I'm A Physics Major Who Works As A Tutor With A Bunch Of Math Majors, And Today I Was Explaining Differentials

Joi Ito:

“What I realized was that a lot of the engineers who work in AI felt that you could reduce the whole world to a function.

That life, human life, was just optimizing. And that the world could be simulated in a computer.

This is almost religious because I think that there are people who have the kind of thinking where they look at their life as a game.

Where they say: “Okay. I’m optimizing for money, and how many minutes do I have to do this.”

I tweeted out the other day: “Those people who think that we live in a computer simulation are the kinds of people who are most likely to be simulations.”

A lot of people approach life like an engineering problem. For them, I could imagine that they could see their whole life being in a computer.

But if you go into the humanities or the East Coast, there are a lot of people who don’t think like a computer.

They live life through experience and only things that happen actually matter. (…)

A lot of the papers that you see by the engineers say: “We’ll just define fairness as accuracy,” or something like that.

And this is what I call reductionist, because fairness is really complex, and it’s always contextual.

My concern is the stuff that we have, which is efficiency, productivity — that’s the stuff that makes us obese, creates climate change, income inequality.

The problems that we have today are caused by the tools that we created.

But I think there’s a lot of people who believe that more efficiency and productivity will fix everything.

I think right now there’s a lot of power in the hands of the reductionists.

And I would put economists and neoclassic economics in this, which is just reducing everything to just measuring GDP. (…)

If you go to places like MIT, the engineers have all the power, all the money, and everything looks like an engineering problem. 

And we’ve made liberal arts sort of this sideshow. 

I think that we need the historians, social scientists, anthropologists, qualitative people involved in asking the questions: why are we here, what are we doing?”

Source: Recode Decode — MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito on the problem with tech people who want to solve problems

Octopus are wild!

octopus riding eel

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If u don’t fuck a special relativity then we can’t be friends

“Being curious is better than being smart. Being motivated and curious counts for more than being smart because it leads to action. Being smart will never deliver results on its own because it doesn’t get you to act. It is desire, not intelligence, that prompts behavior.”

— James Clear, Atomic Habits

the thing about everything is that it all gets easier with practice, so be careful what you practice 

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‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ Best Lyric Quotes

So here I am, back again with a new ‘Best Lyric Quotes’ post, this time with the enchanting Florence + the Machine. I picked this album first, not only ‘cause it’s the last one out, but also because I think it is immensely gorgeous. So let’s get to it already!

1. Ship to Wreck

“Did I drink too much? Am I losing touch? Did I build a ship to wreck?”

“Good God, under starless skies We are lost”

“Don’t touch the sleeping pills, they mess with my head”

“I can’t help but pull the earth around me to make my bed”

2. What Kind of Man

“You were on the other side, like always Wondering what to do with life”

“I’d already had a sip So I’d reasoned I was drunk enough to deal with it”

“Sometimes you’re half in and then you’re half out But you never close the door”

“You do such damage, how do you manage? To have me crawling back for more”

“I think I’m through it Then I’m back against the wall What kind of man loves like this?”

3. How Big How Blue How Beautiful

“Tell me you see it too We opened our eyes and it’s changing the view Oh, what are we gonna do? We opened the door now, it’s all coming through”

“So much time on the other side Waiting for you to wake up Maybe I’ll see you in another life If this one wasn’t enough“

4. Queen of Peace

“Oh, what is it worth When all that’s left is hurt?”

“Like the stars chase the sun Over the glowing hill, I will conquer Blood is running deep Some things never sleep”

“Suddenly I’m overcome Dissolving like the setting sun Like a boat into oblivion Cause you’re driving me away”

“Always does her best to please But is it any use? Somebody’s gotta lose”

“And my love is no good Against the fortress that it made of you”

“To give yourself over to another body That’s all you want really To be out of your own and consumed by another To swim inside the skin of your lover Not to have to breathe, not to have to think But you can’t live on love; salt water’s no drink”

5. Various Storms & Saints

“But you took your toll on me So I gave myself over willingly You got a hold on me”

“Don’t make the mountain your enemy Get out, get up there instead”

