November 2013 – Underlore

The Downfall of the Psychopath

“Beware the fury of a patient man.” ~John Dryden

The trick to dealing with psychopaths is to allow them to expose and destroy themselves with their greed.

The problem with being obsessed as they are is that they can be reliably baited into any trap. You can even tell them it’s a trap, as I am doing now, and still they’ll stick their neck in.

For example, their pursuit of profits has caused many of their kind to invest in bitcoin despite the disruptive effect widespread adoption of bitcoin will have on the global banking monopoly.

If they weren’t obsessed, and powerless to resist what they see as an exploitative opportunity, however short term, they would have simply ignored, if not actively sought to destroy it.

But what did they do? Dumped in hundreds of thousands of dollars, both directly into bitcoin and into bitcoin based services. And suddenly it has undeniable legitimacy. Short of ww3 or the blockchain being hacked bitcoin is now a permanent part of humanity, and that means an ever more developed and viable alternative to the petrodollar system.

That’s just one example of a dozen other cases where their lust for short term profits and power are being exploited to expose and destroy them. They routinely fund the development and deployment of disruptive technologies that can be, and/or are being, readily democratized.

My favorite recent example is the implosion of the right wing here in America where mindless support for their 1% campaign financiers caused them to usher in the beginnings of true medical reform. (After the fact opposition to the ACA would not have been required had they been less eager to please their insurance and big pharma contributors to the point of near revolt.)

They have made it obvious that their interests are entirely fiscal. This is a massive strategic weakness. A dangerous and wise foe is capable of self discipline and walking away from bait, but being psychopaths, they are pathologically incapable of it.

It’s only a matter of time now.

Prison

We suffer prisons to exist because prisons scare us into doing so. I can think of no more directly ethical act than harming them without harming life.

Anyone who works for a prison is the equivalent of a Nazi. I mean that very soberly and literally. I don’t care if you stamp forms in an office, if it is part of a prison, you’re a mass murderer and your targets are minorities, the mentally ill, and ‘undesirables.’ You literally help run for profit (which they all are, regardless of designation) concentration camps. You are also literally a slaver.

If you applaud prisons simply because of who they claim to torture, you’re no better than the jeering mob attending a decapitation. Prisons serve no useful function that a hospital can’t do better.

Prisons are proof that our way of life is wrong.

If I am ever diagnosed with a terminal illness that precludes cryonic preservation, I will very possibly spend the rest of my life knocking down walls.

That Americans do not attack prisons is proof of our collective lack of spine, gullibility, and/or capacity for self deception.

The psychopathy of police, prison, judges, lawyers and vengeance are right there, in the very word. Justice. Just Ice.

There’s nothing warm or helpful or human about any of it.

Criminals are either desperate or mentally ill. The entire concept of there even possibly being a criminal worthy of sadistic torment is absurd. It’s literally equivalent to outlawing poverty and mental illness. The obviously insane idea that we can cure those things by simply hurting “offenders.”

By closing the asylums and leaving the prisons open we doubled down on torture as a cure. Every bit as backwards as calling in an exorcism priest to deal with epilepsy.

Norway is doing it right. Prison and asylums should be pleasant social quarantine at worst.

We as a species need to grow the fuck up.

Videos:

Science Church

I want to start a science church. (Hear me out.) I don’t even need a building. It would meet one day a week (I’m thinking Wednesday.) At the nearest information exchange to all members of the group at the time of the meeting. (I’m thinking noon.) And each week one person would get up and give a talk about something about science that inspired them, something about science that they discovered that means something to them and to humanity. Something that reminds them that we are all on the same side ultimately an the thing that makes us special is this mainly.

Why does selfishness beat altruism within groups?

“Why” to me typically implies purpose but I suspect you’re asking a social science question which is actually a “how” question. If I were to answer “why” I’d say “because the universe sucks.”

But if you’re actually asking something like “How does selfishness confer advantage in groups?” My response is that a cooperative group is defined by denial or at least delay of fulfillment of individual need in favor of group needs.

A good example is planting seeds instead of eating them. If I’m given the town’s supply of grain to plant but instead I make bread for myself I thrive and everyone else starves.

It seems to be an intrinsic facet of the universe that exploitative behavior is inherently profitable in certain contexts.

(Which is why capitalism ultimately will need leg braces: http://underlore.com/one-possible-solution/ )

Think about 3 kids growing up alone in the woods. One kid is selfish, one kid is apathetic, one kid is generous.

As they grow the generous kid will give away more of his food, the selfish kid will steal/take, and the apathetic kid will have his food stolen but also get free food from the generous kid. The selfish kid being better fed will get bigger leading to superiority in those contexts while the other two would wither.

The selfish kid dominates within the group as advantage breeds further advantage.

Now imagine a another group of 3 and these kids act as a team. Economy of scale grants these kids an effective food supply (and everything else) of 4 or 5 kids so that each of them is larger than the average of the first group. They fight. The 3 coordinated kids beat the larger leader of the first group and absorb the other two kids.

The sharing culture beat the selfish culture, but only when the cultures had the opportunity to clash.

I’m sure I could have explained that better, but then again that’s what you get for asking me instead of Google 🙂

Because game theory:
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/tdk
http://adamcurtisfilms.blogspot.com/

Because selfishness:
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/evolving-robots-learn-lie-hide-resources-each-other

Dear Politicians

“If they succeed, millions of senior citizens, working families, disabled veterans and children will suffer.” ~Senator Bernie Sanders

Please stop doing that. I’m tired of being reminded that I’m a second class citizen because I’ve:

Not aged sufficiently
Been unable to find a job I can do
Not knocked a girl up
Not been injured while trying to kill brown people on behalf of the 1%’s profit margins
Survived my childhood

I’m tired of being punished for my age, gender, race, and frankly GOOD choices. No one cut me a check to go with my penis or handed me a white collar job to match my skin. So please quit acting like I’m a monocle wearing slave owner just because you want votes.

Month: November 2013