identify walkable paths on the terrain, a prerequisite for pathfinding</li>
<li data-step="6">On the follower object, add component ‘Nav Mesh Agent’. This step will enable you to have the follower object follow the player</li>
<li data-step="7"><p>Also on the follower object, add a script called ‘Follower’ with these contents:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">UnityEngine</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">UnityEngine.AI</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="c1">// <- important!</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Follower</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">MonoBehaviour</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="n">NavMeshAgent</span> <span class="n">agent</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="n">PlayerController</span> <span class="n">player</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="c1">// Update is called once per frame</span>
<span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Update</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="c1">// Move follower object to player. This will find the shortest path</span>
<span class="c1">// and go around obstacles.</span>
<span class="n">agent</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">SetDestination</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">player</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">position</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div></li>
<li data-step="8"><p>Back in the Unity editor, drag follower’s nav-mesh component onto follower script’s public ‘agent’ property</p></li>
<li data-step="9"><p>Drag player onto follower script’s public ‘player’ property</p></li>
<li data-step="10"><p>Optionally set follower’s stopping distance (e.g. to 5). This will prevent the follower object from moving ‘into’ the player, in which case neither one can move anymore</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That’s it! As you move around your player, the follower object will follow wherever you go, navigating the terrain and going around obstacles.</p>
<p>As an extra challenge, consider how you could make the follower object follow the player only when the latter is close enough, or visible, or audible, or some combination thereof.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/pathfinding-in-unity
Pathfinding in Unity
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="controlling-a-characters-movements-in-unity">Controlling a Character’s Movements in Unity</h1>
<p><em>Disclaimer: I’m a mere beginner at Unity and game development generally. I wrote this for myself as I am learning and figured others might find it useful as well. Exercise caution when running this code!</em></p>
<p>Using Unity version 2020.3.2f1 and based on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc0xU2Ph86Q" rel="ugc">this tutorial</a> – with some changes – I want to show you how you can make your character do the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Move forward/backward</li>
<li>Move sideways and diagonally</li>
<li>Sprint while holding left shift</li>
<li>Rotate by moving the mouse</li>
</ul>
<p>My code does <em>not</em> implement:</p>
<ul>
<li>Jumping</li>
<li>Looking up or down</li>
<li>Going up or down slopes</li>
</ul>
<p>Here’s the resulting code without comments (I will walk you through it step by step further down):</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">System.Collections</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">System.Collections.Generic</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">using</span> <span class="nn">UnityEngine</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">PlayerController</span> <span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">MonoBehaviour</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="k">public</span> <span class="n">CharacterController</span> <span class="n">controller</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Start</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="n">Cursor</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">lockState</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">CursorLockMode</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Locked</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Update</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nf">Move</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="nf">Rotate</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="k">private</span> <span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Move</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="kt">float</span> <span class="n">moveZ</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetAxis</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Vertical"</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="kt">float</span> <span class="n">moveX</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetAxis</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Horizontal"</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="n">Vector3</span> <span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nf">Vector3</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">moveX</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">moveZ</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">TransformDirection</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">moveDirection</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetKey</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">KeyCode</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">LeftShift</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">*=</span> <span class="m">2</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="n">controller</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">Move</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="m">5</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="n">Time</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">deltaTime</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="k">private</span> <span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Rotate</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="kt">float</span> <span class="n">mouseX</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetAxis</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Mouse X"</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="m">250</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="n">Time</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">deltaTime</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">Rotate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Vector3</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">up</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">mouseX</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>As you can see, it’s not that much. Let’s go over it step by step – actually, there’s a few things we need to do before we start coding:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Create a terrain by right-clicking on your hierarchy in Unity, choosing ‘3D object’, then ‘Terrain’</li>
<li data-step="2">Create another 3D object that you’ll place on top of the terrain. This could be a cylinder, for example: ‘3D object’ > ‘Cylinder’. Call it ‘Player’.</li>
<li data-step="3">Drag the main camera into the player. This way, whenever the player moves, the camera follows him</li>
<li data-step="4">Add a Rigidbody component to the player and check its ‘Is Kinematic’ property</li>
<li data-step="5">Add a Character Controller component to the player. This component comes with built-in support you’ll need to control your player. Likewise leave its settings as is</li>
<li data-step="6">Add a script called ‘PlayerController’ to the player</li>
<li data-step="7"><p>Now we can start coding. Open the script in your favorite text editor and add this public property:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">public</span> <span class="n">CharacterController</span> <span class="n">controller</span><span class="p">;</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Save your changes.</p></li>
<li data-step="8"><p>Back in Unity, drag the Character Controller into the <code>controller</code> property on your script</p></li>
<li data-step="9"><p>In your script, make the following change to the <code>Update()</code> method:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="c1">// Update is called once per frame</span>
<span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Update</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nf">Move</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div></li>
<li data-step="10"><p>Add the corresponding private method <code>Move()</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">private</span> <span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Move</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="c1">// When hitting 'w' or the up arrow, this will evaluate to 1.</span>
<span class="c1">// When hitting 's' or the down arrow, it will evaluate to -1.</span>
<span class="c1">// (To be precise, it will return a float which gradually</span>
<span class="c1">// increases to 1 as you hold 'w' or gradually decreases to -1</span>
<span class="c1">// as you hold 's', respectively. This makes movement smoother.</span>
<span class="c1">// To get only 1 and -1, you can use `Input.GetAxisRaw` instead.)</span>
<span class="kt">float</span> <span class="n">moveZ</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetAxis</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Vertical"</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="c1">// Our controller will expect a vector telling it in which</span>
<span class="c1">// directions to move. Here we prepare a new vector that only</span>
<span class="c1">// moves along the z axis.</span>
<span class="n">Vector3</span> <span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nf">Vector3</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="m">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">moveZ</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="c1">// We need to move along the *player's* z axis, not the world's.</span>
<span class="c1">// Once rotated, your player's z axis may be different from</span>
<span class="c1">// the world's.</span>
<span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">TransformDirection</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">moveDirection</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="c1">// Execute the move. We multiply by 5 since otherwise the move</span>
<span class="c1">// speed is a bit slow.</span>
<span class="c1">// We then multiply by `Time.deltaTime`, which is a float that</span>
<span class="c1">// returns the number of seconds that have passed since the</span>
<span class="c1">// previous frame was rendered. This is crucial, otherwise</span>
<span class="c1">// the player would move faster on a monitor with a higher</span>
<span class="c1">// frame rate as this runs once per frame!</span>
<span class="n">controller</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">Move</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="m">5</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="n">Time</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">deltaTime</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Four lines of code without comments. Not bad, right? Save these changes and run the project in Unity. You should be able to move forward and backward using <kbd>w</kbd> and <kbd>s</kbd> or the up and down arrow keys.</p></li>
<li data-step="11"><p>What about moving sideways? Easy. First, add this line below the call to <code>Input.GetAxis</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="kt">float</span> <span class="n">moveX</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetAxis</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Horizontal"</span><span class="p">);</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>This works just like <code>Input.GetAxis("Vertical")</code> except it listens for keys <kbd>a</kbd> and <kbd>d</kbd> as well as the left and right arrow keys.</p></li>
<li data-step="12"><p>Change the line in which we declare <code>moveDirection</code> to:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="n">Vector3</span> <span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nf">Vector3</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">moveX</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">moveZ</span><span class="p">);</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Note that we’ve replaced the first <code>0</code> with <code>moveX</code>. You can now move sideways, and also diagonally.</p></li>
<li data-step="13"><p>Next, let’s implement running while holding left shift. Add the following before the call to <code>controller.Move</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="c1">// Run while holding shift</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetKey</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">KeyCode</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">LeftShift</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">*=</span> <span class="m">2</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div></li>
<li data-step="14"><p>Lastly, we’ll need to rotate the player left and right whenever we move our mouse. For this, we will add a second method called <code>Rotate</code>, along with a couple other changes:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Start</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="c1">// Lock cursor to the screen's center point and hide cursor.</span>
<span class="c1">// You can get your cursor back while playing by pressing</span>
<span class="c1">// the escape key.</span>
<span class="n">Cursor</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">lockState</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">CursorLockMode</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">Locked</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Update</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nf">Move</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="nf">Rotate</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="c1">// <- added this line</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
<span class="k">private</span> <span class="k">void</span> <span class="nf">Rotate</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="c1">// Determine how much we want to rotate based on the mouse's</span>
<span class="c1">// movement. Multiply by 250 to make more sensitive – depending</span>
<span class="c1">// on your hardware and settings you may wish to tweak this number.</span>
<span class="kt">float</span> <span class="n">mouseX</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="n">Input</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">GetAxis</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"Mouse X"</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="m">250</span> <span class="p">*</span> <span class="n">Time</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">deltaTime</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="c1">// Rotate around the x axis</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">Rotate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Vector3</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">up</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">mouseX</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div></li>
</ol>
<p>That’s it!</p>
<p>Known problems with this code (most of which I mentioned at the beginning of this post):</p>
<ul>
<li>Can’t look up or down yet</li>
<li>Can’t jump yet</li>
<li>Can ‘straferun’*</li>
<li>No gravity, so probably couldn’t move up/down slopes</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><small>* You may notice that when you move diagonally, your character moves faster than if you move him only forward/backward or sideways. Why is that?</p>
<p>As I learned <a href="https://youtu.be/rY71U1nHrBc?t=1060" rel="ugc">here</a>, it has to do with the Pythagorean theorem. If you simultaneously go one step forward and one step to the right, we can calculate the length of the resulting diagonal like this: <code>1² + 1² = diagonal²</code>. Meaning <code>diagonal</code> comes out to the square root of 2, which is ~1.414. So while you move one unit forward and one unit sideways, combining the two into a diagonal results in moving 1.414 units! As pointed out in the video linked above, this is called ‘straferunning’, which was used in Doom to move faster and jump farther, as explained <a href="https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Straferunning" rel="ugc">here</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Straferunning is running forward and moving sideways (<a href="https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Strafing" rel="ugc">strafing</a>) at the same time, which results in moving faster than is possible in either direction alone. One of the advantages is being able to jump farther than is otherwise possible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fixing this is easy by <em>normalizing</em> the movement vector:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight csharp"><code><span class="n">Vector3</span> <span class="n">moveDirection</span> <span class="p">=</span> <span class="k">new</span> <span class="nf">Vector3</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">moveX</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="m">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">moveZ</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="n">normalized</span><span class="p">;</span>
<span class="p">^</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>A normalized vector (also called a <a href="https://mathworld.wolfram.com/NormalizedVector.html" rel="ugc">unit vector</a>) points in the same direction as its non-normalized counterpart but always has length 1, no matter the values of <code>moveX</code> and <code>moveZ</code>.</p>
<p>The problem with this fix is that it can add a delay to your movements. You will notice that your character doesn’t always stop immediately upon letting go of whatever keys you held to move. I don’t know yet how to fix that and will need to review the above-linked <a href="https://youtu.be/rY71U1nHrBc?t=1060" rel="ugc">video</a> in which I learned about normalization.</small></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/controlling-a-character-s-movements-in-unity
Controlling a Character’s Movements in Unity
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="being-a-beginner-again">Being a Beginner Again</h1>
<p>I’ve been doing web development for roughly ten years now and started hitting a ceiling about three to four years ago. I mean ‘ceiling’ as in how much I was learning per unit of time and how much I was enjoying it. It’s not just that I got better at it – at Apple I learned from some of the world’s best engineers – but my attitude toward web development has changed.</p>
<p>At the beginning and up until about three or four years ago, I was happy to program just about anything, as long as it had to do with the web. Frontends, web servers, APIs, databases, you name it. I originally stumbled upon web dev while doing an internship in 2010 that had little to do with programming. I taught myself to code web projects because I fell in love with it, which is why I got good at it, which is why people wanted to hire me. Doing web dev was the goal – getting hired to do so a pleasant side effect. Even if it had never become my job I still would have done web dev in my free time. But the better I got at it, the less challenging it became. I now wanted to use web development to solve <em>other</em> problems. It had shifted from being my focus to being a tool, and more and more the answer to the question ‘would I be doing this in my free time if it weren’t my job?’ became ‘no’. Web dev shifted from being an intrinsic motivation to being an extrinsic one. That’s a sign that it’s time to move on.</p>
<p>It would be a <em>big</em> mistake to say that there aren’t any problems left for me to solve in that field. Web development constantly evolves and grows and there are bound to be many <em>more</em> open problems today than when I started. But I’m reasonably confident that if you throw arbitrary web-dev problems at me I could figure out how to solve most of them, or predict their solutions to some degree, probably using tools I <em>already know</em>. In other words, there wouldn’t be that excitement of figuring out big unknowns that I felt in the beginning. To be sure, I’m not the <em>best</em> web developer there is, but I have become very good at it. (If StackOverflow is any indication, where I’ve answered mostly web-dev questions, I’m currently <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/users/1371131/weltschmerz" rel="ugc">listed</a> as among the top 3% of their users.)</p>
<p>These days, I still do web development, but I’ve started looking around for other projects. I also just needed a break. Since I left Apple in the spring of 2019, there have been times when I didn’t code at all for an entire month. Other times I coded something else that isn’t web dev, like <a href="https://github.com/dchacke/berlin-lang" rel="ugc">this</a> new programming language. Or I’d focus my attention on projects not directly related to code: I wrote a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Window-Intelligence-Philosophy-Evolution-Implications/dp/1734696133/" rel="ugc">book</a> (to be clear, its <em>contents</em> are related to code but I didn’t <em>write</em> code to write the book). I also translated <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359/" rel="ugc">someone else’s book</a> into <a href="http://anfa.ng/" rel="ugc">German</a>. These projects were exciting because I had never written or translated a book before. There were big unknowns and problems I hadn’t solved yet, whose solutions I could not predict without trying.</p>
<p>Recently I’ve been dabbling with game development and doing tutorials on Unity, a game engine. (A game engine is basically a tool that abstracts away solutions to a lot of the common underlying problems most game developers would otherwise need to solve every time they want to build a new game, such as lighting and shadows, other physics like gravity, and so on. It also provides basic shapes and algorithms so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.)</p>
<p>Yesterday, my humble goal was this: ‘By the end of the day, I want to be able to move around a character using the WASD keys.’ Think about how <em>basic</em> this problem is. Every experienced game developer knows how to solve it, and will solve it for you in (I’m guessing) less than ten minutes. But for me it was a <em>big</em> unknown. I had no idea where to even start. But I also knew I could figure it out.</p>
<p>That’s exactly how I felt when I fell in love with web development all those years ago. It’s this intrinsic motivation that I can use as a compass. And after several hours of piecemeal success mixed in with failures, genuine wonder, and curiosity, I <em>did</em> figure it out with the help of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc0xU2Ph86Q" rel="ugc">this tutorial</a>. You can try the result <a href="https://play.unity3dusercontent.com/webgl/20250626-1370-419b-989d-5341b50cf348" rel="ugc">here</a>. (Warning: the mouse sensitivity is <em>way</em> too high when the game is rendered on a website, and it’s laggy in Chrome – <a href="https://forum.unity.com/threads/mouse-sensitivity-in-webgl-way-too-sensitive.411574/" rel="ugc">both</a> <a href="http://webglsamples.org/aquarium/aquarium.html" rel="ugc">issues</a> are known and not unique to my ‘game’. Best to use Safari to try this, and it doesn’t work properly on mobile since you need a keyboard to move the player.)</p>
<p>Not only did I achieve my goal by the end of the day, I immediately stumbled upon <em>further</em> problems I now felt encouraged to solve: I wanted to be able to look around using my cursor, jump using the spacebar, and move faster while holding left shift. The above gameplay incorporates those features (along with some bugs I haven’t worked out yet).</p>
<p>Next I want to have another object follow the player wherever he goes, including going around obstacles. This is, again, a trivial problem for any experienced game developer while being a <em>huge</em> unknown for me. But it’s been done before, so I know I can do it, too. There’s a whole mountain I can climb should I decide I want to get good at game development. I’m just following what’s fun. Maybe instead of making it to the top, halfway up I’ll get a decent view of another mountain – and maybe I’ll decide that the other mountain looks far more interesting. Who knows.</p>
<p>It’s too early to tell whether I will fall in love with game development. <em>But I’m feeling like a beginner again</em> – which is just what I needed.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/being-a-beginner-again
Being a Beginner Again
2023-02-09T07:37:06Z
2023-02-09T07:37:06Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="a-programmer-s-guide-to-revolutions">A Programmer’s Guide to Revolutions</h1>
<p>Programmers know that you have to be careful when making changes to an existing codebase. This is doubly true when working in production, and triply when other production systems depend on it, especially when the codebase is complex.</p>
<p>If you need to make changes, you need to make them gradually. Anything else – replacing the entire codebase with a new one or ripping out pieces – won’t work.</p>
<p>A well-tested code base is much easier to change because the testing phase (or as much of it as possible) is automated, which saves a ton of time and automates much of the error detection that needs to happen.</p>
<p>That’s why test-driven development is a great way to remain flexible throughout the life of your code. It takes a bit more investment in the beginning but usually starts to pay off pretty quickly. (Many programmers still don’t want to make that initial investment.)</p>
<p>If you find yourself needing to make changes to an existing codebase you don’t understand well, a tool like <a href="https://github.com/testdouble/suture" rel="ugc">Suture</a> may come in handy.</p>
<p>Reversibility is crucial, too. If you deploy a bug, you want to be able to revert to the last working version quickly. Imagine a bug in production costing you money every minute and not being able to revert! Version control like <a href="https://git-scm.com/" rel="ugc">git</a> is your friend here. If you don’t know which change introduced the bug, use git’s binary search – the <a href="https://git-scm.com/docs/git-bisect" rel="ugc"><code>bisect</code></a> command – to find the first faulty commit. You’ll want to master git reasonably well to become good at versioning your code as well as finding and correcting errors.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that replacing a codebase with something new – a revolution – is <em>never</em> the right thing to do. There could be many reasons doing so would be preferable over fixing an existing codebase. For example, if you just started the project and notice a structural mistake it may be easier to just start over and do it right than fix the mistake. More generally speaking, if an existing codebase is fraught with error and you have a good explanation for why starting over would be safe, go for it. (Although even then, in most cases you’d still do so gradually – replace a part of it, see if things still work, then keep going.) Or it may be the case that some software has come out that replaces your system and would be cheaper to buy than to maintain your system. That could be a working drop-in replacement.</p>
<p>However, the kinds of scenarios I have mentioned – running a complex system in prod, having other systems depend on it, not understanding your system or its dependants well enough, etc. – simply don’t let you do that. It could cost you a lot of money and effort if you mess things up. In addition, if only part of the codebase is broken, there’s no reason to throw out the whole thing.</p>
<p>Understanding this need for piecemeal, gradual, and easily reversible changes is one of the hallmarks of Karl Popper’s philosophy. He applied this insight to political systems, but it applies equally to any complex knowledge-laden system which you want to change, including your code, your projects, your relationships, and your life overall. The <em>reason</em> his philosophy applies to all of these things is that he hit on an important, far-reaching truth.</p>
<p>People don’t make enough gradual, easily reversible changes in their lives. For example, they break up with their significant other. Getting out of relationships gradually is difficult – they’re usually set up in such a way that you can’t go to a previous, slightly less committed stage. It’s either all or nothing. Some people move to another country without checking it out first to see if they like it. Taking a trip there first is low risk and low cost: you can just come back if you don’t like it. But if you quit your job, move out of your home and just move to a different country, the consequences can be disastrous. If you don’t like it, you end up coming back to ~nothing and need to rebuild. People uproot their lives in all sorts of ways, and they can get really hurt as a result.</p>
<p>As I said, Popper’s application of his piecemeal philosophy was to politics. Revolutionaries don’t understand that when they try to replace an existing political system with a new one, or yank out institutions without replacement, that will lead to big trouble. The stakes are much higher than for programming or anyone’s personal life because, as history has shown over and over, political revolutions usually lead to violence, poverty, hunger, and tyranny. Ironically, this is just as true for authoritarian revolutionaries such as communists as it is for <em>anti</em>-authoritarian revolutionaries such as libertarians.</p>
<p>We can’t just get rid of the government overnight. It’s a long-term project, involving much trial and error. We don’t <em>know</em> yet how to live in a society that doesn’t have a government. Learning how, like learning anything, is, as Popper discovered, an <em>evolutionary</em> process, not a revolutionary one. To build a path to a society free of institutionalized coercion, you need to slowly get rid of a couple of laws here and there, for example, see if things go crazy, and either reimplement those laws for a while if they do or keep going if they don’t.</p>
<p>Some laws are so ridiculous that it seems we could surely get rid of them overnight. Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimeADay" rel="ugc">@CrimeADay</a> has posted many such laws. For example:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">18 USC §1865 & 36 CFR §2.16(f) make it a federal crime to make an unreasonable noise while a horse is passing by in a national park.</p>— A Crime a Day (@CrimeADay) <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimeADay/status/1441248493478236160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>It would seem that society wouldn’t collapse without this law. Or:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">7 USC §1622(h) & 7 CFR §51.2950 make it a federal crime to certify walnuts as U.S. grade no. 3 walnuts if the nuts are shriveled.</p>— A Crime a Day (@CrimeADay) <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimeADay/status/1437754757498740746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>But there are also really <em>important</em> laws, such as this one:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">18 USC §2236 makes it a federal crime for a federal employee to maliciously search property without a warrant.</p>— A Crime a Day (@CrimeADay) <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimeADay/status/1436176842470342660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Crucially, we can be mistaken about which laws are important and which are safe to get rid of. And for many we will need adequate private replacements. Fallibility alone implies that changes to existing systems should be easily reversible. Mistakes are inevitable and you don’t want to be stuck with a mistake. Therefore, revolutionaries always make a claim – sometimes explicit, usually implied – that they’re infallible. That’s always false because every human is fallible. Worse, we find ourselves in the precarious situation that governments <em>themselves</em> often try to institute revolutionary changes – like when they force all ‘non-essential’ businesses to shut down. Governments also tend to grow in size, influence, cost, and power, making it harder to get rid of them in the long term and to correct their errors in the short term.</p>
<p>If you’re a programmer who understands the importance of making piecemeal, reversible changes to code, but who simultaneously has authoritarian political leanings or makes revolutionary changes to his own life, you should think about why you endorse two opposite methodologies for making changes to complex, knowledge-laden systems.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/a-programmer-s-guide-to-revolutions
A Programmer’s Guide to Revolutions
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="animal-sentience-discussion-tree">Animal-Sentience Discussion Tree</h1>
<p>I’ve been practicing having discussions to a conclusion and addressing all outstanding criticisms. On of the reasons why my position on animal-sentience is strong is that I address criticism. That way, my position becomes more and more ‘battle-tested’, if you will.</p>
<p>Due to its character limit and inadequate quoting mechanisms, Twitter is horrible for discussing. On the other hand, it has the advantage of being a big social network with diverse viewpoints, so sooner or later you’ll find yourself discussing on there. Because Twitter threads are trees, and since, due to the character limit, trees can branch out quickly, Twitter discussions can become unwieldy. That means it’s easily possible to lose track of certain branches and never see some outstanding criticism.</p>
<p>The open-source tool <a href="https://github.com/paulgb/Treeverse" rel="ugc">Treeverse</a> can help with that. It visualizes your thread as an expandable tree, helping you identify branches you may want to follow up on. It’s a bit buggy sometimes but helpful overall.</p>
<p>For example, this is my expanded tree on the topic of animal sentience:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/animal-sentience-twitter-discussion-tree.png" alt="Animal-sentience discussion tree"></p>
<p>You can view the tree interactively <a href="https://treeverse.app/view/lLdpjQlf" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>(In reality, the tree is much, much larger than what is pictured above. I had a long discussion with <a href="https://twitter.com/AstralKing7" rel="ugc">@AstralKing7</a> but he has since blocked me so our exchange doesn’t show in the tree. In your view of the tree our exchange may show.)</p>
<p>The tree started with a tweet I wrote in response to Dawkins. He had tweeted:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Widely assumed human pain more painful than other species.<br><br>But pain’s Darwinian purpose is warning: “Don’t do that again. Next time it might kill you.” So perhaps the more intelligent the species the less pain needed to ram warning home. Animals might suffer more than us.</p>— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1420985461779042311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>My response:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Doubtful animals suffer at all given how algorithmic they are: <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs"><a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/buggy-dogs" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/buggy-dogs</a></a></p>— Dennis Hackethal (@dchackethal) <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1420990028973445122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>My tweet got many views and responses because Dawkins has lots of followers and I commented on his tweet fairly quickly.</p>
<p>At the time of writing this blog post, I could detect no outstanding criticisms in the tree. (That includes the subtree with <a href="https://twitter.com/AstralKing7" rel="ugc">@AstralKing7</a>, which I checked before he blocked me, albeit manually, without using Treeverse.) As a rule of thumb, to detect outstanding criticism, I expand the entire tree as far as it goes and look for leaves that don’t have my profile picture. I also sample branches at various points.</p>
<p>In larger discussions like this, especially when you have a position that’s contrary to what most people believe, you will repeatedly get the same (or at least similar) criticisms. Even if you already know how to refute them, that can get tiring, so it’s helpful to have your thoughts written out beforehand. I like writing collections of such responses to common criticisms (and also questions) in the form of FAQs. So far I’ve written an <a href="/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">animal-sentience FAQ</a> and also a <a href="/posts/libertarian-faq" rel="ugc">libertarian FAQ</a>, which was co-authored by Logan Chipkin. They contain linkable sections, allowing me to easily refer people to specific responses.</p>
<p>EDIT 2022-01-02: I made slight changes to the wording around Dawkins’ and my tweet and linked to them instead of embedding them.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/animal-sentience-discussion-tree
Animal-Sentience Discussion Tree
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="animal-sentience-faq">Animal-Sentience FAQ</h1>
<p>Some responses to the most common criticisms of and questions about the view that animals are not sentient. To reference, click on a heading. Feel free to share.</p>
<p>My views on animal sentience are heavily influenced by David Deutsch and Elliot Temple, plus background knowledge from Karl Popper. Thanks to Logan Chipkin for commenting on a draft of this post.</p>
<h3 id="do-you-think-non-human-animals-can-suffer">
<a href="#do-you-think-non-human-animals-can-suffer">Do you think non-human animals can suffer?</a>
</h3>
<p>No.</p>
<h3 id="why-can-t-non-human-animals-suffer">
<a href="#why-can-t-non-human-animals-suffer">Why can’t non-human animals suffer?</a>
</h3>
<p>Because all they do is mindlessly execute inborn algorithms which are the result of biological evolution. (This is Deutsch’s view in my own words.)</p>
<h3 id="but-you-don-t-doubt-that-humans-can-suffer">
<a href="#but-you-don-t-doubt-that-humans-can-suffer">But you don’t doubt that humans can suffer?</a>
</h3>
<p>No, I do not.</p>
<h3 id="we-are-closely-related-to-many-other-species-human">
<a href="#we-are-closely-related-to-many-other-species-human">We are closely related to many other species. Humans are animals, too. Why don’t animals suffer if we do? The genetic difference is minor.</a>
</h3>
<p>The genetic difference is indeed minor, but we also share many genes with plants, which are not conscious. Hardware differences in general are small enough that many animals’ hardware <em>could</em> be programmed to be conscious.</p>
<p>The real difference is one of <em>software</em>, not hardware (compare p. 414 of Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>). A small subset of our DNA codes for a self-replicating idea. Once invoked, this idea evolves into many different ideas during a person’s lifetime. This is the <em>genetic jump</em> to creativity. That body of knowledge can grow to be much larger than the genetic knowledge we inherit. This explains how humans can learn so much that isn’t genetically baked in. This ability to learn <em>is</em> what makes people conscious. Read my article <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">‘The Neo-Darwinian Theory of the Mind’</a> for more information on this.</p>
<h3 id="but-animals-can-learn-too">
<a href="#but-animals-can-learn-too">But animals can learn, too!</a>
</h3>
<p>They can certainly change their behavior in useful ways, yes. (Compare Deutsch’s <a href="https://www.artbrain.org/image-gallery/journal-neuroaesthetics-6/hans-ulrich-obrist-interview-with-david-deutsch/#:%7E:text=Learning%2C%20perhaps%2C%20in%20that%20any%20useful%20change%20can%20be%20considered%20learning." rel="ugc">remark</a> “Learning, perhaps, in that any useful change can be considered learning.”) How they do this is akin to present-day artificial-‘intelligence’ algorithms such as reinforcement ‘learning’. But those algorithms aren’t conscious. People have a completely different learning algorithm – which we don’t fully understand yet – which makes them conscious and constitutes <em>real</em> learning. If animals had that same algorithm, you wouldn’t need to, say, train a dog to sit via reinforcement. You’d <em>explain</em> to the dog why it should sit, and then it might decide to do so. (But a creative being generally won’t like being told to sit on command.)</p>
<h3 id="if-you-don-t-understand-consciousness-how-can-you-">
<a href="#if-you-don-t-understand-consciousness-how-can-you-">If you don’t understand consciousness, how can you possibly claim that animals aren’t conscious?</a>
</h3>
<p>You don’t need to be a trained pianist to tell whether somebody can play the piano reasonably well. The audience generally doesn’t have the knowledge to play the piano well enough themselves, but they can still tell because they know what good piano-playing <em>isn’t</em>.</p>
<p>Similarly, we have good explanations for what consciousness <em>isn’t</em>. Again, the mindless execution of inborn algorithms (except for the creative one) isn’t consciousness.</p>
<p>You can compare animals to present-day computers in this regard. Like animals, our computers contain highly sophisticated knowledge. The question is: where does this knowledge come from? In the case of our computers, it comes from the programmers. Who’s the animals’ programmer? Biological evolution.</p>
<p>In both cases, the knowledge was ‘inherited’ from an outside source. Both the computers and animals are not the <em>creators</em> of the knowledge they contain. But they’d <em>need</em> to be the creators to be conscious (see <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> ch. 7). All they’re concerned with is, again, the mindless execution of algorithms they already contain. <em>Something that merely executes pre-existing algorithms is not and cannot be conscious – it is mindless.</em> The only alternative that is left is that consciousness has to do with the <em>creation</em> of knowledge. What other aspect to information processing could there be?</p>
<h3 id="isn-t-consciousness-a-matter-of-how-complex-or-sop">
<a href="#isn-t-consciousness-a-matter-of-how-complex-or-sop">Isn’t consciousness a matter of how complex or sophisticated the animal is?</a>
</h3>
<p>This is a common view: humans are said to be more complex than other apes and so on down some hierarchy. The chain of complexity is usually pictured akin to this (in descending order): humans > other apes > fish > insects > single-celled organisms. Here we encounter a problem already: people underestimate how complex even a single cell is, and if they saw an animal doing the things some of the single cell’s components do, they’d attribute consciousness based on the ‘sufficient-complexity criterion’. But they don’t attribute consciousness to the cell’s components.</p>
<p>Two people are more complex than one person. But two people are not any more conscious than each person individually, nor is there any shared consciousness between them (other than in some woo-woo sense of them having shared ideas or compassion for each other or something, which isn’t what consciousness is). Even if animals are conscious, the biosphere as a whole isn’t, although it’s much more complex than any animal by itself.</p>
<p>More deeply, the reason complexity/sophistication (I prefer to think in terms of sophistication) cannot determine consciousness is this: sophistication and consciousness are completely orthogonal. Again, no matter how sophisticated an inborn algorithm is, since it can be executed <em>mindlessly</em>, in computer fashion, that sophistication cannot be evidence of consciousness. Executing a pre-existing algorithm does not require consciousness, no matter how complex the algorithm may be. Many of the algorithms our computers execute mindlessly are highly sophisticated – more sophisticated than much of what the biosphere has ever managed to create.</p>
<p>To distinguish clearly between sophistication and consciousness, I have introduced the distinction between <em>smart</em> and <em>intelligent</em> in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Window-Intelligence-Philosophy-Evolution-Implications/dp/1734696133/" rel="ugc">my book</a>:</p>
<p>An entity is <em>smart</em> if it <em>contains</em> sophisticated knowledge. Where that knowledge came from – whether the entity created the knowledge itself or not – is not relevant to determine whether it is smart. Many animals and many computers are smart because they contain sophisticated knowledge.</p>
<p>An entity is <em>intelligent</em> if it can <em>create</em> knowledge. (To be clear, it needs to be a <em>coherent</em> entity. The biosphere can create knowledge through biological evolution but is not coherent like a person.)</p>
<p>Do you see how these two qualities are unrelated? Our computers containing sophisticated programs are smart but not intelligent. A human baby is intelligent but not very smart yet because it hasn’t had much time to learn. All people are intelligent, but only some of them are smart. Intelligence, as David Deutsch argues, is a <em>binary</em> matter: you either have it or you don’t. In other words, <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">the genetic jump to creativity</a> either happens or it doesn’t. But smarts can exist in degrees and can get ever better.</p>
<p>Thinking animals are conscious is often due to fudging the difference between smart and intelligent.</p>
<p>By the way, thinking that complexity/sophistication (in other words: design) is evidence of the existence of a conscious, intelligent being, is <em>creationism</em>. When applied to animals it is creationism in disguise. Instead of attributing intelligence to a supernatural being, it’s attributed to individual animals, while the real creator – biological evolution – isn’t mentioned. This is ironic because animal-rights activists often reject creationism and instead follow and appreciate science (e.g. they’ll cite neurobiology to argue that animals are conscious, see below).</p>
<h3 id="what-does-intelligence-have-to-do-with-consciousne">
<a href="#what-does-intelligence-have-to-do-with-consciousne">What does intelligence have to do with consciousness?</a>
</h3>
<p>Most people think of intelligence as the degree of sophistication of someone’s knowledge. As I’ve just explained in my answer to the previous question, that isn’t the case. Intelligence is the ability to <em>create new</em> knowledge, sophisticated or not. (Compare Deutsch’s definition of creativity (I use the term ‘creativity’ synonymously with ‘intelligence’), which says it is the ability to create new <em>explanations</em> in particular. <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, ch. 1 glossary.) If something <em>isn’t</em> intelligent, all it can do (if that!) is mindlessly execute pre-existing knowledge. It’s utterly algorithmic. So consciousness must live somewhere in intelligence.</p>
<h3 id="do-you-have-any-evidence-of-animals-being-algorith">
<a href="#do-you-have-any-evidence-of-animals-being-algorith">Do you have any evidence of animals being algorithmic?</a>
</h3>
<p>Yes, see:</p>
<ul>
<li>My post <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs" rel="ugc">‘Buggy Dogs’</a></li>
<li>Elliot Temple’s post <a href="https://direct.curi.us/272-algorithmic-animal-behavior" rel="ugc">‘Algorithmic Animal Behavior’</a></li>
</ul>
<p>You can be more successful with animals if you treat them as algorithmic than if you treat them as sentient beings with free will, as evidenced by <a href="https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1438457641471291399" rel="ugc">this video</a> vs <a href="https://twitter.com/_Islamicat/status/1438480429833666562" rel="ugc">this video</a>.</p>
<p>That’s because they <em>are</em> algorithmic.</p>
<h3 id="but-sometimes-humans-are-algorithmic-too">
<a href="#but-sometimes-humans-are-algorithmic-too">But sometimes humans are algorithmic too.</a>
</h3>
<p>Yes, but the difference is in how they deal with that. They can reflect on the situation and recognize when they’re stuck. They can correct the error through creative means.</p>
<p>The point is not that humans never make mistakes while animals do. Both make mistakes. The difference is, again, in how they deal with mistakes. Like dogs pointlessly swimming in mid-air when held above water (see my post <a href="/posts/buggy-dogs" rel="ugc">‘Buggy Dogs’</a>). Should they stop and ‘correct’ the error it’s through other inborn algorithms taking over, e.g. because the dog’s energy is too depleted to keep ‘swimming’, not because the dog understands its mistake and makes a conscious decision to correct it. You can tell by the dog trying to ‘swim’ again (I imagine) under the same conditions after regaining energy.</p>
<p>Sometimes humans <em>are</em> algorithmic in strikingly similar ways, such as when they repeat pointless religious rituals over and over. Here the difference lies, among other things, in how to get them out of that. With a dog, you have to use reinforcement learning: whenever the dog tries to ‘swim’ mid-air, you have to yell ‘no’ at it, use electric shocks, or something of that nature. Over dozens of iterations, the dog’s swimming behavior may gradually fade until it disappears completely. But with humans, yelling ‘no’ when they enact a ritual won’t do much. In fact, it might be counterproductive: they may continue the practice out of spite, because they dislike the person yelling at them, because they think others are ‘too dumb to see the obvious’ (like animal-rights activists think, see below), or for any number of reasons they themselves come up with. To stop enacting the ritual, they need to be <em>persuaded</em> that it is pointless. Only intelligent beings can persuade and be persuaded; dogs cannot.</p>
<p>In addition, when humans behave algorithmically, it’s <em>because</em> they’re not being creative. Such as when mindlessly enacting a ritual.</p>
<h3 id="maybe-animals-are-just-less-conscious-than-humans">
<a href="#maybe-animals-are-just-less-conscious-than-humans">Maybe animals are just <em>less</em> conscious than humans.</a>
</h3>
<p>Although we humans are sometimes more or less aware of certains things – e.g., I am currently more aware of my computer screen and keyboard than my desk – the <em>ability</em> to be conscious is the ability to suffer, and that ability is something you either have or don’t. Animals don’t. Again, the genetic jump to creativity – and with it, consciousness – either happens or it doesn’t.</p>
<h3 id="our-nervous-systems-and-those-of-other-mammals-are">
<a href="#our-nervous-systems-and-those-of-other-mammals-are">Our nervous systems and those of other mammals are so similar. Surely they can feel pain.</a>
</h3>
<p>Feeling pain – i.e., suffering – is not a matter of hardware but of <em>software</em>. A nervous system by itself doesn’t give you the requisite software. Conversely, you could program a computer to be able to suffer (we don’t currently know how to do that) even though computers <em>don’t</em> have nervous systems. In other words, nervous systems are neither necessary nor sufficient for suffering. <em>Some</em> physical substrate is needed to instantiate consciousness, but it need not be a nervous system.</p>
<p>At most, nervous systems can implement the infrastructure for pain signals to travel to the brain, where (in conscious beings!) pain is then (sometimes, but not always) interpreted and experienced as suffering.</p>
<p>Whether animals are sentient and can suffer is an <em>epistemological</em> question, not a neurobiological one.</p>
<h3 id="when-you-cut-off-a-dog-s-paw-it-cries-out-in-pain-">
<a href="#when-you-cut-off-a-dog-s-paw-it-cries-out-in-pain-">When you cut off a dog’s paw, it cries out in pain. <em>Obviously</em> it’s conscious.</a>
</h3>
<p>You mean like how people used to point up at the sun as ‘obvious’ evidence that it revolves around the earth?</p>
<p>The truth is hard to come by, not easy. Also, <a href="/posts/evidence-is-ambiguous" rel="ugc">evidence is ambiguous</a>. When you say something is obvious, you are not describing an objective property of truth, but the sensation of effortlessness you have when invoking an existing explanation to interpret some evidence. We need to be <em>critical</em> of our existing explanations. That can be difficult but it can help us get closer to the truth.</p>
<h3 id="shouldn-t-we-treat-animals-as-conscious-beings-whi">
<a href="#shouldn-t-we-treat-animals-as-conscious-beings-whi">Shouldn’t we treat animals as conscious beings which can suffer <em>just in case</em> they can?</a>
</h3>
<p>This is a modern-day version of Pascal’s wager and invalid for the same reason. While our explanations are always tentative, our actions need not be. The best thing we can ever do is act on our best explanations. We might be wrong, but then we can always course correct. And sometimes our best action is to just deliberate in peace.</p>
<h3 id="animals-often-exhibit-behavior-very-similar-to-hum">
<a href="#animals-often-exhibit-behavior-very-similar-to-hum">Animals often exhibit behavior very similar to humans who <em>do</em> suffer.</a>
</h3>
<p>You can’t infer internal states from behavior. A robot programmed to scream ‘ouch’ when you hit it also exhibits behavior very similar to humans who are hit and suffer as a result. So behavior alone doesn’t tell us much.</p>
<p>David Deutsch’s constructor theory may one day tell us how and whether the kinds of transformations animals or biological evolution can cause differ from those that people can cause. That way, if you pointed your telescope at a distant planet and saw evidence of a particular transformation, you would know that, say, people live on or have visited that planet, and that animals <em>could not</em> have caused that transformation. That’s why I said ‘behavior alone doesn’t tell us <em>much</em>’ – it could tell us <em>something</em>, but currently it’s not the most important factor.</p>
<h3 id="it-s-impossible-to-prove-or-disprove-consciousness">
<a href="#it-s-impossible-to-prove-or-disprove-consciousness">It’s impossible to prove or disprove consciousness in both humans <em>and</em> animals.</a>
</h3>
<p>Correct, but we’re not after proof, we’re after good explanations. Proof/certainty is epistemologically uninteresting and unnecessary. All our knowledge is <em>conjectural</em>, as Popper says.</p>
<h3 id="have-you-no-heart">
<a href="#have-you-no-heart">Have you no heart?</a>
</h3>
<p>A few years ago I was vegan for about four months out of concern for animals until I quit for health reasons. I used to think animals are conscious and can suffer. I still think that <em>if</em> they can suffer it’s immoral to kill them, and I have more in common with animal-rights activists on this point than most meat eaters do. Indeed, <em>if</em> animals can suffer, industrial meat production may be one of the worst crimes ever committed. Meat eaters who think animals can suffer have a hopelessly self-contradictory moral stance and should make up their minds.</p>
<p>In short, I understand where animal-rights activists come from. I used to think animals are conscious. But I changed my mind.</p>
<h3 id="why-did-you-change-your-mind">
<a href="#why-did-you-change-your-mind">Why did you change your mind?</a>
</h3>
<p>I heard about Descartes’ argument that animals are robots in middle school. I think this was the first time I encountered the view that animals aren’t conscious. There we also discussed that Pascal’s wager isn’t a valid response to concerns about animal consciousness (or anything, really). Later on, philosopher Elliot Temple offered his views on animal consciousness (or rather, lack thereof) to me, showed me the connection to epistemology, and explained various animal behaviors through the use of inborn algorithms. I then re-read <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> and found several arguments in favor of the view that animals aren’t conscious (they’re not very explicit – <a href="/posts/views-on-animal-sentience-in-the-beginning-of-i" rel="ugc">they’re in there</a> but you kind of need to know how to look for and how to read them).</p>
<p>These arguments weren’t quite enough to convince me. I continued to think animals may be conscious, that consciousness may be orthogonal to creativity, and that it could come in degrees. But I think those arguments did the necessary prep work; importantly, I now understood that whether animals are conscious is an <em>epistemological</em> question. What <em>did</em> eventually convince me was my <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">neo-Darwinian approach to the mind</a>, which explains the evolution of creativity, and with it, consciousness, through a genetic jump. This jump has a binary nature: it either happens or it doesn’t. From there, it followed that creativity, and with it consciousness, is binary (which is also Deutsch’s argument) and that humans are conscious while animals are not because they haven’t undergone the same genetic jump.</p>
<h3 id="but-thinking-that-animals-can-t-suffer-is-just-pla">
<a href="#but-thinking-that-animals-can-t-suffer-is-just-pla">But thinking that animals can’t suffer is just plain cruel!</a>
</h3>
<p>Not if they really can’t suffer.</p>
<p>As I wrote <a href="/posts/the-animal-rights-community-is-based-on-fear-a" rel="ugc">here</a>, many are pressured into caring for animals because they don’t want to seem cruel. You shouldn’t intimidate others into submission to spread your ideas, and you shouldn’t adopt ideas because you’re pressured into it.</p>
<p>A related problem with many animal studies is that they’re done by people who love animals. After all, that’s why they’r…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/animal-sentience-faq" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/animal-sentience-faq</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/animal-sentience-faq
Animal-Sentience FAQ
2022-12-24T18:42:14Z
2022-12-24T18:42:14Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="english-transcript-of-german-interview-with-david-deutsch">English Transcript of German Interview with David Deutsch</h1>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/jannikwiese" rel="ugc">Jannik Wiese</a> created an English transcript of my German <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHm88w_BnMU" rel="ugc">interview</a> with David Deutsch. I’ve edited the transcript. You can read it <a href="https://www.bretthall.org/david-deutsch-interview-in-german.html" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>The English follow-up interview continues to be available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoem4rRDms0" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/english-transcript-of-german-interview-with-davi
English Transcript of German Interview with David Deutsch
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="hyphenation-rules-are-confusing">Hyphenation Rules Are Confusing</h1>
<p>Hyphenation rules don’t work well for nested hyphenation groupings.</p>
<p>Let’s look at a couple of unproblematic cases first:<br>
‘author copy’ needs no hyphen.<br>
‘author-copy order’ needs a hyphen to group ‘author’ and ‘copy’. So far so good.</p>
<p>Here’s where it get’s problematic:<br>
‘author-copy-order receipt’ is a mess. It should be ‘author=copy-order receipt’ so you can see the nested groupings. ‘author’ and ‘copy’ belong together more tightly than ‘author’ and ‘order’, and the equal sign (a ‘double hyphen’ of sorts) can be used to indicate such tighter bindings.</p>
<p>Contrast that last example with ‘artificial-general-intelligence researcher’. There’s no nested grouping in the latter yet the hyphenation is the same. That’s confusing.</p>
<p>For deeply nested groupings the number of bars should increase so you can always identify groupings without ambiguity: ‘author≡copy=order-receipt printout’. It’s doubtful you’d ever need more than three bars to hyphenate.</p>
<p>Nested groupings could occur in the middle as well, and in more than one place:</p>
<p>‘well=made-order=receipt printout’. You may think this example is the same as ‘well-made order-receipt printout’ using current hyphenation rules but it isn’t because ‘well-made’ is supposed to qualify ‘order-receipt’, not ‘printout’.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/hyphenation-rules-are-confusing
Hyphenation Rules Are Confusing
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-beginning-of-infinity-der-anfang-der-unendlichkeit">The Beginning of Infinity → Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</h1>
<div class="d-flex flex-column justify-content-center my-5">
<img src="/assets/dadu-cover-min.jpg" class="align-self-center">
<a href="http://anfa.ng" target="_blank" class="align-self-center mt-4">anfa.ng</a>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">I have translated David Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> into German. It also features a preface of mine. In addition, I created the website, the paperback and ebook, and the index; I wrote the back blurb, typeset the book, hired and worked with everyone involved in its creation on Deutsch’s behalf, and prepared it for distribution.</div>
<div class="col-6">Ich habe David Deutschs Buch <em>Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit</em> ins Deutsche übersetzt und auch ein Vorwort verfasst. Darüber hinaus habe ich die Website sowie das Buchregister, das Taschenbuch und das E-Book erstellt; ich habe den Rückseitentext verfasst, das Buch gesetzt, alle an dem Projekt Beteiligten im Auftrag von David Deutsch beschäftigt und mit ihnen zusammengearbeitet und das Buch für den Vertrieb vorbereitet.</div>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">David Deutsch is the publisher. He reviewed the translation.</div>
<div class="col-6">David Deutsch ist der Herausgeber und hat die Übersetzung geprüft.</div>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">The book is about progress, the growth of knowledge, our place in the cosmos, the multiverse, artificial intelligence, and much more. It’s my favorite book.</div>
<div class="col-6">Das Buch handelt vom Fortschritt, dem Wissenszuwachs, unserer Stellung im Kosmos, dem Multiversum, künstlicher Intelligenz und vielem mehr. Es ist mein Lieblingsbuch.</div>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">It is now available from the following platforms, among others:</div>
<div class="col-6">Es ist jetzt unter anderem auf den folgenden Plattformen erhältlich:</div>
</div>
<div class="my-4 d-flex justify-content-center">
<ul class="pl-0">
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09D7BS999" target="_blank">Amazon</a></li>
<li><a href="https://books.apple.com/book/id1585637586" target="_blank">Apple Books</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.buecher.de/shop/fachbuecher/der-anfang-der-unendlichkeit-ebook-epub/deutsch-david/products_products/detail/prod_id/62584087/" target="_blank">bücher.de</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hugendubel.de/de/ebook_epub/david_deutsch-der_anfang_der_unendlichkeit-41493352-produkt-details.html?searchId=126279862" target="_blank">Hugendubel</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID153091017.html" target="_blank">Thalia</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.weltbild.de/artikel/ebook/der-anfang-der-unendlichkeit_36097041-1?ln=U3VjaGV8U3VjaGVyZ2Vibmlz" target="_blank">Weltbild</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">Disclaimer: I receive a share of the royalties.</div>
<div class="col-6">Hinweis: Ich werde an den Einnahmen beteiligt.</div>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">Here’s everyone who contributed to the book: copy-editor Malte Heidemann from <a href="https://www.berlinlektorat.com/" target="_blank">text<em>bau</em>stelle Berlin</a>; Roswitha Kant who read and commented on an early draft; physics and math consultants Kevin Henrichs, Sebastian Roy, and Pascal Zurek; Angela Aumann who helped me typeset the book; cover artist Rocko Spigolon; Amaro Koberle, Carla Lagemann, and again Angela Aumann who ported the illustrations over into German; Lulie Tanett who picked the font, reviewed the cover design, and helped with the interview; Kevin Schawinski who helped with a translation issue; and an <a href="https://german.stackexchange.com/a/58593/1868" target="_blank">anonymous helper</a> who did the same.</div>
<div class="col-6">An dem Buch haben mitgewirkt: Lektor Malte Heidemann von <a href="https://www.berlinlektorat.com/" target="_blank">text<em>bau</em>stelle Berlin</a>; Roswitha Kant, die einen frühen Entwurf gelesen und kommentiert hat; Kevin Henrichs, Sebastian Roy und Pascal Zurek für fachliche Beratung Physik/Mathematik; Angela Aumann, die mir beim Satz geholfen hat; Rocko Spigolon, der das Buchcover erstellt hat; Amaro Koberle, Carla Lagemann und erneut Angela Aumann, die die Abbildungen ins Deutsche übertragen haben; Lulie Tanett, die die Schriftart ausgewählt, Coverentwürfe ausgewertet und beim Interview zum Buch geholfen hat; Kevin Schawinski, der mir bei einem Übersetzungsproblem geholfen hat; sowie ein <a href="https://german.stackexchange.com/a/58593/1868" target="_blank">anonymer Helfer</a> aus dem Internet, der dasselbe getan hat.</div>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">Watch the interview with David Deutsch and me <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHm88w_BnMU&list=PLWQNK3hVxpeVtAPUqdQmbdZkZGZFqWiZi&index=1" target="_blank">here</a> (in German). There’s also a follow-up interview in English <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoem4rRDms0&list=PLWQNK3hVxpeVtAPUqdQmbdZkZGZFqWiZi&index=2" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div class="col-6">Sehen Sie sich <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHm88w_BnMU&list=PLWQNK3hVxpeVtAPUqdQmbdZkZGZFqWiZi&index=1" target="_blank">hier</a> das Interview mit David Deutsch und mir an. Sie können sich auch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoem4rRDms0&list=PLWQNK3hVxpeVtAPUqdQmbdZkZGZFqWiZi&index=2" target="_blank">hier</a> das englische Folgeinterview ansehen.</div>
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">A few pictures from inside the ebook (macOS Books app):</div>
<div class="col-6">Ein paar Bilder aus dem Inneren des E-Books (macOS Books App):</div>
</div>
<div class="d-flex flex-column my-5">
<img class="align-self-center" src="/assets/titelseite.png">
<img class="align-self-center" src="/assets/flower.png">
</div>
<div class="row my-2">
<div class="col-6">I hope you like the translation.</div>
<div class="col-6">Ich hoffe, Ihnen gefällt die Übersetzung.</div>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-beginning-of-infinity-der-anfang-der-unend
The Beginning of Infinity → Der Anfang der Unendlichkeit
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="what-christians-get-right">What Christians Get Right</h1>
<p>Christians get some things right that atheists usually get wrong, especially scientistic atheists. Christians understand that:</p>
<ul>
<li>Humans are better than animals</li>
<li>It’s okay to eat and use animals</li>
<li>It’s okay to view the environment as a resource</li>
<li>Humans are more than just atoms and neuronal patterns</li>
<li>It’s better to be right wing than left wing</li>
<li>Related to that, it’s better to be culturally conservative than revolutionary</li>
<li>Science can’t answer all questions</li>
<li>America is exceptional</li>
</ul>
<p>To be clear, Christians get these things right for all the wrong reasons, and they’re probably wrong about way more things than they’re right about. I’m an atheist (though not of the scientistic kind), and, following Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, I think religion is mostly evil and irrational and the world would be better off without it. I would be a lot less hesitant to push <a href="https://mises.org/library/do-you-hate-state" rel="ugc">the Rothbardian button</a> to get rid of religion overnight than I would be when it comes to the state. But it’s notable that Christianity has some good conclusions baked in, even if for the wrong reasons.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-christians-get-right
What Christians Get Right
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="what-makes-creative-computer-programs-different-from-non-creative-ones">What Makes Creative Computer Programs Different from Non-creative Ones?</h1>
<p>In a <a href="https://youtu.be/fum2IpcRCQE?t=1956" rel="ugc">recent conversation</a> with Eli Tyre, David Deutsch asks:</p>
<blockquote><p>[T]heres something different about knowledge creation from other physical processes. […] What’s the thing that makes creative computer programs different from non-creative ones? I don’t know. That’s one of the problems of our age.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Deutsch has guessed that “[c]reativity is a property of <em>software</em>” (2012, 414). (It’s important to note that therefore, people are not the bodies they inhabit, but a property of the software running in their brains.) Building on that, I guess that creativity is <a href="/posts/two-guesses-about-creativity" rel="ugc">a particular <em>emergent</em> property</a> (or set of properties) of that software.</p>
<p>What are some examples of emergent properties of computer programs? Let’s not worry about the distinction between creative and non-creative yet. Consider the number of times a program has been run—its ‘invocation count’. Even if a given program is <em>never</em> run, its invocation count exists objectively, and we know several things about it: it always starts at <code>0</code>; it can only ever increase or stay the same; when it isn’t <code>0</code> it can only be a positive integer; and so on.</p>
<p>There’s also the property of whether a program is currently running. It likewise exists objectively, even if nobody ever thinks of it, and we know certain things about it, too: it’s a boolean (meaning it can only be <code>true</code> or <code>false</code>); it always starts at <code>false</code>; and so on.</p>
<p>Performance characteristics are another example. Oversimplifying for the moment, some programs run faster than others. Performance characteristics are not specified in the code itself—they fall out of it.</p>
<p>All computer programs have <em>causal power</em>, which is another emergent property. Among other things, they instruct their underlying hardware to perform certain operations: there’s a causal direction from program to hardware. Causal power is a necessary condition that needs to be met for a program to be creative—after all, people have causal power, they influence the world around them—but that doesn’t tell us much because, as I’ve just shown, <em>all</em> programs have causal power. We need to find something else that makes the difference.</p>
<p>Unpredictability comes to mind: people think and behave in ways that are fundamentally unpredictable. As Deutsch and Tyre discuss, you cannot predict what a person will do short of running a simulation of that person. The underlying reason is that people are knowledge-creating entities: if a purely predictive process could predict new knowledge, that knowledge either wouldn’t be new or the process wouldn’t be purely predictive. Only a <em>creative</em> process—like a person or biological evolution—can ‘predict’ new knowledge by first creating it. While unpredictability is likewise a necessary condition, it can’t be the decisive factor either: as Alan Turing showed, some programs have the property that one cannot predict whether they will halt. They either will or won’t—and <em>whether</em> they do once you run them is predetermined—but you just can’t know in advance. Many programs, including non-creative ones, are unpredictable in that sense.</p>
<p>All the properties I have mentioned so far have one thing in common: <em>they exist independently of whether the corresponding program is currently running</em> (or ever run). If you think of a program and write it down but never run it, its invocation count is, as I have said, <code>0</code>. That count still exists. The same goes for the property ‘is this program currently running’ starting at <code>false</code>, and for causal power as well: a never-run program can have the causal power to get people to run it, especially if it’s a good program that automates the solution to an important problem. But one interesting property <em>people</em> have—who are running instantiations of the creative program according to Deutsch (2012)—is that <em>when their creative algorithm is stopped, they stop being people</em>. And they’re not people <em>before</em> runtime either. The creative algorithm is only a person <em>as it runs</em>.</p>
<p>For example, when somebody dies in a way that leaves the brain sufficiently intact, the creative algorithm is still embodied in that brain. It’s still present; it continues to have properties such as the invocation count, causal power (e.g. to cause others to try to revive the person), etc—but it is not a person anymore <em>because it isn’t running</em>.</p>
<p>This is a curious property which I have not seen in other programs. Let’s call emergent properties of computer programs that only exist during runtime <em>ephemeral</em> or <em>fleeting</em>. Personhood is a fleeting property, as I have explained. Perhaps exploring the nature of fleeting properties can shed light on how the creative algorithm works.</p>
<p>No creative program has ever been written, but non-creative programs are commonplace and well-understood at this point. Therefore, the easiest place to start may be to think of fleeting properties of <em>non</em>-creative programs and then to study them.</p>
<p>Those familiar with Deutsch’s and also Karl Popper’s work will no doubt notice a conspicuous absence of some important concepts like <em>problems</em>, <em>conjectures and criticisms</em>, and <em>evolution</em> in this article. <em>Eventually</em> we will need to incorporate these concepts into a broader understanding of fleeting properties of computer programs. For example, maybe some of these fleeting properties can self-replicate imperfectly, leading to evolution. But at this stage, I believe it’s best to proceed piecemeal and take smaller bites than that.</p>
<p>In short: to understand creativity better—itself a fleeting property—I suggest finding and studying fleeting properties of our current, non-creative programs. If you can think of any, leave a comment below.</p>
<hr>
<h3 id="references">References</h3>
<p>Deutsch, David. 2012. <em>The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World</em>. New York: Penguin Books.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-makes-creative-computer-programs-different
What Makes Creative Computer Programs Different from Non-creative Ones?
