It might seem somewhat odd at first. Crushing the economy? Whats this about? What can we do to salvage a blog post with such an outlandish title? Imagine for a second that you had to write a few pages on the topic. What would you write about? Pause the video.
Welcome back! Speaking personally, the “why” in the title is a much more difficult thing to justify, so let’s address that first, before we address the “how”. Why might we want to crush the economy? What even is crushing the economy?
We could go on and on about what really are important indices to gauge our general economic well being, but that is not the point which the title of this post attends to address. So let’s take a simple definition: The economy is some average income of the citizens which they can use towards feeding their family, providing shelter, education, charity, security, or other goals at their discretion. Why would we want to crush that? Here’s a brief list of reasons to crush the economy, to purposely impoverish our citizenry:
Hurting other people is sometimes an instinct (see e.g. the Milgram experiment), so why not just make other people poor if we can? Better them than you, right? This is especially true for those of us who have taken positions of power, that we just want to make others poor if we can.
We are angry and not good at forgiving those we feel have wronged us, therefore we wish to make other people suffer. We suffered, they should too. It’s like an economic hazing.
Our wealth, especially as the elite, is determined by how much more we have than other people. Therefore, making other people poor is basically one and the same as making us rich. Keeping people poor keeps inflation down and makes us richer.
The main role of government is to bring a boot down on the necks of the peasants. You might not agree that this should be the role of government but a quick glance at a history book will show you it is in fact the main role.
Our toughness as a nation is only as strong as how little we have been spoiled. Making things easy for everyone will only make us weak, therefore we should make things as difficult as possible to avoid that weakness.
Technological progress and infrastructure have enabled tremendous wealth. If we don’t work hard to fight this trend people will have lots of free time for music and arts, there will be nobody hungry, and people will work to protect their environment. Clearly as elite psychopathic governors we need to work very hard to crush this.
Well maybe these reasons aren’t well spoken, not great arguments, or maybe we just don’t agree with them. However, for the purposes of this post we are going to just assume that we want to Crush the Economy. In general we don’t really have to know why, we just have to see that other people are doing it and that of course it the best motivation of all. Follow! We are assuming someone knows the why, now lets get to the how!
The World Economy is being Wiped Out BY DESIGN and other obvious facts.
It turns out that once we view actions of governmental organizations in the light of our new incentive, everything starts to make a lot more sense. So lets do a top five ways shall we?
1 Make the oldest source of income illegal
What is the oldest profession in the world? Well it’s an expression really, for providing touch and affection in exchange for something that will help you live another day. Obviously, this needs to be prevented if we are to crush the economy. Attacking and incarcerating people who might engage in this profession has the added benefit of preventing women who have been down on their luck to get back to their feet. This kind of social safety net work has to be eliminated, and so that’s what petty tyrants do.
2 Prevent physical motion of goods and services
Trade is good for the economy, at least in most cases, as people want to trade to improve and diversify their holdings. Therefore, we should make it as difficult as possible. A system of borders and tariffs is the simplest way to do this. Preventing people from physically traveling is a mainstay of modern government economy crushing. Take a look at the line at any embassy of people looking for visas so they could try to improve their economy, find jobs, feed their families, that kind of thing. Take a look at the expressions on their faces. It’s working isn’t it. Look at the trucks of goods waiting at borders, and the people considering to do business but deciding not to because of the dangerous result of potentially violating some interstate and international trade rulings in some jurisdictions.
3 Debase the currency
With a system of fiat currency, a little abuse can go a long way. Printing money slowly debases the purchasing power of the currency, and so makes economic life more difficult to anyone on a fixed wage (valued in that currency). But that’s not all! The Cantilon effect also means that the people getting the new money become rich and are ready to mismanage businesses and economic enterprises of all kinds. Think of it as removing the advantages of a free market; instead of economically viable activity rising to the top, printed money rises to the top while economically viable activity is crushed.
4 Bureaucracy and Licensure
In a free market, people might just open businesses and start doing what they can to improve the economic life of people who choose to patronize them! We couldn’t have that could we. Instead, we can crush this economy of small businesses with systems of licensure and beaurocracy, endlessly delaying and adding costs to those who would still try. Countless government agencies exist specifically for this reason, to make it impossible or at least more difficult for people to sell things to one another.
5Copyrasty and Royalty
So called “intellectual property” law has proven to be an excellent way to crush economic innovation and competition, keeping products expensive and preventing businesses from competing with one another. Rewards are given to those who pay off the king for participating, so we also have the added benefit of the best economic actors being kept from their just rewards.
Yeah we could go on and on, but hey there’s economic activity out there which still needs to be crushed. Get to work people!
This post attempts to convey whine and complain about a common paranoia which affects full stack developers and other technical folk like auto mechanics or circuit designers or really anyone alive today in so-called high tech society.
New layers of the tech stack are built with protocols, languages if you will. When we learn javascript, we can talk using this language to the browser to enable it to display components on our screens. We are quite high on the tower with this “high level language”. Behind the scenes in the browser, that javascript code might be interpreted by a javascript interpreter written in java, passing the commands on to the browser. That java code runs on a virtual machine written in C. The C compiler enables us to translate C code into assembly code which commands the CPU. Drivers and interfaces allow communication from the CPU to various peripherals each with their own tech stack language all the way down to the materials. And do you know how that silicon was prepared? How about those capacitors? More tech stacks await us as we approach the base of the tower. Is the base of the tower the raw materials? Or is it perhaps the ancient history of human knowledge, the natural language substrate?
At any rate, the paranoia arises from the fear that this stack is too high and could crash down startling the children. With too many languages, too many floors on our tower, there aren’t enough people to teach and learn them and layers begin to disintegrate. A software library disappears from some cloud platform and apps don’t function. Nobody knows how to speak to the guy who knows how to make galvanized rubber or what language he speaks, and now we have a tire shortage. As the amount of technical requirements required to built your product goes up, so does the amount of time you must spend dealing with updates and changes to each of these dependencies, until eventually you can’t keep up and that’s all she wrote.
It’s kind of a pernicious paranoia so I’ve come with some good news.
The tech stack is larger in China, and they are still holding it up. Really, it can get a lot higher.
Humans have always been hugely tempted by apocalyptic fantasy. Don’t fall for that trap.
Hackers. Hackers constantly provide tests and break various layers when they are weak so we don’t build more on top of them.
Experience. As tech stack failures become more common, engineers have become wary of building on new layers unless absolutely necessary. Nobody calls all those cloud APIs like getting fonts from google like people used to do back in the 2010s. Mechanics know they want machines that can be fixed and worked on.
Redundancy.
Redundancy.
Just because we can’t fit the stack in our heads doesn’t mean the stack won’t work.
Lets start with more familiar territory. Perhaps we are all more familiar with the honor of dying for one’s country.
Die for your country!
After all, we all have a date with our maker. Why not make it worthwhile? Valhalla awaits! Certainly all of us could imagine a situation in which we would gladly give our lives to protect our loved ones, our traditions, our way of life, in the sense of those parts of our way of life that we want to defend. Our country! Of course we would die for our country. Heck, we’d probably even die for other countries too, why not.
But yes, i hear you complaining already. Those motivators for martyrdom, those incentives to “die for the country”, some might be a bit outdated. The Purple Heart is perhaps the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members, but our military exploits are no longer about directly saving the lives of our immediate family and friends, and more about being an “economic hitman” protecting a “racket” while saving the lives of our fellow soldiers. The glamour of sending your child to die in the military is now perhaps more about “protecting our freedoms” in a political and economic sense. Because:
War is good for the economy!
