The Man in the High Castle

Amazon.com has produced an excellent television adaptation of Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle. The series currently consists of a single pilot episode. Ridley Scott was one of the executive producers.

The pilot features good writing, acting, directing, editing, cinematography, and production design. As noted in this review at Wired.com, the primary flaw is some weak CGI in establishing shots of New York City. Hopefully this problem can be sorted out (more practical effects?) should the pilot be turned into a series.

I was particularly impressed by how the writing and production design handled the series' alternate history premise in a convincing fashion. This is something that's really easy to get wrong. The pilot showed a nation which was still distinctly American in culture, but with a layer or sliver of Japanese and German culture imposed on top in characteristic imperialist fashion.

The pilot also depicted a material culture which was a combination of technology and design from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. You might think that this is a flaw, but to my mind it gets things exactly right. There is an inherent conservatism to the material culture of totalitarian regimes, both because of economic stagnation (think of the Soviet Union, or for a more extreme version, Cuba), and because of the regime's suppression of the novelty and innovation characteristic of the material culture of liberal democracies. One shouldn't expect a 1962 America ruled by the Axis powers to look like it came from an episode of Mad Men.

The Curious Tale of the Could-Be Assassin

While testifying in response to a request for a restraining order, NASCAR-driver Kurt Busch has claimed that his ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll is an assassin.

Ordinarily, one would suspect delusion or deceit on the part of Mr. Busch, but as it happens Ms. Driscoll's professional life makes the claim at least plausible:

Driscoll, 37, lives in Ellicott City, Md. She heads two organizations, both of them based in Washington, D.C. One is the Armed Forces Foundation, a veterans advocacy group that partners with NASCAR. The other is Frontline Defense Systems, whose website says Driscoll "spent the majority of her career in the narcotics and intelligence world."

And here is a promotional video which further elucidates her current line of work.

One thing that doesn't add up: if Ms. Driscoll does actually perform assassinations or other "special operations", why would her firm release a promotional video highlighting her combat training? This would seem to reduce her value as as assassin, spy, or what have you.

Regardless of whether Ms. Driscoll is in fact an assassin, the story does raise the serious question of how many special operations are conducted by private security firms and contractors.

Discrimination against Women's Speech at Work

Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant (pictured) have written an article for the New York Times on a body of research which seems to show systematic discrimination against women's speech in professional settings. One example from the article:

This speaking-up double bind harms organizations by depriving them of valuable ideas. A University of Texas researcher, Ethan Burris, conducted an experiment in which he asked teams to make strategic decisions for a bookstore. He randomly informed one member that the bookstore’s inventory system was flawed and gave that person data about a better approach. In subsequent analyses, he found that when women challenged the old system and suggested a new one, team leaders viewed them as less loyal and were less likely to act on their suggestions. Even when all team members were informed that one member possessed unique information that would benefit the group, suggestions from women with inside knowledge were discounted.

Our Dystopian Future?

A recent review by Rick Searle shows the continuing relevance of economist Tyler Cowen's Average Is Over when it comes to understanding Our (possible) Dystopian Future.

From Searle's review:

In Cowen’s world the rich with money to burn are chased down with a combination of AI, behavioral economics, targeted consumer surveillance, and old fashioned, fleshy persuasion to part with their cash, but what will such a system be like for those chronically out of work? Even should mass government surveillance disappear tomorrow, (fat chance) it seems the poor will still face a world where the forces behind their ever more complex society become increasingly opaque, responsible humans harder to find, and in which they are constantly “nudged” by people who claim to know better. For the poor, surveillance technologies will likely be used not to sell them stuff which they can’t afford, but are a tool of the repo-man, and debt collector, parole officer, and cop that will slowly chisel away whatever slim column continues to connect them the former middle class world of their parents. It is a world more akin to the 1940’s or even the 1840’s than it is to anything we have taken to be normal since the middle of the 20th century.

The Future of PUA?

Kong Feng is a Beijing-based pick-up artist who, thankfully, has more in common with the judicious "Dr. Nerdlove" (Harris O'Malley) than with the more well-known, sleazy representatives of his profession. Hopefully Feng represents the future of PUA: a move away from teaching how to manipulate, deceive, and coerce women, and towards teaching basic social skills, nonverbal cues, the art of conversation, and simple confidence.

Why Are Left Wing Economists So Influential?

A propos The Economist's recent list of most influential economists:

Some attempts to explain why there are so many left-leaning economists on the list:

1. Paul Krugman.

2. An insurance industry analyst replies.

3. Krugman again.

The Case for Banning Laptops from the Classroom

Professor Tal Gross follows the example of Clay Shirky in advocating banning laptops and other screens from the classroom.

The basic problem is that they are a source of distraction for the students who use them, and also for the students around them. Shirky in particular makes a persuasive case that even exemplary professors cannot compete with professional marketers when it comes to grabbing and retaining students' attention.

Two Stories about Capitalism

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains why, whether you're on the left or the right politically, you're foolish and irrational. 

Even the experts are biased when it comes to economics and other politicized questions. The stories we tell about capitalism (e.g.) exert a profound influence on our perception of reality, making consensus and progress towards solutions difficult.

Haidt has produced two complementary videos which brilliantly illustrate the stories people tell about capitalism: "Capitalism is exploitation" vs. "Capitalism is liberation." Which myth is the foundation of your political faith? :)

Nerd Shaming and Social Justice Warriors

Scott Alexander "speaks truth to power" about nerd shaming:

I live in a world where feminists throwing weaponized shame at nerds is an obvious and inescapable part of daily life. Whether we’re “mouth-breathers”, “pimpled”, “scrawny”, “blubbery”, “sperglord”, “neckbeard”, “virgins”, “living in our parents’ basements”, “man-children” or whatever the insult du jour is, it’s always, always, ALWAYS a self-identified feminist saying it. Sometimes they say it obliquely, referring to a subgroup like “bronies” or “atheists” or “fedoras” while making sure everyone else in nerddom knows it’s about them too. 

