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 plot thickens. If true, highly relevant and eye-opening as to how the communist party in China has been covertly pressuring Western politicians into executing lockdown measures. twitter.com/MichaelPSenger…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@InayaFolarin

David Deutsch offers a compelling, hopeful and inspiring vision for society in his book “The Beginning of Infinity.”

amazon.com/Beginning-Infi…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Forget @jack’s disastrous donation of $10m to aggressor @DrIbram. Peanuts, it would seem: BBC now allocating £100m to finance self-censorship and, presumably, active discrimination against those who fit “the wrong script,” meaning white colleagues and collaborators. twitter.com/BBC/status/127…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@PikeGrey1418

Yikes 😬

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

RT @ChipkinLogan:
My story about Constructor Theory has been published with Gizmodo - gizmodo.com/a-meta-theory-…

@RosePastore @gizmodo @DrBri…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@infexm1 @ExmuslimsOrg

Interesting thought. To me it seemed to indicate she knew exactly what he was getting at but didn't want to admit it.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ChrHansen

I didn’t say that was the purpose. That’s the way he wants to achieve his purpose. And surely you would agree that it’s ironic if his goal really is to reduce racism?

A better way to reduce racism is not to put so much emphasis on race and not to stir up hatred like Kendi does

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ckshowalter @giantcat9 @_Islamicat

Jabril is has left for Somalia

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ChrHansen

By discriminating against white people for being white? Do you see the irony in that?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@PessimistsArc @nytimes

And today they're writing articles arguing that telegrams are racist.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ChrHansen

Does this quote sound to you like he wants to help heal the recovering wounds of the past, or tear them open and put salt in them for political gain?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ChrHansen

A quote from his recent book:

"The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

$10M toward hate, division, and coercion. twitter.com/jack/status/12…

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@dietmartill

Popper wäre ne gute Idee.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Remember when "the lungs of the Earth" were burning and everyone thought the world was ending?

Was Leonardo DiCaprio able to fix it or what happened?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@moreisdifferent @Medium

I’ve thought about it. But then tomorrow substack might support BLM. May be better to go fully self-hosted.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@moreisdifferent

Are you familiar with the concept of universality? Explanatory and computational in particular?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tommycollison @paulg

When I worked at General Assembly (bootcamp web-dev course), they also had a check mark in every row.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@libertariancali

Why can’t children consent?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@Yankuniz @CNC3P0 @SamHarrisOrg

If someone told you to obey some demand you disagree with—e.g., they force you to go outside and mingle with old people, thereby increasing their exposure to the virus—how would that make you feel? Would you not consider resistance your moral duty?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@berndj @ModelsofMind @CNC3P0 @SamHarrisOrg

If we are mistaken—and we almost always are—coercion must entrench our mistakes.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@berndj @ModelsofMind @CNC3P0 @SamHarrisOrg

That’s not to mention that we can be mistaken about which ideas are true or false, better or worse, etc.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@berndj @ModelsofMind @CNC3P0 @SamHarrisOrg

I didn't say all opinions have equal merit (they don't).

I was arguing against coercion. It's not okay to coerce someone even if they have ridiculously false (seemingly or not) ideas.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@GuilleDamke @neiltyson

Oooh that’s a very good idea.

How come there’s no shadow of the plane itself at the tip? Too small/blurry maybe?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@neiltyson

It moved with the plane and got longer over time. https://t.co/BxrPxUucdl

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@neiltyson

I once saw a single, thin, black line on the surface of the Pacific Ocean. What might that have been?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Maybe one of the most exciting silver linings of Popperian epistemology being underrated is that, recent progress notwithstanding, it's still largely underdeveloped—many great discoveries remain to be made and you can actively shape the field.

It's a good time to be a Popperian.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@J_Imagineering @_Islamicat

Wasn't meant as a refutation, sir, only as a contribution.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@J_Imagineering @_Islamicat

Only problem is, you can’t have one without the other.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@_Islamicat @JarvisDupont @TitaniaMcGrath @TheBabylonBee

Is sad day for free speech but great day for catliphate.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CarlosXorxe @DavidDeutschOxf

I'm not sure there is a "best" way, but I suggest focusing on problems you want to solve and pursuing what's fun and interesting to you. That's what I did when I started. In case it helps, I wrote a bit about the topic here: medium.com/swlh/anyone-ca…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@giantcat9

Never

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@SamHarrisOrg @wakingup

That, despite being false, the claim is so widespread?

