Post ACOIwRCUIYIKhBSpuq by EdS@mastodon.sdf.org
(DIR) More posts by EdS@mastodon.sdf.org
(DIR) Post #ACM4lCHhcy8pZhjHns by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2021-10-14T09:08:09Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
Q: What are the worst ideas of all time?Why & how?(Explanations count more than the idea itself.)Boosts appreciated.#BadIdeas #WorstIdeaEver
(DIR) Post #ACM4lCr9VAUvLeJb3g by ersatzmaus@mastodon.social
2021-10-14T12:21:16Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbius Changing corporations from having charters for a specific purpose to just "make money for shareholders". Created the gigantic faceless sociopaths that run our world today.
(DIR) Post #ACM4lDOTVH9X0zuCzw by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2021-10-14T09:28:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Nomination: paywalls:http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991230,00.html
(DIR) Post #ACMEdWr8G61gbKHdke by mibzman@mastodon.technology
2021-10-14T14:05:18Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@dredmorbius Enclosure. The world would be completely different in every way if we still had a concept of communal property. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure?wprov=sfla1
(DIR) Post #ACMRrbQZMCzIEntru4 by Seirdy@pleroma.envs.net
2021-10-14T16:43:49.770747Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
@dredmorbius Electron. Probably responsible for millions of people thinking their computers are "slow" and buying new ones, producing tons of e-waste.Creating Javascript instead of using a better existing lang like Lua or Scheme. Perf of lua/scheme runs circles around the former despite getting a fraction of the budget for perf optimizations. How many resources have been wasted getting JS to be almost as good as Lua?"Teach the Controversy". Don't have the patience to explain this one.PGP keyserver pools. They make pgp-based auth even worse by making it trivial to upload a fake key. WKD is a much less bad approach.
(DIR) Post #ACMUdunIr5pA6vhN0i by niplav@schelling.pt
2021-10-14T17:14:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbiusGreat question! Several interpretations are possible, let me cartese:Idea defined narrowly, worst in terms of consequences: leaded fuel (arguably responsible for a huge amount of crime on the 70s)Idea defined narrowly, worst in terms of factual wrongness: probably something we don't know about, but a decent contender is Aristotelian physics (despite being pretty empiricist, Aristotle definitely didn't check this one)
(DIR) Post #ACMV5C5sdyRlaEOaEi by niplav@schelling.pt
2021-10-14T17:19:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbiusIdea defined broadly, worst in terms of consequences: Religion (esp. Aztec) maybe? Seems a viciously strong attractor in belief space, undermining hella lot of empiricism and systematic flexibility. Perhaps Marxism, but I'd like more research about counterfactual industrialization in Russia & China - would the tsarists/kuomintang also have industrialized this heavily?
(DIR) Post #ACMVLFlmkEB7cKebC4 by niplav@schelling.pt
2021-10-14T17:22:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbiusIdea defined broadly, worst in terms of factual correctness: a great many contenders, I'll probably go with Religion again. Probably some strong cult attractor which isn't just wrong, but structured in a way that prevents you from ever learning anything true again. Modern Islamist fundamentalism seems like this, and inquisition - if you kill everybody who believes differently, nobody can convince you you're wrong *taps head*
(DIR) Post #ACMd5QqQbGIcxunBBI by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2021-10-14T18:49:35Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@niplav I'm trying hard to avoid debating answers, but thinking recently about various political-economic systems and harms, it occurred that the private-enterprise / private property slave trade has a lot to answer for as well:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28486037"Who wore it worse" debates are tedious. I'm largely suggesting that any shallow comparison is likely to obscure more than it reveals.
(DIR) Post #ACMjQvvGqZRZ9th2Nk by arivigo@fosstodon.org
2021-10-14T19:26:58Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbius 1. C++: It tries to be everything at once in an attempt to be the perfect language... and doing everything worse than all other languages. Poor internal coherence, poor internal compatibility.2. Salsa "Break On2" style (Eddie Torres's style): Like seriously, dancing on-beat but faking dancing to the off-beat? Why?3. Solid lipsticks: Apart from being a pool of bacteria, hard to apply, break easily, don't last as advertised EVER. 2-phase liquid lipstick FTW. đź’‹
(DIR) Post #ACOIwRCUIYIKhBSpuq by EdS@mastodon.sdf.org
2021-10-15T14:13:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
> Q: What are the worst ideas of all time?- Using Fossil Fuels- Might is Right- Individualism- The Corporation> Why & how?Don't make me do your homework.> (Explanations count more than the idea itself.)Noted.> Ancillary question: how should harm or badness be assessed, measured, or quantified?Sum total of human misery.#BadIdeas #WorstIdeaEver@dredmorbius
(DIR) Post #ACOMGNXXutf4ztVwNk by penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2021-10-15T14:50:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbiusWorst ideas: OfficesWhy: Brings in need for commuting, lots of over regulation and layers of bureaucracy; good breeding ground for pathogens. Awful office buildings.(Note I exclude functional buildings such as factories, data centres etc that have physical devices that need to be used)
(DIR) Post #ACOTTV8vexti1NCin2 by EdS@mastodon.sdf.org
2021-10-15T16:11:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Here's Time's 100 worst ideas of the century, without a paywall in sight:https://everything2.com/title/Worst+ideas+of+the+centuryIt really is disappointingly trivial and parochial.In fact I recommend you give it a miss!@dredmorbius
(DIR) Post #ACOTVHBuVHdtKTRei0 by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2021-10-15T16:11:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@EdS Given this definition of "harm or badness":Sum total of human misery.Supposing there were to be invented a method to kill every human on Earth instantly and with no pain. Untold billions of future generations would never be born, to suffer pain, loss, grief, and their own mortality.By your definition, would this be a net good or a net harm?Or would you choose another definition of harm or badness? #MeasuresOfHarm #GoodVsEvil
(DIR) Post #ACOTWWPNPbAMoXKztA by dredmorbius@toot.cat
2021-10-15T16:11:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@EdS Thanks!
