[newsletter]
Nervous Energy and other things
25 Oct 2024
Hello,
Here’s everything since my last little missive to you:
Excerpt: A very basic principle of living creatures is that they respond adaptively to the environment. It isn’t the only principle. But it’s really rather important. And more-or-less, this principle is what the nervous system does. But many people talk about the nervous system in mystical tones—the key to altering your maladaptive responses. Sadly, these people have no idea what they’re talking about.
Main idea: The nervous system teaches us the most important lesson about human behaviour: the main thing our body does is transform the world into adaptive responses, and the nervous system is at the very core of it. But beyond that, it’s mostly just a mess.
Accidentally a good list of great thinkers. Not sure I care so much about the ‘which thinkers are more or less prominent and why’ angle. just a good list of big ideas in the great spirits of history sense.
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Why deepfakes pose less of a threat than many predict. AI is not that scary.
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Statistical Significance And Why It Matters. See also Problems with p-values.
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Is surveillance capitalism not that bad? The value in monetising user data, or at least a critique of the dangers. Largely, the argument is “it’s never that bad” and also “people can opt out”. But the obvious counter would be “it has been that bad, until we did something about it” and “people don’t know how to or why they should opt out” which seems to me to be a cause for less optimism and more caution (i.e. the current trajectory)?
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The Whirlpool of the Artificial. Interesting thoughts on the value in thoughtful AI integration:
We must reject the narrative that people or societies must feed ever-more of themselves into the whirlpool of the artificial to remain “competitive.” The more we optimize for metrics in artificial realms, the farther these realms drift from human reality. Populist politics, climate change and falling birthrates demonstrate the fragility of societies that have become too narrowly optimized.
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What It’s Like To Work On A Megayacht
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If the anti-fluoride people turn out to be right…
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I hope you found something interesting.
You can find links to all my previous missives here.
Warm regards,