Everything is heritable:
Continuation of the recent phenome theme of inter-correlations of negative traits and inter-correlation of positive traits:
Politics/religion:
AI:
Statistics/meta-science:
Psychology/biology:
Technology:
Economics:
Have you written up somewhere how you stay organized, what software you use, especially with regards to reference management, text editors and works in progress?
oops, just posted this AI article in open...
https://aeon.co/essays/true-ai-is-both-logically-possible-and-utterly-implausible
I've been reading livetweets of the Oracle vs Google trial by jury, presided over by Judge Alsup, who learned to code. In a previous trial, Judge Alsup had declared that the software API in question was uncopyrightable. However, his decision was overturned by the federal court, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. So now they are redoing the trial with a new jury, with the premise that an API is copyrightable, in order to decide whether Google's reimplementation of a Java API from Sun at the time (later bought by Oracle) was "fair use" of copyrightable materials.
The decision in this trial has the potential to impact the future of software development. The 9 billion dollars being asked for by Oracle is actually not the biggest thing at stake in this case. It is being decided by jurors who were picked because they know very little about how software development works.
In the courtroom livetweeting the events are Sarah Jeong https://twitter.com/sarahjeong/ and Parker Higgins https://twitter.com/xor/ and a few other people, most of whom are on Sarah Jeong's list: https://twitter.com/sarahjeong/lists/oracle-v-google or using the hashtag #googacle https://twitter.com/hashtag/googacle
Exurb1a is making some excellent nihilistic mind-bending. Highlights:
100 meachine learning videos on uTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjeM1xxYb_37bZfyparLS3Q/videos
(In Russian; freely available on the 'net) Экскурсия (The Trip) by Наталья Жукова, Борис Жуков. A fic set in Middle Earth long after the end of the War of the Ring. A youngish Hobbit, gardener by trade and Gamgee by name, goes on a recreational trip and ends up sending the very last Elf home to his wife - Galadriel the Fair. Brilliantly written.
The scourge of existential nihilism has a cure
A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe
http://www.amazon.com/Significant-Life-Meaning-Silent-Universe/dp/022623567X
pure philosophy inside, lots of Aristotle reasoning examined.
Also if you are at all interested in the surveillance state, and some of the legal reasoning that it may be breaking the separation of powers, the whole issue of the Monthly Review is excellent reading
The New Surveillance Normal
http://monthlyreview.org/archives/2014/volume-66-issue-03-july-august/
The New Surveillance Normal
It took me less than a paragraph to get to
we need to consider how the NSA and corporate metadata mining converge to support the interests of capital
at which point I stopped reading.
One of my favorites: The Knight in Rusty Armor
Some common literary tropes, but I consider it a must-read and use it as a reminder to follow the Path of Truth in my own endeavors.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., S03E18: "The Singularity". Aired April 26. The team wants to find a biologist whose work they need.
Simmons: He was asked to step down a month before for conducting irregular experiments.
Lincoln: "Irregular" meaning...?
Fitz: (grimly) He's a rumored transhumanist.
Coulson (who previously collected a set of trading cards commemorating, and later worked with, a man who was biologically augmented in the 1940s; worked with and against various members of an alien civilization whose advanced magic/technology allows them to live for thousands of years; ran, tried to have shut down, and later had his life saved by an advanced research project dedicated to reviving the clinically dead; fought a Hydra faction led by a man who'd uploaded his mind to a bank of computers in the 1970s; worked closely with a biologically and technologically upgraded cyborg; and has a prosthetic arm with super strength among its features)**: A what? Simmons: People who believe in using science and technology to transcend our biological limitations. Their goal is... Lincoln: Become more than human. Timely. Fitz: Digital immortality, superintelligence... Coulson:** Okay. I'm glad everyone knows what it is.
(The episode goes on to portray "transhumanists" as sexy, stylish young people who meet in secret clubs to exchange illegal(?) enhancements. The biologist appears to enthusiastically join a villain who wants to end conflict by converting the world into his mind slaves.)
Protomen Act 2: The Father of Death - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWwGo28FdZ8 1984 and Megaman-inspired rock opera. Story of Dr. Light's quest to avenge his father's death by accident by making machines to replace dangerous work, and the theft of his work by his ambitious partner, who proceeds to conquer the world.
Starry, Starry Night (Vincent) - Don Mclean - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk Wistful and sad song on the life, work, and suicide of Vincent Van Gogh "How you suffered for your sanity"
Touhou:
I've done a few more episodes of my podcast Future Strategist. I interviewed geneticist Razib Khan who said we might get embryo selection by 2020, I read the introduction to my book Singularity Rising, I debated Vox Day (the Rabid Puppies founder) on Free Trade, I interviewed computer scientists Roman Yampolsky and we discussed the dangers of AI, and I discussed game theory in Greek Mythology. If you like my podcast please consider leaving a positive review on iTunes.
Should we, starting from next month's thread (June 2016), add a Games (or Videogames if that's a preferred name) subthread?
[pollid:1140]
If a Games subthread is added, should we remove some other subthread, and if so which?
[pollid:1141]
Actually, i would suggest adding a VR thread, instead of a games thread. All the development is going there anyway.
Do enough LWers even have VR headsets to be worth making a thread? It's true that game makers are very interested in VR, but after a great deal of lurking on /r/oculus & /r/vive (I know I shouldn't torture myself like this but I can't help it), I get the impression that there still have been shipped only on the order of tens of thousands of current-gen headsets.
Going by Steam data, there appears to be about 50K Vive units out in the wild at the moment. I don't know about Oculus, but I suspect not much more because they seem to have difficulties shipping units.
However there is also Samsung's Gear VR and Google's Cardboard which are kinda-sorta VR but still VR.
On the other hand, my impression is that all available VR software is still demo-style crap. Yes, you spend some time doing ooooh and aaaah for a while, but never mind killer apps, I haven't even seen a decent game for VR yet. I am sure that will change, though. Eventually.
roundup on steam data just posted
Yeah, sounds about the right magnitude. It'll be interesting to see how many must-have experiences stack up over the coming year as manufacturing ramps up. A few things already stand out - everyone loves Tilt Brush, and for example, the reviews of the rockclimbing game The Wall sound like it may be one of the first VR games to really stick and be more than a demo but it only came out a week or two ago. So we'll see.
Poll was changed to add "I'm abstaining from voting just show me the results" options as Elo suggested. If by bad chance you already voted, please vote in the new polls.
This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.
Rules: