1

New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: Yesterday at 15:03:28 »

The environment is here and now. Every news bulletin tells us about people killing healthy people to satisfy the perversions of priests and politicians, and the strenuous efforts of doctors to maintain the lives of folk with no prospect of being happy and healthy. 

Humans have changed the environment much faster than any other species on earth with industrial revolution. The change will be even faster with advancement of AI. The prospect of being happy and healthy will also change.

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Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: Yesterday at 14:30:39 »

Yuval Noah Harari: Free Speech, Institutional Distrust, & Social Order | Making Sense #386

Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about his new book, ?Nexus,? and its application to current crises. They discuss humanity?s capacity for self-destruction, democracy and dictatorship as information networks, the ?naive view of information,? the advantages of fiction over truth, trust in institutions, self-correction in a democracy, truth vs. power, truth vs. order, the suicide of conservatism, fixing social media, algorithms as editorial choices, efficiency vs. inefficiency, threats to democracy, the authoritarian character of Trump?s candidacy, the need for patriotism and nationalism, Israeli politics, the peaceful transfer of power, Putin and the war in Ukraine, the vulnerability of world order, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, antisemitism and anti-colonialism, religious fanaticism among Israelis, the status of Arabs in Israeli society, biblical and post-biblical Judaism, whether a wider war in the Middle East is necessary, the danger of spirituality without ethics, and other topics.

00:00 Introduction
01:12 Nexus
05:45 Why Having Too Much Information Can Be Dangerous
11:31 Loss of Trust in Institutions
17:53 The Importance of Fiction
24:43 The Ten Commandments vs. The U.S. Constitution
29:28 The Suicide of Conservative Parties
31:31 Free Speech on Social Media
39:21 Democratic Debate
41:41 The 2024 Presidential Election

October 7, 2024

3:00 If you give good people bad information they make bad decisions.
It's basically the same as my signature line: unexpected results come from false assumptions.

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Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: Yesterday at 14:23:07 »

With enough energy input, we can turn sea water into fresh water.

Yes, it's called rain. The advantage of rain is that it doesn't need transporting from the coast. All you need to do is limit the population to what can be sustained from natural rivers. Why make life difficult when it can be simple?

Rain doesn't always come where and when it's needed the most.

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New Theories / Re: How close are we from building a virtual universe?

« on: Yesterday at 14:20:30 »

A Conversation with a Robot - This is WILD 🤯

Many people couldn't even imagine this would happen so soon.

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New Theories / Re: How close are we from building a virtual universe?

« on: Yesterday at 14:12:42 »

Tesla Cybercab! My first Driverless Tesla Ride!

This was made possible by an adequately accurate and precise virtual universe.

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New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 11/10/2024 15:38:44 »

A "healthy economy" is the one that consumes the most natural resource and creates the most waste.

A healthy economy is the one that can sustain the society the longest. Our continued survival should not be taken for granted. Potential hazards must be identified and addressed effectively in timely manner.

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New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 11/10/2024 15:34:55 »

ways of killing the fittest, preserving the lives and increasing the fertility of the least fit, and deluding each other.

What's the fittest in one environment may not be the  fittest anymore when the environment changes, and vice versa.
Delusions reduce our chance to achieve our goals, since they lead us to make wrong decisions. Our society need to find ways to effectively identify them and make better decisions.

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New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 11/10/2024 15:24:19 »

You are still clinging to the assumption that something derived from humans is worth preserving.

I little correction.
I'm still clinging to the assumption that some things derived from humans are worth preserving.
Currently, only humans society have the capacity to pursue long term goals, which can reach to the next decades or even centuries. That capacity is what defines consciousness, which is the fundamental concept of the universal terminal goal.
In current state, humans society isn't perfect. It still has many weaknesses and vulnerabilities. But IMO, improving it is much more feasible than restarting a system from scratch.

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Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: 11/10/2024 15:12:03 »

The specified set of limits for homo sapiens involves fresh water. We have now reached the limit of sustainability for most parts of the world, and the supply is, if anything, diminishing.

With enough energy input, we can turn sea water into fresh water. Solar power is now the cheapest to operate, in most circumstances.
The supply chain problem can be solved by improving our system to circular economy.
AI has been already helping in solving problems with organic chemistry and nanotechnology. The supply can still be increased. Although it doesn't mean that additional supply must be consumed right away by increasing the population to maintain the same ratio.

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Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: 11/10/2024 14:51:18 »

A good example is the engine of a F1 car. If it still works after the first race, it was heavier than necessary since its only task was to win one race. If it's too light, it won't survive.

That's why we need to specify the minimum requirements and safety factor.

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Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: 11/10/2024 14:47:56 »

I normally avoid these long winded discussions that go nowhere. That said, the idea of interfering with the human geneome to "improve" it would be a recipe for disaster.

Do you prefer to let nature decide randomly out of our control?

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Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: 11/10/2024 14:46:05 »

People say altruism is selfish. They?re not wrong

I have a lot of respect for the Salvation Army. They never ask why you are giving them money, or how you made it. Consequently they do a lot of good with it, and don't waste their  time with fautous philosophy and pseudoscience.

Achieving long-term goals reliably requires a sound philosophical framework, which must include effective methods for self correction to build adequately accurate and precise model of how the physical reality works. Otherwise, we will eventually repeat the mistakes made by the likes of the People's Temple, Heavenly Kingdom, Aztecs, Nazis, and other extinct civilizations.

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Science Experiments / Re: How does radio wave behave?

« on: 11/10/2024 07:28:49 »

RF Fundamentals

This Bird webinar covers RF Fundamentals

Topics Covered:
Frequencies and the RF Spectrum
Modulation & Channel Access
Antennas & EM Wave Losses
Cable/Connector Losses
Mismatch & Max Power Transfer
What is a dB and how is it used?

14

New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 10/10/2024 11:56:11 »

But you can also deliberately increase genetic diversity, including those which are extremely unlikely to occur naturally.

and thus produce another species.

Perhaps, if the difference are far enough to prevent sexual reproduction. That's not that bad, if the goal is increasing the survival rate of the successors.

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Just Chat! / Re: What's your advice on writing a series of story?

« on: 09/10/2024 23:20:01 »

Uploading a file is one thing, marketing your intellectual property is another. And that's where agents, editors and publishers get involved.

Being endorsed and promoted by influential people can be an effective marketing strategy. Traditional publishers act as the influential people.

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New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 09/10/2024 23:13:24 »

Diversification is a useful way to get some flexibility to fit with various kinds of environment.

Genetic engineering tends to reduce diversity and resilience because you can only engineer for the present and the foreseeable future.

Those perceived tendency in currently existing genetic engineering is likely driven by short term economic motivation.
But you can also deliberately increase genetic diversity, including those which are extremely unlikely to occur naturally.

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Just Chat! / Re: What's your advice on writing a series of story?

« on: 09/10/2024 12:31:41 »

Publish a book in 2024 for FREE in just 15-30 minutes (it's extremely easy!)

You can publish your book completely for free in just 15-30 minutes and honestly it's extremely easy! In this video I'll share 5 steps and show you how to go through each one, including how to actually upload your book to the print on demand company, get the right cover and interior file types, and officially publish your book!

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New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 09/10/2024 04:25:05 »

You can write books, or blog, or vlog.

Just look how much the Bible and Koran have benefitted subsequent generations - millions slaughtered over thousands of years because of what somebody wrote. The only way to peace and happiness is to question authority and hold everyone to account for what he does, with no excuses based on what somebody else wrote.

Or look at Euclid's Element, Newton's Principia, Darwin's Origin of Species. The books may not be perfect, but at least they contain some truly universal ideas which will stand the test of time, and useful for many generations to come. If you don't think that you have a useful idea for the future generations, you can start to search for one. Or you can try to verify or falsify other people's idea.

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New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 09/10/2024 04:20:58 »

beneficial genetic changes will dominate,

What's beneficial in an environment might turn out to be burdensome in different environment, and vice versa. Diversification is a useful way to get some flexibility to fit with various kinds of environment.

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Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: 09/10/2024 01:31:40 »

When genetic engineering is adequately safe, accurate and precise for human reproduction, lineage of individuals won't matter much anymore.

The overall genetic robustness of a species depends on randomness. Engineering is about eliminating randomness.

Randomness isn't the goal. It's the mean.
Engineering is to make a system more resilient to randomness within a specified set of limits.
For example, finger print detectors need to consider various positions and pressure of the fingers being detected. Designing a bridge needs to consider various environmental conditions, which contains randomness.