Perfect Free Markets Are Bad: Long term investment is impossible

The argument:

In a perfect free market, noncompetitive firms are instantly replaced. Thus, firms cannot make long term investments. The overwhelming majority of investment in tomorrow have a cost that must be paid today. That cost must be paid for somehow, usually through price increases. This is impossible. In perfect markets, no consumer will buy a product which has indistinguishable perfect substitutes for a lower price.

The Flaw:

There are other forms of funding. Investment by outside parties in exchange for a proportion of the returns is one. Debt with delayed repayments is another.

The inevitability of AI

Assuming strong AI is possible, it it likely inevitable. Why? Because just like moties, humans and the organisations we create live or die based on their performance. In many areas, especially war, the use of AI would give a large advantage. Attempting to prevent such usage, even assuming we are reasonable enough to do so, is likely a collective action problem. Hence, AI proliferation will likely occur just as nuclear proliferation has over the past 50 years, if not faster due to the substantial non-military benefits AI can provide.

Simulation Stupidy: Why ergo cogito sum is wrong

Descartes says that even if the world is a simulation, we at least know that we exist. This is wrong:

1. Your mind is not above/beyond the simulation. It can still be manipulated. Hence, logic and though are not guaranteed to give the correct conclusion as the entity doing the simulation could actively change your though.
2. There is no reason to believe that the rules that constitute reality inside the simulation are the same as those outside it. It could well be that existence, time, causality or logic do not apply in the external world.

This is why Descartes was wrong. This is also why most arguments today regarding/objecting to simulations are wrong.

Definition of AI, and why I lean towards acting rationality.

What is intelligence? It's a pretty basic question, and which answer you give determines a lot about how you go about building an AI and what that AI will eventually look like if you succeed. Definitions vary across two axis: whether you care about how it acts or how it thinks, and whether you want it to be human, or to be rational

Systems that think like humans.	Systems that think rationally.
Systems that act like humans	Systems that act rationally

Defining AI by how human it is in any respect seems stupid. Just because something does not resemble us, does not mean it is not intelligent. Humans are a subset of intelligence, not the other way around. The question then becomes, is action or thought important? I'm not sure, but I tend towards thought. After all, a giant lookup table which gave the same outputs as a human brain is not alive or intelligent. That's because intelligence is not only about the results a black box generates, but also about what happens in the box.

Then again, there's a difference between intelligence and sentience. Maybe something that thinks in very strange ways which we cannot recognise, yet can seemingly make decisions, is rational. Maybe the true theoretical definition of AI is thinking rationally, but the practical definition we should use is acting rationally, because our ability to determine what is and is not though, let alone rational thought, is hopelessly limited and flawed.

3 Free games worth playing

Information is valuable if you don't have it. Most top ten lists tell you what you already know; the big, popular games which everyone is playing are good. Great, but you knew that anyway. Here are a few games you didn't know about which are probably better than almost anything else that came out in 2016. Give them a shot, you won't regret it.

http://www.remar.se/daniel/herocore.php

http://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php



http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/games/phenomenon-32/

Real Roguelikes for Real Men

Do you want a nice evening with an accessible, fun game? No? Well how about graphics? You know, that thing we've had since the 1980's. Not those either? Ok, so what do you want? Insane complexity, fridge logic, face-shattering difficulty and a learning curve so steep it curves backwards on itself?

WARNING:

These games are for TRUE MEN* only. If you are not a TRUE MAN, turn back now or have your puny mind destroyed.

• Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
• Post-apocalyptic setting. Enjoy: disease, cybernetics, aliens, fungi, looting abandoned stores for week old sandwiches and freezing to death. Protip: installing cybernetics requires surgery. Protip 2: Performing surgery on yourself is a bad idea. 
• NetHack
• Do you want a rougelike so crazy, it understands elvish? Do you want a rougelike so brutal, it basically requires you to know elvish to survive he first few floors? I thought so, Protip: Go do something useful with your life.
• Dwarf Fortress
• Because you definitely need tendon level muscle simulation in a top down base management game.
• True Stories Bro:
• Elephants digestive systems weren't large enough to produce the calories said elephant needed to stay alive. Result: Crazed starving elephants.
• Patch tweaked few variables. One of them was the melting point of the subdermal layer of fat just below a dwarf's skin (yes of course subdermal fat is accurately simulated, What do you think this is, COD?) Result: Dwarves began to melt in moderate sunlight.
• PROTIP: If you find unbreakable basalt pillars, stop digging. Much FUN awaits below.

*
List of thing that preclude you from being a true man:

• Enjoying romantic comedies
• Talking to girls (you homosexual)
• Being a pineapple

List of things that do not preclude you from being a true man

• Being gay
• Being a woman (but you have to be extra awesome to qualify)
• Being a gay woman
• Being a gay woman who likes Anime
• Liking Anime

Against Potatos

Very few people do evil on their own initiative. Many do nothing to stop it.

If you want to be a good person, you probably shouldn't invest a great deal of effort or thought into not drowning children. After all, unless you got really unlucky with the genes/environment roulette, you're probably not going to turn into a sadistic serial killer the moment you stop exerting an intense mental effort to not do so. What's more important is to not be a potato. You see, the problem with being a potato is that potato's don't do much. They don't fulfil their potential, they don't change the world and they certainly don't stand up to Hitler.

If you sit around doing nothing, or do only what is expected of you in your time and place, you're probably being a potato. Stop. Try and find a better path. You probably can. Better yet, try and do some good. There are lot's of drowning children to save and it it usually doesn't take much more than effort to do so.