Cybernethics / Cybernéthique

Laurent Lafforgue, réputé l'un des plus brillants esprits de France, avait été invité à joindre le dénommé Haut Conseil de l'Education pour donner la caution de sa médaille Fields à cette machine à parlotes comme les politiques en créent si souvent pour payer leurs copains à faire semblant de résoudre les problèmes des français avec des millions soutirés de force au contribuable. Pas de chance pour ces escrocs, Laurent est aussi quelqu'un d'une grande probité intellectuelle, et qui s'est donc atteler à étudier le sujet en question. Sa première intervention a donc déplue aux mandarins de l'Establishment, qui ont immédiatement exigé et obtenu sa démission. À lire.

Chapeau bas donc à Laurent, qui démontre contre vents et marées qu'il existe encore de grands esprits intègres en France -- même s'il ne s'agit que d'une minorité, et seulement dans ces sciences dures où il est impossible de tricher.

In a previous post, I told you of a door hack one of my colleagues did, and what social concepts it illustrated. Mind you, when I was younger, I also did my own door hacks. My former clubmates from the Club Informatique of Lycée Louis-le-Grand may remember one that I did long ago, back in High-School. In retrospect, I realize this anecdote too may illustrate a number of interesting social concepts.

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Oui, la responsabilité individuelle est une "fiction". Tandis, que "la société", "l'utilité publiique", "l'intérêt nazional" (socialiiiste), le "paradiis communiste", c'est quelque chose de tout-à-fait concret, de parfaitement défini, et de merveilleusement incarné par notre glorieux État et sa bienveillante Administrazion, -- sous condition toutefois que ce soit mon parti, ma faction, mes opinions, mon autorité, qui y prédomine -- sinon, ce même État est un instrument d'oppression aux mains de l'ÉnemydeklaSS. Bon, il y a malheureusement peu de chance que mon avis personnel soit pris en considérazion -- c'est pourquoi je soutiens pleinement la candidature de X..., chef que je me suis désigné, qui est un homme parfaitement droit et honnête, compétent et intellligent, bon et courageux, et surtout, qui ne possède aucun préjugé (différent des miens) (à ce que je sache) (d'après ce qu'il ressort de sa campagne) (du moins en comparaison de toute autre personne) (si l'on restreint le choix aux candidats engagés) (voire à ceux qui ont une chance de passer) (oops, ça ne fait plus grand monde) (merde alors, il ne reste plus qu'à voter Chirac).

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One of the first thing that any so-called "macro-economist" does when studying a phenomenon, is to postulate a deterministic model in which there is no choice and all economic costs are thus zero. That is, whenever they introduce mathematical tools, which they do so as to pose as physics-like hard scientists, they begin by negating the very essence of economics: the notion of economic cost. They are actually based upon an epistemology that explicitly denies individuals the essence of their human nature: the ability to make relevant choices. This is true of all economists from all schools of economics, save the few libertarians from the austrian school and its direct relatives. And the crooks include the neo-classical schools (that dictates the economic orthodoxy in most rich countries), and the keynesian and marxist schools (that dictate the economic orthodoxy in France and other socialist countries). No wonder why all these schools of economics produce only lies, in the form of deceitful statistics and bogus assumptions smuggled under the veil of meaningless mathematics.

If mathematical models were to be used at all in economic science, we would need non-deterministic models, replacing (neo)classical economics with quantum economics. And then we'd find that we're not able to even imagine the Feynman diagrams of all possible interactions over which to integrate our economic functions, because the relevant interactions that will take place between agents are precisely those based upon information that others don't have, including the person trying to build the model.

PS: Oh yes, one particular crook from the top of the Establishment just called me ridiculous for rejecting the results of so many scientific studies based on empiricism. You may find more about the fraud that is empiricism in social sciences by reading e.g. Hoppe, whom you may hear in this course.

Exactly what's needed: No Bureaucrat Left Behind!

Cám ơn, Joanne.

I've recently discovered the word captcha. Of course, I already knew the concept. I first faced it on the internet long ago, quite possibly at the time when there were still free SMS services and they tried to limit abuse. Then, I wrote about using them in my article stamps vs spam.