“You saw the stars out in front of you Too tempting not to touch But even though it shocked you Something’s electric in your blood”

“Outside the world seems a violent place But you had to have him, and so you did Some things you let go in order to live”

“You sing it out loud, ‘who made us this way?’ I know you’re bleeding, but you’ll be okay Hold on to your heart, you’ll keep it safe Hold on to your heart, don’t give it away”

“You don’t need no edge to cling from Your heart is there, it’s in your hands”

“I know it seems like forever I know it seems like an age But one day this will be over I swear it’s not so far away”

Hold on to your heart…

6. Delilah

“Cause I’m gonna be free and I’m gonna be fine”

“Too fast for freedom Sometimes it all falls down These chains never leave me I keep dragging them around”

“Strung up, strung out for your love Hanging, hung up, it’s so rough I’m wrung and ringing out Why can’t you let me know?”

7. Long & Lost

“Without your love, I’ll be So long and lost, are you missing me?”

“Is it too late to come on home? Can the city forgive? I hear its sad song”

“You wonder why it is that I came home I figured out where I belong”

8. Caught

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do To try and keep from calling you Well, can my dreams keep coming true? How can they? Cause when I sleep, I never dream of you”

“As if the dream of you, it sleeps too But it never slips away It just gains its strength and digs its hooks To drag me through the day”

“I can’t keep calm, I can’t keep still Pulled apart against my will”

“it’s hard to see it when you’re in it Cause I went blind for you”

9. Third Eye

“Look up Don’t make a shadow of yourself Always shutting out the light”

“You don’t have to be a ghost Here amongst the living You are flesh and blood And you deserve to be loved And you deserve what you are given“

“But your pain is a tribute The only thing you let hold you”

“I am the same, I’m the same I’m trying to change“

10. St. Jude

“Another battle never won And each side is a loser So who cares who fired the gun?”

“And I’m learning, so I’m leaving And even though I’m grieving I’m trying to find the meaning Let loss reveal it”

“Maybe I’ve always been more comfortable in chaos”

11. Mother

“Can you protect me from what I want? The love that I let in left me so lost”

“No use wishing on the water It grants you no relief”

“Make me a big tall tree So I can shed my leaves and let it blow through me”

“Make me a big grey cloud So I can rain on you things I can’t say out loud”

“Make me a bird of prey So I can rise above this, let it fall away”

“Make me a song so sweet Heaven trembles, fallen at our feet”

12. Hiding

“Tell me I will be released Not sure I can deal with this Up all night again this week Breaking things that I should keep”

“I know that you’re hiding I know there’s a part of you that I just cannot reach You don’t have to let me in Just know that I’m still here I’m ready for you whenever, whenever you need”

“it’s your pride That’s keeping us still so far apart But if you give a little, so will I”

“I’m still here…”

13. Make Up Your Mind

“Every time I try to bring it down You always turn my hand around”

“Let me live or let me love you”

“While you’ve been saving your neck I’ve been breaking mine for you”

“Is it best to sip it slowly Or drink it down in one?”

“Make up your mind Before I make it up for you”

14. Which Witch

“I’m miles away, he’s on my mind I’m getting tired of crawling all the way”

“Been in the dark since the day we met Fire, help me to forget”

“And it’s an old scar Trying to bleach it out”

15. Pure Feeling

“Staring out the window I could see into the soul of every passer by So many lives So many pairs of eyes”

“Our bodies moving in the dark It takes the pain from me And then I am in love With everyone I see I keep on moving in the spaces where you used to be”

16. Conductor

“If I write a song about you Does that make you mine?”

“The notes were flying up Higher and higher But they never reach the top”

“I am the orchestra The conductor too My heart is a concert hall And I filled it with you”

17. As Far As I Could Get

“Because I am unloved I went as far as I could get”

“I went as far as I could get And I’m not far enough yet”

“I went as far as I could get Cause if I am unloved, I have unloved too”

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i love angry women. if ur a woman and ur fucking pissed off i love you

just spent four nights in the mountains operating a big telescope. the views were beautiful and i got to see the milky way every night

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i cannot emphasize enough how tremendously proud hannah gadsby should be of what she has created and released into this world.