V17's recent activity
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Comment on Tildes Demographics Survey, year… uh, it’s 2024? in ~tildes
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Comment on Tildes Demographics Survey, year… uh, it’s 2024? in ~tildes
V17 Link ParentDamn, do you have any links to a post or a blog where you talk about that? I have a friend with craniocervical instability that is fortunately not bad enough to warrant surgery (spinal fusion I...Damn, do you have any links to a post or a blog where you talk about that? I have a friend with craniocervical instability that is fortunately not bad enough to warrant surgery (spinal fusion I assume?), but might be interested to read about it nevertheless.
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Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? in ~tech
V17 LinkIn case anyone else with free invites stumbles upon this thread, I'm interested too.In case anyone else with free invites stumbles upon this thread, I'm interested too.
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Comment on New industries come from crazy people in ~humanities.history
V17 Link ParentI don't have any short answer except I disagree with most of your interpreteations and where I don't, I don't see it as bigotry. Regarding programming, the world is not just the US and the fact...I don't have any short answer except I disagree with most of your interpreteations and where I don't, I don't see it as bigotry.
Regarding programming, the world is not just the US and the fact that one thing that affected the number of women in programming happened does not in any way clearly imply that that is the thing that caused it. Programming nowadays is also a very very different area from programming in the 60s up to say early 90s. And some biological determinism seems to clearly exist since there are for example sex differences in mating that seem to be universal across cultures even though many sexual and long-term mating preferences can culturally differ by a lot, so the overall concept is not inconceiveable either.
Regarding intelligence specifically, I don't think it is at all unreasonable to start with the assumption that current social consensus might be wrong - in fact I think the conditions are there for it:
Much of old IQ vs ethnicity research was clearly crap even from a naive point of view. Then we collectively realized that racism and eugenics leading to ethnic cleanses or genocides are a terrible idea, so attempts to prove scientific racism abruptly stopped, and almost nobody has been seriously directly studying it since. How much of IQ is hereditary has been a subject of debate for a long time, but that is by no means a settled thing. This article that was also posted on Tildes did seemingly a pretty good job saying that actually very little is heritable (and indeed Scott Alexander shared it as interesting and well written), however a new study claims that one of the key studies cited in that article contains an important mistake and as a result does not support his conclusions, plus it spawned several replies that accuse him of omitting non-controversial evidence that supports twin studies or obfuscating his data to better support his points.
And, of course, studying this topic directly (it is sometimes done indirectly, for example by government agencies trying to extrapolate IQ from standardized tests administered to students) is only done by either nazis or massive weirdos, firstly because of the eugenics implications and secondly because academia is largely dominated by western liberals, and among western liberals there's a strong dislike of IQ in general, let alone the idea of it being innately bound to something we cannot control. This increases the likelyhood that there are things we simply do not know because nobody credible is making an effort to find them out.
I don't think that saying any of that is dangerous, bigoted or pseudoscientific, unless you start adding eugenics to it or pretend that IQ in any way measures the overall value or quality of a person. Which neither me nor Scott Alexander does.
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Comment on New industries come from crazy people in ~humanities.history
V17 Link ParentThere are two parts to this. The first one is the ideological part - what it's used for, by whom, etc. In that context I agree with you. The second part is examining the actual evidence for and...Human Biodiversity is just outright racism, it's just the renaming of racialism, not any sort of as actual science, and the fact he's even engaging with it when most people have never heard of it, because it's literally Stormfront material is a bit of a flag on its own.
There are two parts to this. The first one is the ideological part - what it's used for, by whom, etc. In that context I agree with you.
The second part is examining the actual evidence for and against it while attempting to be unbiased by the first part. In that context (and the context of western left wing internet commonly denying unpopular science like psychometrics in general, although of course much less often than the US right does it), with all due respect, I trust him much more than I trust you because he tries to be very open about his reasoning and his sources - that is in fact why I read him in general.
