Saturday, February 23, 2002

Cuppa Joe, Easy on the Tummy. If coffee gives you an ache in the gut, try The Considerate Coffee, which claims to remove the irritants that aggravate the digestive system. But does it really do what it says? By Katie Dean. [Wired News] 9:04:50 PM     Comments

Steven Garrity has an essay on the state of the Web, and uses my content base as an example, but it's much worse than it appears. I put markup in every day's Scripting News, and in the all the docs we write at UserLand. In this way we're no different from anyone else. Other than that, I want to let Garrity's essay stand alone. He asks some good questions, dives into the history (which is central), and confronts head-on the migration question. A well-written thoughtful essay, well worth a read.  [Scripting News] 8:45:25 PM     Comments

Sims Recapitulate Theology A common Non Sequitur among anti-theists is that if one can delineate the development of theism one has proven it false, or at least done it some damage. Well, I think an analogy from the world of simulation software puts that to rest. Let’s examine, for a moment, the direction that simulation software is taking: the AI is getting more and more sophisticated. The simulacrum are interacting more richly with their environment. Let’s posit, for the sake of argument, that these sims will one day become self-aware. More importantly, lets say these sims will one day become aware of the existence (in a world wholly outside their own) of their developers. Now, it won’t be as simple as turning the "god" bit on, but no matter how complex it is, what bearing at all will it have on the existence of me, the developer? Suppose I design it so that my sims slowly develop an awareness of me over many thousands of their generations - does that have any bearing on my existence? Similarly, any delineation on the history of theism has no bearing on the existence of God. 5:37:12 PM     Comments

What To Do With Lust, Homosexual Or Otherwise It is youthful to have lusts, but isn’t it just a cheap substitute for hungering for God? Next time you are aware of lust, instead of indulging in it, instead of trying to push it down or cover it with shame, try pushing it up! From the very moment of its inception, turn inward to the One Who Sees you and direct that intense longing toward Him, to be with Him, to touch the face of God. Linger there as long as it takes. Indulge your lust for God. 5:30:54 PM     Comments

My Policy For Public Charity In the system of "public charity" we have now, money is taken by threats of violence. Half of the booty is spent on administration, the other half is used to create dependencies (there being no incentive to unproductivity like waiting for the next entitlement). The right thing to do here is to stop the violence, and let each income earner possess the virtue of charity within themselves, for it is no virtue of generosity to be forced to give. But if our love of violence and violent solutions cannot be restrained, then at least let the administration remain in the hands of the income producer: let their income be first deposited in a private account, percentages of which would be earmarked to be distributed to the charity of their choice. If the legislature decides that 0.2% of every income must go to caring for cripples, and some qualifying association says that this agency is qualified to receive monies for caring for cripples, then the owner of that account is free to distribute some or all of the 0.2% to that agency. 5:13:54 PM     Comments

Desiree put up a picture of my desktop on her website. 4:35:56 PM     Comments