kwellington's comments

kwellington | 5 years ago | on: Japan ends state of emergency with no lockdown

Anecdotal, but after almost ten years living in Tokyo I've probably seen less than a tenth of men wash their hands after using the bathroom. Half just walk out. Other half puts a finger under the faucet for half a second, no soap, and done.

kwellington | 8 years ago | on: Nest Founder:“I Wake Up in Cold Sweats Thinking,What Did We Bring to the World?”

I was disappointed when I realized it didn't say Nestle.

kwellington | 8 years ago | on: Mark Zuckerberg doubles down on universal basic income after a trip to Alaska

bingo

kwellington | 8 years ago | on: Sam Altman and Y Combinator Bullying Accusations

Difference is he's an authoritarian leftist. Social contacts and all.

kwellington | 8 years ago | on: Not Just Mike Pence. Americans Are Wary of Being Alone with the Opposite Sex

Here in Japan I regularly hear about women or families saying Japan isn't as safe as it appears. I never understood it, because the data doesn't back it up, and I've never experienced any trouble in nearly 5 years here.

I don't have a TV. When I catch TV though, the news programs can harp on a minor crime here in Tokyo like a convenience store robbery for a good thiry minutes. These friends watch a lot of TV. I think media narratives drive these paranoias.

kwellington | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: What is your 'Theory of Everything'?

P ≠ NP

kwellington | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: What is your 'Theory of Everything'?

Ideology has a genetic basis.

We are all combinations of the r and K gene sets. (there is no ideology which falls outside the political compass). Epigenetics will bring out ideology lacking in a society. The ideological dialectic is never-ending and the only way the human race survives.

For example, if UBI ever became a reality, it would simply then give those ideologically opposed to it all the time in the world to take it down.

Recently Steven Pinker has come closest to getting the ideas of ideological genetic predisposition into the mainstream, refuting the theory of tabula rasa. But ultimately the truth is too 'racist' for academia.

also: True creativity is not to break out of cliches, but to install new cliches.

kwellington | 9 years ago | on: Uber Self-Driving Truck Packed with Budweiser Makes First Delivery in Colorado

I think the logical conclusion to self-driving is just turning our roads into digital rails.

So all this work on proprietary algos/hardware for self-driving are so much in vain.

This grey area of 'well yeah, it's 'self-driving' but you still need to be ready to take over at any second' won't fly for long. Either you're driving, or we have true self-driving cars and SMART ROADS to match, to the point where you can take a nap in the back seat.