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

The coercive ideas surrounding the containment of COVID employ the same trick. If you resist being forced to stay at home, you're considered a grandma killer. Arguably, anti-rational ideas about the virus have spread much faster and are more harmful than the virus itself.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Once you understand this trick that such ideas use, you don't feel bad as easily anymore, and you'll have less of a problem criticizing them. The next step is to do so publicly, to help contain the spread of such ideas, and to show others they don't have to feel bad.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

There are ideas which, through their defining attribute of the opposition to something evil, make you feel bad if you question them (that includes BLM, Antifa, etc). Such ideas should make us extremely skeptical. Penalizing criticism is about as anti-rational as it gets.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@kreuzberged

We should be careful not to romanticize the horror that was Soviet Russia.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@kreuzberged

Comments on the original post indicate that this was propaganda, and the poster agrees.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@liberty_deity

It’s a bit ironic that this message would be presented in a classroom setting forced upon kids by the state in the first place.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“People will die unless...” is easy to vary externally. twitter.com/DanielJHannan/…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@asiramsa

Weihnachtsgans mit Klößen, Rotkraut und Soße!!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@asiramsa

Schnitzel mit Preiselbeersoße & Kartoffelsalat. Schweinshaxe. Oder ist das alles österreichisch? So oder so könnte ich mich jedes Mal reinsetzen. Ach und Maultaschen. Königsberger Klopse...

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MichaelPSenger

And hammer and sickle in the name 🤢🤮

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@traf

What site is that screenshot from, if I may ask?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@kreuzberged @AmRadDrehen

Wie schoen das damals war!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@paulg

FWIW, many of those who are said to resist wearing masks actually just resist being forced to wear a mask. The difference is important because it brings out the real source of frustration and the actual point of contention: force vs persuasion.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@mgoldingmd @metaLulie

I'm curious, does the "induced" happiness wane over repeated applications?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@leeerob @prisma

Does prisma.post.findMany() send an XHR?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@mgoldingmd @ReachChristofer @Crit_Rat

Perhaps we are able to turn subconscious ideas into conscious ones through careful thinking, though. And then go from there.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@mgoldingmd @ReachChristofer @Crit_Rat

Ah, yes, and in that sense, death from earthquake is also caused by a lack of knowledge, of course. What I mean is some ideas may evolve completely subconsciously, and I'm unsure as to how much careful thinking could help tackle ideas we don't know we have.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

One of the better articles I’ve read on the lockdown issue.

One minor note: even if there were evidence that lockdowns work in terms of controlling the virus (the lack of which is rightly bemoaned), we’d still need a good moral explanation for why it’s okay to lock people down twitter.com/MichaelPSenger…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@mgoldingmd @ReachChristofer @Crit_Rat

Yes, although I'm not sure I'd put it in terms of a lack of careful thinking. I wonder if sometimes bad ideas can evolve in minds undetected, and so careful thinking couldn't always help. Then some of them may be bad enough they lead to what we call "illness." What do you think?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tiptoptm

In that book, Deutsch gives a refutation of a similar idea which says that people acquire new behaviors by imitating them, which can't work because you need the idea/explanation of the behaviors to enact them in the first place. It has to happen in that order. Same with AGI.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tiptoptm

Well, AGI is a creative process. But overall, yes, I think so. + I'd add emphasis on not imitating humans. explanation > imitation

A useful rule of thumb from Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity": If we can already build it, it has nothing to do with intelligence.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tiptoptm

Without such an answer, advocating neural nets over some other arbitrary "learning" algorithm is irrational, because any of them might lead us to AGI.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tiptoptm

The difference is that evolution is creative, neural nets aren't. And before we dump millions into neural-net-based AGI research, shouldn't we first have an answer to the question: why and how would AGI arise from neural nets?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tiptoptm

There are self-replicating ideas in our minds as well, and all they "want" to do is spread, too, yet that's how we come up with solutions to problems. In evolution (mental or biological), solutions are always created without regard for the problem situation.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tiptoptm

Because an explanation of the human mind is the program that's needed.

