AltSci Blog

Sept 14, 2009

When I was young, I was pretty miserable due to my circumstances and my unwillingness to accept situations that didn't make proper sense. When I was very young, I questioned capitalism because it didn't make sense and I mistrusted authority based on money. I was right to be so, the economics of those I have questioned have been proven faulty. No, capitalism has not been proven faulty just yet and I have since changed my mind quite a bit. In fact I have embraced capitalism, but also in the same time I embrace anarchism and I still hold businesses accountable for their unbelievably bad business practices. I know that anarchists are supposed to loathe capitalism, but a new breed of anarchist has arisen from the wild west of the Internet. Self-reliance of Thoreau, community of Ghandi, sensibility of Tom Paine, and recklessness of Emma Goldman, the community grows in individual mind and foot.

But this essay isn't about Anarchism, it's about capitalism and misery. Good business practices can often bring as much misery as bad ones. When I was young I didn't understand the connection between money and value. If I wanted something of value I needed money, but there was never a question of if I wanted money, I needed value. Money was given to me for each hour I spent in misery and I couldn't wait until I was free of it. In fact, had I not found a really good distraction at age 16, I would've walked away for better or for worse. When faced with misery in exchange for money I do not consider it to be a fair trade. But capitalism is designed to do exactly that.

Aug 28, 2009

The job market is indeed quite fierce and the candidates are qualified. It is perfect timing to be hiring, and so AltSci Concepts is hiring a Programmer. I'm going through the right channels (Craigslist, $25) and I'm reading up on effective interviewing techniques of the pros. I guess I really am serious about this.

If I don't find a person, then I definitely have something wrong with my HR Model. My original essay involved paying a person to do work and judging their performance. When you have 6 candidates, paying each a reasonable sum of money only steals money from the one who wins. If the one who wins doesn't pass the HR model test (while being paid), the HR model can move on to the next candidate. I don't see why that wouldn't work.

July 20, 2009

I was thinking that maybe the reason I am so long winded in my blogs is the same reason that I have a long password. Security demands that a password that is being constantly attacked and never defended must be stronger than the possibility of an attacker finding the password. How does that relate to blogs? Blogs are information, a strength of intelligent monologue can tell a real person from a fake one. A blog that includes a single video and the words in the box below is indistinguishable from a spam. A spam takes a fraction of a second to create when properly automated. Spams cost so little that even when they are blocked by 90% of users, 10% is still enough to turn a profit. Think about that for a second. In a capitalist society profit is the motive force deciding business decisions. Long term, short term, it's all part of the same game. A spammer can overlook a million people who have lost 5 seconds to their scheme for ten measly bucks so long as the spammer turns a profit. Ethics is where spam fails, but profit is where spam succeeds. Many, many people are able to overlook the means for the ends. Whenever someone says that the ends justifies the means, think about spam. Philosophy discusses right and wrong and whether ends are able to justify the means. Of course the great philosophical debates of the ages have shown time and again that people cannot agree on the base moral and ethical foundations of our civilization. Philosophers doubly so.

July 12, 2009

AltSci Language AI 0.5 is a free and open source website to learn to read languages quicker than other methods. It takes topics that the user finds interesting and presents conversations on Twitter that include them. Each conversation is translated into English*. This way you can learn the language of your choice while you learn more about how people use words in that language. The histogram on the left shows the frequency of words in the conversations.

* Only the most common language used is translated. Some searches might not get translated. If this happens, try again or use Google Translate.