Sandbox (3)

Sometimes very active discussions about peripheral issues overwhelm a thread, so this is a permanent home for those conversations.

This is also a continuation of previous Sandbox threads (1) and (2) that have fallen victim to the dreaded page bug.

1,013 thoughts on “Sandbox (3)”

  1. Patrick: That’s weird.The Markdown plugin has been disabled for a while.Perhaps one of the others also supports some variant.I’ll have a look this weekend.

    Just checked and it wasn’t. That may have been me. I’m not sure if anyone else uses it (I have been using asterisks for italics and emphasis because it’s quick but I can certainly manage without. I’ve disabled it again. Not sure if anyone is going to be inconvenienced. If anyone is, here is the place to say so.

  2. [Alan and Patrick, I’m not griping. Just testing.]

    Test underscores in blockquote without backquote escape:

    The change in functional uncertainty from the null state
    is, therefore,

        \[\Delta H(X_\emptyset(t_i), X_f(t_j)) = \log (W) - H(X_f(t_i)). \qquad (5)\]

    Now with backquote outside double-dollar:

    The change in functional uncertainty from the null state
    is, therefore, `

        \[\Delta H(X_\emptyset(t_i), X_f(t_j)) = \log (W) - H(X_f(t_i)). \qquad (5)\]

    `

    Now with backquote inside double-dollar:

    The change in functional uncertainty from the null state
    is, therefore,

        \[`\Delta H(X_\emptyset(t_i), X_f(t_j)) = \log (W) - H(X_f(t_i)). \qquad (5)`\]

    (I think there’s no markup processing within blockquote.)

  6. [latex] and [/latex]

    [I’m trying to enter {latex} and {/latex} with square brackets instead of curly brackets. I’ve entered unicode 005b and 005d for the brackets.]

  8. Tom English,

    @ Tom and anyone else who wishes to use \LaTeX

    It is enabled site-wide. Just enclose in dollar signs. No need for {latexpage} (in square brackets)

    ETA interesting! Editing loses backslash.

  10. “This idea of humans finding meaning in virtual reality games is actually not a new idea. It’s a very old idea. We have been finding meaning in virtual reality games for thousands of years. We’ve just called it religion until now.

    You can think about religion simply as a virtual reality game. You invent rules that don’t really exist, but you believe these rules and for your entire life, you try to follow the rules. If you’re Christian, then if you do this, you get points. If you sin, you lose points. If by the time you finish the game when you’re dead, you gained enough points, you get up to the next level. You go to heaven.

    People have been playing this virtual reality game for thousands of years and it made them relatively content and happy with their lives. In the 21st century, we’ll just have the technology to create far more persuasive virtual reality games than the ones that we’ve been playing for the past thousands of years. We’ll have the technology to actually create heavens and hells, not in our minds, but using bits and using direct brain-computer interfaces.”

    http://www.vox.com/2017/3/27/14780114/yuval-harari-ai-vr-consciousness-sapiens-homo-deus-podcast

  11. Jordan Peterson, best modern day philosopher I’ve ever heard. He’s classified as a psychologist, but his philosophy is first rate. He had an excellent insight from Pascal in the middle of the lecture that sort of demolishes the rationalists and enlightenment crowd, imho.

  13. stcordova:
    Jordan Peterson, best modern day philosopher I’ve ever heard.He’s classified as a psychologist, but his philosophy is first rate.He had an excellent insight from Pascal in the middle of the lecture that sort of demolishes the rationalists and enlightenment crowd, imho.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_7hCPYgXEk

    He’s not a philosopher at all.

  14. AhmedKiaan:
    “This idea of humans finding meaning in virtual reality games is actually not a new idea. It’s a very old idea. We have been finding meaning in virtual reality games for thousands of years. We’ve just called it religion until now.

    You can think about religion simply as a virtual reality game. You invent rules that don’t really exist, but you believe these rules and for your entire life, you try to follow the rules. If you’re Christian, then if you do this, you get points. If you sin, you lose points. If by the time you finish the game when you’re dead, you gained enough points, you get up to the next level. You go to heaven.

    People have been playing this virtual reality game for thousands of years and it made them relatively content and happy with their lives. In the 21st century, we’ll just have the technology to create far more persuasive virtual reality games than the ones that we’ve been playing for the past thousands of years. We’ll have the technology to actually create heavens and hells, not in our minds, but using bits and using direct brain-computer interfaces.”

    http://www.vox.com/2017/3/27/14780114/yuval-harari-ai-vr-consciousness-sapiens-homo-deus-podcast

    This (excellent) post reminded me of Hesse’s novel The Glass Bead Game.

  15. stcordova,

    Left wing radicals behaving like thugs:

    Therefore? You’ll be posting a picture of someone with a beard waving a rifle next and tarring all bearded people with the same brush.

  19. walto:

    He’s not a philosopher at all.

    What makes one a philosopher? Isn’t psychology the philosophy of man and science the philosophy of nature?

  24. stcordova:
    One of my favorite Atheist Feminists!

    You might like Christina Hoff Sommers, the Factual Feminist, as well.

