The Wayward Axolotl

Goodness is the fulfillment of value. Value exists only in life. If there is no life, there is no value, and thus goodness becomes an entirely irrelevant concept. — Adam Lanza in Antinatalism at Light Speed , 2011 Recently, someone discovered the ghost of Adam Lanza. His abandoned YouTube channel, CulturalPhilistine , had been sitting on YouTube for 9 years, without anyone linking it to him. It had 20 videos, and only about a dozen subscribers. The videos were just audio with a black image. Recently, someone found it and linked it to Lanza. It was quickly deleted, but people managed to save the content before it was taken down. So, we now have new insights into the mind of Adam Lanza. Adam Lanza committed the Sandy Hook school shooting . On December 14, 2012, he killed his mother at their home, and then went to an elementary school, where he killed 20 children and 6 adults. The children were in Grade 1. Like the Columbine massacre , it was both horrifying ...

The other day, I saw a blurry smart-phone video made by a man who was clinging to the side of a military airplane as it took off. I don’t know the fate of the man, but it’s likely that he fell from the sky and died shortly afterward. He was seeking a better life in the West, but he ended his life as a meat pancake in his homeland. He had a marvel of modern technology in his hand, the smart-phone, which gave him access to a vast store of knowledge. He could have just googled “Can you hang onto a plane?”. But I guess that didn’t occur to him. Afghans cling to moving US Air Force jet in desperate bid to flee Most people interpret current events through a moral narrative. The left will try to blame Trump for the US failure in Afghanistan, or perhaps George W. Bush. The right will blame Biden, or point to the long escalation under Obama. Reactionaries will talk about the futility of nation building, and maybe even cheer the Taliban as fellow enemies of the neoliberal global order....

With the election of Joe Biden, and the mass censorship of dissident thought by social media, America has entered into a new phase of its existence. It is no longer the land of the free. It is now a land of paternalistic tyranny, imposed by a corporate-state oligarchy. Although America has been in decline for a long time, the effects of that decline have been mostly hidden. Now they are being revealed. For over 100 years, America was the leading country of the world. That era is over. America will no longer be a country of progress and achievement. Instead, it will be a country of mediocrity, conformity and decline. America’s past greatness cannot be restored by purging a corrupt elite, renegotiating trade deals, or building a wall along the southern border. Those policies might have slowed down America’s decline, but they would not have made America great again. American greatness came from the people who founded and built the country. First came explorers, dreamers and ...

A walrus and a carpenter were walking down a beach on a sunny winter’s day. The sand was still frosty in places, but the frost was melting in the sun. The water was calm, and waves lapped gently on the beach. “Isn’t it beautiful?” said the walrus, after they had been walking along in silence for a while. “Yes, it is.” said the carpenter. “I’m glad you suggested this walk.” “Well, I wanted to share this beautiful day with you.” said the walrus. “And I have a paradox to share with you as well.” “Oh no!” said the carpenter, laughing. “This was a trap!” “Well, maybe a little,” admitted the walrus, “but I really think you’ll enjoy this paradox.” “Okay.” said the carpenter. “Hit me with it.” “You know what the prisoner’s dilemma is, don’t you?” “Yes, it’s an important concept in game theory. It’s an example of a game that isn’t zero-sum.” “Right. We can forget about the original idea of two prisoners, and just define it as a simple game with two possible...

Suppose that you go into an alien casino on the planet Zreebnorf, and you are offered to play a game. It works like this. The casino will match you with another player at random. The players don’t know who they are playing with, so there is no way for them to coordinate their actions or reciprocate after the game. Both players secretly pick a number between 1 and 100. The outcome of the game is then calculated as follows. If both players picked the same number, let X be the number they picked. Both players will receive X credits from the house and have to pay (100 − X) credits to the house. If the players picked different numbers, let X be the smaller number. The player who chose X will receive (X + 2) credits, and the other player will pay (100 − X) credits to the house. (Credits are standard Galactic currency worth approximately $1 USD each.) Some examples: Both players pick 50. They both pay 50 credits and receive 50 credits, for a net payout of 0. Both players pick 100. ...

As I write this, the US election is still undecided, but it looks like Biden will eke out a narrow win. Trump is claiming that the election is being stolen. The way the election unfolded certainly created that impression, with vote-counting stopped in key states on election night, and now dragging out over multiple days, as Trump's lead in those states slowly evaporates. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that there was some fraud (there usually is) and probably more than usual, but I don't think Trump will be able to do much about it. Even if there was substantial election fraud, it would be only a small part of the campaign by the establishment against Trump. He has been the target of a massive disinformation campaign by the mass media. He and his supporters have been censored by the major tech platforms. Judges have blocked his orders. Governors and mayors have defied him, to the extent of allowing anarchy in their own streets. There are very good reasons for Trump and ...

The humanist worldview has two core value assumptions. Hedonism: Pain is negative value and pleasure is positive value. In other words, feeling good is intrinsically good, and feeling bad is intrinsically bad. Other things are only good or bad insofar as they cause pleasure or pain. Altruism: We have a moral duty to act for the good of others, not just for our own good. Hurting others is morally bad. Helping others is morally good. This is the sole moral good, and all other moral goods derive from it. Hedonism defines what is subjectively good and bad for an individual. Altruism defines what is objectively good and bad. These assumptions are almost never explicitly stated, but they are the implicit basis for culturally accepted value judgments. They are tacitly accepted by most people in the modern West. There is a conflict between these two assumptions. Hedonism situates value in the feelings of pain and pleasure. Feelings are subjective. They are tied to a perspective. They ...