Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction

[John Shaw]

Ian.. I need a cure for my Diabeetuss.

You did not just pray to Ian Bernard Freeman Jamal Warner.

[trollfreezone]

That being said, anything is possible.

No.

There can't be a square circle. Or a down up. Or a geocentric universe. Or a good evil.

The nature of the universe is an objective absolute.

Perception is not reality. Otherwise an assassination by rifle would be impossible. Don't perceive the bullet? It can't kill you.

Boolsheet.

this

[blackie]

Ian.. I need a cure for my Diabeetuss.

Death will fix that.

[trollfreezone]

Ian.. I need a cure for my Diabeetuss.

Death will fix that.

Hellbilly can live forever because "anything's possible."  Hell, he can become a teenager again!

[blackie]

Ian.. I need a cure for my Diabeetuss.

Death will fix that.

Hellbilly can live forever because "anything's possible."  Hell, he can become a teenager again!

I'm pretty sure Ian is a transhumanist extropian.

Hellbilly can upload his self into a machine one day.

Then I will unplug him.

[trollfreezone]

Ian.. I need a cure for my Diabeetuss.

Death will fix that.

Hellbilly can live forever because "anything's possible."  Hell, he can become a teenager again!

I'm pretty sure Ian is a transhumanist extropian.

Hellbilly can upload his self into a machine one day.

Then I will unplug him.

Yeah, but if "anything's possible" why bother with machines?  Only a miracle is acceptable.

[blackie]

The human condition is limited.

Since "posthuman" is characterized primarily by contrasting with the limitations of "human" we can only speculate about the particular forms that posthumans might take. Posthumans may be partly or mostly biological in form although, by definition, they would have overcome most of the constraints of the genetic structure of homo sapiens. Many transhumanists find it highly plausible that posthumans would be partly or wholly postbiological – the personalities of biological humans having been transferred "into" (or gradually replaced by) more durable, modifiable, faster, and more powerful bodies and thinking hardware. Some of the disciplines that transhumanists currently expect to play a role in allowing us to become posthuman include genetic engineering, neural-computer integration, biomedicine and nanobiotechnology, regenerative medicine, and the cognitive sciences.

[trollfreezone]

The human condition is limited.

Since "posthuman" is characterized primarily by contrasting with the limitations of "human" we can only speculate about the particular forms that posthumans might take. Posthumans may be partly or mostly biological in form although, by definition, they would have overcome most of the constraints of the genetic structure of homo sapiens. Many transhumanists find it highly plausible that posthumans would be partly or wholly postbiological – the personalities of biological humans having been transferred "into" (or gradually replaced by) more durable, modifiable, faster, and more powerful bodies and thinking hardware. Some of the disciplines that transhumanists currently expect to play a role in allowing us to become posthuman include genetic engineering, neural-computer integration, biomedicine and nanobiotechnology, regenerative medicine, and the cognitive sciences.

Screw limitations.  "Anything is possible."

[blackie]

magic is real. and if you can't perform a particular magical operation, it just means that you are not a good enough magician.

LoA is not magic. Magicians only teach other magicians.

[youtube=425,350]IKtBaDsCgn4[/youtube]

[hellbilly]

Ian.. I need a cure for my Diabeetuss.

You did not just pray to Ian Bernard Freeman Jamal Warner.

Oh ya I did. I'm sending Intergalactic Deep Space Penetrating Powerful Positive Pro-Pantheist Phsychological Projectiles (IDSPPPPPPP's) outward, and somewhere the Universe has an answer waiting for me. I just need the right tuner.

And Blackie wouldn't unplug me.. he'd download me and attempt to sort out my master code so he could have a chance to be as cool as me.

WTFK is correct. No cures- fair is fair.. the all-powerful universe dealt me the condition of Diabeetus-dom, and for that I want a cure of it.

[blackie]

WTFK is correct. No cures- fair is fair.. the all-powerful universe dealt me the condition of Diabeetus-dom, and for that I want a cure of it.

You can get off the ride any time you want.

[hellbilly]

I've not quite stated that I have a death wish. Rather, I've indicated that the Law of Attraction not only has it's boundaries, but is just plain thilly.

[Alex Libman]

From the Let A Thousand Nations Bloom blog -- Scott Adams on Startup Countries --

The always-interesting Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, wants to let a thousand nations bloom.  Elsewhere, he has said that understanding economics is like having a mild superpower.  He shows off that superpower by channelling Mancur Olson’s argument in The Rise and Decline of Nations:

One of the biggest problems with the world is that we’re bound by so many legacy systems.  For example, it’s hard to deal with global warming because there are so many entrenched interests.  It’s problematic to get power from where it can best be generated to where people live.  The tax system is a mess.  Banking is a hodgepodge of regulations and products glued together.  I could go on.  The point is that anything that has been around for awhile is a complicated and inconvenient mess compared to what its ideal form could be.

His solution should be familiar to readers of this blog:

My idea for today is that established nations could launch startup countries within their own borders, free of all the legacy restrictions in the parent country.  The startup country, let’s say the size of modern day Israel, would be designed from the ground up for efficiency.

As Katherine Mangu-Ward at Hit & Run points out, startup Adams’s startup countries are essentially Paul Romer’s charter cities.  Adams wants to centrally plan the country quite a bit more than Romer and other competitive government advocates, failing to recognize that competition is a discovery process which could continually improve government through opt-in experimentation.

I have no idea whether Adams is familiar with Mancur Olson’s work, charter cities, free zones, or seasteading.  It’s clear that he gets the power of bloodless instability, though, and even uses one of our favorite examples:

Arguably, China accidentally performed a variant of this experiment with Hong Kong.  Oversimplifying the history, Hong Kong was part of China and leased to the United Kingdom for 99 years, like a startup country within a country.  When the lease expired, China presumably made a fortune by getting it back in a far more robust form than it could have generated within the Chinese system.

Hat tip: Crampton.

(As usual, original links are in bold, with Libman-added links not in bold, and some other formatting added.)