Andrei Stoica

ONE PARTING POINT

I recently watched the film Conclave, about the electing of a new pope. And in the homily before they enter the session there's a really beautiful statement. That the sin the protagonist is most afraid of is certainty because certainty erodes the need for faith. And faith is the critical point of this.

I think the rational SF... See more

As Marshall McLuhan once observed, “Every extension is also an amputation.” The wheel extends the foot, and in doing so, removes the necessity of walking. The book extends memory, and in doing so, weakens the habit of remembering. With AI, what is extended is the head — the seat of thought, language, judgment, and becoming. And what is amputated is... See more

-The most ubiquitous threat most of us encounter day-to-day is invalidation. Invalidation = communication that conveys you are bad or wrong. Even if we are logical people, our body processes this like "you should not exist." It takes a strong sense of self and skill in emotional regulation to remain stable when someone is invalidating us.

Infrastructure, essential as it is, can't be justified in strictly commercial terms. The payback period for things such as transportation and communication systems is too long for standard investment, so you get government-guaranteed instruments like bonds or government-guaranteed monopolies. Governance and culture have to be willing to take on the... See more

Paul Graham's Advice On How to Convince Investors...