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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Grant wrote: | | But why are intellectuals overwhelmingly left-wing? |
Because the left are proposing change, which requires systemic intellectualising. The right are defending the status quo which does not. It is why Tory 'intellectuals' tend to be nicknamed 'two brains' or 'too clever by half'. The radical right is not in quite the same boat but not far off.
| My theory is that if you are intelligent - like me - when you look around the world you think, "Things should be better. Intelligent people like me can redesign all this to make it fairer." |
OK
| However, if you are really intelligent - like me - you realise that you are deceiving yourself. Do you really know enough to make it better? Maybe the combined efforts of millions are actually more useful than your puny brains. |
OK
| Of course, that isn't true either. |
That is why you can't be either a right wing or a left wing 'thinker'. You have to be untrammeled. But I'm sure a really intelligent person like yourself knows this even though they haven't quite got the guts to take that last step.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Why does nobody read my 'stuff' (as a close relative referred to it the other day)? Why does nobody read your stuff (let me know if they do). There are three reasons why people don't read 'stuff'
1. They don’t know about it
2. It’s too boring
3. It’s too interesting and would scramble their brain
I say (1) and (3) applies. The close relative said it was (2).
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Grant
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Have you read Thinking Fast and Slow?
As Kahneman says, people use rules of thumb to think. Most of the time anyway (he calls them heuristics). This is fast thinking.
But if you think about stuff from first principles it takes more time and it literally uses more energy - slow thinking.
From a Darwinian perspective we are idiots for caring about this stuff. If Mick had gone with the flow he'd be a billionaire by now with two ex-wives, five children and a young mistress with pert breasts.
But would he be happy?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Grant wrote: | | Have you read Thinking Fast and Slow? |
I haven't heard of Thinking Fast and Slow.
| As Kahneman says, people use rules of thumb to think. Most of the time anyway (he calls them heuristics). This is fast thinking. |
I do not accept people 'think'. Their brains use rules of thumb to know how best to process information.
| But if you think about stuff from first principles it takes more time and it literally uses more energy - slow thinking. |
OK.
| From a Darwinian perspective we are idiots for caring about this stuff. |
I haven't got any kids, that's true.
| If Mick had gone with the flow he'd be a billionaire by now with two ex-wives, five children and a young mistress with pert breasts. |
No. I am, generally speaking, a failure in most things. I am superlatively good at one thing, which does not appear to be materially rewarded.
I wasn't specially either happy or unhappy as far as I can tell when I was failing in most things. I am mostly happy now.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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But if you think about stuff from first principles it takes more time and it literally uses more energy - slow thinking.
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Slow thinking does not use more energy or, rather, if it does, then those of us who practise Tai Chi have got it wrong.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Have I ever told you about my relationship with a Tai Chi master? (Or, I suppose, mistress.) They are, you might be surprised to hear, much like anyone else in ordinary life. At any rate she chucked me, which was par for the course.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Did she practise standing still? Did she have more zest?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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She was incredibly ordinary. I was rather disappointed. Your wife says much the same about you because of or despite your vaunted Tai Chi skills.
"He bloody stands around a lot, like a tit in a trance, I know that much."
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Just making a post where it's likely to be seen. Sorry I've been away so long. Will be back soon. With a gift.
For the past few months I have invested every non-working moment into a special project. It's not related to AE, unfortunately. But it's an absolute obsession. Evey moment of my time has gone into this.
I am creating a completely new version of the Star Wars film, The Phantom Menace, using editing and AI. I've re-written and reorganized the film. It's a complete top-to-bottom rebuild of the movie. It's an hour longer than the original, and I've actually cut 30 minutes from the original.
I plan to share it with long-term members of this forum (those that are interested) as part of the beta-testing phase.
Looking forward to rejoining the conversation once I'm finished. I'm nearly done now!!!
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I was just saying to the wife, "What this world needs, m'duck, is a new Star Wars, only longer." And do you know what she said? She said, "Don't m'duck me, m'duck."