Maybe you’ve heard that one before? What do you think, could war, being good for “absolutely nothing”, and also famously being “hell”, still be good for the economy? Some of us have had this “War is good for the economy™” meme imprinted on us already, and accept it, while others might be thinking something along the lines of: Well not really, that’s the broken window fallacy (that breaking windows improves the economy because of the new income generated by people hiring glass repairmen). Paying larger and larger amounts just because “it’s fun to kill some folks” can’t really be good for the economy can it?
The argument against this broken-window-helps-the-economy theory is that while the window repairmen do indeed make more money, this money would have gone to other people and so this doesn’t represent a net total increase of economic activity after all. However, if we weight the window repairmen as more important the the other businesses that people would have been supporting with their coin had not they had the expense of the broken window, then indeed we see that broken windows do improve the (weighted) economy!! Maths, people, you can’t argue with them.
To accept that war is good for the economy of a nation means to accept that certain people and businesses are more intrinsic and important to the nation than others, and deserve a higher weight in our accounting. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, the companies are simply more important to the USA than any mom and pop store selling fruit or vitamins. Wars indirectly gave jobs to Cheney’s grandchildren’s Mexican gardeners, and these folks are weighted more heavily as part of our nations economy than for example the veterans who asked you for change today, who didn’t get as much of the new money printed for the wars as the Cheney family did. Wars help money to flow to Washington DC’s real estate, not just the five sided homes, and DC is more intrinsically “the USA” than other areas of the country which lost that purchasing power. Hence: “War is good for the economy”. The question of whose economy we are talking about has an implied answer here.
Examine for example the investment iShares U.s. Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSEMKT: ITA). Clearly this exchange traded fund will make more money for its investors when there is war. In some sense, this is what we mean when we say that war is good for the economy: investors in these companies are going to do better.
Anyone not supporting these companies, including draft dodgers, deserters, short sellers, peaceniks, the far-left (ok ok sorry, I got the memo, we have to call them far-right now), war protesters, whistle blowers, are clearly unpatriotic traitors. With me so far? Great. Lets support the economy.
Healthcare Funding is Good for the Economy!
So lets go then to look at another incredibly important sector of our economy, which we must support if we are good patriotic citizens: the health sector. The medical industrial complex is arguably number two behind the military industrial complex. The AMA, the CDC, and the companies which fund and provide their officials, need us to be sick to enable a very significant fraction of our nation’s GDP. And sick we are! Spending associated with getting sick corresponded to about 20% of GDP in USA even before recent events. Just like defense spending, this is vastly higher than any other country. Big money! Big prizes! And we should be proud patriots and support this Rockefeller funded endeavor, as we do for the war machine. Get sick for your country!
I mean for real, my grandma’s 401k likely has as component dedicated to the pharmaceutical industry as well as some defense exposure. If somebody isn’t doing their patriotic duty and getting sick they are basically taking bread out my grandma’s mouth.
On to the latest coronavirus scare
We all remember learning in elementary school that coronaviruses are what cause the common cold. Of course anyone with kids in school knows that these coronaviruses change quickly and novel ones arrive approximately every 7.2 seconds (7.2 milliseconds in kindergardens), and are often passed on to family. Thus when a particularly virulent strain arrives (naturally or not), there is a great opportunity for many people to get sick and boost the share prices of the health sector and the economy. The patriotic question which should come to mind is: how can we maximize the impact of this pandemic?
One of the first things noticed about this latest coronavirus, which it has in common with all the others, is that those getting sick very often have a deficiency of vitamin D , which one could get from old fashioned activities such as outdoor exposure to sunlight, as has been known for centuries in medical circles. In addition, we know that these things transfer from person to person almost exclusively in indoor environments. Knowing these two rather obvious major factors relating to getting sick from the latest coronaviruses, can you think of a good policy to make sure as many people get sick from them as possible?
Stay Inside!
Right! The most common government initiative taken by those who wish to boost the economy with increased patriotic contraction of coronavirus illnesses was to make citizens stay inside. This was undertaken with great fervor, with parks and other places of potential health such as gyms being closed by mandate.
An unpatriotic draft dodging citizen engaged in potentially healthful activity being apprehended by officials who demand this citizen work on getting himself and his neighbors sick.
It has been heartwarming to see how people from different walks have life have united in patriotism and the desire to help the economy by maximizing coronavirus related illnesses. Mass efforts were undertaken to not only keep people inside, but to force them into crowded areas in hopes for increased transmission. Checkpoints at borders increased, and at these places people who would normally go on about their business were brought into closer quarters to exchange viruses. Small businesses that people might pass through in smaller numbers were closed so that people would be forced to go to larger box stores and share communal interior air. Outdoor markets of course were shuttered, these things were definitely not contributing to our important group effort to get as sick as possible. One skateboard park operator in California even figured he could make at least a few more people sick by filling his park with sand, so they would be more likely to have vitamin D deficiency and spend time inside where transmission could occur. Everyone doing what they can, it reminds me of some famous speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do to get sick for your country”.
What about Masks?
OK, so not every aspect of our national effort to get sick worked well. We had high hopes for these masks in their ability to with even a slight blockage of our respiration increase numbers of covid customers, but after a lot of work, the scientific consensus is still unclear. Even the most optimistic of peer reviewed studies only shows a marginal increase in covid customers for places which mandated wearing masks. It’s a pity because we had a lot of hope that this would especially bring in a lot of child customers (the best kind as children almost always have someone willing to pay their medical bills), and so we all put a lot of effort into making kids wear them. However not all was lost, as surely the economic boost from payments to truckers and middlemen bringing the masks in from China was a huge win, while the illness from the plastics and bacteria wafting from metric shittons of used masks nationwide will also count as economic ROI, “mission accomplished”.
Fighting Foreign Agents
Unfortunately, many doctors worldwide pursued an alternative right-wing (did I get it right this time?) agenda, looking to make covid customers healthy again quickly with early treatments. Clearly this is was a foreign conspiracy to sabotage our medical economy. Luckily loyal agents acted quickly and suppressed information about early treatment, spreading rumors about the medications involved and bringing down the fear of delicensure for health professionals who even so much as mentioned vitamin C.
More Heroes
While the struggles of everyday Americans to make sure covid revenues went higher might be heartwarming, some heroics went above and beyond. Of course I am speaking of the injections, that dominant symbol and continual provider of so much income for our glorious fatherland medical authorities. These injections have been such a prolific cash cow for our nation that we name them after the latin root for cow, “vaca”.
Patriotic athletes expressing their patriotism and taking one for their country.
It’s important to note here that thanks to the patriotic legislation introduced in 1986, if any parties inject people with injections named for the cash cow, and those people get sick or die, then the parties doing the injection have no liabilities whatsoever. In other words, it is 100% legal to “mess up” and include any combination of adjuvants in the injections, provided they are done in the name of the holy cash cow.
While this operation of wealthy patriotic interests outside the law is unlikely to surprise anyone, it does fit in very neatly with another piece of the legal landscape, namely that corporations are legally obligated to maximize profits. Thus we can immediately see that if certain doses of adjuvants increase the risk of certain diseases, diseases which will put more money into the hands of the corporations producing the injections, then these corporations are legally obligated to include those extra doses of adjuvants in their injections.
Indeed, the true heroes of the day came and pointed out that not getting the injections was effectively a move akin to desertion from the military, rightly treating anyone who refused the injection as a turncoat and a traitor to their nation.
So, lets get back to work comrades, drink our GMO corn syrup and do what must be done for our (weighted) nation. Stay inside!
Some people asked me for music recommendations, so here’s some Shazams we looked up for whatever reason over the last half a decade. Enjoy!
