Psychology
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On productivity, and the risk of accidentally making the world worse when we’re trying to make it better.
If efficiency were all we were after, why bother with human consumers? Robots could grow the food, and gobble it all up, too.
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On the low-quality, highly-biased research attempting to dissuade you from wearing a bike helmet.
You should wear a helmet, no matter what the ill-conceived research papers claim.
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On Akerlof & Shiller’s ‘Phishing for Phools’ and the increasing heterogeneity of the United States.
People aren’t exactly the same everywhere, but we’re all suckers. And huckersters know.
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On medical spending.
We spend huge amounts on medical care in the U.S., but cheaper interventions would improve people’s lives more.
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On asking first.
I still frown every time I see the sidewalk chalkings / posters / coffee mugs / t-shirts that read “Consent Is Sexy.” I really thought that slogan would’ve faded away by now. Traditional sexual practices in the U.S. are bad, sure. The standard shown in movies and advice books is for both parties to act…
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On Skynet, and why I’m still gung-ho about AI research despite having watched two out of four Terminator movies.
Maybe we just need an all-out war against a machine of our own creation.
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On octopus literature, a reprise: what would books be like if we didn’t love gossip?
Of all intelligent species I know of, only the octopus evolved its mind for purposes other than keeping track of gossip.
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On Simon Critchley’s ‘Memory Theater’ and other people’s lost time.
Long-lost artifacts trigger powerful memories … but without an explanation, they seem meaningless to others.
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On my own attempt to understand what motivates people to join the terrorist organization Daesh.
Kent Russell’s essay on juggalos helped me think about Middle Eastern terrorism.
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On proving that elections will make you miserable.
Somehow I’d deluded myself into thinking that typing this essay would make me happy. I see now that I was wrong.
Frank Brown Cloud 