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
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky @ks445599
In other words, what you call out is based on cultural sanction, not moral explanations of what you know to be right and wrong?
@DoqxaScott @tjaulow @ks445599 @onnlucky
Martin liked your "hit" comment. I'm afraid I don't believe anymore that you two are looking to have an ongoing argument in good faith. Is your main intent to lay into the guy who broke a social convention?
@DoqxaScott @tjaulow @ks445599 @onnlucky
You wrote that my calling out Onne was "not conducive to ongoing argument in good faith." twitter.com/DoqxaScott/sta…
Now you refer to it as a "hit"—an inside joke with Martin, of sorts, at my expense.
There was also twitter.com/DoqxaScott/sta…
How is any of this conducive?
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky @ks445599
Before we get to the video: "I have a pretty clear image" meaning you know the contradiction in your previous tweet? If so, what is it?
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky @ks445599
Your criticism makes sense—convincing Onne that it is abuse is important.
I'm curious how you would answer the questions in my previous tweet?
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky @ks445599
Your comment is self-contradictory. Do you know what I'm referring to?
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky @ks445599
I never said I reported him, no. Read what I wrote carefully.
What bearing does the fact that this "practice" is recommended by parenting authorities have on the morals of the situation?
Why does the guy who points out the abuse receive more criticism than the perpetrator?
@DoqxaScott @tjaulow @onnlucky @ks445599
I understand. But hear me out, please: Somebody publicly admits to abusing his child, then somebody else clearly and directly calls him out.
Nobody criticizes the abuser in response, everyone lays into the other guy. Which is worse? And whom are social conventions protecting?
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky @ks445599
I continue to discuss with you guys. I haven't discouraged you from discussing with Onne either...
see also twitter.com/dchackethal/st…
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky @ks445599
Cancel culture is when prominent figures lose their job over something they said. That's not what this is.
@DoqxaScott @onnlucky @tjaulow @ks445599
"Unprepared to argue for" I have argued quite a bit in this thread, no? And I continue to do so:
Nobody has offered a refutation of my views yet, yet I keep asking...
How can you quickly evaluate theories of the mind without having to read page after page of academic jargon?
Use these two handy razors: blog.dennishackethal.com/2020/11/14/two…
There is no irony here. A worldview that condemns the use of force against peaceful people (such as your child) is perfectly compatible with one that advocates the use of force against violent people (such as yourself).
You have mistaken libertarianism for pacifism.
Learned a lot from @NickHudsonCT of @PanData19 this episode. We cover what is known about the virus and the disastrous effects of bad political philosophy & lockdowns on people and businesses—and the surprisingly deep answer to whether masks work. 😷🦠🔬
@tjaulow @DoqxaScott @onnlucky
If so: for as long as they like.
It is those who abuse their children who disrupt their family, not those who report it.
They would. And they should. And they will, as much as possible.
That a crime is ubiquitous doesn't mean it's not a crime, or that it's okay. Nor does the infeasibility of investigating every crime mean one shouldn't investigate any particular crime.
@cm_richards @onnlucky @tjaulow
Timeouts are mental abuse. Their biggest effect is that it traumatizes the child.
@onnlucky @tjaulow
You just publicly admitted to abusing your son mentally and physically. Child abuse is a crime. You have been reported to the Dutch authorities and Twitter. Your tweet has been archived here: archive.vn/pDDpM#selectio…
I implore you to stop abusing your child immediately.
@TrainMoneyBrain @ks445599 @onnlucky
Don’t know what you mean by “tacit” knowledge.
It might be a mixture of both. Given how static and irrational memes around parenting are, I suspect they remain pretty much the same across many generations of people.
@TrainMoneyBrain @ks445599 @onnlucky
...and I think the effects of those memes are predictable, at least to an extent.
@TrainMoneyBrain @ks445599 @onnlucky
For example, one reason one cannot predict the content of future thoughts is because the growth of knowledge is unpredictable. That's a possible reason your claim might be true.
On the other hand, memes can cause reliable behaviors across many people...
@TrainMoneyBrain @ks445599 @onnlucky
I understand that. You have restated your claim. You didn't explain why it is true though—which is what I was really asking for.
@TrainMoneyBrain @ks445599 @onnlucky
Doesn't answer my question
@onnlucky @tjaulow
By "force," do you mean what it says here under "coercion": takingchildrenseriously.com/node/50#Coerci…
?
@TrainMoneyBrain @ks445599 @onnlucky
I didn't make a prediction about parents' feelings, only their thoughts. If you meant to claim that I can't possibly know the content of those thoughts: why not?
RT @dchackethal:
@eig
Agreed. It's an example of a parasitic institution that has infiltrated its host so uncompromisingly that it has take…
"getting what you want makes you evil" --> that is the altruist view of individuals succeeding in life.
