Link & Meme Archive 6/2/18 - 7/27/18

I’m gonna be in San Jose on Aug 15. Anyone reading this there who’d like to meet up for dinner or drinks or something?

Woman gets 20 boyfriends to buy her iPhones, then sells them to buy a house. If you're bringing joy and comfort into the lives of 20 people, that's a full time job. It deserves some remuneration. :)

23 Things No One Ever Tells You About Becoming An Adult. A rare collection of twitter joke-observations that I actually enjoyed!

Steven Universe: The Movie Official Teaser. I guess this explains the sudden stop mid-season

How to Survive America's Kill List "Kareem did what the system asks a law-abiding American citizen with a grievance to do. He sued, filing a complaint in district court in Washington, D.C., on March 30th, 2017, asking the U.S. government to take him off the Kill List, at least until he had a chance to challenge the evidence against him. ... It’s not a stretch to say that it’s one of the most important lawsuits to ever cross the desk of a federal judge. The core of the Bill of Rights is in play, and a wrong result could formalize a slide into authoritarianism that began long ago, but accelerated after 9/11.

Since that day, we have given presidents enormous power – to make war, to torture, to detain indefinitely – and our entire legal system has been transformed on a variety of fronts, placing huge questions about illegal searches, warrantless arrest, indefinite detention, torture and other matters behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy, outside the reach of courts.

And yet, nobody is paying attention."

At least three innocent people have died in failed drone strikes on this guy. Maybe countries with Kill Lists should stop and ask "Are we the baddies?"

Genetically modified babies given go ahead by UK ethics body. I didn't expect this. We're getting there, guys! (unfortunately this is just a recommendation, and doesn't actual alter any existing laws)

Are ethical asymmetries from property rights? An interesting argument that "ethical intuitions seem to just be property rights as applied to lives and welfare." Note that it's not trying to argue property rights are good, and in fact asks if maybe we should write off some moral intuitions and reason directly on consequential grounds if, indeed, our morality is an outgrowth of instinctive property-rights intuitions.

I will join this religion! Brutalist Web Design "...the entirety of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is 708 kilobytes. To download this much data using a very slow mobile connection would be around one second (try it for yourself by reading it on Project Gutenberg). Pride and Prejudice is over 200 pages long, and would take over three hours to read. Certainly a news article, tweet, or product catalog can be downloaded and rendered in a comparable amount of time to a novel."

U.S. Announces Its Withdrawal From U.N. Human Rights Council. I know, it was ineffective, etc. But FFS. I just can't.

I find it interesting that Cyberpunk 2020 was set 32 years in the future (from it's publish date), but Cyberpunk 2077 (which is the reboot of 2020) is set 58 years in the future. We've become less optimistic about how quickly our tech will advance. But, perhaps, less pessimistic about how quickly society will spiral into shit! :)

In-Groups, Out-Groups, and the IDW "scientists depend on what rationality researcher Keith Stanovich1 calls “cognitive decoupling.” Decoupling separates an idea from context and personal experience and considers it in the abstract...

The contrary mode of thinking sees every argument embedded in a particular context. The context of an idea includes its associations, implications, and the motivations and identities of those who advance it.

...To a decoupler, contextualizers are fighting a losing battle against facts...Who would defend a morality that can be discredited by a single study?

Defending a position without regard for the evidence supporting it is at best a failure to think straight, and at worst a naked power grab. A contextualizer will usually invoke higher motives, such as aiding the oppressed. But, in reality, they are simply promoting their in-group. So runs the decoupler argument.

...To a contextualizer, decouplers are allowing themselves to be manipulated. Science is biased by the motivations of scientists, and decouplers betray their lack of morals when they surrender to odious ideologies cloaked in a veneer of scientific authority.

Decouplers rarely admit to being driven by tribalism or identity politics, but the virtues of decoupled and ‘rational’ thought are promoted mainly by white and Asian men who are good at math...A decoupler can always claim higher motives, like the objective pursuit of truth. In reality, they are simply promoting their in-group. So runs the contextualizer argument.

...Quietly expressing one’s admiration for the group is cheap. Instead, the best signal of commitment to an in-group is attacking the out-group, loudly and publicly."

I'm going to share this with any deathists I run into from now on:

The quick hack guide to watching only the best of Babylon 5. I am gonna do this thing... eventually.

7 Ways to Maximize Misery. A good reminder ^^

Resolved: The Government Should Cut Off All Funding to Colleges and Universities. A fantastic debate with great points on both sides. I left it feeling more educated, and less sure of my previous position.

This is the visual aesthetic of Legion? Why haven't I been watching this the whole time???