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
@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.
Four new videos in the "Functional JavaScript" series -- on thread operators and accessing and updating object properties.
Did Bostrom write that headline? twitter.com/PessimistsArc/…
Want to step up your JavaScript game? I created a video series on functional JavaScript: youtube.com/watch?v=KGR7U-…
11 videos so far, and I'll be uploading more content soon.
It's like: updating parameters has nothing to do with creativity regardless of where the knowledge of how to that comes from.
Re leaking knowledge generally: it's fine as long as the only knowledge leaked into the creative program is knowledge of how to create new knowledge.
The reason ML isn't the path to AGI/creativity isn't just that programmers leak knowledge into ML programs. It's that ML is about optimizations and not about creating knowledge.
Even if in the latter case the animal wouldn't be confused, though -- it just wouldn't recognize things.
It could go either way. Either like you say - it's all already given genetically - or the animal's genetically-given recognition algorithms first need to be trained similar to today's ML algorithms so then the animal would get better at recognizing things over time.
Popper arguably being one of the most important in terms of philosophical progress made.
RT @CalebJHull:
"Flattening the curve" turned into communism real quick
How do we explain this? newscientist.com/article/dn1230…
It looks like there’s virtually only neocortex left.
RT @Kasparov63:
Of course. This is why it's important for Americans and others in the free world to understand that there is no useful sepa…
Yes. It’s just that we are not always aware of many of the incremental steps so some new conjectures can look like leaps.
IIRC, DD says something similar in BoI but I can’t find the quote rn. But yeah generally I’d say boldness and gradualness are orthogonal not opposites.
“The Beginning of Infinity” by David Deutsch.
Well, the evolutionary “purpose” of any biological adaptation, including the brain, is to spread its genes through the gene pool. See Dawkins’ “The Selfish Gene.”
In terms of what the brain does, it’s a computer.
In terms of what the mind does: it explains things.
Judging by the title, it seems the author claims to know “How Your Mind Really Works.” So then he’s built AGI?
See also Pinker’s “How the Mind Works.” (He hasn’t built AGI either.) Such a bold title should be reserved for whoever builds AGI.
I just stumbled upon the Japan Popper Society. How cool!
Therefore, Popper's conjecture about consciousness holds and we are still only ever conscious of one thing: disappointed expectations.
Consciousness seems related to disappointed expectations (Popper). But we also seem to be conscious of newfound solutions.
Conjecture: having found solutions to a problem can be reduced to a disappointed expectation because we never expect to find a particular solution.
In other words, the first step in a scientific or philosophical discovery is surprising oneself.
In evolution, mutations happen without regard for the problem situation. The human mind contains an evolutionary algorithm to solve problems, and so we always only happen to think of a solution. So an insight is always surprising and, therefore, exciting.
RT @andrewdoyle_com:
Two college professors (one at Harvard) have written an article for a major publication calling for the US to follow C…
RT @DavidDeutschOxf:
Also, holding an idea immutable has an unpredictably large effect on apparently unrelated ideas—like glueing down a ji…
To be clear, I'm agnostic as to whether masks work. What I dislike is the use of force, regardless.
"Law enforcement officers of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office are authorized to enforce this Order."
:(
Here's the full "Emergency Order": cupertino.org/home/showdocum…
"Violation of this Order shall be punishable through the issuance of administrative citations, fines, and penalties as set forth in Cupertino Municipal Code Chapter 1.10."
Very disappointing.
The City of Cupertino is now forcing people to wear masks.
This ability would require a change in software, not hardware, so a brain implant wouldn't do.
In any case, perfect memory is impossible because mutations of ideas in a mind can't be avoided forever. That would require reliable knowledge, which, as Popper explained, can't exist. twitter.com/SarahTheHaider…
RT @DanielJHannan:
"If we loosen up now, everything we have done will be in vain".
"Let's wait until we can be absolutely certain."
"How ca…
This Earth Day, remember the Earth only gives us raw materials. Otherwise, it is a death trap. It is people who make our planet habitable and who build life-support systems.
Let's call today "People Day" instead.
Yes! Currently making some edits, but it will be back.
@HeuristicAndy
Well, I’m a bit late to the party (just now starting season 3) but so far it seems he has been doing those things to pay for his medical treatment and to leave his family some money should he die.
That may change later on - but no spoilers please :)
“Breaking Bad” is a fictional but good example of all the horrible things good intentions can lead to. And not just in Walter White.
“Unfortunately, instead of viewing the present as a vast improvement on the past, many people see the present as failing to live up to some sort of ideal world and deny the progress that has been achieved.” twitter.com/HumanProgress/…
Yeah, freeze should re-read my tweet. I said "its" not "it's."
But your example got me thinking... need to think more about it.
Hmm yeah good point. In that scenario, you should be held accountable. But somehow that example feels... different. I guess because going to the store is a normal, regular, even necessary part of life. Shooting one's gun isn't.
I think you are saying in an emergency situation, government should be allowed additional powers to restrict citizen behavior for protection. Did I get that right?
Re AIDS: I'm guessing you'd respond that it's not comparable, as you have indicated. Not sure beyond that.
What your position is re AIDS or generally re COVID?
I think the responsibility lies with everyone for their health. If you go to the store and inadvertently contaminate things, you shouldn't be held responsible. Others know they are taking that risk. They take that risk with all kinds of diseases: cold, flu, warts, pink eye, etc
@DoqxaScott @RealtimeAI @neiltyson
You're more than welcome to sign up and use it as inspiration. I won't hold it against you. It's a small, tight-knit group and I'm guessing the site is worth no money. But I understand if you'd rather not join - up to you.
@RealtimeAI @DoqxaScott @neiltyson
And that itself was a mutation of an idea I had of being able to comment on YouTube transcripts based on timestamps, which I never ended up building.