Wesley

So what would be a better example or model? After all, the entire point of any science or social science is to attempt to come up with models and examples that represent reality. Models can be replaced by better models, but rejecting a model with nothing better to offer is silly. Besides this, you did not even explain what the problem with the example was or what the problem was besides to claim it is reductionist, which is true. However, unless you can demonstrate how this amount of reductionism is bad and breaks the model at some point, then for all we know the reductionism is a good thing as it makes a useable model. Finally, this is somewhat hypocritical as in another thread you reduced all of capitalism to a few lines of code and then accuse others of reductionism. If you are going to criticize other theories, it is generally best to not repeat the things you are criticizing yourself.

Here you are: http://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/37789-upstate-ny/

Freedomain Radio has a meetup everywhere site here: http://www.meetup.com/Freedomain-Radio/ My understanding is you do not need to pay in order to have a meetup on there. (Personal experience in recently using that site to organize a meetup group in Rochester) At a minimum it would be available to help filter people from FDR to a meetup in your area by making both have the same date and location. For me at least, I just needed the first person to come and then they told their friends who were ancaps and things grew from there. Once we go for a while and have regular members who are comfortable with each other we may look into advertising and expanding, but so far, I am not sure where the ceiling is going to be on this.

I would offer that you don't need to gauge her intelligence better in this interaction. You can ask her on the first date or two and spend them at coffee or dinner where you have time to talk and gauge her intelligence in that way. Coffee is especially good as if you like the conversation, it can drag on for a long time and if you don't particularly enjoy it, you can drink your cup of coffee real quick and then say you have somewhere else to get to quick. The first few dates (or not even dates, just conversations) can be where you feel out things a little bit. You don't need to know a certain amount before you ask her to coffee.

I don't want to hijack totally, but I have a problem with this. The Wright brothers were hardly the first or the only to make any kind of flying machine. They were IP bullies who were first in line at the patent office when the created it and proceeded to hold the US massively behind in flight innovation for many years with one of the many examples in US history of patent trolling (suing anyone who did anything with flight and didn't pay them a bunch of money). So yea, didn't want to take away too much from what you were saying, but I am not a fan of the Wright brothers.

I would be happy to offer alternatives, but I can't think of anything as easy as just sending off some bitcoin as the prize. Not to mention that bitcoin tipping is somewhat of a common occurrence and very easy to do with no fees. If you have a suggestion of an alternative, I would be happy to hear it.

There was a time where I was very much into art and I still have a side of me that enjoys oil painting and sculpture, though those skills have not been fostered for some time. In general though, I see a lot of quality rational discussion and even some empathetic conversations about emotions, feelings, and very personal topics. What I see more sparingly, though I know it exists, is art. Art as in poems, short stories, woodcraft, sculpture, music, graphic design, photography etc, etc. I would very much like to foster this in some way. To start, I would like input as to the format that people would like to see. In this, I would like more people to experiment with their artistic expression and people who generally do not paint or write poems to go try and do one. I also would like to see more quality work that may mean something to me and other people on the boards as it resonates with several people. I have seen several photographs, or graphic designs or poems, but they are widely scattered throughout the boards. Thus, I would like to create something like the following: Each person who wants to enter can pick 1 piece of art that they link or contain in a post. The art must be original and hopefully new so that people have not seen it before. Each entry also puts a bitcoin wallet that they want funds to be sent to in the post. Over the course of a month, people browse entries and either vote by upvoting or by tipping bitcoins. At the end of the period, a prize pool has been collected through a separate address, that I would put a little BTC into and is given to a winner. In the event of a tie, the prize is split among winners. This is just the idea in my head. Now I am slightly worried that this model may hurt some people's feelings as they may put their heart and soul into something and get no positive votes or tips. I also think this may bias toward quality submissions from a few people who think they could win. However, I also want some way to encourage people who are not artists to experiment with art. So, I am looking for a format that others may like or may be able to provide input to refine. If this post receives no support as far as people responding or upvotes or something, then I likely will assume that other people are not interested or don't want to put some BTC behind the FDR community creating some art, by which case it is not worth pursuing. So, if you like the idea, post some feedback below and tell me how this idea could be refined. I am very interested to see what can be produced by the community.