1,2024-12-24,”O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)”,”Dave Koz, David Benoit, Rick Braun & Peter White”,https://www.shazam.com/track/375879665/o-tannenbaum-o-christmas-tree,375879665
8,2024-11-29,”Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26: 1. Vorspiel (Allegro moderato)”,”Ray Chen, London Philharmonic Orchestra & Robert Trevino”,https://www.shazam.com/track/414704699/violin-concerto-no-1-in-g-minor-op-26-1-vorspiel-allegro,414704699
11,2024-11-23,”Symphony No. 9: I. Andante comodo”,”Philharmonia Orchestra & Benjamin Zander”,https://www.shazam.com/track/548405975/symphony-no-9-i-andante-comodo,548405975
12,2024-11-21,”Ula Ula”,”Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas”,https://www.shazam.com/track/66412206/ula-ula,66412206
13,2024-11-21,”Essa É pra Tocar no Baile”,”BNegão & Seletores de Frequência”,https://www.shazam.com/track/62336817/essa-%C3%A9-pra-tocar-no-baile,62336817
14,2024-11-20,”Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26: II. Adagio”,”David Zinman, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich & Julia Fischer”,https://www.shazam.com/track/86383798/violin-concerto-no-1-in-g-minor-op-26-ii-adagio,86383798
17,2024-11-15,”Heaven Is A Place On Earth”,”Belinda Carlisle”,https://www.shazam.com/track/263253/heaven-is-a-place-on-earth,263253
18,2024-11-14,”La Gioconda, Act III: Dance of the Hours”,”Herbert von Karajan & Philharmonia Orchestra”,https://www.shazam.com/track/53088179/la-gioconda-act-iii-dance-of-the-hours,53088179
20,2024-11-12,”You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”,”Leo Sayer”,https://www.shazam.com/track/411117/you-make-me-feel-like-dancing,411117
21,2024-11-12,”The Will to Fail”,”Katie Lee”,https://www.shazam.com/track/61451083/the-will-to-fail,61451083
22,2024-11-08,”I Want the White Boy Deal!! Dance Mix”,”Jay Double You!”,https://www.shazam.com/track/151645920/i-want-the-white-boy-deal-dance-mix,151645920
23,2024-11-03,”Boléro, M. 81 (Excerpt)”,”Boston Symphony Orchestra & Seiji Ozawa”,https://www.shazam.com/track/98542220/bol%C3%A9ro-m-81-excerpt,98542220
24,2024-11-03,”Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, I. Allegro molto appassionato, II. Andante, III. Allegretto non troppo”,”Isaac Stern, The Philadelphia Orchestra & Eugene Ormandy”,https://www.shazam.com/track/64726141/violin-concerto-in-e-minor-op-64-i-allegro-molto-appassionato,64726141
26,2024-10-30,”Gravee (feat. Fred Wesley)”,”The Greyboy Allstars”,https://www.shazam.com/track/121135030/gravee-feat-fred-wesley,121135030
29,2024-10-30,”Got to Be a Love (Paul Nice Remix) [feat. Quantic & Sharon Jones]”,”Greyboy”,https://www.shazam.com/track/40249099/got-to-be-a-love-paul-nice-remix-feat-quantic-sharon-jones,40249099
31,2024-10-24,”Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 14: II. Andante”,”New York Philharmonic, Frank Huang & Juraj Valcuha”,https://www.shazam.com/track/465785742/concerto-for-violin-orchestra-op-14-ii-andante,465785742
32,2024-10-13,”My Heart Is for You”,”Peter Sandberg”,https://www.shazam.com/track/412118296/my-heart-is-for-you,412118296
33,2024-10-12,”Couldn’t It Be You?”,”Art Blakey”,https://www.shazam.com/track/11077716/couldnt-it-be-you,11077716
35,2024-09-28,”The Game of Love”,”Daft Punk”,https://www.shazam.com/track/89205232/the-game-of-love,89205232
36,2024-09-23,”One Hand Killing”,”Twelve Foot Ninja”,https://www.shazam.com/track/296990101/one-hand-killing,296990101
37,2024-09-18,”Violin Concerto No. 2 in E, BWV 1042: I. Allegro”,”Salvatore Accardo & Chamber Orchestra of Europe”,https://www.shazam.com/track/63122572/violin-concerto-no-2-in-e-bwv-1042-i-allegro,63122572
38,2024-09-16,”The Planets, Op. 32: IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity”,”Sir Simon Rattle & Berlin Philharmonic”,https://www.shazam.com/track/47656508/the-planets-op-32-iv-jupiter-the-bringer-of-jollity,47656508
39,2024-09-06,”Remember the Time”,”Michael Jackson”,https://www.shazam.com/track/20145232/remember-the-time,20145232
42,2024-08-29,”(Everytime I Turn Around) Back In Love Again (Single Version)”,”L.T.D.”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10548632/everytime-i-turn-around-back-in-love-again-single-version,10548632
43,2024-08-29,”Freckles”,”The New Mastersounds”,https://www.shazam.com/track/53743638/freckles,53743638
44,2024-08-29,”Kools Back Again”,”Kool & The Gang”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10287590/kools-back-again,10287590
45,2024-08-29,”Sudden Flight (feat. Jesse Royal & Sevana)”,”Protoje”,https://www.shazam.com/track/227526628/sudden-flight-feat-jesse-royal-sevana,227526628
49,2024-08-19,”Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38: I. Allegro non troppo”,”Hélène Grimaud & Truls Mørk”,https://www.shazam.com/track/63035218/sonata-for-cello-and-piano-no-1-in-e-minor-op-38-i,63035218
55,2024-08-02,”Sing a Song of Song”,”Kenny Garrett”,https://www.shazam.com/track/11089724/sing-a-song-of-song,11089724
56,2024-08-02,”Seven Steps To Heaven (feat. Jon Hendricks, Al Jarreau & Till Brönner)”,”Take 6″,https://www.shazam.com/track/47374962/seven-steps-to-heaven-feat-jon-hendricks-al-jarreau,47374962
57,2024-08-02,”Seven Years of Good Luck”,”Joe Sample”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10844616/seven-years-of-good-luck,10844616
58,2024-07-21,”Clarinet Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 167: II. Allegro animato”,”Martin Fröst & Roland Pöntinen”,https://www.shazam.com/track/115975272/clarinet-sonata-in-e-flat-major-op-167-ii-allegro-animato,115975272
60,2024-07-16,”Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 77: I. Allegro non troppo”,”Hilary Hahn, Academy of St Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner”,https://www.shazam.com/track/48418702/concerto-in-d-major-for-violin-and-orchestra-op-77,48418702
61,2024-07-04,”Ave Maria, “Ellens Gesang III”, D839″,”Göran Söllscher & Gil Shaham”,https://www.shazam.com/track/63901744/ave-maria-ellens-gesang-iii-d839,63901744
62,2024-07-04,”Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G Minor, BWV 1058 (After BWV 1041): II. Andante”,”Angela Hewitt, Richard Tognetti & Australian Chamber Orchestra”,https://www.shazam.com/track/83158748/keyboard-concerto-no-7-in-g-minor-bwv-1058-after-bwv,83158748
63,2024-07-03,”Can’t Say Nothin'”,”Curtis Mayfield”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10071709/cant-say-nothin,10071709
69,2024-06-15,”Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35: II. Canzonetta (Andante)”,”Viktoria Mullova, Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra & Seiji Ozawa”,https://www.shazam.com/track/70566024/violin-concerto-in-d-major-op-35-ii-canzonetta-andante,70566024
73,2024-05-31,”Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E, BWV 1006: 1. Preludio”,”Vladimir Ashkenazy”,https://www.shazam.com/track/210220242/partita-for-violin-solo-no-3-in-e-bwv-1006-1-preludio,210220242
