jackchristopher

A lot of people like me are determined to popularize open/p2p, distributed or decentralized social networks.

Technically, we're lunch cutting the for-profit networks. But I think both can coexist. However, if open/free networks come to dominate, closed platforms will diminish in popularity.

Search: "Diaspora", "distributed social network"

When I am here (Google) I cannot read my e-mails because my e-mail goes onto my machine and the only way I can get into that machine is when I am physically on that network. So maybe I am a cuckoo, maybe I am a bit crazy, and I care about security more than most people do. https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/LinusTalk200705Transcr...

In another part he was about to demonstrates a kernel diff, but stops when he realized he's disconnected from Google's net. Here's the talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8 One of my favorites; a classic. And I don't even do software.

Some of them a pretty crazy: http://www.moillusions.com/2006/04/impossible-bottles-pictur...

[-]http://iweb.tntech.edu/kosburn/history-444/birth_of_war.htm

Even in the revised edition Coca-Cola didn't change their logo much after a while.

"for the vast majority of animals, an animal's metabolic rate scales to the ¾ power of the animal's mass."

Overwhelming evidence for the benefits of DHA comes from a recent review of some 50 studies, which concluded that higher DHA in babies’ diets translates into better brain function, especially for cognitive and visual function.23 Further evidence that DHA may promote healthy nervous system development comes from a recent study in which researchers divided 53 normal, healthy infants into those exclusively breast-fed and those exclusively bottle-fed with a formula containing no DHA. Using assessments of visual, auditory, and sensory perception, they found definite abnormalities in all three tests in the bottle-fed babies at one year of age.

If you get your point across by using terms no one understands, you're not getting your point across. It's not efficient at all, since you'll have to explain yourself further. But we all do this, not just "geeks". We're inferentially distance from each other. Who doesn't compress their understand of the world into their own specialist jargon?

Geeks can't see when they're lowering the status of the other person. In fact, they're inept at knowing when to play higher or play lower. I do improv acting. I find improv acting provides an incredibly useful lens to view social interactions.

(Cached link because the Improv Wiki is down.)

In your notes ask yourself questions that prompt you to make your points, instead of listing out those points directly. Try "So why do I like Git?" instead of "DVCS's are good because the can help avoid some political infighting over code."

If you like Paul you'll like Burke. Here's his bibliography: http://www.amazon.com/James-Burke/e/B002N2NB36/ref=sr_tc_2_0...

Roleplaying as a "student" is playing a low status role, to the high status role of "teacher". In that instance you get what you want by playing low. But in another situation you might play high (for another to play low) to get what you want. You could bark orders at someone, and if they follow through they played low to your high. Of course, if this was a serious and non-consensual interaction it'd wear on the players after a while. Improv, since it's fundamentally about roleplaying, parallels BDSM.

Having a boss who was too serious about his high status role would suck, for instance. The fun ones are the ones who joke about their role.

Improv basically teaches you to be relentlessly prosocial. You learn what an interesting social interaction (or scene) looks like. You learn conversation and organization skills; how to lead, how to follow, how to work on teams, how to speak. It's all roleplaying.

Actually, you learn the gist of what they would teach your in the "seduction community". Those are more specialized skills. But there's no social stigma attached. And that's not a knock on them either.

But seriously, depending on what you mean by AI (general or narrow), you're right. If it was interacting in a realistic social way with humans, it'd have to understand "status".

Actually, I know of some people working on AGI that are aware of the "status" concept. Although they seem to conflate the improv meaning with general social status. On Less Wrong.com they talk about it from time to time.

Also, it's interesting to read (HN) headlines with status transactions in mind. When reading a headline ask yourself, who got lowered? Who was raised? Take Microsoft takes a loss to Firefox The obvious thing is FF>MS, but who else is lowered or raised?

So here's an example of a conversation analyzed by Keith Johnstone's who basically the father of improv: http://www.thestage.co.uk/connect/acblack/improkj.php

I would submitted this a while ago, but it'd be hard to make clear what my intention for doing that was.

I have a bunch of web resources (on improv) pertaining to status transactions. Feel free to email me, everyone.

Understanding status changed how I fundamentally view interactions. I've wanted to submit (or even write) something on this for HN, but I haven't figured an angle to do it from.

Another good video. Stanford nutritionist and self-described vegetarian admits benefits of low carb diets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo