people will go against the evidence of their own eyes if contradicted by a unanimous group. Second, group pressure is much weaker if even a single person dares to disagree with the group. Third, and most remarkable: it does not matter if the dissenter is mistaken; dissent punctures group pressure either way. People are liberated to say what they believe, not because the dissenter speaks the truth but because the dissenter demonstrates that disagreement is possible.
— Read on timharford.com/2026/03/the-refreshing-power-of-disagreement/
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a team from Google DeepMind has introduced a new cognitively inspired framework that deconstructs general intelligence into 10 key faculties. More importantly, they propose a way to evaluate AI systems across these key capabilities and compare their performance to humans.
— Read on singularityhub.com/2026/03/20/google-deepmind-plans-to-track-agi-progress-with-these-10-traits-of-general-intelligence/ -
I think Disney and Las Vegas are the closest the USA gets to the monumental architecture style seen throughout Rome. Monumentalism is architecture designed with massive scale, made to awe the viewer with symbolic power (usually as a symbol of the state). Monumentalism is everywhere in Rome. It’s in Catholic cathedrals. When confronted with monumental architecture, you feel humbled and human, overwhelmed by the style’s colossal proportions and power it projects.
There is some monumental architecture in the United States (Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore). But unlike Rome, there is no single city filled with monumental architecture, designed to make you gasp at every turn.
What do we have that does that? Disney World and Las Vegas. The buildings produce awe due to their audacity. Each corner, particularly in Disney, brings into view a new, curated vista to impress you.
But in the USA, this does not project state power, nor does it humble you. It does the reverse. It humbles itself, invites you. You’re welcome to spend more because of the spectacle, which is for you, and certainly not for itself.
I can’t think of any cities that consistently use monumental architecture to project state power. I think the USA uses monumentalism to project logos and invite the viewer into consumption. I don’t know if this is an evolution (the viewer is welcomed, invited, elevated) or a de-evolution (the viewer is a product, the state is degraded, the individual is elevated above the common good).
But I am pretty sure the USA does not use monumental architecture to serve state purposes the way imperial Rome did. If I’m missing something, let me know.
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Roblox has something like 380 million monthly active users. Minecraft has something like 60 million. Fortnite has 650 million registered players. These…are all virtual three-dimensional spaces where you can run around in an avatar and interact with faraway persons over the Internet. The only thing that differentiates them from the Metaverse, as narrowly construed by Metaverse-tombstone-cartoon-posting halfwits, is that no goggles are involved.
— Read on nealstephenson.substack.com/p/my-prodigal-brainchildNeal Stephenson wrote the cyberpunk novel Snow Crash (which anticipated Google Maps, among other tech) and is connected to the idea of the Metaverse. In his reflections on Facebook’s $80B investment into VR, he notes that the Metaverse is an obvious concept, is continuing to happen (witness Fortnite, for example) and will continue to happen.
The question is whether goggles will be the mediating device. No one has figured out a device – other than a screen – with sticking power as a portal into these virtual worlds. And no one has figured out a way to make them work without an overarching narrative – a goal. But even without those two factors, they are happening and will continue to happen.
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In Disneyworld, the 50 minute lines are an experience. You get interesting visuals about Star Wars, Avatar and other franchises. The lines are designed to always give the sensation of movement. They twist back and forth, in short twists – so you feel like you’re always turning a corner. You enter isolated tunnels and small rooms — so you never see how long the line is.
Contrast this with US Customs, the gateway into the USA. This is a prime opportunity to showcase US values to the world and educate residents. The experience is a long line, where you always see the long line. There are no twists or small rooms to create the illusion of movement. There might be some art — sometimes the result of a contest, or some plaques or a photography.
Why couldn’t these be combined? Imagine entering into US Customs at Chicago O’Hare Airport (for example). You’re tired, you just exited a long flight from Asia. Instead of being bombarded with long lines and overhead lighting, you enter a museum installation. You move from room to room. Each room tells you about the history of Chicago. What it stands for. Excerpts from its literature. Key landmarks in the city. Busts of past mayors and short biographies.
The result — foreign visitors tell the world about Chicago’s history. Your returning citizens are continuously educated about the history, strengths and values of this country. And you welcome the world with open arms into your city.
This idea makes a lot of sense to me. What are the obstacles? Does anyone know what this would cost?
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Patterns, everywhere patterns. An elegant concept, executed with grace. At times, disorienting. Hopefully I wasn’t programmed! Enjoy.
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The core problem with democratic / decentralized modes of governance (including DAOs on ethereum) is limits to human attention: there are many thousands of decisions to make, involving many domains of expertise, and most people don’t have the time or skill to be experts in even one, let alone all of them. The usual solution, delegation, is disempowering
— Read on x.com/vitalikbuterin/status/2025225247088402581A fresh way to look at government and AI. By extending our ability to focus on problems, AI could make us better voters. Imagine a world where agents know your preferences and can vote accordingly. No such government has ever existed. Then again no such government like this was ever possible.
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The American middle class as we know it didn’t emerge from the free market. It was constructed — deliberately, through policy, in response to specific political and economic conditions.
And:
Today, you can earn what used to be a solidly middle-class income and find that it purchases a fundamentally different life than it did a generation ago. Same paycheck, different purchasing power — in part because every component of the safety net “bundle” was repriced individually, and the prices went up.
