Extra
5 years ago in Quotes
I feel like everyone is doing social media marketing - or something equally useless while the world around us is breaking down.
5 years ago in Quotes
I'm kind of sick of the whole "bias" obsession. It's everyone's go-to counterargument these days, and it's a shallow, poorly developed one. It's like everyone's lost critical reasoning skills, which require delicate attention to the particular strategies and propositions deployed in a given argument, and found these set of stock biases to use instead. In fact it's impossible to purge an argument or line of thinking of all so-called biases (though these don't actually exist in arguments, they are deduced from arguments)--if it were, it wouldn't be an argument or thought.
The goal of catching our own mistakes is an admirable one, and I'm not advocating people stop doing that--I just think it too frequently bleeds into trying to find so-called biases in arguments (whether written or verbal). In fact, this is more or less a fool's errand. What people are actually trying to point out in arguments are logical fallacies which are traits of the argument. Biases contrarily occur at the individual level and are operational flaws, they only occur during the thought process, and it's only meaningful to talk about them in these terms (that is, as they manifest in the ongoing practices of a person)--they are not properties of a line of thought's encoding (the written or spoken argument). Fallacies or viewpoints expressed in an argument may hint at the biases of the author, but it's a non-sequitur to start talking about them (when critiquing an argument), as the only way one could actually confirm this is by observing the author at work in daily life. To say, such an such an author is biased, is useless. It doesn't contribute meaningfully to a critique of the argument, and it would need to be verified through observation of the author.
Demonstrating to someone that they have developed/fall prey to particular bias frequently and working to rectify that one-on-one is a totally different story, or trying to catch biases operating in yourself is a totally different story.
5 years ago in Quotes
I'm rapidly becoming anti-tech, and I live and breathe tech. People no longer seem to know how to actually talk to each other, unless they already agree 100% with each others positions on any given subject. I don't see all of this heading in a positive direction for humanity, and I think we see that unfolding all around us, every day.
5 years ago in Quotes
Even if it were possible to design a provably correct, impossible to tamper with, anonymous electronic voting system (which seems unlikely to me) it still should NOT be used. Why?
Everyone understands paper in ballot boxes, and how they can be cheated, what to look for. Everyone can assess an argument as to whether this happened based on the evidence presented.
Basically nobody would understand what to even look for in cheating the electronic system. It would be totally my expert says your expert is wrong and so it is/isn't fraud. Having even the possibility of that argument for electoral fraud is completely insane.
It doesn't just have to be fair, it has to be seen to be fair. Really it does. We need to have reason to have faith in our democratic processes most especially when the people you want to win, don't and the result surprises you.
The sooner we get to "Any electronic voting must be used to mark a standard paper ballot which becomes the entire source of truth." The better. Everything else in electronic voting is dangerous, sinister and flat out evil. Oppose it. Loudly. At every opportunity. Especially if you're known as someone who understands computers on some level.
5 years ago in Meta Collection
Everland
1951
Now the police dreams that one look at the gigantic map on the office wall should suffice at any given moment to establish who is related to whom and in what degree of intimacy; and, theoretically, this dream is not unrealizable although its technical execution is bound to be somewhat difficult. If this map really did exist, not even memory would stand in the way of the totalitarian claim to domination; such a map might make it possible to obliterate people without any traces, as if they had never existed at all."The Origins of Totalitarianism"
1994
Virtual reality, the computer science that brings artificial worlds to life, is in its infancy. Today, it allows adventure-seekers wearing stereoscopic headgear to fly on the backs of pre-historic birds, but in the future, with the use of stereo TV cameras and robots, it could allow surgeons to operate on patients who are one hundred miles away.
Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.Philip K. Dick
5 years ago in Quotes
Give us an open (hardware) phone and OS plus apps will follow. Manufacturers however would hate this because the phone (tablet, etc.) as a platform allowed them to undo what Open Source achieved in the last decades on personal computers: now they have again a piece of hardware they can fully control; the software is closed and incredibly dumb, and it forces you to connect to online services to do anything. We're sort of back to mainframes, that's like killing over 40 years of IT development!
5 years ago in Quotes
And the cover of Vodafone's Digital Parenting is a picture of three lovely-looking little kids, about eight years old, all sat in a line on a sofa, where they're all absorbed by handheld devices and computers and screens, and they're not interacting in any meaningful human way. And all through Digital Parenting are all these disguised advertorials about "edu-taining" software that you absolutely need to buy. Vodafone's Digital Parenting. It's like the fox's guide to chicken security.
5 years ago in Quotes
My reason for reducing my social media presence is the Like count next to every thought expressed. By adding a publicly visible number next to every expressed human thought, you influence behavior and thinking.
5 years ago in Quotes
He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
5 years ago in Musik
Brenna tuats guat
by
Wo is da platz
Wo da deifi seine kinda kriagt
Wo is da platz
Wo all's z'samm rennt
Wo is des feier
Hey wo geht 'n grad a blitz nieder
Wo is 'n die hütt'n
Wo der stadl der brennt
Hab'n ma pech oder an lauf
Fall'n ma um oder auf
Samma dünn oder dick
Hab'n an reim oder glück
Teil ma aus, schenka ma ein
Toan ma uns abi oder g'frein
San ma christ hätt ma gwisst
Wo da teufel baut in mist
A jeder woass, dass es
Geld nit auf da wiesen wachst
Und essen kann ma's a nit
Aber brenna tat's guat
Aber hoazen domma en woazen
Und de ruabn und den kukuruz
Wann ma lang so weiter hoazen
Brennt da huat
Wo is des geld
Des was überall fehlt
Ja hat denn koana an genierer
Wieso kemman allweil de viara
De liagn, de die wahrheit verbieg'n
Und wanns nit kriagn was woll'n
Dann wird's g'stohln
De falotten soll der teufel hol'n
Da is da platz
Wo da teufel seine
Kinda kriagt
Wo all's z'sammrennt
Wo ist es Feier
Wo geht'n grad a Blitz nida
Wo isn de Hittn
Wo da Stodl der brennt?
A jeder woass, dass es
Geld nit auf da wiesen wachst
Und essen kann ma's a nit
Aber brenna tat's guat
Aber hoazen toan ma woazen
Und de ruabn und den kukuruz
Wann ma lang so weiter hoazen
Brennt da huat
5 years ago in Quotes
Oh, I've been following the bass line since James Brown invented it. I was a great disco queen.
5 years ago in Quotes
I'm a professor of 30 years in a STEM field. I'm sorry Diana, but Paglia is right. The liberal arts died long ago, and now their death has come full circle and is public policy. Administrators in universities are the very failed illiberal students of 20 years ago. As a result, these administrators (ie they who sign the checks) make decisions which now lay waste even to the sciences. Since universities are businesses and want to attract as many students as possible, the pressure is always to lower standards and appease the customers (witness Mizzou). And since these administrators have been well equipped with all the mental machinery to justify devaluing education (witness Iowa), we're on a downward spiral. What makes your challenge to the youth impotent is that the pressures against liberal thought are coming from many disparate directions. A young mind might hear your message, but at the same time hears, but I have to get a job, I need to survive in this world. We are at the end of an era, but what comes next is darkness.