samirillian

Machiavelli (who strauss calls an evil teacher of evil) references Chiron who, unlike the most centaurs, was wise. Machiavelli says the prince should be like that or understand that Man himself is like that, part beast and part man.

2) I don’t respect the bald claim that all chosen ones are bad, or the implicit claim that we can somehow avoid them. Universals always have exceptions. If we’re being “real” here about our agential change, we must admit that species evolve by natural selection we might say genetic chosen ones. And anyway I do think there are some special people so sue me.

3) consider the names of Peter Thiel’s companies: palantir, mithril. Thiel, I’m sure ironically, named his companies after objects possessing exactly that moral ambiguity that the author claims does not exist in Tolkien’s world. Thiel is telegraphing it straight to you via Tolkien: do not trust me, I will use these objects for my own gain.

4) Discworld can afford to be light and playful because it was written in easy times. In one preface, Tolkien wrote that all the world’s great powers would obviously have tried to turn the ring into a weapon if it really existed.

I agree with this commentary

Of course, the biggest asterisk beside the analogy is the lack of warmongering. Like, kind of the most important part, and Trump is acting more like Woodrow Wilson in that respect. Didn't Woodrow Wilson once say that the US isn't a melting pot but a garbage can?

The danger of the vision is the power of the vision, fix what’s broken in the bureaucracy, it’s not being fascist it’s just easier to ask forgiveness than permission!

We’ll see!

How much must I pay to not get consistently bullshat?

Xenophon said that man is the hardest animal to tame. And the author’s “make AI great again” mentality is a perfect example of this untameability.

If it’s not actual AGI don’t tell me how a tool can actually fix the problems it creates. It’s like the author doesn’t have the most basic concept of what a tool is.

Anyway happy Thanksgiving to the Americans

There’s a lot of wisdom in Aristotle even if you don’t accept his entire system.

For example, in his politics he says mechanics are not capable of practicing virtue. An interesting claim!

I don't agree that because of the British Empire their food is good. They had the British Empire long enough to prove or disprove that claim.

I've visited England 5-ish times. I love it. But I've personally encountered some true Curry monstrosities over there. And Abominable fish and chips. I have fond memories of eating marzipan.

MOREOVER, Gordon Ramsay making dog-food egg mush and calling it scrambled has criminally misled a whole generation of youtube-addicted hipsters. I can't tell you how many times I've heard some random Millenial describe his exact, twisted method and inevitably I learn they've watched this exact video. Okay, twice.

But I don't blame the English, I blame the internet, which confuses our senses. > https://youtu.be/UXtrScuC30E?feature=shared&t=202

Now these are some eggs > https://youtu.be/a-GFimGcYJw?feature=shared&t=97

This guy does sound funny but I doubt he can write a joke

Don’t forget all these

So much eastern philosophy is just really good phenomenology, and some Japanese philosophers like Nishida tried to combine Husserl and Buddhism, but it’s the same thing, I think western phenomenologists have some sort of insecurity, so they implicitly condescend to the eastern thought.

but true detective is not good, it's good bad.