The Ungoverned

Thoughts on man and his universe
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  • David Veksler

Why democracies fail Oct 17, 2018

A civilization is created by its best people: the best scientists, engineers, generals, statesmen, etc. This happens because a meritocratic society of some sort is required for a civilization to arise. In a democracy, the control over the fate of a civilization is handed over to the average voter. The problem with this is that the average voter was never capable of creating his civilization, much less understanding how it functions. Civilizations are necessarily the creation of their very brightest members: they represent a stretch of the human potential to a new plateau. They can only maintain their peak achievement...

By David Veksler Vote0 0

Why I prefer to live in a small apartment with a family of four Oct 16, 2018

People are shocked when I tell them that prefer living in a one-bedroom, furniture-free apartment with my wife and two kids, even though I can pay cash for a McMansion or two in the ‘burbs. Why do most people need more space? Consider my closet: When I decide what to wear to work in the morning, every shirt in my closet is a good option. I’ve gotten rid of anything that for whatever reason is not a viable choice. Most people have filled the majority of their closets with clothes that don’t fit, aren’t stylish, too old, etc. My shirts...

By David Veksler Vote4 0

How to apply evolutionary biology to extend your lifespan Aug 31, 2018

Here is the actual reason we grow old and die. Are you ready? It's brutal: Let's say there is a 2% chance that any given primitive human will die from external events each year. He might get eaten by a bear, starve to death, have a bad fall and get left behind by his tribe, get clubbed in the head, lost in the woods, etc. We can get the probability of not having been killed by an external event as (chance of being alive)^(age) For example, at age 10 that is .98^10=81%, age 30 is 54%, 70 is 24%, 100=13%....

By David Veksler Vote9 3

A Libertarian case for a civic duty to support open immigration Aug 31, 2018

1: Nations don’t have rights. Only people have rights. 2: People have a right to exclude others from their property for any reason. They have no right to exclude people from other’s property or to prevent their association. 3: In the case of infrastructure, public or private, the proper policy is to allow all peaceful people to access it freely. 4: Therefore, all States ought to have a policy of Open Immigration: no restriction of the free movement of labor. Passports and citizenship should be eliminated from our laws and vocabulary. The free movement of peaceful people across borders is...

By David Veksler Vote4 2

What if we paid for restaurants like we pay for school? Aug 15, 2018

Sending my daughter a Montessori school costs about $15,000 per year. We have two daughters and plan a third child so we may be paying $45,000 per year for some time to send three kids to private school. The cost is worth it because I do not believe that public schools are capable of preparing children for success in life. My own experience as an honors student in a "quality" public school made me hate learning, failed to prepare me for college, and was a miserable social experience. I don't mind paying for my children's education. What I mind is that...

By David Veksler Vote9 0

Censorship vs community standards: classifying content moderation on the Internet Aug 8, 2018

The following hierarchy attempts to classify different levels of content moderation (or censorship, depending on the context) in order to encourage a more productive discussion on how social networks ought to regulate content. Six Levels of Internet Content Moderation Level 1: Anything goes Examples: email before spam filters, darknet networks Level 1 networks have no content filtering whatsoever. Many networks start out this way during the development/testing phase. Level 1 networks must inevitably evolve to level 2 as they become popular in order to deal with spammers. Level 2: Content which disrupts core functionality prohibited Examples: Bitcoin, modern BitTorrent aggregators,...

By David Veksler Vote4 0

Seven reasons why Facebook is wrong in their censorship of CodeIsFreeSpeech.com Aug 5, 2018

Seven reasons why Facebook is wrong and dishonest in their censorship of Code Is Free Speech dot com:   1: Code Is Free Speech dot com only hosts free and publicly-available information (how to build a weapon using a 3d printer) and does not sell any prohibited products or services. 2: The website is protected by both the first amendment (freedom of speech) and the second (freedom to bear arms). Prohibition of the information on the site is unconstitutional. As a business, Facebook is not bound by the U.S. Constitution, but as an American company, it ought to respect it....