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The AE of Curling
'Holding the hammer', i.e. throwing the last stone, is an enormous advantage. The hammer passes to the side which lost the previous end, of which there are ten. The crux of the game therefore is to score big (two or more) when holding the hammer rather than one (not enough to make up for losing the hammer) or none (neutral, you keep the hammer) or minus 1, 2 etc (a 'steal' by the other side).
This is all largely decided by the last two stones, thrown by the best player in the side, the 'skip'. It becomes especially significant, as we shall see, in Olympic curling when the skips are therefore de facto the best curlers in the world, not just in their team.
| Even more so when your skip happens to be the actual Number One Curler in the world. |
It is obvious that, once certain complex arrangements of stones is arrived at, it is beyond human ability to be able to predict what will happen when another humanly-cast stone is thrown at them. A 'perfect' throw might, however, do something predictable. Best-in-the-world curlers think they can make perfect throws--or perhaps think it is incumbent upon them to assume they can--when any AE-ist would tell them they can't.
Alas, there is no-one in the team (not even the coach) who can tell them this when they are de jure World Number Ones. They go for it and a certain, say, plus-one is turned into, say, a disastrous minus-three. This happened twice yesterday (to a male Scot and a female Canadian) which is sufficient to identify it as an AE problem. Albeit not the most important one in the world.
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Pete Jones
Site Admin
In: Virginia
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Speaking with Claude AI last night, I was wondering about the "world record" problem. Is there a better example of "world records" congealing in one person than Alexander the Great?
1. Single most famous conqueror of the world (sorry, Genghis)
2. Schooled by Aristotle, the most famous philosopher in history (sorry, Plato)
3. Aristotle was schooled by Plato, the other most famous philosopher in history (sorry, Morgan Freeman)
4. Alexander was a conqueror from Macedonia, a country that never did anything before him and hasn't done anything since (similar to Mongolia, actually)
5. His first biography is written ~400 years after his death, compiled from lost fragments. But that was lost completely. However, Plutarch used it to write his Alexander bio. And of course the first manuscript of Plutarch wasnt discovered until the Renaissance.
#5 is, I think, the world record for unsubstantiated biographical bullshit (sorry, Obama)
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Pete Jones
Site Admin
In: Virginia
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Is Alexander also considered the world-record holder for "founder of the most cities"?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Ooh, get him. It looks like too many world records, it smells like too many world records but does the man quack about too many world records? Yes, but ultimately no.
| Single most famous conqueror of the world |
Let's assume this since there has to be one.
| world-record holder for founder of the most cities |
So he would automatically become this. (It could be argued, so it doesn't constitute a separate world record.) Claim denied.
| a conqueror from Macedonia, a country that never did anything before him and hasn't done anything since |
The most famous conqueror in the world would automatically put his country on the map and if a country being on the map is down to nothing more than the place where the most famous etc etc comes from then it will promptly disappear again. Claim denied.
| Schooled by Aristotle, the most famous philosopher in history |
If you're the most famous conqueror in the world you're going to tell the MSM, "Aw shucks, fellers, it was all down to my seventh grade civics instructor." If the conqueror is still in his twenties/thirties, that teacher will be young enough to be inundated by offers to write books that will become the most famous textbooks in the world. Denied.
| Aristotle was schooled by Plato, the other most famous philosopher in history |
But since they aren't actually much cop, the wily publisher puts on the back cover how the author was taught by the most famous philosopher of the day who is by now dead and can't deny it. Denied.
| His first biography is written ~400 years after his death, compiled from lost fragments. But that was lost completely. However, Plutarch used it to write his Alexander bio. And of course the first manuscript of Plutarch wasnt discovered until the Renaissance. |
Not a world record. Denied (for inclusion in a bogus list of world records). But put together, Lex Luthor is fictional.
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Pete Jones
Site Admin
In: Virginia
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I'd counter by saying "where there's smoke, there's fire," if I didn't think you'd declare it a bogus list
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