Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Jin+Guice wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 25, 2018 9:34 pm

@Kriegsspiel: Have you attempted to learn any of these?

@daylen: I often think of a list similar to Kriegsspiels and then I think, how am I ever going to do this? I've read a few systems theories books but I couldn't see how to tie what they were taking about into my actual life, unless you count ERE as a systems theory book.

daylen wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 25, 2018 10:08 pm

How is the human body like an ecosystem? It's made of subsystems with many emergent and non-linear effects.
What is the difference between a car and the human body? Cars are well understood by humans and easier to make.
What is the difference between a simple and complex system? Complex systems are hard to predict and model.
Why does it matter? At this point in time, most interesting questions left open concern complex systems.
Does there exist a dichotomy between form and substance? No.
What is physical and what is abstract? Humans die. Ideas don't.
How is a computer structured? Most computers in use today are Von Neumann machines, i.e. they share instruction and computing memory.
Is a brain a computer? Not by the above definition, but clearly in some sense. Human-made computers are not yet at the level of complexity of the human brain. Maybe never will.
What are the necessary conditions for something to be a computer? Processes happen in it. In a sense, reality is a computer.
Is chemistry just physics on a different scale? No.
Is geology just physics on a larger scale? No.
Is everything physics? Is writing the same as chopping down trees just because books are printed on paper?
If a theory explains everything, then does it mean anything? Brute has not yet encountered such a theory.
What does it mean for a theory to be consistent? Brute is not sure theories can be consistent/inconsistent. Humans can in their use of theories?
What is a model? A simplified representation of something else.
How accurate can a model for a complex system be? Very, but often not enough.
Can some features of a complex system be predictied by other features? Sometimes.
How is a small city similar/different to a large city? Size.
What is non-linear behavior? Changes between a1->a2 are different in size/impact than e.g. a100->a101.
How does this explain the limitations of medicine and politics? Does it? Brute would say emergence is a better explanation for both.
What is a probability? Chance X will happen.
How do you quantify something and what does that mean? Counting. Unsure it means anything.
What is a probability distribution? Bundle of probabilities.
What is the difference between energy and entropy? Difference is not the right word, even though both are words that begin with 'e'. Entropy is a phenomenon about the distribution of energy over time.
How is all of this relevant to life? Not very, on the micro level. On the macro level, life doesn't exist.
What is life? That depends on what the definition of 'is' is.
What are the major constraints of life? Oxygen and water.
How is information encoded in the brain? Biochemically and electrically.
What effects the learning process? Sensory inputs and synaptic plasticity.
What is a process? Basically just the movement through time.
What is time? The axis of state changes over causation.
Does time exist? Yes. All of it.
Is everything just a structure? Just everything physical.
What is structure? Constellation of atoms or sub-particles in certain ways.
Is language just a tool? "Just"?
Is language necessary? For what?
Does there exist a universal morality? Might makes right.
What is the purpose of play? Depends.
How did everything evolve into existence? One step at a time.
What does is mean if something is adaptive? It adapts.
Do selfish systems survive? Sometimes.
What is a virus and how does is go viral across a population? Host transmission and incubation.
What is a population? Group of e.g. mammals or other entities deemed interesting to study.
What are the units of society? Individual, family, and a few more.
What is a unit? Word used for counting things.
What is a dimension? A degree of freedom, i.e. a potentially non-fixed variable.
What is data? Pretty much everything is data.
How is data interpreted? Typically through the eye of the beholder.
Are there an infinite number of ways to interpret data? Yes.
What does this mean for the future of science? It won't get any easier.
What does science do? Systematically accumulate knowledge.
Are there rules in science? There are, but there shouldn't be. "Against Method" by Feyerabend.
What if something cannot be measured? Yea, what?
What are the limits of computation? NP-completeness.

Despite the foregoing, there is a difference between the two quantities. The information entropy H can be calculated for any probability distribution (if the "message" is taken to be that the event i which had probability pi occurred, out of the space of the events possible), while the thermodynamic entropy S refers to thermodynamic probabilities pi specifically. The difference is more theoretical than actual, however, because any probability distribution can be approximated arbitrarily closely by some thermodynamic system.

Jin+Guice wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 25, 2018 11:02 pm

@Kriegsspiel: I pretty much read non-stop. I often worry I read too much and do too little.

Have you used jobs to learn various new skills?

I'm intrigued by this, especially since I don't plan on fully retiring ever and am bored of my current job.

How to subvert your job?

The worst way is to try to preach to your co-workers. The best way is just by thinking about stuff other than your job on time they're paying you for. You've got to build a sense of your own value and identity that has nothing to do with how you make your money. And if you let other people at your job see that, some of them might be inspired. The next step is to use job time to work on personal projects. People think Einstein was smart. He was just lucky -- he had that great patent office job that gave him a steady income and hours every day to do his own stuff.

Where are these "low pay, low status, easy" jobs?

Well, when I say "low," I don't mean Wal-Mart low. I'm thinking of low-end "professional" jobs, where you have a cubicle or maybe even a tiny office, and you can get away with doing four hours of work in an eight hour day. Of course you'll never get promoted, but you don't want to be! Those jobs are out there. The problem is there's no way to ask for them. If your job is too stressful, look for another one. Repeat until you get lucky. And go for boring over cool. A job at a video game company is likely to work you to death. The best job I ever had was as the flunky office boy for a lease administration office. Here's a great page of advice from Dan, How to find your Dream Job (dead link).