I see no issue with engaging biological determinism in the same way. Based on all I read I don't think it's fair to say that he pushes biological determinism, just that he actually considers the possibility of some forms of it existing. This is viewed as at the very least unfashionable in todays western world, which causes the same issue as with the above - even if some parts of it were true, most people don't touch it with a ten foot pole, so it's generally not even considered in situations where it has not been strongly disproved (because that's a very hard thing to do and neither social sciences nor biology are really able to do it, yet).
Example regarding programming: I remember reading about the peculiar effect of women participating in STEM fields to a much larger degree in developing countries and the numbers reducing as the overall wealth in their society increases. This can be interpreted as women going into STEM fields when forced by economic pressure but not actually prefering them when they have more of a choice on average, or by the economic pressure towards STEM changing into different social pressures away from STEM as the society changes from increased wealth. But I don't see a good reason to say that just mentioning the first possibility makes one a bigot.
I do approach this from the point of view that in general I believe that the notion that on average, in very broad strokes, sex differences do not ever innately correlate with differences in personal preferences, is not well scientifically funded. Neither is the opposite, mind, but I have zero issues with someone talking about either. This does not really affect how I behave towards individuals because broad averages are not relevant for that, but it causes me to not see merely discussing it as offensive.
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Comment on New industries come from crazy people in ~humanities.history
V17 Link ParentShit, I was slightly unclear and now I possibly made you spend time unnecessarily. Sorry. I have seen most of criticisms of Scott Alexander because he's very unpopular in left-bias subreddits,...Shit, I was slightly unclear and now I possibly made you spend time unnecessarily. Sorry.
I have seen most of criticisms of Scott Alexander because he's very unpopular in left-bias subreddits, much more than here, and that made me do a double check a couple years ago and explore the controversial stuff, including some email leaks.
I really dislike the tone of Rationalwiki, as usual in politics or culture-war related articles, because they refuse to approach things they disagree with in good faith, which is imo warranted in this case. Another issue is that they link evidence of him seemingly supporting controversial views, but ignore evidence of him criticizing the same views, which due to his approach to writing about controversial topics happens commonly. He was accused of being a neoreactionary while at the same time writing something like a "neoreactionary hater's handbook", a long summary of things that are wrong with the movement (note that this is an example and I did not search whether they link this specifically, I just don't have time to look up anything that I don't remember off the top of my head).
I have seen some of the controversial sources they link, and imo the only thing that he's guilty of is that while most of society refuses to touch those controversial topics with a ten foot pole, for reasons that are understandable, he feels it's no issue with approaching it from a standpoint of "okay, so what if it's true? Let's explore the evidence that goes either way and think about the possible implications", which I personally find incredibly refreshing in a time where most of the internet is very emotionally loaded whenever approaching anything mildly culture-war or US politics related.
The mentioned email leaks from a private conversation were some of the most controversial things regarding him, and they could essentially be summarized as "I reviewed all the supposed evidence supporting human biodiversity (potential links between ethnicity genetics and IQ) and I've found that some of it is hard to disprove, which is making me really worried because the consequences of that would be frightening". As long as this is done in good faith from a genuine and educated point of view (which clearly showed that he doesn't want those things to be true), I have no issue with that whatsoever.
He's also a long time democrat voter and recommends his voters to vote democrat (or optionally third party in places where it doesn't matter), if that says anything.
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Comment on New industries come from crazy people in ~humanities.history
V17 Link ParentEdison had much more input and understood the things he did much more than Musk (though to be fair, the technology was much simpler than something like SpaceX or Neuralink back then), and I think...Edison had much more input and understood the things he did much more than Musk (though to be fair, the technology was much simpler than something like SpaceX or Neuralink back then), and I think you heavily underestimate the effort and skills necessary to convert an invention into something self sustaining that actually gets to the masses. There are numerous examples of seemingly brilliant inventions that laid in an archive for years or decades because someone failed doing that.
I don't have time to go digging, but one example off the top of my head: there's an oral probiotic that, so far conclusively in rodents and preliminary data suggest that it's going to be the same for humans, reduces dental cavities by around 80% because it displaces the bacteria that cause about 80% of cavities. It was engineered in the 90s, but the inventor was unable to get it to proper testing and that was it until someone found a way to do it 25 years later and made a deal with them.