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-animal-rights-community-is-based-on-fear-and-intimidation">The ‘Animal-Rights’ Community Is Based on Fear and Intimidation</h1>
<p>Dawkins recently tweeted about animal intelligence and suffering. My response questioned his statement:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Doubtful animals suffer at all given how algorithmic they are: <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/buggy-dogs" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/buggy-dogs</a></p>— Dennis Hackethal (@dchackethal) <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1420990028973445122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I responded to Dawkins’ tweet somewhat quickly so it got a fair amount of exposure due to his follower count. At the time of writing, according to Twitter stats, my tweet has gotten 12,427 impressions (i.e., “times people saw this Tweet on Twitter”) and 1,260 engagements (i.e., “times people interacted with this Tweet”). Contrast that with the number of likes my tweet has gotten (19) and you’ll start to see that it wasn’t very popular.</p>
<p>The responses are all worth checking out, but I’ll filter it down significantly.</p>
<p>There were some positive responses. Like this one:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fun read. Thanks.</p>— Rich Martin (@richmartin07) <a href="https://twitter.com/richmartin07/status/1421003997930995719?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or this one:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Interesting argument, even if I don’t agree with your conclusion.<br><br>Question: What is, in your opinion, the best argument for the position that non-human animals DO in fact suffer?</p>— 🔴J. R. (@Der_Prometheus) <a href="https://twitter.com/Der_Prometheus/status/1421006540811685893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Then there were responses that were aggressive in a socially acceptable way, such as this one:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You’ve clearly never seen a dog suffer from separate anxiety. Or greive the death of its owner. Trust me they are way smarter than us. 😁😃🤗🤩</p>— Anna (@Annascreativemo) <a href="https://twitter.com/Annascreativemo/status/1421397821333413890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>(If you’re wondering why it’s aggressive: the part “[y]ou’ve clearly never seen” is an accusation and allegation of ignorance on my part. But it’s done in a way that kind of hides the aggression, especially through the use of friendly seeming emojis at the end. Also, Anna immediately concludes that she knows something I don’t instead of <em>asking</em> me whether I’ve seen a dog suffering from separation ‘anxiety’. I have. Anna basically insinuates that I’m an idiot for not knowing something she does.)</p>
<p>Others displayed their aggression much more openly, to applause (likes) from others:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I like that your name has “hack” in it</p>— Ben Wittman (@amatueradult) <a href="https://twitter.com/amatueradult/status/1421573266943082496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2021</a></p>
<p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nobody click on that. No telling what viral malware is there. Given that the previous sentence attached to it is garbage i wouldn’t risk it</p>— AJ King (@JeriousK) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeriousK/status/1421229163252391937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Are you joking? Literally no accredited biologist/zoologist thinks OTHER animal species (humans are animals too/ there are humans dumber than that dog) lack the ability to feel physical pain.</p>— . (@BallWw123f) <a href="https://twitter.com/BallWw123f/status/1420993634510512129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This might take the cake for dumbest thing ever tweeted. <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1420990028973445122" rel="ugc">https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1420990028973445122</a></p>— JayW (@theperfectbuzz) <a href="https://twitter.com/theperfectbuzz/status/1425573155465097220?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">that is literally the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t believe you’re still employed after this tweet.</p>— Holly (@Holly97703648) <a href="https://twitter.com/Holly97703648/status/1421188503690432513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I engaged with many of the responses I got in an attempt to do problem-solving and truth-seeking with people. Most were only interested in insulting or intimidating me. Of those who did engage in a more civilized manner and discussed for a bit, many still had contempt and disbelief hidden between the lines.</p>
<p>The irony is that many of the people who advocate on behalf of animals say they do it out of compassion. Well, they’re anything but compassionate to people who disagree!</p>
<p>As I received more responses and engaged, three patterns emerged:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">They claimed my qualifications didn’t extend to animal sentience</li>
<li data-step="2">They thought I was ignorant/too dumb to see the ‘obvious’</li>
<li data-step="3">They tried to coerce me into agreement and submission through intimidation</li>
</ol>
<p>Some responses, if I recall correctly, were mixtures of two or even all of the above.</p>
<p>The first point is a common but invalid response: it’s the <em>contents</em> of ideas that matter, not their origin or the origin’s qualifications. Not to mention that if I had agreed with them <em>on the same issue</em>, they <em>wouldn’t</em> have claimed that I lack qualifications. What if a luminary zoologist agreed with me? And how do they know that I don’t have what they would count as the ‘proper credentials’? I guess they could google me and find my LinkedIn and see that I’m not an accredited zoologist or whatever, but even then they could be wrong. Maybe early on in my career I studied zoology and just didn’t bother to put it on my LinkedIn because I don’t consider that degree important for what I do now. Or maybe I grew up in a household that knew lots about zoology and my father was friends with the late Konrad Lorenz who came to visit often to discuss animal sentience. Who knows? Who cares?</p>
<p>The second point is, unfortunately, all too common also. As another example:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Don’t see how you get from premise to conclusion.<br><br>In any case…<br>I’ve seen cats and dogs clearly exhibit pain.<br>I have no doubt they cry, howl and limp with it.</p>— iDaveMac (@iDaveMac2020) <a href="https://twitter.com/iDaveMac2020/status/1421099695842095108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’ve heard other arguments along the lines of: say you cut a puppy’s paw off, it cries out in pain, clearly it’s conscious, right? <em>Clearly</em> it is.</p>
<p>No, not necessarily. I pointed this out:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Like how people “clearly” saw the sun revolving around the earth and had no doubt that was the case?</p>— Dennis Hackethal (@dchackethal) <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1421159429718691843?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>There really was a time when people declared anyone who doubted that the sun was revolving around the earth crazy and too dumb to see the obvious. After all, they only had to open their eyes and see that the sun was up there, circling the earth! During daytime they could point right to the sun as evidence. It was <em>right there</em>, plain as day. And yet, no matter how plain they thought it was to see, no matter how sure they were, no matter how dumb they thought dissenters were, <em>they were wrong</em>.</p>
<p>Truth-seeking is difficult, not easy. Thinking that something is ‘clear to see’—that the truth is manifest—can be the source of fanaticism, as the philosopher Karl Popper wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>The theory that truth is manifest—that it is there for everyone to see, if only he wants to see it—this theory is the basis of almost every kind of fanaticism. For only the most depraved wickedness can refuse to see the manifest truth […].<br>
<footer class="blockquote-footer">Karl Popper, <cite title="Conjectures and Refutations">Conjectures and Refutations</cite>, 2002, Routledge, Abingdon, p. 11</footer></p>
</blockquote>
<p>From here, it’s only a small step to point 3: coercing dissenters into agreement and submission through intimidation:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I don’t think so. <br>In fact I’m not sure I follow the analogy.<br><br>I don’t think any pet owner has ever been in doubt.<br>You’d have to be heartless. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/canine-corner/201109/do-dogs-feel-pain-the-same-way-humans-do" rel="ugc">https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/canine-corner/201109/do-dogs-feel-pain-the-same-way-humans-do</a></p>— iDaveMac (@iDaveMac2020) <a href="https://twitter.com/iDaveMac2020/status/1421161643996684296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>“<em>You’d have to be heartless.</em>” (emphasis mine) Another example (not a response to my tweet):</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ok.This BREAKS MY HEART!<br>Frankly,if you can look at his face (eyes,expression etc) and not SEE the HORRENDOUS suffering..there is sth VERY wrong with your ability to read faces -human or animal.(Whether of course you then care about his suffering is another matter entirely) <a href="https://twitter.com/animalsavemvmt/status/1404893983499751428" rel="ugc">https://twitter.com/animalsavemvmt/status/1404893983499751428</a></p>— Sophie (@Soph8B) <a href="https://twitter.com/Soph8B/status/1404906590919036928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>“[…] there is sth <em>VERY wrong</em> with your ability to read faces […]” (emphasis again mine)</p>
<p>Most people don’t want to be heartless. They don’t want to be perceived as such either. They don’t want anything to be wrong with them. So, out of panic, they may agree. What iDaveMac and Sophie employ is the <em>argument from intimidation</em>, <a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/argument_from_intimidation.html" rel="ugc">as explained</a> by Ayn Rand:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is a certain type of argument which, in fact, is not an argument, but a means of forestalling debate and extorting an opponent’s agreement with one’s undiscussed notions. It is a method of bypassing logic by means of psychological pressure … [It] consists of threatening to impeach an opponent’s character by means of his argument, thus impeaching the argument without debate. Example: “Only the immoral can fail to see that Candidate X’s argument is false.” … The falsehood of his argument is asserted arbitrarily and offered as proof of his immorality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s not impossible that iDaveMac and Sophie were themselves pressured into caring for animals. If that is the case, I suspect that underlying their specious arguments is what David Deutsch calls <em>anti-rational memes</em>. Skipping some, Rand continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>The essential characteristic of the Argument from Intimidation is its appeal to moral self-doubt and its reliance on the fear, guilt or ignorance of the victim. It is used in the form of an ultimatum demanding that the victim renounce a given idea without discussion, under threat of being considered morally unworthy. The pattern is always: “Only those who are evil (dishonest, heartless, insensitive, ignorant, etc.) can hold such an idea.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In short, animal-rights advocates often argue from intimidation and invoke manifest truth by claiming that only the immoral could fail to see that animals clearly suffer. Fear and intimidation—not compassion—are the two main tactics used against dissenters to turn them into new recruits, who then employ the same tactics.</p>
<p>There’s actually important overlap between animal-rights advocates and me. I, too, think that <em>if</em> animals are conscious they shouldn’t be harmed. This is an agreement they do not share with the vast majority of people who <em>do</em> believe animals suffer but that, at the same time, it’s okay to harm and eat them anyway.</p>
<p>I welcome the opportunity to discuss with an animal-rights advocate who does not employ fear tactics. If that’s you, leave a comment below.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-animal-rights-community-is-based-on-fear-a
The ‘Animal-Rights’ Community Is Based on Fear and Intimidation
2023-02-09T04:32:34Z
2023-02-09T04:32:34Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="simple-javascript-recursion-without-stack-consumption">Simple JavaScript Recursion without Stack Consumption</h1>
<p>Some JavaScript runtimes have safe tail recursion, meaning you can do something like this:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nx">foo</span><span class="p">();</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>without worrying about a stack overflow. The compiler or interpreter (depending on your environment) sees that this functions employs tail recursion and pops the current function invocation off the stack before recurring.</p>
<p>However, not <em>all</em> JS environments do this. If your recursion needs to be safe while also being platform agnostic, here’s a way to recur safely without any special sauce from the compiler/interpreter:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="kd">let</span> <span class="nx">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="nx">setTimeout</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nx">foo</span><span class="p">);</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>The ‘trick’ is to call <code>setTimeout</code>, which returns immediately without invoking <code>foo</code>. (In case you’re wondering, it returns an integer identifying the timeout in case you want to cancel it later but we don’t care about that here.) And because it returns immediately, and since it’s the last statement in <code>foo</code>, <code>foo</code> now returns <em>before it is invoked again</em>.</p>
<p>The reason this works is that <code>setTimeout</code> uses JS’s event loop. It puts <code>foo</code> on a queue that will not be dequeued <em>until the stack is empty</em>. Only then is <code>foo</code> run again. In that regard this solution is different from utilizing built-in stack-safe tail recursion: <code>foo</code> will not be invoked not just until it itself has finished running, but until <em>everything</em> that’s currently on the stack has finished running. Depending on how quickly you need to run <code>foo</code>, you may prefer one solution over the other.</p>
<p>For a real-life use case, see <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/68555280/1371131" rel="ugc">this answer of mine to a Stack Overflow question</a>.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/simple-javascript-recursion-without-stack-consum
Simple JavaScript Recursion without Stack Consumption
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="evidence-is-ambiguous">Evidence Is Ambiguous</h1>
<p>The same piece of evidence can both support or refute a theory depending on the explanation we use to judge that evidence. David Deutsch explains this in his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (ch. 7, in the context of the Turing test), and I’d like to expand on it and give an example.</p>
<p>I <a href="http://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/buggy-dogs" rel="ugc">recently</a> posted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8GQ0mGIunM" rel="ugc">this video</a> of a dog trying to swim when held above water. It can serve as evidence of both the theory that animals <em>are</em> intelligent as well as that they <em>aren’t</em>.</p>
<p>If as criterion for intelligence we use the presence of (at least somewhat) sophisticated knowledge, we can say (as most would): that dog is ‘clearly’ intelligent. He hears or sees running water, he knows he’s not touching the ground, and so he tries to swim! Look how smart he is. So cute.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if we understand that any behavior that may just as well have been preprogrammed by the dog’s genes and need only be executed mindlessly in robot fashion, then <em>no</em> amount of preprogrammed sophisticated behavior is evidence of intelligence. For example, our computers contain lots of highly sophisticated knowledge, but none of them are intelligent (yet!). So in light of this explanation, the dog is ‘clearly’ not intelligent.</p>
<p>I put ‘clearly’ in square quotes both times because, as the conflicting explanations show, one’s interpretation of the same evidence can change drastically depending on the explanation we use to interpret the evidence. If things were obvious, that wouldn’t be the case, and we should always come to the same conclusion, no matter what explanation we use. We’d all agree with each other.</p>
<p>When people disagree about what a piece of evidence means, it means they use conflicting explanations to interpret and evaluate it. They will not make progress if they accuse each other of not seeing what is plain to see. They need to resolve the conflict between the explanations. If they manage that, they might both learn something new.</p>
<p>EDIT: When somebody describes something as ‘obvious’, he describes not the nature of the evidence, but the sensation he has when invoking his existing explanation to interpret the evidence, which is effortless. He’s being <em>subjective</em>, not <em>objective</em>. He’s not being <em>critical</em>, which takes effort. He thereby <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/discounting-future-knowledge" rel="ugc">favors existing knowledge over future knowledge</a>, which promotes staticity and is the hallmark of a static mind.</p>
<p>EDIT 2022-01-02: Slight changes to wording around the video of ‘swimming’ dogs and linked to video instead of embedding it.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/evidence-is-ambiguous
Evidence Is Ambiguous
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="buggy-dogs">Buggy Dogs</h1>
<p>Dogs <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8GQ0mGIunM" rel="ugc">‘swim’ above water</a> under certain conditions.</p>
<p>This is evidence of how algorithmic dogs are. It seems that one trigger of the swimming motion is: ‘water-like surroundings + not touching the ground’.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H49iVBwVbSQ" rel="ugc">this video</a> you can see many instances of erroneous swimming.</p>
<p>All of these dogs swim when they shouldn’t. At 1:52 in particular, a dog is just held over a sprinkler, which isn’t enough water to swim in.</p>
<p>The algorithm dogs use to determine when to swim is so buggy that no water is required at all. For example, at 0:30 a dog is held over an empty pool. Nonetheless the dog tries to ‘swim’. The pool is blue so maybe that is reminiscent enough of water.</p>
<p>Even cool air can be enough to get a dog to ‘swim’, as witness <a href="https://giphy.com/embed/4Rlx2sAT79NRu" rel="ugc">this dog</a> held over an air-conditioning unit.</p>
<p>This last case is particularly interesting because some humans seem to have the same bug (though it manifests much less dramatically and, as opposed to dogs, humans can correct this error pretty easily). For example, when I shave for the first time in weeks and then expose my face to cool air (also from an air-conditioning unit), for a split second I think my face is wet. Sometimes I even touch my cheeks to make sure it isn’t.</p>
<p>This leads me to guess that some of the criteria dogs and humans use to determine whether they’re wet are shared and inborn. I asked a couple of friends if they ever feel like their faces are wet under the same conditions but they said they don’t. It’s unclear whether this refutes my guess as they may simply have corrected the error so quickly they didn’t even notice it. Or they may have forgotten.</p>
<p>When one’s face <em>is</em> wet, it <em>does</em> feel cooler. So biological evolution may well have endowed ours and dogs’ common ancestors with an adaptation that detects wetness based on coolness. But it also leads to the non-adaptive result of misidentifying wetness in some situations. In dogs, this manifests as erroneous swimming. In me, it results in thinking my face is wet when it’s completely dry. It only happens when, as I said, I haven’t shaved in at least a few weeks, which makes me think the algorithm in me goes off of how drastic the change in temperature is. When you have a beard your face is more shielded from changes in temperature. Once you shave, that shield is suddenly gone.</p>
<p>I suspect the dogs’ algorithm likewise goes off of how drastic the change is. For example, if you slowly cooled down a room and held a dog in the air the whole time, I’m guessing it wouldn’t start swimming mid-air. This is all reminiscent of the famous experiment of frogs not jumping out of water that’s slowly being heated.</p>
<p>Whatever the case, the crucial difference between how dogs deal with this error and how humans deal with it is this: dogs don’t seem to deal with it at all—they seem to be completely clueless—whereas humans can become aware of the error and correct it. Humans have a moment of curiosity or wonder: they <em>wonder why</em> their face feels wet. They then feel their cheeks to test whether it <em>is</em> wet and conclude that it isn’t; that they must be mistaken instead. They are <em>critical</em> and <em>learn</em> something. None of this can be said of dogs—they don’t even look down to check if there’s any water to swim in.</p>
<p>I have written more about the topic of animal intelligence (or rather, lack thereof) in <a href="https://www.windowonintelligence.com" rel="ugc">my book</a>. On the topic of ‘swimming dogs’ in particular, I wrote (p. 108):</p>
<blockquote><p>[…] it is intuitively clear that no intelligence is at work here. Why? Because an <em>intelligent</em> being would have noticed <em>errors</em> in its behavior and corrected them. If one of these dogs were intelligent, it would know that it is being held <em>above</em> water, and therefore need not swim. The dogs in these videos do not even realize they remain stationary because they are being held. In other words, to be intelligent, they should <em>expect to move</em> while swimming, and have the <em>desire</em> to understand the problem when this expectation is disappointed.[*] There appears to be no such desire for error correction in dogs or other animals.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I have also shared some more thoughts and details on animal intelligence in <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1420273072192454658" rel="ugc">this Twitter thread</a> (click on the preceding tweet after clicking this link to see the whole thread).</p>
<p><small>* That consciousness may have to do with disappointed expectations is from Karl Popper’s book <em>Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach</em>, 1983, Oxford Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 344.</small></p>
<p>EDIT 2022-01-02: Slight changes to wording around linked videos and linked to them instead of embedding them.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/buggy-dogs
Buggy Dogs
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="snake">Snake</h1>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-8 offset-2 d-flex">
<canvas id="snake-canvas" width="500" height="300"></canvas>
</div>
<div class="col-12 text-center">
<h4 class="mt-4">Score: <span id="score">0</span></h4>
</div>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/snake
Snake
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="violent-paternalism">Violent Paternalism</h1>
<p>Imagine somebody tells you that two consenting adults should not be able to trade, say, drugs or sex for money. He tells you that it’s in their best interest not to trade such things. Drugs aren’t healthy, he says, and sex workers may catch diseases.</p>
<p>But he doesn’t stop there: it’s not just a recommendation. He says somebody—usually the government—should <em>forcefully</em> prevent people from conducting such trades, and punish them by putting them in metal cages if they do. This, he claims, is also in their best interest, because without this threat they might trade anyway. (Note that this false conclusion became inevitable because of his incompetence alone: coercion is <em>not</em> the only way to ‘get’ others to do something. Persuasion is the peaceful alternative. But it requires competence at dealing with others, which coercion does not, so coercion always seems easier to the incompetent.)</p>
<p>Does he stop there? No. He argues the government should force <em>independent third parties who have nothing to do with drugs or sex</em> to finance this violent paternalism through taxation; that it should likewise imprison those who resist <em>that</em> force, and murder them when they try to escape. This, he argues, is in society’s best interest. After all, imagine a world in which people are free to use and fuck for money! We could never have that. Some things are worth protecting, violently if necessary. So he claims.</p>
<p>In short, he goes from</p>
<p>1) People shouldn’t use drugs; to<br>
2) People should be forced not to use drugs; to<br>
3) They should be put in metal cages when they resist that force; to<br>
4) Other people should be forced to ensure there’s no drug use; to<br>
5) They, too, should be put in metal cages when they resist force</p>
<p>It’s hard to overstate how much pessimism and violent thinking is necessary to get from one step to the next. Between every step there are moral and logical gaps that cry out for an explanation.</p>
<p>The first step alone rests on the mistaken assumption that we should make other people’s business our business. People are forced to learn to do this as children <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">when school turns them into altruists</a>. Note that altruism, as Ayn Rand explains in the video in that linked post, does <em>not</em> just mean helping others when one can and wants to. Instead, it means being <em>forced</em> to help others; that one must always put one’s own needs below the needs of others. As a result, one believes that others have a claim on one’s own life—and, by implication, that oneself has a claim on others’ lives. The result: everyone has a claim on everyone else’s life. (If that sounds inconsistent, that’s because it is.)</p>
<p>How does our hypothetical lover of violence get from “people shouldn’t do x” to “people should be forced not to do x”? He must be very committed to the altruist lie.</p>
<p>How does he get from there to “people should be put in metal cages when they resist force”? Again, it seems to take a special dedication to altruism.</p>
<p>Perhaps the biggest logical and moral gap is between steps 3 and 4—that, for some unexplained reason, others should be forced to pay for all this—and then, again, in step 5, that they should be forced to pay for it with their life if not with their money. Altruism is surely part of the explanation here again.</p>
<p>Now, why does it never occur to him that there is another way—<em>persuasion</em>—to get people not to trade* drugs or sex? Because he’s a <em>pessimist</em>: he does not believe that persuasion is possible or desirable, which is a special case of thinking that <em>progress</em> is not possible or desirable. Why does it never occur to him that it’s not his nor anyone else’s job to police other people’s peaceful behavior? Because again, he’s an <em>altruist</em>. He believes that other people should be controlled, and that he himself should be controlled as well. And, being the imbecile that he is, his only tool for enforcing control is <em>punishment</em>.</p>
<p>So punishment is a sign of pessimism on the part of the punisher. It’s a mechanistic rule for dealing with a problem absent some new knowledge that would need to be created first. It puts the onus completely on the victim of violence to create knowledge and absolves the perpetrator of that responsibility completely. The victim is forced to create knowledge for how to avoid future force—<em>not</em> necessarily for how to do what he’s told—while the perpetrator creates no new knowledge. If they cooperated, on the other hand, they would both engage in creativity. They may solve the problem in such a way that they’re both happy. Moreover, if they do this often enough, with many different people, they may get better at problem-solving with others, and it will get easier.</p>
<p>Societies that employ punishment to control their citizens are deeply pessimistic. Both the left and right are guilty of this: the left when they try to, say, force masks on people, and the right when they wage their “war on drugs”. There’s <em>always</em> a way to solve problems in such a way that everyone involved profits. It may be hard to find at times, but finding solutions to common problems is a skill that can be developed. And when persuasion fails, our standard assumption shouldn’t be that the other party “won’t listen to reason” or fails to see the “manifest truth"—we should entertain the idea that it’s because we need to get better at persuasion. I’d like to see both governments and parents entertaining that idea more.</p>
<p><small>* When I say “trade sex” I mean “voluntarily exchanging money for sex”. I don’t mean sex trafficking.</small></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/violent-paternalism
Violent Paternalism
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="a-quick-proof-that-problems-are-inevitable">A Quick Proof That Problems Are Inevitable</h1>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Things change</li>
<li data-step="2">They don’t always change for the better</li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t mean ‘proof’ as in ‘this is absolutely known beyond any doubt’. I mean it as in ‘this follows from these two statements’.</p>
<p><small>That problems are inevitable is from David Deutsch’s book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>.</small></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/a-quick-proof-that-problems-are-inevitable
A Quick Proof That Problems Are Inevitable
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="discounting-future-knowledge">Discounting Future Knowledge</h1>
<p>What do all of the following concepts have in common, other than being either factually or morally false?</p>
<ul>
<li>Empiricism</li>
<li>Inductivism</li>
<li>Lamarckism</li>
<li>Creationism</li>
<li>Pessimism</li>
<li>Progress denial</li>
<li>‘Redistribution’</li>
</ul>
<p>Empiricism and inductivism claim that knowledge can be ‘derived’ using some preexisting method. If knowledge could be derived, it would already exist. Lamarckism, as the philosopher Karl Popper discovered, is the same mistake as inductivism applied to biological evolution. It is the idea that adaptations (a form of knowledge) can arise through use and disuse during an organisms lifetime, and that the resulting changes can be inherited by the organism’s offspring. Use and disuse of what? Existing knowledge.</p>
<p>Creationism, as David Deutsch explains in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, is really creation denial because it claims that knowledge creation is supernatural. And by placing creation in the supernatural realm, it categorically rules out the possibility of creating new knowledge, at least for us mere mortals.</p>
<p>Pessimism, as Deutsch explains, is the idea that there is some boundary beyond which no progress can be made—beyond which no more knowledge can be created, no matter what one does. Which means that once that boundary is reached, all we can do is execute existing knowledge. New ideas, pessimism says, cannot be created at that point.</p>
<p>Progress denial is one of philosophers’ favorite pastimes. It is the idea that progress either hasn’t been occurring for the past few hundred years, or that at least it isn’t desirable and that we should return to a more ‘sustainable’ lifestyle. Environmentalists are big on the latter view. Taken seriously, progress denial implies that the Western civilization has not been creating new knowledge. But it has. Progress really has been taking place, and it requires the creation of new knowledge. So progress denial, like creationism, is really creation denial.</p>
<p>‘Redistribution’, a euphemism for the forced expropriation of wealth, is a special case of zero-sum games favored by governments and uses existing wealth rather than creating new wealth. In fact, governments actively <em>penalize</em> the creation of new wealth—which requires the creation of new knowledge—through taxation. Taxation is then used to ‘redistribute’ mechanistically. Charity, which is likewise a mechanistic use of existing knowledge, is not penalized by the government. The opposite is the case: government <em>favors</em> charity by allowing donors to write off donations.</p>
<p>What all of these concepts and practices have in common is this: they favor existing knowledge at the expense of new knowledge. They serve to maintain the status quo (even if some of them, like empiricism or the ‘scientific method’, pretend to serve progress). Already-existing ideas have an easier time spreading when it is difficult to even conceive of new ideas. So why not convince a mind that new ideas aren’t favorable? This is the conundrum a <em>static mind</em> finds itself in. The above concepts are all remnants of the kind of thinking rampant in what David Deutsch calls <em>static societies</em>: societies that ruthlessly enforce the status quo.</p>
<p>In light of all this, I guess that, if a theory arbitrarily favors existing knowledge over future knowledge, it is both factually and morally false. Understanding creativity will require a radical departure from all of these concepts.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/discounting-future-knowledge
Discounting Future Knowledge
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="true-controversial-ideas">True Controversial Ideas</h1>
<p><em>Thanks to Logan Chipkin who contributed to this list.</em></p>
<ul>
<li>When you first hear an idea you think can’t possibly be true (factually or morally), that should give you pause. It’s not a reason to dismiss the idea out of hand. Instead, ask questions, discuss, and remember that you might be wrong. Keep that in mind as you read this list!</li>
<li>Most people outwardly despise violence because they know they’re supposed to, but secretly they like it to some degree, and they think some minimum of it is required for society to work. Some of them can get very mad when you take freedom seriously</li>
<li>Capitalism is good</li>
<li>Communism is evil</li>
<li>Taxation is theft</li>
<li>Forcefully extracting money from roughly everyone, meaning from the community, can’t be good for the community. Yet those arguing in favor of taxation claim it’s “for the good of the community”</li>
<li>Neither equality of outcome nor equality of opportunity nor the newly used “equity” are desirable. Any attempts to achieve them must be totalitarian and anti-human since humans naturally have different interests, competences, and develop differently, in unpredictable ways. This is human nature and totally fine</li>
<li>Ancient cultures aren’t as mysteriously amazing as most people think, and they’re not deserving of praise. The West is by far the best culture that has ever existed</li>
<li>Animals are not conscious, nor can they suffer</li>
<li>Even the most sophisticated animals are actually quite dumb</li>
<li>Most meat eaters think animals <em>are</em> conscious and <em>can</em> suffer, so they should also think that they’re complicit in murder every time they eat meat and in rape when they drink milk. Most of them think this view is ridiculous. But they also think it’s ridiculous to claim that animals can’t suffer. So their view on animals is hopelessly inconsistent</li>
<li>The earth is not something to be preserved but to be used by people to make their lives better</li>
<li>If the oceans were private property, it would help clean them up</li>
<li>We should go out and colonize the universe as soon as possible</li>
<li>Aging and death are not desirable. They’re calamities that we can get rid of</li>
<li>Contrary to what most believe, <a href="https://www.windowonintelligence.com/" rel="ugc">people <em>can</em> travel at the speed of light</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/" rel="ugc">There is no limit to human progress if we keep going</a></li>
<li>The response to climate change has been way more destructive than climate change itself</li>
<li>People should be allowed to own guns</li>
<li>What holds society together isn’t government but <a href="http://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/objectivism-vs-the-myth-of-the-framework" rel="ugc">the mutual need to solve problems</a></li>
<li>America is the greatest country on earth</li>
<li>America is not a racist country</li>
<li>It is right to defend people in other countries against dictators <em>if they ask for help and if Americans aren’t forced to pay for it</em></li>
<li>The brain is a computer</li>
<li><a href="https://www.windowonintelligence.com/" rel="ugc">Programming and philosophy are the same thing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Objective-Knowledge-Evolutionary-Karl-Popper/dp/0198750242" rel="ugc">Induction and empiricism are false</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">The mind contains a pool of evolving, self-replicating ideas</a></li>
<li>People are not mindless automata</li>
<li>People have free will</li>
<li>It’s wrong to coerce people aggressively. <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/three-revolutionary-ideas" rel="ugc">“You cannot coerce your way to a better world.”</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/lockdowns-science-vs-morals" rel="ugc">Lockdowns are evil</a></li>
<li>Scientism is evil. Science isn’t the only factor to consider in decision-making. There are also moral, aesthetic, and other considerations</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191153" rel="ugc">Altruism is evil</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/15_D29tM43A?t=160" rel="ugc">Need is not a claim</a></li>
<li>Schools are evil. They’re part-time indoctrination prisons. <a href="http://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">The purpose of schools is for children to learn to systematically neglect their own preferences and prioritize others’ ideas.</a> School is the root cause of altruism</li>
<li>There is no wonder in intentionally leaving things unexplained. Wonder comes from discovery</li>
<li>Women would benefit from spending less time trying to look “cute” and more time improving their lives; men should pay less attention to women who try to look “cute” and more to those who improve their lives</li>
<li>Women are essentially forced to lie systematically about their appearance by putting on makeup, dying their hair, wearing high heels, etc.</li>
<li>Most family members in most families treat each other awfully</li>
<li>Ideas should be taken seriously</li>
<li>Children should be taken seriously</li>
<li>Karl Popper is one of the greatest philosophers to ever live</li>
<li>Nobody owes you anything unless they took something from you against your will or they agreed to owe you something</li>
<li><a href="https://www.thebeginningofinfinity.com/" rel="ugc">Problems are soluble</a></li>
<li>Problems are soluble without government</li>
<li>Yes, problems really are soluble without government</li>
<li>AI “alignment” ideas are a slaveholder’s wet dream</li>
<li><a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-do-some-peaceful-ideas-result-in-violent-pro" rel="ugc">The road to hell is paved with good intentions</a></li>
<li>Woke ideology is dumb at best, evil at worst</li>
<li>Quotas (e.g. for female board members) are not only undesirable but also <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/balinski-and-young-beyond-elections" rel="ugc">mathematically inconsistent</a></li>
<li>Self-coercion (“no pain no gain” etc.) is morally reprehensible</li>
<li>Academia is greatly overrated</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgeMEr16yYk" rel="ugc">People should write clearly and to solve problems, not precisely and with fancy words to impress others</a></li>
<li>Social-security numbers are cattle brand</li>
<li>Governments are parasitic and <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/governments-are-involuntary" rel="ugc">involuntary</a> in nature</li>
<li>Every field of study that isn’t epistemology is downstream of epistemology</li>
<li>Abortions are fine if done early enough</li>
<li>Being a libertarian when it comes to society but not when it comes to parenting is inconsistent because there are a lot of parallels between authoritarian governments and authoritarian parents</li>
<li>Contrary to what many libertarians think, it is not desirable or even possible to <a href="https://mises.org/library/do-you-hate-state" rel="ugc">get rid of the government overnight</a></li>
<li>The left misunderstand islamism because they don’t take islamists seriously. The left think everything can be reduced to geopolitics, when in reality, <a href="http://www.occidentaldissent.com/2016/07/31/isis-why-we-hate-you-why-we-fight-you/" rel="ugc">islamists have identified that as a leftist “propaganda tool”, and have explained why they hate us</a></li>
<li>When islamists kill for drawing Muhammed, <a href="/posts/in-solidarity-with-salman-rushdie" rel="ugc">everyone should draw Muhammed</a></li>
<li>European countries are ruining themselves by enabling too much immigration from non-Western countries</li>
<li><a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-to-do-in-the-face-of-corporate-wokeism" rel="ugc">Black Lives Matter is an anti-American, anti-freedom, socialist movement disguised as a good cause</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Some of these ideas are implied by each other. You probably disagree with at least some of them. Maybe they even angered you. Or maybe you’d like to add to the list. Discuss and feel free to let off steam in the comments below, just remember the human please!</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/true-controversial-ideas
True Controversial Ideas
2022-11-21T00:20:27Z
2022-11-21T00:20:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="two-guesses-about-creativity">Two Guesses About Creativity</h1>
<p>The problem, in a nutshell, is this: creativity is not predetermined. Computer programs, on the other hand, are completely deterministic. So how could creativity possibly be programmed? We know it <em>must</em> be possible, since we are each a living instance of the creative program—but <em>how</em>?</p>
<p>I was reminded of this problem while reading Chiara Marletto’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Science-Can-Cant-Physicists-Counterfactuals/dp/0525521925" rel="ugc">new book</a>.* She writes that much of physics focuses exclusively on what she calls <em>the prevailing conception</em>: a mode of explaining the physical world with the help of initial conditions and laws of motion. For example, if you know a particle’s position and the laws governing its movement, you can predict its future position. But this mode is not the only mode. As Marletto writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The misconception is that once you have specified everything that exists in the physical world and what happens to it—all the actual stuff—then you have explained everything that can be explained. Does that sound indisputable? It may well. For it is easy to get drawn into this way of thinking without ever realising that one has swallowed a number of substantive assumptions that are unwarranted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She goes on to say that one cannot explain what a computer is merely by listing the programs it runs–one also needs to state what programs it <em>could</em> run, even if such programs are never <em>actually</em> run. She distinguishes between the actual and the counterfactual. Counterfactuals play a crucial role in <em>constructor theory</em>, a field she and David Deutsch are pioneering.</p>
<p>There are other modes of explanation as well, such as the evolutionary one. Darwin’s explanation of the origin of species makes no specific prediction about what organisms will form (future state) from current organisms (initial conditions) given some “laws of evolution”. It could not possibly do that. Instead, it explains by what <em>logic</em> organisms <em>can</em> form.</p>
<p>The evolutionary mode of explanation is particularly important in <em>artificial general intelligence</em> (AGI), i.e., the study of creativity. We know thanks to the work of the 20th-century philosopher Karl Popper that creativity is an <em>evolutionary</em> program. There is literally non-biological evolution of ideas happening inside our minds. I have <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">written</a> about what that evolution may look like in some detail.</p>
<p>When taken outside the context of physics, the idea that there can be multiple modes of explanation conflicts with how we currently write computer programs. For example, if you write an algorithm that can add two numbers, it will follow the analog of what Marletto calls the prevailing conception in physics: the algorithm will take two numbers, i.e., two initial conditions, while itself being analogous to a law of motion. Given the initial conditions and the law of motion, you can calculate the result, i.e., the future state. Consider <code>2 + 2 = 4</code> as an example: <code>2</code> and <code>2</code> are the initial conditions, <code>+</code> is the law of motion, and <code>4</code> is the future state.</p>
<figure class="text-center">
<img id="prevailing-conception" src="/assets/prevailing-conception.png" alt="The prevailing conception in physics and in programming">
<figcaption class="font-italic">The prevailing conceptions in physics and programming are strictly analogous</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I will use the same term, <em>prevailing conception</em>, to describe how we write computer programs. And I contend that it is not only algorithms for addition that follow the prevailing conception, but <em>all</em> programs that have ever been written, and all that <em>could</em> be written. I believe this is just another way of stating computational universality.</p>
<p>If true, this constitutes a problem for AGI research, because it seems that writing programs under the prevailing conception <em>precludes</em> all creativity. Why? Because if every output and every state of the program are predetermined from the beginning, it would seem to follow that the program cannot possibly be creative. To be creative means to create new knowledge, and if the knowledge is truly new, it cannot have been predetermined—otherwise, merely by determining the new knowledge, you would already have created it. It’s one thing to prophesy “tomorrow we will find the solution to the dark-energy problem”, but quite another to say “that solution is X”. If you already know what X is, you have found the solution today, not tomorrow, and you contradict yourself.</p>
<p>This problem—that specification precludes creativity—is <em>the problem of specification</em>. I wrote a bit about it <a href="https://www.windowonintelligence.com/" rel="ugc">in my book</a>. If you specify everything the program can do in advance, it seems it can’t break out of that predefined space, and so it can never be creative (or conscious, have free will, etc., since these things seem to arise from creativity and creativity only). In addition, the purpose of specification is to instruct the program exactly as to what to do, and never to break with the instruction. It is a demand for <em>success</em>, a guarantee that the program will work. This again sounds counter to creativity, since more creative people <em>think outside the box</em>. They can break out of or vary the space of ideas in which they operate. Deutsch’s and Marletto’s breaking out of the prevailing conception and addition of a new mode of explanation in physics is a prime example of that. And there is no guarantee for success when it comes to creativity—luck is involved. AI research is currently abuzz with the pursuit of successful thinking, but that’s not creativity. As Popper writes in his autobiography (translated freely back into English from the German translation):</p>
<blockquote><p>What characterizes creative thinking, then, apart from the intensity of interest in the problem [one is working to solve], often seems to me to be the ability to break through the boundaries of—or vary the range of—the domain from which a less creative thinker selects his attempts. This ability, which is obviously a critical ability, can be described as <em>critical imagination</em>. […]</p>
<p>Remarks like these, however, are hardly likely to satisfy those who are looking for a psychological theory of creative thinking […]. Because what they are looking for is a theory of <em>successful</em> […] thinking.</p>
<p>I believe that the demand for a theory of <em>successful</em> thinking cannot be satisfied. Nor is it the same as a theory of creative thinking. […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If it is true that all programs must follow the prevailing conception of programming, and that this prevailing conception <em>precludes</em> creativity, it would seem that we can never write a creative program! But that must be false since we each have a running instance of the creative program inside our heads. We know that it <em>must</em> be possible.</p>
<p>To solve this problem, consider these two simple guesses:</p>
<h3 id="1-while-it-is-true-that-no-automation-under-the-prevailing-conception-can-be-creative-it-is-false-that-all-possible-programs-fall-under-the-prevailing-conception-therefore-we-need-a-new-mode-of-computation-i-e-a-new-conception-or">1. While it is true that no automation under the prevailing conception can be creative, it is false that all possible programs fall under the prevailing conception. Therefore, we need a new mode of computation, i.e., a new conception. OR</h3>
<h3 class="mb-3">2. There <em>is</em> a kind of automation under the prevailing conception that produces <em>emergent</em> phenomena that constitute creativity.</h3>
<p>Since they contradict each other, only one of these guesses can be true—and given that, as I said, we are each living instances of the creative program, it seems that one of them <em>must</em> be true.</p>
<p>Guess number 1 is admittedly a very bold conjecture: the prevailing conception of programming is, for all we know, <em>universal</em>. That means <em>any</em> program that <em>could</em> be written falls under the prevailing conception and there can be no other mode of computation. If that is true, guess number 1 is false and we need not look for a new such mode. We should keep in mind, however, that even our best theories are riddled with errors. Maybe there’s something wrong with the universality of computation as we currently understand it. Maybe there <em>are</em> other modes of computation to be discovered. Maybe they’ll involve counterfactuals, like in constructor theory. Or something completely new we haven’t thought of yet, opening up whole new worlds for how to write programs.</p>
<p>Thought should be given to the possibility of guess number 1 being correct. If it is, all our attempts to write a creative program under the prevailing conception are doomed to fail. This would partly explain our long history of failure in the field of AGI, in addition to the missing philosophical breakthrough which, <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-close-are-we-to-creating-artificial-intelligence" rel="ugc">according to David Deutsch</a>, must happen first.</p>
<p>The second guess—that there <em>is</em> a kind of automation under the prevailing conception that produces <em>emergent</em> phenomena that constitute creativity—is a bit more conservative because it doesn’t clash with computational universality as we currently understand it. But it does clash with the notion that automation cannot be creative—that specification precludes creativity. I think guess 2 is true, in which case automation <em>can</em> be creative. It’s just not creativity itself that’s being automated or specified but something else on a lower level. The introduction of emergence makes this possible:</p>
<h3 class="mb-3">The code of the creative program itself does <em>not</em> specify creativity but something else on a lower level of emergence; creativity arises as an emergent byproduct of running that code.</h3>
<p>It is not currently known what the code specifies. But whatever it is, the specification, i.e. automation, is mindless, because it’s not the low-level automation that is the mind, but the amalgamation of properties that <em>emerge</em> from this mindless automation.</p>
<p>In addition to not breaking with computational universality, another strength of guess 2 is that it fits our experience: we are not consciously aware of how our minds work. If guess 2 is true, that’s because the underlying algorithm is as mindless as any other automation. It is only the emergent properties that constitute creativity and therefore consciousness, and they don’t have any direct access to the underlying program—even though it’s the program that instantiates them. When a mind tries to understand how it itself works, it means the program’s emergent properties are trying to reverse-engineer the program’s specification.</p>
<figure class="text-center">
<img id="emerging-mind" src="/assets/emerging-mind.png" alt="The mind emerging from a program written under the prevailing conception">
<figcaption class="font-italic">The mind emerging from a program written under the prevailing conception</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Guess 2 also allows us to solve another problem. Deutsch <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-close-are-we-to-creating-artificial-intelligence" rel="ugc">writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>[Unlike] any functionality that has ever been programmed to date, [creativity] can be achieved neither by a specification nor a test of the outputs. What is needed is nothing less than a breakthrough in philosophy, a new epistemological theory that explains <em>how</em> brains create explanatory knowledge and hence defines, in principle, without ever running them as programs, <em>which</em> algorithms possess that functionality and which do not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Programmers mainly write their programs according to specifications and by testing the outputs. One may wonder what else there is to programming other than specifications and outputs. We’ve encountered one such thing already: <em>emergent phenomena</em>. Programs give rise to them while running, sometimes even before or after running. Emergent phenomena <em>can</em> be part of a program’s specification, but they need not be. Examples of such emergent phenomena include a program’s <em>reach</em> (cf. Deutsch’s <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> ch. 1), i.e., how many problems it can solve in addition to those it was written to solve. Reach isn’t specified anywhere in the program’s code, and it’s not part of the program’s outputs either. Let’s say an addition algorithm is built for the parochial purpose of adding 1023 and 411, but it’s written in such a general way that it works for any two positive integers (within the computer’s memory constraints). That is part of the <em>reach</em> of that program. Again, the reach is not specified anywhere in the code—no line instructs the code explicitly to work for any two positive integers. Instead, the reach simply falls out of how the program is written. The programmer <em>may</em> have had a specification in mind that the algorithm should work for any two integers—and no doubt he usually would. But the point is that he <em>need</em> not have had this specification in mind at the time of writing the algorithm. Every possible program always meets infinitely many possible specifications while also violating infinitely many of them. A program’s code could never transcend its specification—but its <em>emergent</em> properties <em>can</em>—and this, in principle, enables them to be creative.</p>
<p>Performance and memory characteristics present more examples of programs’ emergent properties. There can also be visual ones, such as the visual patterns created by Conway’s famous <a href="https://playgameoflife.com/" rel="ugc">Game of Life</a>.</p>
<p>While the existence of emergent properties of programs is well known among programmers, I suspect that they are understudied. From what we know about creativity, we can infer that the emergent phenomena must have specific properties themselves: for one thing, they need to have <em>causal power</em> because our ideas can cause us to act. For example, good performance characteristics have the causal power of attracting developers while bad performance characteristics may repel them. The creative emergent phenomena also need to be able to change at runtime because our thoughts, ideas, preferences, etc. change during our lifetime. And when, how, and whether they do change must be <em>unpredictable in principle</em> and must not be predetermined. Further, the emergent properties of creativity must only be instantiated at runtime, not before or after (though some of them may <em>copy themselves</em> to other computers or people and survive their original runtime, like memes do). Perhaps most importantly, the emergent properties need to be able to create more emergent properties. Simply making a program with static emergent properties isn’t hard. There are no programs that don’t have any emergent properties. But programmers will need to study emergence more if we’re to write creativity. It may help to build tools to inspect a program’s emergent properties somehow while programming.</p>
