ekr

How is that different from today's situation where wealthier people have access to better health care, while millions die from easily treatable or preventable diseases, especially in places such as Africa.

Or more simply, wealth is strongly correlated with life expectancy already, and there is a more complex casual link as well. (the daily stressors encountered by lower socioeconomic status people are the hidden cause behind a lot of illnesses).

I don't really agree with that argument from a humanitarian perspective. That would simply further increase the vast economic inequality between the west and the rest. Even with lower wages, people in China are better off with more jobs than fewer. People in the Czech Republic for instance have more safety nets, more alternatives and opportunities.

And when I mentioned brain state, I was referring to the electrical activation pattern of the brain, which you can see with an EEG device.

Because there's a strong dopamine rush triggered by the thought of seeing those twitter feeds, and your brain is particularly starved for dopamine at the time (maybe you're tired, bored etc). That triggering is the result of the same activity reinforced hundreds of time, so a strong neuronal association has been made between twitter and the reward. Stop using twitter (or whatever maladaptive addictive behavior you'd want to eliminate) for a few months, and those associations will fade.

If you are engaged in a meaningful conversation for instance, you won't feel such a strong urge to check twitter.

(https://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Chelsea-Publishing-Saunders-L...)

Mac Lane was also the father of category theory.

This link provides some context.

There is a part of the brain that is responsible for integrating events into a continuous narrative. That part of the brain is why we perceive ourselves as an integral being and not a set of parts, but that part is also severely biased in healthy humans, biased to paint ourselves as kinder, more altruistic, more intelligent, while also rewriting the motivation we cite for our past actions, so as to put ourselves in the best possible light.

But no, there's nothing special about those Exxon researches, that's just normal human behavior.

And to go further, acting against ones own interest requires going over a strong emotion. The body let's you know that you shouldn't be doing something through a gut feeling. Repeatedly ignoring or repressing those emotions is not healthy for the nervous system, and much has been written on this subject.

LE: And regarding claims that stopping global warming was in their own interest back in the 1980s, there's the hyperbolic discounting effect (among other things).

It's a fact that we're witnessing the concentration of capital into the hands of fewer and fewer. You can see that by looking at what the top 1%, 0.1% own compared to the bottom 80%, 50% etc.

It's also a fact that the bottom 60+% rely on work to get their needs met, to sustain their lives.

So it only follows that should the rate of automation explode, devaluing the work that currently sustains a huge portion of the population, we've got a huge problem on our hands, making the system unsustainable.

But we're also seeing governments, especially in northern Europe, employing taxation policies that are in a way trying to prevent this growing inequality. And in fact, the level of inequality of a nation has been correlated with a lot of undesirable problems. UBI is a natural extension of that.

I strongly disagree with this position. Yeah, sure, supporting people at the brink of poverty is one of the government's responsibilities, but taking away one of the few options they have goes in the opposite direction. Most of these gig-economy jobs differ from a regular job in that they're much easier to get, at least in most parts of Europe. If you meet a few basic requirements you're in. For people at risk, mentally ill people, and plenty of other segments of the population this is a real lifeline that they're not getting from anywhere else. This is keeping a roof over they head and food on the table.

Obviously, they're doing it because they can't get a better situation. Taking this option away is making them a lot more vulnerable, and doing them a lot of harm. It's not like they don't realise they're being exploited.

Sure, they should be supported etc. But that's just "shoulds", policy is difficult. For many, this gig-economy is an actual lifeline, that exists right now.

And given the advantages of Rust over C/C++ in terms of PL functionality, type system etc, I'd say it's worth it (unless you haven't already invested the effort to become proficient in it, and you're already happy with C/C++).

The monetary system itself is fine as an exchange medium (apart from it being controller by non-neutral, corruptible actors, i.e. the state). It's the distribution of resources that's the problem, and that's a policy issue.

A modern power adapter is at its core just a transformer and a regulator. Three transformer itself is a passive device, it's the regulator that will use a bit of power that will turn into heat, but any well built one will have no risk of overheating. The heat is proportional to how much power the laptop is using, (i.e. under how much load it is on average).

Modern laptops use very little power, so I'd say there is little cause for concern.

But if you don't run the system 24/7 then it's not worth it.

But politically, the coordination problem is unsolvable. Until the effects of the warming become big enough that one of the more powerful agents involved has a clearly positive inventive gradient to actually expend that energy at a personal loss, without the cooperation of others. (Say, for instance, if a majority of US territory becomes uninhabitable due to semi-persistent fires, persistent droughts, etc, I'd expect the US to actually solve the problem irrespective of what the other powers are doing.)

What? I've been following the market and Tesla has not brought no new innovation in any aspect of the car (engine, battery technology etc). They've just hired some great designers and invested a lot in marketing. You can't even say that their cars are competitively priced. I've seen way more innovation from Chinese electric car builders.

Also, wrt to software, Teslas are basically hacked together, according to multiple reports and analyses, teardowns.

This is assuming that semiconductor process improvements will significantly slow down or completely stop.