Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Innovation

 I like the idea that intelligence is a historical artifact. In the dark ages, good handwriting was considered intelligent. In the dot-com era that we are thankfully leaving, technological imagination was considered intelligent. Because capitalism resists progress, some that made fortunes still have bullhorns to promote their latest ideas. Usually, these ideas are boring to philosophers that already considered the idea and went on to more interesting ideas. For example, consider the idea that the universe is a simulation in another universe. This is as meaningless as religion. Suppose such a simulation existed in our universe. The value, if the word value is to have meaning beyond its anemic economic meaning, is proportionate to its information content. Assuming, as we must, that the longevity of the simulation is proportionate to its value, then its longevity is proportionate to its information content. But that is just a restatement of the Big Bang theory. Furthermore, the notion that the universe consists of information did not originate from technocrats. Physicist have been playing with the idea that the information content of matter falling into black holes is etched on the surface. Therefore technocrats, and more generally capitalists, never invented anything. All innovation comes from the environment.

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