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My job is to watch dreams die

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Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#51

Post by anrope »

sudonim wrote: post #21

I've been following the housing bust. In 2009, I remember reading a resignation later by a guy who made his "F * you money" betting for a housing collapse. He blasted the big banks, ivy leaguers, and old boys network. I bought complex derivatives (SRS, SKF) but lost betting against the market. I read http://calculatedriskblog.com for a while and educated myself about the macro factors in the markets. Through "calcula…

"When soldiers kill people with drone aircraft in video game-like conditions, it removes the reality from something that would be extremely traumatizing when done with bare hands."

This type of physical disconnect is discussed in a radiolab episode on morality (http://www.radiolab.org/2007/aug/13/). They discuss two scenarios: (these versions are a bit different, copypasta'd from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem)

Scenario 1: A trolley (i.e. in British English a train) is running out of control down a track. In its path are five people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you could flip a switch, which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch or do nothing?

Scenario 2: As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by dropping a heavy weight in front of it. As it happens, there is a very fat man next to you - your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?

In short, more people will flip the switch in scenario 1, but will not push the man off the bridge in the second scenario. From this result, they (researchers) hypothesize that an entirely different part of the brain handles more abstract (i.e. non-physical) decisions; while the more basic, physical decisions may be made elsewhere.

Really cool thought experiment, and a good listen overall. Then again, that's par for the course when it comes to radiolab.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#52

Post by erydo »

Splines wrote: post #43
sudonim wrote: post #21

I've been following the housing bust. In 2009, I remember reading a resignation later by a guy who made his "F * you money" betting for a housing collapse. He blasted the big banks, ivy leaguers, and old boys network. I bought complex derivatives (SRS, SKF) but lost betting against the market. I read http://calculatedriskblog.com for a while and educated myself about the macro factors in the markets. Through "calcula…

... from something that would be extremely traumatizing when done with bare hands. The military acknowledges how traumatizing this could be. From section 7.4 in this doc ( http://library.enlisted.info/field-manuals/series-2/FM21_150... ): Killing a sentry is completely different than killing an enemy soldier while engaged in a firefight. It is a cold and calculated attack on a specific target. After observing a sentr…

I hope that's not a genuine field manual. It's poorly written and quite superstitious:

  > However, it is important not to stare at the enemy
  > because he may sense the stalker's presence
  > through a sixth sense.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#53

Post by count »

pavs wrote: post #47
count wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that reddit is one of the most visited sites on the Internet now, right? It's not the little lisp-hackers, YC-funded, nerd-centric community that it started as, and it will never be that again. 19M uniques tends to alter things.

Your reddit experience is as good as the sub-reddits you follow. Subscribe to sub-reddits of your interest and you will only see stories from those sub-reddits on your front page. Stick with the default options and you only see the top stories from default selected sub-reddits. In a way its like twitter and facebook, the quality of tweets and wall posts you will see are only as good as the people you decide to follow…

I concur completely. I still stand by my point that it's not the same as it was 5 years ago.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#54

Post by marknutter »

patrickk wrote: post #4

There's a Hollywood blockbuster waiting to be made out of a story like this (as noted in some of the Reddit comments). Something along the lines of Fight Club (grimy house scenes, top-notch monologue) or Lord of War/Up in the Air (someone doing a toxic job but good at it).

Or at least a very decent reality TV show.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#55

Post by atsaloli »

erydo wrote: post #52
Splines wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... from something that would be extremely traumatizing when done with bare hands. The military acknowledges how traumatizing this could be. From section 7.4 in this doc ( http://library.enlisted.info/field-manuals/series-2/FM21_150... ): Killing a sentry is completely different than killing an enemy soldier while engaged in a firefight. It is a cold and calculated attack on a specific target. After observing a sentr…

I hope that's not a genuine field manual. It's poorly written and quite superstitious: > However, it is important not to stare at the enemy > because he may sense the stalker's presence > through a sixth sense.

Really? You've never felt somebody looking at you?

