Leo's Blog: Infinite Insights — Page 42
In Maoist China, as part of the communist effort to rapidly modernize and develop the country, the state ordered a mass campaign to hunt down every sparrow — because they would sometimes eat a few crops. But the sparrows actually ate many harmful insects, so after their extermination, insect epidemics ravaged crops and lead to famine.
An example of being too eager to make changes to a system the depth of which you do not comprehend. Systems thinking teaches us to be conservative when trying to change or upgrade complex systems. Socialists, radicals, anarchists, and libertarians often don't comprehend the foundations of the systems they call to eliminate or change. You can't just get rid of capitalism in the way socialists dream because it exists for good reasons. Be careful thinking that you are more intelligent than these systems. Actually, capitalism is way more intelligent than any socialist revolutionary.
Radicals and revolutionaries are rarely good systems thinkers because they are blinded by a strong agenda and ideology, whereas system thinking requires an empirical approach. When politics gets disconnected from empiricism it becomes moronic and dangerous, similar to philosophy and religion. Politics must be science-like to be effective. It's not about what you think will work, it's about what actually works — which are two very different things. You need to have an open mind about whether a policy will work or not, not just assume or insist that it will. But radicals and revolutionaries never have such a mind because they are too embroiled in fighting a political battle from a position of powerlessness. And so many blunders are made.
Insights from my study of communist history. I'm really fascinated by what made communism fail. There are so many interesting and important lessons to learn about human nature, psychology, and self-deception from studying communist regimes.
The Sombrero Galaxy contains 10 times more stars than there are people alive on Earth. It would take you 60,000 years to travel from one edge to the other if you were going at the speed of light.
There are 2 trillion such galaxies in our universe.
Each human on this planet could own an entire galaxy! Assuming no one living there claimed it first.
What would you do with your own galaxy?! Truly a godly question.
P.S. I have already claimed the Sombrero Galaxy as my own. Since I'm the first one to do so, it's mine! Go find yourself some other.
This is a pretty outrageous and under-reported event. The US Supreme Court has been infiltrated and corrupted by right-wing religious ideologues.
Sam Seder does an amazing job reporting on how the right-wing uses judges and courts to further their ideological agenda. He's been ahead of everyone on this issue for years.
It is absolutely vital to our democracy that Supreme Court judges are completely impartial and non-ideological. The way the Supreme Court has been make partisan and ideological is a disgrace. Judges should not be selected based on partisan ideology, right or left.
This is a great film that shows the horrors of being too liberal with science, specifically genetic engineering:
Notice that many of our current political and social problems stem from radicalization and brainwashing of people via social media. Which stems directly from the culture of Silicon Valley being too liberal. "Move fast and break things" was literally the motto at Facebook, and pretty much all over Silicon Valley and most tech start-ups. But there are trade-offs to such liberalism. "Move fast and break things" is not a valid survival strategy when the stakes are high. Otherwise you move fast and break peoples' minds. But since breaking minds and breaking democracy is an externality from Facebook's POV, they can fool themselves into thinking that this strategy is workable. Until it all comes crashing down on them. Which is exactly what a true conservative is trying to defend against.
If you are wary of new technology, if you can foresee all the possible horrors and failure cases, you are a true conservative. But of course you must do this in an even-handed, non-partisan way, not just in ways that benefit your political party to help you win elections. Otherwise your conservatism will be dysfunctional.
So I was playing Skyrim, then as I was battling Nord barbarians in a dungeon, it killed my PC.
Not sure exactly why. Seems like the CPU might have gotten fried. Maybe the cooling unit failed? Although the fan still spins. But it makes a weird rattling noise.
I have been building my own PCs since I was a kid. This has never happened to me before.
Now I cannot render videos until I figure out how to fix it.
Damn you Todd Howard. It just works.
Update: I discovered that the CPU liquid cooling unit started to leak, leading to overheating of the CPU. Ordered a new cooling unit which should arrive in a few days.
Police have gotten a bad rap in our politics lately, but it's important to understand the difficult and vital work that police do every day to make civilization possible.
Remember, police have to deal with some of the biggest assholes and idiots on the planet, every day, for years.
Demonizing the police is not an intelligent political position.
Although, of course, minorities have a right to demand humane policing.
This channel, Police Activity, is an amazing collection of raw footage of police and the scumbags they have to deal with on a daily basis. Have a look for yourself. I was binge-watching this channel for hours.
Yes, of course, police — just like the best scientists — make mistakes. But you will only appreciate that when you understand how difficult policing and science are. If you tried to do policing or science yourself, you'd be much more empathetic about the situation.
Now this is survival:
If you are too liberal as a parent, a coyote may run off with your kid :D
Now you understand why parents are anal.
You also understand why kids scream like they are being dragged by a coyote.
A conservative is one who appreciates that a coyote may be lurking around every bush.