77,2024-05-22,”Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35: I. Allegro moderato”,”Leila Josefowicz, Sir Neville Marriner & Academy of St Martin in the Fields”,https://www.shazam.com/track/88892635/violin-concerto-in-d-op-35-i-allegro-moderato,88892635
79,2024-05-22,”Suite in E Major, BWV 1006a: I. Prelude”,”Sharon Isbin”,https://www.shazam.com/track/48209007/suite-in-e-major-bwv-1006a-i-prelude,48209007
80,2024-05-22,”Concerto In G MInor BWV 1058, Andante”,”Vladimir Feltsman & Orchestra of St.Luke’s”,https://www.shazam.com/track/82509143/concerto-in-g-minor-bwv-1058-andante,82509143
88,2024-05-20,”Untitled Original 11386 (Take 5)”,”John Coltrane”,https://www.shazam.com/track/426818079/untitled-original-11386-take-5,426818079
89,2024-05-20,”When Lights Are Low”,”Herbie Mann”,https://www.shazam.com/track/69566087/when-lights-are-low,69566087
90,2024-05-17,”Concerto for 3 Violins in F Major, RV 551: II. Andante”,”Il Giardino Armonico”,https://www.shazam.com/track/66375878/concerto-for-3-violins-in-f-major-rv-551-ii-andante,66375878
94,2024-05-15,”Keyboard Concerto No. 4 in A Major, BWV 1055: III. Allegro ma non tanto”,”Murray Perahia & Academy of St Martin in the Fields”,https://www.shazam.com/track/67947823/keyboard-concerto-no-4-in-a-major-bwv-1055-iii-allegro,67947823
100,2024-05-12,”Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 10, B. 34: I. Allegro moderato”,”Neeme Järvi & Royal Scottish National Orchestra”,https://www.shazam.com/track/128990099/symphony-no-3-in-e-flat-major-op-10-b-34-i-allegro-moderato,128990099
101,2024-05-12,”Bite the Bullet”,”The Dirty Beggars”,https://www.shazam.com/track/110584334/bite-the-bullet,110584334
102,2024-05-12,”Give the People”,”Al Campbell”,https://www.shazam.com/track/5646269/give-the-people,5646269
104,2024-05-12,”Over and Over”,”Dennis Alcapone”,https://www.shazam.com/track/699299839/over-and-over,699299839
106,2024-05-11,”Rag Mama Rag”,”Blind Boy Fuller”,https://www.shazam.com/track/5592504/rag-mama-rag,5592504
107,2024-05-11,”Standard of Rhyme (feat. John Robinson & Fatin)”,”Illvibe Collective”,https://www.shazam.com/track/55553429/standard-of-rhyme-feat-john-robinson-fatin,55553429
117,2024-05-02,”Letter To The Editor (feat. Racquel Jones)”,”Thievery Corporation”,https://www.shazam.com/track/335982048/letter-to-the-editor-feat-racquel-jones,335982048
119,2024-04-26,”Willow Weep For Me (feat. Bud Powell, Pierre Michelot & Kenny Clarke)”,”Dexter Gordon”,https://www.shazam.com/track/326420129/willow-weep-for-me-feat-bud-powell-pierre-michelot,326420129
120,2024-04-26,”In My Head (The Knocks Block Party Mix)”,”Blu DeTiger”,https://www.shazam.com/track/458431993/in-my-head-the-knocks-block-party-mix,458431993
121,2024-04-26,”Take It Slow (feat. Joe Dukie & U-Brown)”,”Boozoo Bajou”,https://www.shazam.com/track/40958002/take-it-slow-feat-joe-dukie-u-brown,40958002
122,2024-04-25,”Fermento Pra Massa”,”Criolo”,https://www.shazam.com/track/158023076/fermento-pra-massa,158023076
123,2024-04-25,”A La Casa de La Trova”,”Compay Segundo”,https://www.shazam.com/track/40033849/en-la-casa-de-la-trova,40033849
124,2024-04-22,”Night Fall (Extended Mix)”,”Johnny Osbourne”,https://www.shazam.com/track/40404933/night-fall-extended-mix,40404933
126,2024-04-20,”THINKIN OF A DRIVE BY”,”DVRST & Kingpin Skinny Pimp”,https://www.shazam.com/track/587202090/thinkin-of-a-drive-by,587202090
127,2024-04-19,”Babylon Tymes (Featuring DJ Collage)”,”Sofa Surfers featuring DJ Collage”,https://www.shazam.com/track/11159827/babylon-tymes-featuring-dj-collage,11159827
128,2024-04-19,”Candle Chant (A Tribute)”,”DJ Krush Feat. Boss The MC”,https://www.shazam.com/track/494816/candle-chant-a-tribute,494816
137,2024-03-30,”Lulu’s Back In Town”,”Jason Moran”,https://www.shazam.com/track/136725315/lulus-back-in-town,136725315
138,2024-03-26,”Rhapsody On Paganini Theme for Piano and Orchestra, Op 43″,”Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Dmitriev & Alexei Cherkasov”,https://www.shazam.com/track/55200039/rhapsody-on-paganini-theme-for-piano-and-orchestra-op-43,55200039
150,2024-03-03,”(Funky) Four [feat. Jason Marsalis & Matt King]”,”Christian Fabian”,https://www.shazam.com/track/675272989/funky-four-feat-jason-marsalis-matt-king,675272989
190,2024-01-16,”Sonata in C Major, BWV 1005: IV. Allegro Assai”,”Yuri Liberzon”,https://www.shazam.com/track/539734349/sonata-in-c-major-bwv-1005-iv-allegro-assai,539734349
191,2024-01-12,”Platonov (feat. Skeg)”,”Sena & Sena Dagadu”,https://www.shazam.com/track/663144730/platonov-feat-skeg,663144730
192,2024-01-12,”I Do Coke”,”Kill the Noise & Feed Me”,https://www.shazam.com/track/285483750/i-do-coke,285483750
196,2024-01-11,”Keep on Hustlin’ (feat. Young Jeezy, Bun B, Nate Dogg)”,”Warren G”,https://www.shazam.com/track/277102858/keep-on-hustlin-feat-young-jeezy-bun-b-nate-dogg,277102858
197,2024-01-11,”In America”,”The Charlie Daniels Band”,https://www.shazam.com/track/272689786/in-america,272689786
200,2023-12-22,”Party with the Devil”,”Attila”,https://www.shazam.com/track/73195239/party-with-the-devil,73195239
201,2023-12-22,”About That Life”,”Attila”,https://www.shazam.com/track/89423940/about-that-life,89423940
202,2023-12-21,”The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”,”Gil Scott-Heron”,https://www.shazam.com/track/322558/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised,322558
206,2023-12-16,”Me or the Papes”,”Jeru the Damaja”,https://www.shazam.com/track/55410550/me-or-the-papes,55410550
207,2023-12-16,”Women Around the World at Work”,”Martha And The Muffins”,https://www.shazam.com/track/348651/women-around-the-world-at-work,348651
208,2023-12-12,”Consolations, S. 172: No. 3 in D-Flat Major. Lento placido”,”Jean-Yves Thibaudet”,https://www.shazam.com/track/579224228/consolations-s-172-no-3-in-d-flat-major-lento-placido,579224228
209,2023-12-12,”Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53: I. Allegro ma non troppo – II. Adagio ma non troppo”,”St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Walter Susskind & Ruggiero Ricci”,https://www.shazam.com/track/203026423/violin-concerto-in-a-minor-op-53-i-allegro-ma-non-troppo,203026423
210,2023-12-04,”Black Barbie Remixed By Modeselektor”,”Jahcoozi”,https://www.shazam.com/track/43781989/black-barbie-remixed-by-modeselektor,43781989
218,2023-11-30,”Ethiopino”,”Jungle by Night”,https://www.shazam.com/track/58134575/ethiopino,58134575
219,2023-11-29,”The In Samba (Kyoto Jazz Massive Remix)”,”Nicola Conte”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10611764/the-in-samba-kyoto-jazz-massive-remix,10611764
239,2023-09-21,”Rise and Fall of a Short Fugue”,”Stan Kenton”,https://www.shazam.com/track/201117972/rise-and-fall-of-a-short-fugue,201117972
240,2023-09-20,”Mass for the Endangered: Sanctus – Benedictus”,”Gabriel Crouch & Gallicantus”,https://www.shazam.com/track/524728055/mass-for-the-endangered-sanctus-benedictus,524728055
249,2023-09-10,”Saturation”,”Ocean of Emotion”,https://www.shazam.com/track/494863105/saturation,494863105
250,2023-09-09,”For Once In My Life”,”Tony Bennett”,https://www.shazam.com/track/67373678/for-once-in-my-life,67373678
