Viewing profile — foster_nyman

I like that framing, and I think Bateson will give you useful traction on it. One way to translate your exogenous/endogenous split into his language is: runaway happens when the “s…

"It should be noted that the global stability of the universe depends on the law of compensation: when the catastrophes are frequent and close together, each of them, taken individ…

Yes, Ecology is a good starting place; here's a PDF copy - https://ejcj.orfaleacenter.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/... "All biological and evolving systems (i.e., individual or…

“At every period of history, people have believed things that were just ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you risked ostracism or even violence by saying otherwise. If…

Years ago, I recall reading about a Muscogee tradition (the Busk), which may have had this effect; basically a cultural dampener, a periodic, communal reset that interrupted accumu…

As far as I can tell, you fix it by adding dampeners and renewal mechanisms, forced churn, diminishing returns on accumulated advantage, periodic resets, or constraints (i.e., keep…

A lot of Gregory Bateson’s work warned that if the balancing loops in a system are too weak, the system stops being an ecosystem and starts being an arms race. The interesting bit …

You’re right, and I agree wholeheartedly: academics absolutely do have fruitful arguments about religion and politics. I read Graham’s point as narrower than “there’s nothing to le…

"Until we know we are wrong, being wrong feels exactly like being right." - Kathryn Schulz

Given sufficient historical context, this should not be surprising; Paul Graham's influence on Hacker News is foundational, as he created the platform to foster an intellectual com…

paper - https://home.cerge-ei.cz/ortmann/UpcesCourse/Coase%20-%20The...

This is one of those papers that quietly reorients the whole debate. Instead of treating equality as a cosmic accounting problem (“compensate brute luck, penalize choice”), she arg…