m-p-t.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

What if we lived in a world identical to ours, but in which David Chalmers's "Philosophical Zombie" argument was utterly stupid? Would we be able to tell the difference?

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

The worst thing about Musk's involvement in SpaceX? For the first time ever, we're letting crypto-fascists play a pivotal role in space exploration.

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

I'm wary of trans-rights arguments that invoke traditional gender norms and gender policing. "Anti-trans laws will force someone who looks like THIS to use YOUR bathroom!" Um, fine with me I guess?

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

If you're American, the hardest thing to say may be "I'm sorry". If you're French, the hardest thing to say is "uncoordinated squirrel".

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Those of us who prefer working from an office are so underrepresented online. Face-to-face collaboration is more effective. Conversations with co-workers are fun. I benefit from imposed structure and love home-work demarcation. I made it work as a single parent of 2 kids. I'm Team Office.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Underused civic arguments, #1: No amount of "neighborhood feedback" excuses transportation/roadway designers from their ethical obligation to create safe infrastructure.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

How much of a nerd am I? I'm side-eyeing the "Periodic Table Lickability" meme for claiming Lead is more lickable than Iodine. 😒

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

Re "Amazon is driving local bookstores out of business!": Amazon is 30 years old. We are likely in equilibrium. The viability of some number of small bookstores is established. Also, you're old.

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

To people who brag about their critical thinking skills, your frequently-missed point: the most important person to be critical of is oneself. What are my false beliefs? My faulty habits of mind? My biases and prejudices? My personal vanities and defensive behaviors? Where am I wrong?

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

Guitarists refer to vintage/antique instruments which have been stowed away (and are thus in amazingly good condition for their age) as "closet queens". TMYK! 💡

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

If you've struggled with the artificial concept of imaginary numbers, wait until you hear about "negative numbers".

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

Is RFK a secret proponent of conservation-of-health, in which reducing petroleum, dino nugget, and soda consumption must be counterbalanced by drinking bleach and forgoing protective medicine? He is the demented Gygax Druid of health policy.

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

Wondering what proportion of those who call slavery America's "original sin" intend the Christian connotations of irredeemability and appeal to grace. "America is ruined, indelibly stained, beyond our power to fix"? Those I know who'd use "original sin" are idealists and energetic activists.

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

Somehow science-fiction authors never predicted the 21st-century blossoming of manifold platforms where complete strangers call you a "cuck".

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

I was, on viability grounds, immediately skeptical of reports that Amazon.com would show tariff impact. Amazon can't see into supply chains for 3P inventory. Impact would have to be self-reported. What are the incentives? What's the game theory on truth-telling? How to verify? It's unworkable.

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Thanks for restoring sanity to Canadian elections, Donald Trump.

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

I want to meet the person at Facebook who decided that Meta AI's ad campaign would be "now you can create images no one has ever wanted."

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

I get it, I get it... we live in a world of hard men and hard choices, not some childish fairyland in which everyone in the US has rights.

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

Curtail the Executive Branch. Withdraw emergency powers. Make the President a bureaucrat and Presidential elections boring.

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

The Presidency is a single point of failure.

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

Grievance from the Declaration of Independence that's hitting me particularly hard right now: "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences."

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

There's no reason we should still record "Sex" on passports at all. They have a photo. "Sex" on ID documents is a vestige which provokes conflict but adds virtually no incremental information.

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

It's not intuitively obvious that placing a freaking enormous tax on access to the world's most efficient and sophisticated supply chain advances our long-term prosperity.

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

Typical Chinese-import resellers have gross profit 10%-20%, net 5%-10% after expenses. No choice but to raise prices significantly—Trump tariffs are far too big to eat with these margins. Lower-sales territory on the supply-demand curve means they're also pressed to cut expenses (e.g. via layoffs).

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

Principled tariffs would counter the tragedy of the commons. Price-in global externalities like carbon emissions & other pollutants, since we all share the same atmosphere. Limits environmental venue shopping by manufacturers. Downside, it would take intelligence and some actual math to enact.

submitted 67 days ago • 0 comments

okay now that you all have gotten a taste of America's rational and predictable new trade policy, everyone who wants to build your new factories here just form an orderly line

submitted 68 days ago • 429 comments

It only takes half a generation for the entire finance world to forget that numerous asset classes can fall in tandem. It's not physical law that a squeeze here creates a bulge over there. Wreck the pump and the whole bouncy castle deflates.

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

Bill Ackman on X, acknowledging he misjudged Trump's economic rationality: "Business is a confidence game and confidence depends on trust." Umm, Bill, Trump excels at "confidence games" but not the kind you're thinking of. If you can't spot the mark, it's you.

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

Pretty sure tariffs are not a secret plot by the Illuminati to buy low and further enrich themselves. We're looking at the macroeconomic equivalent of a stink bomb. The Illuminati are pissed too.

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

Want to ignite an American renaissance? Try another Apollo program. 3% of budget into a moon-shot endeavor like nuclear-powered carbon capture. Infinitely better than t-shirt factories. We could lead the world, not hide from it.

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

Alexander the ok (YouTube): "There are indeed three types of countries: those that use metric units, those that have been to the Moon, and Liberia & Myanmar for some reason."

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments