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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/16/25 1:20 PM, Marcus Daniels
wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">The image in
my head is someone attaching building scaffolding to a Cyber
Truck and driving away in </span>Beast Mode.</p>
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With Mr. Beast himself driving the WankPanzer and the DOGE team
hanging onto the scaffold for dear life? Heading for a huge pile
of cash shaped like the Manosphere. Just to go yet-more
toxic-pop-culture?<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">From: </span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Friam
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com"><friam-bounces@redfish.com></a> on behalf of steve smith
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"><sasmyth@swcp.com></a><br>
<b>Date: </b>Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 12:14 PM<br>
<b>To: </b><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com"><friam@redfish.com></a><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [FRIAM] competent kidnapping (was Re:
money is a delusion)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">yes to the
recursive scaffolding of low/high/low/high surprisal...<br>
<br>
Latent affordances get realized unto normalcy (e.g.
non-unique) which <br>
creates a fresh and fertile layer for the unique to
discover/recognize <br>
new affordances upon?<br>
<br>
On 4/16/25 10:24 AM, glen wrote:<br>
> I agree, completely. But it's a personal agreement,
not a systemic <br>
> one. For someone less broadly capable, the large hubs
of homogeneity <br>
> are necessary. Uniqueness can only thrive in the
context of <br>
> non-uniqueness ... rising tides, basic needs, shared
values, <br>
> yaddayadda. I think I can argue that the only way one
can even relax <br>
> enough to grok uniqueness as a concept is *when*
they're swimming in a <br>
> pool of homogeny. Otherwise, you have no cognitive
power left with <br>
> which to consider the lofty abstracts.<br>
><br>
> Here, I'm thinking concretely about some disabled
people, Stephen <br>
> Hawking even. Without the very businessy
infrastructure, we would have <br>
> lost his uniqueness long before we did. I can only
imagine achieving <br>
> things like this without businessy
universities/labs/institutes: <br>
> <a
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01001-6"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01001-6</a><br>
><br>
> Yes, a scale-free infrastructure is compatible with
what you wrote, <br>
> but not explicitly expressed. So sorry for my me-too
banality. 8^D<br>
><br>
> On 4/16/25 9:00 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:<br>
>> I don't want the expectation of being integrated
into any random <br>
>> culture or for them to adapt to me. If
universities or places like <br>
>> SFI create a cloud of ideas that are not
connected to their <br>
>> communities or exclude me, that is not only fine
with me, it is what <br>
>> I hope to see in the world. What makes a culture
valuable is that it <br>
>> does something unique. But if it does nothing
unique, and prevents <br>
>> other unique things from happening, then it can
and should fail. <br>
>> So, while I don't like difficult-to-navigate
membranes just to <br>
>> maintain a club (or a political party), I can see
they are sometimes <br>
>> necessary to maintain an outpost where ideas can
develop.<br>
>><br>
>> As for NOAA, I saw a message on LinkedIn the
other day that someone I <br>
>> had worked with on a project was just let go. I
believe he was very <br>
>> productive.<br>
>> -----Original Message-----<br>
>> From: Friam <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com"><friam-bounces@redfish.com></a> On
Behalf Of glen<br>
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2025 7:53 AM<br>
>> To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a><br>
>> Subject: [FRIAM] competent kidnapping (was Re:
money is a delusion)<br>
>><br>
>> I ran across 2 relevant stories this morning:<br>
>><br>
>> 1) <br>
>> <a
href="https://www.404media.co/ice-just-paid-palantir-tens-of-millions-for-complete-target-analysis-of-known-populations/"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.404media.co/ice-just-paid-palantir-tens-of-millions-for-complete-target-analysis-of-known-populations/</a><br>
>> 2) <br>
>> <a
href="https://www.cascadepbs.org/environment/2025/04/new-federal-policy-leaves-noaa-scientists-clean-mess"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.cascadepbs.org/environment/2025/04/new-federal-policy-leaves-noaa-scientists-clean-mess</a><br>
>><br>
>> I may have to start sending money to 404, maybe
cancel my Guardian <br>
>> sub. On the one hand, the kidnappings so far have
been incompetent. <br>
>> Palantir (way more Evil than xAI or Twitter) will
drastically improve <br>
>> ICE's competence. Sadly.<br>
>><br>
>> But re the primary point made, here, I've never
believed in <br>
>> universities, per se. Any academics I managed to
integrate into my <br>
>> world view came from application, not from
lectures. Even last night, <br>
>> wracked by coughing, I kept thinking that I
can't/don't really even <br>
>> collaborate on *problems* or arguments or
algorithms or whatever <br>
>> abstract thing. I can only collaborate on things,
objects, machines, <br>
>> etc. On the one hand, Gessen's idea (in light of
scientists having to <br>
>> do IT and take out the trash) might foster this
kind of concrete <br>
>> collaboration. It would look more like
apprenticeship than oracles <br>
>> tongue-wagging mysterious revelations at you.<br>
>><br>
>> But on the other hand, it's difficult to do
intense specialized work <br>
>> if you have to be a renaissance person in
everything you do with <br>
>> little specialization. There's a conflict (not
quite a contradiction) <br>
>> within Gessen's "act like universities, not like
businesses." Is the <br>
>> janitor also a math student? And a book keeper?