Also, Robert comments:
...in 1998 I quit my bank analyst job with plans to start my business. I had about nine months of savings and time to play with before my expected opening date, so I got an $8.25/hour office job pulling faxes and routing calls. I worked about four hours a day at my "job" and four hours a day surfing the Internet, making calls, formulating strategies, in connection with starting up my import business. And those people in that office thought I was the most efficient and capable person ever to have that position.

And Patricia comments:
Colleges are good places to find those "four hours work / four hours net surfing" kinds of jobs. Anything with "administrative" in the title will usually qualify. If you have the right attitude ("I'm just here putting in time to get cash for a couple years") then they are also low-stress. People around you may be stressy, but you can learn to let that roll off your back.

And Jason comments:
Don't overlook security guards! The hardest thing about it is filling a twelve hour shift, and you learn a lot of stuff that helps you stay under the radar. The ideal job is where you sit in a shack with (monitored) internet access and check people in and out on the night shift. I also get a preview of what's coming for society, and get to test it now (tin foil does a great job of blocking an RFID badge). Before you apply know that your fingerprints will be put in the FBI files.
http://ranprieur.com/archives/advice2006.html

• The Slacker Job
• Dream Job
• Choosing Not To Work
• Slacking Away
• Edwardian Me
• I Quit

daylen wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 26, 2018 11:32 am

Does there exist a dichotomy between form and substance? No.
Can it be useful? Do we not assume its existence when in conversation?

example? brute does not understand what daylen is talking about.

What are the necessary conditions for something to be a computer? Processes happen in it. In a sense, reality is a computer.
So if a computer is in some sense reality, then does it mean anything in that sense?

what does "mean" mean here? it seems tautological. it means it's a computer.

Is everything physics? Is writing the same as chopping down trees just because books are printed on paper?
If a theory explains everything, then does it mean anything? Brute has not yet encountered such a theory.
initial conditions + laws of physics = explains all observations with enough computational power ... but does that mean anything?

daylen keeps using that word, "mean". definition please.

What does it mean for a theory to be consistent? Brute is not sure theories can be consistent/inconsistent. Humans can in their use of theories?
I am not sure either, but typically a formal system is not considered consistent if the axioms contradict each other somehow.

ok sure, then yes. this means all theories are inconsistent if brute understands Gödel's uncertainty theorem right, because every formal system can be proven to be contradictory.

How is a small city similar/different to a large city? Size.
What about in relation to energy measures and industry/business availability?

some things grow exponentially with linear increase in size.

How does this explain the limitations of medicine and politics? Does it? Brute would say emergence is a better explanation for both.
Could be. Applying linear strategies to a non-linear system doesn't work for long, so often compromise and communication improves diagnostic ability.

brute is unsure what linearity of strategies has to do with compromise and communication.

What is a probability? Chance X will happen.
What is chance? Is a probability just a frequency? Is the dichotomy between prior and posterior probability important?

out of x attempts, it will happen y times. frequencies seem more deterministic than probabilities to brute, even though they represent similar things. what is the dichotomy?

What is the difference between energy and entropy? Difference is not the right word, even though both are words that begin with 'e'. Entropy is a phenomenon about the distribution of energy over time.
A better word might be "relate". I was thinking of information entropy. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_i ... ion_theory

decreasing (information) entropy requires energy.

What are the major constraints of life? Oxygen and water.
I was thinking that a living system imports negentropy and stores it. Is death required for life?

only for it to end.

How is information encoded in the brain? Biochemically and electrically.
Can considering more dependencies be useful? What happens before that?

sure can be.

What effects the learning process? Sensory inputs and synaptic plasticity.
What about hormones and genetics?

causally upstream of the actual learning happening, yes. there are tons of things upstream of synaptic plasticity, including rest, recovery, hormones, genetics, and much more.

Is everything just a structure? Just everything physical.
What about a circle?

hm. brute would consider a circle an idea(l), but he'd agree that idea(l)s can have structure just as physical entities can. maybe structure is an abstraction after all, describing constellation of (physical or ideal) entities.

What is structure? Constellation of atoms or sub-particles in certain ways.
This comes back to form and substance. It could be useful to consider structure as an abstraction of the average constellation of the parts of a physical system. Why not differentiate between physical and informational structure?

as seen above, brute would agree with this.

Is language just a tool? "Just"?
Is language necessary? For what?
Exactly.

wat?

How did everything evolve into existence? One step at a time.
How can the process be modeled?

brute isn't sure it can.

What does is mean if something is adaptive? It adapts.
Can the adaptive ability of a system be measured and predicted?

in simple systems (e.g. suspension).

Do selfish systems survive? Sometimes.
Are they likely to reproduce and persist? How does this relate to cancer, infections, memes, addictions, psychopathology, and authoritarianism?

it depends. some of the systems daylen mentions are too greedy to survive what humans would consider a long time. a system can definitely self-destruct directly or by destroying its host by being too selfish.

What is a virus and how does is go viral across a population? Host transmission and incubation.
Does it make sense for a virus to infect the whole population? (assuming the goal is to persist over evolutionary time)

ascribing sense-making and goals to a non-living phenomenon does not seem useful. sometimes it happens.

What if something cannot be measured? Yea, what?
Imagination, story, and play may be helpful.

they definitely seem helpful to brute, measured or not.

This definition enabled: i) scale-invariant thermodynamic representation of dynamic order existence, ii) formulation of physical principles exclusively for dynamic order existence and evolution, and iii) mathematical interpretation of Schrödinger's negentropy debt.

Is language just a tool? "Just"?
Is language necessary? For what?
Exactly.
wat?

What if something cannot be measured? Yea, what?
Imagination, story, and play may be helpful.
they definitely seem helpful to brute, measured or not.