Curt Doolittle

Author: Curt Doolittle

  • I wish I could bottle the experience of the transformation of life in the early

    I wish I could bottle the experience of the transformation of life in the early 80’s after the tragedy of the 60-77 period. Star wars started the new positive mythos. Reagan restored confidence, discourse and hope. Gibson and Scott gave us visions of a technological rather than warfare future. Technology promised economic opportunity. Studios produced moral movies with white characters, a hint of pagan magic and christian justice, after a decade of degeneracy.

    That brilliance lasted through the 2001 collapse, and the 2002-2008 period that followed was but a temporary interwar peace funded by transfer of excesses into the housing market – America’s most important and nearly exclusive industry.

    I knew the end was nigh because our advantages were consumed.

    We have made moral and yet self destructive and world harming policies since the first world war.

    We are not the worlds parent. We cannot defend Brittania – something she herself would not do. We cannot defend europa. Had the world degenerated into the poverty of communism and had we crushed the communists and socialists at home with the ruthless violence they deserved, then we would still be the wealthiest people on earth, and the rest still wallowing in socialist poverty.

    But we killed europa to constrian germany against the moral corruption of england, and we sacrificed ourselves to constrain communism.

    All so that we would not feel guilty crushing local socialists, most of whom we had only recently allowed to immigrate.

    No. More. Guilt. It drives us to actions we are indeed guilty for.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-08-23 15:13:00 UTC

  • “Beware the libertine, identifying as a libertarian.” Thoughts, Curt? 🙂

    “Beware the libertine, identifying as a libertarian.”

    Thoughts, Curt? 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2014-08-23 14:28:00 UTC

  • use this story all the time to illustrate the superiority of Russian and Chinese

    http://articles.philly.com/1986-01-15/news/26052630_1_hostage-crisis-soviet-captives-islamic-liberation-organizationI use this story all the time to illustrate the superiority of Russian and Chinese cultures in their understanding if both human nature and how to deal with “the middle people” of the arid zones who cause all the trouble in the world.

    But even the Russians seem to have lost all aspirations to aristocracy.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-08-23 13:11:00 UTC

  • Curt Doolittle shared a post

    Curt Doolittle shared a post.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-08-23 12:34:00 UTC

  • FOR ASPIES: UNDERSTANDING NORMALS (Normals talk about meaningless nonsense all t

    FOR ASPIES: UNDERSTANDING NORMALS

    (Normals talk about meaningless nonsense all the time. we can learn to talk about meaningless nonsense too. it’s kind of hard at first to imagine meaningless nonsense, or even why you’d care about it. but it’s a product that the market wants, and if you want to obtain attention in the market, you have to use the currency of choice, and the currency of attention is meaningless nonsense: signals that do not require much of the recipient. once you try to talk about nonsense enough, it’s really just returning served pingpong ball with a little spin, not adding much to it at all. You sort of pick five topics that normals know something about, and keep informed about those in some niche, so you can always add niche info to a conversation. Most aspies specialize. But specializing in nonsense is unprofitable. So it is good to spread your specialization to something popular like fashion, music, politics, news, and spend the rest of your time on your specialization. This will let you talk to normals about meaningless stuff and enjoy it, as long as you simply understand that the entire purpose is NOT to share meaning, but pleasant images, and positive associations. we really like to talk about things that require thinking. normals have to work at thinking. we just think at the same volume that they feel. so they want to free associate with feelings, not with facts. when we free associate with facts, we look for contradictions. when they free associate with experiences they look for confirmations. when we look for dominance in our facts, they look for submissions in their experiences, so that they signal ‘I’m safe’ to one another. We find safety in knowledge and understanding, they find safety in shared experiences. They find pleasure in experiential novelty, and we find pleasure in informational novelty. Conversely, they find discomfort in the unknown information, and we in the unknown experience. It is far easier for us to work at contributing to the experiential association of normals, than it is for normals to work at contributing to the informational association of autistics. don’t be hard on normals for being dim. but don’t be easy on yourself for being dim either. Imagine that each of us sees a slightly different section of the spectrum of radiation, and that normals see most of the visual spectrum, and some of them are a little color blind. We on the other hand see in the equivalent of infrared. It is a much simpler view of the universe with clearer lines of delineation between entities that are meaningful (heat) and hose that are not (cold). But that is our only difference. Our world must be constructed of perceptions and analogies to perception. But with instrumentation and practice we can observe each other’s worlds. It just has to be cost effective. It isn’t really cost effective for them to perceive our world. But it is usually very cost effective for us to learn to perceive their world. It was very hard for me, and I am very bright and I worked very hard, but it is possible.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-08-23 05:10:00 UTC

  • Is It Good To Do A Ph.d. In Theoretical Computer Science (e.g. Complexity) If You Intend To Go To Work In The Industry?

