Much of what is billed as economic problems is at its core people/social problems. Discuss.

(This post brought to you by a tired Kate who wants to think about this, but right now doesn't have the time/energy to spare, and so I'm out-sourcing it to you)

First, a new[1] word for the day: Omniism, the belief that everything has a meaning and the opposite of nihilism. Also, it has a double i; how cool is that?

[1]new as in we made it up. I doubt it is a "real" word.

( cut for discussion of world hunger and human nature )

So I went to Arisia this past weekend, which was a lot of fun. I went to several panels with a wide variety of topics including costumes in Firefly, story vs. gag in web-comics, a space elevator proposal, and predictions for the future. I don't think I showed up to a single one on-time though, because I kept running into people I knew in the halls ( Read more... )

Job search: I have a potential job which I am seriously considering taking. There are a lot of things I like about this job, but some things which I need to find out about which might be problems. The decision is making me a little nervous. I don't want to take another job that I will wind up hating ( Read more... )

I now present to a piece on the nature of reality and perception and it relevance to identity and other possibly important questions.

( cut for potential to cause offense )

Today was a good day. At work I successfully reduced the instruction count for processing a second of data by over 100,000 instructions. Then I went out to WPI for a very short SFS meeting and then watching some Invader Zim episodes. It was quiet enjoyable ( Read more... )

The political and religious debate happening lately has gotten me thinking about those beliefs that are most basic to me. These are the beliefs that I am completely committed to, affect the way I live, and are applicable to a wide range of issues. There appear to be only three of them.
( For the curious )

Non-linear systems is not going well. Firstly, the homework assigned today has questions where I don't even understand what being asked. Also, the professor is giving a takehome midterm over fall break, when I'll be in Worcester. (For those who didn't know, I'll be visiting Oct 22-25.) The last thing I want to do during my first chance to see ( Read more... )

Life is an intractable problem. Everyone must search for their own local optimum.

Things go well here. I am continuing to meet people, including one geek kid who is willing to get together to do stuff outside of clubs. My confidence in my ability to make friends and my mood have improved. Also, I finished the annoying non-linear systems homework. Admittedly, a couple of the problem I know I only got partially right, so I ( Read more... )