<p>The automation that gives rise to creativity must create emergent phenomena fairly reliably since we have a mostly coherent conscious experience. On the other hand, it must not create any <em>particular</em> emergent phenomenon reliably or predictably—that would preclude creativity, for if the emergent phenomenon, such as a thought, can already be predicted, the knowledge in it has already been created. That the automation must fairly reliably create emergent phenomena in general, but no particular emergent phenomenon, reminds me of Deutsch’s stance on problems in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>: that problems, in general, are inevitable, while no <em>particular</em> problem is inevitable.</p>
<p>On the low level of code, there is no mind, no freedom and no free will—only blind subservience to instructions without room for deviation. The automation is <em>mindless</em>, and in this sense, the algorithm that gives rise to creativity is like all other algorithms. This way, we don’t need to break with the prevailing conception or computational universality. But on a higher level of emergence, the mind, freedom, and free will <em>do</em> exist. It’s again analogous to physics: even though the laws of motion are deterministic, and therefore all future positions of every particle in the universe are also predetermined, including those of your brain, it is impossible in principle to predict what <em>idea</em> you will come up with next. Although the <em>physical</em> world is completely deterministic, the world of <em>abstractions</em> is not. There is room for such things as free will and creativity, and it’s thanks to the existence of higher levels of emergence (cf. Deutsch’s <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, ch. 5). <em>That</em> is how we square the dichotomy between all possible programs being predetermined automations and creativity arising from a program.</p>
<p>So to build a bit on what Deutsch writes—that we need a theory which “defines, in principle, without ever running them as programs, which <em>algorithms</em> possess [creativity] and which do not”: I believe we need a theory that explains which algorithms can have free, open-ended, unpredictable, and non-predetermined emergent properties, and how and why, while those algorithms’ low-level instructions are deterministic, like those of all other algorithms (if guess 1 is indeed false).</p>
<p>If this “emergent approach” works, the program itself, i.e. the automation on the lowest, code level, <em>can</em> be written to a specification after all. But it must happen in such a way that the <em>emergent</em> properties of the program are not all predetermined. (I <em>think</em> Conway’s Game of Life is, for example, a program whose visual emergent properties are completely predetermined.) If, on the other hand, guess 2 is false and 1 is true, maybe there can be no underlying specification for creativity after all—but as I have explained, it would mean there’s something wrong with computational universality as we currently understand it. We’d need a radically different, yet-to-be-discovered way of writing computer programs.</p>
<p>If the emergent approach is true at all, it can shed some light on why we are conscious of some things and not others. We are <em>never</em> conscious of things that happen on the code level, and only ever of (some) of the emergent phenomena. One is <em>never</em> conscious of things one’s mind has automated, while one <em>can</em> be conscious of the emergent phenomena it is creating.</p>
<p>As next problems to work on, I suggest coming up with a list of other emergent phenomena programs do or at least can have. Then we can think about how these phenomena could change at runtime; how they could change unpredictably; and how they could create new emergent phenomena. I am not sure whether programs have been written whose emergent properties change at runtime—but it’s hard to say without thinking of more emergent properties first. It’s particularly interesting to consider <em>self-replicating</em> emergent phenomena since we know creativity is an evolutionary process. The variation and selection that self-replicating emergent properties undergo may create new emergent phenomena.</p>
<p>The emergent approach allows us to entertain the idea that, even when run on a reliable computer, a deterministic program, whose low-level states and outputs can all be specified and predetermined, can nevertheless be perfectly creative. From the emergent properties of creativity, we can work backward to what the underlying code must be.</p>
<p>What other emergent properties of programs can you think of? Leave your ideas in the comments below.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Logan Chipkin for explaining laws of motion to me.</em></p>
<p><hr></p>
<p><small>* I am still at the very beginning of Marletto’s book, and it foreshadows that constructor theory has something to say about AGI—so, as I read on I may learn more that could change my views presented here.</small></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/two-guesses-about-creativity
Two Guesses About Creativity
2023-03-05T06:27:19Z
2023-03-05T06:27:19Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="programming-in-strings">Programming in Strings</h1>
<p>I used to be a big fan of Angular and Angular 2. Then a colleague at Apple explained to me why what he called “programming in strings” is a bad idea. For example, this nonsense:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight html"><code><span class="nt"><h1</span> <span class="na">ng-repeat=</span><span class="s">"i in array"</span><span class="nt">></span>{{i}}<span class="nt"></h1></span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Angular isn’t the only framework that makes this mistake. Rails makes it, too, with embedded Ruby. If you’re used to writing embedded Ruby (those pesky <code>.erb</code> files), you may not realize how bad it is.</p>
<p>Consider this template:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight erb"><code><span class="nt"><ul></span>
<span class="cp"><%</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">].</span><span class="nf">each</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">i</span><span class="o">|</span> <span class="cp">%></span>
<span class="nt"><li></span><span class="cp"><%=</span> <span class="n">i</span> <span class="cp">%></span><span class="nt"></li></span>
<span class="cp"><%</span> <span class="k">end</span> <span class="cp">%></span>
<span class="nt"></ul></span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>This is <em>gross</em>. Embedded Ruby makes you mix your template and your logic. Rails is big on <em>separation of concerns</em>, and the above example is the opposite of that. It’s “programming in strings” because you’re writing logic inside your template string. This problem is well known in the Clojure world. Logic should be taken care of <em>before</em> rendering, not <em>during</em>.</p>
<p>Hiccdown makes this happen by taking a datastructure representing your template – which you’re free to build up logically in any way you like, using the full power of the Ruby programming language (<code>map</code>, <code>filter</code>, <code>reduce</code> etc) – and then turning that into HTML <em>at the end</em>. All of this still happens on the server, so you still get all the benefits of pre-processing.</p>
<p>This solution was first implemented in the Clojure world with the <a href="https://github.com/weavejester/hiccup" rel="ugc">Hiccup package</a>. Hiccdown introduces the same (?) functionality in Ruby. (There’s another package doing that but, at the time of writing, it hasn’t been maintained in seven years. Plus, it was more fun building this from scratch!)</p>
<h2 id="usage">Usage</h2>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="c1"># plain</span>
<span class="no">Hiccdown</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="n">to_html</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:h1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'hello world'</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="c1"># => '<h1>hello world</h1>'</span>
<span class="c1"># nested siblings</span>
<span class="no">Hiccdown</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="n">to_html</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:div</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:h1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'hello world'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:h2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'hello again'</span><span class="p">]]</span>
<span class="c1"># => '<div><h1>hello world</h1><h2>hello again</h2></div>'</span>
<span class="c1"># attributes</span>
<span class="no">Hiccdown</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="n">to_html</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:h1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="ss">class: </span><span class="s1">'heading big'</span><span class="p">},</span> <span class="s1">'hello world'</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="c1"># => '<h1 class="heading big">hello world</h1>'</span>
<span class="c1"># children as arrays</span>
<span class="no">Hiccdown</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="n">to_html</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:ul</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[[</span><span class="ss">:li</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'first'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:li</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'second'</span><span class="p">]]]</span>
<span class="c1"># => '<ul><li>first</li><li>second</li></ul>'</span>
<span class="c1">#</span>
<span class="c1"># This is equivalent to writing:</span>
<span class="no">Hiccdown</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="n">to_html</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:ul</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:li</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'first'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:li</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'second'</span><span class="p">]]</span>
<span class="c1"># So why use it? So you can use methods that return arrays inside your hiccdown structure without having to use the splat operator every time:</span>
<span class="no">Hiccdown</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="n">to_html</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:ul</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'first'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'second'</span><span class="p">].</span><span class="nf">map</span> <span class="p">{</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">i</span><span class="o">|</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:li</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">i</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="p">}]</span>
<span class="c1"># => '<ul><li>first</li><li>second</li></ul>'</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>The last example in particular gives you an insight into how powerful Hiccdown is. In embedded Ruby or Angular or what have you, I cannot map over elements, only over data. And I need special syntax for it, and I need to extend that syntax manually. With Hiccdown, you use plain old Ruby, and you can iterate over whatever you like because <em>everything</em> is data.</p>
<h2 id="usage-in-rails">Usage in Rails</h2>
<p>Delete your view file. In your controller action, do:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">FooController</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="no">ApplicationController</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">bar</span>
<span class="n">render</span> <span class="ss">html: </span><span class="no">Hiccdown</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="n">to_html</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="ss">:h1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'hello world!'</span><span class="p">]).</span><span class="nf">html_safe</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>(Be careful with <code>html_safe</code>.)</p>
<h2 id="how-to-get-it">How to get it?</h2>
<p>Hiccdown (currently version 0.1.2) is available <a href="https://rubygems.org/gems/hiccdown" rel="ugc">as a gem</a> and the source code is <a href="https://github.com/dchacke/hiccdown" rel="ugc">on GitHub</a>.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/programming-in-strings
Programming in Strings
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="objectivism-vs-the-myth-of-the-framework">Objectivism vs. the Myth of the Framework</h1>
<p>In <em>The Virtue of Selfishness</em>, chapter 14 titled “The Nature of Government”, objectivist founder Ayn Rand criticizes anarchy. An anarchistic society is one in which there exists no government and no institutionalized coercion. (I prefer the term “voluntarism” over “anarchy” because “anarchy” conjures up images of chaos and violence and that’s not what anarchists/voluntarists/libertarians want, but here I will use Rand’s terminology for consistency.)</p>
<p>The standard assumption shared by over 99% of all people is that anarchy could never work because you need roads, police, a legal system, education, etc—all the things government currently provides. Objectivists agree with anarchists that one does not, in fact, need a government to build roads or schools. (If you’re wondering why, see the <a href="/posts/libertarian-faq" rel="ugc">libertarian FAQ</a>.) This they have in common with anarchists. But anarchists go one step further: they think there is <em>nothing</em> that could not be provided by private corporations (and that wouldn’t be worse in the hands of government), which includes a police force, an army, and a legal system. Objectivists, on the other hand, believe that for these three specific services you need a government. Rand writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The proper functions of a government fall into three broad categories, all of them involving the issues of physical force and the protection of men’s rights: <em>the police</em>, to protect men from criminals—<em>the armed services</em>, to protect men from foreign invaders—<em>the law courts</em>, to settle disputes among men according to objective laws.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At this point, one may wonder what the special ingredient is that allows governments to provide these services no other group of people could. Rand says it is this: <em>objectivity</em>. But governments are just made of people, like all other groups. What is it that enables them to be objective and prevents other groups from the same? It is unclear to me.</p>
<p>Objective law is a form of <em>knowledge</em>. And objective knowledge needs no special source. Instead, it requires <em>good explanations</em>: good legal, moral, political, etc explanations. As David Deutsch explains in chapter 1 of his book <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, good explanations are objectively different from bad explanations because they are “hard to vary”: it’s difficult to change a good explanation without it breaking apart or at least losing quality while still accounting for what it purports to account for. That is not true of bad explanations: you can vary parts of them without changing much of what they account for.</p>
<p>So objectivity is attainable in an anarchistic society if that society creates objectively good explanations in general and objectively good legal explanations in particular. Doing so requires not a government, but hard-to-vary explanations. And industries not currently monopolized by the government already create objective knowledge all the time (arguably much more so than government ever has): scientists, engineers, architects, doctors, programmers, etc create objective knowledge daily.</p>
<p>However, the alleged lack of objectivity is not the only problem Rand sees with anarchy. She writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>[S]ome people are raising the question of whether government as such is evil by nature and whether anarchy is the ideal social system. […] A recent variant of anarchistic theory […] is a weird absurdity called “competing governments.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That isn’t full anarchy, it’s only governments that would be in an anarchistic relationship with each other in that case (as they are already, by the way), not their subjects—but to make it work, let’s imagine that what she means by “government” is a collection of private-security companies and arbitration services. They provide protection and legal-conflict resolution—the things Rand states are only legitimate in the hands of a government. She continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>[S]uppose Mr. Smith, a customer of [arbitration service] A, suspects that his next-door neighbor, Mr. Jones, a customer of [arbitration service] B, has robbed him; a squad of Police A proceeds to Mr. Jones’ house and is met at the door by a squad of Police B, who declare that they do not accept the validity of Mr. Smith’s complaint and do not recognize the authority of [arbitration service] A. What happens then? You take it from there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She implies that Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones could never resolve their conflict <em>because they do not have a shared jurisdiction</em>—one legal system that subsumes both arbitration services and by whose rules both must abide. By not stating this explicitly, Rand assumes that this is obvious. That is a mistake. And if she had elaborated more, maybe she would have realized her mistake.</p>
<p>Conflict resolution takes <em>knowledge</em>—knowledge that may need to be created first. In other words, it takes <em>creativity</em>. As such, conflict resolution is no different from the creation of knowledge in response to other problems. Problems, universally, are just conflicts between ideas, legal or otherwise. Legal problems have no special epistemological status, so we can conclude that their solution does not require any special treatment or any special source of knowledge such as a government.</p>
<p>Why does Rand think that Smith and Jones could never resolve their conflict without a shared jurisdiction? Her mistake is an instance of what Karl Popper called “the myth of the framework”. He explains it in a lecture you can find <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM34PjioTM4&list=PLBGDngphGY_0KYKKUnyJqxtSHo-vLRewz&index=12" rel="ugc">here</a> (translation by the Philosophy Overdose Youtube channel): </p>
<blockquote><p>The myth of the [framework] can be summed up in one sentence as follows: it is impossible to discuss a problem rationally and fruitfully if the participants do not stand on a common ground of basic assumptions, or if they do not at least provisionally accept such a common intellectual [framework] for the sake of discussion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, it is the notion that unless two parties share some common assumptions, they cannot solve problems together or come to an understanding. It is the idea that separate frameworks cannot talk to each other.</p>
<p>Now, in the quote above, replace “framework” with “legal framework” and “common ground of basic assumptions” with “common legal code” or “shared jurisdiction” and we have Rand’s idea that people require a shared jurisdiction to solve legal problems. Rand’s mistake is a special case of Popper’s myth of the framework.</p>
<p>Popper’s first criticism of the myth is that discussions in which participants <em>do</em> share all or most assumptions are often much <em>less</em> fruitful than those in which they do not share many assumptions. People who agree don’t have much to discuss. On the contrary, discussions between people with very different viewpoints can be tremendously fruitful, in the sense that they learn something new, extend their horizons, or are “shaken in their beliefs”.</p>
<p>Then Popper asks: “Is such a discussion impossible [, as the myth claims]?” He gives an account by Herodotus of two ancient Greek tribes which have diametrically opposed burial rituals: one that eats their dead, and one that does not. The former is asked how much money it would take to get them to stop eating their dead, to which they respond they could not entertain such an awful idea. The latter is asked how much money it would take to get them to <em>start</em> eating the dead, to which they have the same response. To each tribe, the other’s ritual is an unspeakable horror. And yet, if these tribes ever met, many of their members might be shaken in their most dearly held beliefs, and they almost certainly would learn something from each other, and maybe even learn to respect the other’s rituals and start to cooperate.</p>
<p>Popper concludes that what’s needed is not some minimum set of shared assumptions, as the myth alleges, but simply a willingness to discuss and solve problems. This willingness is epitomized in his famous quote:</p>
<blockquote><h3 id="i-may-be-wrong-and-you-may-be-right-and-by-an-effort-we-may-get-nearer-to-the-truth"><em>‘I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth.’</em></h3>
</blockquote>
<p>– Popper, Karl. 2014. <em>The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality.</em> United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup></p>
<p>In identifying the myth of the framework and proposing this replacement, Popper made a <em>universal</em> epistemological discovery. It applies to <em>all</em> kinds of conflicts, <em>including legal ones</em>. This solves the problem Rand deemed insoluble without government. Both arbitration services have an incentive to bridge the gap between their frameworks <em>because they want to be known as companies that can solve this problem. Their livelihood depends on it. People would not hire them if they could not solve this simple problem that would arise often.</em> It’s just not the case that these companies would just say, “well shucks, I guess we can’t solve that”, and that society would soon collapse into a state of chaos. <em>People want to solve problems.</em> No man can solve every problem in his life by himself. He depends, at least in part, on the knowledge of others, so he will want to cooperate. <em>This</em> is what holds society together—not <em>government</em>! It is uncharacteristically pessimistic of Rand, who rightly celebrated reason and creativity, to underestimate people’s creativity in the legal context.</p>
<p>How, specifically, could these separate arbitration services solve the problem of having different legal frameworks? Well, how does Rand think countries around the world solve the problem when they want to resolve disputes? They are in a state of anarchy with each other. How does she think citizens and companies cooperating across borders solve this problem today? How does she think telecommunications services enable their customers to call each other despite being on separate networks and despite those companies being competitors? Both within and across borders? Etc. So, one specific solution is for both arbitration services to communicate beforehand and agree on rules and set up an infrastructure. That infrastructure could in turn involve banks agreeing to confiscate their customers’ funds should they resist cooperation in a suit. That’s one specific idea, but one does not need to propose solutions for the claim that legal problems are soluble absent a leviathan to be valid.</p>
<p>Rand arrived at a mistaken political and legal philosophy because of this epistemological mistake identified by Popper. Epistemology is upstream of politics and law. This underlines the need for the correction of epistemological mistakes to fix mistakes in political philosophy.</p>
<p>It is interesting to think about how an ideal world as Rand envisioned it would evolve. As I said, Rand wants the police force, army, and legal services in the hands of the government only. And she wants all three financed by voluntary taxes. What happens if private corporations realize their creative potential, think they can do a better job than the government, and want to offer innovative security or arbitration services? Is the government going to shut them down violently to enforce its monopoly? It can’t, since according to Rand, the government may only employ violence to defend men. So if it cannot go against private corporations that want to compete with it, then it will automatically lose its monopoly in the areas Rand reserves specifically for it. It will become just another provider of services, like any other corporation. It seems that the society Rand envisioned would be unstable and would sooner or later evolve to become a stable, anarchistic society anyway.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>This reference was auto-generated by <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Myth_of_the_Framework/GDFpAwAAQBAJ?gbpv=0" rel="ugc">Google Books</a>, except I moved the year to make it consistent with my other references. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/objectivism-vs-the-myth-of-the-framework
Objectivism vs. the Myth of the Framework
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="a-comprehensive-guide-to-eric-weinsteins-paper-on-geometric-unity">A Comprehensive Guide to Eric Weinstein’s Paper on Geometric Unity</h1>
<p>Eric Weinstein recently published <a href="https://geometricunity.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/Geometric_Unity-Draft-April-1st-2021.pdf" rel="ugc">a working draft</a> of a paper on a theory he first proposed in 2013, called “Geometric Unity.” It is supposed to be a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinstein" rel="ugc">“unified theory of physics.”</a> As far as I know, this is the first thing he has written about his theory.</p>
<p>So that you don’t need to read all 69 pages, here’s the comprehensive guide:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1"><p>Read the opening quote of the introduction, i.e. the problem statement, and be delighted by its clarity:</p>
<blockquote><p>“What really interests me is whether god had any choice in the creation of the world.” -Albert Einstein to Ernst Strauss</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li data-step="2"><p>Read the first sentence of the introduction, if you can, and be startled by its obscurantism:</p>
<blockquote><p>In the beginning we will let <em>X</em><sup>4</sup> be a 4-dimensional <em>C</em><sup>∞</sup> manifold with a chosen orientation and unique spin structure.</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li data-step="3"><p>Realize that Weinstein is not in the business of solving problems but impressing his peers. Stop reading and resume whatever you were doing before.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>Update 2021-10-05: Saying Weinstein wants to impress his <em>peers</em> was a mistake. He’s trying to impress his <em>fans</em>, most of whom are not his peers, which is precisely why he can manipulate them into feeling inadequate/not worthy of his brilliance. Note in particular that in a footnote on the first page, he writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Author is not a physicist and is no longer an active academician, but is an Entertainer and host of The Portal podcast. This work of entertainment is a draft of work in progress […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“[W]ork[s] of entertainment” are directed at the general public, not physicists.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/a-comprehensive-guide-to-eric-weinstein-s-paper
A Comprehensive Guide to Eric Weinstein’s Paper on Geometric Unity
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="analyzing-the-cambridge-declaration-on-consciousness">Analyzing <em>The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness</em></h1>
<p>Let’s analyze <a href="http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf" rel="ugc">The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness</a>, keeping the following things in mind:</p>
<ul>
<li>If an organism is <em>smart</em> (i.e., contains sophisticated knowledge), that does <em>not</em> mean it is <em>intelligent</em> (i.e., can <em>create</em> new knowledge). Why? Because the sophisticated knowledge may well have originated somewhere else and not in the organism (cf. Deutsch, <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, ch. 7). For example, it can be inherited genetically and then the organism just needs to execute it mindlessly. Therefore, no matter how sophisticated animal behavior may be, it is not evidence of intelligence/creativity. And if creativity is required to be conscious—as it seems to be*—then sophisticated behavior isn’t evidence of consciousness either.</li>
<li>Intelligence and consciousness are <em>software</em>. And, like all software, they can be run on computers, which can be made of pretty much anything. It doesn’t matter if that computer is made of metal and silicon or chewing gum and vacuum tubes. So neuroscience won’t tell us anything about consciousness, for the same reason you can study metal and silicon all you want, it won’t tell you anything about how, say, a word processor (or consciousness) works. (cf. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/the-new-human-1.4696724/oxford-physicist-predicts-ai-will-be-human-in-all-but-name-1.4696754" rel="ugc">this</a> interview with David Deutsch)</li>
<li>Fancy titles and complicated sentence structures shouldn’t intimidate us into agreement.</li>
</ul>
<p>The first (!) sentence reads:</p>
<blockquote><p>On this day of July 7, 2012, a prominent international group of cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists and computational neuroscientists gathered at The University of Cambridge to reassess the neurobiological substrates of conscious experience and related behaviors in human and non-human animals.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Writing “On this day of July 7, 2012” is already oddly formal/ceremonial. It’s supposed to give off the impression that this document is very important.</p>
<blockquote><p>a prominent international group</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How cosmopolitan! Who cares that they’re prominent and international? What bearing does this have on the matter of consciousness?</p>
<blockquote><p>cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists and computational neuroscientists gathered at The University of Cambridge</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These are lots of impressive-sounding words that essentially say: we know what we’re talking about, you don’t. Since they’re all neuro-somethings from Cambridge, surely what they’re saying must be true! But with the understanding that consciousness is software (or a least a phenomenon emerging from it), we can already tell that these people won’t have anything useful to say unless they step away from the hardware and study software instead.</p>
<blockquote><p>to reassess the neurobiological substrates of conscious experience and related behaviors in human and non-human animals.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If they had wanted clarity, they could have just written: “to think about consciousness in all animals.” What <em>is</em> clear is that they did not want clarity.</p>
<p>Skipping some. Then:</p>
<blockquote><p>Studies of non-human animals have shown that homologous brain circuits correlated with conscious experience and perception can be selectively facilitated and disrupted to assess whether they are in fact necessary for those experiences. Moreover, in humans, new non-invasive techniques are readily available to survey the correlates of consciousness. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>~Nobody is going to know what “homologous” means. <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/homologous" rel="ugc">This source</a> says it means “similar in function.” Why not just write that? In any case, there’s a problem with focusing on correlates: correlation is not causation. These researchers know this, but they ignore it because they know of no better way to study consciousness. I vaguely recall either Karl Popper or Konrad Lorenz quoting somebody else, whose name I forget and whom I will paraphrase (from poor memory): even if we found that conscious states correlated perfectly with certain neural patterns, all that would tell us is that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychophysical_parallelism" rel="ugc"><em>psychophysical parallelism</em></a> is indeed very parallel—but it would not tell us how consciousness works! In other words: we need <em>explanations</em>, not correlations.</p>
<blockquote><p>The neural substrates of emotions do not appear to be confined to cortical structures.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That may be so, but this is just a special case of the more general principle that computers can be made of pretty much anything, as long as they can process information. Also, “emotions” is a big word that can easily be misunderstood to imply subjective experiences—but studying hardware cannot tell you anything about subjective experiences because they’re abstract, not material. The rest of that paragraph is basically made of long, impressive-sounding sentences meant to support their point above.</p>
<blockquote><p>Birds appear to offer, in their behavior, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy a striking case of parallel evolution of consciousness. Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African grey parrots. Mammalian and avian emotional networks and cognitive microcircuitries appear to be far more homologous than previously thought. Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep and, as was demonstrated in zebra finches, neurophysiological patterns, previously thought to require a mammalian neocortex. Magpies in particular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now, I don’t know what magpies are, but this is the mistake I mentioned in the first bullet point at the beginning of this post. They’re blurring the lines between smarts and intelligence. That isn’t just wordplay on my part—these really are distinct concepts, and one does not imply the other.</p>
<p>Why would a similarity in sleep patterns between birds and mammals say anything about either one of them being conscious? They don’t say—it’s just an implied assertion. Same goes for similarities to humans, in particular.</p>
<p>Considering self-recognition as evidence of consciousness is a widespread mistake. David Deutsch recently issued a neat challenge after what feels like the millionth researcher claimed that animal x is conscious because it seems to recognize itself in the mirror:</p>
<blockquote><p>Someone please write a smartphone app that recognises itself in the mirror.<br><br>And when it does, yells triumphantly that it is self-aware. <a href="https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1372904582276321286" rel="ugc">https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1372904582276321286</a></p>— David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf/status/1372908980868104198?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, I met the challenge and wrote <a href="https://h22jy.csb.app/" rel="ugc">such an app</a>. I can assure you that it isn’t conscious, even though it is quite capable of recognizing the device it runs once you point it at a mirror.</p>
<p>Deutsch rightly points out that self-recognition has nothing to do with consciousness. The underlying mistake is the fudging of smarts and intelligence: self-recognition no doubt takes a sophisticated algorithm, but biological evolution may well have endowed animals (horses in this case) with such an algorithm. Horses then execute it mindlessly, just like my app, which I endowed with the algorithm. In the horse’s case, it was biological evolution that created the knowledge; in the app’s case, it was me. It wasn’t the horse and it wasn’t the app. But <em>people</em> <a href="/posts/recovering-from-blindness" rel="ugc">really do</a> create their own shape-recognition algorithms (and almost all their other knowledge), and that creative ability is what makes them conscious.</p>
<blockquote><p>In humans, the effect of certain hallucinogens appears to be associated with a disruption in cortical feedforward and feedback processing. Pharmacological interventions in non-human animals with compounds known to affect conscious behavior in humans can lead to similar perturbations in behavior in non-human animals.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yeah, so?</p>
<blockquote><p>In humans, there is evidence to suggest that awareness is correlated with cortical activity […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>See my comment above on parallelism. The evidence they speak of is not, in fact, evidence.</p>
<p>The last paragraph reads:</p>
<blockquote><p>We declare the following: “The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let’s break it up:</p>
<blockquote><p>We declare the following:</p>
</blockquote>
<p>is oddly ceremonial again (and rather pretentious, I should add).</p>
<blockquote><p>The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is true—but nor does the absence of a brain entirely, if replaced with different hardware. That’s because of computational universality, i.e., the thing about being able to run consciousness on a computer made of metal and silicon or chewing gum and vacuum tubes. So yeah, you could run consciousness on a MacBook instead of on a brain, even though MacBooks do not have neocortices, and it will experience those hoity-toity “affective states.”</p>
<blockquote><p>Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Types of hardware (“substrates”) are not indicative of consciousness any more than having a MacBook is indicative of running a word processor on that MacBook. It may have a word processor installed or it may not—either way, it’s the same hardware. So why should it be any different if we substitute consciousness for the word processor? Also, machines have “intentional behaviors” too, but they have them completely mindlessly. Intentional behaviors are not evidence of consciousness. A Roomba for example does certain things on purpose, but you wouldn’t claim it’s conscious, would you?</p>
<blockquote><p>Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Evidence cannot be weighted. This is bad science (as is their reductionist mistake of studying hardware instead of software). And again, the substrate—neurological or not—makes no difference as long as it can process information. So, in humans it may be “neurological substrates” that give rise to consciousness, sure. But that’s no more an argument than saying my MacBook runs a word processor and therefore yours runs one too.</p>
<p>A footnote says:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness was written by Philip Low and edited by Jaak Panksepp, Diana Reiss, David Edelman, Bruno Van Swinderen, Philip Low and Christof Koch. The Declaration was publicly proclaimed in Cambridge, UK, on July 7, 2012, at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals, at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, by Low, Edelman and Koch. The Declaration was signed by the conference participants that very evening, in the presence of Stephen Hawking, in the Balfour Room at the Hotel du Vin in Cambridge, UK. The signing ceremony was memorialized by CBS 60 Minutes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Who cares?</p>
<p>These are the main mistakes in the declaration:</p>
<ul>
<li>Fudging smarts and intelligence</li>
<li>Neglecting computational universality and making reductionist mistakes as a result—i.e., studying hardware while trying to understand software (and maybe not even realizing that they’re trying to understand software)</li>
<li>Failing to see that consciousness is an <em>epistemological</em> problem, not a neuroscientific/biological one</li>
<li>The bad science of “weighing” evidence and looking for correlations rather than <em>guessing bold explanations</em> and then using evidence to rule out guessed explanations</li>
<li>Sacrificing clarity for complicated, intimidating words and sentence structures</li>
</ul>
<p>If you read the whole text, you will find that it is hard to follow. You may even feel like you’re not worthy, and that you could never understand what these bright minds think about. Don’t let them do that to you.</p>
<p>Then again, Hawking was there, and the hotel had a French name, so what they’re saying must be true.</p>
<p>* EDIT: Following a suggestion, I’d like to expand on why creativity seems to be required for consciousness to arise. Creativity/intelligence is the ability to create new knowledge. Imagine an organism that is <em>not</em> creative: that means its knowledge—in the <em>objective</em> sense, not in any subjective sense—remains mostly unchanged during its lifetime. All the organism can do, therefore, is <em>execute</em> that knowledge, like an automaton. Automata are not conscious. Therefore, if an organism is creative, then it’s not an automaton—and only then could it possibly be conscious. (That still leaves room for the possibility that creativity is only necessary and not sufficient for consciousness to arise—though I do guess that it’s sufficient—but either way, automata are not conscious. They do things <em>mindlessly</em>.)</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/analyzing-the-cambridge-declaration-on-consciou
Analyzing The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="teachers-who-take-children-seriously">Teachers Who “Take Children Seriously”</h1>
<p><em>These are my thoughts and not necessarily those of TCS.</em></p>
<p>Sometimes I encounter teachers who say they take children seriously, in reference to <em>the</em> TCS school of thought. One such encounter was earlier today.</p>
<p>They usually say things like “I let my students know that they can come to me with anything” or “I treat them with respect.”</p>
<p>Well, isn’t that nice?</p>
<p>But do their students have the option to leave at any point, never to return, without punishment? No, they don’t. Which—I vaguely recall reading in a TCS article once, or maybe it’s just me talking—is torture.</p>
<p>If that sounds extreme, imagine yourself being in such a situation in adulthood. Imagine being pulled away from your interests and held in a facility against your will, every day for hours on end, with no option to leave when <em>you</em> want to. Not only that, but you’re forced to regurgitate what someone with arbitrary authority over you tells you—for up to twelve years (!). Then you’re graded on how faithful your regurgitation is and your future is largely determined by such grades. Is it really extreme to call that torture? If not, why can’t we call it that when it is children who are affected, not adults?</p>
<p>Teachers who tell themselves they “take children seriously” do anything but. They are fudging the meaning of that and want to convince themselves that they’re good people despite the force they exert on children. There is an obvious tell: if they really took children seriously, they would have quit their job already. There are opportunities to help children learn in exchange for payment that don’t involve coercion and are fun for everyone involved.</p>
<p>Fortunately, not every teacher is this way. A since-retired high-school teacher of mine—who has become a friend—understands the coercive nature of schools and is not afraid to say it openly.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/teachers-who-take-children-seriously
Teachers Who “Take Children Seriously”
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="meme-replication-vs-idea-replication">Meme Replication vs. Idea Replication</h1>
<p>By the word “idea” in the title I am referring to self-replicating ideas <em>inside</em> minds. You can learn more about them in my post on my <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">neo-Darwinian approach to the mind</a>. Memes are ideas, too, of course—I just haven’t found a good name to refer exclusively to self-replicating ideas inside minds yet. (If you have any ideas that rhyme with “gene” or “meme”, let me know in the comments below!)</p>
<p>David Kedmey asks:</p>
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yes, that’s actually another analogy I had in mind:<br><br>Meme replication across minds might be analogous to one person’s mind constructing similar ideas from various parts (problem-situations) of the neocortex…each with disparate sensory inputs. Converging on one good explanation.</p>— David Kedmey (@DKedmey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DKedmey/status/1362597773569368066">February 19, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<!-- -->
<blockquote><p><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Related Q: how does copying / replicating an idea within a mind work? How does it differ from meme replication across minds?</p>— David Kedmey (@DKedmey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DKedmey/status/1362605580200910852">February 19, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let’s do it step by step:</p>
<blockquote><p>how does copying / replicating an idea within a mind work?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Through something like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing)" rel="ugc">quine</a>, but less reliable so that mutations occur.</p>
<blockquote><p>How does it differ from meme replication across minds?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s very different. For one thing, memes exist in two distinct physical forms (see chapter 15 of David Deutsch’s <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>), whereas self-replicating ideas inside a single mind only exist in a single physical form (until they optionally turn into memes). Another difference is that people copy memes creatively, and often (though definitely not always) copy or enact them consciously, whereas idea replication is neither creative (because it underlies creativity) nor conscious: idea replication is completely subconscious and outside our control. It just happens automatically.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/meme-replication-vs-idea-replication
Meme Replication vs. Idea Replication
2023-02-15T16:19:15Z
2023-02-15T16:19:15Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="competence-first-incentives-second">Competence First, Incentives Second</h1>
<p>If you get an Uber, a Lyft, or a cab, you may think you don’t need to watch the road because you’re not the driver. After all, your and your driver’s incentives are aligned: neither of you wants to die in a car crash. His incentives are even stronger than that: he doesn’t want as much as a scratch in his car, whereas you don’t need to care about that as long as whatever causes the scratch doesn’t hurt you. So you’ll be safe, right?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Aligned incentives mean nothing when your driver is <em>incompetent</em>. A bad driver is either aware of his incentives but still bad enough at driving that he cannot live up to them despite best efforts, or so bad he doesn’t even care or think about his incentives. Therefore, with a bad driver, you <em>do</em> need to keep your eyes on the road and monitor your situation, maybe even tell him to stop the car so you can get out immediately if it isn’t safe.</p>
<p>In other words, incompetence cancels out incentives. Think about this when hiring people. First, establish their competence – <em>then</em> align incentives, in that order. Offering a share of your profits to your salesman only helps if he’s competent. If he’s not, he may <em>want</em> that share, but he won’t be able to deliver anyway. On the other hand, if he <em>is</em> competent <em>and</em> the incentives are aligned, you can relax and go for the ride without having to keep your eyes on the road.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/competence-first-incentives-second
Competence First, Incentives Second
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="taking-ideas-seriously">Taking Ideas Seriously</h1>
<p><em>Not to be confused with <a href="http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com" rel="ugc">Taking Children Seriously</a>, which I frequently reference. But to take children seriously, too, one must take their ideas seriously.</em></p>
<p>I’ve been using the phrase <em>taking ideas seriously</em> for months now, in an effort to get people to explore the consequences of their ideas as thoroughly as possible and to then tentatively accept or reject them accordingly. Some people seem to make accommodations for ideas they hold dear and don’t want to be false—and for ideas they should know to be true but don’t want to be.</p>
<p>To my delight, I recently discovered that Ayn Rand uses the phrase in her book <em>Philosophy: Who Needs It</em>. I expect there to be some overlap between how she and I use the phrase.</p>
<p>Taking ideas seriously means not being afraid of where an idea might lead us, and not changing the idea to fit some cultural standard. It means being ready to reject false ideas <em>in their entirety</em>.</p>
<p>For example: <em>If</em> computational universality is true, we don’t need to study hardware to understand software. <em>If</em> taxation is theft, there is no possible justification for taxation. <em>If</em> empiricism is false, artificial general intelligence can be designed without the need for any sense data. <em>If</em> inductivism is false, then repeated observations really can’t generate knowledge. <em>If</em> we fail to show something animals do that <em>could not</em> have been encoded in their genes, then they really aren’t intelligent. <em>If</em> consciousness arises from (and only from) creativity, then they really aren’t conscious, either. And so on.</p>
<p>I have italicized the word “if” because we should hold and reject ideas tentatively. That is the Popperian, fallible approach. We might be wrong about our attitude toward an idea! But the <em>tentative</em> nature of either our rejection or acceptance of an idea does not mean that we should <em>hesitate</em>. That would <em>prevent</em> us from exploring our ideas’ implications in earnest.</p>
<p>Taking ideas seriously means not accepting a compromise when a better solution is available. It means that if something plays a role in our best explanations of something, we should tentatively conclude that it really exists—and if it doesn’t play such a role, we should tentatively conclude that it really doesn’t exist. (This is David Deutsch’s <em>criterion of reality</em>, see <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, chapter 1.)</p>
<p>Failure to take ideas seriously is why really, really bad and dumb ideas have managed to spread despite being false and having been refuted over and over again. Think of those who tell you: “You don’t need to take religion seriously, just treat it as inspiring fables—it’s the message that counts.” Those who look up their astrological sign because it’s “fun,” those who take personality tests because they’re “fun,” won’t get it. It’s only people who take ideas seriously who could meaningfully change their minds—those who don’t take them seriously just hold one idea interchangeably for another. To meaningfully have fun at all, one must take ideas seriously, including one’s own.</p>
<p>To be sure, not <em>every</em> failure to spot an inconsistency in a theory or a theory’s conflict with other theories is the result of a failure to take ideas seriously. But oftentimes, it is.</p>
<p>Taking ideas seriously can help prevent misunderstandings, too. E.g., if you read Popper’s work as suggesting that induction <em>need not</em> work, then you’re missing half his point—maybe his whole point—that induction plays no role whatever in the creation of knowledge. If you take this idea seriously, there is less of a chance for a misunderstanding. If you don’t, you can still accommodate induction in your mind, and you might as well not have read Popper to begin with. I think this is the mistake many of the narrow-AI researchers who have read some of Popper’s works make: they don’t take his ideas seriously, and so they continue to think that induction plays <em>some</em> role in the creative process, or that it might, which is utterly false.</p>
<p>The usual response to a refutation of one’s idea is to ask for more refutations of related or other points: “but what about…” That is not a rational attitude or approach, for one could always think of more things the opponent is supposed to refute. The rational attitude when one encounters a refutation of one’s position is to either successfully refute that refutation in turn, or to drop one’s position. There is no third way. The concept of a refutation embodies the maxim of taking ideas seriously, for, a refutation is only a refutation if it shows that some idea <em>cannot</em> be true. The watered-down, non-serious, fake version of a refutation is the claim that an idea <em>need</em> not be true. Of course, no idea need be true, or else epistemological foundationalism would be true.</p>
<p>History contains great what-could-have-beens that can be traced to failures to take ideas seriously. A prime example is that of advocates of socialism, past and present, shrugging off the horrors of its history in every country in which it has been tried by saying "that wasn’t <em>real</em> socialism.” What could have been if all those false prophets had taken the previous failures seriously? How many lives could have been saved? In physics, too, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger briefly considered the implication of his equation during a lecture—that there really is a multiverse—but warned his audience that this might “seem lunatic.” David Deutsch writes in <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em>, chapter 12:</p>
<blockquote><p>Here was an eminent physicist joking that he might be considered mad. Why? For claiming that his own equation – the very one for which he had won the Nobel prize – might be <em>true</em>.<br>
Schrödinger never published that lecture, and seems never to have taken the idea further. Five years later, and independently, the physicist Hugh Everett published a comprehensive theory of the multiverse, now known as the <em>Everett interpretation</em> of quantum theory. Yet it took several more decades before Everett’s work was even noticed by more than a handful of physicists. Even now that it has become well known, it is endorsed by only a small minority.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How much more progress could have been made in quantum physics had Schrödinger and others taken his ideas about the multiverse seriously from the start?</p>
<p>A failure to take ideas seriously facilitates the spread of bad ideas and hinders that of good ones, both inside and outside of one’s mind. This is the cornerstone of Rand’s criticism of moral agnosticism in her essay <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc"><em>How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Nothing can corrupt and disintegrate a culture or a man’s character as thoroughly as does the precept of <em>moral agnosticism</em>, the idea that one must never pass moral judgment on others, that one must be morally tolerant of anything, that the good consists of never distinguishing good from evil.<br>
It is obvious who profits and who loses by such a precept. It is not justice or equal treatment that you grant to men when you abstain equally from praising men’s virtues and from condemning men’s vices. When your impartial attitude declares, in effect, that neither the good nor the evil may expect anything from you — whom do you betray and whom do you encourage?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Will you treat all ideas equally, or will you take them seriously?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/taking-ideas-seriously
Taking Ideas Seriously
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="wealth-tax-is-evil">Wealth Tax Is Evil</h1>
<p>Elizabeth Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1355231136264445953" rel="ugc">tweeted</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>When someone makes it really big in America—like top-one-tenth-of-one-percent big—they can afford to pay it forward with a two-cent wealth tax so we can invest in opportunity for everyone else, too.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She’s advocating the introduction of a wealth tax. Such a tax is different from income tax in at least two ways:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Wealth tax is paid on existing wealth, not on newly earned wealth/income</li>
<li data-step="2">Wealth tax is paid <em>over and over</em> on the same asset, not just once</li>
</ol>
<p>Note that Warren is misleading readers by calling it “a <em>two-cent</em> wealth tax” (emphasis mine). She doesn’t literally mean $0.02. She means two cents on the dollar, or 2%. That’s a <strong>big</strong> difference—it means millions of dollars per taxed person instead of two cents. So Warren’s statement is extremely dishonest.</p>
<p>In a mere 198 characters, Warren communicates several things, some explicitly, some implicitly:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">That financially successful people should be punished—even more so than they already are through various other taxes—and that their punishment should increase with their financial success</li>
<li data-step="2">That theft from financially successful people is legitimate because they can shoulder it</li>
<li data-step="3">That opportunity is created through redistribution rather than from nothing<sup id="fnref1"><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>—that society is a zero-sum game</li>
<li data-step="4">That the government should be in charge of that redistribution</li>
<li data-step="5">That the government may use the (alleged) plight of some as a claim against others to pursue an allegedly good cause and that, paraphrasing Ayn Rand, the poor man has a mortgage on the rich man’s life<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup></li>
<li data-step="6">Logan Chipkin adds: “That the government claims a partial property right to the wealth in question, with an unclear limiting principle—2% today can turn into 100% tomorrow”</li>
<li data-step="7">He also adds: “That more problems will be solved if the government confiscates that wealth than if its originators keep it”</li>
