65 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
65 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
# hello world
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it is a complicated world, and it is getting more and more complicated every
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day. the death of expertise coincides with the death of trust, compounding
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the impact of the problems the world faces as a whole. it is absurd to pretend
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that every individual may come to understand everything they may wish to
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understand, just as it is absurd to pretend that every individual may develop
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world-class skills in any discipline they may choose. talent is unevenly
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distributed, and time and attention are finite. expertise and trust are
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necessary for healthy and sane engagement with the world, increasingly so as the
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world becomes more complex.
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though misinformation and trust have always been problems, they will become
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acute (and arguably have already become so) if steps are not taken to safeguard
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against the coming threats. this is the threat i hope to address with my work.
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because i am trying to bootstrap from a world which does not contain the tools
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i wish to build, my implementations will be likely be less rigorous than i would
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like. my hope is that those who come after me may use whatever infrastructure
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may result from my efforts to critique and refine what i have clumsily laid out.
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i am no expert except when it comes to some aspects of modern technology, so
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once i have laid out the framework of my ideas, i will try to keep my further
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contributions within my sphere of expertise.
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the tenets of what might be called my "faith" (as it is unproven) are these:
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1) humility is essential to intellectual honesty. without intellectual honesty,
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one risks delusion. honest ignorance is better than delusions of knowledge.
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being proven wrong by better data should be welcomed. changing one's mind
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to align with new information should not be derided.
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2) the truth is not democratic, but the heuristic for determining it as a non-
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expert is democratic within the set of reputable experts. it is far more
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likely that an individual is deluded than that a whole group of reputable
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persons are.
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3) a set of experts may be identified by the effects of their applied theories
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and by social clustering. a set of people whose work has contributed to
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the successful work of others may be safely considered experts, while those
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proposing alternative theories should not be considered so until either their
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impact surpasses the impact of the incumbent experts or until their theories
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are endorsed by the vast majority of reputable experts.
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4) in cases where the effects of expert theories are unclear due to the
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complexity of the subject, one should either prefer to go with plain
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consensus or else disavow the entire notion of expertise in those fields due
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to intractible complexity making the acquisition of accurate knowledge
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unlikely. in the latter case one may consider practice in said field an
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"art" rather than a "science," and in the former case one may simply plead
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ignorance.
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5) the core of a person is their mind. proofs of identity and action should be
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as closely bound to the mind as possible. proofs based on image and sound
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are already forgeable and will continue to become ever more so. the surest
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form of identity is presently the appearance of a flesh-and-blood entity.
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cryptographic keys are the closest thing to flesh-and-blood available in the
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digital realm at present. thus, for all purposes, you _are_ your keys here.
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guard them like you would your life. flesh-and-blood is the only fallback,
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and _that_ is not so easily distributed.
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6) assume that one day you may be in danger because of either your actions or
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your identity. plan accordingly. if your planning goes to waste, fine. if
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it doesn't, so much the better. the freedom to act in accordance with one's
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conscience is sometimes dependent on one's ability to act in secret.
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