It's very rare to stumble upon an explanation by accident/by doing something completely different.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@danpayne1 @dvassallo

Instead of asking yourself, “how do I know if I’m choosing the right thing?”, ask yourself, “how can I make it as easy as possible to detect when I haven’t chosen the right thing, and then change paths accordingly?”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@mgoldingmd @ReachChristofer @Crit_Rat

Got it, but... in the case of earthquakes, ideas seem to have nothing to do with it, whereas in the case of mental issues, it makes sense to me that they'd have something to do with it.

If ideas are software, couldn't bugs lead to symptoms we associate with mental illness?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Is there a no-go theorem à la Balinski and Young that mathematically proves that there can be no perfect representation in groups of people using a sufficient number of dimensions such as gender, race, age, etc?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Ein grosser Verlust im Kampf gegen Verfechter der "sozialen Gerechtigkeit" war der Tag, an dem der Duden das Wort "cisgender" uebernahm.

duden.de/rechtschreibun…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MatMcGann

I don’t think so, because the greater the danger, the easier it is to persuade people, and so no force is needed.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MatMcGann

I think there are parallels there to the weakness of character of the people acquiescing in or even eagerly accepting government-enforced lockdowns.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ReachChristofer @Crit_Rat @mgoldingmd

Why is that a worse explanation, and of what?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@Neuro_Skeptic

No, problems are, and in a broader sense creativity.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ReachChristofer @Crit_Rat

I think what you’re describing would also be a software issue. Also, I’m not sure there is such a thing as a “fear center” and “object recognition center”—it’s all ideas about what to fear and what objects to recognize.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Erfolg, die, wenn sie ernst genommen wird und wie aus der Geschichte nur allzu gut bekannt ist, nur zu Zwangsenteignung und Gewalt fuehren kann.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Daher haengt die urspruengliche Frage “Koennen wir uns die Reichen noch leisten” nicht nur vom angeblichen (und nicht existenten) Nullsummenspiel der Wirtschaft ab, sondern hat eine ganz ueble Grundeinstellung gegenueber wirtschaftlicher Taetigkeit und dem wirtschaftlichen...

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Die Vorstellung, dass die Wirtschaft angeblich ein Nullsummenspiel ist, hat schon zu viel Intoleranz und Leid gefuehrt, weil dann die Frage ist, auf wessen Kosten Fortschritt gemacht werden soll, und wem man Geld wegnehmen darf (den Reichen).

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Er ist das Resultat kreativer Arbeit und Zusammenarbeit und erfordert keine Kosten anderer. Die Wirtschaft ist kein Nullsummenspiel – da wird staendig etwas Neues erschaffen.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Es kann deshalb nicht stimmen, weil Reichtum nicht durch Umverteilung (von zukuenftig Armen zu zuekuenftig Reichen oder wie auch immer) erschaffen werden kann. Reichtum entsteht durch kreatives Schaffen ex nihilo.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Damit Ihr Zweifel stimmt, muesste man also irgendwie zeigen, dass Reichtum nicht erlangt werden koennte, ohne dass das auf Kosten anderer geschieht. Das kann aber nicht stimmen.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Um zu diesem Zweifel zu gelangen, muessen Sie also irgendeine Erklaerung gehabt haben (die ueber bloße Postulate aus der Literatur hinausgeht), von der Sie zu wissen meinen, dass Reichtum nur auf Kosten anderer erlangt werden kann.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Dass Sie kein Fachmann sind, macht uebrigens ueberhaupt nichts. Ich will mal versuchen, die Lage zu erklaeren. Sie zweifelten urspruenglich an meiner Aussage, dass der Reichtum eines anderen einen nichts koste.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Auch Bauarbeiter koennen sich ein Haus bauen, wenn sie den dafuer notwendigen Wohlstand erreicht haben (oder es finanziert kriegen). Und auch dieses Beispiel erklaert nicht, inwiefern Reichtum nur auf Kosten anderer erreicht werden koennte.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Angenommen, es ginge nicht ohne diese Mechanismen (was die auch immer sein moegen). Dann stellt sich erneut die Frage: Wieso muesste der eine arm werden, damit der andere reich werden kann?