251,2023-09-09,”The Good Ways (feat. Dan Pugach & Maya Kronfeld)”,”Nicole Zuraitis”,https://www.shazam.com/track/670693256/the-good-ways-feat-dan-pugach-maya-kronfeld,670693256
252,2023-09-09,”Clare’s Ostinado (Live)”,”Greg Abate & Paul Del Nero Quartet”,https://www.shazam.com/track/667518451/clares-ostinado-live,667518451
258,2023-09-02,”Take Me Back (feat. April) [Sandy Rivera’s Mix]”,”Kings of Tomorrow”,https://www.shazam.com/track/53597719/take-me-back-feat-april-sandy-riveras-mix,53597719
259,2023-08-28,”Death by Chocolate”,”De-Phazz”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10830891/death-by-chocolate,10830891
260,2023-08-28,”Blues for Celia (Cee Cee’s Blues)”,”The Greyboy Allstars”,https://www.shazam.com/track/121158838/blues-for-celia-cee-cees-blues,121158838
264,2023-08-28,”I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)”,”Stevie Wonder”,https://www.shazam.com/track/280529/i-believe-when-i-fall-in-love-it-will-be-forever,280529
270,2023-08-23,”Cross The Tracks (We Better Go Back)”,”Maceo & The Macks”,https://www.shazam.com/track/5975907/cross-the-tracks-we-better-go-back,5975907
271,2023-08-21,”Tha Block Is Hot”,”Lil Wayne”,https://www.shazam.com/track/20033666/tha-block-is-hot,20033666
276,2023-07-22,”St. Thomas (feat. Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins & Max Roach)”,”Sonny Rollins”,https://www.shazam.com/track/53862027/st-thomas-feat-tommy-flanagan-doug-watkins-max-roach,53862027
277,2023-07-21,”A Message from the Meters (feat. Kelly Finnigan)”,”The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble”,https://www.shazam.com/track/320489839/a-message-from-the-meters-feat-kelly-finnigan,320489839
278,2023-07-19,”The Heathen”,”Bob Marley & The Wailers”,https://www.shazam.com/track/6051243/the-heathen,6051243
279,2023-07-16,”Gyal Magnet [Remix] (feat. Chris Martin)”,”Kaream Kharizma”,https://www.shazam.com/track/517497989/gyal-magnet-remix-feat-chris-martin,517497989
280,2023-07-14,”Careless Whisper”,”Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio”,https://www.shazam.com/track/542382490/careless-whisper,542382490
281,2023-07-12,”We a Run E Grung (Remix)”,”Nadg & Seanizzle”,https://www.shazam.com/track/648146840/we-a-run-e-grung-remix,648146840
293,2023-06-04,”Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 No. 2: II. Andante”,”Chad Hoopes, Kristjan Järvi & MDR Sinfonie Orchester”,https://www.shazam.com/track/114967351/violin-concerto-in-e-minor-op-64-no-2-ii-andante,114967351
295,2023-05-29,”Shut ‘um Down”,”Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson”,https://www.shazam.com/track/41253076/shut-um-down,41253076
296,2023-05-26,”Jamaica a Little Miami”,”Yellowman”,https://www.shazam.com/track/584091/jamaica-a-little-miami,584091
297,2023-05-23,”Pinball Number Count”,”The Pointer Sisters”,https://www.shazam.com/track/53685292/pinball-number-count,53685292
298,2023-05-21,”Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 “Emperor”: II. Adagio un poco mosso”,”Stewart Goodyear, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Andrew Constantine”,https://www.shazam.com/track/508504788/piano-concerto-no-5-in-e-flat-major-op-73-emperor-ii,508504788
299,2023-05-19,”Timba Mabo (Descarga) [feat. Jose Luis Quintana “Changuito” & Tata Güines]”,”Hilario Duran”,https://www.shazam.com/track/11060444/timba-mabo-descarga-feat-jose-luis-quintana-changuito,11060444
300,2023-05-19,”Stolen Moments”,”The Caribbean Jazz Project”,https://www.shazam.com/track/60904631/stolen-moments,60904631
301,2023-05-18,”Sanu Ek Pal Chain Na Aawe”,”Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan”,https://www.shazam.com/track/45559451/sanu-ek-pal-chain-na-aawe,45559451
302,2023-05-18,”A Headnaddas Journey to the Planet Adidi-Skizm”,”Brooklyn Funk Essentials”,https://www.shazam.com/track/5353836/a-headnaddas-journey-to-the-planet-adidi-skizm,5353836
303,2023-05-17,”Quitate La Mascara”,”Adalberto Santiago Adalberto”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10592626/quitate-la-mascara,10592626
304,2023-05-11,”Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35: I. Allegro moderato”,”Gil Shaham, Singapore Symphony Orchestra & Lan Shui”,https://www.shazam.com/track/64345462/violin-concerto-in-d-major-op-35-i-allegro-moderato,64345462
309,2023-04-28,”Bonita Applebum (includes ‘Can I Kick It’ Intro)”,”A Tribe Called Quest”,https://www.shazam.com/track/5223085/bonita-applebum-includes-can-i-kick-it-intro,5223085
310,2023-04-27,”Lettre à P”,”Paris Combo”,https://www.shazam.com/track/44155462/lettre-%C3%A0-p,44155462
311,2023-04-27,”Camisa 10 Da Gavea”,”Jorge Ben Jor”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10936501/camisa-10-da-g%C3%A1vea,10936501
312,2023-04-21,”Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin’ All the Time)”,”Guy Lombardo”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10785903/stormy-weather-keeps-rainin-all-the-time,10785903
318,2023-04-12,”O Dia Em Que Faremos Contato”,”Lenine”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10959560/o-dia-em-que-faremos-contato,10959560
319,2023-04-06,”Reality Check (feat. Onemanarmy, One Be Lo & Senim)”,”Binary Star”,https://www.shazam.com/track/5706116/reality-check-feat-onemanarmy-one-be-lo-senim,5706116
320,2023-04-05,”I Am the Black Gold of the Sun (feat. Jocelyn Brown)”,”Nuyorican Soul”,https://www.shazam.com/track/257688/i-am-the-black-gold-of-the-sun-feat-jocelyn-brown,257688
349,2022-01-14,”Concerto in B-Flat Major for Trumpet and Orchestra: 3. Allegro”,”Hannes Läubin, Simon Preston & English Chamber Orchestra”,https://www.shazam.com/track/63878038/concerto-in-b-flat-major-for-trumpet-and-orchestra-3-allegro,63878038
357,2021-11-18,”World Peace”,”Lee Perry Meets The Mad Professor In Dub Chapter One”,https://www.shazam.com/track/10119818/world-peace,10119818
358,2021-11-18,”Snowblind (The Amalgamation Of Soundz Out Of Mind Remix)”,”Billie & Minus 8″,https://www.shazam.com/track/10611760/snowblind-the-amalgamation-of-soundz-out-of-mind-remix,10611760
377,2021-09-20,”Ula Ula”,”Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas”,https://www.shazam.com/track/66412206/ula-ula,66412206
378,2021-08-29,”Concerto No. 1 in A Minor for Violin and Strings, BWV 1041: I. Allegro”,”Camerata Antonio Lucio, Emmy Verhey & Alun Francis”,https://www.shazam.com/track/56193170/concerto-no-1-in-a-minor-for-violin-and-strings-bwv,56193170
379,2021-08-29,”Concerto No. 1 in A Minor for Violin and Strings, BWV 1041: I. Allegro”,”Camerata Antonio Lucio, Emmy Verhey & Alun Francis”,https://www.shazam.com/track/56193170/concerto-no-1-in-a-minor-for-violin-and-strings-bwv,56193170
381,2021-08-29,”Concerto for Violin and Strings in G minor, Op. 8, No. 2 R. 315 ‘ “L’Estate”: III. Presto (Tempo impetuoso d’estate)”,”Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Alan Loveday & Sir Neville Marriner”,https://www.shazam.com/track/207036674/concerto-for-violin-and-strings-in-g-minor-op-8-no,207036674
Just what we needed: a somewhat forced tail [sic] of metaparadox designed to clarify wavefunction collapse.
