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pmdulaney

558 karma · joined July 7, 2014

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pmdulaney··on Bali bans Dutch expats whose run club allegedly excluded Indonesians
It is always difficult to balance discrimination concerns against freedom of association -- even in those countries that recognize a right to freedom of association.
pmdulaney··on Bali bans Dutch expats whose run club allegedly excluded Indonesians
Would the government have reacted the same way to a Korean hiking club or a yoga class restricted to only women? I suspect there is some selective enforcement going on here.
pmdulaney··on Ask HN: Favourite science history book of the 20th century?
I believe Weiner's first volume was Ex-Prodigy. I love his story of how his dad liked to pick wild mushrooms for dinner and how he (Norbert) was never sure if he was going to wake up in the morning!
pmdulaney··on Ask HN: Favourite science history book of the 20th century?
How creative to think of writing such a thing! But von Meumann is a big enough intellect and personality to sustain it.
pmdulaney··on Pseudpocalypse
Good point
pmdulaney··on Pseudpocalypse
And the ACLU famously defended the right of Nazis to parade through Skokie, Illinois.
pmdulaney··on A Mathematical Tribute to the Soccer Ball
If every black pentagon shares a face with 5 hexagons, and every white hexagon shares a face with 3 pentagons, can you determine the ratio of hexagons to pentagons?

(I haven't solved this problem, but I think it is doable.)

pmdulaney··on Classicist Emily Wilson: 'Odysseus is a different kind of conman'
Still no joy... maybe something on my end
pmdulaney··on Questions for the Center-Left
Or, less dramatically, that the law needs to accommodate capitalism in ways that it is not wont to do.
pmdulaney··on Pseudpocalypse
So anonymity of written speech is toast. We should, however, strive to preserve other forms of anonymity. For example, donations given to political causes should be kept confidential. Let protesters wear masks up to the point where they break the law.
pmdulaney··on Classicist Emily Wilson: 'Odysseus is a different kind of conman'
When I follow that link there's nothing there.
pmdulaney··on California universities stockpiling AR-15s, grenades and submachine guns
The inclusion of a captioned picture of the University of Southern California (USC) implies that it is a state school. It is not.
pmdulaney··on Court allows far-right leader Marine Le Pen to run for president
thanks
pmdulaney··on Rich Guy Quote Journalism
I remember being in a staff meeting at the aerospace firm that I am now retired from. I made a comment along the lines of, "Steve is a really good programmer (speaking of an engineer, not a software guy)" . One of the younger engineers piped up: "Well, we're all really good programmers."

Just to say that one way that a lack of humility expresses itself is with the notion that we are all of us equally gifted -- and it just ain't so. In the realm of technology, people like Musk and Andreessen and (include your favorite left-leaning mogul here) really do know more than the rest of us, and what they have to say on many things is newsworthy.

pmdulaney··on Court allows far-right leader Marine Le Pen to run for president
Has NBC News ever referred to anyone as a "far-left leader"?
pmdulaney··on ACM ByteCast Episode 2 Donald Knuth
From June 2, 2020.
pmdulaney··on Female US rower completes historic solo journey from California to Hawaii
Even the lefty Guardian knows that the adjective is "female" not "woman".
pmdulaney··on Ask HN: What do you do with the user guide of the universe?
Upvote for kindly attempting to de-escalate. But the olive branch was rebuffed.
pmdulaney··on Why AI Will Never Achieve Consciousness
Not only that, but the only reason I have to think another human possesses consciousness is that he or she is so much like me in other respects.
pmdulaney··on Anthropic, Gavin Newsom make deal allowing CA gov to use Claude at half price
As a conservative living in California I am, of course, not a big fan of Newsom, but I am impressed by how he has taken the "move fast and break things" page from Trump's playbook. Love him or hate him, Trump has rewritten the rules for politicians. In the new world order, elected officials who keep their heads down and move at a glacial pace will simply not get re-elected.
pmdulaney··on Walter S. Arnold–Sculptor/Stone Carver
What an inspiration to excellence for each one of us!
pmdulaney··on The Book with the most meaningful Impact on my Life
I enjoyed this post. Thanks
pmdulaney··on Vevey – AI game dev for kids to build games, together
Isn't Vevey, Switzerland where the Lindt Chocolate Company has its headquarters?
pmdulaney··on Richard Feynman was asked in 1985 if machines would ever think
He seems to have dodged the consciousness problem.
pmdulaney··on Bullets don't shoot people. So why do cars 'kill' cyclists?
The implied analogy is limited.

Anti-gun folks argue that since so many people die as a result of handguns, they should be banned. But despite the fact that in car/bicycle crashes the cyclist inevitably gets the worst of it, no one is seriously calling for the elimination of automobiles.

pmdulaney··on Cutting a photon in two creates an infinite swarm of particles
To be clear, I personally did think that electrons had a non-zero mass, so my bad.
pmdulaney··on What Efforts to Cancel Richard Stallman Ought to Teach Us About the Media
Cancellation is about a self-appointed minority taking malicious action against someone for an action or opinion for which the law itself does not specify a penalty. No one should be cancelled. And no one should be downvoted (or worse) on HN.
pmdulaney··on Cutting a photon in two creates an infinite swarm of particles
So the mass of the universe would suddenly become infinite?
pmdulaney··on Chinese firm developing AI to predict dissent, leaked documents show
The Pre-Crime Division
pmdulaney··on Clanker: A Word for the Machine
I like your explanation of why "agent" is entirely the wrong term to use. But "clanker"? It has such an ugly sound to it. What's wrong with plain old bot?
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