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RT @jdnoc:
The reason my product generates $35k MRR is because my product generates $1,000,000 MRR combined for my customers (1000 customer…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@EraseState @liberty_deity

*cooperative
I should tweet less from my phone.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@EraseState @liberty_deity

Yes, they want to introduce real exploitation and coercion into a peaceful and cooperate system that they somehow perceive as coercive.

Same with SJW and their perceived injustices.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@pmddomingos

Why? What’s wrong?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@arejaygraham @lynz_h55

Yes, such as reinforcement “learning,” inborn rules for communication and change of behaviors, etc. So long as we can explain these things that way, we’d really want evidence of knowledge that couldn’t be inborn.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@arejaygraham @lynz_h55

*inborn, silly autocorrect

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@arejaygraham @lynz_h55

Have we not seen much more complex phenomena that we explain through biological evolution? Such as beaver dams, animals’ physiology, spider webs, certain parasites controlling the brains of other animals etc. Yet all of these things can be explained through unborn algorithms.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@arejaygraham @lynz_h55

Can you think of a way all that could be traced back to inborn knowledge?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@ImpulsiveMasha @_Islamicat

Yes. Is has difficulty breathe

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@_Islamicat

Those pupils couldn’t be any bigger.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@_Islamicat

Haha SOUND ON

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@PessimistsArc @nytimes

Well, today it would read “the telephone is racist.”

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@Aposto43891834 @neiltyson

Children do not learn via reinforcement, if that’s what you’re suggesting.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@MagnetThatcher

The phenomenon being a lack of women?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@dvassallo @AndrewMedal

Good for you!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

And btw, the idea that we can explain anything animals do through genetically-inherited, i.e., inborn knowledge, and that therefore we should be careful to consider them intelligent, originated with David Deutsch; I’m just trying to build on the idea.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

Nor could explanations ever be established anyway (see Popper’s work).

Re the wolves, yes, their hunting skills are pre-installed. I expand on that explanation with the thought experiment of chess-playing dogs in this interview, starting at 32:54 soundcloud.com/doexplain/11-a…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

It doesn’t matter whether the findings are established, only how good they are as explanations. If we judged new explanations by how established they are, they would never have a chance simply because they’re new and couldn’t have been established yet.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

Well, it depends. Let’s consider a pack of wolves. Are their hunting skills a pre-installed app in each of their “minds,” or did they create those skills themselves, during their lifetimes? Or better yet, are you familiar with the example of chess-playing dogs?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

My point was that by your own definition, none of it is biological.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

Okay. Since you define it as an act of creation, and those pre-installed apps are just that—pre-installed—doesn’t that mean that intelligence, by your definition, is not biological? And if so, doesn’t that contradict what you wrote earlier, namely:

twitter.com/lynz_h55/statu…

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

Okay. When you use the term “intelligence,” are you referring to the sophistication of those pre-installed apps, the creativity algorithm itself (regardless of how sophisticated the knowledge it produces may be), the sophistication of the knowledge it produces, or something else?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

The difference is that people are creative. We are not born with knowledge of how to communicate, or how to recognize faces, or how to build space shuttles, etc. We learn this after birth by creating the knowledge ourselves.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Yes, rules for simple communication can be determined entirely genetically. So the example of crows recognizing faces over generations need not be evidence of intelligence.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

You'll see, but can you answer my question?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

So we can agree that the arrogance doesn't have any effect on a claim's truth value?

Regarding your other point, do you then think that the spaceshuttles people have built were genetically encoded? If they were, how come it took us so long to build them?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

What do you think we do know about the human mind?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@Podge_G

Haha you're right, there's that, too!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@_Islamicat

I is traumatized by zis

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

I know nothing about you or your background knowledge, so I’ll just say this: some people do know. Not all of humanity thinks or knows the same things.

I can expand on what we know about the topic if you’re interested. Up to you.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@lynz_h55

Who’s “we”?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

He later sends the Spartans a poem "in commemoration of our wrestling competition."

