kmtrowbr

One thing I do, is turn the key repeat speed up as fast as I can stand, and turn the delay to repeat down as low as possible. I have always done this and over the years I've experimented to find the fastest possible settings.

On the Mac, use:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 1

defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 7

See: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2009082319301814...

After getting so used to these fast speeds, when I see folks attempting to type with the slow default speeds ... it is quite hilariously slow and I must confess I feel a little pity for them.

Comment · 4 years ago

https://www.etymonline.com/word/machine

machine (n.) 1540s, "structure of any kind," from Middle French machine "device, contrivance,"

contrive: to form or create in an artistic or ingenious manner

According to these definitions a machine is something that humans create.

We understand what we create. When trying to understand complex things, we form metaphors based on our actual understanding.

Whichever is the most advanced thinking of the age is used at a metaphor to describe life and nature. When it was steam, we used popularly understood concepts of steam engines to describe life. When it was electricity, we used electrical metaphors. Now that it is computers, we use those concepts.

We are also very overconfident regarding how well we understand and control the world. Having achieved smashing success in some areas, we then think we have total control. Chronological snobbery, if you will: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_snobbery

The danger is then, at a popular level, we take the metaphor literally and turn it around to be something reductive: "Life is no more than a machine." That is frankly not true: this is where the metaphor falls apart & it's the danger the article describes. Life is more than a steam engine, it's more than electrical circuits, and it's also not a computer.

Life may be a purely material phenomenon (i.e. no more than atoms, void, and time), but that does not mean it is "just a steam engine / computer" etc.

Comment · 4 years ago

Yes -- my wife and I are both from the northern midwest. We live in San Francisco now. We are actually colder here in the winters, then we ever were in the midwest, because houses in San Francisco are not insulated, and don't have good heating systems. Whereas houses in the midwest are essentially little heating plants.

Life in the midwest is organized around staying warm and it works very well.

We do appreciate the blue skies and the sun of California, however. In the midwest in the winter, you can often go weeks without seeing the sun.

We also like the houses in California. They're historic and beautiful and in many cases greatly elegant. Also, easy (arguably continuous) outdoor access is a beautiful thing. But there is great irony in paper maché houses being, relatively, so much more expensive.

Comment · 4 years ago

You have a good point. It doesn't necessarily need to be consciously programmed into people. Maybe it's just the hive mind forming memes. All those minds reading, thinking, looking, creating ... causes strange ideas (myths?) to percolate throughout society. Similar to the birth of religions perhaps?

Comment · 4 years ago

It seems crazy to say but I think it may all boil down to a massive influx of inexperienced readers. That plus the fact that most content on on the internet is not to be taken quite at face value.

Counterintuitively I believe there are more people reading and communicating textually than ever before. Way more! That would be good except they are doing it all via the Internet which is an absolute free for all of weaponized content, created for commercial or political purposes.

Critical reading and thinking skills are needed to navigate the internet.

-----

This book is kind of funny: [The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind](https://www.amazon.com/Origin-Consciousness-Breakdown-Bicame...) ... but it is good for hypothesizing about how consciousness has evolved. The relevant part to this discussion is when he writes about people literally being driven insane by the birth of writing. They were just unable to integrate the new influx of information quickly enough. Imagine your dog for example, learning to read. It would be quite the experience for poor Fido.

The printing press, in time, caused the reformation, the enlightenment, etc. But it was a bumpy road along the way.

My point is that, everyone having the internet in their pocket will have a larger impact than anyone anticipates today.

Comment · 4 years ago

It's even worse: the views that folks are getting all worked up about, aren't their own personally formed opinions -- they are being programmed with these opinions via media, advertising, etc.

Then we hold these opinions so strongly that if we disagree about anything at all -- any nuance, out of the infinite menu of "correct" opinions -- we argue bitterly ... driving apart friends, families, etc.

We must learn to hold opinions more lightly and to value direct experiences & physical relationships with real people, more than virtual experience.

It's sad because at the end of the day we all have so much in common, but we are becoming convinced that we're so different and what's more, that others are in fact evil people. Great pain and trouble might come from this trend.

Comment · 4 years ago

Thank you. I appreciate your comments. It does make sense that most of the heat from a gas stove does not go into the cooking vessel. In fact I often use the electric kettle to speed cooking by pre-boiling water, then adding it to the cooking pot. And I also can see that the unvented exhaust from the combustion of the gas is unhealthy. And also, that leaks of gas into the atmosphere from poorly maintained pipes adds significant further greenhouse gases, as we know natural gas is a far worse greenhouse gas than CO2.

Regarding, the timing of it all, I guess at the root my attitude here, is one of frustration, where ... we have known about this for literally 100 years, but we just don't care. Now we make theatrical laws, but current events are more of the same: warmongering and blowing one another up is more interesting than actually addressing our biggest problem: climate change.

But by all means I am all for whatever we can do and I agree we should do all the helpful things ASAP.

My concern with the law was that I honestly wasn't entirely convinced it's actually the right thing to do. But I certainly appreciate those three points you made above.

Do you feel this law makes sense as well for colder areas that require homes to be heated?

Comment · 4 years ago

The internet has successfully changed my mind! A very rare event. No need to appeal to bad faith. I simply received an engineering education which taught me that a great deal of energy is lost along the way to delivering electricity to houses, so that, for the purposes of generating heat, it's usually best to simply generate the heat via the primary route. I also grew up in the Northern Midwest & had to pay electric bills of $800 / month for rentals heated via electric baseboards.

http://insideenergy.org/2015/11/06/lost-in-transmission-how-...

However -- thanks to the free further education I have received here, I now understand the argument for electric stoves (gas stoves less efficient due to heat loss around the sides of the pot and also unhealthy due to combustion in a living space).

Going a step further, do you think that heating houses (e.g. furnaces) as well should be exclusively done via electricity?

I am aware that these laws are for urban areas in California (which don't require much heating). But, I am curious to what extent the argument for greater efficiency & health holds up for the heating of houses and for colder geographic areas, considering that quantity of heat required is much higher, and also that the furnaces are vented much more aggressively.

Comment · 4 years ago

I don't see how it makes sense: the electricity has to be generated, which is almost always via burning something to heat a boiler. Then the electricity is sent to houses via the grid, which involves further losses. So you burn something, make heat, make electricity, send the electricity though wires, to make heat. Vs, just making heat directly in the house to accomplish the job.

If all our electricity came from renewable power then sure, I agree. But most does not. So, this seems like putting the cart before the horse. Why not focus on improving how we generate electricity before we tear out all the gas?

My undergrad degree was electrical engineering. Basically, it seems visible to everyday people, and theatrical, but not that helpful or practical. Happy to hear how I'm wrong. I am certainly very concerned about the environment.

Comment · 4 years ago