And:
And yet roughly 70% of Americans still identify as middle class, even though only about half objectively qualify
More here.
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— Someone in the government just registered aliens.gov
— A video game soundtrack that’s so good it’s absurd
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The community should be rooting for you to outshine the high-status people. Regardless of what the community values—artistic achievement, real-world success, morality, fame, positive impact on the lives of others—it should be clear that it is good, cool, and desirable for you to do better than the people who are currently high-status. A healthy high-demand community doesn’t tear down people who might displace the current elite.
— Read on thingofthings.substack.com/p/identifying-healthy-high-demand-groupsInteresting! Never heard of the term high-demand group before.
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The Fungus that Came to Blackeswell is an adventure for 2nd-3rd level characters that is incredibly descriptive – with language that reminds me of the movie Annihilation. It’s set in an eerie, isolated village and is a total sandbox for players to explore.
It is an absolute blast to play and to run.
The problem is, I couldn’t find any play reports on The Fungus that Came to Blackeswell, and I certainly couldn’t find any advice on how to best set up the adventure. The best I could find were online reviews from people who read the adventure. I set out to fix that with this post, for the benefit of future GMs who are thinking of running this incredibly fun adventure.
This is my play report, with tips on how to run The Fungus that Came to Blackeswell in a way that creates tension, is really fun, and makes it easy to run.
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Social media, by allowing people to post ideas that are unmediated by any editorial planning process, brings forth whole modes of engagement with political ideas that I think simply could not exist in a world of rigorous journalistic feedback.
Ways to fix this problem are: Political parties kicking out toxic members, using AI to reword clickbait headlines, and following media that makes you stronger without putting you in a rage. Hopefully there are more!
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One of the biggest changes in my personality with middle age is that I no longer really enjoy travel beyond local weekend getaways. Almost no destination has a pain/novelty ratio that makes it worth it. On the one hand, I’ve traveled enough that few places hold the promise of real novelty and stimulation. On the other hand, even though travel has gotten way more convenient overall (smartphones, eSIM cards, cashless payments, Uber, Google Translate — though at the expense of phone-loss anxiety), my tolerance for discomfort has plummeted.
I feel this. After constant work travel, travel has lost most of its allure. I’ve started preferring long periods without travel which allow me to keep a steady workout and diet schedule.
In fact, as I’ve gotten older, the parts I most enjoy about travel aren’t really related to the destination. I like getting to meet new people. And I enjoy the proficiency that comes with travel – knowing how to pack a bag right, knowing your way around the apps and points programs, having fluency in major airports.
I admit, it’s easy to feel like a weirdo when 60% of coworkers in team bonding exercises list “travel” as their favorite hobbies. Who knows – maybe the joy of travel will come back, but as long as it’s being replaced with the joy of rootedness, I don’t mind.
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Average grades continue to rise in the United States, raising the question of how grade inflation impacts students.
And:
The cumulative impact is economically significant: a teacher with one standard deviation higher average grade inflation reduces the present discounted value of lifetime earnings of their students by $213,872 per year.
Concerning. And absolutely happening, based on observation. More here.
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The GameStop era started when some people discovered a crack in Wall Street’s armor that could be exploited through Internet coordination. Ultimately, the system won, and most people lost. Yet the era revealed a lot of truths, educated people about stocks, and produced a lot of memes.
Of all the GameStop memes, this one still hits hardest. It reveals something poisonous underneath the surface. It tells you why the poison is happening. It invites you to make your own decisions. And it also:
- Uses insider jargon. People are not dumb. They’re making desperate choices.
- Shows the gap between generations. People live in different economic worlds. When we forget this, we lose empathy when it’s needed the most.
- Is not funny. Most GameStop memes are funny. This one is not.
Martin Gurri makes the same point: Without unifying stories, we risk hurtling toward nihilism, benefiting no one.
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What I remember – people with drug problems reading Rimbaud, Verlaine and Baudelaire. High schoolers reading Shogun, the Stand. Books went to road trips, books went to sporting events. Lots of people reading Nietzsche or pretending to.
Everyone reading Dragonlance, the Lord of the Rings, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Visiting book sales with a girlfriend, a girlfriend reading Middlemarch. Always scanning someone’s bookshelf when you visited their house. Mothers telling their daughters never to date someone who didn’t have a bookshelf in their house.
“Philosopher” kids who debated Foucault and Aristotle (best represented by Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites). People reading books based on popular movies or inspired by movies (Trainspotting comes to mind). Discussing King Arthur and Shakespeare at length, jocks talking about Oscar Wilde. Jocks reading the Quran and the Bible and discussing different religions.
We’ve gained a lot too, but this is what we’ve lost.
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“The painting invites the viewer to wonder what has just happened, why it happened, and why the participants are dressed in such costumes. It encourages the viewer to reconstruct the preceding events through imagination.”
— Read on apaintingstory.com/en/posts/the-duel-after-the-masquerade/ -
No one told me the Vatican is a storage closet. Beautiful beyond imagination, yet overflowing with statues and paintings, like they ran out of room for the collections. People told me I would be “angry” at the Vatican for “stealing treasures.” I did not feel that way. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. The Vatican saved the history of their people from being looted and forgotten. Now it’s remembered.
Basement Whatever 