Technology (2): Artifice-ial Beings
… technology predated our humanness… The strategy of bending the environment to use as if it were part of one’s own body is a half-billion-year-old… Read More »Technology (2): Artifice-ial Beings
progress
Adam Smith on emergent opulence: peace, easy taxes and justice
You heard it first from Thucidides. Now here’s Smith: Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the… Read More »Adam Smith on emergent opulence: peace, easy taxes and justice
“What can I do to make things better?” (3): ends, means, and the Roomba of contingency
Uncertainty about ends, means and you. There’s an important caveat to the any understanding we come to about ends, means, and your place in the… Read More »“What can I do to make things better?” (3): ends, means, and the Roomba of contingency
“What can I do to make things better?” (2): assumptions
While you’re establishing* your habit of thought-and-action, look again at the question. It contains at least three assumptions, each raising another set of questions. 1.… Read More »“What can I do to make things better?” (2): assumptions
“Dogs that do not bark”: Gwern Branwen on unseen progress since the 1990s
Progress is usually debated in terms of the big things like lifting the Third World out of poverty, eliminating child mortality, or science & tech:… Read More »“Dogs that do not bark”: Gwern Branwen on unseen progress since the 1990s
Podcast recommendation: Balaji Srinivasan on the dystopian present and the decentralised future plus plus plus
This long (long!) episode of the Tim Ferriss show is full of thought provoking stuff on all sorts of topics related to technology, cryptocurrency, online… Read More »Podcast recommendation: Balaji Srinivasan on the dystopian present and the decentralised future plus plus plus
Recipe for progress
Show up to work every day. Do your best to identify the most important things. Work on those things. Repeat. Footnotes Work means your job,… Read More »Recipe for progress
Not long ago; or, Little by little (5): Tyler Cowen on progress in living standards since 1900
More links below [Even since 1990] the U.S. standard of living has increased by a factor of five to seven, estimated conservatively, and possibly much… Read More »Not long ago; or, Little by little (5): Tyler Cowen on progress in living standards since 1900
More from less: the aluminium drinks can
Adding information (in the form of better design and processes) to aluminium cans has seen the weight of metal used drop from 85g to 12.75g… Read More »More from less: the aluminium drinks can
Autocatalysing innovations
Autocatalysing innovations are innovations whose outputs lead to a virtuous cycle of further adoption and innovation. Steam engines The earliest steam engines were used to… Read More »Autocatalysing innovations