Das ist uebrigens keine rhetorische Frage, sondern sie wendet sich direkt an Sie.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Naja, das ist ja nur die gleiche Behauptung, nur anders ausgedrückt. Also bleibt die Frage: warum ist das angeblich so, dass einer nur auf Kosten anderer reich werden kann?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CyberKulak

Yes, instead of "kids," I should have said "kids and teens" or something along those lines. Basically everyone living at home having to bend to the will of their parent(s).

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@mgoldingmd @Crit_Rat

I wonder if perhaps it's a bit like peacock tails in the biosphere—they bog the animal down in some ways, but the adaption managed to spread anyway. If an idea triggering a hallucination can spread through a mind, it will do just that.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5 @b_hasanni

Weil...?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@b_hasanni @michaelerich5

Ja, und das konnte man schon immer, denn der Reichtum eines anderen kostet einen nichts.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

RT @ChipkinLogan:
As part of my constructor theory interview series, here's my chat with David Deutsch @DavidDeutschOxf about Constructor T…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@SwipeWright

Why not blame both?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@DrIbram @TheRevAl

Aren’t you a martyr! You’re lying. It’s clear this is at least in part about you.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@frictionalgames

Only problem is, C++ code is scarier looking than the monsters in the game ;-)

Kidding, of course—this is awesome.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@EyalShay2

I imagine so.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dvassallo

Yes, and the need for certainty is what discourages many from ever starting a business.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@amitcc

I think you're right, calling it the main reason might be too much.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Conjecture: the main reason so many adults have trouble sleeping is because of trauma from forced bedtimes when they were kids.

Any refutations?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MichaelPSenger @WillowWyse

The oldest tweet I could find with this text is this one: twitter.com/mhdksafa/statu…

Maybe that tweet started it? Is it a coincidence that the tweet's author, @mhdksafa, seems to work for the UN?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MatMcGann

I’m guessing he’s somewhat widely read there. It wasn’t required reading for me—I think I first found one of his books in my mom’s bookshelf, then bought more later.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@RichardDawkins

The opposite question seems more puzzling to me: how could one possibly raise happy, moral children with religion?!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MatMcGann

Haffner’s books played a major role in my learning about the Nazis as a teenager growing up in Germany. Highly recommend his books.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@Hukkinen

If your application requires AGI but you haven’t built it, you haven’t succeeded.

That’s not to mention that AGI, like any other person, would need to consent to its “application.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@Hukkinen

Enough for what purpose?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“Becoming better at pretending to think is not the same as coming closer to being able to think.“

What's needed is an explanation of how the human mind works—not an ever better imitation of any of humans' behaviors.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“[...] the ability to imitate a human imperfectly or in specialized functions is not a form of universality. It can exist in degrees. Hence, even if chatbots did at some point start becoming much better at imitating humans [...], that would still not be a path to AI."

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

GPT-3 has proven to be a jump to a much better chatbot than any previous chatbots. So, is it a step toward AGI? No. The explanation is in "The Beginning of Infinity," chapter 7:

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@PessimistsArc

“Those little smileys were a symptom of the social angst spawned by the introduction of e-mail” 😂

:-) :-) :-)

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@heartbreak_sith

"Doesn't say sh!t" about owning guns? It says right there, in the image you posted, "[...] the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@DanielJHannan @toadmeister

Even such evidence wouldn’t cut it. What would be needed is a good explanation of why coercion is morally superior to freedom in this case, and why what coercion “achieves” can’t be done through freedom.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Much of what Rand wrote about—the hatred against white people (and now also straight and male ones especially), the moral inversion of the fight for racial equality, etc—could all be written today. The recent rise of SJWs has caused a big moral regression.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

She then quotes from the NYT again:

“If the individual has all the rights and privileges due him under the laws and the Constitution, we need not worry about groups and masses—those do not, in fact, exist, except as figures of speech.”

