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Showing posts from 2015

The moral filth of neo-liberal and neo-conservative statism

or, progressive socialism is not the greater evil. Introduction After years of trying to make sense of how the world works, economically and politically, and how, according to some, it ought to work, I have increasingly come to the realization that the libertarian political-philosophical persuasion is the only one consistent with justice. A just society must necessarily be a free society. Specifically, one that is founded on libertarian principles -- private property, NAP, non-initiation of violence, easement & homesteading rights, etc. In fact, the “justness” (righteousness) of a society will increase in concert with and to the degree to which a society moves from totalitarian statism to democratic statism (of the neo-conservative or neo-liberal varieties) to minarchism to anarchism. After spending a few zealous but misguided and ignorantly happy years occupied with mainstream GOP politics, including loyally and foolishly supporting the Bush-Cheney-Rove regime, despi

experiencing the Assyrian roots

Rediscovering the heritage Today, a day before our daughter is officially due, Catherine and I got a chance to immerse ourselves into an important, ancient and still-living aspect of my heritage -- the Assyrian Community , at the Assyrian Food Festival hosted at Mar Yosip Church (Assyrian Church of the East) in San Jose. We had great Assyrian and Persian food -- including Ashreshteh and saffron-rice pudding. An unexpected gift Delightfully, we got a copy of Californian Assyrian Bishop Mor Awa Royel 's book "Mysteries of the Kingdom" (about the Assyrian Sacraments), addressed to us with his blessings and prayers and signed by His Grace himself!! The history & the present The Syrian Malabar Nasranis (i.e St. Thomas Syrian Christians of Kerala, India) and the Assyrian Church of the East (Persia/Iraq) are inextricably linked -- historically and ecclesiastically. For the first 1500 years or so of its existence, the Indian Church re

RIP. Play on. Nash. 2015.

John & Alicia Nash died today.  RIP John & Alicia Nash. 1928,1933- 2015. An anticlimactic, tragic and cruel end to a great, legendary and exemplary life. With  imperfect information , against the most  uncertain  and cruelest of odds, esp. without the  benefit of hindsight , surely he played this game of life almost perfectly, perhaps approximating some Bayesian-Nash equilibrium. Of course, his wife Alicia, over decades, has been his partner in the  nucelolus  of their great cooperative  co re . One can only hope that death is not a  terminal state  and that he has now entered a  blissful state  of  maximal utility  that eclipses the irrationality of this mortal life.  May your gentle spirit, which stubbornly refused to play by chance and nature's rules for so long, play on evermore. Game over for us. Game on for Nash. I had the honor of meeting him a few years ago in Sao Paulo.  #gametheory #johnnash (first self-published here : https://www.linkedin.com/pu

cryptoeconomic networks & equity crowdfunding?

#ethereuem #decentralizedautonomousorganization #bitcoin #blockchain #cryptoeconomic (some bookmarks with annotated excerpts) http://evergreenthoughts.quora.com/Goodbye-VCs-Hello-Blockchain ""#programmablemoney...Fundamentally, the contract layer that has been guarded by expensive lawyers, necessitating significant amounts of money upfront to start things off is simply disappearing from the web. This is because we....can [now] program our own contracts without any need for lawyers. Sorry Sand Hill, but your days of supremacy are over.  The best and the brightest no longer see the need to hover around your offices in Silicon Valley. They have found a new home on the blockchain."" http://startupboy.com/2014/03/09/the-bitcoin-model-for-crowdfunding/ https://medium.com/@Swarm/what-is-cryptoequity-1df39568a271 http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/101392031384/on-crypto-equities Unorganized reading on cryptocurrencies and DAOs : https://blog.ethereum.org/

the big four technologies that will lead to the next great advance

Ethereum. Bitcoin. Quantum Computing. Nuclear Fusion. General AI. In my opinion, the largest impediments to our ability to bring order from disorder (i.e. reduce entropy, i,e, create wealth, i.e make progress, etc.), i.e. to the general advance and welfare of the human race, from a systematic and technological perspective, are : asymmetries and monopolies in information and power (esp. violently enforceable and coercive power) and  relative energy scarcity Given this, I believe that the development of and synergies between the following four technologies will be critical steps toward the next great expansionary age in human civilization: decentralized cryptoeconomic computing platforms, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, (deployed, possibly, hopefully, on a global ad-hoc network) quantum computing nuclear fusion general artificial intelligence #nuclearfusion #quantumcomputing #generalai #cryptoeconomic #bitcoin #ethereum #adhocnetwork #futurism #singular

Programming @ the speed of thought

Computer programming is the means of getting machines to assist with or perform cognitive tasks -- ranging from purely mechanistic ones to tasks with high levels of (semi-)autonomy. In this sense, this practice is fast becoming the language, currency and mechanism for advancement in almost all areas of human endeavor and enterprise. The steady technological progress in both hardware and software has increased the scope and difficulty of tasks possible for a computer. However, the tools available to a programmer (i.e. editors, IDEs, debuggers, profilers, etc.) are based on one primary modality -- typing. This modality may increasingly prove to be an impediment to the goal of rapid prototyping of solutions to an increasing array of problems that are now amenable to a computer. In other words, one cannot usually type as fast as they can think! (Notwithstanding, of course, the legions of emacs and vim ninjas who would beg to disagree!). This leads us to consider other modalities