Dennis Hackethal’s Blog
My blog about philosophy, coding, and anything else that interests me.
Tweets
An archive of my tweets and retweets through . They may be formatted slightly differently than on Twitter. API access has since gotten prohibitively expensive – I don't know whether or when I'll be able to update this archive.
But in case I will, you can subscribe via RSS – without a Twitter account. Rationale
@ehsaanehmad @ChipkinLogan
In Constructor Theory, wealth is--I think--the set of all physical transformations one can cause.
@steaknbacon13 @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Let me edit your sentence lightly:
The article explains one reason [for dogs suffering] as the dog having suffered [...]
Do you see how this is circular?
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
I have spent many hours on this and probably googled more than you. I'm guessing you think the only possible reason I could think animals are not conscious is that I'm an idiot. I assure you I have done my homework.
Pick one of those animal behaviors and I will try to explain it
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
No, not because it's me talking. And no, SoundCloud doesn't pay me.
It's about what I say, not about me.
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Can you please expand on what you think sounds pompous?
Re SoundCloud, I shared it because I think the conversation is good and explains the issue well.
My answer isn’t “watch my soundcloud,” it’s “you could refute me by giving evidence of creativity in an animal.”
It’s peculiar until we realize that the truth is hard to come by.
It’s peculiar there are still people opposing vaccines. Or people who think the Earth is flat. Etc.
These things take time. 200 years isn't that long. Gradually, some countries have been trying some amounts of voluntarism. There are no guarantees, but maybe one day we can try ever more and switch to a public life free of coercion.
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
I don't know why you keep insulting me. It's not going to change my mind. Does it make you feel better? I'm not angry at you btw and I respect that you care about animals.
You could change my mind if you refuted my explanation I gave earlier for why animals aren't conscious.
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
I agree that if animals can suffer, it's better to kill them quickly and with mercy. Do you think it would be even better not to kill them at all? If so, why aren't you a vegan? Many things are natural but still horrendous.
@steaknbacon13 @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
I read the article in full. It points to behaviors, which, as I said earlier, makes for circular reasoning.
Again, what's needed is an explanation.
Conjecture: it may have to do with governments piggy-backing on static memes, which were the norm for most of human history (see BoI). As such, voluntarism may only be made possible by the relatively recent departure from staticity.
@Lene_Noir @ChipkinLogan @dino_rosati
Yes, it's about ethics, too. Coercing someone to help others is unethical. Say some third party pointed a gun at you and said "give me money so I can give it to Dennis." Would you think that's okay?
Those who want to help those less fortunate are free to do so.
@steaknbacon13 @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
I know those behaviors. Can you explain why those behaviors are evidence of suffering? (Without pointing to the behavior again, because that would be circular.)
@LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
It's great that you summarized my stance. Can you verbalize why you disagree with me?
BTW, animals are also machines: "survival machines" (see Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene"). So being alive or not can't be the deciding factor.
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Did I understand that correctly: you think animals can suffer but it's okay to slaughter them so we can eat them because it's natural? Yes/no?
BTW I changed back to eating meat for other reasons.
@LibertarianJew @ParodiMarcello @liberty_deity
I understand. I used to share your opinions on animal consciousness. Just know that this is not at all an obvious problem. Hope you enjoy the episode :)
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
There is something infinitely special about humans that animals don't have: creativity.
Can you name something your dogs or chimps at the zoo do that requires knowledge they must have created themselves? (That would be evidence you are correct and I am wrong.)
@dino_rosati @ChipkinLogan @Lene_Noir
The fact that you show empathy for those less fortunate without being coerced to show that empathy shows that we don't need coercion to care for each other. Many people share your concern for the powerless and would love to help them. They are free to do so.
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
That's not an explanation, it's just an assertion. And it's a negative one, so I couldn't possibly refute it.
The idea that levels of intelligence correlate with complexity of the species is also something that has been refuted.
I recommend this: soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a…
@LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Do you think Roombas, which mindlessly execute programmers' instructions, are conscious? They even "cry out" when they get stuck.
@LibertarianJew @ParodiMarcello @liberty_deity
I understand the concern for animal wellbeing btw, I used to be vegan for that reason. But I changed my mind. I have entertained the usual objections and refuted them.
If you're interested, listen in on this conversation where I explain more: soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a…
@LibertarianJew @ParodiMarcello @liberty_deity
If consciousness = byproduct of creativity, beings can't suffer without creativity.
Re the brain: I don't know if what you're saying is true, but let's assume it is. Suffering, creativity, consciousness etc are matters of software, not hardware, so brain scans won't help.
@ChipkinLogan @dino_rosati @Lene_Noir
- insurances like disability insurance (which already exist) would help if I'm not mistaken.
@0xnaka @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Btw, I argue that the presence of sophisticated knowledge is not evidence of their creativity/consciousness, because no matter how sophisticated, that knowledge may as well have originated through biological evolution, not in the animal itself.
