Introduction To Rationality
An introduction to rationality -- based partly on the core sequences from LessWrong.
On Science And Religion
On Science and ReligionBringing god[1] into a conversation totally misses the point of Science. Science is a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, and to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research. In other words it is the act of testing theories and gaining information from...
More Schooling
ProblemsGeneral knowledge of the world is importantFirstly a quiz: How many kings can you name. What about wars. Tell me about the Tudors, the industrial revolution, the capital cities of Italy, Germany, Poland. What is the basic plot in a book you had to read at school. If you felt...
Schooling
I think most of what is taught to children is pointless.That said, I think that the fact that they are taught is very important; it teaches them how to learn. Here are the things that I consider vital:Learning (Teaching, Memory)Communication (English Language, Presentations)Research (Scientific Method)That is it, if they come...
Emacs Rocks
I had a boring text editing task. I'm using a text file that refers to components by a number and after writing it I realised that I need those component numbers to be incrementing. I had:Bus.con = [ 101 138 1 0 2 1; 102 138 1 0 2 1;......
Pc Cleanup
I was given the task of installing a networked printer to my parents computer. While I was there I decided to give it a bit of a spring clean. First off was a visit to http://www.update.microsoft.com/ to make sure everything was in order. The off to two great websites aimed...
Conciousness
In terms of evolution the fittest is the one that replicates copies that are also fit. This can be counter-intuitive; being stronger is better as you can win more fights, but you will have a higher energy use so it is a disadvantage when food is scarce. check out stick insects...
Stone Age Diet Review
I was looking into trying a new diet, I'm trying this for two reasons: one, to cooking more interesting meals; and two, as a personal challenge. I'm not aiming for weight loss.BackgroundThe diet I am looking at is the "Stone Age Diet" (A.K.A. "anti-allergy diet"), it removes many modern foods...
Types Of Knowledge
There are three ways to know something:ExperimentTheoryOpinionEach is an order of magnitude better than the next. That said in each class you have a range of believability. You shouldn't trust the opinion of certain people; you shouldn't believe theory that doesn't make sense; and you should only believe a well...
Setting Up Simple Github Repo
Global setup: sudo apt-get install git-core git config --global user.name "James" git config --global user.email kerspoon@gmail.comNext steps: mkdir laos cd laos git init touch README git add README git commit -m 'first commit' git remote add origin git@github.com:kerspoon/laos.git git push origin master
To Steve Yegge
Below is a good chunk of an e-mail I sent to Steve Yegge. It was basically a summary of what programming related things I have been doing and where he thought it was enough to get a job. First a short list of some of the things I am now...
Changing Screen Resolution In Ubuntu
I have an EEE-PC 1000HE running Ubuntu 9.04, and a BENQ 21" FP202W monitor. I would like to be able to have a dual screen set-up with both screens at max resolution. Looks like the new Ubuntu doesn't use /etc/X11/xorg.conf as the old versions did. In the old versions you...
Mocking Python Files
Just a quick note on testing python; I needed to test a method the reads in from a file. To do that I could either created a temp file or use stringio. Stringio is easier and quicker so I used that, here's how:def mockfile(text): return StringIO.StringIO(text)class Tester1(unittest.TestCase): def setUp(self): self.filehandle...
Test Driven Development Pros And Cons
I am a fan of TDD (Test Driven Development), for those who don't know TDD here is the places to read about it:Test Driven Development by Kent BeckThe Three Rules Of TDD by UncleBobYou are not allowed to write any production code unless it is to make a failing unit...
Various Musings On Time Travel
Here is a old (from about 2003) e-mail I wrote. Enjoy; It would be good to hear some comments on it. My opinions have changed a bit now but I stand by some of it. Hello, I have just read your webpage 'Various Musings on Time Travel' (admittedly only once...
Running Country
I don't think this this would work on a large scale, but at the community/village level I see no problem.I think the country should be run by teams of interested experts. If you have to make a law for cars you need to decide who is the main interested parties...
In Praise Of Internet
I do not think that a democracy is the best political structure, I think it's the least easy to corrupt. Twitter et. al. has done a wonderful job of making news creation public and non-professional. It's difficult to moderate or to stop and once people accept it as the norm...
Genetic Algorithms In Python
Following on from before here is some resources for programming GA in python. The top one looks like the easiest to understand and hence is my preferred one.http://code.activestate.com/recipes/199121/http://www.alextreme.org/projects/python_ai/http://pygp.sourceforge.net/http://www.freenet.org.nz/python/pygene/As a side-note here is a list of neural network resources in Python:http://www.answermysearches.com/four-free-neural-network-libraries-for-python/195/I'm thinking or reviving one of my old projects; to recreate...
Genetic Algorithms And Traveling
My friend is doing some work with Genetic Algorithms. He's trying to optimize a kind of traveling salesman problem. Here is the problem:You have N sources and M destinations, it takes a specific cost to transport goods between the two. Each has a max and min capacity and you have...
Hackers And Libertarians
Just a quick post to this: Code Free or Die(): Why Hackers Are so Often Libertarians by Daniel Franke. His idea is that because libertarians do not want to be controlled by anyone or anything we learn how to take control. If you own a computer that means learning to...
Evolved Virtual Creatures
A brief summary of Evolved Virtual Creatures by Karl Sims.Creatures are made and evolved to perform simple tasks. These include jumping, swimming or following. "the optimization determines the creatures morphologies as well as their control systems" i.e. they have both a physical and mental representation in DNA. Physically they are...
Evolution
Evolution is an accidental consequence of our universe. If you have an object that can produce slightly modified copies of itself, you have evolution. The strange part is the modifications can be random changes.It happens with stories, people make up a story but each time it is told it gets...
Python Date And Time
Same project, different problem. This time the problem is dates and times. Specifically converting between them. These two small functions do just that. # parse_date :: Date -> String# e.g. parse_date("2001-12-31")def parse_date(date): return datetime.date(*strptime(date, "%Y-%m-%d")[0:3])# str_date :: String -> Datedef str_date(date): return date.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")http://docs.python.org/3.0/library/datetime.html#strftime-behaviorhttp://docs.python.org/library/time.htmlhttp://pleac.sourceforge.net/pleac_python/datesandtimes.htmlgoogle searchP.S. Pleac is a wonderful site, it...