    As far as we know, a PhD does not increase you earning capacity or your credibility and demonstrably harms it. The value of a PhD is either entirely personal (and expensive) or necessary as entry into the teaching field.  In practice a PhD is certification by a board of specialists that they can treat  you as a relative equal in the field – of teaching.

    Nearly all problems in computer science are not complicated, but instead, are bounded by hardware costs tolerable by the end consumer of the application (the imputed price).  Most innovation takes place in either adapting to new hardware capacity (software generations) or adapting to new hardware capability (user interface improvements). But the number of ‘problems’ we solve in computer science is still a manageable set, small enough to roughly refer to as design patterns.

    Furthermore the value of your earning capacity (working in the industry) is determined by your ability to learn and dispose of ideas, not by your expanding specialization in ideas. 

    (Personally, I would do it anyway. lol)

    https://www.quora.com/Is-it-good-to-do-a-Ph-D-in-theoretical-computer-science-e-g-complexity-if-you-intend-to-go-to-work-in-the-industry

  • Why Is It Many Times Cheaper To Send Physical Mail Across The Ocean Than An Electronic Money Transfer?

    Because the government subsidizes and insures physical mail that is hard to steal, and less desirable to steal, using low skilled labor when handling mail, while private industry absorbs risks and the cost of semi-skilled manual labor to manually process wire transfers that are unprofitable, and easily fraudulent, and highly desirable to steal, but without which they cannot continue business operations. 

    In other words, wire transfers are both more desirable and easier to steal than physical goods, and once stolen are unrecoverable. And they don’t want to process them so they keep the cost as high as possible.

    The cost of wire transfers is due to the insurance cost of theft by retailers.  Imagine instead that the post office shipped and delivered envelopes of money, and how the behavior of the post office would change. 

    That is why it is cheaper to send hard-to-exchange goods, than exchange goods.  And why it is more cost effective to steal money than stuff you have to sell or pawn.

    This is why Bitcoin (BTC) are better and cheaper means of wire transfers.  The intermediaries in the chain of handling are not exposed to risk – just you.

    Everyone argues that BTC is helpful for the high end of the market, and I totally disagree. The primary virtue of BTC is in its application to solutions for the poor – who pay high costs because the marginal value of each unit of currency is more expensive for them than for everyone else.

    https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-many-times-cheaper-to-send-physical-mail-across-the-ocean-than-an-electronic-money-transfer

  • Is It Good To Do A Ph.d. In Theoretical Computer Science (e.g. Complexity) If You Intend To Go To Work In The Industry?

    As far as we know, a PhD does not increase you earning capacity or your credibility and demonstrably harms it. The value of a PhD is either entirely personal (and expensive) or necessary as entry into the teaching field.  In practice a PhD is certification by a board of specialists that they can treat  you as a relative equal in the field – of teaching.

    Nearly all problems in computer science are not complicated, but instead, are bounded by hardware costs tolerable by the end consumer of the application (the imputed price).  Most innovation takes place in either adapting to new hardware capacity (software generations) or adapting to new hardware capability (user interface improvements). But the number of ‘problems’ we solve in computer science is still a manageable set, small enough to roughly refer to as design patterns.

    Furthermore the value of your earning capacity (working in the industry) is determined by your ability to learn and dispose of ideas, not by your expanding specialization in ideas. 

    (Personally, I would do it anyway. lol)

    https://www.quora.com/Is-it-good-to-do-a-Ph-D-in-theoretical-computer-science-e-g-complexity-if-you-intend-to-go-to-work-in-the-industry

  • Why Is It Many Times Cheaper To Send Physical Mail Across The Ocean Than An Electronic Money Transfer?

    Because the government subsidizes and insures physical mail that is hard to steal, and less desirable to steal, using low skilled labor when handling mail, while private industry absorbs risks and the cost of semi-skilled manual labor to manually process wire transfers that are unprofitable, and easily fraudulent, and highly desirable to steal, but without which they cannot continue business operations. 

    In other words, wire transfers are both more desirable and easier to steal than physical goods, and once stolen are unrecoverable. And they don’t want to process them so they keep the cost as high as possible.

    The cost of wire transfers is due to the insurance cost of theft by retailers.  Imagine instead that the post office shipped and delivered envelopes of money, and how the behavior of the post office would change. 

