Viewing profile — flumbaps

I think you're both over-estimating AND under-estimating the rationality of people's behaviour. It is important that going bankrupt is somewhat unpleasant. If it wasn't, then norma…

> Letting the market allocate resources has a lot of inefficiencies, but it works better than any alternative that has been tried. I don't think we've ever tried having the market …

I think you're creating a false dichotomy here. It's perfectly possible for a government to encourage people to work in certain areas without descending into tyranny. Most modern d…

I can imagine that in extreme cases it is useful to have people who follow their own judgement rather than a fixed set of rules. The problem here is that these spies place practica…

In the future, we may simply not have a use for violent people anymore. War can be automated to some extent. Violence can be abstracted, so it is done via remote control. This is a…

Okay, so I agree that money in the bank doesn't do nothing. However, ultimately one of the main reasons why we want a thriving economy is to raise the quality of life for the peopl…

This discussion is devolving into pointless bickering about where you draw the line between science and technology. If we stop being fussy about the definitions, it's pretty clear …

I think the main potential in analogue computing is to create complex networks of feedback loops where different regions of stability correspond to different machine states. I've s…

a) There is such a thing as cultural awareness. It is not the same as discrimination. If you travel a bit you find that there are actual differences between cultures. If you use th…

The article isn't intended to name and shame a particular individual. It's meant to warn women about how gender discrimination can affect their career even if they are very careful…

I think there's a difference between a logical skip and a judgement call based on a personal experience of a situation.

Because her coach said that was the most likely explanation, and her coach represents an informed distanced opinion with expertise in the area.

It's an anecdote, not a court case. The author and her coach made their best guess based on their judgement of the situation. Obviously they are both privy to a lot of information …

Yeah, but during medieval and early modern times the church tortured and killed heretics and supposed witches. There isn't even anything in the Bible about doing that. Oppressive t…

Sharia is the laws OF Islam. Sharia is not equal to Islam. Set A contains set B. Set A is not equal to set B. You might as well say that Christianity is the ten commandments, Judai…

Please read again. I have not denied that Islam contains a set of laws. I said that Islam is not exactly equal to a set of laws. Which is correct. I've also stated that, in practic…

Islam isn't a system of laws, it's a religion. Like all organised religions, what's written in its holy books is of far less practical importance than what is preached by its leade…

Of course, yes, everyone is always in complete agreement about what is right and wrong, because humans are always absolutely objective when it comes to moral decisions.

In yearly global death count, terrorism accounts for around 10,000. That would not be a big deal even if all those deaths were in the US (and not scattered over the globe, and most…

The core criticism is always that hipsters are purposefully contrary as a method of attention seeking. Also, being judgemental and having a superiority complex are very different t…

People often assume that when someone is dressed unusually they are doing it for attention. I don't know anyone who actually dresses for attention. I know plenty of people who dres…

"Putting on airs" is not bullying. Being smug is not bullying. Your Aunt mocking you could be a form of bullying, however, I strongly doubt that your Aunt is representative of the …

I don't know, like the article says, it's easy to confuse deep sincerity for irony. Some of hipster/geek chic is about beauty shining through unflattering clothes and awkwardness. …

That's very strange to me - I don't understand why a stranger thinking they are funny or cool would be upsetting. People have different tastes, why does it bother you?

Very often people have their perceptions distorted by their emotions. When someone calls someone a "hater" they are saying that the "hater" is a person who lets their perceptions g…