29 NOV 2016 by ideonexus
Earthseed 41-45
41. Death
DeathIs a great Change—Is life’s greatest Change.We honor our beloved dead.As we mix their essence with the earth,We remember them,And within us,They live.
∞ = Δ
42. We have lived before
We have lived before.We will live again.We will be silk,Stone,Mind,Star.We will be scattered,Gathered,Molded,Probed.We will liveAnd we will serve life.We will shape GodAnd God will shape usAgain,Always again,Forevermore.
∞ = Δ
43. To benefit your world
To shape GodWith wisdom and foretho... 1 
notes
notes15 APR 2015 by ideonexus
If a Harvard Degree is So Valuable, Why Not Franchise It?
But what if higher education is really just the final stage of a competitive tournament? From grades and test results through the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the colleges themselves, higher education sorts us all into a hierarchy. Kids at the top enjoy prestige because they’ve defeated everybody else in a competition to reach the schools that proudly exclude the most people. All the hard work at Harvard is done by the admissions officers who anoint an already-proven hypercompet...
1 19 DEC 2014 by ideonexus
How the Finance Industry Hurts the Economy
In perhaps the starkest illustration, economists from Harvard University and the University of Chicago wrote in a recent paper that every dollar a worker earns in a research field spills over to make the economy $5 better off. Every dollar a similar worker earns in finance comes with a drain, making the economy 60 cents worse off.
[...]
...the growth of complex financial products has served primarily to boost income for the firms themselves, Philippon said. A new paper from researchers in t... 1 notes
notes07 NOV 2014 by ideonexus
Collective Mind from Olaf Stapledon
The designers of our species set out to produce a being that might be capable of an order of mentality higher than their own. The only possibility of doing so lay in planning a great increase in brain organisation. But they knew that the brain of an individual human being could not safely be allowed to exceed a certain weight. They therefore sought to produce the new order of mentality in a system of distinct and specialised brains held in "telepathic" unity by means of ethereal radiation. Ma...Folksonomies: collectivism borganism
Folksonomies: collectivism borganism
1 notes
notes12 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Selections From a Memetic Lexicon
Auto-toxic
Dangerous to itself. Highly auto-toxic memes are usually self-limiting because they promote the destruction of their hosts (such as the Jim Jones meme; any military indoctrination meme-complex; any "martyrdom" meme). (GMG) (See exo-toxic.)
bait
The part of a meme-complex that promises to benefit the host (usually in return for replicating the complex). The bait usually justifies, but does not explicitly urge, the replication of a meme-complex. (Donald Going, quoted by Hofstadte... 1 notes
notesThe most useful and interesting terms.
27 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Why Economists Will Continue to be Wrong
Carter had initially used arbitrary parameters in his perfect model to generate perfect data, but now, in order to assess his model in a realistic way, he threw those parameters out and used standard calibration techniques to match his perfect model to his perfect data. It was supposed to be a formality--he assumed, reasonably, that the process would simply produce the same parameters that had been used to produce the data in the first place. But it didn't. It turned out that there were many ...They make models based on past data, and when they fail to predict the future, they adjust them to match the new past data. The problem is that so many models will match the past data, there could be no end to the number of models they throw out.
29 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
The Actuarial Math of Altruism
I have talked in elemental
terms of suicidal genes for saving the lives of particular numbers of kin
of exactly known relatedness. Obviously, in real life, animals cannot be
expected to count exactly how many relatives they are saving, nor to
perform Hamilton's calculations in their heads even if they had some way
of knowing exactly who their brothers and cousins were. In real life,
certain suicide and absolute 'saving' of life must be replaced by statistical
risks of death, one's own and oth... 1 notes
notesIt's not just intra-species, but the closer the relative the more altruism. Also the potential to reproduce affects the relationship as well.
28 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
Nationalism in a Virtual World
As the game grew in international popularity, players from all over the
world converged on the U.S. West server, leading to frequent overloading and lag in game play. The problem became particularly acute when Diablo II was released in Korea. Within a few weeks of its release, Diablo II sold 300,000 copies, making it far and away Blizzard’s most profitable overseas launch. This rapid uptake produced a massive influx of game players into U.S. West, causing further problems with game lag. Whe... 1 notes
notesStory of when Diablo II opened in Korea and the influx of users sparked a hostile reaction from Western players.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Matthew Effect
[The] complex pattern of the misallocation of credit for scientific work must quite evidently be described as 'the Matthew effect', for, as will be remembered, the Gospel According to St. Matthew puts it this way: For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Put in less stately language, the Matthew effect consists of the accruing of greater increments of recognition for particular scientific ...Folksonomies: reference attribution
Folksonomies: reference attribution
1 notes
notes"complex pattern of the misallocation of credit for scientific work"
31 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Taking the Magic out of Natural Selection.
'Planning' is simply the result of experience read backward and projected into the future. To me the 'purposive' action of a beehive is simply the summation and integration of its units, and Natural Selection has put higher and higher premiums on the most 'purposeful' integration. It is the same way (to me) in the evolution of the middle ear, the steps in the Cynodonts (clearly shown by me in 1910 and by you later in Oudenodon) make it easier to see how such a wonderful device as the middle e...Folksonomies: evolution natural selection
Folksonomies: evolution natural selection
1 notes
notesQuoting William King Gregory: "The simple idea that planning is only experience read backward and combined by selection in suitable or successful combinations takes the mystery out of Nature and out of men's minds."
