Doom is predicted for 2009. Even economists, who are so overly optimistic they didn’t declare a recession until it had been going on for a year, don’t see the economy recovering until 2010. Cue 65daysofstatic, the soundtrack of oblivion.
But then there is 365 days of Astronomy, a podcast on the big picture, coming to us daily when things are worst. (Their first podcast doesn’t mention the collapse of civilization even once.) Personally, when things are this bad, I prefer alcohol and the solace of hopelessness. But it's interesting to be reminded that some people are able to look past the problems with the economy and get on with their lives. And not just economists, but actual people. Things are bad? Cue the astronomers, the ones who are happiest when the sky is darkest.
American Express sent me an application for their gold plan credit card. Then, a week or so later, they sent me an application for their platinum card.
I’m holding out for their plutonium card.
Eliezer Yudkowsky and Aubrey de Grey discuss living forever on bloggingheads.tv. (For more on these two, see Yudkowsky demystify quantum mechanics, and see de Grey giving a talk about immortality at TED). They mention two sides of the debate: people who want to live forever, and people who try to justify the natural aging process (and eventual death), as though it were a good thing. They fail to mention a third side of the debate—those of us who want to dramatically decrease lifespan and dramatically increase birth rates. Don't they have any sympathy for all those people who haven't even been conceived yet? Let's give them a chance, by killing ourselves young and having lots of babies.
For some reason everybody ignores me whenever I bring up this philosophy.
St. Louis alderman Charles Quincy Troupe has recommended that everybody arm themselves in response to high crime. I think this is a wonderful idea. Also, in response to rogue nations developing nuclear weapons, I think that every country in the world should develop nuclear weapons. It’s the only way we’ll ever be safe.
A squirrel cautiously approached me today to consume my Dorito crumbs. We shared a bench while we ate our meals. Previously, I had thought that squirrels don’t approach humans. I now realize that hypothesis was flawed. As a scientist, I am now forced to change my theory in the light of new evidence. My new theory is that squirrels don’t usually approach humans, unless you have Doritos.
Further experiments will be required to test the new squirrel theory.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting (see Slashot too) that the FCC has proposed free, nation-wide wireless internet. There’s one catch: it will filter pornography by default. That’s a big catch. Whoever gets to define pornography has the veto on information.
Actually, I’m fine with censoring the internet, so long as I get to do the censoring. We should also censor electricity: it works for everything except sex toys. And roads: they’re flat for everything but sexmobiles. And air: it has enough oxygen for everybody but the people who disagree with me. But if I’m not the one in control, I demand that the government at least print money for everybody instead. The more they censor, the more money they print. Who wouldn’t love that? It would cause disasterous inflation, but they could just censor that news report. Problem solved.
Quantum mechanics is hard to understand because it is outside the everyday experience of humans. Other things are hard to understand for similar reasons. Take pointers in C, for example. I can think of one real world analogy: In a collection of index cards that refer to things in the world, a pointer is like an index card that refers to another index card. This is not a situation that most people have encountered when they first try to understand pointers, hence the difficulty. But this hints at something: to understand a concept is to make an analogy to another concept. I don’t know if this is true in general, but I haven’t thought of a counter example. (For what it’s worth, I believe I first encountered this hypothesis in GEB).
Quantum mechanics, though it attempts to explain the real world, is hard to understand. But it can be understood in terms of mathematics. In order to come to terms with quantum mechanics, it helps to first understand linear algebra and calculus. And how can these things be understood? In terms of geometric intuition (acquired from everyday experience) and other mathematics.
Now if only I could understand what I’ve written.
A week or so ago, Dan Ariely asked What’s the value of a bonus? He showed that bonuses actually do more harm than good, at least in the kinds of environments they were able to test. Larger scale tests should be done. This weekend, John Horgan and George Johnson discuss the op-ed on Bloggingheads.tv. All of this takes on special relevance after the recent Wall Street bailouts, which have allowed bankers to keep their bonuses at the expense of taxpayers.
Personally, I’d rather not question the wisdom of the financial overlords who undoubtedly know what’s best for everyone. They probably understand my need for a bonus and will reward me accordingly. Unless they don’t, then I might have to change my opinion and unleash the wrath of my audience on bankers everywhere. (Yes, Wall Street, that is a threat.)
I have finally finished watching the last season of The Wire. It is the best television show I have ever seen. This article by creator David Simon helps to indicate why. Rafe Colborn and Jason Kottke also have intelligent things to say about the show.
As I am sure the show intended, I have now decided to move to Baltimore and become a drug lord. It just looks so awesome.