Imagine if you will, a world with an infinite number of scientist clones named Schrödinger. Two of them, lets call them Schrödinger A and Schrödinger B, watch a box in a room in a laboratory. The box has a cat and a Zyklon B gas canister rigged to an avalanche photodiode sensitive to cosmic rays. If a cosmic ray comes with enough energy and the right trajectory, hey presto, the cat is dead. If not, the cat is still alive. For the moment, the curtains are drawn on the box and both scientists are looking rather contemplative as they observe the system.
Schrödinger A believes that his cat is both alive and dead, as he has not collapsed the wavefunction by observing the system directly.
Schrödinger B believes that his cat is either alive or dead, but not in reality both at once despite his not having observed the cat to be either alive or dead with his own eyes. His idea is that the wavefunction is already collapsed, one way or the other, trough interaction with the material in the box though of course he has no proof of that or knowledge of whether the cat is alive or dead.
Schrödinger A holds in his head the uncollapsed wavefunction, while Schrödinger B holds in his head the concept of a collapsed wavefunction, just not yet observably clear as to which way it has collapsed.
—
A third and fourth Schrödinger clone observe the room from a neighboring room via closed circult cameras. Schrödinger C believes that both Schrödinger A and Schrödinger B are correct at once. C’s wavefunction includes a superposition of A and B’s world, namely that the cat is both alive and dead, but also that the cat is either dead or alive but not both, at the same time. Schrödinger D is of the opposite opinion, that either Schrödinger A or Schrödinger B is correct, but not both at once, as at some level the wavefunction representing the (original first) two Schrödingers has collapsed due to natural evolution of the system even though it is unclear which scientist is correct.
—
A third room holds another pair of Schrödingers. Schrödinger E is of the opinion that Schrödinger C and D are both right simultaneously in their description of A and B. Schrödinger E’s wavefunction is a superposition of the two possibilities represented by the wavefunctions of C and D.
Schrödinger F is of the opposite opinion, that either Schrödinger C or Schrödinger D is correct but not both at once, though he isn’t sure yet which one of the two is correct.
—
At this point, you are probably expecting that we are going to describe a Hilbert Laboratory, with an infinite number of rooms, and Schrödingers going on forever with each ones wavefunctions describing a superposition or non-superposition of the previous Schrödingers.
This infinite sequence of superposed and non superposed wavefunctions exists at this point as a possibility, a potential observable which might emerge from collapse of the wavefunction representing this post.
Sure that would be cool, but…. well if you were expecting this post to go that direction, forgive me for collapsing your wavefunctions abruptly, but we aren’t going there.
Instead that we are privy to some insider information, and have in fact we are looking at nothing more than a single pair of Schrödingers watching themselves on the closed circult television with a delay so they don’t know it is themselves!!
At this point in the reading of the story, an infinite amount of wavefunctions have just collapsed, and yet the two Schrödingers we watch still hold that infinite heirarchy of wavefunctions in the uncollapsed state in their heads.
Carl Sagan collapsing some wavefunctions
So what can we conclude from this gedankenexperiment? Wavefunctions are on the one hand a sophisticated tool to describe quantum mechanics, and on the other hand a very feeble human concept prone to collapse. We look around and learn something about our environment and they collapse like Hilbert’s dominoes with a great big whooshing sound.
An image of an arrangement where gimbal lock removes some control of orientation. The gimbals here are colored blue, green, and purple.
I may have first learned about gimbal lock from Andrew Chaikin’s excellent book “A Man on the Moon” (pdf) (epub). In orienting the Apollo lander, gimbals were used to control the orientation of the rocket engine, and so gimbal lock was a potential problem. A gimbal is a part of an apparatus that lets you orient something (for example to rotate a globe, to rotate a rocket engine, to rotate a 3D image on your screen). A rotation of the object on one gimbal is a rotation on a particular axis set by that gimbal. Rotation on an exterior gimbal changes the axis of interior gimbals and so if one is not careful, gimbals can become aligned in such a way that temporarily limits the ability to quickly change orientation through some range of possible orientations.
The phenomenon can be described as “parking yourself in” in orientation space. After a set of adjustments, putting your car in a tight space, the only way out is to do something akin to reversing your earlier adjustments – performing a lengthy multipoint turn. Typically this occurs just when one would like the ability to simply reorient quickly, thus ruining your quick getaway. With gimbal lock, it is not exterior cars that force us into a tight space which limits us, but the mechanics of the control mechanism itself: the gimbals.
Political Gimbal Lock
In political science, we like to describe the actions of governments and people using the analogy of orientation:
Examples of using orientation to describe a political landscape
In the sense of orienting a lunar lander, we wish to orient our political ambitions and orient our governance. We wish to point our political apparatus in a certain direction (for example to fight a specific crime, to end a social ailment, to create a pyramid, or to improve some aspect of education) and to step on the gas, firing our political lunar lander rocket. Or, simply to refer to such a plan of orientation for the sake of a theoretical argument. To do so correctly requires communication of this orientation to our political actors, precise readjustment and focus along an infinity of axes presented by every detailed decision.
The left and the right, the red and the blue, socialism and capitalism, all examples of directionality on a gimbal which we rely on in our indication of political orientation. The meanings of these words, like meanings of all words, are contextual, and can change with time. Sure, we could remind ourselves that left and right referred to something specific when they emerged after the French revolution, the left referring to those on the left of the hall who wished the government had less power, and the right referring to those on the right side of the hall who desired more power for those currently in government. However this might not be as clear after exterior gimbals have swung and now perhaps these words have different meanings in new contexts.
We have seen these exterior political gimbals swing often. Lets avoid specific examples in this post, sticking with the abstract metascience, but one example is that those who publicly questioned the federal 9/11 commission report 20 years ago were labeled as left wing while those who publicly question the same report today might be labeled right wing.