By David Veksler Vote7 1

Against “gender-neutral parenting” Jul 25, 2018

Parents have a responsibility to teach their children gender-normative behavior for the same reasons that they ought to teach their kids good manners. Manners, customs, and fashions serve to create a social environment in which the behavior of other people is predictable and facilitates cooperation. While many aspects of culture can vary dramatically without any social impact (ethnic foods, dance outfits), there needs to be a consensus on other aspects of optimal social function. Some manners are arbitrary whereas others have an objective basis. For example, greeting others is objectively important for conflict avoidance, whereas whether we shake hands, or...

By David Veksler Vote4 0

Is Bitcoin a help or a hindrance to criminals? Jul 16, 2018

From my Quora answer: The way this question is phrased is problematic. Are pencils useful to criminals? They can be used to write down schemes for robbing banks, kidnapping letters, etc. What about guns? Weapons give criminals an edge in committing crimes. Of course, pencils and guns can be used against criminals as well. Most people would agree that it’s a good idea that weapons exist (even if you think that only the policy and military should have them) -- otherwise, the strongest bullies could force their will on everyone else, and society would collapse. So what you should really ask is...

By David Veksler Vote3 0

How many cryptocurrencies will survive the infancy period? Jul 11, 2018

Reposted from Quora: The best way to estimate how many cryptocurrencies will survive the infancy period is to look at other markets. For example, how many social networks survived the infancy period? Facebook has 63% market share: If you use a stricter definition of “social network” to mean “feed-based platforms based around personal profiles” Facebook has over 99.8% market share. Google+ and Diaspora are well under 1%. What about Search Engines? Google has 87% market share. What about Desktop Operating Systems? Windows has 82%. What emerges from looking at these and other markets is that network effects lead to a...

By David Veksler Vote3 0

Why the US desperately needs open borders to avoid economic disaster Jul 11, 2018

Reposted from Quora: I would argue the USA desperately needs open borders to avoid economic disaster. Consider that: 1: There are 11 million ordinary, hard-working people willing to risk their lives and prison time to create a better life for their families. 2: There are 11 million American business owners who need hard-working non-professional workers desperately enough to break the law 3: US immigration law makes it nearly impossible for honest, hardworking non-professionals to become Americans legally. Why are American businesses so desperate for workers that they are willing to break the law? There is a record number of unfilled...

By David Veksler Vote6 10

Capitalism is (mostly) made from love Jun 14, 2018

A car drove by today with the words "wealth is just stuff" plastered all over it. There is nothing wrong with "stuff" but this claim is wrong. Wealth is mostly made of love. Most wealth is business ownership, not iPhones, Porsche, and private jets. Rich people stay rich because they invest the majority of their wealth in companies rather than fritter it all away on material possessions. Most business value comes from the relationships and goodwill it generates, not "stuff." For example, why is Apple worth $500 billion? If you sold all the land, buildings, and computers that are the...

By David Veksler Vote5 0

America’s Deadliest Drug Addiction Affects Everyone Apr 30, 2018

Today, my *web browser* is insisting that I "can help curb opioid abuse." Here is my contribution: Stock photos in the West universally use the presence of a mug in the shot to connote work, just as the presence of soda or alcohol drunks connote fun. The mug presumably contains coffee, a psychoactive compound which may enhance mental performance. What is shocking is that we not only sanction a chemical dependency on caffeine but celebrate not just the coffee, but our very dependency on it. Americans see no contradiction with celebrating their own drug addiction to coffee and alcohol while...

