In order to make a machine that thinks we would have to make a being that suffers. We'd have to put it through that suffering.

A machine that thinks but does not feel is not just undesirable, it is unbelievable. It would be unimaginative—thus, unimaginable.

From the Devil's Dictionary

social science, n., The study of society without an understanding of money. Traditionally, it is the business of accounting for social ills without causing embarrassment to land holders. From the early twenty-first century, it has existed mainly as a consulting product, offering putative solutions to social problems that imply no cost to the unearned wealth of billionaires. In general, any description of society will be deemed "scientific" if it cannot be used to support arguments for a universal basic income funded by a single tax on land value.

—Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
—Then let us forget and be doomed to win the War again.
—No, you fool. You are doomed to fight it.

No nation ever won a civil war.

Wars, unfortunately, are not always won by the just. Mostly, they are won by the strong.

Technology offers power in exchange for pleasure, said Norman Mailer. He surely had a point. Witness how the martial arts have been replaced with machines of war.

If you want to understand the fervor of our protests you must understand the depth of our obedience. It is because we are so hopelessly obedient that our protests are so fervent, so desperate. In our hearts, at the end of the day, we know that we will do you as you say. That is why we demand that our orders be just. That is why we are burning our own cities in effigy of you.

The world is everything that is the case.
History happens to everyone.
God sees all and
is doing all He can.

Train your seeing as you train your doing.
Be as articulate in your commands
as you are in your statements.
Try to understand. Also, to obey.

"Our job as scientists is to discover truths about the world."
(Science determines "the truth of things".)

A politician's job is to make just decisions for history.
(Politics determine "the rights of man".)

Wisdom is to knowledge
as love to power.

This is not a blog post.

Mathematics, Suffering

Δίκα δὲ τοῖς μὲν παθοῦσ-
ιν μαθεῖν ἐπιρρέπει

Put two apples in an empty cube box. Add another two. How many apples are there in the box? That was easy. Now, empty the box.

Fill it half full of water. Put an apple on a stick. Poke the apple end of the stick into the water, so the apple is completely submerged. Measure the height of the water line. (Use the side of the cube as your unit. The increase is a fraction.) Calculate the volume of the apple.

Calculate the radius of the apple. Calculate the maximum number of apples that can be fit into the box. Calculate the volume left over. Redo your calculation with apples cut in half. Quartered. In eighths.

What is the volume of the largest cube you can cut out of the apple? How many of these cubes can you fit in the box? How much space will be left over?

Poetry is the art of writing down how you feel.
How. Not what you feel.
Emotions are the means by which we feel.
They are the apparatus of feeling,
as a concept is an instrument of thought.
An emotion is my readiness to feel something.
It may be more or less precise, affording feelings
that are more or less intense.

Poetry is the art of writing emotions down.
The poet shows us our emotions so we can
tinker with them. A poem makes us feel
better. It does not give us better feelings,
but makes us better able to feel,
more precise in our way of feeling.
How do you feel? (How, again, not what.)
In your suffering, be yourself, that's how.