Captchas are an inconvenience, but that's their whole point of them: they are a economic signalling device, by which the solver proves that he cares by accepting a sunk cost. The real problem with captchas is that they can be defeated, thanks to distributed porn-processing. Or maybe not.

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So you think there is nothing interesting to say at the intersection of Computer Science and Political Economics? Well, Feynman said that Everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough. And going deeply into it is precisely what I've been doing for ten years now. So there below are some things I have to say about Computer Science and Political Economics.

That is, things beyond the fact that both Computer Science and Political Economics are completely fallacious albeit traditional names: indeed, the former is not a Science (it is an Art, or an Engineering Enterprise, which is one and the same) and to quote Dijkstra it is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes, whereas the other is both against Politics and beyond Economics (in either the original Aristotelian meaning of husbandry, or the modern statist meaning of taxable monetary transactions). Good Computer Science is actually Lisp Lore and Craft; good Political Economics is Libertarian Human Action.

Note that if you're not too much into computing, you may skip directly to the paragraph that mention Political Economics and Education. Yes, this is also about Education.

The Evil of Academic Curricula in Computer Science
Chapter I
Parsing Considered Harmful

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In a bus to NYC early in January 2005, I met this gorgeous girl who was reading a course in Economics. The textbook was open on a praise of the Fed and its role in regulating the National Economy, with an opposing page in a special color denoting higher science, that justified this role based on one macroeconomic equation by Keynes. It was too tempting, so I started a conversation.

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It has lots of consistent retro-modern late 1950's like design, including the music score. It has developed psychology for all characters, be them heroes, villains or secondary characters. It knows how to build upon clichés rather than blandly restate them. It has great acting and impeccable story-telling. Last but not least, what I always fall for, it has a didactic story, -- and what more, one where adults learn, too. Where ethics and esthetics join. I'm sure Ayn Rand would approve. The greatest movie I've seen in quite a long time.

Last wednesday, I met Mr. Libertarianism @ Japan, one of the happy few japanese libertarians. Quite a nice fellow.

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Rich people without particular talent paying for their entry in university do not do it to the detriment of less fortunate people; on the contrary, by subsidizing university, they make it cheaper for other people. Not only don't they take university away from the poor, they create university for the poor, and pull up the whole education system to everyone's benefit.

Yet, static thinkers often criticize liberty in education because it would ``favor the rich to the detriment of the poor''. Once again, they see society as a static zero-sum game of distribution without ever considering the dynamic nature of creation and destruction. They think about a choice they don't have -- switching with a rich man -- which is but plain jealousy, and use it to justify a criminal choice that leads but to more poverty: forceful intervention.

Darn, if education is of any value (to you), then what the hell could money serve to, if not buy you a better education?

Dans le cadre du LLLC, je donne des cours d'introduction à Linux. Voici le brouillon de mes notes de cours. Avez-vous des suggestions pour les compléter?

Ma cousine Aline est à la maison avec ses 6 magnifiques enfants tous très éveillés (celui que je sens le moins épanoui, c'est le garçon perdu parmi cinq filles dont trois aînées; enfin, ses problèmes sont tous relatifs, car à bientôt neuf ans, il s'en sort plutôt bien). J'adore les enfants, et j'ai toujours un excellent contact avec eux entre 5 et 11 ans à peu près (bref, à l'âge de la découverte et de la raison, avant la puberté). Question: qu'offrir à faire et notamment à lire à de tels enfants? J'avoue ne pas trop savoir que proposer de constructif. Avez-vous des suggestions à faire? Avec tous les enfants de mes oncles, tantes, cousins, cousines, et maintenant mon frère (mes grands-parents totalisent bien plus d'une centaine de descendants), j'ai fort à faire, et vos conseils sont les bienvenus.

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Au détour d'une visite au rayon BD du Virgin Mégastore des Champs-Elysées, où j'attendais mes oncles et tantes, j'ai relu les Barbapapa que j'aimais tant quand j'étais gamin (de trois à six ans?). Pas de doute, c'est avec ça que j'ai appris à devenir un écolo-gauchiste vaguement new-age. Par contre, la vision de l'éducation est en net progrès par rapport à l'égalitarisme autoritariste ambiant. Pour l'étatisme paternaliste, j'ai dû plutôt puiser dans Babar.

A quand des livres pour enfant propageant une idéologie de liberté?