Comments

  • Joe Biden (+General Biden/Harris Administration)
    Children!! My guess is there is a lot of commonality here. Firstly, everyone discriminates. The alternative would be to operate in human interactions randomly, which no one does. Thus not all or even most discrimination is negative. Codified discrimination (especially race based) is almost universally condemned (publicly). This wasn't always so and is a description of progress over time. Currently in the West most racism is peer to peer and thus while institutional in many cases, is not codified.
  • Is artificial epistemology redefining humanity?
    What is missing? What we,humans, cannot accept or imagine that this artificial intelligence can do?
    Isn't it that this transhuman, artificial epistemology machine is going to redefine what we belief we are?

    What is missing is the subjective part of the human interaction. Not dissimilar how watching a movie that features an actor is not the same as interacting with the actor, regardless if the movie is in High Def or not.
  • Why was the “Homosexuality is a defect” thread deleted?
    Sounds like a mod felt it was "hate speech" whereas I agree that it seems to be based on ignorance as you mention.
  • Social-networks & GAFAMs, a product of a new political space? Is Milton Friedman back?
    Exactly, TV networks and publishers exist, but are not the modern equivalent of the Illuminati (like some portray the GAFAMs)
  • Coronavirus
    Knowledge is power. You can be as easy or as difficult to monitor as you choose to be.
  • Are All Politics Extreme?
    I would say that "all politics in the media are extreme" but moderates don't make the news. It is a perception thing.
  • What is love?
    Agree about the numerous possible meanings. Generally folks refer to either romantic or family based aspects of love, though technically it includes others.
  • The biological clock.
    There are interesting French cave experiments where folks live away from time cues. Turns out that the natural biological clock runs on a slightly longer than 24 hour day. That is folks will choose to go to sleep later and later until they are sleeping during the external "day" and choosing to be awake at "night".
  • The Art of Being Right- By Arthur Schopenhauer
    I don't disagree with you (or him). But in my experience insults and attacks, while somewhat effective against beginners, is also a beginner's strategy. Anyone can make someone feel bad by being mean to them. You know you are an expert when you can make folks feel bad by being nice to them.
  • What is the purpose/point of life?
    I classic example of paralysis by over-analysis. Not uncommon in youth where there is an abundance of intelligence and a lack of wisdom. One benefits from the appreciation that there is just the present, not a future (what appears to be the "future" is just what the present will be in the future, it is not a separate thing). Thus contemplating what you will leave behind after you are no longer here, has no actual meaning for you, let alone a reason to change your present outlook.
  • Social-networks & GAFAMs, a product of a new political space? Is Milton Friedman back?
    GFA (not A & M so much) are the equivalent of TV Networks in the 60's. Where are the networks today? Nowhere. What is social media going to be in 50 years? Potentially nowhere.
  • Coronavirus
    An excellent illustration of folks' mistaken understanding of what is private information and what is public.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    Speaking of lawyers, nice try in smokescreenism, but:
    1) Obama had been a sitting US senator, thus had experience in government
    2) Therefore your erroneous reference to "...no experience..." is at best mistaken
    3) Since Obama had experience he could not (by definition) claim to be superior to McCain because he had no experience (like POTUS 45 did)
    4) You do bring up an interesting separate issue: many insiders, like George W Bush, claim outsider status. I agree it is psychologically interesting, perhaps we can start another thread on that topic.
  • Sports Morality
    Jut so you know there is a movement on the Pro circuit to have let serves go (just like during a rally), though to be fair it is out of an interest to shorten matches.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    Perhaps you didn't read my posts correctly. My issue is not a comparo of one level of experience vs another, it is the idea that having no experience at all is a selling point for a candidate. As you already know, Obama didn't sell himself as superior to McCain because he had served in the Senate for a shorter time period.
  • All things wrong with antinatalism
    I don't have a problem with the arithmetic, rather with the central premise. That is, while many label human experiences as suffering and joy, and seek to eliminate the suffering, statistically one could just as easily label the sum total of the negative and the positive over a lifetime as "average" or normal. After all suffering and joy are relative not absolute terms. One person's agony is another's below average day. And just as the unrealistic kids in Lake Wobegon are all above average, it is an error to lament the shape of a bell curve.
  • Should we neuter dogs - animal rights issue?
    Identifying a negative facet to a complex situation is not sufficient to label it as negative. IRL essentially all complex issues have negative as well as positive attributes. Decision making is based on weighing relative risks, not trying to find a risk-free path.

    Is spaying a bad thing? Is euthanizing unwanted dogs a bad thing? If the OP had proposed vasectomies instead of castration, that would be an interesting discussion, but spaying, yes or no has pretty much been resolved.
  • God's Existence And Amorality. Analogy
    I have to hand it to you, your logic is internally consistent. Though whether a cloud fairy is this or that has almost no practical application.
  • Will Continued Social Distancing Ultimately Destroy All Human Life on this Planet?
    Vulnerable means: can get the disease. Invulnerable is synonymous with immune, the vaccinated plus the recovered. Since those among the vulnerable who will require a hospital bed and those won't is unpredictable, your immune system description while fun to muse about, has no practical application.

