Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

Better than monkeys sir. We didn't need an infinite time scale to pen the works of Shakespeare. We managed it before the industrial revolution. Not too shabby for stupidity generators
Look at the bell curve. There are people that are +3 standard deviations out…

And some -3…but in aggregate we are adaptable and solve a lot of problems even ones we tend to create.

The real issues are psychological ones..social psychology and other domains show how our reasoning get overwhelmed and tricked but we also can be mindful and prepare or better yet watch over one another.

The deciding by reflex and under pressure and biases are the issue. We have only so much memory but come up with writing to document and communicate…we have an uncanny ability to overcome our limitations!

The biggest issue now due to technology is when power is concentrated and snap decisions can have giant consequences. Hence a process of approval for military action, nukes or whatever.

One idiot autocrat does not a stupid species make though
 

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I have one of those "E-Mail Jobs" where I spend a large portion of my day "Following Up", "Touching Base" , and "Rounding Back", and "Promoting Synergy" through email.

I really like email signatures, particularly when an individual decides to spice theirs up and go against the professional grain. One of our vendors signs off with "Make today so awesome that yesterday gets jealous" in hot pink, and a less than normal font.

Now someone at our corporate office sent me an email, and they have a little image of Jiggypuff in their signature. These things perk up my day. Especially since I know there's probably some folks out there that see them and get twisted up about the "Unprofessional" nature of them.
Thats me.
 

Look at the bell curve. There are people that are +3 standard deviations out…

And some -3…but in aggregate we are adaptable and solve a lot of problems even ones we tend to create.

The real issues are psychological ones..social psychology and other domains show how our reasoning get overwhelmed and tricked but we also can be mindful and prepare or better yet watch over one another.

The deciding by reflex and under pressure and biases are the issue. We have only so much memory but come up with writing to document and communicate…we have an uncanny ability to overcome our limitations!

The biggest issue now due to technology is when power is concentrated and snap decisions can have giant consequences. Hence a process of approval for military action, nukes or whatever.

One idiot autocrat does not a stupid species make though

In all seriousness, it is our intelligence, not our stupidity that leads us to issues like the possibility of nuclear war (and probably our tribal tendencies on top of that). Do we have potential to be very destructive? Absolutely. History shows that. But we are also the lone species on the planet that did things like reach the moon. I'd say that is quite remarkable
 



Do you like Phil Collins?

I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. It was too artsy, too intellectual, too ... Gabriel. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums.

Just listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument they are playing. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. You can hear it in any song, but ... just take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Those lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock.

Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist.

Only a true artist could take the pain of killing a man and turn it into the sweet, sweet soundtrack of the visual masterpiece that is Miami Vice.


-Abraham Lincoln (misattributed to Dostoyevsky)
 


No. I just find response to planetary existential threat more indicative of functioning brains than soliloquies and sonnets.
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No. I just find response to planetary existential threat more indicative of functioning brains than soliloquies and sonnets.

I was kidding when I said that. But in all seriousness again, I think sonnets, industrial technology and nuclear weapons, are all indicative of our intelligence as a species. What we ought to do with that knowledge is a whole other question. I think that is the irony of these things: our intelligence is one of the things that helped us survive as a species, but it is also the thing that enables us to engineer our own destruction
 

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