The organism has to create the relevant knowledge first. In other words, school does provide something that is valuable and needs to be replaced adequately.
Agreed. It's an example of a parasitic institution that has infiltrated its host so uncompromisingly that it has taken over vital functions that a healthy organism could provide for itself. Ripping the parasite out would kill the organism—it has to be a gradual change.
Indeed. Ironically, I imagine many who initially warm up to these ideas then switch back once they become parents because dormant static memes are switch on in their minds. And then they'll think "they understand" and think that the static memes are true after all.
I organized these thoughts a bit more and added some detail here: blog.dennishackethal.com/2020/11/12/the…
@HeuristicAndy
Agreed, there is progress being made. Fingers crossed it continues that way.
Probably a lot of people are having children too who shouldn't be having them because they can't afford to give them the freedoms they need.
Re solving the problem that parents can't be home all day: dunno yet. But it strikes me as a soluble problem whose solution doesn't involve sticking children into coercive institutions.
E.g. parents could help coordinate daycare needs, pool money for babysitters, etc.
Children don't need school to create knowledge. Helping children learn is not what school is for. If we're worried about children not learning enough, it's best to avoid school.
Well, parents intentionally take things away from their kids, but yes, the intentions are mostly good. Agreed that accusatory tone doesn't help. I do think the greatest injustices are backed by good intentions though.
No, knowledge created when playing video games often reaches into the real world.
How would you feel if someone forcibly prevented you from pursuing the activities you enjoy?
More importantly, you're still focusing on what you think children need—not what they want.
And does practicality justify force? I think not.
If the problems children want to solve require reading/writing/match—and sooner or later they will—they will learn those things. There are plenty of resources online, they can get together with friends, seek help voluntarily from people who want to teach them, etc.
It is not true that playing video games "creates nothing." One has to continuously solve problems by creating knowledge as one plays.
What's an activity you enjoy?
I forgot to add something very important: she continues to say that Comte coined the term "to mean, specifically, the placing of the interests of others above your own." youtu.be/7RFlPmjUbRo?t=…
That's exactly what I had in mind with schools. School are altruism machines.
AGIs will be capable of having emotions like all other people—and I'm not sure emotions could be programmed into it. They're something an AGI will evolve in its mind by itself.
I think many experienced critical rationalists understand this deeply—but for me, it was a breakthrough. Though the topic is sad, writing this thread was fun. I’m pursuing my interests right now. I love critical rationalism.
It explains why so many expect their peers to sacrifice their happiness for the health of others by agreeing to house arrests. Why those who don't want their salaries to be cut in half by taxes are considered "evil." Why so many can't begin to imagine a world without coercion.
...quoting Auguste Comte. It explains why people live for other people, and then expect the next generation to do so as well. It’s what they were forced to do during the most formative years of their lives after all!
If school’s main purpose is to teach children how to neglect their own interests and pursue other people’s, that also explains where altruism comes from—the evil doctrine Rand so eloquently refuted and which, she says, “regards man, in effect, as a sacrificial animal”...
I’m thankful that David Deutsch places emphasis on fun and interests. They're hugely underrated.
Parents are often complicit in this. They take away things that their children enjoy, e.g. computer games, or at least put time limits on them—so their kids spend less time doing what they want and more of what they allegedly need, which is determined by anyone but the child.
It is there that they learn that their interests have no chance of leading to anything fruitful, and quickly shut them down.
It is only after 12 years of mind-numbing boredom and neglecting one’s preferences that people voluntarily spend the next 30 years at jobs they hate. It is in school that they learn how to live with problems instead of solving them.
I recently asked a 14 year old close to me if she’d like to go to college. She said no, but that she probably will anyway because she thinks she should. It’s heartbreaking.
One must learn to coerce oneself into neglecting one’s preferences. I think that is what school is really for: not just to standardize children, but to break them, too, to get them to place others’ interests over their own.
What can one possibly do in such a situation to stay sane? One must learn to put one’s interests on the back burner and prioritize other people’s interests—in this case, the teacher’s, and society’s at large.
So the child wants to learn about astronomy—but doesn’t get to. Instead, he is coerced to learn other things he isn’t interested in. Day in, day out, for some 12 years. As Popper said, he has to learn answers to questions he didn’t ask.
Consider a child who is interested in, say, astronomy. There are no elementary-school classes about astronomy. And even if there were, it is highly unlikely that every child will happen to be interested in everything shoved down his throat every year, at just the right time.
That's static-society stuff. But I’m starting to see that it goes deeper than that.
