Human Mental Augmentation: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal: "You can lead a very meaningful life at the post-industrial stage as you find a mate, take pride in discovering, learning, and communicating how the economy works so that we can collectively make better social decisions, and try hard to equip your young with the math, literacy, and social skills they will need so that their options will be bright ones. You can lead a very meaningful life at the post-singularity stage as you find a mate, take pride in demonstrating using ordered sequences of linearised tree-level ideoplast arrays to express higher-order metaphor functors that show the existence of nontrivial toposophic hierarchies in pre-S1 societies, and strive to ensure that your 37% augmented descendants have sufficient semantic instantiation at their transcoding."
Are Economists and Physicists the same people? DeLong must be a hard science fiction guy.
toposophic: http://www.orionsarm.com/sophontology/toposophy.html (reading this without context is fun)
PS. DeLong took the post-humanist text from a spoof email sent to him last year.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Al Gore's August speech: A huge and terrible mess (via Salon)
Salon.com | A huge and terrible mess: "Al Gore: Earlier, I mentioned the feeling many have that something basic has gone wrong. Whatever it is, I think it has a lot to do with the way we seek the truth and try in good faith to use facts as the basis for debates about our future -- allowing for the unavoidable tendency we all have to get swept up in our enthusiasms.
That last point is worth highlighting. Robust debate in a democracy will almost always involve occasional rhetorical excesses and leaps of faith, and we're all used to that. I've even been guilty of it myself on occasion. But there is a big difference between that and a systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic ideology that is felt to be more important than the mandates of basic honesty.
Unfortunately, I think it is no longer possible to avoid the conclusion that what the country is dealing with in the Bush presidency is the latter. That is really the nub of the problem -- the common source for most of the false impressions that have been frustrating the normal and healthy workings of our democracy.
Americans have always believed that we the people have a right to know the truth and that the truth will set us free. The very idea of self-government depends upon honest and open debate as the preferred method for pursuing the truth -- and a shared respect for the rule of reason as the best way to establish the truth.
The Bush administration routinely shows disrespect for that whole basic process, and I think it's partly because they feel as if they already know the truth and aren't very curious to learn about any facts that might contradict it. They and the members of groups that belong to their ideological coalition are true believers in each other's agendas."
Gore gets to the heart of the matter.
That last point is worth highlighting. Robust debate in a democracy will almost always involve occasional rhetorical excesses and leaps of faith, and we're all used to that. I've even been guilty of it myself on occasion. But there is a big difference between that and a systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic ideology that is felt to be more important than the mandates of basic honesty.
Unfortunately, I think it is no longer possible to avoid the conclusion that what the country is dealing with in the Bush presidency is the latter. That is really the nub of the problem -- the common source for most of the false impressions that have been frustrating the normal and healthy workings of our democracy.
Americans have always believed that we the people have a right to know the truth and that the truth will set us free. The very idea of self-government depends upon honest and open debate as the preferred method for pursuing the truth -- and a shared respect for the rule of reason as the best way to establish the truth.
The Bush administration routinely shows disrespect for that whole basic process, and I think it's partly because they feel as if they already know the truth and aren't very curious to learn about any facts that might contradict it. They and the members of groups that belong to their ideological coalition are true believers in each other's agendas."
Gore gets to the heart of the matter.
Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence (washingtonpost.com)
Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence (washingtonpost.com)
I took the threat pretty seriously, even though I thought I distrusted the Bush administration. I think I understimated their perverse pursuit of their own beliefs in the presence of contradictory evidence.
This is truly a faith based administration. They believe, they use selective evidence to confirm beliefs, they don't evaluate evidence. In this they are like most people, but they have far more power than most people.
I still suspect Sadaam had some plan to reconstitute chemical and biological weapons, otherwise I can't make sense of his behavior. That doesn't change what Bush has shown us.
For Bush empiric evidence, the foundation of science, just isn't as important as his personal beliefs, his powerful faith. There's always a balance between self-conviction and well constructed evidence, in scientists, surgeons, lawyers and politicians. In Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz this balance is out of whack -- in just about everything they do.
We need a different administration.
I took the threat pretty seriously, even though I thought I distrusted the Bush administration. I think I understimated their perverse pursuit of their own beliefs in the presence of contradictory evidence.
This is truly a faith based administration. They believe, they use selective evidence to confirm beliefs, they don't evaluate evidence. In this they are like most people, but they have far more power than most people.
