Study Notes: Nov 16-29, 2015: "English is not normal"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading in this time: 

• Post, "What Does Mormonism Say About Animal Rights?", by Tariq Khan
• Article, "The town where it literally pays to be a criminal", by Nick Whigham
• Post, "Analysis: Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better"
• Article, "Great pretenders", by Alexa Clay
• Post, "On Consensual Power Dynamics", by Ozy
• Paper, "America's Unjust Drug War", by Michael Huemer
• Article, "The Evolution of Diet", by Ann Gibbons

Other notes: 

• Notes to: Anarchy--Never Been Tried?
• Notes to: Yvain's "Priming" Sequence
• Notes to: "Alien Species... Active in Earth's Evolution"
• Notes to: The Technocracy Wiki
• Notes to: "The Tao of Pooh"

Also check out: 

• "A modest proposal for renewed imperialism", by Nick Rowe. If serious in its talk of "competitive government", as Arnold Kling puts it, then this is a lot like Moldbug's "patchwork state." Related, I might want to look up Arnold Kling. 

Homework for the future:

• Read the posts linked to by "Responses to the Anti-Reactionary FAQ.". Eventually. 
• Still on the to-do list: studying the Austrian School of Economics.
• Read Fenrir's Shrine. 
• Also on the to-do list: All of those themes that I decide I want to play with, and cool bits that attract me, and things like that? Let's get systematic about that, put them into a single document (might be public, might not) and work with at least one of them every week. Systematic. Systematic. I do it best when I do it systematically. 
• Also, don't forget to flesh this section out a bit more with goals in general, and maybe include a section on which of those goals were accomplished since the last update.

Notes to: "The Tao of Pooh"

Notes to: The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff

I don't normally write marginalia. This got me in the habit of it. Mostly by saying "BULLSHIT" over and over, and crossing things out. 

Foreword

• "That was after some of us were discussing the Great Masters of Wisdom, and someone was saying how all of them came from the East, and I was saying that some of them didn't, but he was going on and on, just like this sentence, not paying any attention, when I decided to read a quotation of Wisdom from the West, to prove that there was more to the world than one half, and I read..."

Notes to: The Technocracy Wiki

Material covered: The Technocracy Wiki

Technate

• "A region over which a technocratic society would operate using thermodynamic energy accounting instead of a price system (money) method. All resources and industry of this land region would be used to provide an abundance of goods and services, within a sustainable ecological context, to its citizens..."
• "A technate cannot simply be set up anywhere like a modern-day country; it has several requirements that must be met in order for it to operate: 
• "There must be sufficient natural resources.
• "There must be an existing industrial and scientific base from which to operate the Technate.
• "There must be a sufficient amount of trained personnel for its operation." 
• "According to Technocracy, Inc., present the North American continent is known to be able to fully meet the basic requirements needed to operate a Technate, although other land areas could attempt it, with varying results, depending on the required conditions of energy conversion." 
• "The plan includes using Canada's rich deposits of minerals and hydro-electric power as a compliment to the United States's industrial and agricultural capacity...The North American Technate would be composed of all of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, parts of South America, and Greenland, encompassing some 30 modern nations (as well as numerous Non-Self-Governing Territories). If the Technate were set up today, it would contain nearly 600 million citizens and its total land area would be over 26 million square km... Its territorial claims would stretch from the North Pole in the north, to the Equator in the south, and from the Caribbean in the east, to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean to the west." 

Notes to: "Alien Species... Active in Earth's Evolution"

Material covered: "Alien Species...Active in Earths [sic] Evolution"

Arcturians

• "Arcturus... is a fifth dimensional civilization which, in reality, is like a prototype for Earth's future." 
• "Its energy... is also an energy gateway through which humans pass during death and rebirth. It functions as a way station for nonphyiscal consciousness to become accustomed to physicality." 
• "The book, 'The Keys of Enoch'[,] has described it as the mid-way station or programming center used by the physical brotherhoods in our local universe, to govern the many rounds of experiments with physicals on our end of the galaxy. Their total focus in every aspect of their society to the path of God realization." 
• "The Arcturians work in very close connection with the Ascended Masters whom they refer to as the brotherhood of the all. They also work very closely with what they refer to as The Galactic Command."
• "The Arcturians travel the universe in their starships, which are some of the most advanced in the entire universe. One of the reasons that Earth has not been attacked by the more warlike negative extraterrestrials has been these civilizations' fear of these advanced starships of the Arcturians." 

Notes to: Yvain's "Priming" Sequence

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

A four-part "sequence" or series on "priming" by Yvain (AKA Scott Alexander).

1. Never Leave Your Room
2. Bogus Pipeline, Bona Fide Pipeline
3. The Implicit Association Test
4. Fight Biases, or Route Around Them?

Notes to: Anarchy-- Never Been Tried?

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

A six-part series on anarchist societies throughout history.

The greatest flaw is the lack of citations. As someone who likes to check sources, this is extremely disappointing to me.

Part I: Moresnet
Part II: Emerald Anarchy
Part III: Fire and Ice
Part IV: In the Beginning
Part V: Anarchy in the U.S.A.???
Part VI: The Living Anti-Nation

Study Notes: Oct 25-Nov 15, 2015: "The Ethics of Respect for Nature"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading in this time: 

• Paper, "The Ethics of Respect for Nature", by Paul Taylor
• Post, "The World Is Mad", by Ozy
• Post, "Steven Pinker is wrong about the Cuban Missile Crisis", by Topher Hallquist
• Article, "Disrupting the Cycle of Urban Violence With Arts and Culture", by Brentin Mock
• Article, "Strange but True: An Elemental Quest for the Building Blocks of the Universe", by Jack El-Hai
• Article, "Let Me Tell Y'all A Little Bit About the Mohists", by Max Gladstone
• Post, "The Galileo affair: who was on the side of rationality?", by Val
• Post, "Vegetarianism for Meat-Eaters", by Scott Alexander
• Post, "The Perfect Machine Versus the Art Monster", by Chuck Wendig
• Article, "THE EMPIRE NEVER ENDED. Philip K Dick, Valis, and the Psychopathology of War", by CJStone
• Post, "Nanowrimo Survival Guide: How I Write 50K(-ish) Every Month", by Chuck Wendig
• Post, "How to Write a Novel in 30 Days", by Catherynne M. Valente
• Post, "Predator Novel Process", by Jeff Vandermeer
• Post, "Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth", by Scott Alexander

Homework for the future:

• Read the posts linked to by "Responses to the Anti-Reactionary FAQ.". Eventually. 
• Still on the to-do list: studying the Austrian School of Economics.
• Read Fenrir's Shrine. 
• Also on the to-do list: All of those themes that I decide I want to play with, and cool bits that attract me, and things like that? Let's get systematic about that, put them into a single document (might be public, might not) and work with at least one of them every week. Systematic. Systematic. I do it best when I do it systematically. 
• Also, don't forget to flesh this section out a bit more with goals in general, and maybe include a section on which of those goals were accomplished since the last update.