Mount St Nobody

2013/05/16

» Chatting in code on walkie-talkies in Pakistan

How people communicate in one of the most dangerous places on earth.

2013/05/16

Empathy has some unfortunate features; it is parochial, narrow-minded, and innumerate. So are we often at our best when we’re smart enough not to rely on it?

2013/05/16

A rare example of Forbes being lost for words

2013/05/16

2013/05/15

» "Our economy and our sociopolitical structure are systems of activity embedded in a physical platform. They both presume that individual persons encased in a single skull can be treated as independent actors and given rights of ownership and legal responsibilities. This hasn't always been the case; other and earlier social systems and economies often worked with families as the unit capable of owning or being held legally responsible, and our own particular current system posits a legal entity called the "corporation" which can also own things and be held responsible for actions even though it has no physical body. Our system of making individuals independent and responsible works because we train individuals to act independent and responsible. I think one of the real challenges as artificial intelligence develops is that we're going to have to look increasingly at how intelligence emerges in systems that have no clear boundaries and can't be delineated as separate persons, and our political system and our economic laws may come to seem increasingly antiquated and baroque, designed for beings that no longer exist"

2013/05/14

» "Analogies can be beacons of creative thought, but they can also be utterly banal—just as our perception can be at times. And as much as we try to control our ability to dazzle and amuse with new analogies, it’s more frequently the case that analogies have a hold over us—over our language, over our thought patterns"

This is your brain, on

2013/05/14

» America's best paid jobs

2013/05/14
1 note

» "When companies start using big data, they are wading into the deep end of a number of tough disciplines—statistics, data quality, and everything else that comprises “data science.” Just as in the kind of science that is published every day—and as often, ignored, revised, or never verified—the pitfalls are many"

Is big data a big waste of time?

2013/05/14

Power systems #10

What do you want?
We want to know!
What do you want to know?
We don't know!

2013/05/14
2 notes

» Open Field: Conversations on the Commons

2013/05/14

Power systems #9

I'm a nice person. That's true because I've just told you
That seems reasonable

2013/05/14
3 notes

(Source: cocofennell, via doaweedance)

2013/05/14
1 note

“ It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
— Jiddu Krishnamurti (via doaweedance)

2013/05/14

» Loneliness will kill you. Science fact.

2013/05/14
3 notes

Power systems #8

What's your book about?
Karl Marx
Hmm. There's no money in Marx
That's kind of the point