The government is backing $300 billion of Citigroup’s debt. I was going to buy a $300,000 home, but then I would have to pay for it myself. Instead I will buy a million of them, and then the government will cover me. Surely everyone in the United States will be willing to give me $1000 (each) so I can have somewhere to put the millions of cars I am going to buy.
I had an involved conversation with a stranger on the street today. He tried to convince me that global warming was a liberal conspiracy, and that the only true climatologists know that global climate change (if it even exists) is not man-made. I think his friend was embarrassed for him.
Apparently, it’s not the increase in CO2 that has raised temperatures, but the increase in temperatures that has raised the CO2. That’s the funny logic I’m talking about.
So I asked him where all that CO2 came from, and I don’t remember what he said, but I know it was something silly. Thus, I was about to write this dude off as just another conspiracy theorist.
But then it came up that I am studying physics.
He is of the opinion that physicists are the smartest people ever (us and neuroscientists; and we’re way smarter than mathematicians). So my view of him naturally changed, because only the most reliable people appreciate the genius of us physicists. Therefore, in order to maintain the delusion that I am in the same rank as all the brilliant physicists of history, I have concluded that I agree with him about climate change.
I just hope I don’t have to vote for Republicans now.
I have listened to Carnavas over 60 times. My goal is 795, which I have calculated from physics to be the optimal number of times to listen to that album.
To be as awesome as Barack Obama and Ronald Jenkees, looks like I’m going to have to put in about 10,000 hours of work. Dang it, that’s going to be difficult. Maybe I should try to be happy with the illusion of awesomeness instead. I already have that.
I am a huge fan of bloggingheads.tv, and two of my favorite participants have posted their latest conversation. Unfortunately, they do nothing but talk about Obama. Come on, Obama is so over. Next president please!
After watching The Daily Show Tuesday and Wednesday, I have decided to read both Hot, Flat, and Crowded and The First Billion is the Hardest. They both deal with the need to develop a new energy economy. Since you asked, I will let you know what I think when I finish reading them.
What are we doing to benefit society?
Some people have called for greater transparency in government. But people should have greater transparency too. Almost all of us rely on society to some extent; what are we doing to return the favor? In order to increase accountability, I propose a system of voluntary personal transparency. The idea is simple: write about how you have made use of society’s resources on your blog. This would let other people know that you have been responsible. The greater your personal transparency, the more easily others will trust you.
I’ll start. As a graduate student, I am given about $25,000 per year to perform varoius tasks at a university. These tasks include taking classes in physics and getting good grades, doing work that leads to enhancing the body of scientific research, and helping to pass on my knowledge to a younger generation of scientists by answering students’ questions in a lab. Do I succeed at these tasks? Not always. I haven’t gotten any A-range grades, my work has been minimal and has not yet increased the body of scientific research, and I haven’t always had the best answers to students’ questions about electronics. Shit, this post was supposed to make me look good. Maybe if I can convince enough people to be more transparent, the benefit to society would be worth $25,000 per year.
Of course, all this relies on everybody having a blog. I would suggest that people write things on paper and post copies in the public square, but when we run out of trees in five to ten years, this will no longer be possible. It will have to be blogs then.
When I first listened to Ronald Jenkee's Stay Crunchy, I had to redefine my internal sense of what was possible. Seriously. You see, that song sounds like a dream, and I had thought that those things don’t come true. But they do, and to realize that was one of the remarkable eye-opening experiences of my life. I’m not trying to exaggerate. A single song has done as much to motivate me to work hard as anything else I have ever experienced, because I have seen the results of passion, and it is glorious. That somebody can train themselves to perform something so wonderful and so original is a testament to everything that is right with humanity.
Now Obama is president-elect. This wasn’t supposed to be possible, but that’s just the thing. What everybody thinks is or is not possible is flawed, so there is always reason to have hope. In the words of New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, everything really is possible in America. Now can I have my time machine?
This morning I cast my vote for Barack Obama, who will probably be the next president. David Brooks has a great op-ed in the New York Times about the transfer of power from the baby boomers to the post-boomer generation. The boomers had two presidents, but made little use of the wealth and opportunity at hand. Now the next generation needs to not just handle the problems that the boomers left unresolved, like health care and increasing income inequality (not to mention all the problems the Bush administration has actually introduced), but it must handle them in a time of stagnating national growth (or worse).
Brooks seems to imply that there was a time when not everyone could afford to buy a daily Starbucks espresso. But obviously this is false, since that would have caused the world to descend into a state of caffeine-starved anarchy. So I say, let’s ignore all these apparent problems, because they are too unpleasant to be true. Instead, let’s just go shopping and relax. And if you can’t afford anything, just use your credit card!
