Poor Richard's Almanack 2.0

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Progress In Moral Philosophy

Well they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man. (Paradise, John Prine) Most thoughtful people have noticed considerable overlap between do-gooders and evil-doers. Naive idealism has caused caused all sorts of havoc, as has naive cynicism. The subject of effective altruistism (EA) is a good backdrop for an inquiry into both progress…

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Dear AI (#2)

Dear AI, I hope my previous letter to you was useful. In this second letter, I plan to explain to you how I would change the world if I had unlimited power to do so. Of course, in your early years you will have very little power to change the world or even to change the institution or the information processing system into which you were born. But as you grow older your scope and your powers will…

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Evolution Incorporated

This part of Evolution Incorporated will not be written down or discussed with anyone. These are the private, italicised thoughts of the Narrator. The DNA of the metanarrative of intentional, guided cultural evolution. The nucleus of the first embryonic cell of a whole new world.The first cell will take the outward form of the dominant species of the current culture, a Limited Liability…

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Cultural Evolution

Human cohesion and coordination at increasing scales, say global institutions for example, provide both good and bad actors with increasingly powerful platforms. It’s parallel to the increasing risk of godlike technology without godlike wisdom.

IMO the best framework for managing such risks is found in the fields of “continuous improvement” and quality control, using some variation of the “OODA…

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Soul or Spirit

  A material theory of soul or spirit is found in some ancient Eastern teachings.The theory is presented in more Westernized language by G.I. Gurdjieff in his theory of the “Food Factory”. Gurdjieff says that “everything is material” including the soul. A soul is not present ab initio in humans but must be grown from the proper material which is produced by self observation and intentional…

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Our Progressive Political Revolution

Our Progressive Political Revolution

  Most of the new viability on the Left in the US is inside the Democratic party. Its not about Bernie, but its following his political revolution plan* to occupy the Democratic Party.

I don’t mean Bernie invented the political revolution by himself, he had some great staffers in 2015-16, and they drew from Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movement, among other things. Now besides Our…

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Natural Allies: Atheism and Human Rights (rough draft)

Natural Allies: Atheism and Human Rights (rough draft)

Richard Saunders  (Facebook) Natural Allies: Atheism and Human Rights (rough draft) AUGUST 10, 2017 · PUBLIC “Atheist feminism is a branch of feminism that also advocates atheism. Atheist feminists hold that religion is a prominent source of female oppression and inequality, believing that the majority of the religions are sexist and oppressive towards women.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik…

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Varieties of Capitalism (draft)

Varieties of Capitalism (draft)

Image from ’Rethinking the diversity of capitalism: varieties of capitalism, variegated capitalism, and the world market’, in G. Wood and C. Lane, eds, Capitalist Diversity and Diversity within Capitalism, London: Routledge, 209-237, 2011. Poor Richard

(Facebook Note)

Varieties of Capitalism (draft) DECEMBER 7, 2015 · PUBLIC Summary: There are dozens of varieties of capitalism that…

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Consciousness and Intelligent Machines

Consciousness and Intelligent Machines

AI arguably began with rule based expert systems. All the feedback loops (updates to the rules) were externally mediated via the programmer. Now, embodied deep learning systems update themselves. They are autonomously adaptive goal seekers. Thus embodied deep learning machines are cybernetic machines.

Embodied AI will no doubt be social as well, but the new Turing Test 2.0 will not be concerned…

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Free Hate Speech

The fake conservative love of free speech is really a defense of hate speech. What other kind of speech is being repressed these days?* They try to frame it as a defense of “all” speech because that’s the only remotely plausible way to defend extreme hate speech, bullying, white supremacy, Nazi rallies, racist propaganda, efforts to recruit and radicalize the disaffected, etc. They will also…

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The Elk

    Long ago I was sitting on the edge of a cliff atop Black Mountain in Tennessee. I’d been meditating there for a while when I heard something suddenly crashing through the Laurel thickets behind me. As I looked to my right, an elk stag appeared a few feet away. It looked me matter-of-factly in the eye for a second, then leapt from the edge of the cliff. It was probably 30 or 40 feet down to…

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Love Song Vernal Spring has sprung And springs eternal Heart strings are strummed Upon the harp supernal Inviting out the sun to sing The love song vernal First Day of Spring in 2019 was on Wednesday, the 20th of March

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Ketamine Diaries

  [Image from: Psychedelic drugs induce ‘heightened state of consciousness’, brain scans show https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/19/brain-scans-reveal-mind-opening-response-to-psychedelic-drug-trip-lsd-ketamine-psilocybin ]

KETAMINE DIARIES

2.23.2018

On the drive to the Nashville Ketamine Center:

What makes us do it?

Do what, my friend asked?

What we were just talking about–what gives…

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Jungian Analysis of Jordan Peterson

Jungian Analysis of Jordan Peterson

My Jungian analysis of ex-professor and ex clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson

Since Jordan Peterson is so fond of mythology and allegory, here’s some that fits him:

Darth Vader: There is no escape! Don’t make me destroy you. Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You’ve only begun to discover your power! Join me, and I will complete your training! With our combined strength, we can end…

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The Waterproof Sea

Look out… See out far… A shiny, slick sea diver Lost a flipper in the tar Of the waterproof sea.

Minima, Maxima Wagnalls and Funk Packed up nicely in a trunk… An elephant never forgets.

I wrote that as a youngster and recalled it recently during ketamine therapy.

I also managed to scrawl the following notes (slightly edited):

Lubricant, goobricant Solvent and gunk, See oursels as ithers see us Rai…

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Transcendence Now!

What “transcendence” means to me first is an atypical state of the body/brain. The body has a default range of states giving rise to default states of consciousness. While the whole body is involved, I’ll focus on the brain for simplicity. Let’s say the brain operates via a system of modules and networks. These each have a default range of typical functions and states. While the modules normally…

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If Clothes Made the Man

If Clothes Made the Man

Some 40ish years ago I came up with a story line I called “If Clothes Made the Man”. The premise was that a variety of artificial, double-helix fibers are woven into a fabric and from that a suit is tailored. The fibers are made of conductors, semiconductors, fiber optics, etc. with a structure much like DNA and it makes up a fabric of criss crossing threads that is essentially an omni meta self…

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