(DIR) Post #ACOTzF3ezz2BOvsInw by EdS@mastodon.sdf.org
2021-10-15T16:17:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
> why not kill everyone?The nice thing about switching to a fossil-fuel-free timeline is that the human population is only around a billion. That's a whole lot less misery without killing anyone.If anyone should ever be killed (and I know it does happen) then painlessly and instantly and without forewarning is surely the best way. (Insert NO CARRIER joke here.)But there's still misery, in those who loved them. And the killers and witnesses.1/2@dredmorbius
(DIR) Post #ACOUDoVtyNAhQ126gy by EdS@mastodon.sdf.org
2021-10-15T16:19:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
2/2So indeed, if everyone dies together, with no agency causing or any witness - a nearby supernova or similar cosmic event might do it, there's no misery. A nice finish to an experiment, if you will.I don't feel we can balance misery with joy. I don't feel we can worry about the lives of people who never lived.Remember Omelas!@dredmorbius
(DIR) Post #ACOzOgliCpSdA85s1I by madmike@noagendasocial.com
2021-10-15T22:09:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbius the idea that someone wants or needs a refrigerator, toaster and clothes dryer that communicate with each other?
(DIR) Post #ACRpBiBhCbXBjQIh6m by mathew@mastodon.social
2021-10-15T17:43:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbius Some other nominations:Political parties.https://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/political-partiesDaylight saving time.https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/daylight-saving-health.htmlAdding lead to gasoline.https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/secret-history-lead/Bitcoin.https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/17/waste-from-one-bitcoin-transaction-like-binning-two-iphonesDRM.https://torrentfreak.com/what-piracy-removing-drm-boosts-music-sales-by-10-percent-131130/The British plantation model and the subsequent invention of the white race to support it.https://indypendent.org/2015/01/the-white-race-was-invented-heres-how-it-happened/
(DIR) Post #ACRpBiiJFLcdMZYjwW by Seirdy@pleroma.envs.net
2021-10-17T06:58:43.900378Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@mathew @dredmorbius Agreed on daylight saving time.Also, cargo-culting map projections instead lf using the best one for the job. This xkcd led me down a rabbit hole that taught me a lot about map projections and their strengths/weaknesses. Would especially like to see more love for myriahedral projections.DANE for email auth. Using DNSSEC for auth instead of something like MTA-STS is backwards; DNS shouldn’t be treated as a trusted medium when we have other, better means of going about authenticated data exchange.
(DIR) Post #ACRsNbDLFrsNRQQkXQ by Seirdy@pleroma.envs.net
2021-10-17T07:34:30.091789Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dredmorbius Blockchain and cryptocurrency based on it: https://gist.github.com/joepie91/daa93b9686f554ac7097158383b97838The concept of frying many foods without adding spices, deriving all the flavor from the oils. There are a few notable exceptions, but they're just that: exceptional. Satiation should come from places besides calorie density.Lawns. A pointless use of space for decoration. Save nontrivial grassy spaces for parks. And also consider moss lawns that need a fraction of the water and are much friendlier to bare feet and the local environment (since there are probably many non-invasive moss species to choose from).Bottled water for everyday use when clean tap water is available, as opposed to a means to distribute potable water to otherwise inaccessible places. In many regions, tap water is held to more rigorous safety standards than bottled water.Artificial scarcity as a means to perform rent-seeking on non-scarce resources. Stuff like copies of software isn't scarce; labor is. Support, feature/port requests, SaaS, etc. are what's worth backing in the long run. Giants like AWS can beat you at hosting but can't match the dev's own support and customization. "Continued development" and early previews of future content work well for continuous publication (webnovels, comics, etc); I don't yet have a good answer for one-off large creative works like traditional novels, though.Fonts that make it impossible to distinguish these three characters: "Il|". Monospace fonts typically get this right but sans-serif ones all seem to deprioritize legibility, and isn't legibility kinda the main thing a font is supposed to accomplish? IBM Plex Sans (my system font) and the Go fonts accomplish this fairly well.Automatic copyright takedown systems. They have such a chilling effect on creativity that they almost pervert the original works into a net harm to society imo. At least, that's what I'm tempted to say.Pronouncing the word "gif" like "gif" instead of "gif". This one's so obvious I shouldn't have to explain it. It's pronounced "gif".