Cowpaths
[Last updated on 25 Dec 2013- the newest version is here.] This blog revolves around my interest in organizations and interfaces that change behavior. With that broad topic, I’ve been able to slide around to pretty much anything I’ve read that interests me. I’ve pushed out about 70 posts since I started in late August, more »
Miscellaneous Notes
I’ve almost pulled together enough grist to cut down on the “miscellaneous notes” posts and scribble on something pseudo-consistent. I started writing on Huizinga to publish next week, but I may as well wait for the new year. The rest of the year’s posts will probably be housekeeping (lists of related posts, one last devblog more »
Notes: brains, coherence, wolfram
I. The Brains of Animals Even more animal cognition. I admit to quoting perhaps half of the article here. But the other half is also quite pretty, and worth a read. […] I confess I am astonished at how much mammalian brains resemble one another in their organization, architecture, and complexity. Just as human beings more »
Fitness Landscapes
Two “Edge” responses on a useful idea. Stewart Brand on Sewall Wright’s sketches, above (“Your favorite deep/elegant/beautiful explanation”): The first two illustrate how low selection pressure or a high rate of mutation (which comes with small populations) can broaden the range of a species whereas intense selection pressure or a low mutation rate can severely more »
Probabilistic Minarchism
A survey of Adam Gurri’s conception of Probabilistic Libertarianism and a permissionless society. Taleb’s Probabilistic Minarchism Writer Adam Gurri imagines Taleb’s political philosophy, taking into account his attitudes and arguments from Antifragile. First, he makes a good point here, and one I’d probably prefer to regurgitate when asked about my own ideas of an ideal more »
Friday Notes
I should standardize my “notes/compilation” post titles. I’m annoying myself. I think while I’m reading some unrelated stuff, I might spend some more time wrapping up some more UpWing/DownWing archiving before I lose that thread entirely, since I’ve already got the requisite notes for them hanging around anyway. I may get back to that next more »
Fukuyama’s Vetocracy
There was a comedian- and for the second or third time here, I’m referencing a comedian whose name and set I don’t recall- anyway, there was a comedian who had a piece about how funny it is that we as Americans are always all about exporting democracy, but it never happens to be our own more »
Mulling: class, mythologies, performance
Slightly looser theme than usual. I got sick this weekend and botched up my usual reading/writing rhythm. It may be a day or two before another post. I. Downton Abbey I finished the new season of Downton Abbey with my girlfriend this week (it premiers in the US next month, but it’s finished it more »
Mulling: Governing Systems
Curated quotes/notes, mostly spun out of yesterday’s new posts from Ribbonfarm and The Last Psychiatrist. I. Voight Against the Machine First- A story told by Sebastian Deterding, one of my favorite no-bullshit games researchers and Gamification experts (and whom I will eventually talk about at length?) Most of Gamification is bullshit so I’ve been careful more »
The Bicameral Mind
Note: I was structurally changing the blog a bit. Nothing seems to be broken, but who really knows anything. Apologies in advance. — Jaynes: The speculative thesis which I shall try to explain in this chapter- and it is very speculative- is simply an obvious corollary from what has gone before. The bicameral mind more »