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
... but private companies could do it better.
Didn't say it was easy. But it's definitely worth trying.
Better to find something that’s in demand and in line with your preferences. You’ll be happier and will also build better products as a result.
Your own preference is very important, because going against it will make you miserable.
RT @astupple:
Are AI safety concerns philosophically sound?
@Conjecture_Mag
is hosting a debate b/t economist
@JimDMiller
and software…
More buggy animal programming:
There are very good explanations saying that animals are not, in fact, conscious, and that humans are, in fact, infinitely special compared to all other animals. And it has nothing to do with religion.
Have you read David's books?
Challenge accepted: h22jy.csb.app
(Well, a web app, not a smartphone app, but nvm that.) twitter.com/DavidDeutschOx…
@all_incorrect @DavidDeutschOxf
Design does not need a (conscious or unconscious) designer!
@all_incorrect @DavidDeutschOxf
Assuming that animals aren't conscious, they can still contain shape-recognition algorithms created by biological evolution, which itself isn't a conscious process. So nowhere in that chain is anything conscious and yet you still end up with a working shape-recognition algo.
@all_incorrect @DavidDeutschOxf
It does hold water because the point is that shape-recognition algorithms are not evidence of consciousness on the part of the "shape recognizer."
Very cool. Been meaning to get into woodworking myself, glad to be reminded.
I just found out that there’s non-GMO salt. But there no genes in salt, are there? Can anyone explain to me how that makes sense?
@SmartBeta1 @DavidDeutschOxf @ME_McCullough @HumanProgress
That life sometimes throws challenges at us unexpectedly does not legitimize coercing people. There's an underlying equivocation of two different things called "force." See blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/libertar…
RT @gleason_colum:
The American Rescue Plan will mean the government is taking our money and giving us a small portion back. It means pulli…
RT @DavidDeutschOxf:
@ME_McCullough @HumanProgress
Intentionally imposing dilemmas on people without their informed consent is immoral. Doi…
Yes, but also: Bayesian epistemology is not just less general and accurate, but entirely false. daviddeutsch.org.uk/2014/08/simple…
It's not "most scientists." Popper's epistemology is hugely underrated. And his epistemology is about so much more than falsification. twitter.com/sapinker/statu…
New blog post: "Teachers Who 'Take Children Seriously'"
First, it means that we will have solved important philosophical problems, including how the mind works and (maybe) what qualia are.
Second, medical science would be replaced by hardware engineering, then there's effective immortality, cheap, safe, and ultra-fast space travel...
@ks445599 @ella_hoeppner @cgbessellieu
The best I've heard so far is Deutsch's argument that cosmological theories have been changing so frequently lately that we shouldn't plan our future according to the latest one.
If you're a web developer looking for projects, check if your favorite apps have a web frontend yet. If not, chances are they'll want one soon. Reach out to them and offer value.
RT @DavidDeutschOxf:
And anyway, what did you expect them to secrete instead, dioxygen difluoride? FOOF.
RT @TheAtlasSociety:
It's Easy To Make It Rain When Others' Dollars Are Being Used Instead Of Your Own... #ShrinkGovernment #Liberty #AynRa…
@Michael_RA @crit_rat @RadioBabe @cgbessellieu
It will once we create it.
The WEF has lost its fucking mind. twitter.com/Bobby_Network/…
RT @DailySignal:
“Against which races do you harbor racial bias?”
@SenTomCotton questioned President Biden’s DOJ nominee Vanita Gupta abo…
RT @MrJonasDanner:
Du findest einen Lockdown gut? -> Bleib daheim.
Du magst hohe Steuern? -> Zahl hohe Steuern.
Du findest Autos böse? -> F…
I started by reading “HTML for Dummies.” Then learned CSS and a bit of JavaScript, then Ruby. Treehouse has good courses: teamtreehouse.com
This is why—and I'll say it again—"learn to code" is good advice. twitter.com/eligarlo/statu…
These are the people who think they're tolerant and loving. twitter.com/STLBlake19/sta…
@crit_rat
Reminds me of how people try to justify coercing children by saying “sometimes they’ll have to do things they don’t want to later in life and this is how they learn how to do that.” They’re equivocating two completely different meanings of the word “force.” :(
RT @nixcraft:
Experts found three new 15-year-old bugs in a Linux kernel module. These 15-year-old flaws in Linux kernel could be exploited…
A nice illustration of Gombrich’s “making comes before matching.” Decide one tower is in the foreground, and you’ll really see it being in the foreground. twitter.com/peterglaser/st…
RT @RepThomasMassie:
This is true every time people let politicians have more power: https://t.co/rF2rk63HsZ
Have you heard of Karl Popper? This may be of interest: the-rathouse.com/Intro-Philos-S…
Nice. I have been thinking for a while now that many doctors don't explain their diagnoses and treatment plans enough. They say "cool your foot twice a day for five days." Okay, but why? And how will I know if I'm doing something counterproductive without an explanation?