<li data-step="8">That, if the majority vote for such taxes, the theft imposed by them is <em>legitimate</em></li>
<li data-step="9">That Warren’s paycheck may come out of these taxes</li>
</ol>
<p>Actually, Warren asserts more than these points. None of them are new—all taxes are, in some form or another, based on many or all of them. But the wealth tax in particular rests on the assertion that each of these points may be used against the wealthy <em>repeatedly, on the same wealth</em>. Since there will always be differences in wealth in the population, such differences can be interpreted by thieves like Warren as “lacking opportunity” and, therefore, as justification to take ever more money from those who are better off, by some arbitrary standard determined by the parasite that is the state.</p>
<p>If 2% doesn’t sound like much, first be advised that 2% on, say, a billion dollars, is 20 million dollars, which <em>is</em> a lot of money. Second, as I said, it’s 2% <em>every year</em>.</p>
<p>Paul Graham has calculated and explained <a href="http://paulgraham.com/wtax.html" rel="ugc">the dramatic effects</a> of a wealth tax. At a tax rate of 2%, the government will have taken <em>65%</em> (!) of the assets you earned in your twenties at a threshold of $50 million by the end of your career. But Warren doesn’t call it a <em>65</em>-cent tax, does she?</p>
<p>Graham writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The reason wealth taxes have such dramatic effects is that they’re applied over and over to the same money. Income tax happens every year, but only to that year’s income. Whereas if you live for 60 years after acquiring some asset, a wealth tax will tax that same asset 60 times. A wealth tax compounds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Logan also shared a quote by Ron Paul with me that is relevant to the topic and beautifully captures the slippery slope a wealth tax would get us on:<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup></p>
<blockquote><p>I argue the case that if 1 percent of the people need food stamps, you give up 100 percent of the principle. And then 1 percent becomes 2 percent, until now we have 30 percent. It’s not gonna be the perfect free society until you reject the whole idea that the government should be redistributing wealth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the case of the wealth tax, the slope is very short, since only 3% more—a 5% wealth tax—would have taxed 95% of your asset by the end of your career, according to Graham. And, as the old saying goes, freedoms are difficult to get back once lost. Due to its nature, a wealth tax would be a qualitatively new and decidedly more evil way for the parasite to extract lifeblood from its host.</p>
<p>In a democracy like the United States, the good thing is that the parasite can’t just go out and harm people without marketing it and convincing a majority that it’s not, in fact, a parasite, and that they couldn’t live without it. The immorality of taxation—theft—has to be masked with laws and bureaucracy and other superficial gestures to create a whiff of legitimacy.</p>
<p>And technically, in a democracy, such changes are more easily reversible than in other systems of government. But in the long run, the parasite is successful in misleading the masses. It keeps growing and latches on to ever more productive members of society, its fangs hooked ever deeper into their flesh. As it stands, the host seems to welcome this parasite with open arms.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>If “from nothing” sounds weird, consider that wealth and opportunity are things that do not exist in nature by default but need to be <em>created</em> first. They cannot be created by rearranging existing things, only through creativity. <a href="#fnref1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>Compare Rand’s remark: “The altruist-collectivist premise, […] is that men are “their brothers’ keepers” and that the misfortune of some is a mortgage on others.” 1964. <em>The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism</em>. New York: Penguin Group. Apple Books. Chapter 10, ‘Collectivized Ethics’. <a href="#fnref2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>As quoted on <a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a9793/ron-paul-quotes-5593289/" rel="ugc">https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a9793/ron-paul-quotes-5593289/</a> <a href="#fnref3">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/wealth-tax-is-evil
Wealth Tax Is Evil
2022-10-31T00:41:35Z
2022-10-31T00:41:35Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="sending-emails-in-production-using-rails-heroku-and-mailgun">Sending Emails in Production using Rails, Heroku, and MailGun</h1>
<h3 id="use-case-you-want-to-receive-emails-whenever-something-specific-happens-on-your-website">Use case: You want to receive emails whenever something specific happens on your website.</h3>
<p>I wanted to receive an email whenever somebody commented on my blog. It’s easy to do with Rails and Heroku.</p>
<p>Let me walk you through what I did:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>rails g mailer comment_mailer new_comment
</code></pre></div>
<p>This will output:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code>create app/mailers/comment_mailer.rb
invoke erb
create app/views/comment_mailer
create app/views/comment_mailer/new_comment.text.erb
create app/views/comment_mailer/new_comment.html.erb
invoke test_unit
create <span class="nb">test</span>/mailers/comment_mailer_test.rb
create <span class="nb">test</span>/mailers/previews/comment_mailer_preview.rb
</code></pre></div>
<p>In other words, it creates the mailer, the action, and the templates for you. Then, in my comments controller, I added:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">after_action</span> <span class="ss">:send_notification_email</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">only: :create</span>
<span class="kp">private</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">send_notification_email</span>
<span class="k">begin</span>
<span class="no">CommentMailer</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">with</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="ss">comment: </span><span class="vi">@comment</span><span class="p">).</span><span class="nf">new_comment</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">deliver_now</span>
<span class="k">rescue</span> <span class="no">Exception</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="n">e</span>
<span class="nb">puts</span> <span class="s2">"Caught exception sending email: </span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="n">e</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">"</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Note three things:</p>
<ul>
<li>The method assumes that the controller’s <code>create</code> method will assign a <code>@comment</code> instance variable (e.g. <code>@comment = Comment.create(comment_params)</code>)</li>
<li>It delivers immediately using <code>deliver_now</code>. That way, I don’t need to set up a job-processing backend in production.</li>
<li>It wraps the delivery in a begin/rescue statement so that the user doesn’t see any issues if sending an email fails. You may be able to achieve the same outcome by setting <code>config.action_mailer.raise_delivery_errors = false</code> in your environment file (e.g. <code>development.rb</code>), but I <em>believe</em> that that only causes the suppression of errors upon the actual <em>sending</em> of your email over the wire, not if there are any errors in, say, the email template. I may be wrong about that.</li>
</ul>
<p>My <code>ApplicationMailer</code> looks like this:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">ApplicationMailer</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="no">ActionMailer</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="no">Base</span>
<span class="n">default</span> <span class="ss">from: </span><span class="s1">'foo@example.com'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">to: </span><span class="s1">'bar@example.com'</span>
<span class="n">layout</span> <span class="s1">'mailer'</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Since neither <code>from</code> nor <code>to</code> ever change, we can just set them in the <code>ApplicationMailer</code>.</p>
<p>My <code>CommentMailer</code> looks like this:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">CommentMailer</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="no">ApplicationMailer</span>
<span class="n">helper</span> <span class="ss">:application</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ss">:posts</span> <span class="c1"># optional, if you need helper methods in the mailer's views</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">new_comment</span>
<span class="vi">@comment</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">params</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="ss">:comment</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="n">mail</span> <span class="ss">subject: </span><span class="s1">'New comment on blog!'</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p><code>params</code> come from the call to <code>with</code> in the comments controller. For example, <code>CommentMailer.with(comment: @comment)</code> sets the <code>:comment</code> field on the <code>params</code> to <code>@comment</code>.</p>
<p>Now for the mailer’s templates. They’re basically the same as regular controller views. For example, you could write something like the following in <code>app/views/comment_mailer/new_comment.html.erb</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight erb"><code><span class="nt"><h1></span>New comment!<span class="nt"></h1></span>
<span class="nt"><p></span>By: <span class="cp"><%=</span> <span class="vi">@comment</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">author</span> <span class="cp">%></span><span class="nt"></p></span>
<span class="nt"><p></span><span class="cp"><%=</span> <span class="vi">@comment</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">body</span> <span class="cp">%></span><span class="nt"></p></span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>And something similar in the plain-text file at <code>app/views/foo_mailer/new_comment.text.erb</code>.</p>
<p>If you’re rendering links in these templates—e.g., using <code><%= link_to 'Post', @comment.post %></code>—you’ll need to set a host in your environment files so that Rails knows how to generate the <code>href</code> attribute for those links:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">action_mailer</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">default_url_options</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="ss">host: </span><span class="s1">'...'</span> <span class="c1"># e.g. 'localhost:3000' in development.rb or 'blog.example.com' in production.rb</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Now we need to get all this working in production. Assuming you’re running on Heroku, add the MailGun add-on. You can do so either by going to the “Resources” tab in your app, or using the <a href="https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/managing-add-ons" rel="ugc">command line</a>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>heroku addons:create mailgun:starter
</code></pre></div>
<p>Then, add the following to <code>production.rb</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">action_mailer</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">smtp_settings</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span>
<span class="ss">:port</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="no">ENV</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'MAILGUN_SMTP_PORT'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="ss">:address</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="no">ENV</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'MAILGUN_SMTP_SERVER'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="ss">:user_name</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="no">ENV</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'MAILGUN_SMTP_LOGIN'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="ss">:password</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="no">ENV</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'MAILGUN_SMTP_PASSWORD'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="ss">:domain</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="s1">'blog.example.com'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="c1"># or just yourapp.herokuapp.com</span>
<span class="ss">:authentication</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="ss">:plain</span> <span class="c1"># there may be more secure options available depending on your use case!</span>
<span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>This codeblock is from the <a href="https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/mailgun#sending-emails-via-smtp" rel="ugc">MailGun docs</a>, with minor modifications. Note that you do <em>not</em> need to set those environment variables yourself.</p>
<p>If you were to try deploying this and triggering an email in production, you’d get an error message, because MailGun expects whitelisted recipient email addresses for sandbox domains. To add the recipient—in this case <code>bar@example.com</code>—click on the add-on in Heroku under “Resources” and you will see a column on the right with the heading “Authorized Recipients.” Add your recipient’s email address and you should be good to go.</p>
<p>This works because in this particular use case, the recipient’s email is static. If you need to send emails to programmatically determined recipients, I suppose you’ll somehow need to tell MailGun that you don’t need a sandbox.</p>
<p>If you’re running into problems, inspect your server logs by running <code>$ heroku logs --tail</code> and triggering an email. You should see exceptions in your logs, and if everything goes well, you’ll see a line that looks something like this:</p>
<blockquote><p>Rendered comment_mailer/new_comment.html.erb within layouts/mailer (Duration: 0.5ms | Allocations: 265)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In development, you’ll see the whole email template rendered in your server logs.</p>
<p>Have any questions or feedback? Comment below (and you’ll trigger an email to me ;-)).</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/sending-emails-in-production-using-rails-heroku
Sending Emails in Production using Rails, Heroku, and MailGun
2023-02-09T04:41:00Z
2023-02-09T04:41:00Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="setting-sublime-text-as-git-editor">Setting Sublime Text as Git Editor</h1>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>git config <span class="nt">--global</span> core.editor <span class="s2">"subl -n -w"</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p><a href="https://gist.github.com/S3ak/10427958#gistcomment-2623368" rel="ugc">Source</a></p>
<p>The <code>-n</code> tells Sublime to open a new window and <code>-w</code> says to wait for the files to be closed before returning. (Run <code>$ subl --help</code> to find out what these and other flags mean.)</p>
<p>If that doesn’t work, try:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>git config <span class="nt">--global</span> core.editor <span class="s2">"/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Sublime Text"</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p><a href="https://gist.github.com/S3ak/10427958#gistcomment-2774213" rel="ugc">Source</a></p>
<p>You can always confirm which editor you have set for git by running</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight shell"><code><span class="nv">$ </span>git config <span class="nt">--global</span> <span class="nt">-e</span>
</code></pre></div>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/setting-sublime-text-as-git-editor
Setting Sublime Text as Git Editor
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="tally-in-ruby-vs-clojure">Tally in Ruby vs. Clojure</h1>
<p>I <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65756253/ruby-store-function-changes-hash-values-from-array-to-single-value#comment116263188_65756253" rel="ugc">saw</a> that Ruby has a <code>tally</code> method I wasn’t aware of. From <a href="https://ruby-doc.org/core-2.7.0/Enumerable.html#method-i-tally" rel="ugc">the docs</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Tallies the collection, i.e., counts the occurrences of each element. Returns a hash with the elements of the collection as keys and the corresponding counts as values.</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">"a"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"c"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">].</span><span class="nf">tally</span> <span class="c1">#=> {"a"=>1, "b"=>2, "c"=>1}</span>
</code></pre></div></blockquote>
<p>In other words, it counts the number of occurrences of each element in the array and then returns a dictionary containing that information.</p>
<p>At this point, I am interested in two things:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1">Can I write such a function in Ruby?</li>
<li data-step="2">What would an equivalent function look like in Clojure?</li>
</ol>
<p>First pass in Ruby:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">tally</span> <span class="n">a</span>
<span class="n">a</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">reduce</span><span class="p">({})</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">curr</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">key?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="mi">1</span>
<span class="k">else</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">1</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p><code>reduce</code> seems like the natural thing to use here. I run it:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">tally</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">"a"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"c"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="c1"># raises exception: NoMethodError (undefined method `key?' for 1:Integer)</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>I use <code>key?</code> on the hash, i.e., the initial value, so maybe I didn’t set the initial value correctly. I check the (very slowly loading) <a href="https://apidock.com/ruby/Enumerable/reduce" rel="ugc">docs</a> but no, I set it correctly.</p>
<p>What else could it be? I debug further and add a print statement to the beginning of the block so I can inspect the accumulated value:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">tally</span> <span class="n">a</span>
<span class="n">a</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">reduce</span><span class="p">({})</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">curr</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="nb">puts</span> <span class="n">acc</span> <span class="c1"># <== added this thing</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">key?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="mi">1</span>
<span class="k">else</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">1</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>I run the function again, with the same input. It prints:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="p">{}</span>
<span class="mi">1</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>So I really did set the initial value correctly. It’s the empty hash, as it should be. But the second line contains the information we need: the accumulated value changes to <code>1</code>. Why? Because in Ruby, an assignment to a hash returns <em>the assigned value</em>, not the resulting hash. That means <code>acc[curr] += 1</code> returns the new count and (the offending line) <code>acc[curr] = 1</code> returns <code>1</code>.</p>
<p>For variable assignment, it makes sense to return the assigned value (better than to return <code>undefined</code> (?!) like JavaScript does when initializing a newly declared variable in a single line). But for assignments to a hash, that strikes me as a design flaw. The data structure has changed, and in 99% of cases, I’ll need to know what it looks like as a result. I already know what I’m assigning.</p>
<p>Or maybe I’m just a Clojure snob. I correct my code:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">tally</span> <span class="n">a</span>
<span class="n">a</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">reduce</span><span class="p">({})</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">curr</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">key?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="mi">1</span>
<span class="n">acc</span> <span class="c1"># <== returning the result of the assignment</span>
<span class="k">else</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">1</span>
<span class="n">acc</span> <span class="c1"># <== returning the result of the assignment</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Those double <code>acc</code>s are an annoyance, but it works:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">tally</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">"a"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"c"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="c1"># => {"a"=>1, "b"=>2, "c"=>1}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>So, what would the same function look like in Clojure? Like this:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">defn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">tally</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">v</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">reduce</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">fn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">if</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">contains?</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">update</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">inc</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">assoc</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)))</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">{}</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">v</span><span class="p">))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>And it works:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">tally</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">"a"</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"b"</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"c"</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"b"</span><span class="p">])</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">; => {"a" 1, "b" 2, "c" 1}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>I like that <em>much</em> more. Eight lines instead of eleven, no double <code>acc</code>s, and Clojure gives me the functions Ruby makes me write manually: <code>inc</code>, <code>update</code>, and <code>assign</code>. The reason there are no double <code>acc</code>s is that <code>update</code> and <code>assoc</code> return the <em>resulting data structure</em> of their respective operations rather than the assigned value. Also, there’s no mutation, whereas my Ruby code mutates the hash at every iteration. That’s not a big deal, since the only code that has access to the hash is the block, but having no mutation at all just feels <em>cleaner</em>.</p>
<p>There <em>is</em> a way to avoid the double <code>acc</code>s and mutations in Ruby using <code>merge</code>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">tally</span> <span class="n">a</span>
<span class="n">a</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">reduce</span><span class="p">({})</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">curr</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">key?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">merge</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">curr</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">else</span>
<span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">merge</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">curr</span> <span class="o">=></span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>And it works:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="n">tally</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">"a"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"c"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"b"</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="c1"># => {"a"=>1, "b"=>2, "c"=>1}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>That feels better. The first call to <code>merge</code> still feels a bit low level, but we’re down to nine lines and have gotten rid of mutation.</p>
<p>Overall, I still prefer the Clojure version. It’s more convenient and concise. But it’s possible to bring the Ruby version pretty close to that.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/tally-in-ruby-vs-clojure
Tally in Ruby vs. Clojure
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="lockdowns-science-vs-morals">Lockdowns: Science vs. Morals</h1>
<p>There are growing concerns that lockdown policies are not “based on science” but are, instead, <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1349505333652201474" rel="ugc">a totalitarian Chinese export</a>. The latter may be true—and seems to be—but that lockdowns are not scientific is not the biggest problem with them (assuming that indeed they aren’t).</p>
<p>The thing is, even if lockdowns <em>were</em> scientific, that would say nothing about the <em>morality</em> of the situation. The argument that lockdowns aren’t scientific runs the risk of being refuted tomorrow through new scientific findings. And it’s still letting scientism off the hook too lightly.</p>
<p>Let’s say the argument <em>were</em> refuted tomorrow. The moral problems would remain. Lockdowns would still be a horrendous evil.</p>
<p>Take an example where we know that the outcome of force, in purely scientific terms, is beneficial: that of forcing someone not to smoke. Or forcing them to exercise a few times a week. Scientifically speaking, their body will be healthier as a result of that force, and advocates of such force can always point to scientific evidence for that. It’d be “based on science.”</p>
<p>And still, forcing people not to smoke is wrong. Forcing them to exercise is wrong. Force in general is wrong, and no amount of scientific evidence changes that.</p>
<p>The same goes for lockdowns. Even if there were overwhelming scientific evidence that locking people into their homes lowers transmission rates, death rates, what have you, <em>it would still be evil</em>.</p>
<p>To those concerned about ICU numbers, their loved ones, etc: <em>their is another way</em>. Lockdowns are not the only way. You can <em>persuade</em> people to stay home. And those who are vulnerable are free to stay home already, no lockdowns required.</p>
<p>That’s why lockdowns are redundant: they lock down those who don’t want to <em>in addition</em> to those who’d voluntarily do so. There’s no added benefit to the latter group by having the former forced to stay home, too.</p>
<p>Voluntary self-isolation solves the moral problem and the medical problem.</p>
<p>But that won’t convince lockdown supporters, because they’re not after solving either of those problems. What they’re really after—and <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">what they learned to do in school</a>—is spreading altruism and forcing others to do what they think is right. Which is disgusting.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/lockdowns-science-vs-morals
Lockdowns: Science vs. Morals
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="governments-are-involuntary">Governments Are Involuntary</h1>
<p>The vast majority of citizens see governments as a good idea. They’re convinced that without government, chaos would ensue. Many even think being forced to pay taxes is a good idea.</p>
<p>So, can we claim that most people consent to being governed?</p>
<p>I find it difficult to use the word “consent” to describe the attitude of those who do not <em>resist</em> government force. For something to be consent, it means that the person affected was asked and then agreed. The government does not ask any of its subjects if it may tax them, it just does it. And the absence of resistance is not consent.</p>
<p>To illustrate the distinction: if somebody shows up at your house with a group of bullies and an overwhelming amount of guns and threatens to shoot you if you don’t come with them or even make so much as a wrong move, you may decide not to resist. But no Western court would consider your lack of resistance consent, and rightly so.</p>
<p>The present relationship between the government and its subjects is often referred to as a “contract” (Hobbes). A common claim is that those who do not want to sign the contract can just leave the country. That is not so, because the state has a monopoly on travel documents, so you’re not free to leave without signing the contract first. Nor are you ever asked to sign it—the signature is implied by the lack of resistance to a threat of force. And a forced signature is null and void.</p>
<p>There’s also a question as to whether the people who do “consent” to taxation came to that belief voluntarily, or if that belief was forced on them through years of coercion and brainwashing in school, in which case the problem is the same as that of the forced signature.</p>
<p>Some may assure you that they positively consent to paying taxes. People can be mistaken about the reasons for their beliefs and behaviors (cf. David Deutsch’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0670022756/" rel="ugc"><em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></a> (BoI) ch. 15). Those who think that it’s okay that they’re being forced to pay taxes remind me of adults who are glad that their parents forced them to, say, play the piano as a child. They’re broken enough that they retrospectively condemn freedom and value force.</p>
<p>Schools are institutions that the state and <em>static memes</em> (BoI ch. 15) use in part to make sure children grow up to be tax payers that don’t resist. Even better if those memes somehow get the child to believe that coercion is just a part of life, even a necessary one. There are many parallels between coercive government and coercive parenting.</p>
<p>I’ve written some about the purpose of schools <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, there is the issue that some people are mistaken about what coercion and consent are. For example, an idea I run into from time to time says “it’s not coercion if you receive something in return.” The argument is that you receive, say, roads in exchange for paying taxes, so it’s not really coercion. There are many problems with this, including that people have different preferences as to what they may want to buy with their money, and some value roads more than others. Another problem is that the victim of force in this example does not get a chance to agree or disagree—his agreement is (mistakenly) assumed because he receives a “benefit.” His “participation” is completely passive and he becomes a mere pawn. The perpetrator can then also force the victim to do just about anything and give him something—<em>anything</em>—to justify their force and to shut the victim and bystanders up. In this power dynamic, the “benefit” is always going to be worth less than the extorted value—both in terms of the stolen money, and, more importantly, in terms of the freedom that is lost, which is priceless.</p>
<p>This last issue is reflected in coercive parenting when children are expected to be thankful to their coercive parents, if not in childhood then at least in adulthood. Some parents may even expect something in return—time, money, things—once their children are adults, which is awful. The parent may try to justify this by claiming that the child received a “benefit” which the parent now considers a loan that is due, especially if the parent made sacrifices “for” the child—even if the child never asked the parent to make sacrifices or consented to any of that. The parent has an overwhelming amount of force available to him over the child, so the child may choose not to resist, which, just as in the case of bullies knocking on your door, shouldn’t be mistaken for consent.</p>
<p>In short: the absence of dissent or resistance does not imply consent, nor does anyone, even in the free world, consent to being governed or taxed. It’s something that happens <em>to</em> them, not <em>with</em> them.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/governments-are-involuntary
Governments Are Involuntary
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="running-custom-logic-in-rails-devise-controller">Running Custom Logic in Rails Devise Controller</h1>
<p>Today, I ran into the problem of needing to make a change to a user instance in the <code>RegistrationsController</code> using the <a href="https://github.com/heartcombo/devise" rel="ugc">Devise</a> authentication gem. I couldn’t do it in a model callback because I needed access to cookies.</p>
<p>Luckily, Devise allows you to <a href="https://github.com/heartcombo/devise/blob/e3a00b27d19ba995891d7dd92394fe2900a789c2/app/controllers/devise/registrations_controller.rb#L20" rel="ugc">pass a custom block</a>, which will be given the resource (e.g., the <code>user</code> object).</p>
<p>Assuming you already have a custom controller like this one</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">RegistrationsController</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="no">Devise</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="no">RegistrationsController</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>you can achieve this pretty easily by passing a block:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight ruby"><code><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">RegistrationsController</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="no">Devise</span><span class="o">::</span><span class="no">RegistrationsController</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">create</span>
<span class="k">super</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">resource</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="c1"># do stuff with resource...</span>
<span class="n">resource</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">foo</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'bar'</span>
<span class="n">resource</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">save</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Unfortunately, the block is invoked <em>after</em> the resource is saved to the database, so you’ll need to save it again if you’re making any changes that need to be persisted.</p>
<p>The call to <code>super</code> works because the <code>RegistrationsController</code> inherits from <code>Devise::RegistrationsController</code> as defined <a href="https://github.com/heartcombo/devise/blob/e3a00b27d19ba995891d7dd92394fe2900a789c2/app/controllers/devise/registrations_controller.rb" rel="ugc">here</a>. <code>super</code> will call <code>Devise::RegistrationsController#create</code> and pass it the block, where it then gets invoked with the resource.</p>
<p>As you can see in the source code, Devise offers support for blocks in <code>#new</code>, <code>#update</code>, and <code>#destroy</code> as well.</p>
<p>Unless you require functionality that’s only available in controllers (such as cookies, as I mentioned), I recommend using model callbacks instead. But if you do need to do your magic in controllers, this approach should work.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/running-custom-logic-in-rails-devise-controller
Running Custom Logic in Rails Devise Controller
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="want-to-learn-about-agi-read-these-chapters-from-the-beginning-of-infinity">Want to Learn about AGI? Read These Chapters from “The Beginning of Infinity”</h1>
<p>There is no bad chapter in David Deutsch's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0670022756/" rel="ugc"><em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></a>. But if you’re looking specifically for AGI-related content, here are the chapters you should read, in that order:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1"><p>Chapter 1: <em>The Reach of Explanations</em></p>
<p>You’ll hit the ground running learning about how the growth of knowledge was traditionally understood and why that’s wrong, and how we learn instead: through conjectures and refutations. When taken seriously, this chapter alone will allow you to refute much of present-day “AGI research.”</p>
<blockquote><p>Empiricism said that we derive it from sensory experience. This is false. The real source of our theories is conjecture, and the real source of our knowledge is conjecture alternating with criticism.</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li data-step="2"><p>Chapter 4: <em>Creation</em></p>
<p>The growth of knowledge is an evolutionary process. There is literally evolution happening in our minds. That means an AGI is an <em>evolutionary algorithm</em>. In this chapter, Deutsch explains the traditional misconceptions surrounding evolution, including creationism and Lamarckism, and lays out our current best explanation of evolution: neo-Darwinism.</p>
<blockquote><p>[Both] human knowledge and biological adaptations are abstract replicators: forms of information which, once they are embodied in a suitable physical system, tend to remain so while most variants of them do not.</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li data-step="3"><p>Chapter 6: <em>The Jump to Universality</em></p>
<p>As Deutsch explains in this chapter, sometimes systems undergo a sudden change from being able to solve a narrow range of problems in a given domain to all of them. That’s the <em>jump</em> to universality. Deutsch argues that AGI will be achieved in a similar jump. Current research programs aimed at gradual emulation of human abilities must fail for several reasons, and this is one of them.</p>
<blockquote><p>All knowledge growth is by incremental improvement, but in many fields there comes a point when one of the incremental improvements in a system of knowledge or technology causes a sudden increase in reach, making it a universal system in the relevant domain.</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li data-step="4"><p>Chapter 7: <em>Artificial Creativity</em></p>
<p>This chapter is perhaps the most important of the AGI-related ones. Deutsch refutes the applicability of the Turing test and explains what the focus of research efforts should be: understanding how the mind works. The absence of this focus is also why there has been no progress in the field, Deutsch argues. Think artificial evolution has already been achieved? According to Deutsch, this is not the case, despite appearances.</p>
<blockquote><p>The field of artificial (general) intelligence has made no progress because there is an unsolved philosophical problem at its heart: we do not understand how creativity works. Once that has been solved, programming it will not be difficult.</p>
</blockquote></li>
<li data-step="5"><p>Chapter 10: <em>A Dream of Socrates</em></p>
<p>In a beautiful, fictional dialog between Socrates and the Greek god Hermes, Deutsch masterfully explores the inner workings of the mind and explains that our experience is a “waking dream of reality”:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Our experience of the world is indeed a form of virtual-reality rendering which happens wholly inside the brain.</em></p>
</blockquote></li>
<li data-step="6"><p>Chapter 16: <em>The Evolution of Creativity</em></p>
<p>Brains have no way of downloading ideas from other brains directly. Nor can minds acquire ideas through imitation, Deutsch argues citing Popper. But they <em>can</em> replicate memes through creativity. And, according to Deutsch, that is why our species exists.</p>
<blockquote><p>Complex memes do not mandate specific bodily actions, but rules. We can see the actions, but not the rules, so how do we replicate them? We replicate them by creativity.</p>
</blockquote></li>
</ol>
<p>Read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0670022756/" rel="ugc"><em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></a> to learn more about AGI (and so much more). If you take the ideas seriously, I am confident you will know more than 90% of researchers in the field.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/want-to-learn-about-agi-read-these-chapters-fro
Want to Learn about AGI? Read These Chapters from “The Beginning of Infinity”
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="using-rails-production-credentials-with-heroku">Using Rails Production Credentials with Heroku</h1>
<p>Ruby on Rails offers a credentials feature to store secret information in your repository. The keys Rails creates are added to the <code>.gitignore</code> file, but any secret information itself is encrypted and can be checked into git. There’s more info on credentials <a href="https://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/security.html#custom-credentials" rel="ugc">here</a>.</p>
<p>I found myself confronted with the specific problem of how to use these credentials in Heroku. If you’re using only a master key and store your credentials in <code>config/credentials.ymc.enc</code>, that’s easy: you just set an environment variable in …<br>
<br><em>This is a pro article, preview only. Purchase the full article here: <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/using-rails-production-credentials-with-heroku" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/using-rails-production-credentials-with-heroku</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/using-rails-production-credentials-with-heroku
Using Rails Production Credentials with Heroku
2022-09-15T03:19:24Z
2022-09-15T03:19:24Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="reduce-need-not-be-hard">Reduce Need Not Be Hard</h1>
<p>In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Window-Intelligence-Philosophy-Evolution-Implications-dp-1734696133/dp/1734696133" rel="ugc">my book</a>, I argue that all people are software engineers. Even if it’s not their profession, they program all the time—in their heads. Here’s an example of what I mean.</p>
<p>Programmers sometimes struggle with the <code>reduce</code> function. Perhaps one reason is that it’s incredibly powerful and versatile, so it isn’t always clear why or when one would use it.</p>
<p>What may surprise you is that you already have inexplicit knowledge (cf. David Deutsch's <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> ch. 14) of how to use <code>reduce</code>—because you use it all the time, in your head, even if you have never written a line of code.</p>
<p>Imagine you are hungry but don’t know what to eat. You open your pantry and scan various items. You see:</p>
<ul>
<li> Rolls</li>
<li> Noodles</li>
<li> Chili</li>
</ul>
<p>What is it, exactly, that happens in your mind as your eyes scan your pantry for something you feel like eating? You start with a preference of “unknown.” Then you see rolls and ask yourself: “Do I feel like eating rolls?” Let’s say the answer is “no,” so you don’t update your preference. It’s still “unknown.” Then you see noodles and think to yourself, “that’s the best option I’ve seen so far!” So you update your preference to “noodles.” Lastly, you see “chili” and ask yourself: “Am I more in the mood for chili than noodles?” If the answer is “yes,” you update your preference to “chili.” If it’s “no,” you leave your preference as is.</p>
<p>That’s all <code>reduce</code> does. You have some initial value—in this case, your preference—that’s “unknown.” Then you start iterating over some options and update the initial value based on some criterion. You do this at every step, comparing each option with the previous value, and what you’re left with at the end is the “reduced” value.</p>
<p>Many programming languages have a <code>reduce</code> function. In Clojure, the process looks like this:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">reduce</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">fn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">if</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">do-i-feel-like-eating?</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">curr</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">acc</span><span class="p">))</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">nil</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">"rolls"</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"noodles"</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"chili"</span><span class="p">])</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p><code>reduce</code> iterates over the last argument (the vector of different foods), takes an initial value of <code>nil</code> (representing the initially “unknown” preference) and then runs the <code>do-i-feel-like-eating?</code> function for each item. Whenever that function returns true, that current item (<code>curr</code>) is set as the preference. Whenever it returns true, the previously set preference (<code>acc</code>) remains the same. (The details of the <code>do-i-feel-like-eating?</code> function need to concern us here, and in reality, it may take both <code>curr</code> and <code>acc</code> to compare them, but doesn’t matter all that much. We’re often unclear about why we feel like eating one thing and not another.)</p>
<p>You do this every time you decide what to eat from a given set of foods, or what movies to watch from a given set of movies, etc.</p>
<p>That does <em>not</em> mean that human decision making can be reduced (no pun intended) to the simple algorithm above, because humans do much more: they create the <code>do-i-feel-like-eating?</code> criterion and the options in the first place, they can interrupt the above algorithm and change the options by removing some or adding new ones and then run the algorithm again—especially if they find that the algorithm returns <code>nil</code>, meaning they haven’t found anything they like yet—they can decide to focus on another problem altogether, and so on. But once they have (tentatively) settled on a set of options and a criterion, they typically use something like the above algorithm to make a decision.</p>
<p>You knew how <code>reduce</code> worked all along. Much of programming is about making what you already know explicit.</p>
<p>Another example of using reduce in one’s head is when you’re prompted to listen to options on the phone. You know, the thing where an automated voice says “please listen to the following options…” and then you make a selection by pressing a number.</p>
<p>The voice helps you iterate over the different options, and as you listen you remember the option that best fits your intent so far, which is the current “reduced” value at every stage.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/reduce-need-not-be-hard
Reduce Need Not Be Hard
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="how-to-use-the-proper-mood-in-english-to-german-translations">How to Use the Proper Mood in English-to-German Translations</h1>
<p><em>This article assumes a basic command of German.</em></p>
<p>There is a problem when translating an English text into German: that of determining exactly when the author is paraphrasing someone else or distancing himself from an idea or concept. English and German use different moods for that.</p>
<p>What are moods? They express the function of the verb or sentence and the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward what he says. In English, regular old statements are formulated using <em>indicative mood</em>. For example:</p>
<blockquote><p>Tom <strong>plays</strong> the guitar.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This sentence is in the indicative mood because it’s presented as an objective fact.</p>
<p>Then there is the imperative mood:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Play</strong> the guitar, Tom!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Imperative moods are used to convey a command. Note that verbs are conjugated differently in this mood—here, it’s “play,” not “plays.” Also, the imperative mood can only address others, meaning it exists only in the second-person singular and plural.</p>
<p>There is also the subjunctive mood:</p>
<blockquote><p>It is imperative that Tom <strong>play</strong> the guitar.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This expresses the speaker’s perceived necessity of Tom’s playing the guitar. Note again the conjugation of the verb “play.”</p>
<p>Another example of the subjunctive mood is:</p>
<blockquote><p>If I <strong>were</strong> rich, I would buy a house.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this case, the subjunctive mood expresses that the described scenario is not real. The speaker is not rich, but if he <em>were</em>, he would buy a house.</p>
<p>From what I know, these are the three main English moods. (There are other moods, but those need not concern us here.)</p>
<p>German likewise has the indicative mood:</p>
<blockquote><p>Tom <strong>spielt</strong> Gitarre.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The infinitive of the verb is “spielen,” and it’s conjugated here in third-person singular, “spielt.”</p>
<p>The imperative mood also works in German:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Spiel</strong> Gitarre, Tom!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here, the verb is conjugated in the imperative mood, second-person singular.</p>
<p>Since both the indicative and the imperative mood exist in German, translating works well in both directions.</p>
<p>With the subjunctive mood, things are a bit harder. I’m tempted to say that there is no subjunctive mood in German, but that wouldn’t be quite true. There appears to be a remnant of it of the form:</p>
<blockquote><p>Lang <strong>lebe</strong> der König.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This example is not in the indicative mood because it doesn’t say “lang <em>lebt</em> der König.” That would be an attempt at a statement of fact (and a prophetic one at that because it makes an unknowable claim about the future). Instead, the speaker expresses the <em>hope</em> that the king will live long.</p>
<p>The same example exists in English:</p>
<blockquote><p>Long <strong>live</strong> the king.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The same logic applies: a (prophetic) statement of fact would instead say “long <em>lives</em> the king.”</p>
<p>This is all well and good, but it’s the only example of the subjunctive I am aware of that works in German. If that is true, how does one write “if I were rich…” in German? The example with the house from above would read:</p>
<blockquote><p>Wenn ich reich <strong>wäre</strong>, würde ich ein Haus kaufen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Isn’t this the subjunctive mood in German? “wäre” and “were” seem very similar, and they <em>feel</em> almost the same. But in German, this is called the <em>Konjunktiv</em> mood. There are two of them, and this one is Konjunktiv 2.</p>
<p>Konjunktiv 2 is likewise used to describe a scenario that isn’t real. One can also use it to be polite:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Wärest</strong> du so nett, …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>which means</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Would</strong> you be so kind as to…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>or</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Könntest</strong> du bitte…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>which means</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Could</strong> you please…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Especially in its use for counterfactuals the Konjunktiv 2 is so similar to the English subjunctive that one may <em>call</em> it the “past subjunctive” in German. However, I hesitate to call it that because most Germans don’t know what a subjunctive mood is until they learn Spanish or French (where it has another function altogether, at least in Spanish). The topic <em>may</em> come up in English class, but I don’t remember the subjunctive being mentioned explicitly when I went to school. Another reason is that Konjunktiv 1, from what I know, has no counterpart in English, not even in the subjunctive, and so it would be misleading to call it a “present subjunctive”—and yet I have seen it called that.</p>
<p>Which brings me to the purpose of Konjunktiv 1. It is used to convey indirect speech and/or distance oneself from what one is saying. For example:</p>
<blockquote><p>Tom says his friend is nice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In proper spoken and written German, this would <em>not</em> read:</p>
<blockquote><p>Tom sagt, sein Freund <strong>ist</strong> nett.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>but instead</p>
<blockquote><p>Tom sagt, sein Freund <strong>sei</strong> nett.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“sei” is Konjunktiv 1 mood third-person singular of the verb “sein” (“to be”). It says “sei” and not “ist” because that's <em>Tom’s</em> statement, not the speaker’s. Konjunktiv 1 makes this explicit.</p>
<p>The conjugation of “leben” in the example “lang lebe der König” is equivalent to the Konjunktiv 1 present tense third-person singular of “leben.” But I’d bet money that most native speakers of German would not think of that example when tasked with coming up with a sentence using Konjunktiv 1, and indeed would remark that the example feels different from all other uses of Konjunktiv 1 and that they would consider this a separate category altogether—which is why they may agree that it could be a remnant of an actual “Subjunktiv” that used to exist in German (?).</p>
<p>Konjunktiv 1 is especially useful when the speaker wants to <em>distance</em> himself from what is said. Imagine how useful this is in journalistic and legal contexts. Consider the following eyewitness account of a robbery in progress:</p>
<blockquote><p>Augenzeugen berichten, der Täter <strong>beraube</strong> die Bank.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In English:</p>
<blockquote><p>Eyewitnesses are reporting that the perpetrator <strong>is robbing</strong> the bank.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(For clarity, the English present progressive is merely turned into the simple present in German, but that’s not important here.) The English sentence does not undergo a mood change, whereas the German one does. Any professional journalist would make that change. And while I am not an experienced translator, I believe it is important to recognize and make the change in translations, too.</p>
<p>Since English does not have a Konjunktiv 1 mood, accurate German-to-English translations will necessarily be lossy in those situations. It also means that going the other way round translators will need to carefully analyze what’s explicitly said and what’s implied to put the Konjunktiv 1 where needed.</p>
<p>Imagine you are tasked with translating the following, made-up sentences:</p>
<blockquote><p>The idea that <mark>the natural sciences <strong>are</strong> only predictive</mark> <strong>has</strong> caused much damage. Because if the scientist <strong>believes</strong> that <mark>he <strong>must</strong> only predict</mark>, he <strong>loses</strong> the most important element: explanations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All verbs are in the indicative mood. We can tell that the author is partially relaying information he disagrees with—he is not advocating for purely predictive but explanatory science—but it is on us to tell from the sentence structure and from certain cues with which information he disagrees and with which he agrees. I have highlighted those part-sentences that the author wants to distance himself from. Note how granular and interposed the shift can be.</p>
<p>The German translation makes the distinction explicit:</p>
<blockquote><p>Die Vorstellung, <mark>die Naturwissenschaften <strong>seien</strong> ausschließlich vorhersagend</mark>, <strong>hat</strong> zu viel Schaden geführt. Denn wenn der Wissenschaftler <strong>glaubt</strong>, <mark>er <strong>dürfe</strong> nur vorhersagen</mark>, dann <strong>geht</strong> ihm oft das Wichtigste verloren: Erklärungen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The highlighted part-sentences correspond exactly to the ones in the English original, but they use Konjunktiv 1.</p>
<p>There <em>is</em> a loophole which allows the translator to use Indikativ after all: the word “dass” (“that”):</p>
<blockquote><p>Die Vorstellung, dass <mark>die Naturwissenschaften ausschließlich vorhersagend <strong>sind</strong></mark>, <strong>hat</strong> zu viel Schaden geführt. Denn wenn der Wissenschaftler <strong>glaubt</strong>, dass <mark>er nur vorhersagen <strong>darf</strong></mark>, dann <strong>geht</strong> ihm oft das Wichtigste verloren: Erklärungen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Using “dass” works well and is grammatically valid. But without Konjunktiv 1, we’re missing a key feature: grammatically explicit information about the author’s intention. Also, using “dass” every time gets repetitive quickly; it’s best to mix both styles. Luckily, it can be combined with the Konjunktiv 1: “dass die Naturwissenschaften … seien.”</p>
<p>In the above example, it is still relatively easy to tell that Konjunktiv 1 should be used because it contains <em>cues</em>: “Die Vorstellung” and “glaubt.” Such cues need not be given, however, and frequently they are not. Consider this example:</p>
<blockquote><p>According to this theory, science is predictive. Therefore, the answer is false.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The second sentence is tricky. Whose opinion is that? I see the two possibilities: either the author is presenting a conclusion which advocates of the theory he mentioned draw, or he is drawing a conclusion himself. If the former, it needs to be Konjunktiv 1; if the latter, Indikativ.</p>
<p>So how can the translator know which mood to use? He needs to understand the author’s stance on the issue. When unclear, he can ask the author. In cases where the author is paraphrasing someone else and interspersing his own thoughts without always giving cues, which can span several paragraphs, the translator may need to check the source. In the above example, the translator needs to understand the theory’s implications.</p>
<p>In other words, the translator needs to explicitly place Konjunktiv 1 when German requires it based on cues, context, and sources.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-to-use-the-proper-mood-in-english-to-german
How to Use the Proper Mood in English-to-German Translations
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="santa-clara-countys-immoral-health-order">Santa Clara County’s Immoral Health Order</h1>
<p>Santa Clara County residents today received the following “emergency alert” on their smartphones:</p>
<blockquote><h3 id="covid-19-cases-and-hospitalizations-continue-to-rise-the-health-officer-has-issued-updated-risk-reduction-directives-to-slow-the-spread-and-protect-hospital-capacity-effective-today-also-effective-today-you-must-quarantine-for-14-days-after-traveling-more-than-150-miles-from-santa-clara-county-for-more-information-visit-sccgov-org-cv19summary">COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise. The Health Officer has issued updated risk reduction directives to slow the spread and protect hospital capacity, effective today. Also effective today, you must quarantine for 14 days after traveling more than 150 miles from Santa Clara County. For more information, visit <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/2020/11/30/sccgov.org/cv19summary" rel="ugc">sccgov.org/cv19summary</a>.</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>This top-down decision by the ominous “Health Officer” affects roughly two million people. There appears to be no outrage in the general populace, no unrest, no demonstrations. People are just taking it. From the linked order summary:</p>
<blockquote><p>Stores and other facilities open to the public will be limited to 10% capacity indoors.</p>
<p>Grocery stores, drug stores, and pharmacies, however, will be allowed to operate at 25% capacity indoors to ensure adequate access to food and medicine.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, thank you for this kind concession for access to food, O Health Officer.</p>
<blockquote><p>All facilities open to the public must establish a “metering system” to ensure that the applicable capacity limits are not exceed by, for example, posting an employee at the facility entrance to track the number of people entering and exiting.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s the government forcing businesses into their enforcers.</p>
<blockquote><p>All recreational activities that involve physical contact or close proximity to persons outside one’s household, including all contact sports, will be temporarily prohibited.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How about no?</p>
<blockquote><p>Leisure and non-essential travel are strongly discouraged, and a new Mandatory Directive on Travel will require people to quarantine for 14 days upon return to the County from travel of more than 150 miles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><em>Or else what?</em></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[…] businesses are allowed to open to the extent allowed under the State’s Blueprint […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, thank you again for your generosity, O wise Health Officer, and for protecting us and sharing some of your endless wisdom. What would we do without you?</p>
<p>The tacit assumption in all this is that it is not only everyone’s job to keep cases down and hospital availability high, but that it’s okay to <em>force</em> them to that end. Santa Clara County is doing disgusting, immoral things. I hope they will soon be held accountable for their actions.</p>
<p><a href="http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/altruism.html" rel="ugc">Altruism</a> reigns supreme…</p>
<p>Residents should note that their right to protest is being protected, albeit restricted to 100 people:</p>
<blockquote><p>Gatherings continue to be allowed only outdoors, with a maximum of 100 people. The State limits such gatherings to First Amendment protected activities, such as religious services or protests.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, consider going to the streets over this before they find a way to take that away, too.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/santa-clara-county-s-immoral-health-order
Santa Clara County’s Immoral Health Order
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
2022-09-14T17:38:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="libertarian-faq">Libertarian FAQ</h1>
<p><em>This post was co-authored with <a href="https://twitter.com/ChipkinLogan" rel="ugc">Logan Chipkin</a>.</em></p>
<p>Some responses to the most common criticisms of and questions about libertarianism. To reference, click on a heading. Feel free to share.</p>
<p>There’s a glossary at the bottom.</p>
<h3 id="who-would-build-roads-if-there-was-no-government"><a href="#who-would-build-roads-if-there-was-no-government" rel="ugc">Who would build roads if there was no government?</a></h3>
<p>The same people who build them now, only they’d be paid directly by those who actually use them. When the government owns the roads, all taxpayers bear the burden, even if they’d prefer not to consume the roads. This results in overconsumption of roads, since consumption has been forcibly severed from payment by the consumer. This is a special case of the more general tragedy of the commons that results from government illegitimately claiming ownership of some good or service that the government offers for public consumption.</p>
<h3 id="how-would-you-settle-disputes-between-people-in-other-words-how-would-the-legal-system-work"><a href="#how-would-you-settle-disputes-between-people-in-other-words-how-would-the-legal-system-work" rel="ugc">How would you settle disputes between people? In other words: how would the legal system work?</a></h3>
<p>It’s worth noting that citizens under different national governments already settle disputes with each other, and there is not (yet) a global government. So, people have already solved the problem of how to settle disputes despite being subject to different systems of law (coercively).</p>
<p>Secondly, despite the government’s imposed monopoly on legislation and its system of courts that cannot possibly go out of business no matter how much people do not want to purchase its services, people <em>still</em> find private alternatives (namely, out-of-court dealings and private arbitration services) to resolve their conflicts.</p>
<p>In an anarcho-capitalist society, a company can only earn a profit by persuading people to purchase its goods or services. In this case, the service that people want is reliable adjudication between interpersonal disputes. If two parties find themselves in a conflict that they cannot privately resolve, they may shop around for a court that both parties find fair and cost-effective.</p>
<p>Alternatively, the parties may have purchased insurance that covers whatever conflict they now find themselves in. In that case, the insurance agencies, if different, have an interest in resolving the dispute such that both of their reputations remain intact. Should either insurance agency refuse to pay out/cover the damages, no one would trust them enough to do business with them ever again.</p>
<p>Depending on how developed the economy is, these insurance agencies may have predetermined agreements with each other about which court to which they will present their clients’ disputes.</p>
<h3 id="what-about-the-police"><a href="#what-about-the-police" rel="ugc">What about the police?</a></h3>
<p>People could purchase private security.</p>
<h3 id="so-the-poor-couldnt-call-the-police"><a href="#so-the-poor-couldnt-call-the-police" rel="ugc">So the poor couldn’t call the police?</a></h3>
<p>Yes, they could. There could be charity, support networks, credit, etc. Also, free-market security companies have incentives to be much cheaper than the police, because they can go bankrupt, whereas the police can’t. Ironically, poor neighborhoods are often chronically underserved by the police already, whereas private security companies could enter such neighborhoods by offering low prices.</p>
<p>Shoes are a good free-market example. Virtually everyone needs them, and poor people do not struggle to purchase them. The same mechanisms of innovation and competition would yield affordable and quality security services to them, as well.</p>
<h3 id="what-about-healthcare"><a href="#what-about-healthcare" rel="ugc">What about healthcare?</a></h3>
<p>See police.</p>
<h3 id="what-about-foreign-invaders"><a href="#what-about-foreign-invaders" rel="ugc">What about foreign invaders?</a></h3>
<p>Eventually, private security and insurance.</p>
<h3 id="why-dont-you-just-move-to-somalia"><a href="#why-dont-you-just-move-to-somalia" rel="ugc">Why don’t you just move to Somalia?</a></h3>
<p>This is a silly suggestion that people like to make, implying that a libertarian society would be a lawless society. But that’s just not the case. Libertarians want rules, and consequences for those who break them. What libertarians don’t want is to be subjected to coercion. The rejection of coercion does not imply the rejection of rules.</p>
<p>Additionally, there is more to civilization than the size of government. The culture of a civilization and its level of wealth are at least as important with respect to its ability to correct errors and allow for progress.</p>
<p>Finally, mankind was born into utter poverty: at the dawn of our species, life really was ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’. So it is the existence of wealth that requires explanation, not poverty. Why is the United States wealthier than it was one-hundred years ago? Was wealth created by the growth of its government? Similarly, would Somalia become wealthier if some of them coercively acquired wealth from the rest of them?</p>
<h3 id="if-theres-no-force-coercion-doesnt-that-mean-people-would-be-free-to-steal-and-commit-murder"><a href="#if-theres-no-force-coercion-doesnt-that-mean-people-would-be-free-to-steal-and-commit-murder" rel="ugc">If there’s no force/coercion, doesn’t that mean people would be free to steal and commit murder?</a></h3>
<p>No. A libertarian society would still punish crimes. There is a difference between the initiation of force and the use of force in defense against those who initiate force. A libertarian society, by definition, would not tolerate any initiation of force, but the use of force in defense would be allowed. Therefore, crimes would still be investigated and prosecuted. There wouldn’t be <em>no</em> force at all.</p>
<h3 id="isnt-capitalism-evil"><a href="#isnt-capitalism-evil" rel="ugc">Isn’t capitalism evil?</a></h3>
<p>Capitalism just means that people who want to work together voluntarily get to do so unhindered, and that those who want to be left alone are, in fact, left alone. There’s nothing evil about that. What <em>is</em> evil is when a parasite like the government mooches off of that peaceful interaction.</p>
<h3 id="doesnt-capitalism-need-something-like-a-government-to-counteract-and-balance-it"><a href="#doesnt-capitalism-need-something-like-a-government-to-counteract-and-balance-it" rel="ugc">Doesn’t capitalism need something like a government to counteract and balance it?</a></h3>
<p>You mean counteract and balance the peaceful and voluntary interaction between people? No, that’s not necessary.</p>
<h3 id="does-this-mean-you-dont-want-poor-people-to-receive-any-help"><a href="#does-this-mean-you-dont-want-poor-people-to-receive-any-help" rel="ugc">Does this mean you don’t want poor people to receive any help?</a></h3>
<p>No. People are free to help each other in a libertarian society.</p>
<p>Moreover, governments only hinder the growth of wealth. Global poverty is at an all-time low (or was, before the shutdowns) because people are evermore free to create, trade, and solve problems. No top-down legislation has, or could possibly, create wealth for people who need it.</p>
<h3 id="dont-you-need-some-foundation-like-the-government-on-which-to-build-and-make-decisions"><a href="#dont-you-need-some-foundation-like-the-government-on-which-to-build-and-make-decisions" rel="ugc">Don’t you need some foundation like the government on which to build and make decisions?</a></h3>
<p>No more than biological evolution needs some blueprint before bringing complex, seemingly-designed structures into reality.</p>
<p>It is impossible for a single person or company to know the problem-situation of millions or billions of other people. An economy is unplanned—objective prices emerge from the local interactions of countless individuals in various problem-situations. No one can determine what a price of some good ‘should be’, and when they try, shortages and inefficiencies result. Similarly, the very process by which goods and services are created from raw materials is often global in complexity, counterintuitive, and such that no single person knows the entire process (See <a href="https://fee.org/resources/i-pencil/" rel="ugc"><em>I, Pencil</em></a> by Leonard Read).</p>
<h3 id="how-would-you-protect-employees-from-exploitation"><a href="#how-would-you-protect-employees-from-exploitation" rel="ugc">How would you protect employees from exploitation?</a></h3>
<p>Certainly not by initiating exploitation in the first place, which is what governments do when they acquire revenue coercively.</p>
<p>Employees are free to unionize if they think that that might benefit them.</p>
<p>The more employers there are competing for labor, the greater the conditions (wage, working conditions, etc.) will be for employees. This is a special case of a more general principle: competition breeds higher quality. Governments cannot provide a multitude of employers in the market.</p>
<p>Technological innovation increases the productive capacity of a given employee, which increases his bargaining power. Innovation cannot be coerced into existence. Rather, it must be created.</p>
<h3 id="how-would-you-protect-consumers-from-fraud"><a href="#how-would-you-protect-consumers-from-fraud" rel="ugc">How would you protect consumers from fraud?</a></h3>
<p>You could file a claim with private arbitrators (who already exist). There could be private reviewers of companies and products (who already exist). There’s a market opportunity for competition to discourage fraud. And so on. Conversely, the government is the reason we have corporations that get the government to enforce regulations to make it harder for others to enter their market and compete. A libertarian society would be better equipped to deal with fraud, and there would exist no institutionalized discrimination against business.</p>
<h3 id="why-is-freedom-so-important-to-you-isnt-loving-and-helping-other-people-just-as-important"><a href="#why-is-freedom-so-important-to-you-isnt-loving-and-helping-other-people-just-as-important" rel="ugc">Why is freedom so important to you? Isn’t loving and helping other people just as important?</a></h3>
<p>Freedom and helping others are not mutually exclusive. And again, people are free to help each other in libertarian societies. Helping others when you want to and can: great. Being <em>forced</em> to help others whether you want to or not: evil.</p>
<h3 id="but-rules-are-enforced-in-traffic-so-its-okay-to-coerce-people"><a href="#but-rules-are-enforced-in-traffic-so-its-okay-to-coerce-people" rel="ugc">But rules are enforced in traffic, so it’s okay to coerce people.</a></h3>
<p>It’s truly amazing how many people reach for the traffic thing as a “gotcha,” and how reliably they do. There must be some widespread meme causing this curious phenonemon… In any case, that coercion is okay because traffic rules need to be enforced is a complete non sequitur.</p>
<p>Yes, traffic needs rules. Whoever owns the roads should be free to make those rules and enforce compliance in exchange for letting others use them. This goes back to property rights: he who <em>owns</em> the roads should get to make the rules. The government (sadly) owns the roads, so the government gets to make traffic rules. But government does not own people’s homes, or their bodies, or any other of their property (by definition, or else it wouldn’t be <em>their property</em>), and yet government makes and enforces rules about what people can and cannot do with their property, and robs them of some of it. That’s a gross and immoral overreach. This immorality is the fundamental gap the traffic metaphor doesn’t bridge, and that no argument has ever bridged. Traffic rules have nothing to do with coercion.</p>
<h3 id="what-about-externalities"><a href="#what-about-externalities" rel="ugc">What about externalities?</a></h3>
<p>1) Even if externalities pose a problem, it is a non sequitur to conclude that only an institution that acquires resources coercively may solve it.</p>
<p>2) Furthermore, because the value derived by one’s environment is subjective (individuated and continuously changing in time), the benefit or cost of externalities as consumed by each individual is impossible to keep track of.</p>
<p>3) Thirdly, if the only way that a given externality is dealt with is via coercion, then, by demonstrated preference, this implies that people would rather employ their resources towards other ends.</p>
<p>(1 & 3 example: an individual may freely benefit from the sight of his neighbor’s well-kept lawn, but that does not imply that government should coercively intervene, nor that either party wishes it to do so)</p>
<p>4) Fourthly, externalities emerge precisely under circumstances in which privatization is <em>lacking</em>. This is either because the government coercively forbids it (consider, for example, public land), or because of technological limitations (consider the atmosphere). Nobody owns the atmosphere or the oceans, that’s why they aren’t well protected/preserved. Their capital value is not maintained. If somebody owned them, externalities caused by others could be reined in through voluntary collaboration, and nobody would be forced to care about the environment who doesn’t.</p>
<p>(See Hans-Hermann Hoppe's <a href="https://mises.org/library/economics-and-ethics-private-property-0" rel="ugc"><em>The Economics and Ethics of Private Property</em></a>)</p>
<h3 id="what-about-minimum-wage"><a href="#what-about-minimum-wage" rel="ugc">What about minimum wage?</a></h3>
<p>Like all price controls, a minimum wage prevents buyers (in this case, employers) and sellers (in this case, employees) from agreeing to an ex-ante mutually beneficial agreement. This results in avoidable unemployment, higher prices of consumer goods (because fewer employees results in lower levels of production), and greater difficulty for low-skilled individuals from jump-starting their careers.</p>
<p>For example, Employer A may wish to hire Employee B at $5/hour and anticipates a return of $5.50/hour. Employee B is happy to be hired at $5/hour. However, the minimum wage law of $6/hour forbids them from coming to such an agreement. It is not the case that Employer A can simply pay Employer B more, since he would run at a loss.</p>
<h3 id="wouldnt-inequality-keep-rising-in-a-libertarian-society"><a href="#wouldnt-inequality-keep-rising-in-a-libertarian-society" rel="ugc">Wouldn’t inequality keep rising in a libertarian society?</a></h3>
<p>Yes, because people would be less constrained in their endeavors to become richer. That’s a good thing. People are naturally different and want to pursue different goals. Making things equal is contrary to human nature and can only be done by force, expropriation, and violence.</p>
<p>Furthermore, to those who care about inequality, governments exacerbate it (in a bad, hard-to-correct kind of way): regulations serve as a barrier to entry for small businesses, rich people can afford to avoid taxes more so than poor people, inflation benefits those who are politically connected at the expense of those who are not, and lobbyists who influence the government tend to work for powerful institutions, rather than for the poor.</p>
<p>Economic inequality, as measured in dollars per person, is as morally irrelevant as any other inequality between people. Correcting for errors, solving problems, and increasing our knowledge and wealth are not hindered by inequality of resources, preferences, or genetics.</p>
<p>Any society with a government necessarily consists of at least two classes: those who create wealth peacefully, and those who acquire wealth by force. <em>This</em> inequality can only be erased by the dissipation of the government (and any other entity that parasitizes off of wealth-creating individuals).</p>
<p>Inequality is not only a function of the size of government. A dynamic society may become more unequal than a static one, even if the former contains a relatively larger government.</p>
<h3 id="what-happens-when-a-monopoly-forms"><a href="#what-happens-when-a-monopoly-forms" rel="ugc">What happens when a monopoly forms?</a></h3>
<p>To the extent that monopolies concern people, they should first and foremost direct their ire at governments themselves, which hold a territorial monopoly on coercive extraction and legislation. Typical concerns of free market monopolies—that they will exploit consumers—apply exactly to governments insofar as they employ their plunders towards the creation of goods and services for their subjects.</p>
<p>Competition between suppliers is an underappreciated regulatory mechanism. Should a company try to raise prices, a competitor can simply undercut him. Should companies in an industry form a cartel and agree to keep their prices high, a new competitor is still free to enter the market and outcompete all of them by offering lower prices. </p>
<p>Moreover, every product and service competes with every product and service. Should all ice-cream suppliers raise their prices in unison, people are free to purchase frozen yogurt, cigarettes, or cookies instead.</p>
<p>Finally, even when a company does restrict output in order to raise prices, the fact that output is restricted implies that more resources are available for the production of some other consumer good(s).</p>
<p>(See Murray Rothbard's <a href="https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market" rel="ugc"><em>Man, Economy, and State</em></a>)</p>
<h3 id="but-force-is-just-part-of-life-were-all-forced-to-go-to-work-we-all-have-to-do-things-we-dont-like-sometimes"><a href="#but-force-is-just-part-of-life-were-all-forced-to-go-to-work-we-all-have-to-do-things-we-dont-like-sometimes" rel="ugc">But force is just part of life. We’re all forced to go to work. We all have to do things we don’t like sometimes.</a></h3>
<p>It’s important to distinguish between self-coercion and interpersonal coercion. For one thing, the former is outside the scope of a universal theory of private-property ethics, while the latter is not. </p>
<p>It’s also not the case that “we’re all forced to go to work.” It is <em>necessary</em> for most people to go to work—unless they have achieved financial independence—but <em>necessity</em> is not <em>coercion</em>. People may self-coerce out of necessity, but that still doesn’t mean that necessity is the same as coercion. The confusion between the two is widespread and necessity is often used as an excuse to inflict coercion or justify it after the fact.</p>
<h3 id="you-are-forced-to-eat-and-go-to-the-bathroom-etc-are-you-not"><a href="#you-are-forced-to-eat-and-go-to-the-bathroom-etc-are-you-not" rel="ugc">You are forced to eat and go to the bathroom etc, are you not?</a></h3>
<p>No, that also isn’t force. That’s necessity. Necessity is a part of life and will always be a part of life. Coercion need not be a part of life and it is an evil that we can get rid of.</p>
<h3 id="what-is-the-significance-of-property"><a href="#what-is-the-significance-of-property" rel="ugc">What is the significance of property?</a></h3>
<p>All purposeful action requires the employment of scarce resources that cannot be simultaneously employed to infinite ends. Therefore, a theory of who has the legal & moral right to employ which resources is required (see <em>Ethics of Liberty</em>, by Murray Rothbard)</p>
<h3 id="explain-how-problem-x-would-be-solved-in-a-free-market-if-you-cannot-i-assume-that-an-organization-that-acquires-wealth-by-violating-peoples-property-rights-is-necessary-to-solve-this-problem"><a href="#explain-how-problem-x-would-be-solved-in-a-free-market-if-you-cannot-i-assume-that-an-organization-that-acquires-wealth-by-violating-peoples-property-rights-is-necessary-to-solve-this-problem" rel="ugc">Explain how problem X would be solved in a free market. If you cannot, I assume that an organization that acquires wealth by violating people’s property rights is necessary to solve this problem.</a></h3>
<p>This is a fallacy, in that an (epistemologically invalid) burden of proof is placed on the advocate of freedom. The reality is that governments are themselves composed of people—they do not have magical problem-solving powers that the rest of us do not. By this fallacious standard, one will always end up finding reasons that we ‘need’ government, since no one possesses the knowledge of how to solve every conceivable problem.</p>
<p>Better to ask: “What is required, in principle, for a person to solve his/her problems in the absence of other people? What is required, in principle, for a person to solve his/her problems in a world in which others seek to do the same?”</p>
<p>This fallacious burden of proof on the advocate for a Stateless society is reminiscent of the “God of the gaps” fallacy. In both cases, opponents take the lack of a solution/explanation as reason for the necessity of government/God.</p>
<h3 id="libertarians-value-freedom-over-all-other-values-this-is-why-im-not-a-libertarian"><a href="#libertarians-value-freedom-over-all-other-values-this-is-why-im-not-a-libertarian" rel="ugc">Libertarians value freedom over all other values. This is why I’m not a libertarian.</a></h3>
<p>There is no tradeoff between freedom and other values. On the contrary, respect for private-property rights is required to pursue any other value (such as order, harmony, peace, self-actualization, community, and happiness). </p>
<h3 id="arent-libertarians-dogmatic-in-their-advocacy-for-free-markets"><a href="#arent-libertarians-dogmatic-in-their-advocacy-for-free-markets" rel="ugc">Aren’t libertarians dogmatic in their advocacy for free markets?</a></h3>
<p>It is not faith, or dogma, that leads libertarians to think that the free market is always superior to the government in providing goods & services. Rather, our best explanations of epistemology (critical rationalism) and economics (praxeology/Austrian economics) indicate that that is so. </p>
<p>As a parallel example, consider the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis. Because it is a universal explanation of how apparent design can, and has, emerged th…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/libertarian-faq" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/libertarian-faq</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/libertarian-faq
Libertarian FAQ
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="a-truth-commission-is-tyrannical">A Truth Commission is Tyrannical</h1>
<p><img src="/assets/fred-kearney-enkfvvZkKv0-unsplash.jpg" alt="Burning book"></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@fredasem" rel="ugc">Fred Kearney</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/book-burning" rel="ugc">Unsplash</a></em></small></p>
<p><em>This is a guest post by <a href="https://twitter.com/ChipkinLogan" rel="ugc">Logan Chipkin</a>.</em></p>
<p>There are growing rumblings about the need for a National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation for the post-Trump world. In a recent <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/trump-pardon-prosecute-truth-commission-election-2020-20201020.html" rel="ugc">Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece</a>, Will Bunch wrote that “The idea behind such panels is to hold high-profile hearings that aren’t geared toward punishment but exposing the truth of what has happened—no matter how painful—so that once-divided citizens can again find a common language or grant amnesty, which will form the basis for the conversation to make sure these things never happen again.”</p>
<p>It never ceases to amaze me that the same people who mock evolution deniers often make the same error in the realm of human activity—you cannot determine the truth from the top-down, once-and-for-all. The only method by which we create knowledge is, as the philosopher Karl Popper discovered, by guessing some candidate explanations, criticizing them, and tentatively retaining whichever survives our scrutiny. We can never be absolutely certain that we’ve reached the truth, because we don’t know about future criticisms or superior explanations that someone might come up with tomorrow. </p>
<p>So call it a Commission on Truth if you like, but it will never reliably deliver truth. Nothing can. One may as well create a spaceship called ‘Faster than the Speed of Light’. Both projects are trying to violate the laws of nature.</p>
<p>The idea that one can simply establish a board that will determine the truth fails for other, practical reasons. Is Mr. Bunch so confident that the Commission will be manned by people whose ideas he approves of? What happens when individuals on the Commission disagree with each other? Whose truth is Truth, capital T, and how is that disagreement adjudicated? People are fallible, and all of our knowledge is conjectural. We are not, and cannot be made to be, a species of eight billion monolithic automata. Our ideas, values, and understanding of the world will inevitably diverge, and creativity is always required to reconcile contrasting perspectives. Some panel of experts from the priestly class cannot deliver the truth to the masses mechanistically, like manna from the sky. </p>
<p>If these overlords—or would-be overlords—are convinced that they hold the truth, they should be able to explain themselves to the rest of us. Moreover, when a non-priest disagrees, the Truth Panelists should be able to refute the citizen’s ideas. After all, the determinants of Truth must have considered all of the possible counterarguments, right? As I had explained, this is logically impossible. It’s worth repeating—no one can possibly foresee novel arguments, refutations, and alternative explanations that may be created in the future.</p>
<p>Nor would such a Commission unify people over the truth, as Bunch thinks it would. It does not solve the (insoluble) problem of delivering the infallible truth to all Americans. Therefore, some recipients of the Messages from On High will disagree with it, and their counterarguments may not be easily dismissible. In reality, the desire to unify Americans over ‘the truth’ will mean doing so over the Commission’s ‘Truth’. What, exactly, would the Panel of Priests do with those of us who disagree with their ‘Truth’? Would we be regarded as rabble-rousers who stand in the way of American unity?</p>
<p>A belief in the possibility of a Commission on Truth lends itself to tyranny and violence, because there can be no rational reason why someone would dissent from the ‘final word’ of the Commission. In this worldview, there are only ‘good’ people—those who agree with the Commission—and ‘bad’ people—those who do not. And because progress depends on accepting the Word of the Expert Panelists (so adherents to this worldview think), squashing dissenters is both necessary and morally justified.</p>
<p>No Truth Commission will bring Americans together over some infallible Deliverance of Truth. All of our cultural divisions will remain after the election. It is no accident that as the federal government swells ever larger, the hostility between citizens of opposing political camps burns hotter in tandem: the stakes grow with each election. Rather than peaceably going our separate ways, like divorcees, we continue to battle over the greatest power center the Earth has ever seen. Following an election, we hope that our political opponents never rear their fire-breathing head again. But no one’s going anywhere. Creationists like Bunch are mistaken to think that if only we had some infallible authority, we could determine the truth for all Americans, once-and-for-all. We have to debate, discuss, and exchange ideas to make progress. No one can do it for us from the top-down. </p>
<p>Never let anyone tell you what you have to think—you’re the most creative entity in the entire universe. Tyrants will always try to convince you otherwise. Only you can let them.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/a-truth-commission-is-tyrannical
A Truth Commission is Tyrannical
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="two-razors-to-quickly-evaluate-any-theory-of-the-mind">Two Razors to Quickly Evaluate Any Theory of the Mind</h1>
<p><strong>TL;DR:</strong> <em>If a theory of the mind depends on sense data or the brain, it cannot be true.</em></p>
<h3 id="so-you-want-to-know-how-to-evaluate-theories-of-the-mind">So you want to know how to evaluate theories of the mind?</h3>
<p>Theories of the mind are a dime a dozen. So how to wade through them all?</p>
<p>First, there’s David Deutsch’s test “for judging claims to have explained the nature of consciousness (or any other computational task): <em>if you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.</em>”<br>
— <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359/" rel="ugc"><em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> (BoI)</a></p>
<p>Nobody can yet program a mind, which tells us that nobody has yet understood how the mind works. Somebody will need to come up with a good explanation of that first.</p>
<p>But until then, how can we judge whether we are even heading in the <em>right direction</em>? And, with so many theories of the mind being proposed all the time, most slight variations of each other, how can we evaluate them <em>quickly</em> and without becoming overwhelmed?</p>
<p>Use the following two “razors”:</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1"><p><strong>Does the theory work without sense input?</strong></p>
<p>Many research efforts are heavily influenced by <em>empiricism</em>, a philosophical doctrine which states that knowledge is derived from the senses. As Deutsch explains in BoI chapter 1, this doctrine is completely false. Although papers may not specifically mention empiricism, they are usually variations on the theme of processing sense input, claiming that thinking somehow relies on it.</p>
<p>Any theory claiming that sense input is necessary for thinking/learning is empiricist and therefore false. Sense input does play a vital role while learning, but not that of being a starting point from which knowledge can be “derived.” A mind uses sense input to test guessed theories <em>against it</em>. The theories <em>come first</em>, then comes a whole lot of critcism (which most theories don’t survive), and then comes the testing against sense input (cf. BoI chapter 10).</p>
<p>But not all of a mind’s theories need sense input to be tested. Only theories about what our immediate surroundings look like do. Many of our theories don’t involve sense data at all, nor could they: knowledge about morals or math, for example, simply aren’t about our immediate surroundings. They’re about abstract truths, and we can still criticize them using other yardsticks, such as internal consistency and conflicts with other theories. <em>Problems</em> are the starting point, not sense data.</p>
<p>Therefore, we know that a brain in a vat could still contain a fully functioning mind. It could still conjecture about the world outside itself, albeit only in a very limited way. It could, in principle, still <em>imagine</em> things like elephants, even if it had never seen them—though admittedly that would be very difficult. But, more importantly, that mind would be self-aware, it could explore morals and math and philosphy, and invent new fields and explore new concepts we haven’t yet thought of. None of the things that make a mind <em>depend</em> on sense data.</p>
<p>Therefore, if a theory of the mind <em>depends</em> on sense data to work, it can’t be true. This razor alone will let you cut out ~90% of candidate theories of the mind.</p></li>
<li data-step="2"><p><strong>Does the theory work without mentioning the underlying hardware (the brain)?</strong></p>
<p>Most seem to think that a sufficient understanding of the <em>brain</em> will automatically confer an understanding of the <em>mind</em>, and perhaps vice versa. But why should that be the case? There is a difference between hardware and software. Understanding how computers work does not automatically make you a programmer, and vice versa.</p>
<p>At this point, you might raise a finger and say, “but wait, the brain is not really a computer, is it?” Yes, it is. Due to computational universality, any kind of information processing is computation. The brain clearly processes information, so it must be a computer. It really is as simple as that. (And no, information processing does not depend on sense input. The information that’s being processed can come from <em>inside the structure</em>, it need not come from outside.)</p>
<p>We also know from computational universality that anything the brain does could be simulated on <em>any other</em> universal computer (within memory and processing-power constraints), be it one made of tissue and neurons or one made of metal and silicon. While complex and stunning, the brain's <em>physiology</em> has no special or mystical status. There’s nothing the brain can do in terms of information processing that any other universal computer (our smartphones and laptops included) couldn’t also do. <em>The mind does not depend on the brain to function—any other universal hardware will do.</em></p>
<p>Overthinking the brain and neglecting the mind is a reductionist mistake. It’s reductionist because it is an attempt to explain software (i.e., something abstract) in terms of hardware (i.e., something physical), and because it pictures the causal chain always to go from lower level (the brain) to higher level (the mind). In reality, it’s the software that instructs its hardware top down, and there is feedback between both levels of abstraction.</p>
<p>So, for the remaining ~10% that the first razor didn’t cut, use this second razor and you’ll find that only 10% of <em>that</em> subset make it.</p>
<p>Deutsch explains the difference between higher and lower levels of emergence as well as the nature of abstractions in chapter 5 of BoI. He covers computational universality in chapter 6. I also write about these concepts <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Window-Intelligence-Philosophy-Evolution-Implications-dp-1734696133/dp/1734696133" rel="ugc">in my book</a>.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If a theory doesn’t survive either one of these razors, reject it.</p>
<p>Theories of the mind often contain many or even all of the misconceptions mentioned in these razors because they make each other more plausible. Researchers may think of the brain as a “special kind of perception machine”—the culmination of everything wrong I have just described—and then think that this will tell them something about the mind. Perhaps this is due to the misconception that a brain’s information processing requires sense data as a starting point. Worse, most theories don’t make any mention of <em>creativity</em>—which is the core of the mind, perhaps synonymous with it. They try to find some pre-existing algorithm for recognizing shapes (or something comparable) that could just as well be executed mindlessly. Thinking that knowledge could be created through the use of existing knowledge is the mistaken evolutionary theory of <em>Lamarckism</em>, due to the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.</p>
<p>Which brings me to additional razors. For example, thanks to Karl Popper, we know that the true theory of the mind must employ evolution. So, whatever the algorithm is that runs on our brains that instantiates our minds, it must be an <em>evolutionary</em> one. That cuts it down even further. But using the two razors above already cuts out 99% of all theories—at least of the ones I have seen.</p>
<p>Part of taking ideas seriously is to reject them when one finds that they’re false. Empiricism, reductionism and violations of computational universality still spread because people don’t take them seriously. Once you do, you’ll have a much easier time evaluating claims about how the mind works. Many worry they’re not qualified to reject theories of the mind. But you’ve read this article now, so you are. Feel encouraged to reject bad theories wholesale and without remorse. The more you practice using these razors, the more skilled you become at rejecting bad theories quickly. You won’t need to read whole essays on perception anymore to see if anything’s wrong with them. The mere premise gives it away.</p>
<p>To be clear, if you do find a theory that survives both razors—such as my <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">neo-Darwinian theory of the mind</a>—that doesn’t mean it is true. Razors can only be used to <em>reject</em> theories. The theory then needs to survive to a lot more scrutiny and finally meet Deutsch’s test as well.</p>
<p>Until then, I hope you find these razors useful.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/two-razors-to-quickly-evaluate-any-theory-of-the
Two Razors to Quickly Evaluate Any Theory of the Mind
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-true-purpose-of-schools">The True Purpose of Schools</h1>
<p>The other day, it “clicked” for me: I think I understand better now what schools are really for.</p>
<p>It is generally believed that schools exist to help children learn. Of course, we critical rationalists know that that’s baloney. Instead, we understand—thanks to <em>Taking Children Seriously</em>—that schools exist to <em>standardize</em> children: to get them to replicate society’s memes as faithfully as possible under threat of punishment. Static-society stuff (cf. David Deutsch, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359/" rel="ugc"><em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></a>). At least that was my current understanding of it. But I’m starting to see that it goes deeper than that.</p>
<p>Consider a child who is interested in, say, astronomy. Most elementary schools do not offer astronomy classes. And even if they did, it is highly unlikely that any given child would happen to be interested in <em>all</em> of the things that are shoved down his throat year after year, at just the right time. A child’s interests don’t evolve in sync with the school’s schedule. If the child is lucky, he will be genuinely interested in a few of the topics any given year, but never even close to all of them.</p>
<p>So, the child wants to learn about astronomy—but doesn’t get to. Instead, he is forced to learn <em>other</em> things he <em>isn’t</em> interested in. Day in, day out, for some 12 years. As Popper said, he has to learn answers to questions he didn’t ask.</p>
<p>A child is then faced with two options: to go insane, or to learn to cope with the situation. So, what can one possibly <em>do</em> in such a situation to stay sane? I see only one solution: one must learn to put one’s <em>own</em> interests on the back burner and prioritize <em>other people’s</em> interests—in this case, the teacher’s, and society’s at large. One must learn to coerce oneself to neglect one’s preferences. I think <em>that</em> is what school is really for: not just to standardize children, but to break them, too, to place others’ interests over their own.</p>
<p>I recently asked a 14 year old close to me if she’d like to go to college. She said no, but that she probably will anyway because she thinks she <em>should</em>. It’s heartbreaking.</p>
<p>It is only after 12 years of mind-numbing boredom and neglecting one’s preferences that people voluntarily spend the next 30, 40, sometimes 50 years at jobs they hate. Forever delaying their dreams is what they’re good at. It is in school that they learn how to live with problems and endure them instead of <em>solving</em> them. It is there that they are taught that their interests have no chance of leading to anything fruitful, so they shut them down quickly.</p>
<p>Parents are often complicit in this. E.g., they take away things that their children enjoy, such as their computers, gameboys, etc, or at least put time limits on them—so that their kids spend less time doing what they <em>want</em> and more of what they allegedly <em>need</em>, which is determined by anyone but the child.</p>
<p>I’m thankful that David Deutsch puts emphasis on <em>fun</em> and <em>interests</em>. They’re hugely underrated.</p>
<p>If school’s main purpose is to teach children how to neglect their own interests and instead pursue other people’s interests, that also explains where <em>altruism</em> comes from—the evil doctrine Ayn Rand so eloquently refuted and which, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RFlPmjUbRo" rel="ugc">she says</a>, “regards man, in effect, as a sacrificial animal,” quoting Auguste Comte, who coined the term “to mean, specifically, the placing of the interests of others above your own.”</p>
<h2 class="my-3">The true purpose of schools is to turn children—born individualists—into altruists; to make them systematically neglect their own interests in favor of others’ interests.</h2>
<p>It is to force children to betray their intellectual integrity. They must “sacrifice [their minds] to what <em>others</em> believe or want to be true.” — Ayn Rand (though she didn’t state this in the context of schooling and children in particular, but society at large)</p>
<p>This true purpose explains why people <em>live for others</em>, and then expect others to do so as well. It’s what they were forced to do during the most formative years of their lives after all!</p>
<p>It explains why so many expect their peers to sacrifice their happiness for the health of others by agreeing to house arrests. Why those who don’t want their salaries to be cut in half by taxes are considered “evil.” Why so many can’t begin to imagine a world without coercion. “If I had to do it, why should anyone else get a free pass?”</p>
<p>I’m guessing that most teachers do not understand this true purpose of school. They become teachers because <a href="/posts/the-tragedy-of-children-becoming-teachers" rel="ugc">they want to “help” children</a>—that is, give children what they allegedly “need.” It is only altruists who can become teachers and perpetuate the cycle. In other words, the memeplex of schools depends on breaking children so successfully that some of them decide to continue the tradition. Not only do teachers not know why they’re contributing to this altruism machine, <em>it relies on teachers not understanding its true nature to keep itself alive.</em> This makes me wonder if schools as a whole are static memeplexes.</p>
<p>I think many experienced critical rationalists, on the other hand, understand school’s true purpose deeply. For me, it was a breakthrough. Though the topic is sad, writing this post was fun. A lot of stuff is beginning to make more sense. I’m pursuing my interests <em>right now</em>. I love critical rationalism.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools
The True Purpose of Schools
2023-08-09T17:02:25Z
2023-08-09T17:02:25Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="balinski-and-young-beyond-elections">Balinski and Young—beyond Elections</h1>
<p><em>Representativeness</em> is said to be a desirable feature of government. If candidate A gets only 20% of the votes, and candidate B gets 80%, surely candidate B should win. That intuitively makes sense. However, there are profound issues with the concept of representativeness. David Deutsch explores these issues in chapter 13 of his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359/" rel="ugc"><em>The Beginning of Infinity</em></a>.</p>
<p>Deutsch explains that the <em>quota</em> is the exact number of seats a state should be assigned under strict proportionality. For example, if Congress has 100 seats (I’m simplifying here), and your state has 10% of the country’s population, then the state should receive exactly 10 seats in Congress. <em>To stay within the quota</em> means that under a given apportionment rule, the number of seats assigned to the state never deviates more than one whole seat from the quota. Since the quota is rarely a whole number, it has to be rounded somehow. The rounding method is called the <em>apportionment rule</em>. With the above numbers, there is no need to round, but if, say, Congress instead had 105 seats, then your state’s quota would be 10.5. The apportionment rule then has to either round that down to 10 or round it up to 11, all while trying to remain as representative as possible. The rule may take any information into account, but if it is <em>capable</em> of deviating from a state’s quota by more than 1, it is said to “violate quota.”</p>
<p>Consider the following example of a tricky election outcome, which example is thanks to Deutsch. Imagine a country of 4 states with a congress of 10 seats total, with the first state having just under 85% of the population, and the remaining states having just over 5 percent each. Recall that a representative apportionment rule must never deviate more than 1 seat from the quota. That means that the first state must receive either 8 or 9 seats. This could be achieved through an apportionment rule that says to simply round each state’s quota to the nearest integer. It would assign 8, 1, 1, and 1 seats, bringing the total number of seats to 11—which, as Deutsch says, doesn’t seem to be a big problem at first, until you realize that 85% of 11 is 9.35, not 8. So 85% of the population would be underrepresented in Congress. That apportionment rule violates quota.</p>
<p>As Deutsch points out, the problems resulting from apportionment rules always seem to merely require a quick fix—which is why he aptly describes them as “why don’t they just…” suggestions. Why don’t they just round to the nearest integer? Why don’t they just add another seat to Congress? Etc. Depending on the apportionment rule, such ad-hoc fixes may temporarily work, but they will always fail in the long run.</p>
<p>Apportionment rules, despite being devised to improve representativeness, paradoxically lead to <em>less representative</em> and “unfair” outcomes. One such paradox is the <em>population paradox</em>. Deutsch explains that the population paradox is when, according to a given apportionment rule, a state whose population has grown since the last election loses seats to a state whose population has shrunk. It’s a paradox because, although the given apportionment rule is designed to be as representative as possible, it has resulted in an outcome that’s less representative. A state whose population has grown should—intuitively, at least—be awarded more seats.</p>
<p>There are other paradoxes, too. One is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apportionment_paradox#Alabama_paradox" rel="ugc"><em>Alabama paradox</em></a>, which is when an increase in the number of seats leads to a decrease in seats for one state. There is also the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apportionment_paradox#New_states_paradox" rel="ugc"><em>New-states paradox</em></a>, which is when the addition of a new state leads to a reduction of seats for existing states. Why don’t they just increase the number of seats accordingly? Because that can trigger the Alabama paradox.</p>
<p>According to the Wikipedia article explaining the above paradoxes, an apportionment rule may be free of the Alabama paradox. It may even be free of the population paradox. But Balinski and Young proved that whenever a rule stays within the quota, it <em>cannot</em> be free from the population paradox. In other words, to avoid the population paradox, a rule <em>must</em> violate quota.</p>
<p>Deutsch then explains that the purpose of elections is not to make government as representative as possible, and therefore such paradoxes are not as problematic as they seem. Instead, their purpose is to implement Popper’s criterion of democracy by making it possible to remove bad leaders and policies without bloodshed. However, I want to linger on the concept of representativeness and apportionment paradoxes as they relate to ideas of so-called “social justice.”</p>
<p>Social-justice warriors (SJWs) have long been calling for “diversity” and “representativeness” in the workplace. For example, when a company’s workforce consists almost exclusively of white people, it is said to lack diversity and be unrepresentative of the general populace. Of course, those of us who are individualists and don’t believe in group grievances already know that there is only one valid hiring strategy—qualification—and that it is no company’s job to play the role of social do-gooder. But let’s take SJWs’ argument seriously and see if it leads to any contradictions.</p>
<p>I believe Balinski & Young’s theorem can help us uncover the same paradoxes in this context. It reaches beyond elections. To see how, simply replace “state” with, say, “race,” “Congress” with a company, and “seats” with, say, “number of employees.”</p>
<p>In other words, instead of a state being allocated its “fair” share of seats in Congress, think of a group of people of the same race being allocated their “fair” share of jobs in a company. Applying our previous example to this thought experiment, instead of four states there would be four races, with one (say, white people) making up just under 85% of the population, and the remaining making up just over 5% each. Imagine a company with 10 employees total, whose CEO would be looking to (or, let’s be honest, forced to) “make changes” to his workforce to make it more racially representative. The CEO can’t hire 8.5 white people, so he’d need to round somehow. Under the same rule, he’d round down to 8 white people, and 1 of each remaining race—but his workforce is only 10 people strong, not 11! And if the CEO <em>did</em> hire an additional person, what race should <em>that person</em> be? And how would the company account for the vast majority of the population now being underrepresented in the workforce? Etc.</p>
<p>A company looking to employ an apportionment rule to have a workforce that’s as representative as possible will eventually violate quota or be subject to the above paradoxes. That is still true if it is only parts of the company’s workforce that are required to be “representative,” such as the board of directors. The population paradox will result in one group of employees that belong to a race that has been growing in number in the general populace losing jobs to another race that has been shrinking. The Alabama paradox will lead to an employee of a certain race being fired when the company hires additional people—when the workforce grows in total number. The new-state paradox means that when a new category of race is added to the grievance catalog, existing hires of a certain race may get fired. And so on.</p>
<p>According to the Wikipedia article, such paradoxes occur whenever there are three or more alternatives. There are more than three recognized racial categories, so the above paradoxes would invariably happen to companies trying to stay within the quota. The same holds for other categories SJWs are concerned with, such as sexual orientation and disability. They would have had an easier time convincing people that the two genders could be represented perfectly in companies—but now that they have convinced themselves that there are dozens of genders, “representative” hiring practices based on gender will be subject to the same paradoxes as well.</p>
<p>In the case of hiring, it gets more complicated than in the case of elections, because here we are told to optimize across <em>multiple</em> dimensions of representativeness: not just along race, but also along gender, sexual orientation, etc. I believe that this can only lead to additional paradoxes and undesirable consequences, such as a black man having to be fired to hire a white woman and vice versa.</p>
<p>Presumably, it is likewise impossible to make all teams and organizations within a company and the company as a whole perfectly representative, as intra-company transfers of employees would have to happen between teams and organizations. Such transfers would, I conjecture, result in similar paradoxes. (If anyone knows of a theorem that proves these two conjectures, please <a href="mailto:dennis.hackethal@googlemail.com" rel="ugc">let me know</a>.)</p>
<p>The population paradox is a particularly damning one for SJWs. Surely they wouldn’t want black people to be fired from companies when the population of black people grows? But that’s exactly what companies would need to do <em>in the name of representativeness</em> that SJWs so desire. Keep in mind that ad-hoc fixes of the sort “when in doubt, just keep the minority hire” are likewise apportionment rules—<em>and there can be no apportionment rules that stay within the quota without resulting in the population paradox</em>. There is no way out of this mathematical reality.</p>
<p>At least, for now. Our knowledge of mathematics does not have a monopoly on the truth that people think it has. It contains mistakes. Balinski & Young’s theorem may later be found to be wrong. Should that happen, that <em>does not</em> mean that laws forcing companies to have “representative” workforces or boards of directors would be a good thing. They still wouldn’t be because the only sensible hiring rule is based on <em>qualifications</em>. SJWs would first need to come up with a good, non-refuted <em>moral explanation</em> for doing such a thing. Since their answers usually involve force, I doubt they could produce one.</p>
