Just as it is essential for a finite game to have a definitive ending, it must also have a precise beginning. Therefore, we can speak… Read More »James Carse on Finite Games, boundaries and licenses
I think people have been seduced into thinking that the advance in information technology is going to bring more change to the future than I… Read More »Lant Pritchett on the limits of information technology; or, The Moore the Merrier?
The title Doom Book (Old English dōm-bōc) comes from the Old English word dōm meaning judgment or law – as in Alfred’s admonishment to “Doom… Read More »Public holidays and compensation for body parts, 9th century edition; Or, King Alfred and the Book of Doom
The expansion of personal horizons mentioned above has implications for the whole of society: people’s geographic knowledge increases exponentially the further they ride or walk.… Read More »Ian Mortimer on the network effects and feedback loops of medieval travel
Skipping lunch helps you get more done if you need get something finished by three, but it’s much less effective if you’re going to be… Read More »Skipping lunch
All else being equal, a good solution: All else is never equal, of course. But every time you make a trade off in one of… Read More »A good solution
Andreessen’s Why AI Will Save the World (echoing the title of his prescient 2005 essay Why Software is Eating the World) is well worth reading,… Read More »Recommendation: Marc Andreessen on possibilities for AI
It could almost have been written yesterday… Sir — There are few things of which the present generation is more justly proud than of the… Read More »Darwin among the machines: Samuel Butler (1863) on the mechanical master race
Gregor’s quest reunites him with his bat, Ares, and the rebellious princess Luxa. They descend into the dangerous Waterway in search of the Bane. If… Read More »Never the same
It took at least 11 expeditions to climb Everest. Eleven voyages, eleven treks, eleven base camps and who knows how many reconnaissance climbs, trial runs… Read More »Part Way