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Comment on New industries come from crazy people in ~humanities.history
V17 (edited )Link ParentI've been reading him for a few years now, including some of his old articles from the previous blog, and I disagree with this entirely. And quite honestly I really dislike people just calling...I've been reading him for a few years now, including some of his old articles from the previous blog, and I disagree with this entirely. And quite honestly I really dislike people just calling someone a racist on an unrelated article that greatly expands the topic of the original post without being very clear why.
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Comment on New industries come from crazy people in ~humanities.history
V17 Link ParentThere is an excellent (in my opinion much better than this one) long article on the broader questions of this framing by Scott Alexander, with a strangely confusing name: Matt Yglesias Considered...There is an excellent (in my opinion much better than this one) long article on the broader questions of this framing by Scott Alexander, with a strangely confusing name: Matt Yglesias Considered As The Nietzschean Superman.
It's about the dilemma of slave morality versus master morality - basically the opposite extremes of "whatever you do is irrelevant if you're a bad person" and "how amoral you are is irrelevant if you're a strong successful achiever" - and possible alternatives. It also gives some examples of specific people, how these views applied at various points in history, but mostly it asks questions that might help explore and understand the topic more in detail.
Also some selected added thoughts or polemics from the readers, some of which add interest.
It's long, but I had a great time reading it. And this is so stupid that it made me laugh out loud:
I’m an expert on Nietzsche (I’ve read some of his books), but not a world-leading expert (I didn’t understand them).
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Comment on Reusing plastic water bottles, to-go containers? Scientists say that’s a bad idea. in ~health
V17 Link ParentWe're going to do this as well pretty soon, iirc the law was already passed. It's stupid because we are already way above EU average in recycling (czech source, based on Eurostat) and this will...in Germany you pay extra when you buy dring in plastic bottle and this extra is returned to you if you return empty bottle.
We're going to do this as well pretty soon, iirc the law was already passed. It's stupid because we are already way above EU average in recycling (czech source, based on Eurostat) and this will not help much (PET, the material plastic bottles are made of, is recycled more than all other plastics because it's most profitable to do so), however Coca Cola and other large soft drink/mineral water companies have been lobbying to push this through... Because their calculations clearly show that they can afford the overhead costs needed for enacting this policy, but small companies with lower profits are going to have a problem. It will weaken competition and further solidify the position of the big guys.
Unfortunately the minister was not interested in hearing any of this and ordered to push this through no matter what because it is probably going to slightly improve the numbers, most of the cost goes to the businesses and not the government and it looks good.
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Comment on Don't call it a Substack in ~tech
V17 Link ParentI'll add that it was not just for incorrectly applied first amendment. It was often used to mock proponents of free speech as a general ideal regardless of what's in the US constitution, as a way...I'll add that it was not just for incorrectly applied first amendment. It was often used to mock proponents of free speech as a general ideal regardless of what's in the US constitution, as a way to shut down the conversation instead of engaging in it (whether because the mockers did not believe the proponents argued in good faith or for much less sensible reasons).
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Comment on FreeCAD version 1.0 released in ~engineering
V17 Link ParentI think it's possible. Some demand surely exists because good CAD software is expensive and it happened with Blender. The issue is that FreeCAD is in its Blender 2.4* stage at best, quality-wise....I think it's possible. Some demand surely exists because good CAD software is expensive and it happened with Blender. The issue is that FreeCAD is in its Blender 2.4* stage at best, quality-wise. It feels like it needs funding for more intense development and some outside influence, but it's not at a high enough quality level to get to that and it's probably going to take years till it gets there.
* that was before the first GUI rework that finally led to significant adoption, though it only accelerated after the second GUI rework years later
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Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech
V17 Link ParentI'm not claiming that either. Though, if it weren't Russia specifically, I wouldn't be sure that it has to be a negative. Not all regulations are sensible. I don't use Kagi either, so I'm...I'd not actually call those reasons - less privacy, not having regulation - wins personally.
I'm not claiming that either. Though, if it weren't Russia specifically, I wouldn't be sure that it has to be a negative. Not all regulations are sensible. I don't use Kagi either, so I'm reserving my judgment. But aside from uploading private images to their similarity search (that I wouldn't do), I don't think the data they get from image search specifically is very valuable.
