I have found that I can basically read in Interlingua. I am now debating whether I should count it toward my life goals as a language I can read fluently in? I think that if I read two books in it, that would not only be a fair test of whether I can read in it while providing an opportunity to learn what I need to know, both at once.
Here is some great analysis of the 1984 movie Gremlins.
If you ever want to make your own language, I have found a tool to help you generate words. Just put in what letters you want to allow, and boom!
One of the most interesting, nuanced, and oldest takes on the singularity. Teaser quote:
It is here that we find Lem’s key strength as a futurist. He refused to discount human nature’s influence on transhuman possibilities, and believed that the still-incomplete task of understanding our strengths and weaknesses as human beings was a crucial prerequisite for all speculative pathways to any post-Singularity futureThere is one aspect of snowflake-ism that my experience shows to be a unique and growing problem.
If you've ever studied Spanish, I recommend this collection of covers in Spanish of classic songs, such as the Beatles.
You want to understand Trump? It's easy. (h/t Scott Alexander).
In the wake of Charlottesville, some of the most beautiful writing on collapse I have seen in a while:
I do think this a symptom of collapse. People have been squeezed for decades, they don't understand it, and are eager to find a scapegoat. Also, most people are functionally insane from modern life and decades of delusion.A comment on the ideology that productivity has to be tied to profit.
I got into one my longest Reddit discussions, which surprised me because the first comment I replied to was really short, and just some hate toward poor people. I certainly see the irony in getting involved in it after writing the following in my piece Doomer and Dumas :
Doomer sees these online arguments as a waste of time, and gets mad at himself when he gets sucked into them. He sees the fake binaries and team sports of politics as methods of control, or at least methods of using up time that could be better spent either a) preparing to survive the first few waves of crisis or b) fully living his limited amount of time left.
As you can see above, I'm bringing "web surfing" back. Most people don't surf anymore; they are herded.
They say they have no Faith, but then talk like True Believers about every opinion they state. I know what they really worship.
After a beautiful walk, I have a theory that depression, or at least melancholy, primes us for feelings of euphoria.
"Even our age may seem great when the worst of us are forgotten" Will Durant
Anyone who thinks their best thinking happens on twitter, misunderstands both the medium and thought.
One big reason people hate millennials (and are really going to hate the next group) is the mastery of the lazy-clever -- recognizing patterns that allow for a) something sounding clever to a relatively large group, b) requiring no mental effort from the speaker, and c) requiring more time and effort to disprove than it should be worth.
I never get V.I.P. treatment. But a solid majority of the time I get minimally acceptable treatment. Globally speaking, this makes me extremely fortunate.
It's sad to see how many Americans think they have nothing to lose. What makes it more sad is that they are wrong.
I can be convinced that gambling for amusement is immoral, but it needs to be on the table as tool to deal with blowhards.