There continue to be a constant stream of feminist cartoons going around Tumblr featuring blubberous neckbearded fedora-wearing monsters threatening the virtue of innocent ladies.

Every age has its own irrational biases and blind spots, its own witch hunts and lynch mobs mis-characterized as social justice. Has Scott Alexander identified a blind spot, a witch hunt for today's culture? 

Regardless, Alexander's broader point that privilege is not a simple monotonic quality seems correct. In other words, it's at least logically possible for some women, who are oppressed as a group by male privilege, to also oppress other groups, in this case nerds. Nerds may benefit from male privilege even as they are simultaneously oppressed by the privilege of non-nerds. Whether or not this is true, a lot of people seem to want to deny the possibility of axes of privilege which tilt in different directions. 

The Criminal Overclass: A Sobering Example

Money may not be able to buy you love, but billionaire Jeffrey Epstein seems to be trying his hardest to prove that it can buy you the ability to sexually abuse young women with impunity.

Tyler Cowen's "Los Angeles Notes"

The economist offers up some prescient observations of the city and its changing relation to the rest of the country:

Los Angeles no longer seems so superficial, perhaps because so many other parts of the country have been revealed to be the same or worse.  Their bookstores are no longer an embarrassment because now everyone’s are an embarrassment.  The city feels less glamorous and more normal, a better place to live but a more difficult place to talk about.  It remains an oddly forgotten city, overlooked in America’s love affair with Brooklyn and Silicon Valley and yes the Southeast, yet better to live in than perhaps anywhere else on this continent.  (Provided you do not have school-age children.)  The city has lost relative ground in one major way however: California no longer has such a monopoly on good Asian and Latin food.  Nor do movies exercise much of a hold on the American imagination nowadays.  It is no longer easy to identify what is essential about Los Angeles, yet no one here seems to care.

As is his wont, he also offers up ethnic dining recommendations (see the link for details).

The Importance of Ideological Diversity in Academia

Economist Bryan Caplan has written an important blog post on the lack of ideological diversity and evidence of ideological discrimination in the social sciences. We hear a lot about the importance of racial, gender, and socioeconomic diversity, but much less about the importance of ideological diversity. Caplan argues that ideological diversity is actually more important to academic than demographic diversity, because it is a more effective means to reduce confirmation bias in research (inter alia).

Jacob Levy on the Charlie Hebdo Killings

Professor of Political Theory Jacob T. Levy comments in a BBC interview on the importance of free expression and the hypocrisy of the French ban of the Niqab.

The Decline of Gang Violence in Los Angeles

Sam Quinones has written a fascinating article at Pacific Standard about the decline of gang violence in Los Angeles.

The story is complex, but Quinones credits the decline in part to the following factors: (1) an increase in the number of officers in the field; (2) the use of CompStat to measure the effectiveness of police interventions, to guide subsequent interventions, and as criteria for the retention and promotion of police commanders; (3) the use of RICO (federal anti-racketeering laws) to prosecute and incarcerate large numbers of street gang foot soldiers; (4) changes in gangs' culture and politics (for example, the fact that the Mexican Mafia has alienated many gang members because of its widespread use of "greenlights" or death warrants against its enemies); and (5) the increase of real estate prices and gentrification in neighborhoods formerly dominated by gangs.

Among the other revelations, the article has this to say about a spate of race-related killings in the bad old days of gang violence, and the change since then:

In many of these neighborhoods, Latino gangs had taken to attacking and killing random black civilians, turning themselves into the leading regional perpetrators of race-hate crime. . . . The last three times I’ve been to Hawaiian Gardens, I’ve seen nothing on the walls, and young black men freely visit taco restaurants on the main drag, something that would have been inconceivable a few years ago.

Now, street gangs continue to exist, and they continue to wield a great deal of wealth and power. But a lot of their drug dealing and other criminal enterprises no longer happen on street corners, and in relative terms there is less violence than their used to be. That is great and surprising news. Hopefully the trend continues.

Japanese Fertility Musings

Is Japan's fertility problem worse than previously thought, or is it only thought that Japan's fertility problem is worse than previously thought?

The Future of Language

In the future, fewer languages will be spoken, and they will be simpler--so argues linguist John H. McWhorter.

Among other things, McWhorter discusses the origin of English as a pidgin spoken on the language border between Vikings and native Englishmen in the Danelaw in the Middle Ages. This process caused English to lose much of its earlier syntactic complexity, which makes it easier for nonnative speakers to learn than Chinese (for example), which has tones that are evidently difficult for adult nonnative speakers to master.

Should We Fear the Filter?

Scott Alexander shares his thoughts about Robin Hanson's "Great Filter", which refers to a factor which weeds out civilizations in the universe, thus explaining why we don't observe more (really, any) advanced spacefaring civilizations in the known universe. Alexander argues that none of the so-called "late filters" proposed are very likely, and so we should not fear a late filter (and perhaps should feel some relief that we have passed beyond a hypothetical early filter?).

This blog post is remarkable, not least because of the fact that the comments are just as good if not better than the post itself (how often has this happened in the whole history of the internet?).