There is no contradiction as both approaches reduce government influence, which is what that's really about.
RT @dchackethal:
Prescient lines re the pandemic:
"The prophetic approach can see only what one might do to postpone disaster, namely impr…
RT @reasonisfun:
🎬 video: Internal Meta Discussion
How trying to fight back internet flame wars lead to the discovery of a super useful wa…
The LA Times now losing it, too. Or maybe they had already lost it and I hadn't noticed. https://t.co/T87x6ZxVdR
RT @OptimoPrincipi:
Mural of Michelangelo's 'David' at the pinnacle of the marble quarries of Carrara. Michelangelo crafted his Renaissance…
I wasn't joking. dark.patriot wrote she "desperately didn't want to" run but did anyway. In other words, she coerced herself. In your tweet you wrote you like people who reject coercion.
Food for thought: doesn't this conflict with what you wrote here: twitter.com/SeanBallard/st…
?
RT @realchrisrufo:
SCOOP: A University of Dayton professor is now ranking law schools according to their "total whiteness"—and demanding th…
The political response is to remove regulatory barriers to competition from other platforms and sellers. The…
RT @HumanProgress:
The world's population has grown 145% since 1960, but income has grown by 183%.
More people equals more ideas, more inn…
Isn't it generous of them to allow us to do something our constitution already provides and protects?
"The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
What a great description of what seems to motivate so many of government policies. twitter.com/GeneSohoForum/…
To everyone who liked the above tweet: to be clear, I do not condone what those data represent. I think taxation is an abomination.
RT @liberty_deity:
Even if lockdowns and wearing masks worked, forcing people to do it would still be wrong.
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
Why is what I have described not theft?
RT @Astro_Soichi:
あーたまーをくーもーの うーえにだーしー 朝陽を浴びる #富士山 Mt. #Fuji at sunrise https://t.co/l6HspPfisn
Getting there:
In 2017, the top 1 percent of taxpayers accounted for more income taxes paid than the bottom 90 percent combined.
Would it change anything if billionaire wealth had stayed the same, or even declined, if everyone else was still affected the same way they are now?
RT @OptimoPrincipi:
The huge marble quarries of Carrara, Italy were first opened by the Romans in the 2nd century BC, their highly prized s…
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
To be clear, you think that when the government forcefully extracts money from you, whether you like it or not, that's not theft? Am I understanding you correctly?
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
It couldn't be because I'm convinced that price controls and theft are wrong?
I'm not opposed to paying employees more, btw. I'm opposed to forcing employers to do so.
@shabaadsha @MukariaK @ewarren
They are taking it out of my pocket. Out of everyone’s who pays taxes.
I don’t need government handouts. But you probably consider those who do evidence of their stealing from the poor; and those who don’t as stealing from their employees. So what’s it matter?
@Ra43926237 @Juicykisses95 @ewarren
Your “yet” implies a contradiction that isn’t there.
All in the name of science and compassion, I'm sure. twitter.com/CFOBP/status/1…
RT @dchackethal:
@TheBabylonBee
"Scientists have followed the science very scientifically" :)
RT @ANothlich:
Deutschland 2021: Gesunde Menschen stehen Schlange vor Supermärkten, um herauszufinden, ob sie krank sind.
"Scientists have followed the science very scientifically" :)
RT @TheBabylonBee:
Estimated 9 Billion Already Dead From Texas Mask Mandate Reversal babylonbee.com/news/estimated…
No, it is the default state of nature, see the last paragraph in this section:
My response is that employers don’t do that. And that even if they did I wouldn’t get involved unsolicited.
The founding fathers definitely didn’t envision government stealing from its citizens.
It’s not just semantics. You’re using words without knowing what they mean!
And I don’t get involved in what two consenting adults do unless I’m being specifically asked by one of them.
Shouldn’t we leave that up to the entrepreneurs and their employees?
That still isn’t theft. It’s not cool but it’s not theft.
Behind what you’re saying are equivocations of the words “consent” and “force.”
And, if you can believe it, you’re not the first to argue that: blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/libertar…
Because government does so by stealing. They’re parasitic.
The best they can do for everyone involved is to just stay out of it.
Theft is when ppl take money from others without consent.
It’s not theft because their employees consent to being employed. And the employees get paid. They don’t have to pay to work. And even if they did and they consented to that it’d still not be theft.
Relieving them of theft does not imply a debt they owe to others. You can’t trade in one kind of theft for another.
No. And you don’t “fix the system” by instituting more theft. And the vast majority of successful people got to where they are because they meet a need people have. They provide value.