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
And there couldn’t be a society even more peaceful and wealthy that doesn’t depend on violating basic logic?
Just like the government, I’d never turn down another million, no matter how much money I’ve already extorted from ppl. ;-)
What good can a society be whose functioning depends on violating the law of the excluded middle, ie basic logic?
I guess it should say at least 85%. Whatever, you get the idea
For the sake of fixing the thought experiment accordingly, I could simply assure you that, if you don’t give me $1,000,000, I’ll make it very unpleasant for at least 15% of the population.
So we agree that your position can’t be right. Yet you also think the opposing position can’t be right.
You can’t consistently hold both of those positions, can you?
Where’s David Deutsch’s Accountability? blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/where-s-…
Ok, then I’d like to enforce the contract where you agreed to give me $1,000,000 dollars. Didn’t sign it? I don’t care.
The more dangerous a virus the easier it is to persuade people to stay at home and then you don’t need to force them to. And vulnerable people have always been free to isolate. There was never a need for forced isolation. It makes no sense. twitter.com/andrew_lilico/…
Maybe they disagree it’s their problem. Maybe some don’t feel they owe anyone a functioning society, or they disagree that not being indebted to one’s elders destroys society. Or maybe they think contracts can only be enforced if there’s a signature and it was given voluntarily.
How can children be responsible for something they could not possibly have had any say in?
Here’s the guy who thinks he’s working on AGI calling for regulation of his own field.
When do entrepreneurs do this? When they want less competition.
Good news is that Altman isn’t actually working on AGI! I’d bet money he doesn’t know the first thing about it. twitter.com/sama/status/16…
What do you think about: you’re not indebted unless you agreed to be?
Great points by Maher. Also check out thereligionofpeace.com for a good resource on why islam is different. twitter.com/emily8275/stat…
RT @feeonline:
The Nazis, we’re told, weren’t socialists because they attacked unions and striking workers.
Let’s see what other regimes d…
RT @TechnophobiaOrg:
A leading neo-luddite is calling for nuclear holocaust to save us from AI.
This is a dangerous and reactionary death…
Straight out of Atlas Shrugged. Smh twitter.com/erikphoel/stat…
‘I’m worried we’re not going to be able to contain this technology.’
RT @VoCommunism:
Stalin died 70 years ago. He left behind a legacy of terror, famine, and mass murder.
Remember the victims. https://t.co…
getting over it but with a mountain that grows infinitely higher and is different every time
What Would Popper Have Said about Covid Scientism? blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/what-wou…
RT @prof_freedom:
10 Minutes Covid Madness.
Never forget.
Please retweet to hell.
Thank you 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ioWOiuEga7
If you’re looking for video format, this playlist is good: youtube.com/playlist?list=…
If you’re looking for video format, this playlist is good: youtube.com/playlist?list=…
I don’t think that video is very good. Gotta be very careful with secondary sources on Popper because most ppl misunderstand or mischaracterize his views. Even DD’s account of Popper’s ideas has a slight reduction in quality. Best to read Popper himself (DD is a close second).
Karl Popper’s Conjectures and Refutations and Objective Knowledge; David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity chapter 1 is a good intro to Popperian epistemology.
Epistemology is worth checking out (Popper; I may have mentioned him before). I think good epistemologists like him understand more about the mind than psychologists.
TIL that feminism originally opposed abortion: euthanasia.com/ros-leh.html
“Yet nobody is talking about it.”
Aren’t more people talking about it than ever before?
Missing someone’s point would be a type of ignorance.
What I said wasn’t intended as a lecture—btw you’re showing a pattern of seeing bad intent where there is none—but ok have a good one.
I think I did address it; either way, accusing others of intentional ignorance, particularly when they made an effort, is bad for discourse.
Maybe I did miss something, but that could just be because discussions are hard and misunderstandings inevitable, as Popper would say.
To be clear, I’m talking about a larger problem-solving process, of which traditions like SO are just a part.
My guess is that things like Stack Overflow will remain alive and well; that people will still enjoy helping others; and that chatgpt will enhance that, not neuter it.
Similar to how radio is still a thing, despite TV and internet.
“The issue is from whence will the solutions come.” Nobody can know in advance. But that also hasn’t stopped us from making progress in the past few hundred years. On the contrary, the optimism required to accept this unknowability has enabled progress in the first place.
RT @newsycombinator:
Web fingerprinting is worse than I thought bitestring.com/posts/2023-03-…
Even worse than all the typos in this article.
I don’t know about social trust but yes we’ve been passing down knowledge too. But knowledge to do what? To solve new problems.
What you’re in effect bemoaning is that problem situations don’t remain the same. Thank god they don’t! How boring that would be!
Then the industry will evolve and we’ll solve this problem. And then the next one that arises from its solution. And so on.
It’s how we’ve been doing things for a few hundred years now. So there’s no need to be “deeply worried”.