You can try an experiment, look at somebody intently for a while -- see if they don't look back at you.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#56

Post by roel_v »

erydo wrote: post #52
Splines wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... from something that would be extremely traumatizing when done with bare hands. The military acknowledges how traumatizing this could be. From section 7.4 in this doc ( http://library.enlisted.info/field-manuals/series-2/FM21_150... ): Killing a sentry is completely different than killing an enemy soldier while engaged in a firefight. It is a cold and calculated attack on a specific target. After observing a sentr…

I hope that's not a genuine field manual. It's poorly written and quite superstitious: > However, it is important not to stare at the enemy > because he may sense the stalker's presence > through a sixth sense.

fm21-150 is the rather notorious 'Hand to hand combatives' handbook that was in use from around WWII until, IIRC, the late 1950's. Much of the research is not very sound, as evidenced by the low amount of detail and general amateurishness in the description of the techniques (for example, the suggestion to knock a sentry KO by taking his helmet and hitting him over the head with it) It was replaced by research from Applegate and the likes (based on experiences in WWII and subsequent wars like Korea) in the 1960's and 1970's, which in turn was replaced with the MACP (Modern Army Combatives Program) in the 1990's.

So yes, it's poorly written and superstitious (although the 'sixth sense' thing isn't completely bogus - although there's nothing mystical about it, it's more about the state of mind of the attacker and the avoidance of tunnel vision than a true sixth sense in the mark). But also remember that field manuals have to be written in a way to be easy to teach, to the lowest common denominator (soldiers, aka cannon fodder) who usually, and especially at that time, came from lower socio-economic backgrounds and had little critical thinking or analytical skills.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#57

Post by seppo0010 »

pavs wrote: post #47
count wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that reddit is one of the most visited sites on the Internet now, right? It's not the little lisp-hackers, YC-funded, nerd-centric community that it started as, and it will never be that again. 19M uniques tends to alter things.

Your reddit experience is as good as the sub-reddits you follow. Subscribe to sub-reddits of your interest and you will only see stories from those sub-reddits on your front page. Stick with the default options and you only see the top stories from default selected sub-reddits. In a way its like twitter and facebook, the quality of tweets and wall posts you will see are only as good as the people you decide to follow…

To be honest, most people subscribe and wants to be subscribed to /r/reddit.com, where this was posted.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#58

Post by karolist »

atsaloli wrote: post #55
erydo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that's not a genuine field manual. It's poorly written and quite superstitious: > However, it is important not to stare at the enemy > because he may sense the stalker's presence > through a sixth sense.

Really? You've never felt somebody looking at you? You can try an experiment, look at somebody intently for a while -- see if they don't look back at you.

This does happen, but I think it's more likely with our mind scanning our vision feed 24/7 for eye contact, the whole of it, unfocused areas. Determining if "someone is looking at me" was rather important for survival.

I'd love more information on that myself.

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#59

Post by mirkules »

jerf wrote: post #50
mirkules wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony, of course, is that people's economic hardships are creating jobs. Which means there's enough money in foreclosures alone to warrant having an employee to evaluate the extent of foreclosures. It's sickening.

Broken window fallacy. Jobs aren't really being created. The people in question are doing the economy a service by facilitating the correct valuations of these assets, so their jobs are bringing value to the economy, but it's value they shouldn't have had to bring in the first place. The net impact on the amount of wealth in society is still hugely negative, as is the "jobs" impact. (These people are the cleanup crew…

I don't quite understand the fallacy. If there is a spike in broken windows -- more than the cleanup crew can handle -- new people need to be hired. How is this not creating new jobs?

Re: My job is to watch dreams die

#60

Post by vladd »

eric-hu wrote: post #45
vladd wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country you're responsible with your full wealth for your debt (and there's no personal bankruptcy law - it applies only to businesses). They'll retain 1/3 of your salary until they fully recover the difference, if there's any left after the foreclosure.

Is it all right with you if you share what country this is? What happens if you become unemployed during this time?

The country is Romania. A draft existed at one point last year ( http://iasiinvest.ro/information-in-english-/31036-personal-... ) but has been cancelled since then.

If you become unemployed and no longer have any assets, I suspect the debt still exists awaiting you to become employed again, but I'm not a lawyer.

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