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2012: Genes Spread Through Memes: A silly but maybe true hypothesis
I think this is amusing… toxoplasmosis is a parasite spread through mice to cats to humans. In the case of mice the toxoplasmosis causes the mice to be dopey and more easily distractable – so they are more easily caught and spread to cats. Humans are infected through spending time with cats and coming in…
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A footnote on why “user created” taxonomies doesn’t sound at all boring for suttacentral
Bhante Sujato at https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/a-suttacentral-creativity-multiplier/33579 I got the idea indirectly from a talk at the Digital Buddhism conference by Christian Wittern. Just an amazing man! He’s built this system that allows user input for a taxonomy for texts. That’s great, but (a) it’s hard and (b) its, well, a taxonomy But the thing that he said…
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Analysis of “If I were you” type statements in terms of epistemic two dimensionalism and ‘centered worlds’.
Download PDF of 2010 Essay here
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Blindsight & The Ability Hypothesis: Issues for a Science of Consciousness
What can blindsight tell us about the nature of consciousness? Unless you are a Zombie, you are probably familiar with the concept of Qualia, although perhaps not the word. Qualia is a abstract noun given to things like the ‘redness of red’, the smell of freshly baked bread, the feelings of sunshine on our back,…
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On ‘Economic Inequality’
What is it that we demand when we demand ‘economic equality’? A charge often leveled at those who demand ‘economic equality’ is that this demand rests on the false premise that there is a finite amount of wealth in the world. The idea being that there is a finite amount of money, and that when…
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‘Limit 12 per customer’
Why does the grocery store have an express checkout with the sign that says ‘limit 12 per customer’. One hypothesis is that it is in order to make sure the line remains fast, and people could quickly leave the store. But, if you notice, the express line is always the same speed as the other…
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Why 42 is the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything
In Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” the computer Deep Thought famously gives the answer to “The Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything” as 42. Ever since geeks have pondered and wondered about the reasons why Douglas Adams choose 42. Did he just pick an arbitrary number? Or was there really something to…
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Patent for a stick.
Have you picked up a stick and thrown it for your dog to chase? Turns out you could owe royalties to the holder of a patent on sticks from trees Let’s face it. The patent system is fucked.
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IBM Patents the Patent
In case you thought that intellectual property could not get more absurd, IBM has patented a procedure for filing patents and enforcing rights to do with patents. Next time you file a patent and want to enforce your rights, just make sure you aren’t accidentally using one of the strategies IBM patented. Another reason that…
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Tim Berners-Lee (web pioneer) on why Facebook is destroying the web.
Generally I hate all of this posting a link on a blog thing with a short blurb at the beginning, it is generally lazy and thoughtless and more-or-less just keyword fodder for commercial blog authors. But if I may be allowed, there is an article everybody should read. Tim Berners-Lee, the fellow who designed the…