[FRIAM] On Blankfaces

[Marcus Daniels]

Yes, I think the proposal was to follow that metaphor to its conclusion with regard to the Eloi's true value.

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
Sent: Thursday, August 5, 2021 9:44 AM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] On Blankfaces

Nah. That's a syntax error on your part. The Blankfaces lack any ability to restructure the technology. They're Eloi, not Morlocks. What you can do, though, is learn the language well enough to provide workarounds to whatever peculiar structures they have in place. And you can do it all without assuming there's nothing behind their blank face. In fact, it's way easier to hack their system if you remember there's an entire inner universe behind that blank face.


On 8/5/21 9:36 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> The problem with the blankfaces is that they make it very hard to revise bad decisions.   They take territory to make their lives easier and to increase their power base, but when presented with the stupidity of the situation, they simply don't care.   They have no inherent disgust for suboptimality.  They would have to backtrack and revise their strategy and that would be inconvenient.   
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
> Sent: Thursday, August 5, 2021 9:29 AM
> To: friam at redfish.com
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] On Blankfaces
> 
> I agree. When you get some quantum computing dork all up in your face complaining about the rules we all have to follow, it places an unsolicited cognitive load upon everyone in the surrounding region. Often, the best response to such narcissists is to simply stare at them and hand them another copy of the rules.
> 
> Nick raises a good counter, though. Because behaviorism is wrong, the rules are *never* clear. So, there does need to be some wiggle room for rule discovery. Trucks are treated differently by some states' DMVs because they're mostly stupid and wasteful and we truck drivers need to be punished just a little bit for owning them. So, you fill out your form wrong. The Blankface tells you to try again. So you try again. If you have to wait in the 3 hour line more than once, it's either an optimization or a selection pressure to learn the interface and get good at following the rules.
> 
> On 8/5/21 9:20 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> The blankfaces I have run into are cogs, they aren’t trying to regularize their world, they are just happy it has been regularized for them.    When I'm stressed on my work, I go water the plants.   It is a repetitive motion and easy, and easy is nice sometimes.   My take is that the blankfaces like that kind of cognitive easy.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
>> Sent: Thursday, August 5, 2021 9:17 AM
>> To: friam at redfish.com
>> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] On Blankfaces
>>
>> My fellow Blakkfaces like Ms. Umbridge do not attempt to regularize the entire world according to their doctrine. They are more like feudal lords, attempting to regularize their small fiefdom. Further, most of them only regularize a subspace of all the possible behaviors they might try to control ... like your DMV provider telling you that you don't *have* to fill out the form at all! You just can't fill it out *that* way and expect me to stamp it.
>>
>> In many ways, Blankfaces are anti-authoritarian. "Choose your battles." By limiting one's freedom in dimensions X..Y, you have more energy to exercise your freedom in dimensions P..Q.
>>
>> For example, I'm quite happy that I don't have to spend very much time defending my property from thieves and murderers. That frees me up to spend my time arguing on the internet.
>>
>> On 8/5/21 9:08 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>>> How is a blankface different from authoritarian? 
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
>>> Sent: Thursday, August 5, 2021 8:45 AM
>>> To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
>>> Subject: [FRIAM] On Blankfaces
>>>
>>> Given some of the conversations I've had with some of y'all about bureaucracy as technology, I thought this might provide you with some dopaminergic confirmation:
>>>
>>> https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=5675
>>>> What exactly is a blankface? He or she is often a mid-level bureaucrat, but not every bureaucrat is a blankface, and not every blankface is a bureaucrat. A blankface is anyone who enjoys wielding the power entrusted in them to make others miserable by acting like a cog in a broken machine, rather than like a human being with courage, judgment, and responsibility for their actions. A blankface meets every appeal to facts, logic, and plain compassion with the same repetition of rules and regulations and the same blank stare—a blank stare that, more often than not, conceals a contemptuous smile.
>>>
>>> Personally, I feel the same way about "deadpan" humor. Comedic Blankfaces may well be hiding a contemptuous smile. *Or* ... or or or, they're more likely hiding a deep and complex inner life that only finds expression when painfully extruded through tiny little pin-hole filters forced upon them by modern society. Blankface humor is the *best* type of humor. And it, at least in my experience, often helps me find humor where none was intended ... a bit like Inspector Clouseau, authentically trying to do a good job, but fscking it up royally. I know I cite Poe's Law a lot. But it's *because* the holographic principle does not apply to biological organisms that apophenia can be a source of creative insight.
>>>
>>> So, contra Aaronson, Blankfaces are fscking dope. It's the way we *see* and think about the Blankfaces that's the problem. To quote my dad again, "If you are bored, then you are boring."

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