Periodic Dosage Archive 2014-09
humanity's future = uncertain
actually, that's just a figure of speech. As “uncertain” can mean quite a lot of things, and i don't quite believe in any dystopia or catastrophe scenarios, and in fact i think the world is getting better and better, though i hate to admit it. i rather prefer to say it's getting worse and worse.
nevertheless, it's quite a interesting topic to fantasize about, from all aspects. Social structure, sciences and engineering, politics, nation states, morality, wellness… from near future say 5 or 10 years later, to distance future.
comment at https://plus.google.com/+XahLee/posts/KxqvEvwx8K5
xah rumination extempore. hatred of idiots
i've spent significant part of my life arguing with idiots. Mostly, the hacker type of programer idiots. When in argument, most of the time, i know what they are talking about, they dunno what am talking about. That is the thing.
when did this start to happen? i think it's around year 2000. Before that, one could consider i'm a learner. A eager one. Read all the stuff i can get my hands on. Have lots questions. Often frustrated by those who don't know what am asking.
after 2000, when i'm master of perl and unix tech, servers, networking stuff, i started to lash out at the hacker idiots. That's when, people started to call me a troll.
i introspect a lot. that is to say, to a degree that's considered pathological. (it's one of the characteristics of schizoid personality) So, on this issue, i've considered, to extremes, from whether i'm a idiot, or they are, or, what exactly is happening, why does it happen. Like, a deep analysis, of all facts and facets.
i do have some conclusions. It happens because, mostly it's a personality induced thing. That is, my personality. More concretely, unable to chichat, smooth things out, say things in a agreeable manner. But, the other thing is, excuse me for saying so, most these people are idiots. No, rather, i'm a bit ahead, like, 10 years ahead the time, as sometime that's said to some mad scientists. (of course, by saying this myself in a unashamed public way, i win more enemies and ridicule. that's ok.)
you know? you read a lot of things. No, i read a lot of things. Not just programing or math stuff, but psychology, sociology. And one of the most fascinating to me is brain washing, marketing, propaganda, influence, kinda things. Or, leadership. That fascinates me. You see? you can be a great mathematician or scientist or programer, but if you are a leader, you raise a army at your heels, willing to do whatever you want them to do. (as cult leaders, or to a lesser degree politicians) There are tons of books on these topics. One thing common in these thread, is that if you want to lead, to influence people, to negotiate, to be a smooth operator, get people to believe you, trust you (as con man is good at)… that one thing, is to not offend, and from there you can lead, or trick people, that they become your followers.
you have to follow the way people think, and smoothly go from there. persuade them, handhold them -- lead them.
but that's something am not sure i want to do. That's the bottom of it. Somethings in life is not a matter of decision or choice. If you are born a harlot, you are likely to be a harlot.
[etymology of harlot https://www.etymonline.com/word/harlot]
the les miserables, the depressed, the fuckedup, they live in a place invisible to the all-seeing social networks.
i cant help but feel, that some big free porn site is run by FBI.
Knowledge is Power my Hindquarters
they say, knowledge is power. But that's humanity speaking. Take you, for example. Suppose you study math, and is god at it. What's your fate? You'll be a professor at some university, at best. A junior javascript web monkey of will make more than you. Say, you are top of the game, you won prestigious math awards. Thy power will be below a toilet mopper at Google, who have better car than thee.
lets put superhuman powers in you. Say, you not only is a genius of math, but is a master of world history, politics, humanities, sciences, arts, equivalent to say 10 university degrees. Well, there are quite a lot people like that. Even seen the Jeopardy show? they are house wifes or mob toilets at McDonalds.
cut off pussy and wear as hat. I learned in 1992 in a American History course at Foothill College. White American Atrocity on American Indians
A Old Friend, on the Run for 14 Years, Captured by FBI: Juggler Neil Stammer
the bike sheding problem
xah's rumination extempore: on bike sheding problem
(xah's rumination extempore is when i type as fast as i can, you rip the incumbent fruit)
there's a problem called bike shed problem. that is, people tend to spend dispproportional time on trivial stuff.
the story is roughly this: nuclear power plant has lots decisions to make, but the problem most people spend time and argue about, is the design and size of the parking lot. Because it's a issue everyone can understand and have a opinion. (you can Wikipedia for detail)
this is quite interesting. worth a laugh. but it's also true. (is it scientifically true? as can this be verified or already confirmed in social science? i don't doubt it's true, but that's another topic)
so, it's quite a interesting issue. am thinking, how to classify, or address, this? like, first of all, is it a problem? if so, how can we solve it? has this problem plaque humanity throughout? like, you'd want overall view of the issue, exam its validy, degree of seriousness, its nature, and finally if there's a solution, if needed at all.
ok, but there's other similar things. Such as white female problem. I forgot what's the proper phrase, but basically, whenever some date rape or kidnap happens in USA, when it's a cute girl, the whole nation gets involved. While, much worse happens daily to black girls, or guys, everyday.
the bike shade also happens in programing. Mostly idiots argue about syntax. (i'll have to add a personal touch here: freshmen thinks syntax is most important, because that's what they see. After they graduate, they become sopho-morons, realizing that semantics is more important, because that's what computes. The ultimate sage will tell you, syntax is most important, because that's what language is. All the rest is side effect.)
