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On auctions, politics, quantum computing, and waste.
All-pay auctions can make for a fun board game, but these same rules are *horrible* when used for politics.
auction, auction board games, auction games, auction theory, auction types, board game, board games, computer encryption, computer security, cooperative versus competitive board games, cooperative versus competitive games, encryption, Facebook, Facebook advertising, Facebook fraud, Facebook fraudulent political ads, Facebook political ads, Facebook political lies, fraudulent political ads, high speed stock trading, inequality, political contests, politics, quantum computing, security, stock market, wealth extraction, wealth inequality -
On two degrees and the worst year (yet) to be alive.
We’re hoping to limit climate change to two degrees … but even two degrees could turn our world into a terrible place to live.
536, 536 A.D., archaeology, atmospheric science, borrow Earth from our children, borrow the land from our children, carbon, carbon cycle, carbon economy, carbon emissions, carbon neutral, carbon tax, climate change, climate cycle, climate instability, crops, Dark Ages, Facebook, famine, feedback loop, food crops, forests, global warming, great depletion, greenhouse gases, heat sink, inherit the Earth, loss of fecundity, melting ice caps, Michael McCormick, most privileged generation, moving south for the winter, science, server farms, trains, trees, two degrees, two degrees Celsius, Venus, Venus was habitable, violence, volcano, weather, Wendell Berry, worst year to be alive -
On empathizing with machines.
With sufficient power to pursue its goals, an AI might destroy the world. But then, we’d probably do it too.
AI, algorithm, apocalypse, artificial intelligence, Burt Helm, computer games, decision-making, empathy, end of the world, ethics, Facebook, Facebook advertising, Facebook algorithm, Frank Lantz, goals, GPS, Grand Theft Auto, GTA, Guantánamo, machines, money, morality, neural networks, paperclips, philosophy, the algorithm, tools -
On goals and Jack Gilbert’s “Failing and Falling.”
We either fail to reach our goals … or they fail us. Striving is fine, but we should enjoy the process of life.
Adam Alter, beauty, death, exercise, Facebook, Failing and Falling, fulfillment, goal-oriented, goals, growth, Icarus, Instagram, Irresistible, Jack Gilbert, Jack Vance, jail poetry, meaning of life, Pattiann Rogers, poetry, prison poetry, process, process-oriented, rec yard, tech companies, The Demon Princes, The Greatest Grandeur, The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, unhappiness, University of Phoenix, withdrawal