If the only accelerator buttons in the voting booth are labeled red and blue, but both red and blue are directions which share the same orientation on some issue, then we might say we face a political gimbal lock on that issue. Well to be fair, with only a binary choice gimbal lock is guaranteed, but even with multiple binary indicators gimbal lock is a reality. Our mechanisms of describing the state, or affecting change, cannot be moved easily into certain directions, as the very symbols of our language can have meanings which prevent it. Spooky innit.
How to Avoid Political Gimbal Lock
So how can we avoid it? Well the first point is that we might not always want to avoid it. The class of people in power, which keep in mind could still mean anything you like it to, doesn’t usually want to enable political change. Therefore an alignment of political gimbals in such a way that locks the system is therefore desirable – until it isn’t. Eventually there will be need for some change and so we don’t want to be too stuck at that point.
A second point would be that we shouldn’t rely on gimbals at all, if they can bite us like this. However, gimbals are useful. Red and blue are concepts people can quickly voice, republican and democrat are teams with history and people know them already. Therefore it can be easier to use this existing linguistic infrastructure rather than to create an entire formalism to describe the direction we really wish to indicate. The mind is drawn to simple one dimensional or binary structures, black and white, up and down, us vs. them, and so we are always tempted to use such simplifications when they at least somewhat apply. The problem is that they can lead us into extremely tight parking spaces, which are impossible to evacuate in a timely manner. We will be forced pushing hard to e.g. ensure that e.g. blue points one way on an issue, then pushing for blue, and going back to realign for a further push and so forth in a multipoint turn.
There are then two strategies for escaping political gimbal lock: to perform the multi point turn and navigate to desired orientation using the existing gimbals, or to escape the existing gimbals temporarily and reorient using new external gimbals (possibly quaternionic in nature). In some sense these choices are analagous to Balaji’s binary political choice of “exit” and “voice”, taken from “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States“.
As Michael Penn would say, that’s a good place to stop.
it is possible to work ourselves into a corner of political orientation space in which
Warning: This post is an incomplete research project.
Lets go hunting! This is a hunt for cool numbers, and by cool I mean serious William Gibson cyberspace Neo-Maas black ice. We’re talking uncomputable numbers. Numbers like Chaitin’s Omega.
Uncomputable sequences are fascinating. After seeing a lot of number hunters hit paydirt doing “busy beaver” calculations for different kinds of simple Turing machines, we’re going to go on beyond zebra, keeping busy like beavers, and we’re going to start from scratch with our own Turing machine variant to keep things interesting.
A Turing Machine
The bitsorter (TM)(R) is a theoretical computer that operates on a tape or input stream of random bits, selecting some to write to the output, and leaving some aside, until it eventually stops with a final output (the answer) or doesn’t stop and goes on forever.
The idea came from reading Chaitin, and from a method a close friend uses to sort mail into two piles, one which might still be important, and one ready to throw away now. Repeat as necessary, and you will never have to open the mail. And from briefly working on a project suggested by Ohad from IDNI, using Binary Decision Diagrams as fundamental units of computation. Further motivation comes from the indispensable randomness or entropy that some algorithms (monte carlo simulation, digital signatures, key generation) require, and so instead of a classic initial condition Turing machine with a blank tape, we begin with a source of random bits.
A state in the bitsorter is a configuration of the sorter with a specific action defined for the two possible cases: either the next bit is a zero, or the next bit is a one. A given state will always do the same thing if it encounters the same bit.
Switch (next bit on tape) Case 0: [0 or 1] (0 = discard bit, 1=append bit (0) to output) then go to state X Case 1: [0 or 1] (0 = discard bit, 1=append bit (1) to output) then go to state Y (This fully defines a state of a bitsorter computer)
A “program” for this computer is a collection of some number of defined states, with one designated to be the starting state.
There is one “do nothing” state called the stopped state, and if a program gets there, it is stopped. If a program needs a “1” for the output, it must wait for a “1” to arrive in the input stream so it can sort it to the output.
Single State Bitsorter Programs
Lets tabulate all the possible single state bitsorter computer programs.
Of course, the stopped state is one single state computer – it is also the only one state computer program that halts. The number of possible states that one could use to make a one state bitsorter computer is therefore five:
Stopped (do nothing)
00 – Continue processing input forever, never produce any output.
01 – Collect all the ones into the output and never stop
10 – Collect all the zeros into the output and never stop
11 – Copy the entire input to the output and never stop
Two State Bitsorter Programs
With two states, it is now possible for another state to point to the stopped state, enabling programs that both produce an output and halt.
An example possible state: Case: 0 (0 or 1) keep or discard the bit. Go to state (a or b) Case: 1 (0 or 1) keep or discard the bit, Go to state (a or b)
We can see there are now 16 possible non stopping states to choose from, so if we include the stop state we have 17*17 = 289 sets of two states, so choosing which to start from is one more factor of two and we have 678 possible two state sorter programs, many of which are identical because of the symmetry. Before breaking that down however, we can narrow our goalposts by insisting that one of the two states is the stopped state, which isn’t the initial state. In this case we have 16 possible programs, which we can enumerate as follows, using a to represent the stopped state and b to represent the other state:
(0,0) (a,a) stop, no output (0,1) (a,a) if first input is a one, output it, then stop (1,0) (a.a) if first input is a zero, output it, then stop (1,1) (a,a) output first digit, then stop
(0,0) (a,b) stop on first zero, no output
(0,1) (a,b) output the ones until a zero appears
(1,0) (a.b) output first zero and stop
(1,1) (a,b) output all digits then first zero and stop
(0,0) (b,a) stop on first one, no output
(0,1) (b,a) output first one then stop
(1,0) (b.a) output all zeros then stop on first one
(1,1) (b,a) output all digits then first one and stop
(0,0) (b,b) never stop, no output
(0,1) (b,b) never stop, output all ones
(1,0) (b.b) never stop, output all zeros
(1,1) (b,b) never stop, output all input
We can see that the last four of these 16 programs are identical to our four non-halting one state programs, so we really have 12 new programs amongst these two-state-one-of-which-is-the-stop-state programs.
Stop state plus two other state bitsorter programs
The possible non-stopped states in a three state program will look like:
(0 or 1 , 0 or 1) (a b or c , a b or c) (keep or save zero, keep or save one, where to go on zero, where to go on one)
2*2*3*3 = 36 possible such states, of which we are choosing two non-stopped states for our program so there are 2*36^2 = 2592 possible such programs, as choosing which one will be the starting state is another factor of two.
Stop state plus N other state bitsorter programs
The possible non-stopped states in an N state program will look like:
(0 or 1, 0 or 1) (S0, S1, … or SN , S0, S1, lll or SN) (keep or save zero, keep or save one, where to go on zero, where to go on one)
2*2*N*N=4N^2, of which we are choosing N-1 non-stopped states for our program so there are (N-1)* (4N^2)^(N-1) programs, as choosing which one will be the starting state is another factor of (N-1).
Number of possible programs of an N state bitsorter computer with one state being the stopped state, and beginning with a non-stopped state.
1
0
2
16
3
2592
4
786432
5
400000000
6
309586821120
7
340163474251776
8
5.04403158265496E+017
9
9.71516248772754E+020
10
2.359296E+024
Wow, four hundred million possible programs exactly for a five state computer. interesting. Well maybe it’s only interesting because I have ten fingers. The number possible programs of a given state gets big quickly, but not as quickly as some Turing machines which have additional degrees of freedom go change direction on the tape.
Comments on the Method (COMING SOON?)