    That is why it is cheaper to send hard-to-exchange goods, than exchange goods.  And why it is more cost effective to steal money than stuff you have to sell or pawn.

    This is why Bitcoin (BTC) are better and cheaper means of wire transfers.  The intermediaries in the chain of handling are not exposed to risk – just you.

    Everyone argues that BTC is helpful for the high end of the market, and I totally disagree. The primary virtue of BTC is in its application to solutions for the poor – who pay high costs because the marginal value of each unit of currency is more expensive for them than for everyone else.

    https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-many-times-cheaper-to-send-physical-mail-across-the-ocean-than-an-electronic-money-transfer

  • INTERESTING QUESTION: How do family structures vary? The family structure determ

    INTERESTING QUESTION: How do family structures vary?

    The family structure determines:

    the amount of inbreeding

    the inheritance system

    the private property rights that originate with the inheritance system

    the degree of trust extended to non-family members, with inbreeding producing lower overall trust, and outbreeding higher trust.

    the degree degree of authority necessary to maintain order (prevent violence in retaliation for unethical and immoral actions.)

    the level of corruption demonstrated by members of the government, since they are merely members of society in a position to abuse authority.

    the mobility of labor, since the larger the family structure the harder it is to move it to capital.

    the economic velocity of the polity (wealth).

    Conversely increase in family size determines:

    the degree of alienation and loneliness, since family members treat you almost always better than others will.

    the stress of raising children, since sharing child rearing across generations is so much easier.

    The redistribution family members provide each other with.

    the insurance from the vagaries of the economy and life

    the demand for the state to provide all of the above in the absence of the family that the state has destroyed in pursuit of economic velocity. 🙂

    LIST OF FAMILY STRUCTURES

    SMALL HOMOGENEOUS HIGH TRUST PRIVILEGED SOCIETIES CAN TOLERATE HIGHLY REDISTRIBUTIVE GOVERNMENTS

    STATE FINANCED SINGLE PARENT FAMILY – Medium term and short term pairings with or without a marriage ceremony that produces offspring, whereupon the parents cease cohabitation, and state redistribution finances directly or indirectly the support of the mother’s household.

    HIGH TRUST SOCIETIES WITH HIGHER ECONOMIC VELOCITY, CAN TOLERATE LIBERTARIAN GOVERNMENTS

    ABSOLUTE NUCLEAR FAMILY – The “absolute nuclear” family is liberal and non-egalitarian (that is, indifferent to equality). Children are completely free upon adulthood, founding independent families. Inheritance is freely distributed by will.

    NUCLEAR FAMILY, EGALITARIAN NUCLEAR – The “egalitarian nuclear” family is liberal and egalitarian. Children are completely free upon adulthood, founding independent families. Inheritance is equally distributed, implying at least a vestigial necessary link between parents and children throughout their lives.

    MEDIUM TRUST MARGINAL SOCIETIES WITH MEDIUM ECONOMIC VELOCITY – REQUIRE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS

    EXTENDED FAMILY, STEM FAMILY, AUTHORITARIAN FAMILY – The “stem” family is authoritarian and inegalitarian. Several generations may live under one roof, notably the first-born, who will inherit the entirety of property and family headship (and thus perpetuate the family line). Other children typically leave the home to get married or become priests/soldiers.

    A family that extends beyond the immediate family, consisting of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all living nearby or in the same household. The stem family is sometimes associated with inegalitarian inheritance practices, as in Japan and Korea, but the term has also been used in some contexts to describe a family type where parents live with a married child and his or her spouse and children, but the transfer of land and moveable property is more or less egalitarian. In these cases, the child who cares for the parents usually receives the house in addition to his or her own share of land and moveable property.

    LOW TRUST, POOR SOCIETIES WITH LOW ECONOMIC VELOCITY – REQUIRE AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENTS

    TRADITIONAL FAMILY, COMMUNITARIAN FAMILY – The “communitarian” family is authoritarian and equal. Several generations live under the same roof until the eldest die and the inheritance is divided equally.

    HETAERISTIC MONOGAMY – Monogamy with frequent extra marriage sexual relations.

    PAIRING FAMILY, SERIAL MARRIAGE – Medium term pairing of individuals either in patrilineal or matrilineal property systems.

    CONSANGUINE FAMILY – three generations of interrelated individuals live together (pre-polynesian) without any prohibition on relations. Property is irrelevant in this system.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-08-22 16:18:00 UTC