@sonikudzu @brezina @jbrowder1 @cocksure_crypto
I do. It’s just a separate thing.
@sonikudzu @brezina @jbrowder1 @cocksure_crypto
My claim was not that “they don’t even turn a profit.” I merely refuted your claim that they do.
@sonikudzu @brezina @jbrowder1 @cocksure_crypto
I just learned that USPS is not funded by taxes, not even partially, as I thought.
But I also learned that USPS hasn’t turned a profit since 2006. So no “surplus”.
For the record, I voted on this by accident.
“It is in America’s interest that Ukraine wins the war […].”
That includes my interest and I disagree.
All interesting points and worth reading—I learned something new—but none deal with the moral issues of taxation or conscription. twitter.com/bankableinsigh…
@sonikudzu @brezina @jbrowder1 @cocksure_crypto
I have no sympathy for a government-run entity. Maybe USPS should come up with a better way to make money.
RT @ThomasSowell:
Inflation is a quiet but effective way for the government to transfer resources from the people to itself, without raisin…
RT @BankableInsight:
The 10 Commandments contain 297 words. The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contain…
@SamFeddd @michalkosinski @EDUreboot
I was gonna call it ‘fear porn’ but ‘fear mongering’ captures it better.
RT @SamFeddd:
@michalkosinski @EDUreboot
But you need to ask it to? It will never do this, ever. It is fundamentally not how predictive lan…
RT @MrsMThatcher:
We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what…
RT @AlexEpstein:
The root cause of our grid’s reliability problems is simple: America is shutting down too many reliable power plants—plant…
I’m guessing it’s because it’s trained on text that also includes such mistakes.
The task of protecting individuals from the legislature falls on the legislature.
What could go wrong?
But without government, who would not enforce laws? twitter.com/michelletandle…
RT @MichaelPSenger:
Today marks three years since “15 days to slow the spread.” In that time, we’ve seen millions of lockdown deaths, tens…
RT @HoppeQuotes:
"Big banking and big industry have become intricately involved in the state, and many a wealthy businessman has made his f…
Are there no laws around indecent exposure in California?
If I pay for @Spotify, I shouldn’t have to listen to ads in podcasts.
RT @MichaelPSenger:
DeSantis on COVID lockdowns: “So I call and say, ‘Deborah, just tell me: when in American history has this been done?’……
Es gibt eine Frauenministerin?? Was für ein Saftladen.
Geschlechtsneutral vs geschlechtsgedoppelt ist eine gute Unterscheidung. twitter.com/tonio_walter/s…
RT @LPMisesCaucus:
Banks need to make money just like any other business. FDIC insurance and bailouts actually encourages them to take more…
Historically, cowards generally look bad. Without the same fear and social pressures, future generations will have trouble understanding why some of the people today acted like cowards in the first place. Cowardice just doesn’t age well. twitter.com/michaelpsenger…
RT @RepThomasMassie:
Just got off of a zoom meeting with Fed, Treasury, FDIC, House, and Senate.
A Democrat Senator essentially asked whet…
RT @KuboVerlag:
Ich habe mich riesig gefreut, als ich Kenntnis von diesem Text erhalten habe, der in der @WELTAMSONNTAG erschienen ist (Aus…
RT @FT:
Cook bets on Apple’s mixed reality headset to secure his legacy on.ft.com/401InT2
Sad. Too difficult to hold passive cops and prosecutors accountable. Insufficient means of error correction. As usual when it comes to harassment, cops don’t really care, even when there’s a proven record of violence. twitter.com/thecrimeanalys…
A Critical Reading of Karl Popper on the Necessity of Critical Discussion: youtu.be/XDd8Qwu-1Uk
RT @MichaelPSenger:
I have no doubt that COVID is biologically different from past seasonal flus. But I also have no doubt that if it weren…
Reminder that some cultures and countries are inferior to others: twitter.com/elijahschaffer…
Try it sometime, you’ll be happy to find out that it is!
I used to subscribe to Sam Harris’s doomerism, then ‘switched sides’ after learning David Deutsch’s arguments.
Is you think my old cat could make good recruit? Is not white so no problems there. pic.twitter.com/PLlc6WZOru
But following rules under socialism works out great? 🤔
RT @ancapquotes:
"It is said, mostly by Libertarians, that ‘taxation is theft.’ Theft is too mild a word. Typically, a thief strikes only o…
If TCS is against arguments from authority, why do I not remember seeing you or DD speak out against covid scientism?
RT @monitoringbias:
When the worst thing has a lot to do with the best thing. pic.twitter.com/Rjcdu5bVG6
iOS automatically categorizes photos taken today under ‘Women’s Day’. I’d like to opt out, @Apple.
They do that in Germany too. IIRC “Taken” was retitled to “96 hours” for some reason. Maybe cuz not everyone knows the past participle of ‘take’.
RT @Culture_Crit:
Take a moment to admire London's old Imperial Institute, a Victorian masterpiece built in 1893 to celebrate Queen Victori…