Tuesday 22 July 2014

"Roko's Basilisk"



I just now came across this quixotic horror via an article at Slate that I reached through my regular stop at Marginal Revolution for bits and pieces. I've often thought that, in fiction, the hardest thing to do well is horror because it demands the most from both imagination and deference to reality at the same time. Neo-calvinist singularitarianism was not something I was previously familiar with, and nor was "timeless decision theory". Fascinating.

4 comments:

  1. Nice!
    funny how the modern person gets bent of shape about pedestrians off the sidewalks. lol

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  2. Sorry for straying so far off topic but there is a well known motor blogger in Taiwan who makes a habit of driving his scooter with his dog between his legs. Recently, one of his dogs was hurt in an accident and had to be put down and he is taking heat for it. I'm not asking for your opinion on him or that incident but rather as someone who owns a fair number of dogs in Taiwan, what's your take on the practice of transporting them by scooter? Is it something you yourself do? Thanks and again sorry for the OT comment.

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  3. Could I have a link to the original story please?

    On your question... it's obviously a risk, but so is transporting them by car. I don't think comparisons of motorcycles/scooters and cars on the question of risk are straightforward without strict delineation of parameters concerning (for example) route characteristics, traffic behaviour and driver competency.

    A simple example... if I drive one of my dogs to the park on a scooter, there is of course the risk that I may be hit by another vehicle and neither myself or the dog would be afforded the physical protection of a cage which is what you get with a car; on the other hand, if I drive my dogs to the park in a car then I reduce the risks associated with a direct collision, but I may expose them to other risks, in particular the fact that, when I arrive at the park, I cannot park the car anywhere else but by the side of the road means that getting in and getting out of the car involves direct, unprotected exposure to oncoming traffic.

    In both cases there are actions I can take to significantly mitigate these risks, but they still exist. Personally, if I am just making a regular trip to the park, I either walk or take the scooter but that choice is made on other grounds: by taking only two dogs to walk at a time, I find it much easier to keep a guardian eye over them and to clean up after them than if I had five or six out at one time. Longer trips (e.g. to Kenting) necessitate the use of a car simply because I have more than one dog.

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  4. Sure, though it's not a story but rather a Youtube channel. Here is the link to the video, It's a bit sad but for me the focus was in the comments where he was getting ripped and basically accused of killing his dog. Anyhow, here is the link and thanks for your reply.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKuHKsDwJ4I

    ReplyDelete

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