New Economics Study on English PhDs

I recently stumbled across some sobering news about the job prospects for English PhDs, which seems to reflect a broader trend in academia:

While students in top-10 programs might have a reasonable chance of getting tenure-track jobs at a national research university or national research liberal arts colleges, the chances for such placements are essentially nil for students graduating from lower ranked programs. If students from lower ranked programs do get tenure-track jobs, they will most likely be at schools where the primary focus is on undergraduate teaching to students with weak academic backgrounds.

After posting a link to this article on social media, some of my friends were upset that the author of the article apparently assumes that a tenure track job at a research oriented university is the only academic job worth having. This is a good point, but I think the article is noteworthy even if you don't share this assumption. There is (or at least seems to be) a mismatch between the training many English PhD students receive and their likely job prospects; the article claims that English PhD students are usually trained to be scholars at research oriented universities, even though most of them will not actually be employed in this capacity after graduation. There is also an apparent mismatch between the culture of expectations in English PhD programs and the realities about the job market facing graduates of those programs. I experienced something similar in philosophy, and this leads me to believe it is a common problem in PhD programs in the humanities in general.

Personally, I highly value teaching, and have even considered working at a private high school. Some of my high school teachers had PhD's and were passionate and fantastic teachers; they were probably a big influence on my interest in teaching and learning. But the fact remains that the training we get in PhD programs in the humanities often does not reflect the job prospects we face upon graduation. To be clear: training in research methods is important, even for graduate students who will eventually get jobs which focus on teaching, but there should probably be more teacher training in many PhD programs, and fewer PhD programs accepting fewer students into their programs (because of the current surplus of people with PhDs in the academic job market).

Loeb Takes on Classic Indian Literature

Game changer: Loeb Classical Library is publishing Loeb editions of classics from Indian literature.
Among the initial titles is an edition of the Therigatha--poems by early Buddhist nuns, which is part of the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Pali Canon.

These new critical editions and translations of the Indian canon are a big deal for scholars (at least). A lot of these texts lack widely accessible or recent critical editions and translations. Also, as explained in the New York Times article linked to above, this series will bring attention to the diverse nature of traditional Indian literature, which was not exclusively Hindu, despite the rhetoric of many contemporary Hindu nationalists.

High School Teacher Burnout

Ellie Herman, a screenwriter and television producer turned high school English teacher, has written an important essay about the difficulties facing primary school teachers in the United States.

A central problem identified by Herman is the fact that teachers in the United States are overburdened in terms of the number of hours they must spend in the classroom:

One thing nobody ever talks about is that teachers in the U.S. have a larger workload than teachers in almost any other country. According to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, the average secondary school teacher in the U.S. puts in 1,051 instructional hours per year. Instructional hours are the hours spent actually in front of kids—in other words, about half of the job, the other half being time spent planning, grading and collaborating with other teachers. In Finland, the average teacher teaches 553 instructional hours per year. In Korea, 609 hours. In England, 695. In Japan, 510.

Finland in particular is often held up as a model of a successful primary education system; the fact that teachers in the U.S. put in almost twice (190%) the numbers of instructional hours as in Finland is surely significant.

A Fable of Five Philosophers

Or, Who would win in a shootout: Heraclitus, Parmenides, Thales, Protagoras, or Socrates?

Scott Alexander tells a tale that entertains and enlightens, with the following message: Beware isolated demands for rigor, whether of the philosophical, scientific methodological, or statistical kind.

Quantum Mechanics Videos

Grading is done, so it's time to watch some TedEd videos on quantum mechanics (tip of the hat to Marcus Schultz-Bergin).

These videos are excellent, but I've a couple of bones to pick. These videos defend the standard, Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which (if my understanding is correct) 'reify' or treat as fundamental ontological facts the probabilities that are used to measure the position of quantum particles.

Now, on the one hand, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this, since the Copenhagen interpretation is indeed still the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics among physicists. On the other hand, the Copenhagen interpretation has been questioned by some philosophers and physicists for decades, who favored a deterministic interpretation of quantum phenomena (for example, David Bohm, and more recently, James T. Cushing).

Moreover, some recent oil drop experiments have caused more physicists to question the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, since phenomena similar to that observed at the quantum level can also be observed at the macro-level with regards to oil drops guided by pilot waves, and no one is tempted to interpret this as evidence for a probabilistic ontology (or however one wishes to characterize it) for droplets of oil.

However, the videos make the common error of asserting that because the equations of quantum mechanics yield true predictions about the behavior of electrons and other particles, this proves that the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct. But the critics of Copenhagen do not deny the accuracy of the equations of quantum mechanics. What they deny is the standard philosophical interpretation of quantum mechanics: that sub-atomic particles exist in ontologically probabilistic states until they interact with other particles in such a way that their wave function "collapses".

The failure to make this distinction seems related to the most misleading aspect of the second video, which is on "Schoedinger's Cat". The video correctly introduces the Schroedinger's Cat thought experiment as an attempt by Schroedinger to disprove the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics; Schroedinger thought it was absurd that a cat could be in a superposition between dead and alive before interacting with an observer causes the cat's state to "collapse" like a wave function into either the dead or the alive categories. According to the video, Schroedinger left the field of quantum mechanics altogether, out of his frustration with the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics.

The video then goes on to argue both that Schroedinger's interpretation must be rejected in order to make sense of the way electrons work--which is false--and then to argue that the world as we know it today, with all of its computers and such, would be impossible if it were not for Schroedinger's thought experiment--which is incoherent.

I suppose one cannot expect too much philosophical clarity from TedEd videos, but at least I hope this little imbroglio proves to physicists such as Steven Hawking and science-y types such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson that philosophy may have some value after all, if only in helping to clear up some of the conceptual confusion introduced by well-meaning physicists.

Lest the following point be obscured by the preceding gripefest: the videos are otherwise well-done and are required viewing for the uninformed quantum-ly curious.