I probably should have posted this earlier, but we are having a meetup this Sunday in Rochester, if anyone is interested in joining us. http://www.meetup.com/Freedomain-Radio/Rochester-NY/1094592/

Yes, I do not understand this either. Either the small amount will be gone or not or the empty account will be gone or not. I dont understand the problem.

Ah, ok. So player progression RPG style that might edge on some MMORPG. I have only played single player in this realm, so I will leave the recommendations to more knowledgeable people

What kind of games do you each like? What is both of your previous gaming experiences? If minimal, what kind of board games or card games do you each like? To some extent, this is like asking what the best food is. While there are some that are generally better than others, if I know what other foods you like I am much more likely to pick a new food that you will like.

Well if the press hears about the jerk rent cartel, then I (and everyone I know) would be perfectly fine boycotting them. No groceries, no roads to drive on, no water, etc. I also would offer my couch for any friends in this situation for the short term. The point is is that there is free association. I do not need to get business from assholes. Anyone who breaks the deal and gives them stuff will probably be boycotted too. This is why this doesn't happen in a free market. The business always lose because they are dependent on the customers to want to give them money. The only time this happens is when you have a state enforced monopoly or state subsidized oligopoly.

I know there are therapists who specialize in treating patients with drug abuse problems. You could continue going to Narcotics Anonymous while shopping around for a therapist that might be more atheist or agnostic. Even then, your therapist may recommend you to continue going, but you will be able to establish a much better relationship with a rational therapist at least.

I don't know the particulars, but I would find it very, very unlikely that any medical marijuana stuff is traded on public exchanges. I don't know all the particulars, but it is still federally illegal and exchanges and brokers probably wouldn't want to get involved. I may be wrong, but just saying.

Ok, this is much better. What do you mean the setup is stable? Also, we can just say at least 5 years instead of 5-10 for obscurity. Also, I would replace bitcoin with cryptocurrency. Also, in what country or region? I think even including gold and silver, never has 80% of the world's population accepted the same currency. So if that was the standard then it would be much higher than anything before it.

You are digressing from my question. What would cryptocurrencies have to accomplish in order for you to say that they work or that the theory should be reformed? I would like a test or an achievement. You are saying a lot of words and I do not understand what the test is in there.

So do the several times where the bitcoin price has crashed and then recovered higher than it was before not cover this? Maybe I am confused about what test you are proposing.

I haven't read the whole thread, so I may easily be missing something obvious, and if so then I would be happy for it to be pointed out. It seems to me that if you are "choosing traits" then you are admitting that God is not something that exists anywhere outside of your own mind.

I would just like to point out that this isn't an argument. I'm not saying I disagree, just that I would prefer you to point out where he was wrong in his thinking or argument rather than saying "That's like Nixon!" in the hope that it makes him uncomfortable enough to change his mind. ______________________________________ I think the reason why commodity monies were talked about in the past is because they were ones that emerged out of the market as opposed to ones decreed by fiat. The point, I feel, is to differentiate money chosen by the market and money chosen by the state. They had not developed the moral arguments, so they went with the intrinsic value argument as a way to determine that money had come out of the market and was actually valued by the people as money. Bitcoin, even if you disagree with it, is fairly revolutionary and took several concepts that were rather cutting-edge to create a trustless, digitally scarce good that could not be imagined by people 10 years ago, let alone 50 or whenever Mises wrote his things. I think that it is very likely that a small update would be in order in a few years, depending on whether or not the bitcoin experiment is successful as it has now become possible to create a scarce, market money, not based on a commodity. It easily could change how we view things. I have bet on bitcoin as I have done the research and invested some of my money and time. However, we should be empirical about this. How long would cryptocurrencies need to be successful in order to work? What adoption rate would there need to be? etc, etc If we can look back at some point and have objective standards by which we can evaluate the experiment and by which we can decide if the theory needs to be refined or not, then I would be perfectly happy. Obviously, there may need to be negotiation on those standards, but I float the idea. What would cryptocurrencies have to do to change your mind?

