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Cake day: February 2nd, 2025

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  • According to some myths, King Solomon did something like this. With his wisdom he learned the true name of a powerful genie, and with the true name a of a genie he could bind them and force them to obey him. So he commands the bound genie to give him all the true names he knew, and bring these genies to him. Once he had these genies, repeat the process until all the genies were bound under his seal.


  • There was a period where it was still a skill to know how to use a computer. If you had a computer in your house it was a part of your identity, you were a computer owner. Using a computer was something you did. The computer is a powerful tool, and the user had an opportunity to overcome the challenge of learning how to use it.

    Now a computer is an appliance. People know how to do what they do with it, but see no reason to explore farther. They aren’t interested in delving into the device’s potential. Owning a computer is like owning a car. They want it for the function they use it for. Learning more is like learning to change the oil in a car. In principle easy, but more of a chore than an opportunity.



  • It’s interesting to me that in the medieval period the term outlaw applied to persons who broke the law and were no longer protected by it. They were entirely outside its auspices.

    I guess around the enlightenment philosophy changed, and a class of rights were considered unalienable. Society protects itself from law breakers, but even the worst offenders have some protection under law, even if the case law considers their life forfeit.

    When Popper posed the paradox of tolerance one imagines he supposed a tolerant society extending tolerance as an unalienable right. I quite agree the social contact resolution to the paradox of tolerance neatly solves the paradox, but I think it introduces interesting questions about what behavior is beyond the pale, and how we as a society resolve what we find acceptable. The extremes are easy, but edge cases are introduced. I hope we assess those cases with our eyes open.


  • That is not an uncommon guess, but the argument against it is that these took some sophistication to make. This isn’t some disposable gewgaw. These were made with relatively tight tolerances and exhibited the best metalworking fabrication of the age. One theory I’ve seen seriously floated was that they were made as a demonstration of metal working competency, the equivalent of a benchy in 3D printing.