tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post9049363034503096151..comments2024-03-28T09:59:13.754-07:00Comments on bionic mosquito: No Story, No Liberty bionic mosquitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-13030796694442265172020-07-01T21:07:28.867-07:002020-07-01T21:07:28.867-07:00Indeed... and it's an issue that is way outsid...Indeed... and it's an issue that is way outside the range of allowable opinion. Respectable people STILL piously believe in communal salvation by throwing more money at "education". That's an illusion that will die hard, if it ever does.<br /><br />Would be nice if the notion got out that while the educated life is a high calling, it's not for everyone, for reasons both of innate capacity, and limited societal demand for "educated" services.cosmic dwarfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16562864681773374828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-91287397979538398212020-07-01T13:42:53.807-07:002020-07-01T13:42:53.807-07:00The answer is even simpler: IQ is largely a herita...The answer is even simpler: IQ is largely a heritable affair and cannot be meaningfully increased by education.<br />What an increase in education spending causes however is both an inflation of the managerial class managing these systems as well as an "elite overproduction" (i.e. people who expect prestige and upward mobility while being downwardly mobile and facing a terrible job market) leading to political instability.<br /><br />Also, as the social enviroment and selection pressures with it change we're seeing cases wherein high intelligence becomes aladaptive and decreases reproductive chances.<br />The Great Cull is coming for many, many people.paid shillnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-82417967325239629582020-06-27T09:18:42.046-07:002020-06-27T09:18:42.046-07:00“Dumping the transcendent: Nothing is above the sy...“Dumping the transcendent: Nothing is above the system and nothing is allowed to remain outside of the system. Each individual is sovereign, with no authority above him.”<br /><br />This appears to me to be a contradiction. <br /><br />If every individual is sovereign and is beholden to no authority above him, then that means the individual is transcendent, at least in his own person. The only way to dump this is to remove the sovereignty from the individual and transfer it to something else. In modern society, that would mean the State. <br /><br />If nothing is above the system, then the system itself is transcendent. The collective is transcendent and all parts of the system, i.e., individuals, must be blended into the system seamlessly. Nothing is allowed to remain outside. The system becomes the sovereign authority. <br /><br />The extremes are total individualism or total collectivism. <br /><br />IF the system of choice is individual sovereignty, then this is pure anarchy and anything which takes away from that must be purged from the system. At this point, the NAP will blossom to its fullest extent OR total chaos will occur, with the subsequent resumption of a rule of power because people will not live forever in a system of chaos. Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156823478509665137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-18663364969632933922020-06-27T09:02:19.311-07:002020-06-27T09:02:19.311-07:00“People learn, instead, by living in a story.”
My...“People learn, instead, by living in a story.”<br /><br />My experience is that people learn by experience. My theory is that it is better and easier to learn from the mistakes of others, but I can say with certainty that I learn best, not from watching others make mistakes, but by making them myself...and then learning from them. Test first, lesson afterwards. My hunch is that the vast, overwhelming majority of people learn the same way. <br /><br />If this is true, then it undergirds the saying that, “...those who do not learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.” Generally speaking, we do not learn from history and this makes it inevitable that we should go through the process all over again. Expecting otherwise probably puts to much faith in fallible mankind. Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156823478509665137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-65090818785258507192020-06-27T05:46:09.642-07:002020-06-27T05:46:09.642-07:00Life, at it’s gut level, is meant to be lived, not...Life, at it’s gut level, is meant to be lived, not talked about. <br /><br />This might explain why theory only appeals to a very small percentage of the population, who spend much of their time developing ‘formulas for living’, while everyone else is deeply entrenched in the reality of life, making up the ‘rules’ as they go along. For my part, I much prefer to live life as it really is, down and dirty, instead of trying to exist in the oxygen depleted air of ivory tower thinking. It is so much more interesting and it might explain why I am not rich and famous. <br /><br />As far as the narrative goes, it may appear to liberty-minded individuals that the story has been lost, but viewed from the perspective of the Author, more than likely this is only the end of one chapter and the beginning of another within the context of a very long book. The plots, sub-plots, and threads are endless and can only be seen vaguely from our end. Our current situation is definitely taking a turn for the worse, but, like the unfolding of any good story, it must be this way so that the end, when it comes, is completely understood by the readers.