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May 1, 2023Liked by Ives Parr

The “embryo choice problem,” and the study of how to weigh goods and bads against one another to make that choice, and the study of how information presentation can influence the embryo choice, can be gamed out in a formalized test setting, even maturing into an entire discipline.

Would be cool to make the first instance, no?

Do you think you could construct a prototype game, and host it on your twitter account, Ives? It's just a multiple choice questionnaire.

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This clear argument gives the lie to the meme that says (categorically falsely) 'reality has a liberal bias'. It's one of the reasons I am increasingly reactionary. The more I see reality involving truths that have strangely become associated with 'right-coded' assertions, the less epistemic or moral respect I have for progressivism.

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The reluctance to engage in direct comparisons seems like it's a new thing, not a fundamental aspect of human nature. I suspect it has something to do with our elevated wealth allowing us to indulge in counterproductive egalitarian impulses.

I picked up a Jane Austen book recently, and it's been a nice read. One of the things that has stuck out to me is the frankness in which comparisons are made--both between families (eg. "he comes from a good family") and within families ("that sister shows a lot of promise, the other one can't control her temper").

Perhaps this type of frankess was a quirk of Victorian England, but I suspect the opposite that is true. It's *our* time that is strange for shying away from comparisons.

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