jeliotj
jeliotj on Hacker News
No, I meant what I said exactly. The product might be a good; that can be debated. But the action itself is not intrinsically good.
What makes an action good? It always or necessarily produces good things. Very few actions are good in themselves.
As to the Hobbes quote: too much for now! I'm at work. :)
I've always found Stephen Wolfram's thoughts to be overly self indulgent, and this is no exception. But it is illuminating since it reveals what I most loathe: the productive life.
Being productive is not a good. It leads to wanting to attach a computer to oneself while going on a walk outdoors!
Is there another way than language to represent ideas?
Do humans have to figure out the Truth for it to exist? Words cannot mean nothing or they would not be used. A word has meaning. That is what a word is.
I mostly disagree with this dis on dream work:
"And if we simply stopped, it might be possible to make ourselves a much more reasonable set of promises: for instance, to create an “economy” that lets us actually take care of the people who are taking care of us."
There is a danger in focusing all our attention on utility. I am not disagreeing that humans can be lazy but don't think we should put the useful above the good, which is what I see this argument doing. Not that I know what the good is but I favor questioning or probing possibilities more than doing something "useful"
The so called "dream work" of doing something for its own sake is the highest form of work, and the most human
"Romantic", as a noun for a person who has an idealized view of reality, especially one that has passed.
Advertising is, in a sense, lying. The question of advertisers has always been, how do I engage a person with my product in a way that seems natural to him/her, i.e. so that he/she doesn't see the lie. Necessities don't need advertising. Therefore, in a sense, everything advertised is based on desire rather than need and, as such, requires targeting what the consumer already desires in some way.
In re this article: preferences based on gender are encouraged by a society of individuals who want to excuse their desire as worthy. AI only picks up on what already exists and therefore the root of the problem is much deeper than Facebook can remedy by a simple patch.
Philosophy is precisely what is needed to question what we mean by progress. I think the interpretation of what Plato meant is an eternally foundational question for one who seeks to know.
You're correct, I appreciate you noting that.
It begs the question of what philosophy is. If it is "love of wisdom", as the Ancient Greeks suggested, then it seeks to know all things. That is, it seeks knowledge of what is, not of what is most likely, which is the domain of modern science.
This is an acceptable tutorial but it could use a bit of editing to make the English more idiomatic. Also, except for the bit on plugins, I don't think it adds to or simplifies the man page.