<p>An SJW might try to wiggle his way out of this conundrum by pointing out that apportionment paradoxes typically don’t occur <em>every</em> election. Likewise, an apportionment rule is said to violate quota if it is <em>capable</em> of deviating from the quota by more than one—but that need not happen every election either. While that is true, companies don’t hire every four years. They hire all the time. With hundreds of thousands of companies in the US alone, said paradoxes would result in what SJWs consider injustices <em>every day</em>.</p>
<p>In reality, calls for “diversity”—in whose service the idea of “representativeness” stands—are hidden calls for every company to be <em>the same</em>. In a flowery, perfectly “socially just” (but mathematically impossible) world, every company would need to have the same proportions of their employees belonging to certain groups. Every company would look the same in terms of demographics. That is not what happens in a free society with free hiring practices. In an open society, you’ll see different kinds of companies with various degrees of representativeness, most of them averaging out anyway.</p>
<p>A workforce need not be representative of the general populace. As with democracies, representativeness is not and cannot be its purpose. A workforce need only be qualified to solve the problems the company hires them to solve. Indeed, hiring managers should be free to discriminate based on any characteristics they like—but of course, they would be foolish to take anything other than qualification into account. Any company that discriminates only based on merit has a larger pool of qualified candidates to choose from and therefore has a better chance to outperform bigoted competitors. So there’s no need to make bigotry illegal. The free market has built-in mechanisms to promote tolerance and discourage irrational discrimination. Laws and regulations determining hiring and firing based on “representativeness” not only increase discrimination—because now, hiring managers are forced to look at characteristics other than qualification—but also lead to paradoxes that achieve the opposite of what the lawmakers had in mind when they drafted those laws.</p>
<p>To those who think representation in the workforce—or anywhere—is important, surely being mathematically proven wrong will change their minds? But it won’t, because nothing can. So do you see now how irrational SJWs are?</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/balinski-and-young-beyond-elections
Balinski and Young—beyond Elections
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="forced-to-freedom">Forced to Freedom</h1>
<p>Ayaan Hirsi Ali shared <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/all-french-pupils-given-lesson-on-freedom-in-samuel-paty-tribute-bhtgtt85r" rel="ugc">an article</a> by <em>The Times</em> in <a href="https://twitter.com/Ayaan/status/1323756081403826191" rel="ugc">a tweet</a>. In the wake of the recent islamist terrorist attacks on French citizens, “France’s 12 million schoolchildren stood for a minute’s silence and received a lesson on freedom of expression today in honour of Samuel Paty, the teacher who was murdered after showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.”</p>
<p>The article continues, “In a message to pupils on social media, President Macron wrote: ‘The idea of terrorism is to create hatred… We are living through difficult days and I want you to recall these few words. To be French, at school in the republic, is to learn to be free.’”</p>
<p>I can’t read the whole article, because it’s cut off behind a paywall. But overall, what I have heard Macron say so far in response to the attacks has been sensible. He’s not afraid to criticize islamism. That means he also isn’t afraid to counter social-justice warriors (who defend it, and who otherwise might vote for him). Many politicians lack the spine that Macron displays.</p>
<p>However, it’s rather ironic for students to be made to stand for a minute of silence in the name of freedom. Why? <em>Because it’s not up to them whether to stand or not.</em> They don’t even get to choose if they want to go to school at all. They are forced to go. They are not free. So, while the content of what they’re learning—freedom of expression—is good, the method by which they are learning it—force—is horrific.</p>
<p>A minute of silence means nothing if it’s forced. If we’re serious about freedom, we need to stop forcing kids to go to school. When they turn 18, they will indeed need to “learn to be free”—but only because they will have been subjected to force for so long <a href="/posts/the-true-purpose-of-schools" rel="ugc">they won’t know what it’s like to be free</a>.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/forced-to-freedom
Forced to Freedom
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="what-to-do-in-the-face-of-corporate-wokeism">What to Do in the Face of Corporate Wokeism</h1>
<p>There has been a cancer growing in the West, and it’s called Wokeism. The idea that “social justice” trumps everything, that everything must be viewed through the lens of race, gender, and sexual preferences. Social-justice warriors (SJWs) view society as a zero-sum game between the oppressors and the oppressed. They don’t oppose oppression itself, they just want to reverse its direction. They agree with racists that the most important determinant of social interactions is (or should be) race. Dissenters are punished by being “canceled” and, in some cases, having their livelihoods destroyed.</p>
<p>SJWs are the perpetrators of this ideological crime. Rather than seeing the West as flawed but improvable, they see it as an evil, racist empire beyond redemption, and they demand it be brought down. They consider our institutions oppressive, our freedom a farce. They demand a revolution. The violent protests and looting across America are a token of what’s to come if they are left unchecked. They are a threat to our freedom.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it appears that many powerful companies have publicly spoken in support of the concept of “social justice” and associated organizations, such as “Black Lives Matter” (BLM). Tech in particular is infected. As someone working in tech, this saddens me. The industry has always been left-leaning, but it’s never been as bad as it is now, with dozens of established companies and countless startups jumping on the social-justice bandwagon.</p>
<p>We are all users of tech, and many of us work in the industry. Particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the social cost for dissent is high, and the vast majority of people think alike, many are afraid to speak up. There is tremendous pressure to spread social-justice memes, or at least to acquiesce. Many companies are subjecting their employees to pseudo-scientific “sensitivity trainings” and “unconscious bias” trainings. Some investors make investment decisions based on race (and have admitted as much, such as Gumroad’s founder Sahil Lavingia <a href="https://twitter.com/shl/status/1291104973284159492" rel="ugc">here</a> (archived <a href="http://archive.vn/KzNXG" rel="ugc">here</a>)).</p>
<p>If you don’t recognize the industry and are afraid to speak up, know that you are not alone. If you don’t want your money going to socialist organizations, I have compiled a list of companies that support BLM and/or associated groups and ideas which can point you to alternatives so that a change requires as little sacrifice as possible. You can find that list at the bottom of this article.</p>
<p>If you are approached by recruiters for positions at such companies, you can politely but clearly turn the request down. I have turned down interview requests from several companies for potentially very lucrative roles, including Amazon. (That’s not a brag; it’s quite common for software engineers in the Bay Area to be approached several times a week.)</p>
<p>Here’s a slightly modified version of what I wrote to an Amazon recruiter. I have adjusted it to make it generally applicable to your use case.</p>
<blockquote><p>It appears that [company name] has publicly spoken in support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Though I’m sure there are good intentions behind this, BLM is not what it seems to be—among other things, they are a revolutionary, anti-capitalist organization that threatens to take away some of our American liberties. It’s rather ironic for a company to be supporting an anti-capitalist organization. I would have liked to pursue this role, but I would have to violate my integrity to work for [company name]. I cannot do that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You are welcome to use this text without credit. You’d be amazed at what impact it can have. Money talks.</p>
<p>If you’d like to back up the above claims by sources, here are a couple of links you are welcome to use:</p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/black-lives-matter-leader-burn-down-system" rel="ugc">“Black Lives Matter leader states if US ‘doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system’”</a> (archived <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201101213235/https://www.foxnews.com/media/black-lives-matter-leader-burn-down-system" rel="ugc">here</a>)</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16181/black-lives-matter" rel="ugc">List of quotes from key BLM operatives with sources</a> (archived <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201101213413/https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16181/black-lives-matter" rel="ugc">here</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p>If your employer wants you to attend a seminar about racism, refuse. If they don’t accept that and you can afford it, quit. If your employer publicly endorses SJW memes, bring it up and ask them to post a retraction. If they don’t, quit. If your colleagues casually agree with each other over lunch about how evil white and/or straight people are, disagree with them.</p>
<p>Practicing integrity, like practicing anything else, is difficult at first, but it gets easier over time. It’s something I am practicing myself and want to get better at. An essay I found very helpful is <a href="https://courses.aynrand.org/works/how-does-one-lead-a-rational-life-in-an-irrational-society/" rel="ugc">How Does One Lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?</a> by Ayn Rand. It makes a convincing case for the necessity of moral judgment and contains the following gem:</p>
<blockquote><p>And then, on some gray, middle-aged morning, such a man realizes suddenly that he has betrayed all the values he had loved in his distant spring, and wonders how it happened, and slams his mind shut to the answer, by telling himself hastily that the fear he had felt in his worst, most shameful moments was right and that values have no chance in this world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If you feel uneasy about the future of tech, want to talk to someone about practicing integrity, or just want to connect, email me at <a href="mailto:dennis.hackethal@googlemail.com" rel="ugc">dennis.hackethal@googlemail.com</a></p>
<p><img src="/assets/clay-banks-CzizQl0uyno-unsplash.jpg" alt="Social-justice warriors"></p>
<p><em>Social-justice warriors. Image by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/CzizQl0uyno" rel="ugc">Clay Banks on Unsplash</a></em></p>
<h2 id="companies-supporting-sjw-causes-and-their-alternatives-whenever-i-could-find-any">Companies supporting SJW causes and their alternatives (whenever I could find any)</h2>
<ul>
<li> Airbnb (<a href="https://archive.is/IERpB" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: hotels</li>
<li> Squarespace (<a href="https://archive.is/2d89w" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: <a href="https://www.weebly.com/" rel="ugc">Weebly</a></li>
<li> Spotify (<a href="https://archive.is/43o7f" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> no alternative found yet; I have gone over seemingly every single music streaming service, and they have all supported BLM :(</li>
<li> Gymshark (<a href="https://archive.vn/JAIKF" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
<li> Outsite (<a href="https://archive.vn/Xr2X2" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: hotels, local coliving places</li>
<li> AngelList (<a href="https://archive.vn/zT2z4" rel="ugc">source</a>)—less clear because I could only find a third party reporting this</li>
<li> Vina Enoteca (<a href="https://archive.vn/ON1N8" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: other Italian restaurants on the SF peninsula</li>
<li> McDonald’s (<a href="https://archive.vn/D4GCQ" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: Burger King</li>
<li> KFC (<a href="https://archive.vn/wEjjG" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: Popeye’s</li>
<li> Chipotle (<a href="https://archive.vn/IfkFC" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
<li> Apple (<a href="https://archive.vn/Vaw9I" rel="ugc">source</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1316138359278891008/photo/1" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
<li> Google (<a href="https://archive.vn/ZeDU4" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: DuckDuckGo (it’s trivially easy to change your browser’s search engine, see <a href="https://appletoolbox.com/how-to-change-default-search-engine-to-duckduckgo-on-ios-and-macos/" rel="ugc">here</a> and <a href="https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/desktop/microsoft-edge/" rel="ugc">here</a>)</li>
<li> Amazon (<a href="https://archive.vn/qXilO" rel="ugc">source</a> -> Alternative: other online stores and local stores, if your government’s lockdown policies let you)</li>
<li> Netflix (<a href="https://archive.vn/QDwu3" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
<li> Hulu (<a href="https://archive.vn/ziArm" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
<li> Twitter (<a href="https://archive.vn/H8ySo" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> Alternative: <a href="https://parler.com/" rel="ugc">Parler</a></li>
<li> Medium (<a href="https://archive.vn/3p6DX" rel="ugc">source</a>) -> WordPress, Jekyll, and others (lots of blog engines out there)</li>
<li> YouTube (<a href="https://archive.vn/brQY2" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
<li> Gumroad (<a href="http://archive.vn/KzNXG" rel="ugc">source as mentioned above</a>) -> Potential alternatives (not vetted, except for Podia, which is not viable) <a href="https://www.topbestalternatives.com/gumroad/" rel="ugc">here</a></li>
<li> Deezer (source used to be <a href="https://en.deezercommunity.com/got-an-idea-50/deezer-supporting-black-lives-matter-66935?postid=173762#post173762" rel="ugc">here</a> but has since been removed)</li>
<li> Pandora (<a href="https://archive.vn/5VORd" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
<li> LiveXLive (<a href="https://archive.vn/We8GC" rel="ugc">source</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p>It’s a bit ironic to publish a list like this because it’s usually SJWs themselves who tell people what companies to avoid because they use plastic straws or something. Having said that, unlike SJWs, I won’t think of people as evil or uncaring just because they continue to use the above companies’ products.</p>
<p>To be clear, I don’t think it’s necessary to abandon all of these companies’ products at once. It would be too difficult and you might be very tempted to go back to using them all after a few days or weeks. Some of them are easy to do, like going to Burger King instead of McDonald’s, and searching on DuckDuckGo instead of Google. Start with that, and then see if you can make the switch for some other items on the list.</p>
<p>Nor do I think these companies have to be avoided forever. For example, if, after x years, a company hasn’t spread any SJW memes or supported any related organizations, we might consider that a statute of limitations of sorts. If, on the other hand, any of them post a public retraction, I will likely resume using their products immediately.</p>
<p>I haven’t made the switch for all of them, and I may never manage that, but for many, I have. I don’t eat at those restaurants anymore, I don’t use Google as a search engine anymore, I have moved most of my articles from Medium to this self-hosted blog, I have canceled Netflix, I have stopped using Airbnb, and I have canceled my Outsite membership.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: my search wasn’t exhaustive, and I did it a couple of weeks ago. It’s possible some of the companies have since retracted their statements or posted some new ones. To find out whether a company supports, say, BLM, you can do a DuckDuckGo search for “company name BLM” or “company name black lives matter.” Likewise, social media is a good candidate. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=(from%3A%40WordPress)%20black%20lives%20matter&src=typed_query" rel="ugc">Here’s</a> an example of how I checked WordPress’s Twitter history for support of BLM, which, at the time of writing this article, turned up clean. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=(from%3A%40podia)%20black%20lives%20matter&src=typed_query" rel="ugc">Here’s</a> an example of one of Gumroad’s competitors, Podia, which turned up dirty. You can also check a company’s Instagram account for pictures of black squares. Sometimes companies have whole arms of their business dedicated to “amplifying black voices.” Sometimes it’s just a tagline in their Twitter profile description. Sometimes it’s the CEO speaking on behalf of the company. If the company sent you an email directly, it’s easy. Etc.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-to-do-in-the-face-of-corporate-wokeism
What to Do in the Face of Corporate Wokeism
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="this-mask-replacement-will-change-your-life">This Mask Replacement Will Change Your Life</h1>
<p>I recently stumbled upon a brilliant invention that may well replace masks in our fight against COVID-19. Not only does it cover your face and protect your skin from the sun—it allows you to speak out in support of feminism <em>and</em> the oppression of muslim women, all at the same time!</p>
<p>I give you—the burka:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/niqab-117519_1920.jpg" alt="Woman wearing a burka"></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>Photo by Hans Braxmeier on <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/niqab-woman-muslim-girl-117519/" rel="ugc">Pixabay</a></em></small></p>
<p>No way anything’s getting through that!</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/this-mask-replacement-will-change-your-life
This Mask Replacement Will Change Your Life
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="scientific-american">Scientific American?</h1>
<p>The first time I wondered how scientific <em>Scientific American</em> could be was when I noticed their cover story titled <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-science-of-sex-and-gender/#" rel="ugc">“The New Science of Sex and Gender.”</a> The editors published this article in September of 2017. I didn’t read it then, but I made a mental note with the following prediction: there’s not going to be any science whatsoever in that article, and they’re going to be pandering to social-justice warriors.</p>
<p>After finishing the article just moments ago, I was right on both accounts. There is no science to be found in it—no problem to be solved, and no conjectured explanations to solve it.</p>
<p>And yet, the magazine managed to hit a new low with the editors' <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-endorses-joe-biden1/" rel="ugc">official endorsement</a> of a presidential candidate on October 1st, 2020. To be clear, it’s not so much about their choice. <em>It’s that they endorse a—any—presidential candidate at all.</em></p>
<p>It seems that until recently, they would have agreed with that. After all, the article’s subtitle reads:</p>
<blockquote><h3 id="weve-never-backed-a-presidential-candidate-in-our-175-year-history-until-now">We’ve never backed a presidential candidate in our 175-year history—until now.</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>And the first paragraph reads:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Scientific American</em> has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why did <em>Scientific American</em> go 175 years without backing a presidential candidate? Because it would be (or should be) unprofessional and unethical for a scientific magazine to display a political bias.</p>
<p>They portray our times as so bad that the magazine had to drop its long-loved practice of remaining impartial. As if their awareness of how unusual it is for a scientific magazine to endorse a candidate made it okay. As if they had no choice. But of course, they do have a choice. What they don’t have is a spine in the face of social-justice warriors spreading doomsday scenarios—the ability to resist the urge to jump on the political bandwagon.</p>
<blockquote><p>The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As has been pointed out by Popperians over and over, the same evidence can be used to support an infinite number of conflicting theories. So evidence by itself cannot <em>show</em> anything. It can only be used as a transient factor to adjudicate between theories. Science is not “evidence-based.” We don’t gather evidence and then build theories on top of them. Theories decide what evidence to look for, which to ignore, and which to use to adjudicate between theories. The above quote is ironic because by displaying bad epistemology, <em>Scientific American</em> itself rejects science.</p>
<p>After listing some of Trump’s alleged mistakes, the article continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>That is why we urge you to vote for Joe Biden, who is offering fact-based plans to protect our health, our economy and the environment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is the same epistemological mistake again—<em>fact-based</em> plans! They also haven’t argued why it should be any government’s responsibility to protect anyone’s health, the economy, or “the environment.” That’s simply assumed. How scientific is it to make unargued claims?</p>
<blockquote><p>These and other proposals he has put forth can set the country back on course for a safer, more prosperous and more equitable future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Calls for “equity” are dangerous. They are part of the latest fad of social-justice warriors. Saying the word “equitable” is no doubt a Chamberlainesque attempt to appease them. “Equity” is a codeword for equal outcomes, which can only be achieved through government-mandated regulation, theft, and violence. “Equity” is a deeply un-American idea because it goes against the pursuit of happiness and individual freedom. In a free society, people are different, and those differences are either celebrated as different achievements and skills or considered challenges that can be overcome through hard work. “Equity” can only be achieved through tyranny.</p>
<p>On the topic of Covid-19, the article goes on to claim that European and Asian countries were able to recover and reopen businesses sooner through testing and tracing of infected people and that the “rebound” that happened in June in America could have been prevented by adopting those other countries’ measures. If that is so, why is Europe going through another rebound right now, with cases rising in several countries, including Belgium, Italy, and Austria? The problem with lockdown policies, apart from their disgusting castration of people’s freedom, is that they are unscientific because they are impossible to prove ineffective. When lockdowns are implemented and lifted again, only for another rebound to occur, lockdown advocates can always claim that the previous lockdown was not strict or long <em>enough</em>. On the other hand, should cases fall during or after a lockdown, advocates can claim that it was thanks to it. Whatever happens, advocates can always rescue their theory in support of lockdowns, and nobody learns anything. When a theory has this property, it fails Popper’s test for being <em>scientific</em>, applying his criterion of demarcation. Isn’t that something that a magazine that calls itself scientific should take seriously?</p>
<p>Bad epistemology of “fact-based” and “evidence-based” “science” makes <em>Scientific American</em> unscientific. The purpose of science isn’t to gather evidence and build theories on top of them, let alone political theories or endorsements—it’s to <em>explain the world</em>: impartially, no matter where the consequences of your theories take you (cf. Deutsch, “The Beginning of Infinity,” chapter 1). And their support for the concept of equity makes them deeply un-American, too. By pandering to social-justice warriors and contributing to the moral panic they have been perpetrating, both words in <em>Scientific American</em>’s name have, sadly, become lies.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/scientific-american
Scientific American?
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="three-revolutionary-ideas">Three Revolutionary Ideas</h1>
<p><em>This is a guest post by <a href="https://twitter.com/ChipkinLogan" rel="ugc">Logan Chipkin</a>.</em></p>
<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>
<p>So many ideas that we take for granted had once been considered revolutionary. Historically, common responses to founders of such ideas have been charges of heresy, ostracism, or death. Famously, <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/apology.html" rel="ugc">Socrates was sentenced to die for “corrupting the youth”</a>, which is a euphemism for his genius Socratic method. Effectively, Socrates was killed for popularizing the very idea of discourse — a concept now so deeply ingrained in Western Civilization that it hums unexamined in the background, silently serving as the primordial soup from which all other new ideas emerge. And its earliest champion was killed over it.</p>
<p>Socrates is far from the only example. Nineteenth century physicist Ludwig Boltzmann received harsh criticism for using the conceptual atom in his theoretical work, and <a href="https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.2364235?journalCode=pto" rel="ugc">it is thought that this contributed to his suicide at the age of 62</a>. He has since been vindicated, and the atom is widely accepted by scientists and laypeople alike.</p>
<p>There is no dearth of these tales. But if history is riddled with awesome ideas that are not appreciated until long after their origins, could there be such ideas floating about right now, under our noses?</p>
<p>There are. In fact, I can think of three ideas that are so deep, so potentially useful, and so paradigm-shifting that widespread acceptance of even one of them would transform civilization for the better. I musingly call these ‘The Big Three’: critical rationalism, praxeology, and constructor theory.</p>
<h2 id="critical-rationalism">Critical rationalism</h2>
<p>Critical rationalism is our best theory of knowledge and how it can grow. The twentieth century philosopher Karl Popper spent his career developing and advocating for it across <a href="http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/popper-logic-scientific-discovery.pdf" rel="ugc">books</a>, <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/POPOKA" rel="ugc">essays</a>, and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/In_Search_of_a_Better_World.html?id=L33XSZE77OkC" rel="ugc">lectures</a>. The theory is concisely summarized in the title of a compendium of his essays: <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/All-Life-is-Problem-Solving-Sir-Karl-Popper/9780415249928" rel="ugc"><em>All Life is Problem Solving</em></a>. As people, we face problems — conflicts between ideas, to quote the physicist David Deutsch. This is true not only in science, but in our personal lives, in economics, and it’s even true for both genes and creatures of the biosphere. The theory is as deep as it is wide — critical rationalism applies anywhere in nature where knowledge can be found.</p>
<p>How do people solve problems? They <em>conjecture solutions</em>. For the scientist, this takes the form of creating explanations, or hypotheses, of some physical phenomenon. For the entrepreneur, this could be offering an original product to the market. For the gene, this could be a mutation that allows it to spread at the expense of its rivals (to be sure, <em>this</em> process is not conscious). Notice what these cases have in common — something genuinely novel has entered Reality. Before Einstein’s theory of general relativity, no one ever held the thought that “space-time tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to curve”, to quote the physicist John Wheeler. Before the invention of the wheel, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-salute-to-the-wheel-31805121/" rel="ugc">there were no such objects in the entire Universe</a>. And biology is well-known to create chemicals that do not exist anywhere else — proteins, for example, can’t be found in the dark oceans of the cosmos, and yet they abound on Earth, in the presence of life.</p>
<p>But if we are only ever guessing solutions to problems, how can we be sure of ourselves? <em>We can’t</em>. Here was another stroke of genius by Popper. The quest for foundations, for certainty, was itself a mistake. In science, for example, even our most basic presumptions are forever tentative, forever liable to revision and improvement. We can never know how a new theory will change our worldview, and so no assumption is perfectly secure.</p>
<p>Typically, more than one solution is conjectured to solve a given problem. By the 1600s, for example, there were two rival explanations for the motion of falling objects: that of the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, and that of the contemporary thinker, Galileo Galilei. Aristotle held that objects fell at a speed proportional to their weight, while Galileo conjectured that all objects fall at a uniform rate, independent of their weight. What to do in such a problem-situation in which more than one solution is offered? Popper explained that we <em>criticize</em> all candidate solutions. This step is itself a creative process, as our methods of criticism and criteria for what constitutes a good explanation are themselves ever-evolving and improving.</p>
<p>In science, the most salient form of criticism is the so-called crucial experiment. When two or more theories attempt to explain the same phenomenon, we conduct an experiment whose outcome contradicts the predictions made by all but one of the rival theories. In the case of Aristotle’s and Galileo’s explanations of falling objects, the test was straightforward — drop objects of different weights from some height and record their time to impact. Famously, if only apocryphally, Galileo did just that by dropping balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Veracity of this tale aside, only Galileo’s theory was in fact shown to be consistent with experimental outcomes. Aristotle’s explanation of motion was banished from the scientific community and relegated to the history books.</p>
<p>And so critical rationalism holds that we conjecture as many solutions as we want, criticize all of them, and retain those that survive. Even after some scientific explanation survives scrutiny, <em>its</em> shortcomings are eventually exposed, and we must conjecture new solutions yet again. Galileo’s theory was soon improved and brought into a much deeper explanatory framework by the seventeenth century physicist, Isaac Newton. And <em>Newton’s</em> theory was further superseded in the early twentieth century by both quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity. The scientific process is open-ended, as problems are latent in all of our theories, and we are forever trying to solve problems in our worldview, to resolve errors in our theories.</p>
<p>In general, the scientific method proceeds as follows: whatever our current understanding of the world is, it invariably contains gaps and misconceptions, and there are phenomena for which it cannot account. We then conjecture a <em>new</em> theory that resolves at least one such flaw in our worldview. We <em>criticize</em> that theory with all of the tools at our disposal, only one of which is experimentation. For example, we demand that the new theory is internally consistent, not arbitrary, and so on. A theory that fails those <em>criticisms</em> doesn’t need to be corroborated by experimental evidence. Only when we have multiple candidate theories to explain the same phenomenon do we conduct the crucial experiment. Once we have criticized all available theories, we retain whichever have survived. But we then find ourselves in a new, deeper problem-situation, for even with our updated worldview, there remain gaps in our understanding of Reality — some that would never have even been previously conceivable. The entire scientific scheme in the critical rationalist framework is shown in Figure 1.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/scientific-scheme.jpg" alt="The entire scientific scheme in the critical rationalist framework"></p>
<p><em>Figure 1. Diagrammatic representation of Popper’s critical rationalism. Discover a problem/unexplained phenomenon, propose several potential theories/solutions (TS1, TS2, etc.), criticize all potential theories/solutions until one remains, eliminate errors/explain phenomenon by applying the surviving theory/solution, discover new problems (P21, P22, etc.), repeat.</em></p>
<p>Many of the so-called crises in science today are a result of bad philosophy — that is, of ignoring critical rationalism. In contrast to much of what is done in research, we cannot simply gather more data and hope to better understand Reality. Rather, we must <em>first</em> conjecture an explanation — or several rival explanations — and <em>then</em> criticize all such candidate theories. Data serves as a mode of criticism — theories make different predictions about how the world ought to behave, and those theories whose predictions are inconsistent with data are said to be falsified, while those theories whose predictions are consistent with data are said to be corroborated. Moreover, it is logically impossible to ‘go from data to theories’, since interpreting a set of data is itself a theoretical act. So no amount of data-gathering can help us to solve problems absent some good explanation of what we expect to observe. Rival philosophies, such as empiricism — which emphasizes only what we can observe — and inductivism — which claims that we proceed from observations to theories — are false. So much effort is wasted by researchers and thinkers who are stuck in these mistaken frameworks.</p>
<p>So acceptance of critical rationalism would save many scientific fields that have stagnated in the last few decades, because researchers would reorient away from the overemphasized activity of <em>gathering data</em> towards the overlooked but fundamental activity of <em>explaining reality</em>.</p>
<p>Because critical rationalism shifts the emphasis from <em>data</em> to <em>problems</em> and <em>conjectured solutions</em>, the philosophy reaches far beyond science and into other important areas, such as how to live. A state of unhappiness is a <em>problem-situation</em>, and conjecturing explanations of why one is in such a state can inform a person as to what action to take. If the action still fails to resolve the problem, the person can conjecture yet another solution, and so on, in a trial-and-error fashion. A person continuously takes action in striving to go from problem-situation to better problem-situation. In fact, all of life takes this form, even if only implicitly.</p>
<h2 id="praxeology">Praxeology</h2>
<p>Economics was always destined to be treated differently than the hard sciences. Unlike physics and chemistry, in which the objects of study are predictable systems like stars, planets, and metals, economics is a science of people — and people are themselves creative, and hence unpredictable even in principle. This is cause for concern only for those who think that the goal of science is <em>prediction</em>. But as we’ve seen, critical rationalism implies that the goal of science is rather to <em>solve problems in our worldview</em>, to <em>explain Reality</em>. Prediction, then, is merely a way of testing, of criticizing theories. So the fact that people are inherently unpredictable is no problem for the critical rationalist.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the astonishing effectiveness with which physicists had been able to predict the motion of objects ranging in size and speed from bullets to planets made an impression on thinkers in other fields. And critical rationalism was only discovered in the last century, so scientists and philosophers alike were vulnerable to all sorts of misconceptions that Popper’s ideas would eventually resolve. In the meantime, predictions, mathematics, and sensory experience were thought to be fundamental to all sciences.</p>
<p>But, following Popper, our goal is to explain Reality with whatever tools we have at our disposal. <a href="https://mises.org/library/economic-science-and-austrian-method" rel="ugc">The methods used by so-called Austrian economists are <em>a priori</em> and <em>deductive</em></a> — they begin with an axiom so self-evidently true that to deny it would entail a self-contradiction. They then proceed to deduce logical implications of that axiom. In this way, no experiment could contradict their conclusions, because they were founded and deduced by logic alone.*</p>
<p>The Austrian school of economics was founded by the Viennese Carl Menger with the publication of his 1871 book, <a href="https://mises.org/library/principles-economics" rel="ugc"><em>Principles of Economics</em></a>. Menger and a few others ushered in the ‘marginal revolution’ in economic thought, so-called because they recognized that goods are consumed ‘at the margins’, an idea that solved the diamond-water paradox. Why is water typically cheaper than diamonds, if the former is more fundamental to human survival? The first generation of Austrian economists realized that ‘water as such’ and ‘diamonds as such’ are never consumed by the economic actor. Rather, a person consumes <em>either</em> a unit of water <em>or</em> a unit of diamonds <em>at the margins</em> — he purchases whatever he values the most at a particular moment in time, after all of his lower values have already been satisfied. So, even though water is more biologically necessary than are diamonds, if John has already satisfied his desire to hydrate, then the <em>next</em> purchase he may prefer is a unit of diamond, rather than <em>another</em> unit of water. People make choices <em>at the margins of their present scale of values</em>. Value, then, is not intrinsic in any scarce resource, but rather is in the eye of the economic beholder. This subjectivist approach to economics contradicted both Adam Smith’s classical school and the nascent Marxist view.</p>
<p>But how could anyone be sure that Austrian economics is correct, and those rival theories false? In physics, we could conduct a crucial experiment, as had been done successfully many times by that point in history. Enter Ludwig von Mises, arguably the greatest economist of all-time. In his 1949 magnum opus, <a href="https://mises.org/library/human-action-0" rel="ugc"><em>Human Action</em></a>, Mises elegantly derived — and <em>explained</em> — the entire edifice of Austrian economics via <em>praxeology</em>, the science of human action.</p>
<p>Mises’ praxeology begins with the irrefutable axiom that man acts purposefully (I welcome the reader to reject the axiom and notice what happens). It is astounding how many conclusions follow. For example, in acting purposefully, it is immediately implied that John has chosen to pursue end A rather than end B. Had end A been unavailable, John would have indeed pursued end B. In this way, the action axiom implies the scale of values mentioned above. Furthermore, pursuing end A requires the use of some <em>means</em>, which, because they are being directed towards end A, they <em>cannot</em> be directed towards other ends. In other words, man acts in a world of scarce means. Because <em>time</em> is a scarce resource, then, all else being equal, man prefers to satisfy his ends sooner rather than later. In this way, the concept of <em>time preference</em> is derived.</p>
<p>Mises goes on to apply this way of thinking to ever more complex scenarios, starting with one man alone on an island to a society with diverse individuals desiring a multitude of ends. Through this deductive approach, he shows how prices emerge, the role of profits and losses in an economy, and, crucially, the damaging effects of coercive intervention into an economy of free actors.</p>
<p>I am only scratching the surface of what Mises accomplished. From first principles, he not only built an entire edifice of economic thought, but he also provided the explanation for <em>why</em> this school, the Austrian school, is the only correct one. After Mises, the Austrian school and its praxeological methods were here to stay, even though they remain the object of dismissal or mockery by economists from other schools of thought who demand that economics be empirical.</p>
<p>Murray Rothbard took the baton from Mises and <a href="https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market" rel="ugc">continued developing Austrian economics</a>. He also applied it forcefully to politics, creating the legal philosophy of anarcho-capitalism. Libertarianism had been defended in various forms in the past, but no one had unified praxeology, morality, and the concept of private property so thoroughly. In doing so, Rothbard spawned his greatest brainchild — a consistent and elegant defense of a society without government and any other violations of the so-called nonaggression principle.</p>
<p>What Mises and Rothbard have demonstrated is that understanding is not limited to experimentally testable explanations. The dogma that scientific theories must be mathematical, and must make predictions about how objects will behave, is false. And with respect to politics, Austrian economics suggests that no government intervention may possibly improve the overall standard of living of mankind, to put it mildly. The ideas of these great men have radical implications that can be summarized in nine words:</p>
<p><em>You cannot coerce your way to a better world.</em></p>
<h2 id="constructor-theory">Constructor theory</h2>
<p>The last of the Big Three is the youngest but perhaps the most fundamental. Constructor theory is officially less than a decade old, if the clock starts with the publication of its <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.7439" rel="ugc">foundational paper in 2013</a> by physicist David Deutsch.</p>
<p>As with most of our deepest theories in physics and elsewhere, constructor theory’s beauty is in its simplicity. That’s not to say that the details wouldn’t take effort to understand, but it’s not some impenetrable labyrinth of mathematics and jargon. You don’t have to be an expert in physics or epistemology or anything else to understand the ideas behind and within constructor theory.</p>
<p>In what Deutsch calls the prevailing conception of physics, theories take the form of ‘initial conditions plus laws of motion’. For example, Newton’s physics, called classical mechanics, allows you to predict an object's <em>future</em> position and momentum (mass times velocity) as long as you know all of the forces acting on it, as well as its <em>current</em> position and momentum. As we’ve seen, the success of Newtonian physics and other physical theories to <em>predict</em> a system’s behavior over time was so impressive that predictive ability became a standard by which future theories would be judged.</p>
<p>In the 1800s, the theory of electromagnetism, while explaining a different class of phenomena than did Newton’s theory, also took the form of ‘initial conditions plus laws of motion’. In this case, the motion of charged particles, such as electrons, could be predicted if one knew the forces acting on them, and again, their initial state.</p>
<p>Even with the advent of general relativity and quantum mechanics in the 20th century, this paradigm reigned supreme. Although the state of a system was no longer necessarily expressed in terms of its position and momentum, the theories were still cast in terms of trajectories over time. Even in the notoriously weird quantum mechanics, something called a wavefunction evolved predictably over time, given particular laws of motion for that wavefunction.</p>
<p>So theories were thought to be all about what <em>actually happens</em> in the world. To reiterate, given some state of the world at any point in time, a successful theory, it was thought, should predict (or retrodict) the state of the world at some other time. In this prevailing conception, a theory provides equations of motion that predict what <em>will</em> happen to some system, given some current state, or initial conditions, of this system. Whether this system is a ball rolling down a hill, or the entire universe itself, or a quantum wave function, the prevailing conception is all about predicting what <em>will</em> happen to the system in question.</p>
<p>But some of our deepest explanations simply don’t conform to this prevailing conception. Consider the other two of The Big Three — critical rationalism and praxeology. In neither case do we predict the future according to some equation couple…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/three-revolutionary-ideas" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/three-revolutionary-ideas</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/three-revolutionary-ideas
Three Revolutionary Ideas
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-brain-works-in-mysterious-ways">“The Brain Works in Mysterious Ways”</h1>
<p>A friend sent me this site: <a href="https://mymind.com/manifesto" rel="ugc">mymind.com</a>. It appears to be a smart note-taking tool, pre-launch.</p>
<p>I won’t comment on their product as I haven’t tried it. But let’s evaluate what they wrote about the brain <a href="https://mymind.com/manifesto" rel="ugc">here</a> from a Popperian point of view.</p>
<p>I realize this is a marketing page and they’re trying to entice prospective users. It’s not meant as a philosophical position. But I think it’s worth analyzing it as one because, whether they realize it or not, they’re making <em>epistemological</em> claims.</p>
<blockquote><p>The brain works in mysterious ways. So mysterious, we know very little about it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So far so good. Note, however, that for a company that calls itself “my <em>mind</em>,” focusing on the brain is peculiar—the two are not at all the same and explaining one does not explain the other.</p>
<blockquote><p>What we do know is that it’s like a sponge. Everything we experience is soaked up and stored in tiny cells.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Woah. Empiricism and reductionism in two sentences! “Everything we experience” is not “soaked up.” We are not passive recipients of knowledge. We are its <em>active creators</em>. The real world really exists, but our experience of it is a virtual-reality rendering that we ourselves create through conjectures and refutations (see <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359" rel="ugc">David Deutsch’s “The Beginning of Infinity” chapter 10</a>).</p>
<blockquote><p>To think means to access these cells and make connections between bits of information.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Maybe thinking accesses cells on the hardware level, but that’s not the point. The brain is a computer, so that’s like saying “running a program on a computer accesses data stored in memory.” Yes, but we already knew that, didn’t we? So that doesn’t tell us anything about the brain or the mind.</p>
<p>In this vein, I vaguely remember pop neuroscience memes saying something along the lines of “memories that are associated with each other are stored in nerves that physically connect.” That’s completely false—another reductionist mistake. Nerve cells may connect in the brain to get the basic functionality of the brain working on a low level. But ideas live on a different level of emergence—they can refer to each other without the neurons on which they’re stored being physically connected.</p>
<blockquote><p>This happens in an instant, far beyond our conscious understanding.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is true that there is much we don’t know about how thinking works. Currently, that is—one day we’ll understand it.</p>
<blockquote><p>Our brain is the most advanced machine in existence, but it can be equally unpredictable. Sometimes we can call to mind a specific memory from when we were children. Other times we can’t, for the life of us, remember what outfit we wore yesterday.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whether something is easy or hard to remember is not a property of hardware. It’s a property of long-lived vs short-lived <em>ideas</em>.</p>
<blockquote><p>But what if we could upgrade our brain? What if we could collect the information around us – what we see, what we read, what we hear, what inspires us – and access it at any time?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This point is interesting as it seems to aspire to something like perfect memory. If my conjecture that <a href="/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">ideas in a mind replicate</a> is correct, then mutations are inevitable. That does <em>not</em> mean that what they’re going for couldn’t be built—it just means that the information would need to be stored independently of the mind. Similar to how we store information in books and on the internet. The mind cannot store information reliably, but certain media can.</p>
<p>I’d love to see a product page that makes Popperian references to the mind. Until then, I’m afraid it’s like David Deutsch says: <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf/status/1075833407547023360" rel="ugc">“[A]s if Popper had never lived.”</a> :(</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-brain-works-in-mysterious-ways
“The Brain Works in Mysterious Ways”
2022-09-15T00:37:27Z
2022-09-15T00:37:27Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-tragedy-of-children-becoming-teachers">The Tragedy of Children Becoming Teachers</h1>
<p>It is one thing when a young mind, after some twelve years of forced indoctrination, voluntarily decides to continue the slavery in college and beyond. But it is quite another to then inflict the horror on the next generation.</p>
<p>Here’s a conversation I had recently with a young school teacher. Let’s call her Beth.</p>
<p><strong>Beth:</strong> I was a demon child in Kindergarten. Biting, hitting, spitting, calling kids buttholes…<br>
<strong>Dennis:</strong> And now you’re a teacher. The system defeated you :(<br>
<strong>B:</strong> Haha now I get a taste of my own medicine!<br>
<strong>D:</strong> I’m curious, why did you become a teacher?<br>
<strong>B:</strong> I’ve always loved working with kids and just making that connection! But also I think I didn’t have a great experience with some teachers (probably cause I was a terror 😂) and just thought that I could try and provide a better relationship with kids who struggle?? Like I never really liked school when I was younger haha<br>
<strong>D:</strong> What do kids mostly struggle with in school?<br>
<strong>B:</strong> Well last years struggle was mostly around behaviors. This year..looks quite different with everything being online haha.<br>
I would say most of them are on grade level. Usually two or three are struggling academically<br>
<strong>D:</strong> What kinds of behaviors do you mean?<br>
<strong>B:</strong> Hmm one last year was more extreme, he would get physical when he got angry. But just maybe talking in class, not following direction, bullying other kids..things like that<br>
<strong>D:</strong> Hmmm. Have you considered what the root cause of those behaviors might be?<br>
<strong>B:</strong> Hmm..which one?<br>
The one who would get physical was actually one of my favorite students. He was so sweet and amazing in the classroom. But was very into football and would get too competitive. I think that he puts a lot of pressure on himself be the best and if he doesn’t win he doesn’t know how to take it..it’s ok to feel angry but just needs to learn how to react to those feelings more appropriately..but I also think some things were going on at home with the parents.<br>
<strong>D:</strong> All of them, actually.<br>
<strong>B:</strong> Being completely honest? I think not all but a lot of it sometimes comes from what they get away with at home<br>
<strong>D:</strong> I see. What do you think they “get away with” at home?<br>
<strong>B:</strong> Haha gosh you’re making me think hard right now! I’m thinking more than getting away with stuff they get what they want. Sometimes if there’s some issue at school parents don’t really believe us lol. Idk what do you think it could be?<br>
<strong>D:</strong> Could it be that those kids don’t want to be in school?<br>
<strong>B:</strong> Hmm possible. Never asked that one before.<br>
<strong>D:</strong> And could it be that you were a “demon child” in school because you also didn’t want to be there?</p>
<p>Never heard back from her.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-tragedy-of-children-becoming-teachers
The Tragedy of Children Becoming Teachers
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-descent-into-mediocrity-continues">The Descent into Mediocrity Continues</h1>
<p><img src="/assets/IMG_8757.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Seen at the Target in Sparks, NV.</p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-descent-into-mediocrity-continues
The Descent into Mediocrity Continues
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="anyone-can-become-a-developer-here-s-how-i-did-it">Anyone Can Become a Developer — Here’s How I Did It</h1>
<p><img src="/assets/1_dhUaNFsYJMVV2d9m6wd2Qw.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@goshua13?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Joshua Aragon</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/code?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Unsplash</a></em></small></p>
<p>I happened upon coding through nothing more than a happy accident. It was in late 2010 that I wrote my very first line of code during an internship. That internship was at a bank, in a field not at all related to software engineering. At the time, I didn’t even know I would be interested in coding. I was interested in finance. But my manager showed me some tricks to automate workflows in Excel and Outlook using what’s called a <em>macro</em>. Macros are small programs you write an embed in your spreadsheet or email client to make your life a little easier. I believe the very first macro I wrote must have been roughly ten lines of code. It merely added a button to my manager’s Outlook interface to move the selected emails to a predetermined folder. In the words of Jamie Foxx: <a href="https://youtu.be/XRFW5MUwehc?t=86" rel="ugc">“It was easy, it was simple, it was cool.”</a></p>
<p>Writing the macro and seeing my manager use it were both magical for me. I had built something with my hands, and it helped someone. I could instruct a computer to do stuff for me! I realized that if I learned how to write more such code, there would be no limit to how much I could achieve. It felt like a superpower. A few weeks later, while my manager was on vacation, I found myself browsing the company’s books24x7 account. (I’m pleased to discover that their <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20200801071651/https://library.books24x7.com/login.asp?ic=0" rel="ugc">login page</a> hasn’t changed in all these years!) It was there that I stumbled upon the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/HTML-Dummies-Ed-Tittel/dp/076450214X" rel="ugc"><em>HTML For Dummies</em></a>. This book was my first real step into the world of programming. Something I especially liked about learning HTML was that I could see visible results on my screen. It was learning by doing, and there was <em>immediate</em> feedback to see the changes I was making. It allowed for <em>rapid error correction</em> and thereby made learning faster and easier.</p>
<p>I was hooked. There I was, making real progress, quickly, by myself, on my own time. That progress did not depend on what any supervisor let me do. It was completely self-determined. First, I learned about the different HTML elements, how to put them together in a hierarchy, how to generate a webpage’s layout, and how to put text on a screen. Next, I wanted to make things prettier, so I learned about a language called CSS. Then I wanted things to happen programmatically on the page, so I learned about JavaScript. Then I wanted to know how to build servers, so I learned PHP. I took baby steps, but I took them rapidly. My process was guided by the problems I encountered, and as I solved them, my knowledge grew. Everything I needed was right there in front of me. It all happened organically, and I was in flow. It was easy, it was simple, it was cool.</p>
<p>After my internship was over, though I was still interested in finance, I also wanted to keep learning how to code. I thought college could help me with both, so I enrolled in a finance and computer science degree. I was wrong. College was probably among the least creative times in my life. Instead of working on the problems I was interested in, I was told which problems to work on. One cannot learn in such an environment. I kept teaching myself how to code on the side. A friend of mine was starting an ebook-publishing company and needed an online e-reader page. He and his co-founder hired me to build it for some $500. I think that was in early 2012. It was my very first gig as a programmer, and I cannot describe how empowering it was having made money from a skill I had taught myself.</p>