See also soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a…
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Yes, humans are animals, too--I meant all animals other than humans. There is something different about humans that enables them to suffer that all other animals don't have: creativity.
I may be wrong about this and will elaborate if you'll consider that you may be wrong.
@0xnaka @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
An explanation would be better than a guarantee.
@ParodiMarcello @LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
I know this topic is taboo, but don’t frame it like you’re doing me a favor.
Our best explanations of consciousness and creativity say animals aren’t conscious. Either refute those explanations or accept them.
@LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Now, they still could be conscious anyway, but consciousness seems to have to do with creativity and error correction in particular.
If animals just mindlessly execute their genes’ instructions and don’t create knowledge, that leaves no room for creativity/consciousness.
@LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Ok. If everything is inborn, animals are just mindlessly executing their genetic instructions. They don’t need to be conscious for that. They’re just little robots.
A video series on the Berlin programming language:
@LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Ok there are layers to this so let's go step by step.
I follow David Deutsch here who says that everything animals do can be explained through inborn algorithms they inherit genetically. Biological evolution created those algorithms. Make sense so far?
@LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
Right. There is an emotional response--it cries out--but I don't think it suffers. Only people can suffer because they have an ability animals don't have: creativity.
Has to do with how the human mind works vs how animal "minds" work. I can go into more detail if interested.
@LibertarianJew @liberty_deity
As uncomfortable as it is reading those tweets, animals aren’t conscious. They can’t suffer so it isn’t immoral to kill them or hurt them.
However, if he thinks his dog does suffer and he enjoys it anyway or even because of that, then I’m worried about him (but not the dog).
It’s not about resisting things that protect you. It’s about resisting force. You can agree that people should wear masks without agreeing they should be forced to do so.
I wasn’t, but lack of a fitness function and competition over memory and processing power sound promising!
mentioned a paper to me about artificial life once by someone who’s Popperian, IIRC.
I wrote a little functional programming language called Berlin that transpiles to JavaScript. I call it "poor man's Clojure."
Hoping you find it useful.
Docs: berlinlang.org
Source & rationale: github.com/dchacke/berlin…
They are conjectures. We tentatively assume they are true until they are refuted.
You wrote a lot so your content is ~4x longer than mine so it's overwhelming. You also insult David's work and his fans. That leaves little incentive for others to discuss/learn with/from you.
Speaking of the "Bucket Theory of the Mind"... This is what some French artists around the turn of the century thought school could look like in the year 2000 :(
From publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-1… https://t.co/iaV0JIqssV
It's a keen observation, but that problems are inevitable is itself not a problem. It's a good thing: otherwise we wouldn't be able to make infinite progress. In other words: if problems weren't inevitable, we might get stuck and stagnate forever. So it's a feature, not a bug.
.@ChipkinLogan stopped by to talk about economics, epistemology, coercion, the US government's response to the pandemic, Constructor Theory, and more. I learned a lot—I think you will, too.
Enjoy!
They don't qualify "men," so presumably they mean all men, including black ones. Therefore, they're singling out black men for special opprobrium, when three paragraphs earlier they said all black lives matter regardless of their sexual identity.
2/2
They're also self-contradictory.
First they say: "[...] all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity [...]"
Three paragraphs later: "We build a space that [...] is free from [...] environments in which men are centered."
1/
RT @TheAliceSmith:
In a hundred years time...
“Mum, is it true that we used to put men on the moon?”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“Why don’t we d…
@NathanpmYoung @DavidDeutschOxf @DouglasCarswell
Is a legitimate point. I'm agreeing with you.
Oh, I got confused there. By "standard" I was referring to the API standard you mentioned, so when you used the word "standard" again I thought it was still referring to that.
@NathanpmYoung @DavidDeutschOxf @DouglasCarswell
Ah, yes, I would consider that a sort of "negative" coercion -- "you must not do x" -- whereas a positive coercion -- you must do x -- is immoral.
I'd argue negative coercion is morally okay iff it prevents positive coercion. What do you think?
@NathanpmYoung @DavidDeutschOxf @DouglasCarswell
I think how you create the standard is legitimate.
Legitimate how? Because it's government-sanctioned?
Coersion is not always immoral.
Give an example of moral coercion and an explanation of why it is moral?
@NathanpmYoung @DavidDeutschOxf @DouglasCarswell
You could. The question is whether you should.
That standard is almost invariably dictated by those who don't have to meet it themselves (govt) and don't know whether it'd be hard.
And again, even if it were the most trivial undertaking: coercion. is. immoral.
The Case against Commas and Operators:
@NathanpmYoung @DavidDeutschOxf @DouglasCarswell
Do the incumbents also need to update their migration software to support every little new service? What about incumbents with high market share but little cash? Etc
- even if some companies can do this trivially, it isn’t right to use force on them. Better to persuade.
RT @liberty_deity:
Let the truth be known. https://t.co/2n7mTouEml
It’s not real AI because real AI would be a person. This is false advertising.
