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Showing posts from September, 2021

Selfish Gene

 Just a quick one. I listened to a Joe Rogan podcast today - one with guests Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. Interesting discussion. They have a science/biology background and had some interesting things to say. I believe they have just written a book - a evolutionary toolkit book. I’m not sure of the details but it seemed it was along the lines of the Selfish Gene by Dawkins. Ie one of those - its all based on fitness for reproduction etc. The passing of genes to the next generation is crucial and bla bla bla. I think this topic came up when Joe had a query about tyranny. Might be some truth to it. In fact there probably is. But not much in my opinion. Big system wise - it might work, but on micro layer I doubt it. People care about their kids, but a significant minority of people don’t. I don’t think majority of people will destroy themselves or their neighbours for their ‘genes’. Human behaviour is clearly not optimised to sacrifice oneself for children completely. Again, hap...

Dominance Hierarchies

The answers to the biggest questions in life are paradoxes. The example I like best is the question regarding one own’s significance in the universe. A mere person on this planet is just one of 6 or 7 billion of the same species, on a planet full of massive amount of life, in which the planet is only one of nine (Pluto is a planet in my book dammit) in our solar system. There are many solar systems in our Milky Way galaxy, and there are infinite galaxies in a universe that is currently expanding. Makes you seem insignificant huh? Well what if someone asked me to describe you. I’d have to tell them what you looked like in some detail, then explain that you were a human being, a species from a planet called Earth. This Earth place is in a solar system, the solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy. There are infinite galaxies. To describe you properly I need to invoke the whole universe. Paradox. I’ve gone down the stoic philosophy route of recent years. This is based on a foundation of no...

Wall of Impossible

 Support services. Wow wee. Why am I surprised though? This is what they do. No skin in the game. Mitigate risk on their part. Put spanner in wheel of progress. Act as friction.  "Sure, you can aim to do that. But here is a list of impossible tasks to perform, most contradictory. Also to execute this will mean the utter corruption of your soul. Just so we are clear, if you don't perform it the way I've suggested, which is impossible as stated before, then I can't be held liable for any f ups." Plan = wait until system becomes so bogged with parasites it falls over as new upstart takes it apart. Capitalism. Bring on Capitalism.

One and the Other

Ying and Yang Cain and Abel Peterson and Fry I listened to a very thought provoking podcast a couple of days ago, a conversation between Jordan Peterson and Stephen Fry. The two are very intelligent and have very different and persuasive views of the world. Fry describes himself as a luke warm leftist, while JP is a moderate righty. They have both delved recently into the stories of the past (Fry - Mythos, Heroes and Try, JP - The Bible) for what would seem similar and different reasons. The common major trait that they both share is an epic level of curiosity, the steam engine which drives their work. It was a strange experience listening to the podcast. One would put forth a theory or argument or point of view in a very persuasive manner (they are both masters of the arts of story telling and rhetoric). You'd go 'wow, that makes a lot of sense, sign me up, I'm convinced'. Then the other would counter with an even more compelling discussion. That pattern continues unti...