<p>After a few months, I googled “freelancing online” on a whim and found a site called elance.com (now <a href="http://upwork.com/" rel="ugc">upwork.com</a>). I signed up and quickly found my first clients. We built rapport, and some of them became repeat clients. Within a few months, I made enough to pay the bills. A couple of months after that, I was able to put money aside into a savings account. There was no end in sight. If college was meant to teach me the skills I needed to make money, and I had already learned those skills, what did I need college for? Why should I wait for another three years before I could make money doing what I already loved doing? And why on Earth would I wait for someone else to approve of my skills by handing me a certificate? I already knew I could do the job.</p>
<p>Almost everyone at the time discouraged me from dropping out, but I did so anyway. I haven’t looked back. I lasted two semesters, and I should have dropped out after the first one.</p>
<p>One of the secrets to my financial success was that I lived well below what I could afford. You don’t always have a steady income as a freelancer, so you need to be prepared for less busy times. I shared an apartment with two roommates and lived in a tiny room for roughly $300 a month. Adding groceries to that made for maybe $700 of expenses each month. I charged $50 an hour at the time, so I knew I could pay my entire month’s bills as long as I worked a long day or two. That made my business easy to sustain. Except for some slow weeks, I made money almost every day — and on the few days I didn’t, I still spent all day on the computer, learning new things and improving my skills. I discovered an exciting treasure chest of knowledge called StackOverflow. And what was this thing called GitHub? Ruby on Rails? The world of opportunities was infinitely big. I was my boss, and I was on my schedule. I loved working long nights, listening to the Inception soundtrack, fueled by midnight Nutella toast.</p>
<p>I remember trembling with excitement when I first deployed a website I had built using a tool called Heroku. I could create anything I wanted and put it online for free and all the world to see instantaneously! It was easy, it was simple, it was cool.</p>
<p>Within a few months, I was on the Elance homepage, celebrated as one of their most successful freelancers. I attribute part of my success to the following: <em>I never doubted myself</em>. Whenever a prospective client explained what he needed and asked me, “can you build this?”, even when I didn’t quite know yet <em>how</em> to build it, I always emphatically replied, “yes!”. Once I committed, I had to figure out how to do it — and I always figured it out.</p>
<p>Through networking in college — probably the only good thing that came out of college for me — I made some friends who wanted to start a company. I joined them as CTO and co-founder and built the company’s entire tech product and infrastructure from scratch. I had only been writing code for a year and a half at that time — what employer would let you do that? After a couple of years, I left the company and started freelancing again. Fast forward another year or two, a hiring manager from Apple reached out to me on LinkedIn. Two years into the job, in 2017, I was promoted to independent contributor level 4 out of 5. Most people retire at that level.</p>
<p>And the rest is history. I really do believe anyone can be a developer. Contrary to stereotypes, coding doesn’t require genius. It just requires some fascination and tenacity. I’m by no means a genius, I just love the craft.</p>
<p>To recap, if you want to make it as a developer, I suggest the following:</p>
<ul>
<li> Initially, keep your monthly expenses as low as possible without compromising your quality of life. Ideally, you can pay your monthly bills after a day or two of work. This point is especially crucial if you start as a freelancer.</li>
<li> Learn, learn, learn. Always keep a beginner mindset. There are infinitely many things to learn in this rapidly evolving industry, and you will always be a beginner.</li>
<li> Do not let people dissuade you from pursuing your goals. They will try to convince you to take “the safe route.” But the safe route isn’t safe if it requires giving up on your passions and dreams. Don’t fall for that.</li>
<li> Believe in your ability to figure things out. Say yes to jobs and problems you haven’t solved before.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you have questions about the path to software engineering, if you don’t know where to start, if you want to take the plunge but are nervous about it, or if you just want to chat — don’t hesitate to <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">reach out on Twitter</a> or send me an email (<a href="mailto:dennis.hackethal@gmail.com" rel="ugc">dennis.hackethal@gmail.com</a>)!</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/anyone-can-become-a-developer-here-s-how-i-did
Anyone Can Become a Developer — Here’s How I Did It
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind">The Neo-Darwinian Theory of the Mind</h1>
<p><em>This article was first published with <a href="https://medium.com/conjecture-magazine/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind-d84c0bcc6485?source=friends_link&sk=833a1ac51009d680ed948428dbabd460" rel="ugc">Conjecture Magazine</a>.</em></p>
<p>The age-old question of how the mind works is a fascinating one. Yet researchers have been ignoring it strategically in the hopes of achieving AGI (artificial general intelligence) through an ever larger repertoire of tricks (Deutsch 2012). But there is no way around <em>explaining</em> intelligence if we want to program it.</p>
<p>Here, I take the challenge head-on with what I call <em>the neo-Darwinian theory of the mind</em>. It simply states that minds create new knowledge through the neo-Darwinian evolution of self-replicating ideas. It builds on philosopher Karl Popper’s guess that knowledge evolves through alternating conjecture and criticism (1983), but considers that a rather high-level explanation of a richer, underlying phenomenon. It solves several open problems in Popperian epistemology in addition to some others, such as how people evolved, how memory works, what it means to believe one thing rather than another, and why we are conscious of some phenomena and not others. Last but not least, it upholds and strengthens the Popperian notion that what’s central to the mind — the thing intelligence researchers have been bending over backward to ignore for the past 70 years — is <em>knowledge creation</em>.</p>
<p>Neo-Darwinism in general starts with a remarkably simple core concept — <em>replication</em> — yet it is rich in implications.</p>
<p>The first implication is that if you start with a single self-replicating <em>something</em>—anything, it need not be biological—pretty soon, you will have a population of them. I will call that something an <em>instance</em> of a <em>replicator.</em> A single instance creates another, each of which repeats this process, and so on. One turns into two, then four, eight, etc.</p>
<p>The second implication is that, because the world is messy and mistakes are inevitable, an instance of even the best replicator will eventually make a mistake during replication. That mistake changes the information the replica contains compared to the original. This change — a <em>mutation</em> — is inherited by all of its offspring (if it manages to replicate further). Mutations introduce <em>variations</em>. A mutated instance is called a <em>variant</em>. Usually, a mutation impedes any replicator’s ability to spread. Why? Because the replicator is already <em>adapted</em> to spreading, meaning any slight change would lessen its ability to do so (compare Paley’s remarks on adaptation, 1813). Also, keep in mind that mutations are accidental. A good replicator prevents them from happening.</p>
<p>Sometimes, however, a mistake can be <em>beneficial</em>. Beneficial for what? For the replicator’s ability to spread. That is its primary concern. Remember this crucial point, as many people tend to think of biological evolution in particular as optimizing “the good of the individual organism” or even “the good of the species.” Neither is the case (compare Dawkins 2016 and Deutsch 2012). Evolution does not optimize anything — it merely favors good replicators. That’s it. In biological evolution, that replicator is the gene, not an organism, nor any group of organisms (Dawkins 2016).</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_GhUGNl03VyWEAuNWNlKptw.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>The primary reason this peacock has a colorful tail is that its genes were able to spread through the gene pool because they happened to code for colorful tails. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@sydneylens?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Paul Carmona</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Unsplash</a></em></small></p>
<p>The third implication is that better replicators will spread through the population. This fact may sound tautologically true, and neo-Darwinism has repeatedly gotten a bad rap for it. It doesn’t matter. This fact — that better replicators will spread through the population — is the most critical thing you can realize not just about biological evolution, but also about meme evolution and the evolution of ideas in a mind. I will get to those other types of evolution a bit later. For now, just know that it’s that simple: better replicators will spread through the population at the expense of their rivals. Worse replicators will fall behind. We call these differences in the rate of replication <em>selection</em> (Dawkins 2016). Selection can result from competition, predation, mutations, changes in the environment, etc.</p>
<p>The fourth implication is that because of this repeating interplay of variation and selection, complex adaptations can emerge, and replicators can gain abilities beyond mere replication. Each adaptation will always be in the service of the primary purpose: replication (otherwise, it would not have been selected). Still, sometimes adaptations are complex enough to have sub-purposes that distract from this primary purpose. (Remember this below when I discuss the question of why we believe some things and not others.)</p>
<p>An age-old example of a curious adaptation that doesn’t serve any apparent purpose is the peacock’s tail. Why do peacocks have such beautiful and conspicuous tails? We could conjecture that it’s because their feathers are pigmented (WebExhibits n.d.), or because they “impress the opposite sex” (Peacock 2014 — yes, if you can believe it, the author’s name is Peacock <em>and</em> she wrote about peacocks), or whatever. These reasons are true, but they do not get at the heart of the matter. The primary reason is the same not just for peacocks’ tails, but also for why baboons have such prominent butts, why birds can fly, why bats hang upside down, and any other arbitrary trait: <em>it happened to help the organism’s genes spread through the population at the expense of their rivals.</em> I say “happened” because adaptations are not planned. Peacock genes that happened to code for slightly more colorful tails spread better through the population (i.e., gene pool) than those that didn’t. Baboon genes that happened to code for slightly more prominent butts spread better through the population than those that didn’t. Etc. Generally speaking: the reason any arbitrary trait <em>x</em> exists in some organism <em>y</em> is that genes that happened to code for slightly more of <em>x</em> in <em>y</em> spread better through the population than those that didn’t.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1__eUN3KgEbCh8n9Lq_YTE2g.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>Most variants don’t have what it takes to spread through the pool of replicators. But sometimes, a mutation causes a variant to spread — like this genetic mutation resulting in white peacocks. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@giobartlett?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Gio Bartlett</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Unsplash</a></em></small></p>
<p>What does all of this have to do with the mind? Popper discovered that human knowledge evolves (1983). In other words, evolution as a phenomenon is not limited to the biosphere; it also explains how people create new knowledge. (Dawkins later added that evolution also explains how ideas change and spread <em>between</em> people (2016). He calls such ideas <em>memes</em>.) Popper offered a strict analogy between genetic mutations and conjectures on one hand and natural selection and criticism on the other. His explanation was a huge epistemological breakthrough. That’s why<a href="https://soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a-window-on-intelligence-with-dennis-hackethal" rel="ugc"> I have called</a> (2020b) Popper the foremost AGI researcher of his time, even though he wouldn’t have called himself that.</p>
<p>Popper’s epistemology is <em>problem-driven</em>. He argued that we create knowledge by conjecturing solutions to problems, then criticizing them, and finally adopting them tentatively if we fail to criticize them. He considered the quest for certainty and the notion that we should try to confirm our theories justificationist mistakes.</p>
<p>I think he was correct about all of these things. Nonetheless, there are open problems with Popperian epistemology.</p>
<p>First, where do conjectures come from? They have the appearance of design (compare Paley 1813 and Hackethal 2020a), and so we need to explain their emergence as the result of evolution. Therefore, saying that human knowledge evolves using conjecture and criticism just kicks the can down the road, for, conjectures are themselves a product of the evolution that happens in a mind. (The same is true for criticism, as it is conjectural as well and also has the appearance of design.)</p>
<p>Second, Popper’s evolutionary model lacks the neo-Darwinian notion of a replicator. There may be a historical reason for this: he started developing his theories before the modern synthesis of neo-Darwinism was completed and before the discovery of DNA. That discovery was the first of a physical instance of a replicator (although it was known from theory beforehand). It wasn’t until the modern synthesis that the importance of replication was widely recognized. I have not read <em>all</em> of Popper’s books, but as far as I am aware, he did not introduce replication into his theory of human knowledge. (There has been an ongoing, friendly point of contention between the intelligence researcher Ella Hoeppner and me about the role of replication in any theory of evolution. Citing Donald Campbell’s evolutionary epistemology, she argues that replication <em>can</em> drive evolution, but is not <em>necessary</em>. All that’s needed, she argues, is variation and selective retention. I am agnostic on the question of <em>necessity</em> and think that <em>if</em> we introduce replication in a mind, we can explain a great many things that we couldn’t (at least not as well and as easily) without it. Hoeppner and I discussed this topic in more detail <a href="https://soundcloud.com/dchacke/15-theories-of-agi" rel="ugc">on my podcast</a> (Hoeppner 2020).)</p>
<p>Third, some other problems aren’t directly related to Popperian epistemology but are nonetheless fascinating and in dire need of solving. Some of them relate to memory. For example: why do we remember some things but not others? Why do some people remember some things better than others? Why do some memories last longer than others? Why are they so notoriously unreliable? Further open problems relate to the question of beliefs: why do some people believe some things over others? Why is it easier to convince one person of idea <em>x</em> than it is another? (Popperian readers may recognize that the issue of “beliefs,” and especially “reasons for belief,” is foreign to Popperian epistemology — for good reasons, as they pave the way to justificationism. I do not intend to reinstate the traditionally important but undeserved and justificationist role of beliefs — instead, I want to understand why some people hold some ideas dearer than others. That’s all I mean by “belief.”)</p>
<p>To solve these problems, I propose the following conjecture: the mind contains an arena of <em>self-replicating ideas</em>. This conjecture is at the heart of my theory.</p>
<p>When we hear “replicating ideas,” we may immediately think of memes (Dawkins 2016), but they are not what I mean. Memes are ideas that spread <em>between</em> people. I am concerned here only with the dynamics <em>within</em> a single mind. The neo-Darwinian theory of the mind is not about meme evolution (though, like any theory of creativity, it does lay the groundwork for explaining how complex memes can spread between people at all: it takes creative minds to do that).</p>
<p>We start with the same, simple concept at the core of neo-Darwinism: replication. Then we apply its implications to the mind.</p>
<p>First, one self-replicating idea will generate a pool of ideas in a mind: an “idea pool.” (Since a single such idea is sufficient to do so, of all the inborn ideas we have, perhaps only one of them self-replicates.)</p>
<p>Second, because the mind is messy and mistakes are inevitable, sooner or later, an idea will make a mistake during replication: a mutation occurs. This mutation results in a variant idea. Usually, the variant will have a harder time spreading than the original. But now and then, the variant is better at spreading.</p>
<p>Third, ideas that are better at spreading will spread through the mind’s idea pool. There will be selection because some are better at spreading than others.</p>
<p>Fourth, because of the repeating interplay of variation and selection, complex adaptations can emerge, and ideas can gain abilities beyond mere replication. Such adaptations do not necessarily benefit the mind: evolution, as always, merely favors better replicators.</p>
<p>I believe it’s truly as simple as that. We can now solve the problems mentioned above:</p>
<p><em>Where do conjectures come from?</em> They are newly-evolved variants of ideas.</p>
<p><em>Why do we remember some things but not others?</em> Because some ideas are better replicators. Memories are not some distinct type of idea. They are simply self-replicating ideas of high longevity and relatively high copying fidelity. In other words, they manage to stick around for longer than most other ideas in the mind, and they manage to stay more or less the same for longer periods. Ideas that have these characteristics are the ones we call “memories.”</p>
<p><em>Why do some people remember some things better than others?</em> Let’s say a husband and wife both remember their last vacation generally, but the wife remembers many more details. Why? Because her mind happens to be a suitable environment for the ideas encoding those details — meaning they can spread through her mind relatively smoothly — whereas her husband’s mind is not.</p>
<p><em>Why do some memories last longer than others?</em> Because some replicators — and this is true of any replicator, not just ideas — are longer-lived than others. (However, I suspect that any particular <em>instance</em> of that replicator is usually pretty young. For example, if you are 30 and remembering something that happened when you were three, that particular instance of the idea encoding the event is not 27 years old — it may only be a few seconds old!)</p>
<p><em>Why are memories so notoriously unreliable?</em> Because even the best and most consistent replicator won’t stay consistent forever. Mistakes are made eventually during replication. The same holds for ideas in a mind.</p>
<p><em>Why do some people believe some things over others?</em> Because some ideas spread through their minds better than others.</p>
<p><em>Why is it easier to convince one person of idea x than it is another?</em> Because one person’s mind makes it easier for idea <em>x</em> to spread through it than another person’s.</p>
<p>You may have noticed that questions of belief/conviction have very similar answers as those related to memory. That’s because memories are just long-held beliefs: long-lived self-replicating ideas. While there are significant differences between biological and mental evolution, the neo-Darwinian theory of the mind has a strongly unifying character generally.</p>
<p>As I said before, one answer to the question “why do peacocks have such colorful tails?” is “because their feathers are pigmented.” That answer is correct but misses the point and the central role of replication: again, peacocks have colorful tails because those genes that happened to code for slightly more colorful tails were better able to spread through the gene pool. The primary explanation involves replication, even if we may be tempted to forget that. Observe the same phenomenon when you ask people why they think some idea is true. If you ask someone “how come you think you were born in 1960,” they will almost certainly answer along the lines of “because I really was born in 1960,” or “because it says so on my birth certificate,” or “because my parents told me so.” All of these things may be true, but the <em>primary</em> reason he thinks he was born in 1960 is that the idea encoding this information managed to spread through his mind. Yet he will never give that as the reason.</p>
<p>The same holds for opinions as well. Let’s say Charlotte believes that people should pay their taxes. Why? If we ask her, her answer will invariably relate to why people should, in her opinion, pay taxes, not <em>why she believes</em> they should. To most, there is no difference between these two questions, yet this difference is crucial if we want to begin to understand the mind. She may respond that taxes are a great way to help the poor. Or that “transferring” money from the rich to the poor is a moral imperative. Or that we need to finance the government somehow. Or that everybody has to pitch in and do their part. Whether these statements are morally or factually correct is not at issue here — just note that she will never mention the primary reason: that those ideas have spread through her mind at the expense of their rivals. It is the primary reason anyone holds any arbitrary belief in mental evolution, just like it is the primary reason any organism has any arbitrary trait in biological evolution. Yet it will never occur to her. That is why I said earlier that the phenomenon of complex sub-purposes of adaptations distracting from the primary purpose plays an important role in the mind as well.</p>
<p>But why exactly will the primary reason not occur to Charlotte? I think it’s because she does not <em>know</em> how her mind works. None of us do. That’s the thing we are trying to explain here. And the vast majority of mental activities seem to happen subconsciously. We are <em>unaware</em> of the millions and millions of variants of self-replicating ideas in our minds, some collaborating, some competing, and we are <em>unaware</em> of the replication that occurs there. But we know of all of these things from theory.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_oFL988O18p0I2c5PuZxfXw.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>The human mind trying to understand itself: that’s all epistemology is. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@korpa?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Jr Korpa</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Unsplash</a></em></small></p>
<p>Awareness brings us to the question of consciousness. It is perhaps the single most fascinating and mysterious phenomenon in the universe yet. Popper (1983) conjectured it has to do with <em>disappointed expectations</em>: we often do not even know we had a particular expectation until it is disappointed. For example, if you go up a flight of stairs and reach the end, thinking there is one more step, you will become acutely aware that there isn’t one and of your disappointed expectation. More broadly speaking, consciousness seems to have to do with <em>error correction</em>. (Error correction generally plays a central role in Popperian epistemology, not just when it comes to consciousness.) I have given the example (2020c) of learning to ride a bike as a child. Initially, you are acutely aware of every little movement you make: steering, keeping your balance, pedaling, etc. The process may be a bit overwhelming at first. Your mind evolves many new ideas for how to develop this new skill. Most of them won’t do the trick, but some variants happen to improve your abilities. Over many iterations, your ideas about how to ride a bike further improve. And as they do — i.e., as you correct errors — you become <em>less aware</em> of riding your bike. After riding thousands of miles, you won’t even know anymore <em>how</em> you do it. You just <em>do it</em>.</p>
<p>I believe disappointed expectations will play an essential role in any good upcoming explanation of consciousness, but they do not strike me as sufficient (or even necessary). Whenever you sit down, close your eyes, and observe the thoughts that pop into consciousness, not all of them have to do with disappointe…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind
The Neo-Darwinian Theory of the Mind
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="the-case-against-commas-and-operators">The Case against Commas and Operators</h1>
<p><img src="/assets/0_4LFqAYsRKbb9x8qQ.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ffstop?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="ugc">Fotis Fotopoulos</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="ugc">Unsplash</a></em></small></p>
<p>Commas are widespread in programming languages. In JavaScript, for example, commas are used to delineate elements of arrays and maps:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="p">{</span><span class="nl">foo</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="dl">"</span><span class="s2">bar</span><span class="dl">"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nx">bar</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="dl">"</span><span class="s2">foo</span><span class="dl">"</span><span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>They are also used in functions’ argument lists:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Of course, any interpreter or compiler <em>could</em> still read the above code samples unambiguously without commas:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span> <span class="mi">2</span> <span class="mi">3</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="p">{</span><span class="nl">foo</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="dl">"</span><span class="s2">bar</span><span class="dl">"</span> <span class="nx">bar</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="dl">"</span><span class="s2">foo</span><span class="dl">"</span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="nx">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span> <span class="mi">2</span> <span class="mi">3</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>A comma-less map may initially lead to some confusion for a human reader trained to look for commas to replicate key-value groupings mentally, but that can easily be remedied by adding a line break:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="p">{</span><span class="nl">foo</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="dl">"</span><span class="s2">bar</span><span class="dl">"</span>
<span class="nx">bar</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="dl">"</span><span class="s2">foo</span><span class="dl">"</span><span class="p">}</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>In any case, here I am concerned with the necessity of commas from the compiler’s or interpreter’s perspective, and in none of the above cases would either one need commas. In arrays and argument lists, every element is a standalone element, and in maps every key-value <em>pair</em> is standalone.</p>
<p>So why are commas so ubiquitous in programming? StackOverflow user Carl Norum <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/3488237/1371131" rel="ugc">points out</a> that they originated in mathematics, where they have been used “for centuries.” He also claims they eliminate ambiguity in cases such as:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span> <span class="o">-</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">)</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Did the programmer mean to call <code>foo</code> with <code>1</code> and <code>-2</code>, or did he mean to call it with the result of <code>1 - 2</code>, i.e., <code>-1</code>?</p>
<p>One commenter, a user by the name of sepp2k, <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3488229/why-do-programming-languages-use-commas-to-separate-function-parameters#comment3642921_3488237" rel="ugc">points out</a> that one can eliminate the ambiguity by introducing groupings with parentheses:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">))</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>That works, but it could still be simpler. The interpreter/compiler could have the following heuristic: if the <code>-</code> operator is separated from the next element by whitespace, it is meant to subtract — otherwise, it is meant to negate. With that heuristic, you won’t need commas or parentheses.</p>
<p>In any case, the underlying problem leading to the ambiguity in the first place is that <code>-</code> is an <em>operator</em> and not a function. If <code>-</code> were a function, it would simply be another parameter, and writing <code>foo(1 - 2)</code> would mean you are passing <em>three</em> arguments: the number <code>1</code>, the function <code>-</code> , and the number <code>2</code>. If you wanted to pass the result of the subtraction, you would instead do:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight javascript"><code><span class="nx">foo</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">))</span>
</code></pre></div>
<p>Operators, like commas, are standard math notation, but that’s no reason to prefer them. Besides, functions are standard math notation, too. And unlike operators, functions can be passed around, so you get an additional ability for free. That’s not to mention that in existing languages, commas could be <em>optional</em>. You could use them the few times you need to eliminate ambiguity and omit them in all other cases, and the interpreter/compiler could have a heuristic to deal with ambiguous cases.</p>
<p>Rich Hickey made a smart choice when he decided to treat commas as whitespace in Clojure. (And when he decided to use semicolons as comment indicators!)</p>
<p>One — perhaps the only — legitimate use case I see for commas is that of a thousands separator in numbers: 1,200,000 is easier to read than 1200000. Ruby uses underscores for this: 1<u>200</u>000. Meh, better than nothing.</p>
<p>Commas and operators detract from programming languages. Use functions instead to eliminate ambiguity, to get rid of countless commas, and to make operators first-class citizens. I must have typed hundreds of thousands of unnecessary commas by now. Once you write in a language that doesn’t have them, you won’t look back.</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-case-against-commas-and-operators
The Case against Commas and Operators
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="preserving-the-common-sense-definition-of-racism">Preserving the Common-Sense Definition of Racism</h1>
<p>Certain “liberal” movements have been trying to pervert the conventional, common-sense, and correct definition of racism for years now. I am writing this post to preserve that definition. It has come increasingly under attack and is, unfortunately, becoming less and less adopted. This post is not meant to persuade liberals. It is meant as a record. I worry that a decade from now, the correct definition of racism will be but a faint echo from a distant time with little hope of resurrection unless it can be looked up somewhere.</p>
<p>Racism is when you judge someone by the color of their skin. That’s it. You don’t need any references to systems or institutions thrown in there. Further, anyone can be racist against anyone else. And it applies to both favoring and disfavoring someone based on skin color.</p>
<p>Nowadays, some people say such nonsense as “black people can’t be racist against white people.” I say it is nonsense because you can directly conclude from the above-mentioned and correct definition of racism that a black person judging a white person for being white is racist. In fact, the new definition is itself racist because it singles out white people for special opprobrium: white people are always the perpetrators, never the victims.</p>
<p>Why do some people say black people can’t be racist against white people? Because they have twisted the definition of racism. According to them, racism goes not from individual against individual, but from institutions against minorities. Racism, they say, is the “institutionalized” and “systemic” preference for white people over people of color, and the persecution of the latter.</p>
<p>Now, if institutions really did persecute minorities of a certain skin color (and I doubt they do, especially in the US, which is one of the least racist countries in the world), then that would indeed be racist because it matches our definition above. But the adherents to this new, perverted theory of racism have turned a sufficient condition into a necessary one. They claim that institutionalized discrimination is a necessary condition for something to be considered racist when in reality, it is merely sufficient. And so, they conclude, one-on-one discrimination based on skin color is not racist (except maybe from white to black, but definitely not from black to white).</p>
<p>Adherents to the new definition would cheer if a black business owner favored a black candidate for an open position over a white one, even if all candidates were equally qualified and the business owner based his decision on skin color. They might even say hiring the black candidate and turning away the white one is imperative so as to not further the allegedly systematic benefits the white candidate already receives.</p>
<p>Just five or ten years ago, the new definition of racism still encountered much skepticism. That has changed. The reason this deeply mistaken idea has been spreading so successfully is that people share it in the name of good intentions. I have <a href="/posts/how-do-some-peaceful-ideas-result-in-violent-pro" rel="ugc">written about</a> how ideas can mutate basically unchecked in the evolutionary arena once they rest on good intentions because they become harder to criticize. Turning a necessary condition into a sufficient one is one such mutation that normally would have been caught and selected against, but because it rests on the good intention of fighting (allegedly) institutionalized racism, the mutation was not corrected.</p>
<p>One of the consequences of the new, false definition of racism is that racism against white people is becoming relatively commonplace. Another is the damage this new definition has done to our institutions, especially in academia, which damage has been documented to some extent, partly in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2WeWgcSMk" rel="ugc">this video</a>. Some of the virtually unchecked mutations that have occurred and the resulting overt racism against white people can be seen in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dteOQPzc_so" rel="ugc">this video</a>. It also includes hints of the legitimizing of discrimination and of violence against whites (such as when DiAngelo says that white people are going to have to experience discomfort to facilitate change).</p>
<p>If the new definition keeps spreading and if associated ideas keep mutating freely, such hints may grow and turn from covert, hinted-at violence into overt violence (DiAngelo is still hesitant to speak openly of taking away white people’s rights and property, but may feel empowered to do so in the future — I believe that’s what she means when she advocates discomfort). Additionally, I won’t be surprised if the departure from the common-sense definition of racism in the name of good intentions leads to more governmental interference in business, e.g., through strict implementations of quotas in hiring practices: “your business’s personnel must accurately reflect the proportions of race in the population.” (I have a hunch that meeting this requirement would be impossible due to the apportionment problem, but would need to investigate further. (EDIT 2022-01-27: I have since written about this matter <a href="/posts/balinski-and-young-beyond-elections" rel="ugc">here</a>.) If true, I doubt this would stop governments from trying to enforce it and penalizing businesses for not complying!) I believe businesses should be free to hire according to criteria they determine themselves, without any regulation or oversight. The criterion should be merit (qualification).</p>
<p>The common-sense definition applies to both individual and institutionalized discrimination based on skin color. The new definition applies almost exclusively to the institutionalized kind. The common-sense definition is universal and applies to everyone. The new definition is parochial and singles out white people. Which definition do you think is better?</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/preserving-the-common-sense-definition-of-racism
Preserving the Common-Sense Definition of Racism
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="how-do-some-peaceful-ideas-result-in-violent-protests">How Do Some Peaceful Ideas Result in Violent Protests?</h1>
<p>The violent protests that have ensued in response to the recent death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hand of the Minneapolis police, and the resulting social pressure regarding how we are all supposed to react and agree with each other, have got me thinking about ideas.</p>
<p>In this essay, I want to attempt a solution to the following two problems.</p>
<ol>
<li data-step="1"> The opposition to racism is usually based on core values of peace and human rights. Yet the recent anti-racist protests themselves are violent and infringe upon basic human rights (such as property rights by looting stores). That’s a contradiction.</li>
<li data-step="2"> Related to that is the more general problem of how some ideas evolve into their opposites, and, in particular, by what <em>logic</em> initially peaceful ideas — and/or associated ideas — turn violent.</li>
</ol>
<p>I believe both problems have the same solution, but before I can state my main thesis, I must briefly mention <em>memes</em>. A meme is an idea that manages to spread from person to person (Dawkins 2016, chapter 11). Many ideas are memes, such as catchy songs, funny jokes, good scientific theories, and so on. Memes, Dawkins argues, replicate and, like all replicators, are subject to variation and selection: they evolve. For example, one person tells another a joke, who then tells it to someone else. Maybe he changes part of it a little bit, either creatively or by mistake, without even realizing it. If that makes the joke slightly funnier, it will spread even more. Memes can differ in how they spread and how they affect their holders’ behavior <em>to</em> spread, as I will elaborate below. (There is a <em>lot</em> to memes, but here I can only scratch the surface. Suffice it to say that a meme that is good at spreading will instruct its holder to enact behaviors which, once observed by others, help it get itself copied by those others and enacted further. Memes that spread are not necessarily good or useful or true ideas. They spread primarily because, well, they are good at spreading — for whatever reason.)</p>
<p>Perhaps one of the best examples of the dangers and irrationalities caused by meme proxies is the meme of being a social-justice warrior, so I will spend some time criticizing it. (It is more of a <em>group</em> of associated memes, a so-called <em>meme-complex</em> (Dawkins 2016, chapter 11) (or simply <em>memeplex</em>), but I will refer to it as a single meme for simplicity.) Social-justice warriors are those who exploit good causes to advertise their alleged virtues and gain social status. (They will, of course, deny this, but whether they are aware of this motivation is not at issue here.) Their good causes are usually reactionary, i.e., they define themselves in opposition to something: a social-justice warrior opposes racism, environmental destruction, poverty, etc.</p>
<p>Being a social-justice warrior belongs to a class of memes whose main replication strategy, I conjecture, is the following: when one criticizes such a meme, one may seem to condone the thing in opposition to which it defines itself. That is my main thesis. When that definition is or at least seems good, memes that rest on it — the proxies — are harder to criticize, as are other associated memes. Proxies can then mutate more freely and are not subject to the selection pressures to which they would normally be subject. As a result, they can evolve into strange forms almost unchecked — forms that criticism would normally eliminate fairly quickly.</p>
<p>This theory of meme proxies solves both problems above. The peaceful idea of opposing racism is hard to criticize (for good reason). Ideas associating with it are also hard to criticize (sometimes for reasons not as good) — they “inherit” the level of criticizability. These associated ideas can now mutate relatively unchecked and, sometimes, even turn into the opposite of the core idea without losing their association. That is why the protests against police brutality are themselves brutal, and it is the logic by which the meaning of a memeplex can evolve into its opposite.</p>
<p>That social-justice warriors oppose racism, is, in and of itself, good. But the content of their ideology does not stop there — they smuggle in many other ideas. For example, many social-justice warriors today believe that white people suck simply for being white, which is an immoral (and false) idea. Additional ideas, even ones that are as blatantly false as this last one, manage to spread because they are tied to the good cause of opposing racism. How on Earth an opposition to racism could associate with ideas that have morphed into ones racist against white people is not clear unless we explain the reason through the almost unchecked mutation of those associated ideas. Self-contradiction is usually a disqualifying attribute of a theory, but not in this case. These ideas are harder to criticize because they are bundled up in such a way. They and the original idea — the good cause of opposing racism — have become a “package deal.”</p>
<p>To illustrate this phenomenon, consider the following example. Just earlier today, I saw a post by a company called gymshark on Instagram (2020). (For context: they share posts about gym workouts and other gym-related stuff.) The post featured a white-on-black image saying “Fuck standing on the sideline.” The caption said:</p>
<blockquote><p>Strength has no identity, only unity. We’re working closely with our team, our athletes, and our entire community to unite against injustice and make a genuine difference, not just a statement.</p>
<p>In our world of sports, strength and conditioning, we’re used to seeing black athletes as icons, heroes and teammates. We should not be used to seeing injustice against black friends, family and strangers.</p>
<p>We thank our friends in the industry — from Nike to Adidas to Lululemon — for their outspoken commitment to the cause. Because silence is not impartiality. It’s ignorance. And tomorrow is not soon enough. We must push for change today.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Though the post doesn’t make any explicit mention of it, given the timing, it is clearly a response to the event in Minneapolis. I dislike when companies use social-justice themes to raise product awareness because it’s difficult to tell whether this rests on a genuine concern for the cause and because I distrust good intentions for reasons I will elaborate below. As a more practical and immediate concern: I don’t follow accounts like gymshark because they are pro social justice — I follow them because I like going to the gym. (The inversion of this is true as well: I still enjoy watching, say, Kevin Spacey’s movies, even if the allegations against him are true. I have enjoyed those movies <em>because Spacey is a good actor</em>, not because he hasn’t committed any particular misdeed.)</p>
<p>I decided to unfollow gymshark. If I had done so quietly, they would have never known and there would have been no opportunity for them to improve, so I decided to share my thoughts, even though I was under no obligation to do so. I commented (2020):</p>
<blockquote><p>I follow you for gym-related posts, not for social-justice-warrior posts. Unfollow.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My comment received several replies in a short amount of time. All of them were negative. Consider the following subset:</p>
<blockquote><p>117% you won’t be missed</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— coolestkidouttt</p>
<blockquote><p>look at you telling on yourself</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— barnalireardon</p>
<blockquote><p>hey buddy, your racism is showing</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— luce.paloma</p>
<p>These are only three out of nine. Most other comments either said roughly the same as the first one above or contained mutual encouragement. I am not relaying these comments because I feel bad or because I am surprised — I don’t and I’m not, I knew to expect such a response — but only to give an example of the kind of meme we are dealing with here. Take a look at comments two and three in particular. What the second one merely implies the third states explicitly: they allege the reason for unfollowing gymshark was racist.</p>
<p>Why did these people think that? My comment didn’t contain a pro-racist stance (nor an anti-racist one, for that matter). It simply stated a reason for unfollowing this account, and that reason did not mention race. So how come they alleged racism? They did so <em>by extension</em>: the ideas social-justice warriors spread act as <em>proxies</em> of ideas opposing racism. They are treated as a kind of “fall-through.” Criticism is <em>delegated</em> and applied to the underlying ideas, and then judged accordingly — even when the criticism was meant to apply only to the proxy. <em>That’s</em> why these commenters thought criticizing ideas around social justice means advocating racism, even though I hadn’t said anything about race one way or the other.</p>
<p>In some cases, these proxies can even have an anticipatory character: you must not talk about something without preemptively condemning an aspect of it. It is for this reason I suspect some readers will not get past this essay’s first paragraph without bemoaning how I didn’t condemn what happened in Minneapolis — but this essay is not about my opinion on Floyd’s death. It is for this same anticipatory reason that gymshark wrote: “[…] silence is not impartiality. It’s ignorance,” meaning if you don’t make a pronouncement they agree with, they consider you ignorant. And it is the reason why, bafflingly, millions of people, one after the other, have started to post <em>nothing but a black picture</em> on social media, allegedly in an attempt to silence their usual online activity and to give room for posts relating to the cause, oh the perfect little goody-two-shoes they aspire to be, completely oblivious to the social con they are committing collectively.</p>
<p>Of course, in reality, posting this meme achieves nothing but signaling one’s commitment and feeling better about oneself. People see the meme, and, because it’s tied to a good cause, and because of statements like gymshark’s, feel the pressure to share it, lest they look like racists. A social-justice warrior, aiming to gain social status, will comply, as did those responding to my comment: they were not responding to <em>me</em>, they were signaling to <em>each other</em>, putting on a sanctimonious show, hoping to display their commitment to the cause and gain likes. (Worse yet, social-justice warriors comply <em>reliably</em> and, therefore, <em>predictably</em>, which makes their movement susceptible to exploitation by the political enemies of the West who try to destroy our free society from within by strategically placing destructive memes they know social-justice warriors will spread.) A better name for “social-justice warrior” is “social-approval seeker.”</p>
<p>Several other instances of proxies that spread with the help of their underlying ideas come to mind. In the late 1920s and the early 1930s in Germany, for example, both national socialism and communism were on the rise and competed for popularity. (These memeplexes competed quite literally in the evolutionary sense.) I am no expert on the history of either idea, but I would imagine that adherents to either one did not adhere to it because they wanted to be evil, but because they believed it was right and did good. Therefore, I imagine national socialism managed to spread because it associated with the good intention of restoring pride in a beaten Germany after World War I, and communism managed to spread because it associated with the good intention of helping the poor. And so, I conjecture those who openly criticized the Nazis were accused of having wanted to lose the war or wanting Germany to remain beaten, and those who openly criticized communism were accused of endorsing poverty. (In this particular historical example, these two ideas, despite being similar in their violent execution, also defined themselves in opposition to one another, so that those opposing the Nazis were accused of being communists, and vice versa. Not only can you criticize one without advocating the other, your ability to criticize <em>both</em> relies on that fact.) Many of those who, still undecided at the time, considered opposing the Nazis must have asked themselves, “but do I want Germany to remain beaten?”, and, as they answered “no” to themselves, wrongly concluded, “all right, I guess that means I am in favor of national socialism,” when they could have realized there was a third way: reviving Germany peacefully, i.e., without Nazis. Proxy memes spread particularly well when they present false dichotomies, which prevent one from thinking of other ways to solve a problem.</p>
<p>The allegedly anti-fascist organization Antifa has gained popularity by exploiting such a false dichotomy and presenting itself as one side of it. This exploitation has afforded Antifa the same old defense. Here is a version of it by New York City councilman (!) Justin Brannan (2018):</p>
<blockquote><p>Dudebro, if you are anti antifa that means you are pro-fascist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It doesn’t mean that. The “anti-anti” doesn’t turn into “pro” in this case because Antifa does not stand only for the single idea of opposing fascism. Several meme proxies surround it (hating the police, hating capitalism, etc). You can absolutely oppose these proxies without supporting fascism. You don’t have to take the package deal. Alas, many today, like impressionable German voters in the thirties, ask themselves, “do I support fascism?”, and, answering “no” to themselves, wrongly conclude, “all right, I guess that means I am in favor of Antifa,” proudly pronouncing their decision, lest they look like fascists.</p>
<p>Another instance of the phenomenon of meme proxies is the idea behind the good intention of helping poor people. This idea helps smuggle in the mistaken assumption that wealth inequality is bad. Sympathy for the poor and the condemning of wealth inequality have become so intertwined in many people’s minds they think criticism of one always means criticism of the other. But that is not the case. You can see poverty as a horrible thing without opposing wealth inequality. (In fact, wealth inequality is the very means by which poverty can be alleviated, for, alleviating poverty requires people to become richer, at which they succeed at different speeds, if at all.) However, a mind that considers ideas about wealth inequality as a proxy for ideas about poverty cannot dissociate the two.</p>
<p>(There are more instances of such ideas, such as this timely one, given the current COVID-19 pandemic: you can oppose <em>forcing</em> people to wear masks without advocating they get sick and without opposing the idea they <em>should</em> wear masks.)</p>
<p>Because the ideas around being a social-justice warrior immunize themselves from criticism in the way I have described, I believe they are what Deutsch calls <em>static memes</em> (2012, chapter 15). These are memes that, rather than spreading for being helpful, spread through the inhibition of criticism. I think the memes I describe above are a specific <em>type</em> of static meme.</p>
<p>Social-justice warriors suffer from the particular affliction of identifying with one’s ideas. We all do this to some degree, but a healthy mind can dissociate from the ideas it contains, at least temporarily, to take a step back and investigate them critically. Social-justice warriors, on the other hand, rather than thinking critically, are largely concerned with doing “the right thing” (or rather, advertising doing so) and thereby only entrench any mistakes they may have already made without being able to correct them. For example, the idea that white people suck for being white is itself racist, but the allegedly anti-racist social-justice warriors have created new ideas to protect that mistaken idea (mistaken by <em>their</em> standards, even). Not only that, but they identify <em>personally</em> with the (sometimes only seemingly, sometimes genuinely) good cause they have taken up, so they see any criticism of their <em>ideas</em> (i.e., <em>impersonal</em> criticism) as a personal attack. Such ideas manage to serve as proxies not just for other ideas, but for the entire holder. To many, this identification with their ideas is so entrenched that criticism can be somewhat traumatic (which is perhaps partly why rather ridiculous memes such as “trigger warnings” have managed to spread).</p>
<p>This defensive attitude in the face of criticism that results from identifying with one’s ideas can create such strong dissonance in a mind that it may instruct its body to physically attack those sharing criticism. This is another answer to the first problem above. Violence may also result from trying to do “the right thing,” as the great philosopher Karl Popper explained (see below). If Popper were alive today, he would no doubt recognize what has been happening these past few days as the consequence of static memes hiding behind good causes, as many American cities are ravaged by looting and violence in the name of the good cause of opposing racism.</p>
<p>Memes that are proxies of good intentions can go undetected for a long time because they evade criticism. To evade criticism is to evade the selective mechanisms of meme evolution, so mutations happen almost unchecked. Since mutations are not targeted, they are usually not for the better — they deteriorate the meme’s structure and content. Normally, criticism would detect and weed out such poorer memes. But now, this does not happen. Soon, what started as a benign, genuinely good intention, can turn into a monstrous memeplex demanding a violent revolution.</p>
<p>Social-justice warriors love to talk about <em>systemic</em> issues. “The system is broken,” they say, “so to hell with it. Let’s burn it all down.” That is what we have been seeing these past few days as government buildings and businesses are being set on fire by an angry mob. Rather than improving things piece by piece, in a stable fashion, this mob wants a revolution. Only such a revolution, they argue, can create a system that is just and free of the shortcomings of our irreparably “racist, misogynist, and patriarchal society.”</p>
<p><img src="/assets/0_QKPAzh20agnmfagS.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>“I am convinced that revolutionary methods can only make things worse — that they will increase unnecessary suffering; that they will lead to more and more violence; and that they must destroy freedom.” Karl Popper (2002, 462). Photo credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, as posted by Collinson (2020).</em></small></p>
<p>Popper identified the destructive nature of revolutions in his criticism of the doctrine of Marxism (which doctrine, unbelievably, despite the well-known death toll of millions, still inspires social-justice warriors today). He wrote (2002, 462):</p>
<blockquote><p>I shall not here discuss the problem of the humanitarian aims of Marxism. I find that there is a very great deal in these aims which I can accept. The hope of reducing misery and violence, and of increasing freedom, is one, I believe, which inspired Marx and many of his followers; it is a hope which inspires most of us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Popper is careful to distinguish between the aims of Marxism — the good intentions of Marxism, as it were — and <em>the methods by which Marxists want to achieve these aims.</em> In other words, Popper did not fall prey to the trickery of the proxy. He continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>But I am convinced that these aims cannot be realized by revolutionary methods. On the contrary, I am convinced that revolutionary methods can only make things worse — that they will increase unnecessary suffering; that they will lead to more and more violence; and that they must destroy freedom.</p>
<p>This becomes clear when we realize that a revolution always destroys the institutional and traditional framework of society.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>— e.g. burning down government buildings and businesses, or “push[ing] for change today,” not tomorrow, as gymshark said —</p>
<blockquote><p>It must thereby endanger the very set of values for the realization of which it has been undertaken.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If doing good, let alone causing …<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-do-some-peaceful-ideas-result-in-violent-pro" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-do-some-peaceful-ideas-result-in-violent-pro</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/how-do-some-peaceful-ideas-result-in-violent-pro
How Do Some Peaceful Ideas Result in Violent Protests?
