Y.

Recent Actions

• Commented on Crib Sheet: Glasshouse
  The reason I picked 1950s Americana as a theme for "Glasshouse" was not only because it was a rather oppressive period 'Rather oppressive' That seems grossly inaccurate. I would describe the communist block in said period as 'rather oppressive'....
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Glasshouse
  I'm ... well, I'm about as pissed off as those Charles Stross fans who keep bugging me for a third Eschaton novel. ..which is only about half as pissed off as those fans who would keep bugging you to...
• Commented on Crib sheet: Accelerando
  Delayed Apollo plus re-invigorated N-1 project equals ... what? A real moon race? The Korolev's N1 design was hopelessly flawed. It'd never have worked....
• Commented on Me, talking
  @Trottelreiner The best argument for mass immigration is to compare ethnically and culturally homogenous countries( Finland, Czech Republic, Norway, Poland) with those that are heterogenous, like the United States, Russia, Malaysia or past countries (19th century Turkey, Austria-Hungaria.) The former...
• Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
  Pick eligble citizens to parliament using a scientifically backed randomized method. ^^This. Though I'd limit the parliament eligibility to people capable of scoring respectably above average on some sort of intelligence test. IQ scores can be improved by practice,...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  Genius is contextual, and someone who is a genius at chipping obsidian isn't necessarily going to be good at financial derivatives or genomics, and vice versa. All genius? And are you really sure? Because, been demonstrated and replicated that...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  @Vox No. They choose smart partners to procreate with. For every manwho likes airheads you can easily find four or five who choose someone who's on the level with them, intellectually. @DJP O'Kane Anecdotes schmanecdotes. How many science nobels have...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  Eugenics immoral? For starters, people widely practice voluntary eugenics. I know of a few smart men who prefer stupid women, but mostly it's the other way around. And there's the aforementioned abortions of fetuses thought to be defective and...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  I find it disgusting how readily people like you will presume that the Chinese have zero moral compulsions. Their leaders already apparently condone selling political prisoners off for organs. Chinese already practice coercive population control policies. Even if you...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  Heh, you don't know? http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=3741 We have two distinct problem solving approaches, once is interpersonal(emotional) the other rational, it seems. The emotional one is easily exploited, and using it makes you more humane but more gullible. People who operate purely...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  . Indeed, fossil evidence demonstrates that we're more stupid than both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon (our cranial capacity is smaller other early modern Homo sapiens). Farming societies can also have more specialization.. Therefore, I'd suggest again that there's no way...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  So? Chinese or Japanese or other Asians aren't white either, yet are no pushovers, intellectually speaking. No matter what kind of dreadful history their ancestors have endured. What I wrote is that since everyone except sub-saharan Africans(by that I mean...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  Shorter version: Just what color do you think the librarians were at Alexandria? I'd guess the same color as Egyptians are today. Brownish. I do believe the Black Egyptians theory has been thoroughly thrashed. I think the more likely...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  Chimpanzees have managed that, but I don't know of any non-anthropoid that has done so (which doesn't mean they don't exist) There's a pod of dolphins which teaches their young to use tools, specifically some kind of sea sponge...
• Commented on The Anthropic Stupidity Hypothesis
  Let me re-formulate that hypothesis: The evolutionary pressure selecting for general intelligence (to the extent that general intelligence exists) breaks once a species develops language. Interesting. But you'd have to prove it breaks completely. I'd say there's plenty of...
• Commented on Unbreakable (part2)
  That said, I have a hard time believing that women are genetically engineered to be less aggressive. It isn't the case in nature. So what? Bears hibernate, we don't, generally*. It's all down to evolutionary pressures. I don't think...
• Commented on Unbreakable (part2)
  TL:DR; sex and gender are a lot more complicated than is evident from a distance. I know the difference between sex and gender. Still I don't get what Mrs. Leicht meant. Ah. I looked at the article. Oh well.....
• Commented on Unbreakable (part2)
  @Stina Leicht Regarding Grossman's book. a)it starts out from spurious data, such as firing rates based on now completely discredited WWII research by SLA Marshall who was found to have had pulled data from his behind. b) continues being wrong...
• Commented on Big Guns[1]
  Some notes: 1) economy is down compared to 80s-90s. Weirdly, Stina, homicide rate and mass murders are both down. What economy factor did you have in mind? See here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/07/aurora_shooting_how_did_people_commit_mass_murder_before_automatic_weapons_.html 2) Russia, which has strict gun control, where all people...
• Commented on 2512
  Wrong. Racism is simply the result of a behavioral adapatation which treats bad experiences from people you percieve as 'other' differently. The bad impression lasts longer and is more powerful. Scapegoating.. Not sure how scapegoating explains the very high levels...
• Commented on Context is everything
  (notably shrinking ecological niches and climate change) will do for our distant descendants. I have a quibble here: unless are distant ancestors are non-sentient, shrinking ecological niches or climate change won't affect their survival. Numbers may change.. No other...