tigertoy

I have a philosophical question that I'd like to pose as a hypothetical. This is strictly a thought experiment and it's not intended to refer to any real person and certainly not to any identifiable group of real Americans.

Suppose there is an able bodied person. They have no physical limitations and no diagnosable mental health issues. They have no kids. They don't do unpaid work (such as assisting family or volunteering). They are simply unwilling to work in any way.

What obligation does society have to that person? Is it ethically appropriate to leave them to starve in the gutter? If not, what level of support must society provide? If the answer is "it depends", how would you define what it depends on how the obligation varies with that?

In particular, what is the obligation in a prosperous modern Western democracy?

I was listening to the radio this morning and there was some discussion about the connection between facts and truth. The person on the radio contended that while facts can be checked and verified and reasonably be shown to be correct, but truth is more subjective and hard to pin down. This inspired a train of thought.

I believe in science as a way of understanding the world. Science approaches a problem by forming a hypothesis and collecting facts to see how well it fits. If most of the facts align, the hypothesis is strenthened. If there are facts that don't fit and there's a pattern to those facts, it points to a way to refine the hypothsis, or possibly even throw it out and start over. But in most sets of data, there are a few outliers -- measurements that are way outside the range of most of the data. If the data can be graphed on a scatter plot, there's a very heavy concentration of points along the expected line, but there are just a few apparently randomly around the graph. If there are few enough outliers, we consider the hypothesis valid despite these outliers.

In politics, on the other hand, we focus much more on the outliers rather than going with the general trend. If a debater can present a single fact that disagrees with an opponent's point of view, and that fact is verified, it's considered a valid argument (at least to one side of the question). There is little attempt to see the general pattern and ignore the outliers.

This problem is very much driven by the way the media work. Ordinary events -- those in the main blob of data points on the scatter plot -- aren't newsworthy because they're common. Outliers, because they are novel, receive far more attention than they generally deserve; and this tends to reinforce extreme viewpoints by reinforcing them with outlier examples. For example, consider how many people worry about how dangerous air travel is but never pay attention to how dangerous car travel is. This happens because plane crashes are so rare that every one is going to get media attention, while car crashes are so common that they're hardly ever mentioned.

Truth is somewhat subjective and squishy, but a reasonable view of the truth should be formed by considering the ordinary majority of the facts rather than concentrating on the outliers.

You know how they say when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. I assert a corrollary:

Phil's Law of Tool Usage: When you have a hammer in your hand,everything looks like a nail.

Commentary: When you're holding a chainsaw you can be dangerous. :-)

The more I type on this laptop keyboard the less I like it. I need to get a decent USB keyboard. Sadly I'm not sure they make them anymore. I want moderate travel and tactile feedback but not the noise of the IBM buckling-spring keyboard. Many years ago Fujitsu made the perfect keyboard but I haven't seen one like it in ages.

After years of being annoyed that I don't have a good place or way to dry my boots after I wash them after working at EFRC, I threw together some bits of scrap wood I have lying around. It's not pretty (I'm a wretched carpenter) but the boots are now sitting on it. And I even put away my tools after I did it.

I've been acting like this since helping my mom gave me a kick in the ass. I hardly recognize this person I am these last few weeks. I hope it lasts.

Now I've played the CD I just got from Cheshire Moon.

Oh.
My.
God.

It is awesome. It's like Cheshire Moon except even better. If you didn't back the kickstarter, they probably have a few left :-) and you should definitely buy it. Or I'm sure you folks with technology from this millenium can find a place to buy it digitally.

Something that's going to be a limiting factor on my use of DW going forward is that there doesn't appear to be a full-featured client available. I really prefer posting through a client than through the standard web interface. Semagic sees to do everything on LJ but according to the DW wiki only works with DW by crossposting from LJ. If I want to move away from LJ I want to post directly here, not post on LJ and also have it show up here.

I've filed my taxes. They're amazingly trivial but they're still supposed to be filed.

Also got an extension for my mom, her taxes aren't so trivial.