…of Flint, Michigan. Some poignant reflections on the sad decline of my home town.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
Not Forever
I’m often annoyed by the straw-man argument/complex question (and aren’t all complex questions a form of straw man?) that opponents of life extension toss out: “Why do you want to live forever”?
It’s not about living forever — it’s about living as long as you want to live. Robin Hanson has the same problem.
I can’t say now that I won’t be tired of life in a hundred years or so, but give me a chance to find out. I do suffer from ennui occasionally as I get older, but I think that most of it comes from not feeling as physically good as I did when I was younger, and not having the financial resources to do all the things I’d like to do. Fix those problems, and I might in fact be willing to at least take a trip to Mars, if not a one-way one.
What Would You Do To Live On Mars?
Jon Goff is running a poll. The answer for me is none of the above. I’m not really a pioneer — I’m too hedonistic, and I’ve never had much of a lech for even going to Mars, let alone living there.
American Exceptionalism
…and its basis in Anglospherian culture. Thoughts from Jim Bennett:
Americans appreciate their exceptionalism at gut level. This is where the American Right is in touch with the nation, and the Left is not; John F. Kennedy was probably the last Democratic president with an instinctive feeling for it.
And none have understood it as little as Barack Obama.
Nobody Does Similes
…like Lileks:
…the power stayed on, damn the luck. In fact the entire storm skirted us – 60 MPH winds downtown, but here at Jasperwood we just got gusts and downpours, the far edge of the mayhem. I was stupid enough to put fresh batteries in one of the lights, too. Now they’ll be useless the next time I need them. They will sit in the lantern for a year and quietly drain themselves, like old men peeing in their pants while they sleep.
There’s a lot more where that came from.
[Update a few minutes later]
I know, I say to read the whole thing, and I didn’t before I posted this. So farther down, I found this:
And must we start with a rap song? Must we? It was like the trailer for “Nanny McPhee Returns,” which have “Everything Little Thing She Does (is Magic)” by the Police to remind you that, you know, Nanny uses Magic. Nevermind that it seems to take place in England in the 30s. I doubt it’s in the movie itself, but when they stick in the Obligatory Pop Song it not only takes you out of the world they’ve constructed, you feel like you’re being treated like a fool. Don’t worry! It may be set in the past, icky icky, but it’s hip as all hell! Here’s a 25-year-old pop song to prove it!
I watched a dumb Jennifer Aniston flick
Why Libertarians Need Darwin
I haven’t had time to read the whole thing, but this looks like an interesting and provocative essay.
Liz Kennick
Space fashion weightless supermodel. I suspect she’ll be showing it off at next week’s Space Frontier Society conference in Mountain View.
No Self Esteem
I would find this to be a pretty big incompatibility. I had no idea that Robin Hanson’s wife was so opposed to cryonics:
“You have to understand,” says Peggy, who at 54 is given to exasperation about her husband’s more exotic ideas. “I am a hospice social worker. I work with people who are dying all the time. I see people dying All. The. Time. And what’s so good about me that I’m going to live forever?”
First of all, it’s not about living “forever.” It’s about living as long as you want to live. What’s so bad about you that you don’t want to do that?
If I were him, I’d be very worried about her fidelity to my wishes, if he goes first.
It’s a very interesting article with insight into the transhumanist subculture, by Kerry Howley.
Grand Canyons
I have to confess a little skepticism, though — there are no interstates above the Grand Canyon. The closest one, I-40, is sixty miles south of the rim.
Also, Apple’s new customer service.
A Letter
…from Harper Lee.