    Thanks Patrick. Do you like her?

    I like her and Milo Yianopolous, my favorite Gay Guy. 🙂 She appeared with Yianopolous and Crowder here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCcp36n2cDg

    My favorite Atheist Creationist hater is Phil Mason (aka Thurnderf00t) started one of his famous videos with a clip taken by a Briebart correspondent K. Dillon at the Sommers/Yianopolous/Crowder talk who filmed the girl called “TrigglyPuff” (yikes!):

    Thunderf00t is probably my favorite anti-Creationist. I hope I can get his autograph one day.

  25. stcordova: Thanks Patrick. Do you like her?

    Yes, despite some minor political differences. I particularly like her recommendation “Want to close the wage gap? Step one: Change your major from feminist dance therapy to electrical engineering.”

    I like her and Milo Yianopolous, my favorite Gay Guy.

    Milo was interesting entertainment, but seems to have gone outside the lines of acceptable behavior. I’m curious to hear his defense when he inevitably returns.

    Thunderf00t is probably my favorite anti-Creationist.I hope I can get his autograph one day.

    I disagree with Thunderf00t on almost every political topic, but I’ll buy him a beer anytime because of his exposure of PZ “The Toxic Atheist” Myers and the grossly misnamed Freethought Blogs.

  27. Richardthughes:

    I’m always put off when Egos collide. Harris / Dennett would be another example.

    If you’re referring to Thunderf00t and Myers, neither rate comparison to Harris or Dennett.

    In that case it wasn’t just egos, it was Myers being a demonstrated liar and hypocrite. I can provide links to original material if you like.

  29. Never thought I’d be giving Kudos to Jerry Coyne so frequently, but I salute him yet again for mocking PZ Myers:

    https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/04/28/free-speech-who-gets-to-decide-who-speaks-but-now-we-have-a-decider/

    But one person has set himself up as The Decider —the person who can and has determined which speakers colleges shouldn’t be allowed on campus.

    Myers in response forbade citations of Jerry Coyne on PZ’s blog! 🙂

    How much free speech do you want for free?

    You go Jerry! That was studly!

  30. stcordova: Never thought I’d be giving Kudos to Jerry Coyne so frequently, but I salute him yet again for mocking PZ Myers

    I disagree with PZ on this issue.

    However, Jerry Coyne has banned me from commenting on his blog. I can still comment on PZ’s blog. (And I have only rarely commented on either). So it isn’t clear to me which of them has the better view about freedom of speech.

  31. Neil:

    Jerry Coyne has banned me from commenting on his blog.

    That’s awful. Can’t imagine why he would do that.

  34. Jerry seems quite thin-skinned. He often takes disagreement as disrespect, especially if it’s a subject on which he is an authority. If I recall, we disagreed on species definitions.

  35. Yep, he really is quite thin-skinned. One of the most thoughtful people I know of is Jeffrey Jay Lowder from The Secular Outpost, and he was banned on Jerry Coyne’s website for commenting that Jerry’s views on free will are subject to disagreement by a many philosophers. He really can’t take much criticism.

  36. Notwithstanding my earlier words of praise for the guy, but I’m really disappointed he treated John and Neil and others that way. I can understand him banning me, but nice guys like Neil and John whom I perceive are generally in agreement with the mission of his blog “WhyEvolutionIsTrue”? Yikes! Well anyway guys, thanks for the info. I’m sorry to hear all that especially after I finally got around to praising Jerry.

  38. I was never banned or anything of the sort at WEIT, but one reason I ceased to read it regularly it is that I didn’t like how many comments were censored.

    I’ve always been loath to get too righteous about that, because I think some blog owners aren’t so much trying to censor as that they’re uable or unwilling to work too hard at moderation. I can see that, and I’ve assumed that Coyne mostly just wants to save the hassle. People can comment elsewhere, and I don’t think he’s really trying to suppress anyone’s ideas. I know nothing about the issues of people being banned at Coyne’s blog.

    But the fact is that I just don’t like blogs that censor as much as his does, even though I don’t want to make a moral issue out of it. People can comment elsewhere, so I do, although I’m willing to comment there if something special comes up.

    Glen Davidson

  39. John Harshman: No reason you shouldn’t praise him for his virtues, just because he has faults.

    I agree with that. And I still read his blog, except that I skip those that are too much about his obsessions (such as cats, determinism, Templeton).

  40. I think the cats are the best part, although Hili is rather plain.

  43. Nothing wrong with tabbies, but there’s tabby belladonna, and tabby ordinaire.

    I’ve taken the liberty of adjusting Hili’s contrast and color balance so it’s a fair comparison. The eyes have it.

  48. You have to have the file on your computer. Then you just select Upload File and browse for it. Must be common type and reasonable size.

  50. John,

    Full instructions:

    There’s a box above the combox that says

    Upload file: (Allowed file types: jpg, gif, png, pdf, mp3, maximum file size: 200MB.

    Click there and use the file browser to select your image. It will not appear as part of the comment preview, but it will appear at the end of your comment after you click on ‘Post Comment’.

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