ok, after thinking about these for about 20 min, i think i have a conclusion. The thing is that, human animals, and their thoughts and activities, are a process. For example, do you actually plan your life and try to optimize what you do according to a goal? WHAT is your goal? Strickly speaking, none of us had any goal, and there is no ultimate meaning of life. We live, and do things, as we go. We might have a goal today, short term or long term, such as get a degree, or open a business, or be better at something, etc, but it's not set in stone, changes, and different for everyone.
if, for example, for some reason all of us has a definite goal, of making the world a better place, as absolute, else we'll die within a year, then, bike sheding and lots other problems will be resolved, automatically. Unfortunately, no god's gonna effectively tell us that. So, even if we realize there's bike sheding problem, but so what? that's part of life. Gossipe, watch tv, go to bars, fool around, or whatever, have fun, they said. That's what we do.
so, in conclusion, the bike sheding problem isn't exactly a concrete problem. It is as problem like watching tv is a problem, or wasting time in general. It is simply a phenomenon of human behavior, human nature.
hunger or purity?
i get offers to have “guest posts” on my website, for about $100 bucks a piece. My delima is, hunger or purity.
If you look at the successes, such as Mark Zerker scmbag, or the tons of sites that's well known today (and you see it shared everyday on social networks), then perhaps, it's wise to take the offer.
sometimes, the things in life is simple. For vast majority of people, judging by their deeds, money is the only concept. Very very few, statistically abnormal, such as Richard Stallman, takes a stance. In general, you don't fare well that way.
crackpot letters
John Baez's sample of crackpot letters he received.
see https://plus.google.com/+XahLee/posts/Ej2giAWZXwK
now and then i receive them too, i guess because i've been desperate to sell how smart i am on my websites for almost 2 decades now.
it's kinda strange and interesting that there are these people around. Sometimes you wonder if they are sincere or hoaxing, but apparently at least many of them are, as one can easily read tons of literature about UFOs and occult and conspiracy theories. (you can read Wikipedia for days on it.)
i'm a logical person. So, sometimes i give a hard try to read what they have to say, thinking that i'll have a solid analysis of the situation. But, basically it's just bizarre and doesn't make sense. Try to read what John posted and you'll see.
sometimes, some of these people are my readers or fan. So, that puts me in a awkward situation. If i show any hint of displeasure or disbelief, then perhaps i'd jeopardize a supporter.
some of these involves God, some psychology stuff.
one of the instance is when around 2001, a angle-trisector contacted me, and eventually met me in person, several times, he always treat for lunch, and paid me to help him publish his work. I end up doing some drawing for him. This is the most concrete crank that i actually came to know.
because i mostly write about programing that offends the hacker types of coders, i'm considered a crank by some. Though, think most of them are not serious.
However, there are a few who have become Xah Haters, who would take any opportunity to diss me online, when my name is mentioned. They would say i'm a idiot or dismiss my writings, in general bad mouth me. Usually, i've never ever responded to them. That usually made their behavior worse. (by the way, human nature is sometimes too predicable. As soon as i responded to them in some nice way, they go away. But, i pretty much NEVER.)
but, on the other hand, in the programing community, my maverick style also attracted a few that have crazy ideas. We'd communicate thru email, but then, i start to realize they have some strange ideas they want to tell me about or tries to get me involved. Psychology stuff, or religious, or …. It's really hard to describe. And, often they are secretive as well. I always prefer real name, and meet face to face or voice chat. But, typical hacker types are not even willing to disclose real name. So, it's nearly impossible to actually communicate with these guys for real. For example, some believe deeply in buddism... (no, it's not just that, but as i said it's hard to describe.) Then, there are one who believes in some kinda psycho therapy or something like that…
actually, a lot people in emacs community is pretty out there. I think it's because emacs and rms himself attracts very weird types.
but anyhow, i think in some philosophy aspect this is not too weird. Because, when you think about it, it's quite amazing that any 2 person can communicate at all about complex ideas. For example, let's say 2 animals, let's say 2 cats or a cat and dog. They can communicate anger, fear, submission, etc. How does the cat know what the dog is thinking? Easy, because the dog can't think of much of anything, except anger, happy, aggressive, passive, etc.
But for humans animals, we can communicate complex political ideas, philosophy problems, size of the universe, physics, mathematics, history, future. And in philosophy, at core is the mind body problem, free will problem, consciousness problem. I guess what am saying is that, the concept of thought is elusive, how can one possibly quantify possible human thoughts or beliefs (like a somewhat systematic thought set). Even some accomplished mathematicians, such as Godel, believes in ghosts and stuff.
a Google autonomous car just whisked by, with giant laser rotor spinning fast atop. i cant help but feel being violated to the bone.
become popular
to become popular is to sell lies. e.g. say things people like to hear, and utterly avoid anything that doesn't further that goal. All media, companies, are doing that.
That's something i refuse to do. But've been thinking.
comment at https://plus.google.com/+XahLee/posts/9ciYkmKhiXY