Today’s exercise in game theory
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Tag Archives: society
Poisoned Apple
This could get interesting
The Price of Power
Being the Big Baboon on Campus is a Stressful Business
In the hardscrabble world of a baboon troop, being the alpha male has its perks: power, food, ample opportunities to woo the ladies. But all that status brings with it a great deal of stress, a new study shows, as the alpha male constantly scrambles to stay atop the social pyramid. The life of a second-in-command beta male — somewhat fewer perks but, the researchers found, a whole lot less stress — is starting to sound like the better deal.
The Progression of Social Networking
From Popularity for Purchase:
- signs and symbols did indicate something real – a message from a friend or family member whom you see and care about
- signs and symbols indicate a false reality – the early stages of Facebook, when people would beef up their friend count with casual acquaintances and friends of friends, and use Like and Follow to build up a “social network“
- Signs that are not backed up by any reality. One hires ad hoc workers to write posts for one’s Facebook page, blog, Twitter feed. One appears to be a prolific writer, well versed on news and culture. One’s friends (the real ones!) are impressed, and notice one’s growing social circle. Then one hires other ad hoc Workers to Like, Follow, and Comment on the material written by the first lot. Your Google Analytics look great; you rank high in the search engines because you hired writers who are good at SEO. Many people leave comments on your site
- One day you wake up to find that (a) no one is interacting on your site except your paid workers and (b) the content you paid for was scraped to other sites and is being used by your new paid workers to write new-old material.
The Internet once again confirms Sturgeon’s Revelation.
Where do woodworkers come from?
Survey: What is (or Was) Your Day Job?
The ranks of woodworkers seems to be filled with engineers, machinists, doctors, computer programmers, firefighters and police officers.
I’ve met only a few attorneys who are woodworkers. And, even more interesting, only one fellow newspaper journalist. I’ve never met a politician who was a woodworker – though I know there are some out there, such as Jimmy Carter.
What does it mean? Probably not much. But I think it’s interesting how professions that thrive on conflict – journalists, attorneys and politicos – seem less likely to take up our craft. And those who build or serve – engineers and firefighters – are more common.
Survival Of The Stupidest
At the Hammock Physicist
What we have all seen, explained by Game Theory.
The Two Cultures in 2011
From The Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Science
Scientists have been complaining for decades that, while they would be ashamed to admit knowing nothing about Jane Austen’s novels, literary colleagues can get away with total ignorance of relativity and quantum theory. Continue reading
Ayn Rand in old age
From Monastic Musings:
I was surprised to read about Ayn Rand’s old age at Gruntled Center. In the face of the cost of treatments for lung cancer, she signed up for Social Security and Medicare using her legal name, Ann O’Connor.
This would not bother me in the least, had she written or said anything to retract her condemnation of those programs. But – in spite of her many tirades against hypocrisy – she quietly accepted government funding while continuing to condemn both the programs and the people who accepted the funding.
The Glorification of Noise
Somehow it has entered popular culture that people (normal adults, not undergoing torture or otherwise in pain) should want to
scream as loud they can, and indeed should pay for the opportunity to do in a crowd. See these images from the downtown Minneapolis Skyway:
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I find the idea of being in such environments to be absolutely terrifying. Every time I see one of these posters I get this urge to run off to a library, or maybe a monastery.
This seems to be part of a trend. Recall this story, which I linked to last summer (h/t jeff_duntemann).
I was going to add some dark musings about what this means for communication, society, and humanity, but I will leave these as exercises for the reader.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 