I forgot to cross-post this when I wrote it on https://currion.net/2021/09/rants-and-screeds-on-wants-and-needs/, so here it is now. 1. Tom Chivers asks: Are diet pills immoral? “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral,” answers Melvin Kranzberg. I know that I overuse that quote, and I know that it’s not…

Cross-posted from https://currion.net/2021/04/an-unexamined-life-worth-living/ The data-driven world is an affront to human dignity because submitting to these regimes means feeding them pieces of ourselves; which they reconstruct into other versions of ourselves; and these versions are then fed back to us, or fed to other entities. …

Cross-posted from https://currion.net/2021/04/flailing-and-dodging-concerning-violence/ 1. The thought experiment of Mary’s Room goes as follows: Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let…

Cross-posted from https://currion.net/2021/04/non-friction/. We live in a world of friction. Whenever we push against the world, the world pushes back. When we try to accomplish something, anything, we face a range of obstacles that must be overcome, both internal and external, trivial and terrifying. …

Cross-posted from www.currion.net. The Rabbit Warren One of the reasons why Slate Star Codex (SSC) was so successful is that it’s often a rabbit hole of links that readers can dive into — or more specifically a rabbit warren which connects across multiple posts on multiple subjects, all promising to build into a…

Cross-posted from https://currion.net/2021/01/speaking-of-freedom/ To be clear at the outset: I am not a free speech absolutist, by which I mean that I do not believe that freedom of speech is more valuable than any other principle. In particular I am not American, I feel no obligation towards the First Amendment…

As part of our contract with Dorcas, Disberse agreed to write a reflection paper concerning two key questions at the heart of the 121 Project funded by the Dutch Innovation Fund. This paper is based on our involvement in 121, but also on four years of experience working on these…

Cross-posted at www.currion.net. During the Covid-19 pandemic one of the greatest losses for me has been the loss of live performance, particularly music. The lack of touring bands, and particularly the cancellation of the Belgrade Jazz Festival, felt like a genuine loss, particularly because, for a number of reasons, Belgrade…

Cross-posted at www.currion.net. Those of you that have been following us will know that my own journey with blockchain started over five years ago, when I published my AidCoin paper. I’d been on the fringes of crypto/blockchain for a few years already, but that paper sketched out my thoughts on…