2023-08-19
Readings
A wordy explanation of the idea that Parrots probably lack grammar and that their human-like speech mostly works on raw association (but their bird speech differs):
Genetic study on humans and variance in brain folding: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-largest-genetic-brain.amp
An efficient cousin to solar panels, for directed light (with plenty of obvious applications): https://phys.org/news/2023-08-arrays-tiny-crystals-efficient-wireless.html
I’m not sure about the methods this study uses; the correlations are pretty broad as a mechanism isn’t tightly followed (time is the mediating factor). It’d be unethical to do this kind of thing more directly, although at least there’s some speculation as to mechanism that may lead to something more concrete. Anyhow, the idea is that a rise in certain kinds of air pollution seems to be correlated with a global rise in antibiotic resistance: https://phys.org/news/2023-08-air-pollution-linked-global-antibiotic.amp
Stem cell-based cornea repair (using someone’s own stem cells): https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-cell-therapy-cornea-patient-stem.html
A lucky observation (from the FAST telescope) led to detection of quieter pulses from a pulsar during a period when pulsars were thought to be mostly quiet: https://phys.org/news/2023-08-scientists-fast-population-dwarf-pulses.amp
Thoughts
There is no certainty that sensible-by-argument people will be able to reach accommodation. There is more likelihood if they don’t go by argument and instead tune things based on the possibility of accommodation and duty itself, but this inhibits meaning-seeking. e.g. if two independent societies develop medical (or other) ethics without consulting with each other.
I don’t think the search for racial representation in politics per se is healthy - the idea that certain ethnicities are owed a seat in state-level or national-level legislatures is weird and repugnant. Although it also at least looks weird when existing seats that are majority-minority look to be gerrymandered away. I don’t believe that the intent behind such efforts are generally racist (contrary to progressives, who seem to think basically everything is racist); the mundane explanation is sufficient - that they follow voting patterns of ethnicities and are just politics as usual of attempting to seek partisian power. The effect is still a problem, not because of race, but because gerrymandering is a problem and that parties should not generally be able to manipulate district boundaries for advantage. I’m leaning towards the idea that the nation would be better off with some kind of a formula that would either directly decide or which would stick-and-carrot our way out of the current boundary manipulation mess, trying to (somehow) balance a desire for competitive elections, party-proportionality, infrequent and predictable change, and mostly convex borders.
The whole Zuckerberg/Musk “I will beat you up” exchange was deeply stupid. Moreso that it happened in public. It’s annoying that so much deeply stupid stuff is displacing serious politics.
Rage against the machine, and how the whole “rage for the machine” counterslogan was both useful and disappointing. Useful in that it illustrated that “the machine” is not so simple an idea and is worth questioning, but disappointing in that it was Covid stupidity that was the example. Although stuff like this is often the case - for a long time left-anarchist narratives painted the state as an oppressive mechanism that could do no good, and this has been mostly wrong in the modern era (it may have been more true when left-anarchism as an ideology was born). Nowadays I find it useful to raise the profile of issues that divide the moralists to demonstrate the flaws of that manner of thinking. Primarily the left-moralists as I see them as more dangerous than the traditional moralists (who at this time I see as either on their way out or as people whom I don’t know how to counter).
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with Ukrainian forces advancing in most regions and getting approvals and training for further western equipment.
Niger - The illegitimate government is set to prosecute the president for treason, while ECOWAS, a bloc of West African countries that are not led by military juntas, is organising a military force and is threatening its use if the illegitimate government of Niger doesn’t stand down after attempts at diplomacy
Another politician was assassinated in Ecuador, this time a local party leader Pedro Briones.
The US, Japan, and South Korea signed a mutual defense pact (that also develops a mutual operation training duty), primarily expected to be against North Korea with the potential to deter Chinese activity
Polls
A recent Pew poll on separation of church and state in the US ( https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/10/28/in-u-s-far-more-support-than-oppose-separation-of-church-and-state/ ) - here I find myself in the mainstream, although I worry that it’s not necessarily as wide a mainstream on certain interpretations as I’d like. My vision for church and state is that the government is generally neutral and disinterested in religion and generally leaving people room to believe as they will, but not generally letting that “believe as you will” idea turn into any special permissions for people to do things their fellow citizens cannot. I think anything done under colour of law must not be religious (meaning I think any religious symbols on public property would have to be under an “open to all” basis), that teachers leading students in prayer is generally not acceptable (unless the parent-teacher relationship is entirely coincidental to that activity). I have strong sympathies for the worries over compelled speech with regards to (what I see as) overbroad application of antidiscrimination laws to small businesses providing custom services, e.g. making custom cakes for a gay wedding, but I don’t think such concerns can reasonably extend to business that is not particularly expressive (e.g. dispensing medications one might not personally agree with). I don’t want a place for Christianity (or any religion) in the US National Identity (although you’d probably expect this from me; I’m an atheist).