The Challenge of Eliminating Bias from Scientific Methodology

Back in April of this year, Scott Alexander wrote a brain-busting meditation on the challenge of eliminating bias from scientific methodology.

I am a humanist by training, statistically illiterate--and, to be frank, practically innumerate--but darn it if this piece doesn't get my philosophy of science juices flowing and coalescing into a roaring stream!

Alexander starts with the observation that a parapsychologist has performed a well-done meta-analysis of parapsychological research, which gives evidence for a small but statistically significant 'psi' factor in his field of research.

Alexander's point is not that we should believe psi is real, but rather something even more disturbing--if a meta-analysis of this high quality can still be wrong-headed, what are we to make of the rest of science? And how do we control for the subtle methodological problems which plague even the best of scientific studies and meta-analyses?

Alexander offers a glorious trip through the inner workings, the nooks and crannies of scientific methodology, with himself as thoughtful guide. Alexander concludes in part that there is a hidden "experimenter" bias which shows up in scientific research of all kinds. The most striking example occurs in a parapsychological study conducted by two researchers, who jointly agreed on a common methodology and who supervised each others' collection and interpretation of data--but who still achieved contrary results, which corresponded with their prior beliefs. This is probably only part of the explanation for why many scientific research findings are biased or unreliable, however.

Research on Student Evaluations

Lillian MacNell and two co-authors from North Carolina University have discovered evidence of gender bias in student evaluations of professors. 

The study tested the effect of perceived gender on student evaluations by having the same professor self-identify as different genders for different sections of the same course taught online.

In a separate study, Michele Pellizzari, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, found that professors who are better teachers actually receive lower student evaluations (presumably because they challenge their students in ways that students find difficult or unpleasant). The exception is that highly skilled students evaluate better teachers more highly (presumably because they appreciate being challenged in a way that promotes their learning).

Are Economists' Research Findings Biased by Political Ideology?

A new paper examines whether the political ideology of economists influences their findings. 

The authors of the paper have summarized their findings in a popular article on the website Five Thirty Eight entitled "Economists Aren't as Nonpartisan as We Think".

However, I concur with economist Noah Smith, who disagrees that the data show that economists are partisan. Smith argues that the effect size of ideological bias on research findings that was discovered by the researchers is surprisingly small, even though the result is statistically significant.

Now, it is common to confuse the issue of effect size with that of statistical significance, but presumably the authors of the study understand very well the difference between these two concepts. The most likely explanation for the way they are framing their findings is that this is what the journals and Five Thirty Eight want to hear. But who knows?

Tony Blair Critiques Democracy as We Know It

Tony Blair criticizes the performance of democratic governments: "The simple right to vote is not enough: Systems need to deliver results for the people."

Blair is not very systematic in his descriptions of the problems facing democracies, and he's vague about solutions, but I agree with him that our democratic governments are performing poorly in a variety of areas. For example, he mentions the difficulties several European countries have had in reforming their finances, and the difficulties many countries have in creating the legal conditions for an effective and innovative health care system.

Here is a list containing restatements of the problems with democracies that Blair identifies in his piece:

1. The drawing of electoral districts often favors candidates who appeal to more partisan and ideological party activists, rather than to the political center (presumably leading to worse policies).
2. The polarization of news outlets has further polarized voters (again, presumably leading to worse policies).
3. Government bureaucracies fight proposed changes which would affect their operation, even if such changes would benefit the nation.
4. Special interests such as teachers' unions and those involved in health care fight reforms which would benefit the nation.
5. The pace of democratic reform is unable to keep up with the pace of technological and social change.
6. Few politicians have real-world experience or expertise outside of politics.
7. The salaries of elected officials are not high enough to attract the best talent.
8. Social media has enhanced the voting public's susceptibility to scandal and passionate, irrational agitation, giving more power to the loudest voices, rather than the most reasonable.

Not all of these criticisms are equally plausible, but Blair is surely correct that democracy does not work as well we often think, say, and hope.

Do Humans Have a "Language Instinct"?

Vyvyan Evans has written a critique of Noam Chomsky's and Steven Pinker's "language instinct" theory of language acquisition. 

The main problem with this essay is that it does not give a sufficiently clear initial definition of the language instinct thesis; it is therefore difficult to assess what the testable implications of the language instinct thesis are, and how those differ from what Evans presents as the agreed upon consensus of linguists:

Our brains really are ‘language-ready’ in the following limited sense: they have the right sort of working memory to process sentence-level syntax, and an unusually large prefrontal cortex that gives us the associative learning capacity to use symbols in the first place. 

Presumably a linguist already knows how this standard view differs from the specific implications of the language instinct view, but it wasn't clearly explained in the essay.

Also, Evans criticizes Chomsky's view about how the capacity for language evolved in humans, without making it clear that this is a separate issue from whether the language instinct theory is correct. Chomsky could be wrong about how the capacity for language evolved, even if he is correct about how this capacity operates.

Nevertheless, the essay is well worth a read by anyone interested in human language acquisition. I wonder whether and how Chomsky or Pinker will respond.

Why Does the White Working Class Predominately Vote Republican?

Interesting speculation about why the white working class (WWC) voted Republican by a 30 point margin in the last election:

"So who does the WWC take out its anger on? Largely, the answer is the poor. In particular, the undeserving poor. Liberals may hate this distinction, but it doesn't matter if we hate it. Lots of ordinary people make this distinction as a matter of simple common sense, and the WWC makes it more than any. That's because they're closer to it. For them, the poor aren't merely a set of statistics or a cause to be championed. They're the folks next door who don't do a lick of work but somehow keep getting government checks paid for by their tax dollars. For a lot of members of the WWC, this is personal in a way it just isn't for the kind of people who read this blog."

