27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
The Progressive Effects of Education
Homo sapiens, “knowing man,” is the species that uses information to resist the rot of entropy and the burdens of evolution. Humans everywhere acquire knowledge about their landscape, its flora and fauna, the tools and weapons that can subdue them, and the networks and norms that entangle them with kin, allies, and enemies. They accumulate and share that knowledge with the use of language, gesture, and face-to-face tutelage.
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The mind-altering effects of education extend to every s... 1 
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notes10 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
Argonauts: Organizations of Similar Interest
Over the next few years, the nascent Argonaut Council for Responsible Science recruited heavily from organizations with similar interests such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Institute for a Transhuman Future, the Lifeboat Institute, and the Singularity Foundation. Researchers at government organizations such as the UK’s Bletchley Park and the Chinese Machine Intelligence Directorate quietly subscribed as well. In most cases, these new argonauts kept their original affiliation, gi... 1 notes
notes10 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
Change Requires Listening
...change requires more than just speaking out -- it requires listening, as well. In particular, it requires listening to those with whom you disagree, and being prepared to compromise... you need allies in a democracy. That's just the way it is. It can be frustrating and it can be slow. But history teaches us that the alternative to democracy is always worse. That's not just true in this country. It’s not a black or white thing. Go to any country where the give and take of democracy... 1 notes
notes24 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Rationalists and Scientists are Allies
Religion is still parasitic in the interstices of our knowledge which have not yet been filled. Like bed-bugs in the cracks of walls and furniture, miracles lurk in the lacunae of science. The scientist plasters up these cracks in our knowledge; the more militant Rationalist swats the bugs in the open. Both have their proper sphere and they should realize that they are allies. 1 notes
notesOne plasters the god-of-the-gaps with knowledge, the other swats the bugs that come through.
12 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Early Days of the Printing Press was Like the Early WWW
As was the case during the early days of the World Wide Web, however, the quality of the information was highly varied. While the printing press paid almost immediate dividends in the production of higher quality maps,10 the bestseller list soon came to be dominated by heretical religious texts and pseudoscientific ones.11 Errors could now be mass-produced, like in the so-called Wicked Bible, which committed the most unfortunate typo in history to the page: thou shalt commit adultery.12 Meanw...
2 The glut of books produced a situation of "too much information" similar to the one produced by the world wide web.
01 JAN 2010 by ideonexus
How Do Artists Make Money in a World of "Free"
Obviously we must balance our desire for free stuff with a concern for work. but the open-source software tradition, our final authority on all social questions these days, has little to say about labor, oppression, compensation or collective bargaining. The supposed liberation heralded by those who promote free culture is winner-takes-all; exploit or be exploited, as long as you share your code. Anderson concedes this point, acknowledging that we "measure success in terms of creation of vast...Folksonomies: creative commons
Folksonomies: creative commons
1 notes
notesIt's easy for Google, buzzword-techno-Utopians, and progressives to estole the virtues of free media online, where copyrights are being broken down and everyone is producing free content because they love to do so, but artists still need to make a living. Media corporations are still getting rich, and software pirates are promoting their goods while trading them for free online. While google makes billions on indexing content, while those producing the content make nothing. What is the solution to this?