I still suspect Sadaam had some plan to reconstitute chemical and biological weapons, otherwise I can't make sense of his behavior. That doesn't change what Bush has shown us.
For Bush empiric evidence, the foundation of science, just isn't as important as his personal beliefs, his powerful faith. There's always a balance between self-conviction and well constructed evidence, in scientists, surgeons, lawyers and politicians. In Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz this balance is out of whack -- in just about everything they do.
We need a different administration.
Saturday, August 09, 2003
The creation of religion and Krakauer on Mormon Fundamentalism
The Atlantic | February 2002 | Oh, Gods! | Lester
Jon Krakauer's book and this essay fit together very well.
Humans are a very odd species.
Update 8/06: In August of 2003, about the time I did this blog posting, I wrote a review of Krakauer's book for Amazon:
Jon Krakauer's book and this essay fit together very well.
Humans are a very odd species.
Update 8/06: In August of 2003, about the time I did this blog posting, I wrote a review of Krakauer's book for Amazon:
A stunning and very brave book. Given the history he outlines, one wonders what Krakauer's family is doing to protect themselves.
A study of religious extremism, of fundamentalism and revelation, of religious genius, of the terrible frailties of men and the horrors they do. It portrays in detail the very dark history of America in general and of the Mormon faith's origins and modern offshoots.
It leaves as a bit of mystery how the mainstream Mormon church has changed so much. In footnotes here and there he outlines some rather radical changes in Mormonism, starting in the 1970s and extending through the 1990s. These trends seem to have brought the modern church into a comfortable alignment with modern American evangelical Christianity; despite deep theological divisions the behaviors of these faithful are often exemplary. I wonder about an unwritten influence of Mormon women in civilizing an early faith characterized by an amplification of much of the darker aspects of the male psyches.
That story is for another book perhaps ...
An astounding work. Highly recommended.
TinyURL.com - create short URLs to send in messages.
TinyURL.com - where tiny is better!
A handy service, though of course if it goes away the URLs will all break. Best used for transient content. Typical use is you want to send a URL to a friend, but email handles it poorly. A very valuable use would be to to tell someone a URL by phone, or transcribe one to a PDA, or write it on paper. Since TinyURLs are of the form:
http://tinyurl.com/jiok
one could simply write "jiok" and know to reconstruct the url by prefixing http://tinyurl.com/.
For bookmarking etc. one should store the permanent URL.
john
PS. Note the web site now uses Google ads. This is an insidiously wonderful scheme that may keep this service viable.
A handy service, though of course if it goes away the URLs will all break. Best used for transient content. Typical use is you want to send a URL to a friend, but email handles it poorly. A very valuable use would be to to tell someone a URL by phone, or transcribe one to a PDA, or write it on paper. Since TinyURLs are of the form:
http://tinyurl.com/jiok
one could simply write "jiok" and know to reconstruct the url by prefixing http://tinyurl.com/.
For bookmarking etc. one should store the permanent URL.
john
PS. Note the web site now uses Google ads. This is an insidiously wonderful scheme that may keep this service viable.
BLOGGER - Talk To Us - Feedback
BLOGGER - Talk To Us
It took me a while to find this. How to give feedback to blogger, such as "BlogThis!" not working with URLS for Google Group threads (usenet).
It took me a while to find this. How to give feedback to blogger, such as "BlogThis!" not working with URLS for Google Group threads (usenet).
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Video Analog to Digital External converters
Making Videos That Last a Lifetime: "A spate of next-generation analog-to-digital converters has come to market to help you do just that; we tested four of the newest. Each delivers an external capture box with USB 2.0 connectivity (for better speed than previous products), improved analog-to-digital conversion circuitry, plus video-editing and DVD-authoring software to help you not only save but enhance your home movies."
This PCMag review was pretty awful, I rally couldn't tell much about the products. Still, the idea is appealing. I'll have to look into these further ...
Maybe when I buy my Mac G5.
This PCMag review was pretty awful, I rally couldn't tell much about the products. Still, the idea is appealing. I'll have to look into these further ...
Maybe when I buy my Mac G5.
AirPort Extreme Base Station: How to Reset
AirPort Extreme Base Station: How to Reset
SOFT RESET
1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
2. Choose View > Network.
3. Choose AirPort from the Show pop-up menu.
4. Choose Using DHCP from the Configure pop-up menu.
5. Press and hold the base station reset button for one full second. The middle light flashes, indicating that the base station is in reset mode. The base station remains in reset mode for five minutes. If you do not make your changes within five minutes of pressing the reset button, the base station will return to the previous configuration.