I wonder how this hypothesis could be tested.

A Field Guide to Neoreactionaries

Mencius Moldbug (Curtis Guy Yarvin)

I somehow missed this year's spate of exposes of the gang of right-wing cranks known as 'neoreactionaries'. Here is a fine summary of their principal doctrines and figures written by Corey Pein at The Baffler. I had heard of their ring-leader, who blogs under the handle Mencius Modlbug (A.K.A. Curtis Guy Yarvin), but I did not grasp the underlying principles of their political philosophy, nor understand the breadth of their influence in Silicon Valley, until reading Pein's article.

The one thing Pein seems to get wrong is the relationship between libertarians and neoreactionaries. Pein portrays the two groups of cranks as peas in a pod. To me they seem more like the Cain and Abel of contemporary critiques of the democratic republican system of government. They do share an opposition to the common view that democratic majoritarianism is the most fundamental principle, or the view that democratic majoritarianism is in any case more fundamental than other principles such as those of liberty or utility. (I'm not really sure what the fundamental principles are for the neoreactionaries, or even if they have worked out their view that carefully yet.)

However, the libertarians are bigger defenders of the principle of equal liberty than are the neoreactionaries. This is actually a big deal. It means that the libertarians clearly oppose inequality under the law, and are thus consistent opponents of racism, sexism, and other forms of domination by an elite ruling class over the class of the ruled. The neoreactionaries embrace elitism, as they regard rule by knowledgeable elites as superior (producing better social outcomes) than rule by non-elites. Their view resembles Plato's belief that only the wise should rule, and that the wise are a special class of humans separated at birth from the inferior classes of warriors and commoners. Equal liberty is nowhere in sight in Plato's ideal Republic (Kallipolis), and so it seems incompatible with the political vision of the neoreactionaries.

This split between libertarians and neoreactonaries can be seen in Yarvin's admiration of the 19th century British writer and philosopher Thomas Carlysle. Carlysle had an elitist view of history, noting and celebrating the outsized influence of the "Great Man" in history, and also penned an infamous tract in defense of black slavery ("Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question"). Libertarians, by contrast, are intellectual heirs of Carlysle's great opponent in debate, John Stuart Mill. Mill wrote an early, powerful, and influential critique of sexism (The Subjection of Women), and was generally an opponent of racism and classism as well, despite his occasional bone-headed lapses (for example: see his off-hand remark defending imperial rule over "barbarian" nations at the beginning of On Liberty, despite the fact that this is clearly inconsistent with what he argues for in the rest of the work).

So, even though it's true that the contemporary Silicon Valley tech elite seem to disproportionately fall for both libertarian and neoreactionary ideology, this does not really show that the two are somehow very similar in terms of their underlying principles. I mentioned their shared opposition to the principle of democratic majoritarianism, but even in this they show important differences. Many libertarians, perhaps most, support democratic majoritarianism as a system of government; they simply attempt to persuade the majority and those in power to support more libertarian political positions. And when libertarians criticize democratic majoritarianism for leading to bad outcomes, the criticism is not predicated upon the distinction between a wise elite and a foolish underclass. The neoreactionaties, by contrast, are generally opposed to democratic majoritarianism in principle, and the principle in question is that of Plato's 'aristocracy' or rule by the best.

The Pervasiveness and Social Cost of Racism and Sexism

Scott Alexander, at Slate Star Codex, has compiled a handy summary of the evidence for pervasive and socially costly racism and sexism.

I also take Alexander's blog post as evidence of the continuing relevance of the blog as a medium, for four reasons.

1. Blogs offer a longer-form medium than tweets or social media updates.
2. Blogs can be referenced using a stable and publicly accessible URL.
3. It is easier and quicker to publish a piece as a blog post than as a piece of journalism or scholarship in a formal professional publication.
4. Blogs are a convenient medium for people making a contribution outside of their area of specialization. For example, the writer of the Slate Star Codex blog is a psychiatrist by trade, but here he is making a useful contribution to discussions about racism and sexism.

Hilary Clinton's Conservative Christian Piety

According to this article at Mother Jones, Hilary Clinton is a member of a secretive but highly influential Christian political ministry, known variously as "The Fellowship Foundation" or "The Family," which, among other things, organizes the National Prayer Breakfast. All members of the Fellowship Foundation swear an oath of secrecy, ostensibly to prevent them from abusing their ties to the organization for the sake of public displays of faith.

Jeff Sharlet, an investigative journalist, has written an entire book on the Fellowship Foundation, and was interviewed about his research by Fresh Air's Terry Gross back in 2009. According to Sharlet, the Fellowship Foundation fetishizes power much more than Christian charity. They are also supporters of Christian fundamentalism in Uganda, including support for the strict anti-gay laws there.

The Real Amazons: Ancient Scythian Warrior Women

Ancient Greek Attic white-ground alabastron, c. 470 BC, British Museum, London.

National Geographic interviews Adrienne Mayor, author of the new book The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World.

Mayor claims that the Greek legends of the Amazons are based on their contact with Scythian warrior women, whose existence has been confirmed by modern archaeology. The Scythians had both male and female warriors, unlike the legendary Amazons, who were a tribe in which only the women fought.

In the above ancient Greek alabastron, an Amazon is depicted wearing the trousers and patterned cloth characteristic of the ancient Scythian people.

How Can Scandinavian Countries Tax So Much?

How can Scandinavian countries tax so much, and yet still have such high income per capita and other favorable economic and social outcomes?

