Tools: the Good and the Bad

Jun 27 2023 Gabriel

If all you have is a hammer, suddenly every single thing starts to look like a nail. Hardly and tool itself is wholly evil or entirely good. Not only are the tools themselves important, how we use them matters quite a bit as well. This applies all the way from the entire software ecosystem, down to the hardware components themselves. The fundamental attributes of the tool will set the incentives for how they can be used, and how they are used creates incentives for how future tools will be made.

Raise your Shield

May 19 2023 Gabriel

It’s a cliche nowadays to point out that society is fractured. The Culture Wars are no longer a side-show for the politically obsessed, instead they are front-and center in the spectacle, aggressively inciting the wider public to participate. Hate your family? Hate your community? Hate your country? Even worse, do you hate yourself? There is no shortage of (often quite valid) reasons to keep you in a prison of rage and despair.

Conceptualizing Information Control

Apr 23 2023 Gabriel

Knowledge is power. Control over knowledge is immense power. This power isn’t merely used to advance sciences and create new technologies, instead it’s often used to take control of other people. Almost everyone these days seems to believe they’re surrounded by brainwashed masses. What if there really is something to that? Who, or what, is actually doing the brainwashing? It is a mistake to assume that someone who is acting differently than you is always making those decisions from incorrect information.