It is generally believed that schools exist to help children learn. Of course, we CR folks know that’s baloney. Instead, we understand—thanks to TCS—that schools exist to standardize children—to replicate society’s memes as faithfully as possible under threat of punishment.
The other day, it “clicked” for me: I think I understand better now what schools are really for.
A thread of conjectures 👇
And something China didn't do either. @WatchRatio
"Sinophobic" is such a lazy, blanket response meant to shut down dissent and signal one's moral superiority at the same time. As if criticism of China's policies implied hatred of their people.
I recently learned that in Germany, lockdown skepticism is immediately associated with far-right extremism. It’s weird.
Gross. You’d think that with all the destruction around, there would have been other priorities.
@parkerm @ReachChristofer @reasonisfun @Crit_Rat @ToKTeacher
While unfortunately not everything written about me is true, I think it's important to make sure the credit for the ideas that supported my work is clear. Borrowed ideas have since been attributed thoroughly, clearly and in-text. I hope this helps and you enjoy my book!
@parkerm @ReachChristofer @reasonisfun @Crit_Rat @ToKTeacher
Hi, thanks for asking. I took this very seriously and did a meticulous, line-by-line review of my book after carefully reading these comments, with the gracious help and support from other CRists (who shall remain nameless to protect them from any potential retaliation).
@jpr41411 @MichaelPSenger @naomirwolf
High copying fidelity is a property of memes that are good at spreading. Hence the semantic identity. Agreed that it's chilling.
.@codinghorror When I see websites using SVGs for company logos, my heart beats a little bit faster.
RT @CodeWisdom:
🧞♂️ "A computer is like a mischievous genie. It will give you exactly what you ask for, but not always what you want." — J…
Those screenshots are interesting, because the phrasing is different in all of them, from what I can tell, whereas in previous examples the wording was always pretty much the same. Did the bots get more eloquent or are they actually people?
And if something is 50% likely to happen, that’s also a statement of fact.
Those are epistemological claims. They’re false. There are facts, and there are likelihoods. Nothing can infallibly be proven true or false.
If there weren’t any facts, one couldn’t understand your tweet as a statement of fact either—though presumably it was intended as such.
Learn Clojure. Build things you haven’t built before.
You use big terms and complicated sentence structure. Why not use clear and simple language that is easier to criticize? Care to rephrase that?
I think if our knowledge grows, we recognize more problems, meaning there are more challenges. Are you suggesting that progress justifies bigger government?
Here's an alternative I would prefer: Biden and Harris completely stay out of healthcare and let Americans manage their health by themselves. They can issue actual guidances if they like, but they SHOULD NOT coerce people.
Also, his COVID task force is supposed to become a permanent institution. Goes to show that government tends to grow, not shrink.
This is all the kind of stuff I was worried was going to happen under a Biden presidency. Then again, president-elects lie all the time about their grand visions. One can hope that he won't be able to do any of this.
"COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force" is woke nonsense creeping into socialist medical planning.
"Evidence-based guidance" is really evidence-based coercion. Bad epistemology -> coercive measures
"Implement mask mandates nationwide by working with governors and mayors and by asking the American people to do what they do best: step up in a time of crisis."
"mandates" is NOT "asking"
"At the end of this health crisis, it will transition to a permanent Infectious Disease Racial Disparities Task Force."
He also wants to "establish a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force, as proposed by Vice President-elect Harris, to provide recommendations and oversight on disparities in the public health and economic response."
Biden plans to enact "evidence-based guidance for [...] when to open or close certain businesses [and] when to issue stay-at-home restrictions."
@__adamjohnson_
You're right—I changed it from "likewise" to "in other words."
I’ve written more about this here: blog.dennishackethal.com/2020/11/08/bal…
Legislation forcing companies to have boards or workforces representative of the general populace is not only counterproductive, but mathematically impossible. Read why:
The ends don’t justify the means. You can advise people to stay home without forcing them to stay home. No coercion required (nor morally ok).
... one valid hiring strategy: qualification. But to those who think representation in the workforce is important, surely being mathematically proven wrong will change their minds?
Due to these paradoxes, wokesters who demand hiring practices that result in workforces "representative" of the general populace are contradicting themselves. Of course, those of us who are individualists and don't believe in group grievances already know that there is only...
... i.e. an employee of one color whose population has grown being replaced by an employee of another color whose population has shrunken, all in the name of "representativeness." Alabama paradox also applies, as should all others.
In Balinski & Young's theorem, replace "state" with, say, "race," and "seats" with, say, "no. of employees." There is no "apportionment rule" that companies could follow that doesn't result in a population paradox...
Update—I think there is, even within a single dimension (as long as there are three or more alternatives): math.stackexchange.com/questions/3898…
Correction: that's actually Arrow's theorem, not Balinski & Young's.