Henrik Jacobsen Kleven explains, in a recent article from the peer-reviewed Journal of Economic Perspectives. Here are his three main conclusions:

First, the Scandinavian tax systems have very wide coverage of third-party information reporting and more generally, well developed information trails that ensure a low level of tax evasion. Second, broad tax bases in these countries further encourage low levels of tax avoidance and contribute to modest elasticities of taxable income with respect to the marginal tax rate. Third, the subsidization or public provision of goods that are complementary to working—including child care, elderly care, transportation, and education—encourages a high level of labor supply.

Grubergate

Economist Arnold Kling on Grubergate:

I think that the extent to which the attacks on Gruber have become personal is something that every economist, regardless of ideology, will come to regret. I am all for criticizing the ideas and the world view that underlie Obamacare. However, a world in which every economist who steps into the policy arena is subjected to opposition research and “gotcha” attacks is not going to be pretty.

A nice illustration of the Problem with Politics. When talking politics, we just don't play fair. The goal is not to investigate the truth impartially, but rather to cheer our team on. The emotional tail wags the rational dog.

And I say this as an opponent of the Affordable Care Act.

To be clear: the point I am trying to make is that even if Gruber deliberately distorted information, which is clearly immoral, this does not itself prove that the Affordable Care Act is a bad policy. Too many of the attacks on ACA via Grubergate have been merely of the ad hominem variety.

This is not to say that Gruber's admissions are wholly irrelevant to evaluating ACA, but attempting to connect the two must be done with great care to avoid inadvertently stepping over into the Land of Fallacy.

Space: 1999

The writing on this show is pretty poor, but there is some great Mid-Century modern design visible in its costumes and sets. Plus the music and intro sequence is very . . . scifi funky.

Killbot Zero

I am a fan neither of prog rock nor of The Transformers, but this outstanding video by the band Killbot Zero is much more than the sum of its parts:

Killbot Zero is a two-person prog rock band playing out of northwest Ohio. I am friends with their guitarist, Chris Cavera, a professor of music theory by day, whose knowledge of such clearly shows through in their outstanding music. Well done lads!

Martha Nussbaum on Cyberstalking and Internet Misogyny

Philosopher Martha Nussbaum has a well-written piece at The Nation on internet misogyny and on her own personal experience with a cyberstalker.

Libertarian "Free Stater" Wins a Seat in the New Hampshire House

Libertarian free-stater Elizabeth Edwards has won a seat in the New Hampshire house of representatives.

An article at The Washington Free Beacon offers a brief profile about Edwards and her wife Cailtin Edwards-Appell, described as "two terrifying right-wing extremists" with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Cyberbully "Requires Hate"

Fantasy author Benjanun Sriduankaew has allegedly been cyber-bullying other writers using the moniker "Requires Hate".

What's disturbing is both how calculating and how effective her methods are.

Why Was Agriculture Invented?

Economist Andrea Matinga argues that agriculture was invented (seven different times) because of a large increase in climatic seasonality.

Matinga also attempts to explain some current cultural and political differences in terms of the history of agriculture and climate.

Is this what E. O. Wilson meant by sociobiology? Or something to that effect (social sciences / natural sciences crossover / interface).

What Is the Purpose of Teaching Philosophy?

I have been thinking about this question, for two reasons. The first is that I want to be able to quickly and clearly communicate to my students what the purpose of their philosophy class is The second is so that I do a better job designing the class in the first place.

Here is my answer to this question: teaching philosophy has two main purposes. The first is to teach critical thinking. The second is to teach a small number of substantive questions (and, if you're lucky, answers) from each text studied in the course.

Regarding critical thinking: I recently developed a sequence of questions for students to ask about a text, which will hopefully help them develop critical thinking skills, if they use this sequence for every text they encounter over the course of the semester.

Argument Analysis in 4 Steps

1. What is the thesis? (Is there more than one?)
2. What is the argument for each thesis? (Is there more than one?)
3. For each argument: Are the premises true?
4. For each argument: Is it valid (if deductive) or strong (if inductive)?

Regarding the second purpose of teaching philosophy: I need to work on this more, but my goal is that each text should have one or more substantive lessons for a student to retain and make use of later in life.

For example: Maybe Plato's Euthyphro teaches that moral truth is probably not based on God's will.

Maybe Descartes' Meditations teaches that one should be willing to question custom, authority, tradition, and the appearances of things, in order to discover the truth. And that many forms of dualism face the Interaction Problem.

Maybe Hume's Enquiry teaches that the logic of scientific discovery is not what people often take it to be. And that the argument from design has even deeper problems than those brought up by Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Oftentimes, though, I anticipate that the key lesson of a text will be an important question, rather than just an important answer.

Dreams of Futures Past

When I was a child, I eagerly awaited a future of space stations and colonies on the moon.

Instead, I got a cell phone, and a weekly video series about tabletop gaming hosted by Star Trek: TNG's Will Wheaton.

Kay Nielsen

Like so many dreams, gifted illustrator Kay Nielsen's died in Los Angeles:

Nielsen briefly returned to Denmark in desperation. However, he found his works no longer in demand there either. His final years were spent in poverty. His last works were for local schools, including 'The First Spring' mural installed at Central Junior High School, Los Angeles and churches, including his painting to the Wong Chapel at the First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, illustrating the 23rd Psalm. 

Nielsen contracted a chronic cough that would plague him until his death on June 21, 1957 at the age of 71. His funeral service was held under his mural in the Wong Chapel. Ulla, his wife since she was 21, died the following year. 