2023-02-09T04:44:45Z
2023-02-09T04:44:45Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="guaranteeing-referential-transparency">Guaranteeing Referential Transparency</h1>
<p><img src="/assets/1_2RdfimeWaFU2lsGSgWVViw.jpg" alt="Glasses"></p>
<p><small class="caption"><em>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@budhelisson?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Bud Helisson</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/transparency?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" rel="ugc">Unsplash</a></em></small></p>
<p>The other day, I saw a video on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/briantwill" rel="ugc">Brian Will’s YouTube channel</a> — I’m afraid I don’t remember which video it was — in which he mentioned how cool it would be if a programming language offered a special kind of function that can only access the parameters it was given and nothing else. The function would then be referentially transparent and, therefore, truly modular: you could cut it out of any arbitrary code and paste it into any arbitrary code and it would still work.</p>
<p>His idea came at a good time. For the past few days, I have been dabbling with creating a new programming language. My main motivation is just to learn how to write a transpiler, but I also want to build a language that makes learning functional concepts easier for JavaScript developers. Ideally, the language’s syntax will look very similar to that of JavaScript while applying functional concepts we know and love from Clojure.</p>
<p>I think Brian’s idea could be implemented relatively easily. The transpiler could check the generated abstract syntax tree for any symbols within the body of a function that are not part of that function’s argument list.</p>
<p>Having such functions seems to me a great step toward guaranteeing referential transparency. Alas, it’s not itself a complete guarantee yet, because you could still pass an impure function <em>g</em> that then gets invoked by your newly declared function <em>f</em>. If <em>f</em>‘s return value changes depending on <em>g</em>’s return value, <em>f</em> is not referentially transparent.</p>
<p>To solve this problem, you may choose to have the transpiler throw an exception whenever a function you declare to be referentially transparent takes referentially intransparent functions as arguments.</p>
<p>EDIT: This feature is now implemented as part of the <a href="http://berlinlang.org/" rel="ugc">Berlin programming language</a>.</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/guaranteeing-referential-transparency
Guaranteeing Referential Transparency
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="what-is-the-difference-between-a-person-and-a-recording-of-that-person">What Is the Difference Between a Person and a Recording of That Person?</h1>
<p>In “The Beginning of Infinity” (2012, p. 459), David Deutsch asks:</p>
<blockquote><p>What is the difference between a computer simulation of a person (which must <strong>be</strong> a person, because of universality) and a recording of that simulation (which cannot be a person)?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Deutsch has discovered that people are computer programs. Running on brains, they are humans, and running on computers other than the brain <a href="/podcasts/artificial-creativity" rel="ugc">they are are AGIs</a>. But either way, they are all people, and since people are programs, they can in principle be recorded — like all other programs. By that I do not mean surveillance, but something like a video tape<em>. We do not yet know how to write a computer program that is a person, but no magical essence is required since people must follow the same logic all other programs follow: the step by step execution of code. So I will attempt to answer Deutsch’s question by giving examples of simpler programs. I will show how one could go about recording the execution of a program, and then use that to show why a recording of a person cannot *be</em> a person. I also intend for this to show that knowledge about software engineering can help us attempt to solve philosophical problems.</p>
<p>Consider this simple program:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">defn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">three</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>This is a <em>function</em>. All it does is add 1 plus 2, returning 3. Before we can record this program, we need to run it — just as before you can videotape something, you need that something to happen: you cannot record a video of a concert without the concert happening in front of you.</p>
<p>We run it like so:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">three</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>The double arrow just shows us the function’s return value. That’s part of what functions do: they optionally take some input (none in the above case), run the steps in the function’s body (here <code>(+ 1 2)</code>) and then return the result. The body could be much longer and more complicated, but that does not present a problem of principle with recording a program.</p>
<p>A recording of this simple program is just the return value itself. In other words, once we have run the program, we do not need to run it again; we can simply ask “Oh, that function <code>three</code>? Yeah it returns the number 3”, without having to run it again — and that’s not just because it’s named after its return value, but because we have run the function and so we <em>know</em> its return value.</p>
<p>The function above is, of course, pretty boring. How about a slightly more interesting example?</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">defn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">plus</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">b</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">b</span><span class="p">))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>This function is different from the previous one in that the numbers it adds up are not always the same. It does not even know what they are. We have to <em>pass them in</em> as <code>a</code> and <code>b</code> whenever we run the function. These are known as a function's <em>inputs</em> or <em>parameters</em>. For example, we can calculate 2 + 2 by running</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">plus</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>We can then record this result and later retrieve its value without running the function again:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">look-up</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">plus</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>Read: “What was the return value of the <code>plus</code> function when we ran it with parameters 2 and 2?”</p>
<p>Note, however, that the function’s return value may change whenever its parameters change. So after recording this result, we have only recorded one of the infinitely many different additions we could perform. We do know, however, that 2 + 2 is always equal to 4, and so we can confidently store this recording.</p>
<p>This is known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoization" rel="ugc"><em>memoization</em></a> (not memo<em>r</em>ization). It’s when you run a function once for some parameters and, next time you run the function with the same parameters, you don’t run the function but instead just look up the return value you remember from before.</p>
<p>But that a function can only be memoized for <em>known</em> parameters; we cannot look up the result of 3 + 2 if we have not run the function with those parameters yet, just like you cannot remember something that hasn’t happened yet. (You can <em>imagine</em> it, but that’s something different.) Also note that this only works <em>because</em> addition always returns the same result for the same inputs.</p>
<p>Now consider this slightly modified version of addition:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">defn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">plus</span><span class="o">'</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">b</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">println</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"Computing..."</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">b</span><span class="p">))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>This function (<code>plus'</code>, read “plus prime”) differs from the previous one in that it prints something to the user before computing and returning the result. In this case, it’s a simple message letting whoever is running the function know that it’s busy. This would normally be reserved for function calls that take a while, but it illustrates my point: namely, that this function now has a <a href="https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/40314" rel="ugc"><em>side effect</em></a>. The term “side effect” is a bit misleading because it does <em>not</em> mean that something is happening that was not intended. A side effect in programming is when a function <em>changes something somewhere</em>; for example, printing something to the screen, or writing some value to disk, or mutating some value.</p>
<p>Why do we need to care about side effects? Because we are trying to see if memoization works as a mechanism for recording a function. Let’s see what this function does when we invoke it with parameters 5 and 5 for the first time:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">plus</span><span class="o">'</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="c1">; Computing...</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>Once we have memoized it, we can look it up:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">look-up</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">plus</span><span class="o">'</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>So what’s the difference? When the look it up, it doesn’t print “Computing…”. Why not? Because the whole point of memoization is to <em>not run the function again</em>, but to instead immediately look up the return value corresponding to the given parameters. After all, memoization is an <em>optimization</em> technique. But without side effects, we do not get an accurate recording, and so we would need to come up with a <em>new</em> technique that is <em>like</em> memoization but <em>still performs side effects</em>.</p>
<p>I will get to that shortly, but first I need to mention that we can write functions that do not always return the same value for the same inputs. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">defn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">rand-times</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">let</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">i</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">rand-int</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">)]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">*</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">i</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">)))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>First, the function takes a number <code>a</code>. Then it generates a random number between 0 and 10 and assigns it to the variable <code>i</code>. Lastly, it multiplies <code>i</code> by <code>a</code> and returns the result.</p>
<p>If you run this function several times with the same input, you will get a different return value almost every time:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">rand-times</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">40</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">rand-times</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">rand-times</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">25</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">rand-times</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="n">=></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">30</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>Functions that either do not return the same values for the same inputs, or that have side effects (or both) are known as <em>impure</em> functions. Here’s an overview from <a href="https://clojurebridgelondon.github.io/workshop/functions/pure-functions.html" rel="ugc">ClojureBridge London’s website</a>:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/0_4QtvmslYWlwlI2gK.png" alt="Side causes and side effects"></p>
<p>If any side causes influence a function, or if a function causes any side effects (both red in the picture above), it is impure.</p>
<p>People are impure functions: they have side effects (they shape the world around them, they physically move things, etc), the world around them influences them, and they do not always do the same thing given the same circumstances. A bored person who decides to go to the movies may well, all else being equal, have decided to do something else. (This is because a person is, or at least contains, an evolutionary algorithm he uses to guess solutions to problems, such as what to do when bored, and evolutionary algorithms are always impure. They make people <em>creative</em>; creativity is the defining attribute of people.)</p>
<p>Let’s extend the above function to also contain side effects. If we can record this impure function, we have found a way to record functions that works:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">defn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">rand-times</span><span class="o">'</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">println</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"Computing..."</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">let</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">i</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">rand-int</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">)]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">*</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">i</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">)))</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>It does the same thing as before, with the addition of printing “Computing…”. Let’s say we invoke function with the number 5, and it happens to generate the number 2 as a random number to multiply by 5. What would a recording of this look like? We know now we cannot use memoization. It would have to be a <em>new function</em>:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">defn</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">rand-times</span><span class="ss">'-recorded</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[]</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">println</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"Computing..."</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>This is a completely different function. It would have to be the same function to be the same person. And, though it looks a bit like the original, it does something else entirely: it takes <em>no</em> parameters and <em>always</em> returns 10. The only thing the recording has in common with the original is that it always causes the same side effect. So, if you recorded a person, all their actions would become perfectly reproducible: the opposite of creativity. Since creativity is the defining attribute of people, a function lacking creativity is not a person.</p>
<p>That is the difference between a computer program and a recording of it, and that is why a recording of a person cannot <em>be</em> a person.</p>
<p>*<em>I am ignoring for the moment the moral problem that recording a person violates his privacy. So please, nobody do this once we can program people (i.e. build AGI).</em></p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-is-the-difference-between-a-person-and-a-re
What Is the Difference Between a Person and a Recording of That Person?
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="do-explain-episode-11-a-window-on-intelligence-with-dennis-hackethal-transcript"><em>Do Explain</em> Episode 11 — A Window on Intelligence, with Dennis Hackethal — Transcript</h1>
<p>The following is an automatically created transcript of the 11th episode of the podcast <em>Do Explain</em>, which originally aired <a href="https://soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a-window-on-intelligence-with-dennis-hackethal" rel="ugc">here</a>. Since this transcript was created automatically, it contains mistakes and reads like the audio recording.</p>
<p><em>Introduction: Today I’m speaking with Dennis Hackethal for the second time on “Do Explain.” Dennis is a software engineer and intelligence researcher in Silicon Valley, California, and last time I had him on we talked about the alleged dangers of artificial general intelligence (AGI), among other things. Today, he’s back to talk about his new book “A Window on Intelligence,” an exciting and original read about the philosophy of people that makes a powerful case for why we need a unification of philosophy and software engineering to continue making progress in various fields. In our conversation, we go over many of the book’s central ideas, such as how research programs for developing truly intelligent programs aren’t making progress, and how to fix it; how intelligent beings evolved biologically, and why, despite appearances, animals are not intelligent or conscious. We also discuss how psychotherapy is essentially a software-engineering problem, and how we need to think differently about space travel to eventually colonize other planets. Our conversation only gives a broad overview of the book and Dennis’s thinking, so I strongly encourage you to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085WM8LKX" rel="ugc">buy</a> “A Window on Intelligence,” if you want to explore the ideas properly. It is now available for purchase on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085WM8LKX" rel="ugc">Amazon</a> and soon on other platforms like <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-window-on-intelligence/id1502796243" rel="ugc">Apple Books</a> as well. Talking to Dennis is always fun and mind expanding, so relax your minds and get ready: here’s Dennis Hackethal.</em></p>
<p><strong>Christofer Lövgren:</strong> Alright, I’m here with Dennis Hackethal. Dennis, welcome back on the podcast.</p>
<p><strong>Dennis Hackethal:</strong> Hey, it’s great to be back.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Now, I have to say that while I haven’t read all of your book yet, what I’ve seen so far has gotten me really excited. So, I wanted to be the first to pre-order a signed copy of it right after we’re done today, if you don’t mind.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> [Laughs] That’s great, I’ll happily oblige.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> So, I thought we could start with something you address in the book that we already touched on slightly in the first episode, namely the… the status of modern AI research. So, if you could outline what is currently going on there, and why it is problematic, especially in the context of creating AGI — artificial <em>general</em> intelligence.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> Absolutely. So, the underlying theme of the book is that there are many philosophical problems that we won’t solve, or at least will have a hard time solving, unless we investigate them under the lens of software engineering. One example of this is, you know, the question of whether animals are conscious and intelligent, or the mind-body problem. And then there are also problems that… there are many problems in software engineering that I claim we won’t solve unless we use knowledge of philosophy. And one of these problems is the problem of how to build AGI. That’s primarily a philosophical problem right now. So what we find then, is, if we take this approach, and we use knowledge of philosophy to evaluate today’s intelligence research, when we do that, we find a few problems. One problem is… the first overarching problem, I should say, is there is a crucial difference between what I call “narrow AI,” which is what the industry is currently pursuing, and what you’ve pointed out is “AGI,” which is artificial <em>general</em> intelligence. So…</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Right.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> There’s a crucial difference there because a narrow AI is not different from any other computer program that we’ve written so far, and it’s not intelligent. And I’ll get to why that is in a moment. So, when I say “narrow AI,” I’m speaking of programs like self-driving cars, or chess-playing programs, text-prediction systems, virtual assistants on our phones and all that kind of stuff. But an A<em>G</em>I would <em>really</em> be intelligent, it would be a <em>person</em>, so it would be creative, it would be conscious, it would be able to think and suffer, be humorous and all that kind of stuff. So, the first problem is just that, current intelligence research has just sort of forgotten about this distinction. Or they’re not aware of it and they’re not pursuing AGI, which was the original goal. The second overarching problem that we find is that, you know, admittedly narrow AI has great reach, and it has more reach than some of the programs we’ve written before, but… closely tied to the distinction between AI and AGI there’s a crucial distinction between what’s called the “inspiration phase” and the “perspiration phase,” and this distinction goes back to the inventor Thomas Edison. So, the inspiration phase, that’s where you come up with new knowledge to solve a problem, and that takes creativity. And the <em>perspiration</em> phase is when you <em>execute</em> that knowledge, and that takes no creative effort. And so the reason this distinction is important is that it gives us a <em>criterion</em> for judging whether a program is intelligent. If it lives in the perspiration phase, like all narrow-AI programs do, then it’s not intelligent. But if it lives in the <em>inspiration</em> phase, if it can create knowledge, then it <em>is</em> intelligent. And…</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Mhmmm.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> …we’ve just never built programs that live in the inspiration phase, unfortunately; at most, we’ve maybe built <em>some</em> to an approximation, but that is what’s required to build an AGI, because that’s the phase that AGI would live in. And then the third overarching problem with narrow AI is that the field is just beset with philosophical misconceptions.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Right.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> Some of these, unfortunately, go back to Alan Turing, the father of computer science. As great as the contributions were that he made to computer science as a whole, he led researchers down blind alleys. Uh, for example, he said that what we want is machines “that can learn from experience.” Now, with, with just a little knowledge of philosophy, you can immediately tell that that cannot work, because that’s an empiricist mistake. And, the fields of machine “learning,” and with it “deep learning” or whatever other buzzwords they use, by definition, uh, they make that empiricist mistake, too. And so narrow AIs are said to “learn” something from experience, that is, by <em>ingesting data</em>. But we know from epistemology that you cannot create new knowledge by ingesting data. In fact, we know that an AGI could create knowledge without <em>any</em> inputs, and I think research programs should take that into account as a constraint, because it helps in software engineering to only focus on the thing that is absolutely necessary and not worry about extra stuff. I think one of the main problems with narrow AI research is that the only process that we know of that can create knowledge, which is what an intelligent program would need to to, is evolution. So, any effort that is not spent on understanding evolution must be futil.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> That’s interesting. Alright, so, I want to get more into evolution as well, but before that I just want to reiterate what you said here. So, basically there is a hard distinction between AI and AGI here, where AI is… the fundamental issue with it is epistemological, because we’re pretending that, like you said, in… what’s it called… in “square quotes,” that these algorithms can <em>learn</em>, but in fact they are just utilizing, uh, knowledge that was already created by the <em>programmer</em> who created the program. So it’s reach of already existing knowledge that, uh, gets us result [sic?], rather than the data just streaming in and magically creating something new. Is that right?</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> That’s right. There is that fundamental distinction. It can be a little more difficult to see with narrow AI than programs we’ve written traditionally, such as, say, a chat program or something, where it really just… I mean, a chat program is something with rather limited reach, bec-… and it does something very specific that you can see, happening right in front of you. When we look at narrow-AI programs, they do something with admittedly far greater reach, so for example, if you… there are certain algorithms that don’t need to be what they call “explicitly” programmed, and they will do, for example, through <em>reinforcement</em>, through updating of parameters according to certain logic, they will then “learn” how to do something.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Right.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> But this updating of parameters all follows mechanistically some predefined program that the <em>programmer</em> created. So, yes, there is something happening that updates something and so the <em>behavior</em> of the program changes. And in <em>that</em> sense narrow AI is different from other programs we’ve written in the past, but that doesn’t make it intelligent. And it’s even worse, in a way, because it makes it harder to tell that the program is not intelligent because it… what it’s doing is sophisticated, uhm…</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Mhmmm.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> But, I claim that the presence of sophisticated knowledge is <em>not</em> evidence of intelligence.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Yeah, so, I mean, I think that is an important point that people get, uhm, let’s say tricked into believing it is intelligent because it can create solutions that we didn’t have before. They are creating something, although mechanistically, by, like you say, updating parameters. For example, as far as I understand, the chess-playing algorithms that can beat human grandmasters at this point, they… do certain moves that, uh, the professionals can’t… they, they can’t understand why they do those moves but they work. So, they’re doing something novel, but it’s, uh, originating in the programmer rather than the program itself. The “fundamental” knowledge, so to speak. Even if the particular <em>move</em> in, say, chess, is something completely new.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> That’s right. So, for example, in a chess-playing program, if you program the software in such a way that it exhaust-… well, not <em>exhaustively</em>, ‘cause that’s too much — that it tries to, as exhaustively as possible, search the space of all possible chess moves, then, yes, it will find a move that no person has ever thought of, because there’s just so many of them, and because it has that advantage, that it has the resources, the computational resources, and especially because it does it <em>non-creatively</em> that it’s even willing to search that vast space of possible moves. And so, yes, it’s going to come up, occasionally, with moves that no person’s ever thought of, but, of course, the… the way it does that was given by the programmer. So, the programmer can provide simple algorithms, but if these simple algorithms have sufficient reach, then <em>implicit</em> in these algorithms is for example, what to us seems like a novel move, but of course it was already implicit in the reach of the program that the programmer created.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Right. And, okay, so someone who is not familiar with the Popperian, or Deutschian way of thinking, might say then that, okay but… but how is that different from humans. We’re also pre-programmed evolutionarily to have any capacity that we have. What would you say to that?</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> I would say that we aren’t. [Laughs]</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> [Laughs]</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> I think that humans, when they’re born, they come out sort of half-baked. They have very limited… they have inborn ideas, but there’s a mechanism through which almost all of these inborn ideas — presumably, that’s what I think — they get sort of “swept away” pretty quickly. So I think these inborn ideas are a starting point, a very minimal starting point, and then sooner or later the, the person, the human himself evolves new ideas on his own. So, the difference between a person playing chess and a computer program playing chess is that the person does it <em>creatively</em>. The person also does it <em>for fun</em>, which the program cannot do yet. So, a human baby is not born with the knowledge of how to play chess. [Laughs] So, if it was inborn, it could only be given genetically. So, if wer'e going to argue that, that would mean that there must have been some selection pressure in our ancestors’ past to encode knowledge of how to play chess. But that doesn’t make any sense because it wouldn’t have given our genes any… any advantage to spread through the population of genes to know how to play chess. So, it’s a bad explanation, I think, to say that we have inborn knowledge of chess, or any other sophisticated thing that we do. We don’t have inborn knowledge of how to build space shuttles either, and we don’t have inborn knowledge of how to read. These are all things that we learn on our own. But a chess program doesn’t learn how to play chess on its own. It’s already “born” with that knowledge because that knowledge was created by the programmer.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Right. So, you mentioned evolution there, before, so, I know that’s a big part of this perspective here, so… I’d like you to, perhaps, begin by explaining how evolution works, and even how it got started, and then we can go into why this is highly relevant for our quest of building AGI.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> Yes, so, basically, the theory of evolution is a theory that is supposed to be an answer to the question of how we account for all the complexity we see around us. We see things around us, such as trees and grass and animals, that appear to be designed. But we don’t see anyone who designed them. So it appears that there is a design without a designer. And, this was a mystery for the longest time, until Charles Darwin thought of a solution to this problem. If we want to go back to all the… if we want to go back to the origin of life, then it becomes easier to explain how this process may have gotten started, because one of the problems we run into if there’s no designer, there was also a time when there was no life on Earth.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Hmmm.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> And that is because our planet formed under very violent conditions. So, no way there was any life on Earth when the planet was just forming, because it was hot and violent and no life could have survived there. And so, once the… once the Earth was cooling down enough, and the oceans were forming, and the oceans cooled down, that’s when molecules started to form in those oceans spontaneously. Now, we only have rough guesses about how life started on Earth, but… one of the pretty good ones I think is that some of these molecules that formed in the oceans were <em>catalysts</em>. And a catalyst is something that can cause a change somewhere without undergoing any net change itself. So what that means is it can then go on to perform the same change again and again. And most of these catalysts, they just transformed one kind of molecule into another and all that happened pretty haphazardly, but one day what happened is that one such catalyst created some of the components of which <em>it itself</em> was made. And so, if it can create enough of these components, and if they are put together again somehow, well then you get a copy of the original molecule.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> So that would be the first replicator?</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> So, it wouldn’t be quite targeted enough yet to consider it a replicator, but if that continues, and you get ever more copies, and… initially, that happens only very indirectly and through detours, but if, through some changes, this process becomes more targeted, then those copies get even better at making copies, and at <em>that</em> point we start calling it a replicator. Or rather, I should say, they’re <em>instances</em> of a replicator, because a replicator is an abstraction. But I’ll just call them replicators for short.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Right.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> And so replication is a central concept in the theory of evolution because evolution cannot work without replicators. So, imagine, uh, these self-replicating molecules floating around in those oceans that are called the “primordial soup.” Or, even simpler, just imagine you start out with a single self-replicating molecule in that soup, okay, then you can think about what will happen over time. One thing that will happen is that after a few days there will be more replicators than there were on day one, because they copy themselves.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Yes.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> So these replicators, they spread through the soup, as it were. And then, another thing that happens, is that replicators occasionally make <em>mistakes</em> when they copy themselves, so over time you get replicators that look and work slightly different from how they started out. And so, this alone, this imperfect replication will lead to something that’s called a <em>drift</em>. In biology, this is called a <em>genetic</em> drift. And so, over time, you get pockets of the population of replicators that all look a little different. But even this isn’t quite enough yet to call it evolution because we’re still missing a central ingredient, and that’s selection. And so, once you have selection then the drift becomes… sort of the stage where evolution takes place, because selection is when individual replicators they die or they break down or whatever you want to call it. And selection is important because it’s the thing that introduces <em>pressure</em>, and acts <em>on</em> the pool of replicators sort of top down, and weeds out those replicators that aren’t as good at replicating as the others. Now, once you have these three components — replication, the introduction of errors during replication, and selection, that’s when you get evolution. And, over time, you get replicators that are <em>adapted</em> to the purpose of spreading through the population. And so, this is when the appearance of design first entered the stage. So.. and then also over time, replicators can become more complex, and so that is how we account for the complexity we see around us. It has the <em>appearance</em> of design, and that’s why we need to explain its presence through the theory of evolution. And so, at that point, you can say that the replicators contain <em>knowledge</em>, and that is knowledge primarily about how to spread themselves, but in order to spread themselves they may also evolve knowledge about the environment and their competitors and so forth, so, I… I should say, they don’t “know” anything in the sense of being conscious beings…</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> Yeah, they encapsulate knowledge.</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> That’s right. Their molecular structure encodes knowledge. And so, that is how those early replicators first evolved RNA, and then DNA, and then at some point they, you know, in square quotes “discovered” than building organisms around themselves is a great way to spread through the population. And so that is how life came on the scene. So life is an evolved strategy of replicators. And evolution still continues to this day, and that’s still how new species evolve.</p>
<p><strong>C:</strong> I mean, it’s uhm… it’s fascinating to think about the origin of the whole thing, and I’m curious how… how long… of a time span would we see between the first molecular replicator and actual organisms, complex organisms, like mammals, and things like that. Do we know?</p>
<p><strong>D:</strong> I don’t know if we know. We might. I would imagine it took a long time. And if I remember correctly, though nobody quote on this, on this, but… if I remember correctly, there was a time when the, the “soup” was basically, uh, saturated with replicators, and it took the discovery of life to, to kind of “stir up” the pool so that evolution could take place again. So, there can become… there can come a time where the pool g…<br>
<br><em>This is an abridged version for RSS feeds. Read the full article at <a href="https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/do-explain-episode-11-a-window-on-intelligen" rel="ugc">https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/do-explain-episode-11-a-window-on-intelligen</a></em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/do-explain-episode-11-a-window-on-intelligen
Do Explain Episode 11 — A Window on Intelligence, with Dennis Hackethal — Transcript
2023-02-08T09:17:43Z
2023-02-08T09:17:43Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="new-domain">New Domain</h1>
<p>I finally found a better domain: <a href="https://www.critapp.com/" rel="ugc">www.critapp.com</a></p>
<p>And there are user profiles with paginated posts and comments. The home page showing all posts is also paginated now.</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/new-domain
New Domain
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="new-landing-page-and-navbar-design">New Landing Page and Navbar Design</h1>
<p>My sister designed a logo for <a href="https://www.fallible.fun/" rel="ugc">fallible.fun</a> and it looks awesome. It’s featured on the new landing page:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_dbjv919VsjfdKPOkoe6isQ.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>How cool is that logo?</p>
<p>And I redesigned the navbar. It is now only visible on in the standard Bootstrap collapsed style on mobile, and on screens larger than mobile I replaced it with a sidebar. I wanted it to sort of visually disappear when you don’t need it so you can focus on the post you’re reading:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_uNXd5KkWBs9kArxk6ikQIw.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>It’s the sidebar on the left.</p>
<p>That’s it. It’s there if you need it, but otherwise it’s just about you interacting with the text in front of you.</p>
<p>The text corresponding to each sidebar item appears when it corresponds to the current page, and as you over it:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_WYoOyRyPft-OhWPlLclx-w.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>You can’t see the cursor there because it’s a screenshot, but it’s hovering over the notifications item in the sidebar. The same text appears without hovering when you are on the notifications page.</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/new-landing-page-and-navbar-design
New Landing Page and Navbar Design
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="domain-and-markdown">Domain and Markdown</h1>
<p>I now have a domain for the discussion site: <a href="http://www.fallible.fun/" rel="ugc">www.fallible.fun</a>. And it supports markdown, allowing the user to post formatted content such as this one:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_35B2vYW3ZY-pEUCHc77MpA.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>As before, the green segments are passages people have commented on.</p>
<p>The font and the markdown look beautiful together. One thing I’m not happy with yet is the navbar at the top. It looks bulky and clunky and the page looks better when it is scrolled out of view and the text takes center stage.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_5vWyOL_UgCbmEIXA9uquew.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>So yeah… that’s going to have to change somehow. Nor am I crazy about the domain.</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/domain-and-markdown
Domain and Markdown
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="another-update-on-the-discussion-site">Another Update on the Discussion Site</h1>
<p>I’ve been busy implementing new features. The most notable perhaps is that posts and comments can now have an assigned type. The purpose of this is mainly to facilitate asking questions, posting responses, and, most importantly, posting refutations. This means that posts can be marked as refuted:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_yGDioEdknTj51E-qnDf6dQ.gif" alt="Refuting a post"></p>
<p>Note that in order to “save” the original post, one can refute the refutation:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_HgDFJ-lvsMktTziOv1y1zg.gif" alt="Refuting a refutation"></p>
<p>(In real life, you wouldn’t want to post unargued assertions such as the ones in the above previews. They’re only meant to showcase the functionality.)</p>
<p>So, if you post some things to the site in search of feedback/criticism, the site can now help you keep track of criticisms. The same goes for unanswered questions: when an answer to a question is refuted, the question is considered unanswered again.</p>
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https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/another-update-on-the-discussion-site
Another Update on the Discussion Site
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="update-on-the-discussion-site">Update on the Discussion Site</h1>
<p>First, I needed new pages. One to post something new:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_sAlETxp4NdlwgBZqPupmCg.gif" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>And one to see all the posts:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_wZdNPPKTIXvt-yCwRS-FJw.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>Pretty standard stuff. But notably, comments can now be made on comments, which then appear as deeply nested threads, each highlighting the passage that has been commented on:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_aWeFk3hDb6VuYLRkF49wng.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>So what you’re looking at here is the post with the large font in the middle. It is itself a comment on the word “little” in the post above it, highlighted in gray. Highlighted in green are the passages that people have commented on underneath. In this case, someone commented on the phrase “Maybe go with "small” instead?“, which turned into a thread with another guy thanking him. The thread is indicated by the gray bar on the left hand side. Additionally, a couple of people made separate comments on the word "cutesy”. Those comments are not in a thread because they are not connected by that gray bar.</p>
<p>You can try out that very page here: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191214002835/https://diskussion.herokuapp.com/#/posts/d3c2e998-6e24-45fc-95ea-e3c73fbdfdf0" rel="ugc">https://web.archive.org/web/20191214002835/https://diskussion.herokuapp.com/#/posts/d3c2e998-6e24-45fc-95ea-e3c73fbdfdf0</a></p>
<p>Next up, I’ll need to implement some navigation, as there is currently no easy way to get back to the home page. And then, the big one: actually persist these posts on a server.</p>
<p><em>If you enjoyed this article, <a href="https://twitter.com/dchackethal" rel="ugc">follow me on Twitter</a> for more content like it.</em></p>
https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/update-on-the-discussion-site
Update on the Discussion Site
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="highlighting-arbitrary-passages">Highlighting Arbitrary Passages</h1>
<p>Yesterday, I implemented a feature in the discussion forum I am building that I think is pretty cool. You can highlight any arbitrary passage and then link to it:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_esVOk3V4psWAjHzjp6oS4A.gif" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>Note that the corresponding range is added to the end of the URL. If you then share this URL with someone else, they will see the same visual effect.</p>
<p>This will be useful for cross referencing ideas.</p>
<p>See for yourself: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191209181717/https://diskussion.herokuapp.com/#245...264" rel="ugc">https://web.archive.org/web/20191209181717/https://diskussion.herokuapp.com/#245…264</a></p>
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https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/highlighting-arbitrary-passages
Highlighting Arbitrary Passages
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="neat-clojure-function">Neat Clojure Function</h1>
<p>Yesterday, I learned about the Clojure core function <a href="https://clojuredocs.org/clojure.core/merge-with" rel="ugc"><code>merge-with</code></a>. Imagine you keep an inventory of two stores:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">inventory-1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:cornflakes</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:chunky-soup</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:nutella</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">})</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">inventory-2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:cornflakes</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:chunky-soup</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:milk</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">})</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>Say you want to find out the total number of each item. In this case, a map saying that you have 4 boxes of cornflakes left, 6 chunky soups, 2 jars of Nutella, and 2 cartons of milk. How could you go about this? You can’t just merge them or the second map’s items will just override those it shares with the first one’s:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">merge</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">inventory-1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">inventory-2</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:cornflakes</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:chunky-soup</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:nutella</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:milk</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>This says you have, say, only 4 chunky soups total, when in reality you have 6.</p>
<p>Try <code>merge-with</code> instead:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">merge-with</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">inventory-1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">inventory-2</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:cornflakes</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:chunky-soup</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:nutella</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:milk</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>What’s going on here? It basically iterates over the tuples in each map and constructs a new map that will have both maps’ keys. Whenever the given maps share a key, it passes both corresponding values to the given function (in this case <code>+</code>); otherwise, it just adds the remaining key and value to the result without invoking the given function.</p>
<p>In this particular case, it sees that <code>:cornflakes</code> occurs in both maps, once with value <code>3</code>, and once with value <code>1</code>, so the result will have an entry of <code>:cornflakes (+ 3 1)</code> . It also sees that <code>:nutella</code> only occurs in the first map, so an entry of <code>:nutella 2</code> is added to the result. And so on.</p>
<p>This works for any number of maps:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">merge-with</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:b</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">})</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:b</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>Of course, it works for any function, not just <code>+</code>. What function you pass it is up to you. You may get creative; say you have a bunch of vectors of numbers in each key, and you want to <code>concat</code> them:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">merge-with</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">concat</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">]}</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">]}</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:b</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">]})</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nf">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:b</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">]}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>(Note that while the value of <code>:a</code> value turned into a list (the result of <code>concat</code>, <code>:b</code>‘s stayed a vector because concat was not invoked with it since no other map had <code>:b</code> for a key.)</p>
<p>Or perhaps you can add a bunch of integers up that are hidden within vectors behind keys? You sure can:</p>
<div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight clojure"><code><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">merge-with</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">comp</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">#</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">apply</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">+</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="n">%</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">concat</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]}</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">7</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:b</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">]}</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:b</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">]})</span><span class="w">
</span><span class="nb">></span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p">{</span><span class="no">:a</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">14</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="no">:b</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">}</span><span class="w">
</span></code></pre></div>
<p>As you can see, <code>merge-with</code> is powerful. Neato, huh fellas?</p>
<p>PS: Guess how often I miss OOP when writing Clojure.</p>
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https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/neat-clojure-function
Neat Clojure Function
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
2022-09-14T17:38:29Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="discussions-revisited">Discussions Revisited</h1>
<p>Today’s websites “enabling” discussions are mostly awful.</p>
<p>First, conversations are typically modeled as a linear exchange. You say something, I say something. But that’s not how real conversations work. Anything we say can be rich in consequences and merits exploring, which may deserve dedicated attention separate from the rest of the thread. Sometimes, we state several ideas at once, and addressing them one by one in a linear fashion is cumbersome, especially when each idea requires further conversation. So in reality, conversations are like trees. There are some platforms like Reddit and Twitter where you can comment on comments, but it isn’t always clear which part of a comment you are responding to, unless you take the trouble to manually copy the original text and quote it — that is, if you know markdown. And Twitter is generally bad for discussions because it enforces a character limit on each tweet, which makes discussing larger ideas cumbersome if not virtually impossible.</p>
<p>Second, current social networks are built around the concept of <em>approval</em>. It incentivizes people to make unargued assertions, since those that are going to agree with a statement are going to agree with it without an explanation for why it is true. But to those who do not already agree with the idea, unargued assertions are invitations to disagree. This is why social networks are polarizing: they are not built to learn, but to agree and disagree. We don’t learn from either of those. We learn <em>through constructive criticism</em>. As the great philosopher Karl Popper said, “I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth.”</p>
<p>People worry about fake news and the election coverage for fear of voter manipulation, so they remind us to “check our sources”. That does not help, because a false idea does not become true when uttered by someone else, and vice versa. An idea is an <em>impersonal</em> thing. It is either true or false, and we can only find out which through conjecture and criticism. But since today’s platforms do not provide a good experience and discourage real discussions in favor of agreeing or disagreeing with each other, we have no good place to discuss online.</p>
<p>Learning how to discuss is important because it teaches you <em>how to think</em>. When you ponder an idea the same thing happens in your mind as when you discuss it with someone else. Many different ideas come up and collide, and you want to get closer to the truth. Whether this is with yourself or someone else does not really matter.</p>
<p>Medium is a refreshing platform because it encourages people to post longer pieces. And its editing tools are better than what else I’ve seen online. They still are not really conducive to critical discussions, though.</p>
<p>What are we left with? Believe it or not, it’s email. It’s the only tool we have that really allows you to do what you want to do. You can quote others, comment precisely on the quotes you want inline, and conversations can carry on in long form in a tree shape. Alas, emails are boring, they are visually nude, they do not provide any tools to make discussions easier, and longer email threads are notoriously hard to maintain and reference. This isn’t to mention that oddly enough, commenting is usually done <em>above</em> a quote, and unless everyone agrees that this should be avoided because it disrupts the order in which you read naturally, there is no way to enforce this standard.</p>
<p>What is needed is nothing less than a new discussion platform; a new approach which gives you long form posts, great commenting and editing tools, tree shaped conversations, and precise quoting. When you write a piece, people should be able to comment inline on the parts that matter, and you should see which comments you have not addressed yet at a glance. This matters because an idea is true if all its known refutations are false. In other words, the whole thing would roughly mirror how critical discussions work in real life. It could be used to evaluate new ideas. Indeed, way down the road, scientists and philosophers — or anyone with an idea, really — can post a conjecture and then ask for criticism. If, at any given time, there is at least one outstanding criticism, the idea is considered refuted, or at least its truth value is “unknown”, and it can be marked as such. That way, others know what the current status of an idea is. Over time, such a platform could become a (fallible!) “source” of ideas and their truth status.</p>
<p>I figured it might be fun to work on such a platform. The first snapshot is available here: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191208201736/https://diskussion.herokuapp.com/" rel="ugc">https://web.archive.org/web/20191208201736/https://diskussion.herokuapp.com/</a></p>
<p>I’ll keep working on it for as long as it’s fun. Who knows where that will take me. So far, the website only displays a static text; it’s only a mockup of what an actual implementation might look like:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_1unl8-tycrFKsVPBR0HjoA.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>You can comment on a passage by highlighting it:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_FQdggJ4IjU1glF7z1RBd1w.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>The button on the left appears, and you can click it to expand a form:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_gaASQBjMAF-LeP12e3VRKg.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>After you submit the comment, the corresponding passage stays highlighted:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_cPwo_VNXCqKS1Lab7-k5gQ.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>The idea of highlighting text to comment on it is inspired by the Medium website. But on Medium, highlights are rather limited. For example, you cannot highlight passages across paragraphs. But why not? I’m guessing this is because getting the selected text from many different HTML elements can be a bit tricky. On my site, you can select across any HTML elements within the post. You can even select text <em>around</em> the comment form, assuming you already have it open, to correct your selection. It won’t quote anything you typed into the comment form and it will place the comment form correctly.</p>
<p>When a second comment is made, its corresponding passage can overlap with another passage that has been commented on:</p>
<p><img src="/assets/1_efjH-BM3FTX269ZagvzuMg.png" alt="Image for post"></p>
<p>Note how the green is slightly darker in the middle, around the word “button”, indicating that this word is perhaps a bit controversial.</p>
<p>The comments below first indicate their <em>range</em> — the index of the first and last letter of the passage relative to the rest of the text. Then the quote is shown, indicated by a blue bar on the left, followed by the comment itself.</p>
<p>Next up, I’d like to make it so that you can link from a passage to its corresponding comments, so you can always quickly see what people are saying about a particular passage, and vice versa, so that if you’re scrolling through the comments, you can see what passage they belong to if the quote does not provide enough context.</p>
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https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/discussions-revisited
Discussions Revisited
2023-10-13T23:48:25Z
2023-10-13T23:48:25Z
Dennis Hackethal
<h1 id="recovering-from-blindness">Recovering from Blindness</h1>
<p>In the “Oxford Companion to the Mind” in the section “Blindness, recovery from”, the empiricist John Locke is said to have wondered in 1690: what would happen to a man who, having been blind his whole life, had his vision repaired? If a blind man had learned to distinguish a cube and a globe by touch, could he, once made to see, identify them just by looking at them? The “Oxford Companion to the Mind” goes on to give this touching account of a boy who actually went through this experience: “These remained interesting speculations, until in 1728 an unusually expert and thoughtful surgeon, William Cheselden, reported such a clinical case. Though generally distinguished as a surgeon his achievements were especially ophthalmic operations for cataract […]. In a celebrated case Cheselden gave sight to a boy aged thirteen or fourteen who was born with highly opaque cataracts. Cheselden reported that:”</p>
<blockquote><p>When [the boy] first saw, he was so far from making any judgment of distances, that he thought all object whatever touched his eyes (as he expressed it) as what he felt did his skin, and thought no object so agreeable as those which are smooth and regular, though he could form no judgment of their shape, or guess what it was in any object that was pleasing to him: he knew not the shape of anything, nor any one thing from another, however different in shape or magnitude; but upon being told what things were, whose form he knew before from feeling, he would carefully observe, that he might know them again; and (as he said) at first learned to know, and again forgot a thousand things in a day. One particular only, though it might appear trifling, I will relate: Having often forgot which was the cat, and which the dog, he was ashamed to ask; but catching the cat, which he knew by feeling, he was observed to look at her steadfastly, and then, setting her down, said, So, puss, I shall know you another time. He was very much surprised, that those things which he had liked best, did not appear most agreeable to his eyes, expecting those persons would appear most beautiful that he loved most, and such things to be most agreeable to his sight, that were so to his taste. We thought he soon knew what pictures represented, which were [shown] too him, but we found afterwards we were mistaken; for about two months after he was couched, he discovered at once they represented solid bodies, when to that time he considered them only as party-coloured planes, or surfaces diversified with variety of paint; but even then he was no less surprised, expecting the pictures would feel like the things they represented, and was amazed when he found those parts, which by their light and shadow appeared now round and uneven, felt only flat like the rest, and asked which was the lying sense, feeling or seeing?</p>
<p>Being [shown] his father’s picture in a locket at his mother’s watch, and told what it was, he acknowledged the likeness, but was vastly surprised; asking, how it could be, that a large face could be expressed in so little room, saying, it should have seemed as impossible for him, as to put a bushel of anything into a pint. At first he could bear but very little light, and the things he saw, he thought extremely large; but upon seeing things larger, those first seen he conceived less, never being able to imagine any lines beyond the bounds he saw; the room he was in, he said, he knew to be but part of the house, yet he could not conceive that the whole house could look bigger. Before he was couched, he expected little advantage from seeing, worth undergoing an operation for, except reading and writing; for he said, he thought he could have no more pleasure in walking abroad than he had in the garden, which he could do safely and readily. And even blindness, he observed, had this advantage, that he could go anywhere in the dark, much better than those who can see; and after he had seen, he did not soon lose this quality, nor desire a light to go about the house in the night. He said, every new object was a new delight; and the pleasure was so great, that he wanted words to express it; but his gratitude to his operator he could not conceal, never seeing him for some time without tears of joy in his eyes, and other marks of affection. […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If knowledge came to us through the senses, the boy would immediately have been able to visually understand and distinguish shapes. Things we take for granted — depth perception, for example — are complex and learned concepts. The boy had to first <em>learn</em> how to use his newfound vision before he could learn anything else from it. Knowledge of how to use the senses is neither encoded genetically, nor can it possibly come from the senses. So where does it come from? Once he got better at using his vision, he could learn from it by using it as an <em>error correction</em> device. That’s what senses are: error correction devices. We use them <em>after</em> creatively conjecturing solutions to problems, such as when the boy picked up his pet to test whether it was a cat or a dog through touch. If he ever forgot, it would take more error correction, until he got so good at it he knew. Something that seems as simple as learning to see represents a mountain of problems. Solving them is an impressive creative feat. Remarkably, young children do all of this joyfully and, it seems, effortlessly.</p>
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https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/recovering-from-blindness
Recovering from Blindness
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2022-09-14T17:38:28Z
2024-03-19T02:37:55+00:00