IDK. Maybe this Trump <br>
>> deconstruction is necessary to realize the lofty
"school" Nick used <br>
>> to babble about.<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> On 4/15/25 1:11 PM, Santafe wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>>> On Apr 15, 2025, at 23:23, glen
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:gepropella@gmail.com"><gepropella@gmail.com></a> wrote:<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Meanwhile, in the actual world:<br>
>>>> <a
href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fdailynous.com%2f2"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fdailynous.com%2f2</a><br>
>>>>
025%2f04%2f15%2fphilosophy-major-snatched-by-ice-during-citizenship-i<br>
>>>>
nterview%2f&c=E,1,L2ZI3y2CS5tyf6183uFV4tgrUv3__xDR-FHW6S-Wy1gbdeGn2Zk<br>
>>>>
QcyFv_bTqvzhaOIQMRuwSBdHDtKoE0CvhMmJVBK2sCyoblTAr04YmIKWMLYvGVXxnN8I-<br>
>>>> 7alQ&typo=1<br>
>>><br>
>>> I would like to see the media start to refer
to these as <br>
>>> kidnappings, or abductions, or some other
at-least-properly-scoped <br>
>>> term. In every case where that is the
correct one, which I think <br>
>>> would be every case we have seen in the news
so far.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Turns out Masha Gessen wrote a kind of nice
piece in the NYT a few <br>
>>> days ago, which came to me on a different
list.<br>
>>> 14gessen-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600-v2.jpg<br>
>>> Opinion | This Is How Universities Can Escape
Trump’s Trap, if They<br>
>>> Dare<br>
>>>
<<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/trump-higher-education.htm">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/trump-higher-education.htm</a><br>
>>> l> nytimes.com<br>
>>>
<<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/trump-higher-education.htm">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/trump-higher-education.htm</a><br>
>>> l><br>
>>><br>
>>>
<<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/trump-higher-education.htm">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/trump-higher-education.htm</a><br>
>>> l><br>
>>><br>
>>> To the extent that it has been done, it’s
proper to say it is a <br>
>>> strategy. I think the resulting education
will end up being rather <br>
>>> more restrictive than what I had hoped for
from a full educational <br>
>>> program, and probably focused heavily on
civics. Math could be <br>
>>> possible, in the sense that that can be
taught “behind the hedges”. <br>
>>> Medical research, not so much. But, one does
what one can do.<br>
>>><br>
>>> It’s an interesting question what is the
proper balance of criticism <br>
>>> and understanding to give the businessmen who
run universities, and <br>
>>> who have Darwin-wise managed to eliminate
almost any other model <br>
>>> from the ecosystem. It’s not total
criticism, in the sense that <br>
>>> there is sheer mechanics that they do
contribute to solving, without <br>
>>> which the broad set of functions I want don’t
get done. But the <br>
>>> sense that they don’t take seriously what it
means to live under a <br>
>>> fascist regime where dissidence is the _only_
alternative to <br>
>>> collaboration — there is no more neutrality —
does seem to be a <br>
>>> deserved criticism of their responses so far.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Eric<br>
><br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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