Before her death to diabetes, Ulla gave Nielson's remaining illustrations to Frederick Monhoff, who in turn tried to place them in museums. However, none – American or Danish – would accept them at the time. (Wikipedia)

On Teaching Philosophy

There's a particular kind of futility associated with the teaching of philosophy in a formal school setting. It is very common for students to reject and rebel against the very idea of philosophy, for two different and conflicting reasons (which are often, however, expressed simultaneously if incoherently by the same persons).

First, philosophy is dismissed as irrelevant, insignificant, and of no practical concern or value, because its questions of meaning, value, and being are not directly related to any career path or any area of scientific or mathematical expertise.

Second, philosophy is rejected with great emotional vehemence, precisely because many of the questions it raises touch upon people's deepest convictions about morality, politics, and religion, which they identify with, stake their self-worth on, and cling to passionately, like a dog clinging to its favorite bone.

In other words, to the extent that students are not already passionately attached to beliefs relating to philosophical questions, it is dismissed as worthless and irrelevant. To the extent that students are already passionately attached to beliefs relating to philosophical questions, their mind rebels against the very thought of addressing such questions using the method of rational inquiry. Either reaction is destructive to philosophical discussion, and poisons the atmosphere in the classroom.

Teaching philosophy is 90% or more about emotion management, and 10% or less about conveying information and stimulating discussion about philosophical concepts, theories, and arguments. It can be a draining, exhausting enterprise, in particular for those who are neither adept at nor passionately interested in managing the emotions of others.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Reprise)

The moderns forgot what the ancients knew: the greatest loves were all unrequited; or, if requited, unconsummated; or, if consummated, ended in the blackest tragedy.

Elizabeth Siddal was the model and muse of her husband, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Here she appears as Beatrix, the unrequited love of famed Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

In 1861, Siddal was overjoyed when she became pregnant with Rossetti's child. She gave birth to a stillborn baby, before dying of a laudanam overdose at the age of 32.

"My Father, Soaring Free"

Kitra Cahana's moving TED talk about her father Ronnie Cahana's experience of "locked in syndrome":

In 2011 Ronnie Cahana suffered a severe stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome: completely paralyzed except for his eyes. While this might shatter a normal person’s mental state, Cahana found peace in “dimming down the external chatter,” and “fell in love with life and body anew.” In a somber, emotional talk, his daughter Kitra shares how she documented her father's spiritual experience, as he helped guide others even in a state of seeming helplessness.

Hypotheses about Motivated Reasoning; Or, Why Most Debates Are Not About Truth

A psychiatrist blogging under the nomme de plume of 'Scott Alexander' has a fantastic recent blog post about the psychology of motivated reasoning, specifically as it applies to emotionally charged debates about politics, religion, and so forth.

His main thesis is that most such debates are not really about meaningfully answerable questions, but are instead competitions in which each side tries to associate its own position with key words that have positive emotional associations and the opposing position with key words that have negative emotional associations. The purpose of such debates is not to prove that a given thesis is true or false, but rather to create pro or con attitudes in the audience toward a given cause or concept, through the strategic use of emotionally-laden verbal associations. In other words, the purpose of such debates is to secure loyalty to a cause, not to secure belief in a proposition.

From the blog post:

This sort of conflation between a cause and its supporters really only makes sense in the emotivist model of arguing. I mean, this shouldn’t even get dignified with the name ad hominem fallacy. Ad hominem fallacy is “McCain had sex with a goat, therefore whatever he says about taxes is invalid.” At least it’s still the same guy. This is something the philosophy textbooks can’t bring themselves to believe really exists, even as a fallacy. 

But if there’s a General Factor Of McCain, then anything bad remotely connected to the guy – goat sex, lying campaigners, whatever – reflects on everything else about him.
This is the same pattern we see in Israel and Palestine. How many times have you seen a news story like this one: “Israeli speaker hounded off college campus by pro-Palestinian partisans throwing fruit. Look at the intellectual bankruptcy of the pro-Palestinian cause!”  

It’s clearly intended as an argument for something other than just not throwing fruit at people. The causation seems to go something like “These particular partisans are violating the usual norms of civil discussion, therefore they are bad, therefore something associated with Palestine is bad, therefore your General Factor of Pro-Israeliness should become more strongly positive, therefore it’s okay for Israel to bomb Gaza.” Not usually said in those exact words, but the thread can be traced.

Showing Up

I recently sent this announcement out to my students about the importance of "Showing Up." I think this is a good lesson not just for my students, but for myself, and for people in general. 

I have observed many students arriving late, leaving early, missing class, coming to class unprepared, and not participating in class discussions. This is bad.
 Participation is 10% of your grade. Will you earn participation points if you frequently arrive late, leave early, miss class, come to class unprepared, or don't participate in class discussions? No.
 But the main reason you should avoid these behaviors has nothing to do with participation points. The main reason you should avoid them is because of the kind of person you should strive to be.
 You should strive to be a person who Shows Up. A person who Shows Up is someone who fulfills his commitments and takes care of his responsibilities. This is true both in school and outside of school.
 Sure, there are extrinsic benefits to Showing Up. Professors will recommend you for scholarships, internships, awards, and other opportunities. Employers will promote you and give you greater income and authority. Family members and friends will look up to and admire you.
 But the most important benefit to Showing Up is intrinsic. You will have the authentic sense of pride and self-worth that comes from consistently honoring your commitments. You will have the satisfaction that comes from knowing you are a person who Shows Up.
 So start Showing Up, both in this class and in your other classes, and both in school and outside of school.
 That is all.

Syd Mead

Syd Mead is a commercial illustrator who worked for Ford Motor Company before turning to concept art for film studios. The above images are work he did for the 1982 film Blade Runner.

