Richard Kain retweeted
The year is 2038. After the rogue AI takeover, all surviving humans huddle together in Bloomington, IN, their last refuge
Richard Kain retweeted
When I listen to tech people talk about economics and politics, I'm increasingly reminded of public health experts on Covid.
The experts on Covid knew a lot about biology. They could tell us how the disease could spread, explain the concept of R₀, and tell us that vaccines would be good for us. They were "right" about a lot when they stuck to what they knew.
But when epidemiologists started talking about politics and what to do about covid, they were completely out of their depth. They didn't have the tools to do cost-benefit analysis regarding policies like mask mandates, school closures, and lockdowns. They had half-baked theories about human psychology and could justify lying because they didn't understand that this might cause a political backlash.
Tech people know a lot about AI. But then I hear them talk about all jobs going extinct and hyper charged growth. They have crackpot ideas about political economy, and predict that the welfare state will disappear as the value of labor declines. And yet you don't find AI leading to supercharged growth, and the unemployment rate hasn't changed. Their predictions that the welfare state might wither away and a few rich people might capture all the gains show no signs of being true. They're just speculation, and the kinds of ideas that people who study economics and political science generally find a lot less plausible.
Another parallel is that the tech industry is experiencing a political backlash, just as the public health establishment did. I don't want to stretch this analogy too far, but I think that the common theme is that both communities were way too overconfident about their understanding of politics and social dynamics.
Richard Kain retweeted
This is the president of the United States.
His supporters will say "oh, I don't watch the news, I didn't see any of that."
You know who *is* watching? The rest of the world, including our enemies, and drawing conclusions about his stability and cognitive health.
Richard Kain retweeted
Here’s how the North Korean regime demonstrated its appreciation for Trump announcing the U.S. would “substantially reduce” its role in the joint military exercises:
"Pyongyang fired off a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, Tokyo and Seoul said, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. The South Korean military said it had detected the launch of around 10 short-range missiles from the Pyongyang area toward the Sea of Japan."
Richard Kain retweeted
I love how TSA rules are different at every airport and they look at you like you're a fucking idiot when you don't speak their regional dialect of security theater.
Richard Kain retweeted
haven’t seen this many tweets about fire and canada since the steelers jet sweep days.
I'm sorry but after careful consideration: I have decided to close the Straight of Hormuz.
Wire details available on request, reasonable prices-- sub 11 figures.
When was the last time $MSTR 's bitcoin purchases of the last week were with an average price _lower_ than the Monday open?
Given the amounts they're buying, and consistency of the "hey you bought too high" (even from fanbois) this proves to me they are the marginal buyer.
Richard Kain retweeted
I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.
In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.
Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.
When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.
She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.
As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.
Rest in peace, professor.