A smaller Pew poll on tattoos ( https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/15/32-of-americans-have-a-tattoo-including-22-who-have-more-than-one/ ); I’ve occasionally considered a tattoo, but never very seriously. I apparently meet some of the poll’s correlations for being more likely to have one (being bisexual and nonreligious) but not others (being upper-income and being from an upper-income family). When I’ve considered getting one it’s mainly been along the likes of something either Celtic or modern-technology inspired, or some combination of the two. Had I ever gotten one, I probably would’ve designed my own. The poll covers impressions of tattoos; for me, the impression I get largely is determined by the kind of tattoo; for most kinds, I’m likely to have a mildly negative impression, but if they’re impressive (either along the kinds I’ve thought about getting or particularly elaborate ones that work well_, I’m likely to have a positive impression.
Policy Focus
This week I came across an article, from Will Saletan (of the Bulwark), about gerrymandering in Wisconsin; some notes:
Reviewlets
Octopath Traveler 2 (video game) - It’s been a long time since I played Octopath traveller and I remember liking it, but that’s all I remember. Playing the sequel, it feels like a bunch of entirely different games put into a blender. Nice engine, but the plot and setting is an utter mess - the characters have absolutely nothing to do with each other and their worlds clash. It’s possible to mix a lot of different themes together if some effort is put in to make the world feel together, but no effort here was made; the three kingdoms of China as a theme just don’t work right next to a silver-rush themed wild west. It feels aggressively stupid. I eventually hit a story I couldn’t stomach where I was playing as a rude religious fundamentalist, and gave up and uninstalled the game because you need to play through all 8 characters and I’m just not willing to deal with that character.
Woke Racism (book) - John McWhorter is a thinker I’ve admired for a long time. I haven’t always agreed with him, but this is in my view an important work - he’s diagnosing a moment in Western political thought - what went wrong with Progressive/woke moralism, and how can we defang or fix it? And yet, early on I hit a stumbling point - the framing of these movements as religion strikes me as a bad definition (primarily because to me a religion must be about mysticism, afterlife). Without that, it’s a creed - it’s possible for comprehensive moral creed organisations, secular in nature, to operate and I would not call them religions (I think McWhorter would). He does draw some parallels I had not considered though, even though I’m not tempted to move my definitions. That definitional point aside, McWhorter proposes calling adherents The Elect (which I will consider). I’m still (as I often am when reviewing things) partway through the book, but it’s good to see his perspective on these topics.
Dhaba (Indian restaurant, NYC) - This is my go-to delivery North Indian restaurant; it’s reliable, travels well, and they have a rose lassi that I like. I get a side order of guilt with every delivery, in that it’s packaged in plastic (so it survives delivery). Its quality is just right for delivery too - better food wouldn’t travel or reheat as well. This is a perfect compromise.
Amusements
I’m starting to get into the Letters Live YT channel; it is often a very snarky kind of humour (letters in general encourage this). I’ve also been aware of Key and Peele (as a comedy duo) for awhile - Key’s reading of this makes good use of what he can do with his voice:
Amusing take with a fun reference in its title from James Hoffman, on how to do coffee at a social gathering without it being too much of a distraction:
I’ve come to see the effort to get LLMs to give dangerous advice as a bit of a sport, primarily because these efforts practically never (so far) are more creative than an average intelligent person; the amusement (or horror, for those pretending to be horrified, or those on PR teams) comes just from the company name attached to it. In this case, the “ask AI how to destroy humanity” example is, predictably, nothing that an average smart high-schooler or college kid couldn’t come up with given an hour’s worth of thought. Is it really news that somebody figured out a way to get an LLM to output something similar? Is it really worth putting in the effort to prevent that? https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2023/08/15/hackers-defcon-ai-chat-gpt-google-bard-donie-pkg-biz-vpx.cnn
Recent Music
I hadn’t thought much about the “Pure Imagination” song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; was interesting to listen through it after hearing this music Youtuber break down why he thinks it’s musically interesting:
Vampires - Fastball - Has a dreamlike quality, like knitting on an airplane
Kung-fu Fighting - Carl Douglas - Fun and silly old song, probably not suitable for younger generations that are eager to be offended, but they’re missing out!