Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
It seems these phenomena play out on a timescale that our legislative bodies, at least in the US, lack the scope for. Consider, at least in principle, the reluctance of a party to administer the start of a program that the opposing party would get credit for, and how this reluctance reflects a scope that is limited temporally to election cycles.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
And I would say that its the speed of the modern news cycle rather than the doomy content. Its not like cold war era news cycle was any cheerier- nuclear apocolypse always on the horizon
Yeah I think you're right, that the speed and volume of information is just anxiety-inducing, on individual and collective levels.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
It seems these phenomena play out on a timescale that our legislative bodies, at least in the US, lack the scope for. Consider, at least in principle, the reluctance of a party to administer the start of a program that the opposing party would get credit for, and how this reluctance reflects a scope that is limited temporally to election cycles.
Pure War touches on this. That the speed of modern warfare and all its multi valent tentacles makes politics impossible and what we really have are whatever decisions and procedures indefinitely put off an extinction level classic war with modern tech.

We were talking about this re: china a little while ago. America really has no choice but to compete.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I started Negative Horizon a while back but wasn't versed enough for verso. Benjamin, Heideggar, Neitzsche all having a presence in seemingly every paragraph.

Is Pure War as referentially dense?
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I am more or less disinterested uninterested in reading as of now, but thats liable to change, seeing as it has before.

edit: exogenous correction
 
Last edited:

sus

Well-known member
This is the boomer take. How many young people are actually paying attention to the modern news cycle? I think the right answer is the boring one - somewhere between capitalist realism and jordan peterson without the ideological biases
You're right but I also should've said that non-local news and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
 

sus

Well-known member
Wealth measured in energy, or energy complexity/efficiency, rather than wealth in money. Thats a big thing with my angle on capitalism, I see how it can generalize beyond financial wealth. But at that point, I don't think "capitalism" is the best term for it, but thermodynamic capitalism is the best I have so far
Are you familiar with the concept of intrinsic empowerment in AI research? Strikes me that energy is basically intrinsically empowering
 

sus

Well-known member
I think we'll pull through it, but unless the science is obscenely exaggerating, there still seem to be major issues beyond merely getting the government to do stuff.

The aerosol blanket effect is an example of this: if there is a ceasing of certain emissions, the aerosols (just airborne particulates, presumably larger than mere molecules) drop off significantly faster than the actual greenhouse gases (mere molecules).

Where greenhouse gases, as I understand things, prevent solar radiation from leaving our atmosphere once it has entered, aerosols, being bigger, prevent higher wavelengths of solar radiation from even entering at all.

So in ceasing emissions, and in aerosols dropping off way before greenhouse gases, we will enter a situation where the solar radiation that has already been getting past the aerosols is still trapped in the atmosphere, and the higher wavelength radiation can now enter as well, which would ostensibly heat things up further.
That's why Solar Radiation Management
 

sus

Well-known member
Basically just saying that almost anything you could want requires energy, it's almost like cash except it works even outside society, it's as close as you get to an intrinsic good
 

sus

Well-known member
That capitalism in its most abstract sense (using part of your stock to generate further revenue, ad infinitum) reflects the sort of self-organization and energy efficiency of the universe.
Oh btw we talked about standpoint epistemology as like, totally Hayekian, right? The idea of "voting" for your perspective in the enromous decentralized grid? I've read some stuff lately that connects to it in a really interesting way... the idea of "stigmergy."

Check out Stigmergy 3.0, it's only 6 pages and absolutely worth it, you'll see why by page 2 or 3
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Basically just saying that almost anything you could want requires energy, it's almost like cash except it works even outside society, it's as close as you get to an intrinsic good
I always think this is very clear when you watch nature documentaries, energy is capital and you have to spend what you have wisely to ensure you get more, otherwise you die.
So a cheetah can manage, I dunno, four full speed sprints without a rest, it has to catch something with those sprints. Unless maybe it already has a gazelle in the larder.
Not really relevant but there was a horrible one with the cheetah chasing an antelope and you're thinking 'poor antelope' but actually it got away and afterwards you see blood on the cheetah and you realise that in the scuffle it was gored by the horns and then the voiceover says "Injured in the hunt she can no longer achieve full speed - certain death for her and her three cubs".
Even better there was one about sea otters and the amount of energy they spend just keeping warm when they are diving means that again the clock is ticking and they have to replenish that energy at a certain rate, they have to find enough food to top it up.
 
Top