prestadige

5 ms·

1.
by prestadige 12y ago
I think it's a mistake whether for financial reasons or in terms of personal satisfaction. You go into a field because you are interested in learning and engaging with the problems in that field. Not for status or rewards. You can&#x27
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by prestadige 12y ago
Going into a career because it's noble, rewarding or because it "helps people" seems like a mistake.
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by prestadige 12y ago
Just have lots of different toys available to begin with and get more of whichever are played with the most. Don't restrict the use of computers. Don't worry about outcomes or what people should be playing with. Actually "s
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by prestadige 12y ago
Wrong, perhaps, but 'badly' wrong? Despite the accident, building Fukushima saved lives and reduced atmospheric pollution relative to other power sources. Part of the reason we haven't improved reactor designs as rapidly as w
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by prestadige 12y ago
How can it be 'elitist' if the education is not only cheaper but its graduates are allegedly doomed to be exploited in their 'bubble'? The reality is that school leavers are more likely to be exploited. Once cast out o
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by prestadige 12y ago
True, except that it's more the case in unschooling for adults to be guided by the children, being available to give help or find help when required. It takes years for the average adult to break his school conditioning and find the
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by prestadige 12y ago
My daughter is unschooled and taught herself to read and type mostly from the web browsing. Most people somehow assume that because they learnt to read and write at school that one cannot do it out of school, and more efficiently. This de
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by prestadige 12y ago
Considering one's future self as a different person could have the opposite effect. We might then sympathise with that person, and take measures not to be mean to him, in the same way we wouldn't be mean to a friend. But it&#x27
9.
by prestadige 12y ago
Oh, c'mon, the word "community" is thrown around willy nilly nowadays. Every day I read something about the "tadpole-owning community" or whatnot. It could be the other way around: we are born into families and na
10.
by prestadige 12y ago
I'm not a consumerist. Nor do I suffer from social anxiety. Who are you talking to, and giving advice to? Nothing in your comment addresses any of my points. Why not engage -- otherwise you remain 'isolated', surely?
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by prestadige 12y ago
How is my dismissal 'easy'? I haven't heard it from anyone else and it acknowledges an unpleasant truth. What I dismiss are sentimental media ideas about 'community' which are all too common. What both arbitrary soc
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by prestadige 12y ago
I wish my neighbours well, but for me socialising is a distraction from work and family. Those are my contribution to the (wider) community. Besides, I have trouble enough keeping up with relatives and schoolmates without introducing new,
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by prestadige 12y ago
Communities, rife as they were with gossip, ostracism and superstitious cruelty, were always based on mutual need , not on acting out some supposedly gene-based pantomime. I daresay when the next drought or plague comes along I will get to
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by prestadige 12y ago
This is a fantasy of course, which is a defence mechanism for frustrated minds. However, the quasi-religious defence of Science as a settled body of knowledge which people must be forcibly 'educated' about is becoming depressingly
15.
by prestadige 12y ago
>Fusion has been 20-30 years out for the last 50 years. Michael Labgerge's chart gives a more complete picture of progress in fusion research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m9kC1yRnLQ#t=4m40s
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by prestadige 12y ago
Sure, it isn't ethical to experiment w/o consent. But in order to program an AGI, you need first to conjecture an explanation of how the mind works. One may be able to deduce from that explanation some of the ways in which minds c
17.
by prestadige 12y ago
Nah, I don't assume it. Hence 'may' and 'attempts'. But the explanation is simple enough. If you can discover what it takes to code a mind then you're also going to learn some of the systemic faults that minds,
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by prestadige 12y ago
None of your examples entail building a mind. Also there's a kind of irony in my example, since as a branch of computer science it is independently funded and seemingly unrelated to mental health.
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by prestadige 12y ago
Strangely enough it may be that our attempts to create artificial people (AGIs) will permit us to understand what mental disorders are all about.
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by prestadige 12y ago
But note that conforming itself requires creativity. One has to (consciously or no) conjecture what is the appropriate, conformist thing to do in any situation. There's no easy way around this since most of the rules are unwritten. Wha
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by prestadige 12y ago
Equilibrium lifestyle for humans? It amounts to saying that we could run out of problems . Since we can't, we'll continue to create new ideas and new technologies. And then deal with the unforeseen consequences. Etc.
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by prestadige 12y ago
This is great news. I've read about so many great nuclear projects in the past few years. Three thorium initiatives in China, India and Norway. ITER in Europe. Bussard Electrostatic Fusion. Travelling Wave Reactors. General Fusion&#x27
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by prestadige 12y ago
Feynman was in fact critical of the Soviet Union: >I think that Russia represents danger in saying that the solution to human problems is known, that all effort should be for the state, for that means there is no novelty. (from 'The
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by prestadige 12y ago
>Creative people by and large don't have "day jobs". An excellent argument for the Universal Basic Income: \ http://basicincome.org.uk/reasons-support-basic-income/
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by prestadige 12y ago
Your child will, as ever, learn your true values. If you try to manipulate him into being honest then you are implicitly asserting that honesty is bad. Correct this by understanding that honesty is its own reward. The world is a beautiful a
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by prestadige 12y ago
James Dyson's twin-drum contrarotating washing machine was a huge improvement over normal washing machines but failed to take off because it was much more expensive. The Privilege of Incumbency is tough to beat. To convince the public
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by prestadige 12y ago
Every tyranny is predicated on saving civilization. Also, every idea that actually helps civilisation is incubated in a tiny minority (perhaps in just one mind). Since that minority is engaged in creative work, it is almost certainly an out
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by prestadige 12y ago
No, I think even groups I do on later reflection agree with are acting questionably if they try to influence my early education. They probably think it's usually wrong to do so but they make an exception in the case of their ideas
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by prestadige 12y ago
Worth remembering though that there are many cultish aspects to the mainstream, e.g. political movements fight tooth and nail to influence what young children are taught at school.
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by prestadige 12y ago
You're right. It's a bit like evolution. The overwhelming majority of mutations led nowhere but we absolutely relied on the tiny few that got us to where we are today. That said, people who can't truly relax and daydream (m

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