There are periods in time where there is an evolution pressure. Sometimes, food scarcity forces a species to move to a new area. For a period, there might be an ice age. For another period, there could be heavy rains for a long time. For another period, there could be large droughts that dry up a lot of water in an area. There could be a disease that wipes out a large portion of the population. In a time of rest and plenty and when a species has what they need, there tends to be a lot of species diversity and many different types flourish. Then, some disaster happens that separates the species into several groups or kills off the species except the best at surviving that particular catastrophe. This is why evolution happens, because the environment the species inhabits is not a constant. As long as the environment changes, then it is necessary for the species to change and evolve to survive.

If anyone is looking for the current bitcoin price, the best site to use is https://bitcoinaverage.com/ as they average all of the transactions worldwide and is the best way to estimate the current price. MtGox I think has been excluded from the site for a while because arbitrage with MtGox was almost impossible even before they shut down withdrawls as it took several weeks to get approved for an account and other annoying issues that dropped them from 80% market share a few years ago to 25% market share before this latest debacle. This is a minor issue in bitocin that has been known for years and had a public wiki devoted to the topic. Many other exchanges have simply put in fixes in their own code as the bitcoin developers have much more important things to work on. The fact that MtGox pretended like they found this elusive bug and are stopping withdrawls to protect customers is laughable and it is much more that they are completely incompetent to read and find fixes for known issues. This news scared people as they thought there might be a problem with bticoin. I think this is a great opportunity to tell everyone to stop using MtGox and to get a little bitcoin at a slightly discounted price. If after this, the bitcoin development team if forced to release a fix for this issue because of the incompetence of a few exchanges to check a public wiki of known issues, then I hope that the bitcoin community doesn't let them pull the "we saved bitcoin" card as they will certainly try to do in public press releases.

I mean... I wouldn't say going to jail over $50 is really worth it.

...but without fines, WHO WOULD SHOVEL THE SIDEWALKS?!?!

Theology is not about holding consistency, it is about creating an exception for their prejudices. I think you may have to explain what you mean a little bit more or what you want me to clarify. It is true that something affected by gravity doesn't necessarily move. My laptop is affected by the forces of gravity, but the forces of the table are equal and opposite so it sits in place. If you define the earth as the origin, then it will not move. However, Einstein pretty rigorously proved that movement was relative and that any other origin could be defined and relative to those origins, the earth is moving at all times. If a force exists, then its movement is changing, unless an equal and opposite force is applied, or you have defined that object as your origin. For my perception, my eyes are the origin and as I walk, the earth moves behind me. If the Earth is actually moved to the middle of the universe and that there is equal gravitational pull on all sides, then the earth will not move. However, this doesn't happen, so does not matter as a description of reality because it is not true. It is like saying "if things were different, then there would be these differences". It doesn't describe reality, so it doesn't really matter. Finally, all if this is nitpicking and has very little to do with the point of what Stefan was actually trying to show with the description. Gravity was just chosen because we can see the evidence and everyone knows what it is without much description. That quote is page 14, towards the top of the page.

I think that humans will at some point, not die of old age and lifestyle diseases. Possibly in my lifetime, though it is hard to know. Humans will still die of accidents, diseases, and choosing to die will create some interesting moral and philosophical dilemmas for the future. I think that from a purely technological standpoint, it will be amazing. I also fear it happening with the current state of human morality. All you need to do is read Llyod Demause's The Origins of War in Child Abuse to understand my worry (which is free as an audiobook in the free books section of FDR). I view the race between evolving human morality and immortality as somewhat opponents. For if people in older psycho-classes are not dying, we may never evolve to a society without child abuse, war, religion, and the other moral horrors in the world today. So, it is amazing, but it provides a clock for us philosophers. We want people who do not die of old age to be the peaceful, empathetic, and rational people of the future. Not what we see prevalent today.