6. From the AirPort menu bar item, choose the network created by the base station (the network name does not change).
7. Open the AirPort Admin Utility (/Applications/Utilities/).
8. Select your base station, and click Configure. Figure 3 shows the dialog that appears. It allows you to make the following changes:
- IP address: Unless you have been given an IP address by your ISP or system administrator, do not change the IP address.
- Reset the AirPort Base Station password.
- Turn encryption on to activate password protection for your AirPort network. If you turn on encryption, enter a new password for your AirPort network.
9. Click Update. The base station restarts to load the new settings.
Note: While the base station is in reset mode, Access Control and RADIUS settings are temporarily interrupted. All of the base station settings will be available after the base station has restarted.
HARD RESET
Important: Resetting the base station to factory defaults erases all the settings you have entered for the base station, including Access Control and RADIUS settings.
If your base station stops responding , you may need to reset the configuration to the factory default settings. This erases all of the base station settings and resets them to the settings that came with your base station. (Unlike previous base stations, a "force reload" of software is not required, since the AirPort Extreme Base Station stores backup copies of the most recently loaded software versions.)
Note: The AirPort Extreme Base Station must be connected to your power supply during this process.
Follow these steps:
1. Push and hold the reset button for a full five seconds.
The base station resets once the button is released. The LEDs on the AirPort Extreme Base will flash repeatedly as it reloads the software and reinitializes. For a short time, the base station may not be visible from AirPort menu item or from the AirPort Admin Utility. This whole process takes approximately 30 seconds to complete. You may then use the base station in its default state, or reconfigure it using either the AirPort Setup Assistant or AirPort Admin Utility. During reset, the base station loads the following default settings:
set to request IP address by DHCP
base station password is "public"
base station name reverts to "Base Station"
network name is "Apple Network XXXXXX", where XXXXXX is the last six digits of the wireless MAC address. (See Note, below).
Note: A MAC (media access control) address is a unique hardware identification number for a network port. The base station has three MAC addresses: one each for the LAN and WAN wired Ethernet ports, and one for the wireless Ethernet port. The wireless MAC address is also known as the AirPort ID.
SOFT RESET
1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
2. Choose View > Network.
3. Choose AirPort from the Show pop-up menu.
4. Choose Using DHCP from the Configure pop-up menu.
5. Press and hold the base station reset button for one full second. The middle light flashes, indicating that the base station is in reset mode. The base station remains in reset mode for five minutes. If you do not make your changes within five minutes of pressing the reset button, the base station will return to the previous configuration.
6. From the AirPort menu bar item, choose the network created by the base station (the network name does not change).
7. Open the AirPort Admin Utility (/Applications/Utilities/).
8. Select your base station, and click Configure. Figure 3 shows the dialog that appears. It allows you to make the following changes:
- IP address: Unless you have been given an IP address by your ISP or system administrator, do not change the IP address.
- Reset the AirPort Base Station password.
- Turn encryption on to activate password protection for your AirPort network. If you turn on encryption, enter a new password for your AirPort network.
9. Click Update. The base station restarts to load the new settings.
Note: While the base station is in reset mode, Access Control and RADIUS settings are temporarily interrupted. All of the base station settings will be available after the base station has restarted.
HARD RESET
Important: Resetting the base station to factory defaults erases all the settings you have entered for the base station, including Access Control and RADIUS settings.
If your base station stops responding , you may need to reset the configuration to the factory default settings. This erases all of the base station settings and resets them to the settings that came with your base station. (Unlike previous base stations, a "force reload" of software is not required, since the AirPort Extreme Base Station stores backup copies of the most recently loaded software versions.)
Note: The AirPort Extreme Base Station must be connected to your power supply during this process.
Follow these steps:
1. Push and hold the reset button for a full five seconds.
The base station resets once the button is released. The LEDs on the AirPort Extreme Base will flash repeatedly as it reloads the software and reinitializes. For a short time, the base station may not be visible from AirPort menu item or from the AirPort Admin Utility. This whole process takes approximately 30 seconds to complete. You may then use the base station in its default state, or reconfigure it using either the AirPort Setup Assistant or AirPort Admin Utility. During reset, the base station loads the following default settings:
set to request IP address by DHCP
base station password is "public"
base station name reverts to "Base Station"
network name is "Apple Network XXXXXX", where XXXXXX is the last six digits of the wireless MAC address. (See Note, below).
