Over time, I have become increasingly opposed to the idea of intellectual property. It is something I have been thinking about for a while, but recent open questions related to generative AI have brought this to the forefront of my mind. In particular, what I have been thinking about recently is that what copyright law…
Author: Kenneth
Cat owner, educator, learner
Gnostic apatheism
There is a common model of belief about god that places a person’s belief on a 2D plane with one axis for belief and another axis for knowledge. The vertical axis represents degree of belief in the existence of god. The horizontal axis represents the degree to which one claims to know that their belief…
The legend of Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist who is famous for two things: inventing dynamite and establishing the Nobel Prize. Nobel observed that nitroglycerin, an explosive available at the time, was too volatile to handle safely and caused many accidental deaths. He discovered that by getting nitroglycerin to soak into diatomaceous earth (a kind of fine…
Circumstances beyond our control
There are two mistakes people can make about their circumstances. The first is blaming circumstances for things that are actually under their control, and the second is denying the ways in which circumstances limit what they are capable of. I have written in past blog posts about freedom and free will. I generally follow the…
Video share: The Genius of Weak Forms
For and four aren’t pronounced the same.
Probability estimation vs probability calculation
If I take the bus downtown today, what are the chances I’ll run into my friend (let’s call her Alice)? Suppose I’m on the bus for an hour. According to the local metro, there are approximately 31 people using a single bus per hour of operation. Assume that during the hour I’m on the bus…
Failure to understand the null hypothesis
This is an issue I see a lot in apologetics and in arguments about theism vs. atheism. Certain theists (who I will just refer to as “theists,” even though I’m not referring to all theists) want to be able to put forward the existence of god as a hypothesis that can be argued for or…
A casual intro to topics in relativity
Special relativity is a theory of motion developed primarily by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century. Its precursor was Galilean relativity, which basically states that velocities are relative. One of the key features special relativity is the speed of light c being a constant. This means its speed is not relative, and this has…
Stories in ludology & narratology (part 2)
In Part 1, we discussed the origin of play, the relationship between game mechanics and interactive narrative, and the specific examples of Tetris and Monopoly. In this post, we’ll take a look at what happens when gameplay and narrative clash, what can be done to avoid it, and how it can be used to the…
Video share: The Red Pill Lie
The Red Pill (TRP) incorporates the trappings of religious conservatism in a way that YouTuber DarkMatter2525 says is disingenuous. As opposed to Christian fundamentalists who may have sincerely held beliefs, TRPers are motivated by a desire for power and control in their relationships. … they don’t want women to be able to make a living…
thoughts on mind 