Agreed that there is no secret to learning. Still, I think that the best models for computer learning will be very different than human learning, eliminating many of the biases humans have.

One thing to consider on the topic: Humans use this type of learning not only because it is a good method, but also because humans have limited memory space. Soon computer memory will exceed human memory, and this may not be as much of an issue.

The proposal is a karma requirement for making new discussion section posts not commenting on them.

I'm in favor of the lower limit. There's no reason that a spammer would be able to get even 1 vote, so that should take care of the problem by itself. Getting 5 karma in the discussion section is easier than the main page, as there are more posts that a newbie can contribute to. Plus, we don't want to drive away people who are frustrated that they aren't able to comment on discussion posts.

I will be summarizing some of my favorite university textbooks into 50-page blog posts.

I'm not sure, but isn't taking the ideas of an author and giving it away for free in this way illegal?

It seems that most of the arguments as to why having a period is good came around after it became possible to avoid it (Birth control).

Is it also true that the arguments for why death is good started appearing around the time when science starting theorizing the possibility of eternal life?

Since nobody else has said it yet: Chinese food. (OK, so that's because my family is Jewish...)

It could be that those who are transgendered tend to have more of the hormone associated with the opposite sex, so adding more of that hormone would not do as much.

The question is about the percentage of transpeople with originally raised hormone levels - otherwise it's a hasty generalization. Surely if this was really the case, they'd display physical differences from their biological sex all along - for example, transwomen would look more feminine then cis men even before any hormone therapy?

Actually, that brings to mind a question I've been wanting to ask someone I don't know IRL: if you have begun taking hormones, how much have you found them to affect your thinking?

I sought answers to that question before and I heard conflicting accounts, from zero changes to significant, but it's important here to account for a causation bias. HRT often coincides with publicly coming out, which in many people can cause a rush of euphoria and a feeling of freedom while some inhibitions evaporate. In other words, many of the changing mental modes may have nothing to do with hormones at all; I've never taken hormones so far and yet I feel like a very different person from lucidfox[2008] thanks to my shifted system of values.

The way I see it, given that puberty didn't manage to shake my core identity and shape me into someone who isn't me, then it's highly unlikely that hormones will.

One could argue that it would result in a net happiness, as children tend to help their parents when they get older. My parents helped grandfather's medical needs, and probably extended his life by about 5 years.

The idea of something becoming "critical" seems to sum up this entire book this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624