Indeed.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Later on, in the same vein:

“It is an ironic demonstration of the philosophical insanity and the [...] suicidal trend of our age, that the men who need the protection of individual rights most urgently—the Negroes—are now in the vanguard of the destruction of these rights.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“That absurdly evil policy is destroying the moral base of the Negroes’ fight. Their case rested on the principle of individual rights. If they demand the violation of the rights of others, they negate and forfeit their own.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

She points out the blatant irony:

“But that is the principle of the worst Southern racist who charges all Negroes with collective racial guilt for any crime committed by a [single] Negro, and who treats them all as inferiors on the ground that their ancestors were savages.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“Since these questions are not to be considered, it means that that white laborer is to be charged with collective racial guilt, the guilt consisting merely of the color of his skin.”

I’ve been thinking this for a long time. It’s nice to read her putting it so well.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“It demands that a white laborer be refused a job because his grandfather may have practiced racial discrimination. But perhaps his grandfather had not practiced it. Or perhaps his grandfather had not even lived in this country.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“Consider the implications of that statement. It does not merely demand special privileges on racial grounds—it demands that white men be penalized for the sins of their ancestors.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

According to Rand, some black leaders at the time went even further by claiming that if a white man and a black man are equally qualified for a position, the black man should be hired. She comments:

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“This particular demand was too much even for the “liberals.” Many of them denounced it—properly—with shocked indignation.”

Alas, that part is different today. She quotes the NYT (!) as saying that quota systems are themselves discriminatory. No shocked indignation there today.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“They are demanding that racial quotas be established in regard to employment [...] Today [1963], it is not an oppressor, but an oppressed minority group that is demanding the establishment of racial quotas. (!)”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

It’s very interesting to learn that the SJW meme of colorblindness being evil is not new, but was already around in the sixties. I suspect it originated through meme proxies and then stuck around largely dormant until recently.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“Instead of fighting for “color-blindness” in social and economic issues, they are proclaiming that “color-blindness” is evil and that “color” should be made a primary consideration. Instead of fighting for equal rights, they are demanding special race privileges.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

She continues further down: “[Negro leaders, instead] of fighting against racial discrimination, they are demanding that racial discrimination be legalized and enforced. Instead of fighting against racism, they are demanding the establishment of racial quotas.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

“America has become race-conscious in a manner reminiscent of the worst days in the most backward countries of nineteenth-century Europe. The cause is the same: the growth of collectivism and statism.”

Rand wrote this in VoS in 1963. Thanks to SJWs it could be said of today.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Claiming "before money, there was no poverty" is like claiming "before doctors, there was no cancer."

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

So many have it the wrong way. It is okay to use (appropriate) force on violent people. It is not okay to use any force on peaceful people. But the latter happens in this video.

Antifa, China, large parts of the left, etc oppose both notions and want to invert them. Disgusting. twitter.com/liberty_deity/…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@normonics

Yeah he sounded like tail tucked between legs. Very unlike him.

I’m guessing it was the mob, not Spotify.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MaryLizThomson @AlexEpstein @robert_zubrin

What could I say to change your mind?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MaryLizThomson @AlexEpstein @robert_zubrin

Only more evidence of our extraordinary ability to cope with it then, isn’t it?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Good. Please take this all the way to the supreme court if you have to, and get a ruling as beautiful as the recent one for Pennsylvania. twitter.com/KevinKileyCA/s…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@katgleason

For clarity, people would be mistaken to conclude that this was caused by Covid, without a good explanation of how and why that happened.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@michaelerich5

Warum dürfen Schüler nicht zuhause bleiben, wenn sie nicht in die Schule gehen wollen? (Mit oder ohne Corona)

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

RT @iamdevloper:
the "must be willing to relocate to SF" stipulation just got a whole lot more laughable during COVID than it already was

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@frictionalgames

Holy shit that looks good!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@kayleighmcenany @pnjaban @JoeBiden

Will the PA government be held accountable and reimburse businesses for the damages and lost revenues?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

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