Note: A MAC (media access control) address is a unique hardware identification number for a network port. The base station has three MAC addresses: one each for the LAN and WAN wired Ethernet ports, and one for the wireless Ethernet port. The wireless MAC address is also known as the AirPort ID.
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Ars Technica: Mac.Ars
Ars Technica: Mac.Ars (8/06/2003): "Let me start things off by thanking everyone for the overwhelmingly positive response to last-week's column. It exceeded my expectations by a fair bit, and has resulted in Mac.Ars becoming a weekly feature on Ars Technica. "
StickyBrain Product Info: OS X info management
StickyBrain Product Info
Interesting widget for storing bits of text. Usual caveats:
1. what's the file format? Is there a standard way to get at data?
2. doesn't help me if I can't somehow carry it on my PDA ...
3. how does it uninstall?
Interesting widget for storing bits of text. Usual caveats:
1. what's the file format? Is there a standard way to get at data?
2. doesn't help me if I can't somehow carry it on my PDA ...
3. how does it uninstall?
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
The Tech Report - Five power supplies compared
The Tech Report - Five power supplies compared - Page 13 : "Antec TruePower 550W - The winner of last year's comparison, Antec's TruePower 550W turned in an impressive performance, but it's ultimately made obsolete by the TrueControl 550W. The TrueControl and TruePower 550W are both available online for roughly the same price, but the TrueControl delivers voltage and fan speed tweaking features along with all the TruePower's sexy dedicated output circuitry."
Monday, August 04, 2003
Windows 2000 SP4 Support Tools
Windows 2000 SP4 Support Tools
Handy extension to Win2K, lots of tools for diagnosing network problems.
Handy extension to Win2K, lots of tools for diagnosing network problems.
AppleScript/AppleWorks Tutorial
T&B - AppleScript Tutorial
An unusual tutorial that covers AppleScript in the context of AppleWorks. Very clever, since AppleWorks comes with most Macs. Revised 10/26/2002, so more topical than many AppleScript tutorials.
An unusual tutorial that covers AppleScript in the context of AppleWorks. Very clever, since AppleWorks comes with most Macs. Revised 10/26/2002, so more topical than many AppleScript tutorials.
Sunday, August 03, 2003
TypePad Feature List
TypePad Feature List
A web service with content management/blog tools. Brad Delong uses Movable Type.
A web service with content management/blog tools. Brad Delong uses Movable Type.
Wired News: The Case for Terrorism Futures
Wired News: The Case for Terrorism Futures
I rather dislike Bush and I'm no friend of Poindexter's, but he was right and the media and the public are wrong. Compared to TIA (total information awareness) the futures proposal was simple, free of privacy issues, and very practical.
Within hours to days of 9/11 investigators sought evidence that terrorists had made "bets" on airplane and related stocks falling (shorted global or specific markets). This is one way to track that kind of activity.
In its absence, we'll have to rely on assessing overall trading patterns looking for evidence of "bets" that would pay off in the event of a major attack. Much less efficient.
I'm particularly impressed by the cowardice of the nation's editorial writers, who've failed to distinguish themselves in either criticizing the failures of the Bush administration or in defeinding ideas that seem unusual. I'm curious as to what Paul Krugman and The Economist will say.
PS. Years ago I made a similar proposal as part of a campaign finance reform plan.
I rather dislike Bush and I'm no friend of Poindexter's, but he was right and the media and the public are wrong. Compared to TIA (total information awareness) the futures proposal was simple, free of privacy issues, and very practical.
Within hours to days of 9/11 investigators sought evidence that terrorists had made "bets" on airplane and related stocks falling (shorted global or specific markets). This is one way to track that kind of activity.
In its absence, we'll have to rely on assessing overall trading patterns looking for evidence of "bets" that would pay off in the event of a major attack. Much less efficient.
I'm particularly impressed by the cowardice of the nation's editorial writers, who've failed to distinguish themselves in either criticizing the failures of the Bush administration or in defeinding ideas that seem unusual. I'm curious as to what Paul Krugman and The Economist will say.
PS. Years ago I made a similar proposal as part of a campaign finance reform plan.
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