There's an interesting parallel between the Stross and Gellman pieces: Stross
both laments and implicitly appreciates the bureaucracy of getting a book
published, where Thiel's aggrieved by the bureaucracy of societal evolution.
It reminds me of the engineering-vs-biology dichotomy (yes, false, like all of
them) I came to appreciate after being exposed to enough biomimetics (to kill a
horse). Some of us see the world and think about how to change it, build a
better world ... or perhaps destroy the world, whatever floats your inner
engineer. And some of us see the world and are awestruck, hypnotized, baffled
by its qualities (whether beautiful or horrifying). It's easy to give the
latter a pass and denigrate the former when confronted with, say, butterflies
or the Grand Canyon. And it's easy to give the former a pass when confronted
with poverty and war.
But the next time you're at the DMV or arguing with some poor sucker manning
the phones at the IRS, it can be useful to remember the falseness of the
dichtomy. Similarly, when all you want to do is sleep under the stars and those
damned gnats keep homing into your ears, it can be useful to think like an
engineer.
Policy and science fiction aren't that far apart.
On 11/10/23 13:46, Marcus Daniels wrote:
original.png
Peter Thiel Is Taking a Break From Democracy
<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/11/peter-thiel-2024-election-politics-investing-life-views/675946/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share>
On 11/10/23 11:26, Roger Critchlow wrote:
Text of Charlie Stross' talk to Next Frontiers Applied Fiction Day in Stuttgart
on Friday November 10th, 2023, concerning where the techno-industrial elite
found their horrible philosophies/secular religions.
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/11/dont-create-the-torment-nexus.html
--
ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ
-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom
https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
