Category: Uncategorized

Can’t stop thinking about yesterday’s incident. 

Might as well put a list of some people whom I do like and whom I learned from, which would belong in the “accept” category, by no means inclusive and in no particular order. If anyone has a problem with it, they might as well know and act as they see fit.

  • Steven Pinker
  • Colin Woodard
  • Barack Obama
  • Andrei Sakharov
  • Slavoj Žižek
  • Fareed Zakaria
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • Malala Yousafzai
  • Orhan Pamuk
  • Salman Rushdie
  • Arthur Clarke
  • Cory Doctorow

Almost everyone else, including those I completely or partially disagree with, fall into “tolerate” category – unless at some point they called for violence to further their goals, even if not seriously (so yeah that means radicals, Nazis, Bannonites, Islamists and other revolutionaries). I am generally still curious about those I disagree with, although I would lose patience if their arguments are cherry-picked or have been discredited with evidence, but can change my mind if new contradicting evidence is found. The yesterday’s offensive person in question – I didn’t know much or read much by Jordan Peterson other than some of his quotes that appeared interesting – and didn’t know he was considered controversial, especially if one doesn’t give him the treatment that Fox News or BBC gives to people they don’t like. I know that being a fan of a liberal democracy is not in vogue these days in most of the world, and I know that a liberal democracy is not a natural state of affairs for humans – it is not an old-growth forest, but rather a carefully-tended garden that is imperfect by design, but I have yet to see anything else that humans created that is better, and I still believe the work tending it is worth it.

stoweboyd:

“Last year, traffic-management authorities there started using facial recognition to crack down. When a camera mounted above one of 50 of the city’s busiest intersections detects a jaywalker, it snaps several photos and records a video of the violation. The photos appear on an overhead screen so the offender can see that he or she has been busted, then are cross-checked with the images in a regional police database. Within 20 minutes, snippets of the perp’s ID number and home address are displayed on the crosswalk screen. The offender can choose among three options: a 20-yuan fine (about $3), a half-hour course in traffic rules, or 20 minutes spent assisting police in controlling traffic. Police have also been known to post names and photos of jaywalkers on social media.”

— China’s Face-Scanning Craze – The Atlantic (via futuramb)

Got a reminder this morning about social media and it’s capacity to offend and hurt – and that I can do it here too whether I want to or not. I usually try to stay away from “culture wars”, especially given our continued confusion around the very different concepts of tolerance and acceptance – but I guess people can be more controversial than words – and so I inadvertently waded into something I didn’t know.

When you manage to get on a friend’s calendar three weeks in advance and they cancel you at the last moment because someone put a 5:30 meeting on their calendar, and you recall that unlike you everyone else chose to have a career and is actually important.

Review: ‘Children of Blood and Bone,’ by Tomi Adeyemi – The Atlantic

I saw a piece self described as Afro-futurist at the Whitney some time ago when I used to go to places like that – and that was when I first learned the term – the Black Panther is now firmly part of the American culture – and seeing widely-appealing books coming out that aim to expand and add and enrich our collective culture is beyond exciting.

Review: ‘Children of Blood and Bone,’ by Tomi Adeyemi – The Atlantic