All posts by Rand Simberg

Business, Economics, Mathematics, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Technology and Society

AI Doom

6 Comments

Eric Raymond makes the case against it.

Education, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, War Commentary

25 Years On

15 Comments

I’ll be doing anniversary posts here with updates. The first is from Arynne Wexler, who is so much more than a comedian.

And then there’s this:

Either he didn’t understand the nature of the enemy, or he was too enamored of his Saudi buddies in the oil business.

[Update a few minutes later]

I was in Puerto Rico, about to go to the airport for a flight back to LA, and about to call a cab to the airport. As soon as I saw the second plane hit, I knew there was no point. If I’d been home, it would have been eerie to look toward the east from our balcony, where normally every clear night you can see the planes lined up for final at LAX all the way out to Palm Springs, and see an empty sky.

[Update a few more minutes later]

Yes, the war won’t be over until we actually win, and ending the monstrous regime in Tehran will go a long way toward that.

[Update a while later]

Thoughts on asymmetric warfare, from Supersonic Redhead:

[Update a while later]

Remembering the heroes of Flight 93, by Salena Zito.

And a related oldie, by Dave Barry a year after the event: On Hallowed Ground.

[Update a few more minutes later]

James Lileks, on the martyred towers.

Replacing them would have been a big FU to the people who cheered as they fell.

History, Philosophy, Social Commentary

The Aztecs

22 Comments

A long, fascinating review of a book on what was perhaps the most horrible “civilization” in history.

This thought experiment has stuck with me ever since I read it. I think of it whenever I encounter a system that everybody hates but everybody is powerless to change, or some other stuck equilbrium or multipolar trap. When I first read it, the society he described sounded contrived and outlandish, but later I was to learn from my dear wife that the real world is far more outlandish than that thought experiment. The thing is that each of the societies chronicled in that book Jane reviewed is very small, very primitive, and very dysfunctional. What is so disturbing about the Mexica is that they were large, sophisticated, and oh-so-terribly functional. The streets of Tenochtitlan, as my elementary school textbooks told me, were wider and more beautiful than those of Paris or Seville. Their art, music, and poetry were sublime, their theology was subtle, and their intellectual life was vibrant. The Mexica would seem horrifying to us if they were barbarians. But I think they should be more horrifying precisely because they were not.

I knew they were awful, but hadn’t realized the extent of their cruelty. And the comparison with the Holocaust seems apt, except this was not just against a few disfavored groups, but all of society. It’s not clear whether that’s better, or worse.