By David Veksler Vote4 1

Is Bitcoin being used to spread “child abuse imagery”? Not really. Mar 23, 2018

Yesterday, the Guardian wrote that "researchers have discovered unknown persons are using bitcoin’s blockchain to store and link to child abuse imagery, potentially putting the cryptocurrency in jeopardy." Is that true? This is a serious allegation. Unfortunately, both the Guardian story and a Bitcoin.com article which rejects these claims make grossly inaccurate statements. Furthermore, the cited study makes false statements about Bitcoin in its abstract. Aside from the sensational claims in the abstract, and the even more sensational claims in mainstream media articles about it, the paper is fairly thorough and accurate - but contains no new insights or discoveries, and duplicates...

By David Veksler Vote5 0

The Internet Did Not Kill the Music Star Feb 21, 2018

For decades now, we’ve been hearing how file sharing, cheap iTunes singles, online radio, and stream ripping “killed” the music industry. In 2014, Taylor Swift wrote about the future of the industry in a Wall Street Journal article.  Her fantastic economic claims have been debunked elsewhere, but one of her basic criticisms was that Internet streaming is challenging the traditional revenue model of the music industry.  However, Taylor’s own career demonstrates how the Internet and digital technology have lent themselves to a creative renaissance of the music industry, in part due to her own leadership. Rather than the death of...

By David Veksler Vote1 0

Can DAG-based cryptocurrencies like IOTA scale better than the blockchain? Feb 16, 2018

Some people claim that DAG (directed acyclic graph) technologies like the IOTA’s Tangle or Byteball will be able to scale (process large transaction volumes) better than blockchain-based technologies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Let me start by saying that only a few people in the world are qualified to offer an expert opinion on the question of whether a blockchain or DAG perform better. They make a great deal of money, and their time is generally too valuable to comment on Internet forums. This is why you see a lot of DAG advocates claim that it is superior without informed counterpoints....

By David Veksler Vote2 0

How Easy Money Is Rotting America from the Inside-Out Feb 14, 2018

The Federal Reserve has been the main cause of business cycles in America since 1913. For several decades, it has tried to hide the consequences of its policies by enabling easy credit during each recession. As Jonathan Newman wrote yesterday, pouring trillions of dollars into the financial sector obscures the external signs of the recession such as low asset prices and high unemployment and promotes economic malinvestment. This malinvestment creates the conditions that cause the next recession. Some of the consequences of the Fed’s policies, such as stock market and housing bubbles can be directly attributed to its policies. In other...

By David Veksler Vote9 0

Is the value of Bitcoin based solely on speculation? Feb 14, 2018

It's not true that Bitcoin's value is set solely by speculators. It has a use value which would exist even if all the speculators vanished. I know a company that pays their employees in Bitcoin - not because they think its value will go up, but because it's cheaper than the transaction costs involved in fiat-denominated payments. I know a lady in Zimbabwe who is using Bitcoin because she does not have access to a sound currency. These people are not speculators: they may prefer to trade their Bitcoin for a fiat currency at the first chance. However, their ongoing...

By David Veksler Vote2 0

Bitcoin is still the most innovative crypto asset Feb 14, 2018

I've heard an assumption that because many alt-coins do "more" than Bitcoin and have a higher combined market cap, their technology must be more advanced, and therefore Bitcoin will be left behind in value and market share. I disagree for two reasons: First, the fact that an asset such as Ethereum does "more", does not mean that the market will value its feature set higher. The potential market value of any given cryptoasset depends on the value proposition it offers to individuals times its potential market share. It remains to be seen whether Ethereum will be able to create meaningful...

By David Veksler Vote14 3

11 Essential Security Practices to Keep Your Bitcoin Safe Dec 10, 2017

The recent explosion in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has inspired me to start a new hobby: helping people recover lost Bitcoin wallets. As might be expected of early adopters in an anonymous Internet cryptocurrency, many of my customers are information security professionals. It seems that many of them set up so many security measures that they locked themselves out of their Bitcoin. On the other hand, I’ve also heard from many more people who lost their Bitcoin or had it stolen because they either did not follow basic security practices or followed them without understanding their implications and also lost...

By David Veksler Vote3 0

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