8rent Poligofsky / is on Nostr

A privileged Canadian trying to make sense of the incomprehensible.

Curious about the weird borderlands between the certain and the impossible.

I used to make software. Now I ponder human nature, its contradictions, absurdities, and tragedies. And wonder if we can make it better.

Sometimes I fantasize about writing stories. But I have yet to find an idea worth pursuing. I am also suspicious of the dangers of narrative, even though there is no escaping it.

Github: https://github.com/bgulanowski
Personal Blog: https://poligofsky.pupper.blog
Technical Blog: https://geometric.pupper.blog

Last Notes

2024-09-25 12:05:14

Restoring the composition of Earth’s atmosphere to pre-Industrial levels is impossible without the political will.
It also requires energy, resources, and innovation. And time, on the scale of decades, even centuries. But if we agreed that it was a priority, those could all be found.
We are a long way from that agreement. Even as technology evolves, and such restoration becomes technically feasible, competition for energy and resources makes it unlikely to happen. We simply don’t care enough.

2024-07-31 16:39:17

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Anti-fascism is insufficient.
We need organized and methodical anti-fanaticism.

2024-07-31 16:38:08

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Humans have a responsibility to care for the planet. To ensure it stays healthy and resilient. Or anti-fragile, if you prefer.
We have this responsibility as a consequence of having the power to change the planet radically. As Uncle Ben said.
Of course, people don’t like or want responsibility. They already feel overtaxed. Or they are selfish. Or they have been brainwashed by extremism and the lies and delusions of extremists and fanatics.
Non-fanatics must make a plan to address fanaticism.

2024-07-31 16:27:11

Excellent interview with Johan Rockström by Nate Hagen, about planetary boundaries.
A salient idea: many ecological organs of the planet are currently contained within national borders, yet they are crucial to climate stability worldwide. They should in fact be part of a global commons, managed collectively by global organizations.
We are one planet. We should act like it.
https://youtu.be/JaboF3vAsZs?si=d8CsfrpdTKi6x-VU

2024-07-25 14:13:46

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I don't put much effort into tracking or understanding these kinds of initiatives. But your article gives me weird feelings that remind me of the "semantic web".

2024-07-25 12:58:46

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Has anyone devised a compelling strategy for actually killing X? And the others?
Pretty sure it will take something more than what we have.
I suspect that a lot of people on the fediverse secretly want most people to stay away, so that they can feel special.
The problem is always the conflict between community and profit. There needs to be a good middle way, that lets hosts make a reasonable living, even a profit. We need a sustainable system that can fit ten billion people.

2024-05-24 13:55:19

I get frustrated by people who seem to be trying to reason with the unreasonable.
We invented our democratic institutions to contain unreasonable people. To keep them out of power. To imprison them, if necessary.
Maybe a few can be reformed, but mostly they just need to be watched and restrained.
They are not persuadable. Why is anyone trying to persuade them?

2024-05-23 18:49:43

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I haven't looked in a couple of years, but never found anything even nascent at the time.
I looked for anything built in Rails or Django, or Haskell/Yesod, but only found small hobby projects and experiments. I guess blogs are not so cool, or it's just too hard to compete with Substack/Medium/whatever.

2024-05-23 18:25:41

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Source not trustworthy, apparently:
https://mastodon.social/@ThePlant/112486469559854730