The questions of course are how many programs of N states halt, which is the busy bitsorter problem: BB(N), and what is the largest output possible with N states: L(N). At this point it’s not exactly clear how the randomness factor might influence these
I don’t have the punchline for you yet but here’s the results of some simulations of all four state machines:
max output is 1000110111 total programs stopped: 945
I think the simplicity of this computing model is desirable for some further excursions into fundamental computer science, however there isn’t enough room in the margin at the moment to go further.
Most likely you already read this account in elementary school, for it is perhaps the best introduction to the concept of what is fiat currency and why we might use it. Read it again. It’s incredibly short and captures the idea well which underpins the most powerful political forces today, so this reading assignment is mandatory.
It’s worth pointing out that while Marco Polo hadn’t heard of them before, fiat currencies had been used in China for centuries already, and others had brought this news to Europe. However Marco Polo’s widely read books contributed to everyone finding out about how fiat worked, and thus to the kings and queens of the rest of the world adopting it to their purposes, leading to the rise of fiat empires in which you dear reader are likely a subject. Take a look at the footnotes here for more background on this translation by Henry Yule. Now without further ado:
Marco Polo
How the Great Kaan Causeth the Bark of Trees, Made Into Something Like Paper, to Pass for Money All Over his Country
Now that I have told you in detail of the splendour of this City of the Emperor’s, I shall proceed to tell you of the Mint which he hath in the same city, in the which he hath his money coined and struck, as I shall relate to you. And in doing so I shall make manifest to you how it is that the Great Lord may well be able to accomplish even much more than I have told you, or am going to tell you, in this Book. For, tell it how I might, you never would be satisfied that I was keeping within truth and reason!
The Emperor’s Mint then is in this same City of Cambaluc, and the way it is wrought is such that you might say he hath the Secret of Alchemy in perfection, and you would be right! For he makes his money after this fashion.
He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the Mulberry Tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms,–these trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them. What they take is a certain fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make into something resembling sheets of paper, but black. When these sheets have been prepared they are cut up into pieces of different sizes. The smallest of these sizes is worth a half tornesel; the next, a little larger, one tornesel; one, a little larger still, is worth half a silver groat of Venice; another a whole groat; others yet two groats, five groats, and ten groats. There is also a kind worth one Bezant of gold, and others of three Bezants, and so up to ten. All these pieces of paper are [issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece a variety of officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals. And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Kaan smears the Seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the Seal remains printed upon it in red; the Money is then authentic. Any one forging it would be punished with death.] And the Kaan causes every year to be made such a vast quantity of this money, which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure in the world.
White Mulberry Tree
With these pieces of paper, made as I have described, he causes all payments on his own account to be made; and he makes them to pass current universally over all his kingdoms and provinces and territories, and whithersoever his power and sovereignty extends. And nobody, however important he may think himself, dares to refuse them on pain of death. And indeed everybody takes them readily, for wheresoever a person may go throughout the Great Kaan’s dominions he shall find these pieces of paper current, and shall be able to transact all sales and purchases of goods by means of them just as well as if they were coins of pure gold. And all the while they are so light that ten bezants’ worth does not weigh one golden bezant.
Furthermore all merchants arriving from India or other countries, and bringing with them gold or silver or gems and pearls, are prohibited from selling to any one but the Emperor. He has twelve experts chosen for this business, men of shrewdness and experience in such affairs; these appraise the articles, and the Emperor then pays a liberal price for them in those pieces of paper. The merchants accept his price readily, for in the first place they would not get so good an one from anybody else, and secondly they are paid without any delay. And with this paper-money they can buy what they like anywhere over the Empire, whilst it is also vastly lighter to carry about on their journeys. And it is a truth that the merchants will several times in the year bring wares to the amount of 400,000 bezants, and the Grand Sire pays for all in that paper. So he buys such a quantity of those precious things every year that his treasure is endless, whilst all the time the money he pays away costs him nothing at all. Moreover, several times in the year proclamation is made through the city that any one who may have gold or silver or gems or pearls, by taking them to the Mint shall get a handsome price for them. And the owners are glad to do this, because they would find no other purchaser give so large a price. Thus the quantity they bring in is marvellous, though these who do not choose to do so may let it alone. Still, in this way, nearly all the valuables in the country come into the Kaan’s possession.
When any of those pieces of paper are spoilt–not that they are so very flimsy neither–the owner carries them to the Mint, and by paying three per cent, on the value he gets new pieces in exchange. And if any Baron, or any one else soever, hath need of gold or silver or gems or pearls, in order to make plate, or girdles, or the like, he goes to the Mint and buys as much as he list, paying in this paper-money.[
Now you have heard the ways and means whereby the Great Kaan may have, and in fact has, more treasure than all the Kings in the World; and you know all about it and the reason why. And now I will tell you of the great Dignitaries which act in this city on behalf of the Emperor.
There are two very important factors which make the reveal in this post possible:
You won’t believe me
You won’t think that I believe it myself
If it weren’t for these things, this blog post would not be here.
Of course we are all familiar with Asimov’s classic novella, widely acclaimed as the best time travel story of all time.
Long story short: the secret society of “eternals” who are capable of time travel which Asimov presents in his classic book “The End of Eternity) (pdf) (epub) is actually a real thing, with some modifications.
The real time travellers themselves are known in the society of eternals as “grandmasters” and have learned through intense study how to spread their consciousness over many variable timelines, enabling the use of other chess matches in other times as endpoints for a projection time travel technique. These guys are really travelling in time.
Unlike in Azimov’s story, it doesn’t appear that these time travellers can move physical goods from one century to another in arbitrage, however the ability to observe and even affect at reality in another time is already quite a shock.
Don’t believe me? Lets start with some incontrovertible facts:
Paul Morphy was able to travel to the future and learn chess from Alpha Zero.
Technicians in Azimov’s story of the eternal can make small minimal “adjustments” to timelines; Chess masters are told only to make minimal changes to the board without touching anything, unless they are technicians who announce “j’adoube”.
Historical scenes which have been “adjusted” are often seen with a chess board in the background.
Chess rules seem oddly stubborn to changes over millenia.
Timers stuck in predestined timelines are just pawns for the use of masters.
The mental projection of a single chess master can spread to allow an entire room or even those in a distant future to participate in the moment of time travel.
En Passant. Ok this doesn’t really prove anything but still, it’s kinda time travelly.
Technichian Magnus Carlsen and colleague are playing from a room possibly located in the forbidden centuries after the 100,000th century.
Another insight into the workings of this ultrasecretive society of time travellers (described as “eternals” in the Azimov book) comes from the gender inequality in chess masters. As Asimov puts it:
” Could he tell her that women almost never qualified for Eternity because, for some reason he did not understand (Computers might, but he himself certainly did not), their abstraction from Time was from ten to a hundred times as likely to distort Reality as was the abstraction of a man.”
Women are often simply too important in their influence on the future to be taken out of time to join the eternals and their chess time travel.
So that’s about the size of it. Look at some of the pictures of men standing around watching the highest level chess games… you will see it. Why are they there? Why the intensity? The threads of time are being smeared in that location and in effect, a certain kind of time travel I don’t understand is being enabled. The inaction in the present moment enables a smearing of Hamiltonians such the the wavefunctions can tunnel into the less probable tachyonic pathways.
Those who wish to understand further the method of time shifting via multiple lines of game progress are also advised to read Anathem by Neal Stephenson. The Mandela Effect is also relevant in the case of real timeline adjustments. (Since we’re there, lets promote this album.)
For those of you who are interested in more conventional time travelling methods, there is always the option of visiting China to see the future.
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