No such thing as a reliable source, see Popper.
RT @Crit_Rat:
Today, the YouTube algorithm blessed me with an explanation of why arches are stable structures: youtube.com/watch?v=JlL6ZH…
It'…
One of the most influential scientific journals has become vulnerable to political abuse. This is extremely worrisome.
@tjaulow @PessimistsArc
It's not on those subjected to force to explain the harm. It's on those who want to subject others to force to explain what gives them the right to do so, no matter how small a force it may be.
While I am in support of the use of seatbelts, I completely get Dave’s opinion that forcing people to wear seatbelts is not okay.
RT @Ayaan:
What the media also do not tell you is that America is the best place on the planet to be black, female, gay, trans or what have…
RT @DavidDeutschOxf:
Learning about those things has never been more important, yes.
RT @SarahTheHaider:
This passage from Arendt seems... extremely topical. Read in full. https://t.co/NatL8xDUaA
RT @Laquearius68:
This is my participation at the @frictionalgames Frictional Fan Jam as main theme : Spring/Rebirth ! Hope you like it <3…
More buggy animal programming: dog’s person-recognition algorithm falsely identifies a statue as a person, dog then repeatedly expects the statue to throw the stick. twitter.com/_Islamicat/sta…
Beasts can't be appeased. Don't base your actions on what they want. twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/stat…
James is trying to present a false package deal to pressure people into agreeing with him. You can, e.g., oppose uncoordinated and unsafe toppling in favor of coordinated/safe toppling.
More about how you can identify such false package deals: medium.com/@hcd/how-do-so…
Yes, + “the more you deny being wrong the more you are wrong”
RT @SpeechUnion:
1/ An alarming number of people are losing their jobs at the moment – or being suspended from them, pending investigations…
I’m not sure people are born with racist ideas. Those strike me as memes, ie learned.
.@jtLOL Official prediction: some SJW will demand BLM hashtag shouldn’t count toward character limit because that “silences their voices.” @twitter will scram to implement that lest they look like racists.
He’s basically saying: if you’re white and claim you’re not racist, that’s just more evidence of you being racist.
No. That’s evidence of HIM being racist against white people (yes that’s possible)
- he’s setting up a situation in which he can’t be wrong. Static memes galore. twitter.com/kjdrennen/stat…
RT @chadfelixg:
If white supremacists were the threat the left demands they are, defunding the police would be the most dangerous thing for…
RT @TomCottonAR:
How is everyone at the @nytimes doing tonight?
RT @jtLOL:
Utter lunacy. This is how people leave the left. https://t.co/itJ7PhpIVK
RT @jtLOL:
"I just publicly shamed my daughter for looking like me"
RT @jtLOL:
OUT: "In these uncertain times..."
IN: "Please stop looting us, we swear to God we're not racist"
RT @jtLOL:
Every brand must tell me that racism is bad or I will be left to assume they think racism is good
Hmmm... can't really do that as I don't have commas or semicolons so I already use whitespace as as delimiter for lists...
RT @ZubyMusic:
@ArielleScarcell
Yes. And this shouldn't need to be said.
Posting a black square literally does nothing. It's a feel good t…
What are good delimiters for code blocks in compiler design? Other than the already overused {...}, [...], and (...).
I'm thinking maybe <...>. Like in this fn declaration:
fn(a b <
... code here
)
Problem: conflicts with less than/greater than operators.
RT @MikhailaAleksis:
Apparently it’s “post a black box on Instagram to prove you’re not a racist” day. The world is insane. I’m not taking…
@JesseNichols @ToKTeacher @dela3499 @ChipkinLogan
Sometimes it can be fun and low-effort to solve a problem you've solved before. You can try to solve it differently, or better, or both.
Good for you for speaking out against trendy nonsense.
I don't know what's more disturbing. The tweet itself or the amount of likes & retweets it got. twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/stat…
Yes, heroes. Now cue environmentalists saying "but if they hadn't done that we wouldn't be having as much of an impact on the environment today and the planet would be better off." Environmentalists oppose progress, even (or especially?) when it saves people's lives. twitter.com/HumanProgress/…
RT @dvassallo:
"If you're on the wrong train, every stop is the wrong stop." — @GuruAnaerobic
No matter how much you've invested in your c…
RT @Trad_West_Art:
She is an 'artist' twitter.com/ParanoidKino/s…
RT @Ace_Archist:
@PBP1366 @smellycarney @1diotzQuery
You can think anything you like, yes. You don’t have a right to impose it on me throug…
I was wrong. It may be even simpler: feeling cold + not touching ground.
Seeing water + not touching ground = kick off swimming motion.
More buggy animal programming: youtube.com/watch?v=H49iVB…
Note the comments: nobody goes "wow, it's remarkable how dumb these dogs are." Most go "OMG so kewwwt." Only the users "FlyingFuzzies" and "Remember White" say what I think is right: it's instinctual behavior.