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Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech
V17 Link ParentNo idea. I think they simply have better algorithms for this particular task, partly probably because they have to do less censorship (regarding crawling private data etc.) or data sanitization...No idea. I think they simply have better algorithms for this particular task, partly probably because they have to do less censorship (regarding crawling private data etc.) or data sanitization than western companies bound by stronger regulation, but this is speculation.
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Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech
V17 Link ParentI agree here, but the response makes sense because Yandex image search is unique and gives results that other image search engines don't. If Kagi only cares about the quality of its results, then...I agree here, but the response makes sense because Yandex image search is unique and gives results that other image search engines don't. If Kagi only cares about the quality of its results, then that unfortunately logically leads to using it, and although I am a huge russophobe, I have some respect for that approach. Contrary to many european companies they're at least doing it openly and with a stated reason that makes sense.
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Comment on Joe Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US long-range missiles in ~society
V17 Link ParentHe also almost certainly does not have permission to strike Moscow, apart from not having good reasons to do so at this moment (and I trust his judgment). Zelensky was intentionally unclear about...He also almost certainly does not have permission to strike Moscow, apart from not having good reasons to do so at this moment (and I trust his judgment). Zelensky was intentionally unclear about what he is or is not allowed to do in the announcement, some claims say they may only strike Kurskaja Oblast, but it definitely seems like there are some limits.
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Comment on Joe Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US long-range missiles in ~society
V17 Link ParentThe issue is that boiling it as slowly as we do now means tens of thousands more dead Ukrainians than there could have been. I would be pissed in their place. I also see no reason at this moment...Boiling the frog, as they say.
The issue is that boiling it as slowly as we do now means tens of thousands more dead Ukrainians than there could have been. I would be pissed in their place.
I also see no reason at this moment to think that Russia will not keep doing what it always did if this conflict gets frozen. Cutting off and controlling a part of Ukraine was arguably one of their goals the whole time.
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Comment on Joe Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US long-range missiles in ~society
V17 Link ParentThe issue is that this does not make Russia feel like it fucked up or like it shouldn't just keep attacking other countries. Us who are located close to Ukraine would greatly welcome if Russia...Biden's goal is not to help Ukraine win, but to not lose. And to do so in a way that doesn't make Russia feel like its existence is under threat.
The issue is that this does not make Russia feel like it fucked up or like it shouldn't just keep attacking other countries. Us who are located close to Ukraine would greatly welcome if Russia felt a much larger threat from potentially attacking other neighbors or advancing further than it feels now.
There is also arguably a pretty significant buffer between what Biden sends now and what could be sent without crossing some actual (not just constantly shifting imaginary) red lines.
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Comment on Joe Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US long-range missiles in ~society
V17 Link ParentNumerous supposed red lines have been crossed with Russia and nothing dramatic ever happened. Maybe this time it will, but I certainly would not bet on it.Numerous supposed red lines have been crossed with Russia and nothing dramatic ever happened. Maybe this time it will, but I certainly would not bet on it.
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Comment on Joe Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US long-range missiles in ~society
V17 (edited )LinkI wish this changed something, but it seems more like too little, too late, as usual. edit: In other words:I wish this changed something, but it seems more like too little, too late, as usual.
edit: In other words:
Illia Ponomarenko
It's been close to three years....three years... three years.
Why, why, why, why is this happening as late as now....how many lives could have been saved, how many opportunities could have been very timely used, in a unique historical situation that we had after March 29, 2022, with the Russian defeat at Kyiv.
Why, why, why waste three years giving Putin time only to eventually utter decisions that have been obvious and critically necessary all this time.
Why, why, why.
People who get properly diagnosed and successfully treated with these issues seem to still be so uncommon that I'm sure it would be valuable to many other patients. No pressure, just saying that some interest exists, I would certainly read it as well. Regarding contact information, I'll ask if she's interested - I think she's currently in a phase where pretty much all of her energy is occupied by just trying to live a semi-normal life and there's no energy left for things that feel like actively doing something, I assume you might know what that's like.