At the opposite end of the spectrum from computer science, is philosophy a write-only language?

I believe it.

I listened to a few of Obama's speeches recently and it's really weird listening to him speak. What were we thinking electing a professor -- someone who's so deliberative -- to the presidency? What are we, Canada?? In some ways it does seem to run so deep against the grain of what America is that such an intellect would be our president, because it doesn't seem like a value which we prize. What a rich, multifaceted country the United States is, that such different personalities with such different stories can both be the leading representatives of our country and could both be seen as embodying it's greatest aspirations.

At the same time, it's also bizarre that I can no longer remember what it's like having a president who is a serious enough person that he can devote himself to understanding a wide array of issues deeply from a diverse number of perspectives. It does make what's going on in America seem a little bit more like a crazy carnival world... I watched an Obama speech and laughed uncomfortably because of the dissonance that someone reliable used to be at the helm. I didn't realize the emotional transformation I'd undergone that that now is so unfamiliar.

and then there's the Decider

W. comes across as reasonably informed in clips I've seen of him, but he also comes across as mildly frustrated as if he were under assault. At the same time, he also seems to have had a sense of humor and an ability to take a joke.

Actually, I don't know if Obama is able to take a joke that well. Most times I've seen someone crack a joke about him he comes back with a witty barb, which is admirable in its own way.

dudes, wtf: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/05/trump-team-hired-spy-firm-dirty-ops-iran-nuclear-deal

I'm going to read that article now, but... that photo of Trump? o_O

He looks like a square-faced contorted trollfaced Haley Joel Osment stroke-survivor botox victim.

He looks like Elon Musk

Is there a name for this face muscle / bone position / structure?

other than 'British'

Musk and Trump are strangely rectangular in these photos.

Either that, or on account of my jawline I'm just a beta in comparison.

You are for sure a beta since you pursued an advanced degree instead of blue collar work you ****ing ******

Which is funny, because iirc in Brave New World, the alphas were the smartest, and the deltas were basically too (purposefully) brain damaged to be anything but slaves.

But maybe they were hot?

I dont gaf because im a sigma male

For every epsilon male, there is a delta male such that

Republicans seeking to actively undermine peace efforts? Color me shocked

Idk, there's plenty of projects in Github no one has or will ever look at

And Github has what to do with computer science?

I suppose it's possible someone is hosting academic code there.

Also I'm pretty sure Wittgenstein tried to make philosophy just as clear as computer science when he wrote his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. But didn't he later reject this as futile?

At any rate, whatever he was trying to do was probably absorbed into classical artificial intelligence work done back in the `60's (though I'm sure there continues to be a strong interplay between philosophy, logic, and classical a.i. research).

it's not really the goal that's surprising as much as the tactics. It doesn't happen every day that it's revealed that a president used a private foreign spy agency to monitor private American citizens who are also political opponents

Wittgenstein was also the least clear philosopher lol, at least in the tractatus. He used to get mad people misunderstood it and I've heard the loudest debate about philosophy ever about Wittgenstein.

Ultimate clarity is not achievable, I think.

cf. the Charles Murray book, where he clains in order to achieve liberty, violating the law is necessary.

lol

I believe the err.. academic code I wrote is somewhere on Github.. and I don't actually know, but I know nobody has looked at it once.

Murray wrote more than one book, so I don't know the context of the "clain" [sic] you're talking about, but I don't suspect a stray comment from a Charles Murray book you haven't actually read is the most natural thing to draw from to shed light on this situation anyway. Richard Nixon, perhaps? or LBJ?

https://newrepublic.com/article/121824/charles-murrays-people-anti-democratic-manifesto

It's not a stray comment, it's the thesis of a book he wrote a few years ago.

But yes, I haven't read it.

In other words, democracy is bad, violate the laws. That's the advocacy of conservative thinktanks.

In fact, that's really the conservative strategy now, isn't it? They can't get legislation through, so wreak havoc on the court system and try to get favorable rulings. Seems to be everything they attempted in the Obama era.

I don't know if encouraging "ordinary people" (to use what I expect are Murray's own words) to practice civil disobedience to protest the perceived overstepping of the federal government in their private lives is quite the same thing as the head of the federal government employing a private foreign intelligence firm to spy on private citizens and invade their private lives.

No, but you're missing the central feeling, the key change in conservative ideals: that the rules don't matter, the system is "rigged" against them, so everything is permitted. The thing you think is so bad, and it is bad, but it's all due to this hatred of democracy and the normal political order.

I'd feel more comfortable attributing that view to Murray if it was what he actually said.

*shrug*

You know, I think in many respects I actually am pretty conservative in my estimates. I definitely am on the side of pumping the brakes against what I feel is ridiculous optimism about technology.

Right. I think what Trump did is somewhat more dramatic than a lack of forbearance, as Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt call it. I'll admit that forbearance a problem, but I don't think it's so closely connected to what Trump did to the JCPOA supporters. I think what Trump did is much worse.



It seems like, by dispensing with norms, Republicans are just being "political", to you use your terminology.

I'd figure that by being on the wrong end of it you'd see why this is a bad way to understand what politics is.

We can make a qualitative distinction if you want, in regards to the worseness of it, I really only want the thesis that it's part of a bigger trend.



Why do you think I'm so partisan regarding the Republicans? They want to angrily, forcefully steal power from democratic institutions and turn the country into a libertarian hellhole of trillionaire robber barons ransacking you on toll roads.

Charles Murray states clearly the strategy that's already ongoing: install sympathetic judges, encourage people to violate the law, have a fund of billionaires who donate to win court cases that effectively restructure law in their favor. They can't win in legislation, the things they want to do (**** everyone who's not wealthy) is too unpopular to maintain power. The unpartisan nature of the judicial branch is key to functioning of government. Republicans are heading a charge to subvert that. To be as partisan-sounding as possible.

What they do is a threat to my own existence and livelihood, as well. It's still just power politics, but it's in the majority's favor to stop them from hammering away at democratic institutions.

I'm really convinced the next presidential election, if Trump is still around, is going to be the first time we see real, 3rd-world style efforts to suppress voters. My guess is, in order to curtail "illegals" voting, Trump is going to install border patrol agents in sanctuary cities (blue) to "keep democracy safe", which really means intimidating and pressuring voters in regions Republicans don't like with militaryesque presence.

If you don't want America to be like Russia, it's imperative to be 100% opposed to everything the current Republican party stands for.

Yeah, it's not a quantitative distinction. It's a qualitative one. What Trump did is fundamentally different in kind from lacking forbearance. Lacking forbearance has to do with not observing norms associated with political institutions but staying within the bounds of the law. What Trump did involved using mafia tactics outside of the context of political institutions. So no, I disagree with your claim that it can all be filed under Republican/conservative strategy (that's why I'm making the distinction between forbearance and Trump's tactics in the first place. Most of what your describing with the courts etc. falls under lack of forebearance).

Not just technology. To me conservatism is something psychological, like a temperament or disposition. You're conservative if you've curated a list of things to fall back on as a bulwark against needing to roll the dice with whatever new thing comes along. Being really knowledgeable can probably make you conservative too, unless your knowledge tells you that literally nothing could be worse than the status quo....

AG Schneiderman has issued a statement saying he is into role-playing

I'm definitely becoming more of a crotchety old man. I knew one day there'd be a video game thing I just wouldn't get, and Fortnite is that thing. I just do not grasp the appeal. I hate the mobile game art style and the gameplay is completely unappealing.

I also don't get why people keep talking about certain things. Like Kanye West. I just don't comprehend why people even talk about people like him. It's baffling.