State college tuition fact of the day

Tuition has doubled since 1988, but spending per student is flat. What accounts for the discrepancy? Economist Susan Dynarski, writing for the New York Times, explains:

In 1988, state legislatures gave their public colleges an average of $8,600 a student. Students contributed an additional $2,700 in tuition, which gets us to a total of $11,300. By 2013, states were kicking in just $6,100, while students were contributing $5,400; this gets us to a total of $11,500. 

As far as students are concerned, public tuition has doubled. As far as public colleges are concerned, funding is flat. 

At public colleges, then, the explanation for rising tuition prices isn’t spiraling costs. The costs are the same, but the burden of paying those costs has shifted from state taxpayers to students.

Library digital collection blues

My university's library is moving towards reducing its print collection and replacing it with a digital collection. I support this move, both because this will enable the library to use its space more efficiently (more room is needed for student study spaces, as these often fill up), and because the right sort of digital collection would be more efficient for research than a print collection. However, I'm concerned that the current incarnation of the digital collection is not as useful as a print collection, and I believe this is a common problem in libraries that are going digital right now. 

As I understand it, the library's e-books can be viewed online in .html format or downloaded in Adobe Digital Editions format. The former option seems to suffer from two drawbacks. First, it can only be accessed with an internet connection. Second, in the sample e-book I examined, Innovative Buddhist Women by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, the image quality (reflected in the clarity of the text) was noticeably poor. It's fine for reading a couple of pages, but seems like it would be a strain to try to read the entire book carefully, which is necessary for students and faculty engaged in research.

The download option has two drawbacks of its own. First, it seems that a book can only be downloaded for up to 7 days before it is scuttled by the publisher's software. 

Second, the process of downloading is not easy or simple. When I attempted to download the aforementioned e-book, I was first prompted to download Adobe Digital Editions. It is annoying to have to use a new piece of software when they are already a lot of common file formats out there (.pdf comes to mind). How many students will persist past this initial roadblock?

Third, after downloading the new software, the user is prompted to provide an Adobe Digital Editions ID. I have no idea what this ID is or how to get it. After deciding to view the e-book without the ID (which means, evidently, that I can only use the book on one computer or device and not share it between computers or devices, itself a problem), I was finally able to view the e-book. 

Fourth, while the e-book does share the same pagination as the print edition, which is necessary for research purposes, there is a serious problem with the fonts in this particular e-book. I assume these kinds of problems occur more generally, though, since the e-book is not simply a .pdf or other file type which captures an image of the print version of the book. With Innovative Buddhist Women, all of the letters in Sanskrit words which require diacritical marks are in a different, hard-to-read, and awkwardly sized font that doesn't match the rest of the text. In other words, the e-book version of this book is as difficult to read for long periods as the .html version which is accessible via the library's website, but for different reasons.

It appears I am not the only one to complain about the current state of many e-books available through university libraries. Bob Pasnau, of the University of Colorado, has made similar complaints about Oxford Scholarship Online. Pasnau also explains part of the underlying problem, which is that publishers are not putting as much thought and care into their digital editions as they are into their print editions.

I am not very confident that these problems will be solved soon. I wish they would be, because of the great potential of a properly designed digital collection.

The benefits of pre-testing

Science writer Benedict Carey makes the case for testing students before they are taught new material in a class as well as after.

Catnip for human ears?

Vice Motherboard reports on audiophiles obsessed with tuning instruments to 432 Hz, instead of the standard 440 Hz. They claim that tuning to 432 brings with it immeasurable aesthetic and spiritual benefits; some within the movement have even blamed tuning to 440 on the Nazis.

Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin isn't buying it:

“We can fix pitches anywhere we want,” Levitin writes, “because what defines music is a set of pitch relations. The specific frequencies for notes may be arbitrary, but the distance from one frequency to the next—and hence from one note to the next in our musical system [the intervals we discussed earlier]—isn’t at all arbitrary.”

UC San Diego cognitive psychologist Diana Deutsch suggests simply resolving the dispute with a controlled experiment--but laments that there is no funding for such at this time.

Either way, it's a fascinating story, well told by Chris Hampton for Motherboard.

The psychology of pronouns

Psychologist James Pennebaker studies the psychology of word choice. Among other things, he has discovered that lower status people use the word 'I' more when talking to higher status people. Pennebaker illustrates this with an email that he wrote to a high-status professor before making this discovery:

Dear Famous Professor: 

The reason I'm writing is that I'm helping to put together a conference on [a particular topic]. I have been contacting a large group of people and many have specifically asked if you were attending. I would absolutely love it if you could come... I really hope you can make it. 

Jamie Pennebaker

 And here is the professor's reply:

Dear Jamie - 

Good to hear from you. Congratulations on the conference. The idea of a reunion is a nice one ... and the conference idea will provide us with a semiformal way of catching up with one another's current research.... Isn't there any way to get the university to dig up a few thousand dollars to defray travel expenses for the conference? 

With all best regards,

Famous Professor 

Rising income inequality

Income inequality has increased in the United States since the recession:

"The most striking finding is that the median American family earned 5 per cent less in 2013 than in 2010 after inflation even though the average American family took home 4 per cent more."

That was from Matthew C. Klein, who blogs at the Financial Times, in response to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances for 2013.

Klein further comments: "The discrepancy can be explained by the fact that only people in the top tenth of the income distribution experienced any real income gains since 2010."

The labor market seems to be increasingly divided between those with the most valued skills and everyone else (including, ahem, academics with 9 or more years of higher education under their belt...). (Note that this data is about income inequality, not wealth inequality, which is a separate issue.)

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution.

"Peter Thiel disagrees with you"

This is the title of an informative profile of Thiel, a gay Christian libertarian entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and would-be public intellectual.