    Social distancing is a crutch while we wait for the vaccine to solve the problem, so neither of us thinks it is the solution.
  • Will Continued Social Distancing Ultimately Destroy All Human Life on this Planet?
    Several things: first, we don't need to "kill" viruses, we just need to deprive them of hosts. Thus viruses don't need to be "attack"ed. That's the value of social distancing. Your first statement is self-contradictory, since the "vulnerable" population IS the "healthy" population. The invulnerable population is a combo of the vaccinated and those who have recovered.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    I agree with term limits for the executive branch for two reasons, to prevent a monarchy and because in our system, until recently, presidential candidates had a lot of government experience. No, my beef is less on term limit statutes and more with the erroneous belief that a lack of experience is a plus for performing the job of legislator, unlike every other job.
  • Sports Morality
    The competition between sportsmanship and winning is as entertaining as any other (artificial) dichotomy. As opposed to the OP, both are actually lionized in pro sports, though one loudly and the other wistfully.
  • Should we neuter dogs - animal rights issue?
    It is an error to propose that he alternative for a domesticated animal is to be wild (since they're not wild animals) rather it is to not exist.
  • Can aesthetics be objective?
    If you address a "subjective" issue like aesthetics, statistically, psychologically and neurologically, there are clearly objective aspects to it. However since a portion of the mix is based on life experience and those are quite varied, it will appear almost random and thus resemble a wholely subjective entity.

    Another unrelated complication is that there is the phenomenon of painful stimuli triggering a positive response, which though quantifiable, makes the final analysis appear random as it cancels out tradition evaluation.
  • What Is The Great Lesson Of The 20th Century?
    The lesson (came to fruition in the early 21st century) is that the balance inherent in democracy, that is that the top of the pyramid has fewer votes than the bottom, can be gotten around since the rabble can be fooled into voting against their own best economic interest.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Twitter effectively deposed him awhile back.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    Oh, I'm sorry, not trying to be cagey. POTUS 45 is the most obvious recent example, (for those who follow news).
  • Will Continued Social Distancing Ultimately Destroy All Human Life on this Planet?
    No I don't have any information on the OPC, apparently it was hacked awhile back so maybe it's getting repaired?

    Unfortunately other than age trends, it is difficult to categorize immune system strength before illness. I agree with you about the recovered and the vaccinated, scientifically, but psychologically it would lead to a two tiered system in a situation that is already tribalistic, so I agree that it is more practical to continue as we are doing until hospitalization numbers drop.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    I have an example worse than the current Congress...
  • Will Continued Social Distancing Ultimately Destroy All Human Life on this Planet?
    A couple of things. First the current mutations are covered quite nicely by the vaccines. Secondly, the difference in hospitalization rate between those over 80 and those between 40 and 79 is about 3 to 1. So younger folks are not as "immune" as your analogies (?) imply. At the same time, the total number of those 40 to 79 is much higher (140 million vs 10 million).

    Basically we are going to get to herd immunity. You get there through a combo of exposure to illness and vaccination. The higher percentage of illness, the higher the deaths. In 11 months the US has 24 million known illness exposures and in one month 12 million vaccinated. Obviously we can vaccinate way, way faster than the virus spreads with halfa55sd attempts at containing it. The US has the 12th highest death rate, so most countries are going to get to herd immunity with fewer relative deaths than the US. Sad, really.
  • Is purchasing factory farmed animal products ethical?
    If you (like I do) feel that factory farming is immoral you won't support it. This is separate from the issue of random employees of a factory farm abusing animals, which is not a practice of legitimate farming of any kind.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    Yeah that's the standard line. Unfortunately, governing (like every other activity) benefits from experience. Those without it just aren't as good at it. Let me know if you need an example of a government leader without governing experience who was really bad at it.
  • The covid public policy response, another example of the danger of theism
    Dude, you only addressed half of your proposal (letting gramma die), you left out the don't social distance and close businesses part. That's what's going to overwhelm the open beds that the dead over 80s will free up.
  • Is purchasing factory farmed animal products ethical?
    So, you believe it is the intent that matters as opposed to the consequences?Down The Rabbit Hole

    Absolutely. Changing to an electric car after the Exxon Valdiz catastrophe is logical, buying gas from Shell and boycotting ExxonMobil is not.
  • The covid public policy response, another example of the danger of theism
    Wow, where to start? Firstly, the hospitalization rate of adults between 40 and 79 is about one third of those over 80. So letting the virus run rampant and closing hospitals to those over 80 would, of course kill tons of those over 80, but it would also have overwhelmed hospitals with younger COVID patients so regular sick folks (without COVID) would be crowded out and death rates for everything else would have jumped.

    Lastly it is an error in my opinion to lay the current epidemiologically based plan at the feet of theism. Statistics would be a more likely driver.

    You do get that there are way, way more folks under 80 than over, right?
  • Altruism of Experience.
    While true, that is also true of almost every experience.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    Right now? Term limits were big news from 1992-1994 and the 22nd amendment passed in 1951. Old news...
  • Tips request: studying with sleep deprivation
    Firstly, congrats on the baby. Luckily for me I had 6 weeks of paternity leave and I commonly worked nights so getting up in the middle of the night wasn't a big deal for me . Clearly your baby is getting way, way more than 3 hours of sleep a day, so sleep when the baby sleeps.
  • Plan for better politicians: Finance Reform, Term Limits
    Politics is the one area where acquiring work experience is considered to lead to a lesser work product. Completely illogical. Imagine using the same thought process to pick a surgeon. "Oh, you've hardly performed this procedure before, I'll pick you to cut me open." Ridiculous.