Been waiting for the book to arrive here before posting on the topic, but this group blog on James C. Bennet's Hyperstitional Megaconstruct 'the Anglosphere' is worth pointing out immediately.
(Maybe it will divert some of the heat while I hastily prepare for the impending Hyperstition Linguistics Challenge)
Simple software-based traders have been around for many years, but they are now becoming far more sophisticated, and make trades worth tens of billions of dollars, euros and pounds every day. They are proving so successful that in the equity markets, where they are used to buy and sell shares, they already appear to be outperforming their human counterparts …
- The march of the robo-traders
The Economist, Sept. 17-23
What happened in the early 1980s that allowed the world to be blessed with three transcendental political geniuses - Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Deng Xiaoping? Will we see their like again? (The Czech Republic’s Vaclav Klaus is the closest I can see, sad he’s not guiding the path of a superpower.)
In early 1992, Deng Xiaoping gave a series of off-the-cuff speeches in Southern China to rally the forces of market-oriented reform against the reactionary currents setting in after the Tiananmen episode. A few snippets for those unfamiliar with his thinking:
“Revolution means the emancipation of the productive forces …”
“We should be bolder than before in conducting reform and opening to the outside and have the courage to experiment. We must not act like women with bound feet. Once we are sure that something should be done, we should dare to experiment and break a new path. That is the important lesson to be learned from Shenzhen.”
“Once disputes begin, they complicate matters and waste a lot of time. As a result, nothing is accomplished. Don’t argue; try bold experiments and blaze new trails.”
“China should maintain vigilance against the Right but primarily against the ‘Left’.”
“If we are to seize opportunities to promote China’s all-round development, it is crucial to expand the economy. The economies of some of our neighbouring countries are growing faster than ours. If our economy stagnates or develops only slowly, the people will make comparisons and ask why. Therefore, those areas that are in a position to develop should not be obstructed. Where local conditions permit, development should proceed as fast as possible. There is nothing to worry about so long as we stress efficiency and quality and develop an export-oriented economy. Slow growth equals stagnation and even retrogression. We must grasp opportunities …”
“For a big developing nation like China, it is impossible to attain faster economic growth steadily and smoothly at all times. Attention must be paid to stable and proportionate development, but stable and proportionate are relative terms, not absolute. Development is the absolute principle. We must be clear about this question. If we fail to analyse it properly and to understand it correctly, we shall become overcautious, not daring to emancipate our minds and act freely.”
“We should develop science and technology, and the higher and newer the technologies are, the better, the more delighted we shall be …”
“The essence of Marxism is seeking truth from facts. That’s what we should advocate, not book worship. The reform and the open policy have been successful not because we relied on books, but because we relied on practice and sought truth from facts. It was the peasants who invented the household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output. Many of the good ideas in rural reform came from people at the grass roots. We processed them and raised them to the level of guidelines for the whole country. Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.”
This theme never seems to gain much traction here - probably requires a proper post to have any chance of doing so - but anyway, here's the latest set of links (via Samizdata).
Glenn Reynolds interview with Ray Kurzweil.
Wikepedia intro.
And the very hard core Hugo de Garis.
Doesn't this stuff make more conventional historico-political debates seem like they're missing the Big Picture?
From his solitary cell in the Experimental Therapy Unit, Santa Demonia Special Secure Hospital, Hank H. Hackhammer writes:
nothings hidden anymore like claws raked across your face shattered glass in the soul they say it openly on the radio shes been downgraded from cat five to four Khat 54 in all her gory come visiting the city that knew her best in all the world just as it was four fifths evacuated and ready for her tough love they almost had me believing it was all in my head but then down in what they call the wreck room the TVs on and a citys gone and a nation baptized in her bleeding anarchy and no need to even laugh along with the hard horror of the outside anymore because shes doing that for everybody already shooting at the rescue helicopters and rape murder in the superbowl which is what all the prayers have come to which is history true history if only they can see it there on TV
dear reader on the other side of the social mirror on the other side of prophecy and chemistry and liberty did you also see it too years ago so exactly the video was chopped and scratched scarred maybe but not edited not at all edited even the worst exactly whats on TV right now because she never cared what the children saw her rough tongue lapping at their minds so theyd be ready for this moment of raw history when whatever was believed was nothing and everybody even saying NO but it doesnt mean stop red means go now come and go Khat 54 and the very idea she could ever be edited out which they said so many times before is harsh hilarity and the cops help rip the place apart in the end
man minus one downgraded by an increment from five to four with fourfifths gone leaving raw history jutting through the screen as she turns us on to the red side and all the news leaning black and white and red all over and the relief now the screams are on the outside and time holds you now gashed open this is her long summer festival and who needs ideas when the news is on and shes everything we cracked up to be
And to think, this broken soul was the foremost numogrammatic analyst of the age.
Thank you thorazine.
John Derbyshire's conservatism is deliberately curmudgeonly, but he's smart and numerate, and this is one of the cleverest criticisms of aggressive ID around. (Lemuria even gets a mention.)
This essay by Lee Harris - a lucid restatement of the Kantian position - is also excellent. Kant's deal - where secularism wins a safe haven from meddling priestcraft - once looked absurdly defensive, but it's appearing more attractive every year.