<br /><br />If the promise of Jesus holds true, “I WILL build my Church...”, then what we are experiencing is a widespread exposure of evil--individually, socially, financially, politically, and religiously—which will eventually be clearly seen as what it really is. Eventually, enough people will become so tired of living the way they do that they are willing to make the personal changes which are necessary for the concepts of liberty and freedom to become dominant. Eventually, a critical mass of people will (please pardon my crudity, but I don’t have a better way of putting it) pull its collective head out of its a$$, wipe the s**t out of its eyes, and begin to see what is really available. At that time, it will be imperative that leaders are ready and able to speak the Truth about life, “This is the way you should go. Walk ye in it.” <br /><br />It is obvious that what lies immediately ahead of us is ugly, very ugly. It is also unavoidable. What we need to understand is that beyond the near future is a life which is far more beautiful, vibrant, and free than anything this world has experienced since the Garden of Eden. Until then, however, all we can do is put our fingers to the keyboard and push on, cooperating in the writing of the Grand Narrative--one character at a time. <br /><br />To be continued...Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156823478509665137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-3200813516486502812020-06-26T12:32:17.652-07:002020-06-26T12:32:17.652-07:00Ahmed, over the last fifty years, trillions have b...Ahmed, over the last fifty years, trillions have been redistributed in accord with this philosophy. The results of this are visible on the streets of America today. No, I do not have more property, nor is the property I have more secure.<br /><br />Further, may I ask: does your religion permit the doing of evil in order to achieve some (perceived) good? Mine does not.<br /><br />"It stands to reason that we should give of our wealth to educate others because the returns to such an investment are so high."<br /><br />The key word in this line is "give." Giving and stealing are not the same thing.<br /><br />bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-22941867140769204092020-06-26T09:32:12.565-07:002020-06-26T09:32:12.565-07:00Below is part of economist Tyler Cowen interviewin...Below is part of economist Tyler Cowen interviewing economist Garret Jones, author of "Hive Mind".<br /><br />[quote]<br />COWEN: One of the key themes of your book is that the social returns to intelligence and groups are much higher than the private returns.<br /><br />JONES: Yeah.<br /><br />COWEN: If that’s the case, why don’t we see increasing returns in the economic data almost everywhere?<br /><br />JONES: It’s because it works essentially like a level effect, not like some sort of increasing returns to scale. My rough estimate from my early work was that one IQ point raises your private marginal product about 1 percent, but it raises your society’s marginal product in the long run with about 6 percent, so that’s a level effect. I wouldn’t expect to see some sort of massive agglomeration showing up in the wealth-creation process.<br />[end quote]<br /><br />It stands to reason that we should give of our wealth to educate others because the returns to such an investment are so high. Think of it as "cast your bread upon the waters".<br /><br />Garrett Jones goes further in his book about how societies with higher IQs are less prone to violence, as they solve their differences by discussion instead.<br /><br />Here's another quote from Wikipedia:<br /><br />[quote]<br />Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own is a book by Garett Jones, published in 2015 by Stanford University Press. It explores the science behind the financial payoff of high Individual IQ and the related impact of thinking like a group. The book claims that a nation's average IQ is multiple times more important for the nation's prosperity than an individual's IQ is important for their overall prosperity. The logic is that collective IQ non-linearly improves a country's fortunes via multiple channels, such as better institutions, etc.<br />[end quote]<br /><br />So here we have a paradox. The government can take a portion of your property, which breaks the NAP, but in doing so, you end up with more property, and more secure property rights, on account of that reduction in violence that comes with a nation's higher IQ.Ahmed Fareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07105255828394485657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-46974684176517584072020-06-26T05:31:52.051-07:002020-06-26T05:31:52.051-07:00Jeff Deist, in his discussions on the lockdowns, h...Jeff Deist, in his discussions on the lockdowns, has made a very good point: The burden of proof should be on the person promoting a view outside our generally accepted norms. That aligns with our cultural and legal traditions anyway. I've tested this on non-libertarian/conservative friends: Who bears the burden of proof? That statue A caused police officer J to kill Z. That facemasks work. That lockdowns work. That government money printing works. That crony deals at the local level like tax incentives and sports stadia work.Eric Morrisnoreply@blogger.com