Am I the only one seeing this?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

Plato tells the others about how he's been hanging out with some Spartans, and how they "were up all night, wrestling by candlelight." He then "smiles indulgently in recollection."

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

They say homosexuality was much more common in antiquity than it is today.

Chapter 10 of "The Beginning of Infinity," called "A Dream of Socrates," contains a fictional dialog between Socrates and some of his associates, including Plato.

🧵👇

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@saurabhsharan @leeerob

Sure thing. I didn't use a library for that. Server-side filter functions based on topics should do the trick. That's not to say it might not be easier to use a library!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@Plinz

Which story gets them more clicks? A doomsday one or an optimistic one?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

So it take it your answer to my question is, "it's stored in the beaver's genes."

Where do you think that knowledge comes from?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Do you think that, if a statement is true, if it is made arrogantly, that that changes it to being false?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Exactly. And can you think of a way communication could be done non-creatively?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Can you think of a way to explain this that doesn't involve Lamarckism?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Ah, good point, so let's take perhaps the most complex of artefacts some animals create, such as beaver dams and spider webs. Where do you think the knowledge of how to build beaver dams resides in the beaver, and where does it come from?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Do you think a newborn baby can do as much as a newborn dolphin?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Humans know about the properties of uranium from explanations (which they created themselves), not from rewards or punishment (i.e., positive or negative reinforcement).

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

In the case of humans, those ideas originate from their creativity. But in the case of pigeons, these behaviors are just variations on inborn ideas, slightly changed according to a reinforcement-"learning" algorithm.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@sytelus @Plinz @sarahookr

Depending on what you mean by "capacity," that may amount to a belief in the supernatural; see David Deutsch's concept of "universal explainers," explained in his book "The Beginning of Infinity."

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@saurabhsharan @leeerob

No, datascript has a listen! fn to listen for any transaction made on the client, which transaction I then send to the server, which transacts it against the database, and relays it to (some or all) other clients, who run the transaction (only) locally in their turn.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@tjaulow

You're crushing it!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@HeuristicAndy @ToKTeacher

I think the getting dizzy/high is a side effect and not what the pigs are seeking. The reward may just be some genetically-determined response that says "the nutrients contained in this food are good, eat more of them."

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CausalCulture @bnielson01

Kitt, are you interested in starting a thread in the 4S group and discussing it?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@pmddomingos

The main reason people doubt the achievability of AGI is failure to understand the implications of computational universality.

The main reason those who claim to work on AGI don't actually is failure to understand that it requires epistemological work.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

I think you're still thinking in terms of the knowledge crows, monkeys, and dolphins contain, not in terms of the knowledge they create, and you're then considering the fact that they contain sophisticated knowledge as evidence of their intelligence. Am I wrong about that?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

There are uncivilized tribes who live in the wild and they have spears, fire, high-level language, they build roofs and huts, albeit primitive ones. Have you ever seen a dolphin, crow, or cow do any of that?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

And is there no way to possibly explain that, too, through genetically determined behaviors?

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

I reiterate the difference between "smart" and "intelligence" a lot with people but usually they keep giving me more examples of smarts and claim they're evidence of intelligence, which they're not.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Which can be explained through the use of an inborn facial-recognition algorithm, which is admittedly impressive and sophisticated, but doesn't require intelligence.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Not sure which part you're referring to, but either way: ironically, it's only because we are humans that we can even have these thoughts.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Regarding illiteracy, you should have more faith in your abilities, and your ability to improve them.

You're interested in discussing a complex problem, and that alone shows you're capable.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Having a society is cool but some animals have tribes and primitive "societies" too. And in any case, intelligence is an attribute of individuals, not societies.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

In "The Beginning of Infinity," Deutsch explains clearly and lucidly what makes people different (and infinitely special). In short, it's that we're what he calls "universal explainers." Highly recommended!

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

Again, we'd want some explanation in favor of animal intelligence so powerful that what I'm saying couldn't be right.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

But I think the better explanation is, that crow has no idea what cars are, didn't want to save the hog, was just pecking at it for food, which happened to make the hog move, and that all this happened on a road with a car approaching is incidental.

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

@CiSigurd @neiltyson

...because that means they must have created that knowledge during their lifetime (modulo reinforcement "learning," which doesn't count).

@dchackethal · · Show · Open on Twitter

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