Paradox Point

                 Star Generations A modest proposal               In Genesis 15:4-5, Abraham asked G-d about how many descendants he will have. The reply: look at the sky, can you count those stars, so shall your seed be.            But that seems a paltry promise. The number of stars visible to the naked eye is about 6000 for the whole sky, one half to one third of that from any spot on Earth. Let’s be generous and say 6000. Well, that’s a pretty small tribe of descendants; barely enough to fill a small town. Taken in those terms, it is an embarrassingly petty pledge.            I propose a fix; that 6000 refers to 6000 generations . At about 30 years per generation, that comes out to 180,000 years; a fairly respectable length of time, sufficient to last ‘til, say, the next hominid ...

The Vote Dip From 2014   http://www.salon.com/2014/02/14/multimillionaire_venture_capitalist_tom_perkins_says_the_1_should_get_more_votes/ A 1%1%er says out loud that he wants oligarchy; and then wonders why people are upset. Part of the answer, in psychological terms, is that vote-buying causes a conflict between several hard-wired systems of moral evaluation: the market-pricing morality implicit in the money power, and the in-group loyalty and the equality moralities implicit in voting.           But the human mind has other hard-wired moral systems: purity, authority, care. Perhaps the 99% could offer Mr. Perkins other tradeoffs for votes. How about a tradeoff in the Purity dimension? Would he be willing to earn extra votes by a fee and some self-defilement?           I therefore offer this Modest Proposal: the Vote Dip. Start with a cylindrical steel vat, ten feet high and ...

Infect Enceladus A modest proposal   NASA has announced that there is hydrogen in the plumes from Enceladus, presumably from interaction of liquid water with tidally-heated rock. This plus the CO2 also found in the plumes would be an energy source for methanogenic bacteria. But since this source is not all eaten up, that suggests that though there is a hospitable environment for life on Enceladus, there is none there as yet. That is shown by the “tiger stripes” of Enceladus, which reveal that the under-ice ocean bears the pristine blue of water devoid of life. This stands in dramatic contrast to the muddy – and dare I say shitty? – brown of the cracks on Titan.           NASA has a planetary-protection protocol, forbidding the spread of life from Earth, lest it endanger native life. But if there is no life on Enceladus, though there could be, then I say let’s put some there, just to have neighbors in the solar system. ...

Unchain Letter             THIS LETTER was sent to protect you from luck, both good and bad. Receipt of this letter confers immunity to ALL FORMS of chain-letter bribery and extortion. You are now free to break any letter chain, without consequence. This works even if you are superstitious.           You may hold onto this Unchain letter indefinitely, along with the next chain letter that finds its way to you. You may send copies of this letter to friends; and you may also refuse to send copies. It makes no difference.           This Unchain letter admits freely that it is, in fact, a joke; yet it is no less credible than any Chain letter now in circulation. The following claims are completely baseless and absurd. Take them or leave them:           An R.A.F. officer received this letter in the...