Well, cranks are traditionally focused at least to some extent. The guy who always
boils every issue down to one thing like monism, path integrals, consciousness,
phase transitions, or category theory >8^D might be a crank. But if your
outrage Twitch is a scatterbrained Tourette's victim, you're not, technically, a
crank. We can pigeonhole such people at will. But they're not cranks. I suppose we
can push the metaphor to its limit. A crank only does any work if it's at least
quasi periodic ... or regular in some way. Even if the handle you use to crank
something is irregular, the thing being cranked must be crankable. The only reason
we hear so much about our belongings being stolen is because we're predisposed to
cranking. It FEELS good to be cranked. Oooh! Aaaahhhh! That's the spot. Open X
(science, data, source, hardware, etc.) is nearly antithetic to cranking. As long
as you do what you do in the open air, it might be a bit shocking to the Puritans.
But it'll at least be improvable, differentiable. You don't need to give away your
belongings. You just need to allow an above the threshold number of your neighbors
into your shed to gawk at your tools and gossip about it later.
On 2/14/22 10:47, Marcus Daniels wrote:
Nah, I tend to agree with this. Judging by the messages I see on Nextdoor,
one might would think that all of my belongings would have been stolen several
times over.
https://www.gawker.com/culture/the-crankification-engine
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of glen
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2022 10:40 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] by any means necessary
Sure. But open data, source, methods, etc.
<https://mobilizecbk.med.umich.edu/about/manifesto> is one of the most
effective ways to fight corruption. And one of the ways we manage to burst some boils
is increased scrutiny into the bloviating obsolete titular icons associated with
those boils. Compromises like the FDA's agreements and methods for evaluating
for-profit thingamajigs are great. But so are activists whose Chicken Little
shrillness acts like the well-placed lance.
On 2/14/22 10:27, Marcus Daniels wrote:
There are competitors that already have approved clinical trials.
https://synchron.com/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-28/elon-musk-neuralink-competitor-announces-fda-trial-for-brain-device
A passive approach might be better for a start-up, if for no other reason than
to avoid all the possible litigation.
https://www.soneramagnetics.com/
https://www.kernel.com
It's not hard to see why a company like Neuralink would hold their cards close.
Of course, there will be bad outcomes during development. And there may be no
real way to put it in perspective. Like Fauci and the beagles.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/11/19/fauci-beagle-white-coat-waste/
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of glen
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2022 10:10 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] by any means necessary
Oh, they're definitely activists. The question is one of how easy a target is
Neuralink? One of the reasons actual medical research facilities aren't
successfully targeted by influence campaigns is because they do the actual work
to treat animals as well as they can be given their role as means to an end. If
Neuralink is just a shitty place doing shitty research, then they put us all at
risk. Those of us who do believe in their supposed mission need to forcefully
correct their stupidity as soon as possible regardless of the activist
motivations behind the canary in the coal mine.
On 2/14/22 09:59, Marcus Daniels wrote:
It's also possible that the PCRM is being activist: The idea of it is horrible
to them, and that's the smoke. Where there's smoke there must be fire.
Imagine how the anti-vaxxers will react when talk of robots stitching threads
into their brain starts.
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of glen
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2022 9:03 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [FRIAM] by any means necessary
Animal-rights group says monkeys used in experiments for Elon Musk's Neuralink
were subjected to 'extreme suffering'
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-neuralink-experiments-monkeys-extreme-suffering-animal-rights-group-2022-2
Elon Musk’s Neuralink allegedly subjected monkeys to ‘extreme suffering’
https://nypost.com/2022/02/10/elon-musks-neuralink-allegedly-subjected-monkeys-to-extreme-suffering/
I've never quite settled out to a strong opinion on animal research. Since I'm mostly
consequentialist, the *actual* ends [⛧] tend to rule out in my mind. But cause doesn't come in pure
chains. It's a mesh, at best, an unquantifiable fractal at worst. So the means to the end are never
merely means, they're always ends, in themselves. Utilitarians tend to abstract out seeming
"no-ops" or "don't-cares", as if there were, in actuality, epiphenomena. But
there are no such things. If that makes me a Vico-ist, that's fine. How you treat the animals is
not merely a social side interest. It's a core part of good science and good engineering ... like
keeping a good notebook.
Musk is (now) a huckster, exploiting the good will and childish optimism of
dorks everywhere.
[⛧] By "actual", I don't mean whatever ends the actors have in mind when they
launch the action mesh, but the outcome over time. Of course, that's fraught and requires
some scholarship and ability to track the mesh as it unfolds. But one does the best they
can. Whatever brainfarts some moron like Musk has in his mind prior to launch is largely
irrelevant. We're all fans of scifi. The trick is being able to distinguish fact from
fantasy.
--
glen
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
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