Haha! Interesting take. I'll have to look into that. There are also strong effects of gut bacteria on cognition and perception, so there's probably something to this hypothesis! Followed back.

The biggest thing separating us from the animals is not the prefrontal cortex, it is actually the pineal gland. Nearly all vertebrates have pineal glands, not the case for prefrontal cortex. Our connection

Also posted at

thanks!

I just found your recommendations after a year since you posted them. Good stuff, never apologize for bias towards history podcasts! Here's my list:

An important work to read is Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler. For a game to function, it needs to have clear winning and losing conditions. So in that sense, there is a universal set of metrics

What I mostly mean by the progressive view of history is the linear view of history rather than cyclical history.. Linear history is how the modern West views history. It's the view of the Bible and also

What is status quo? The world is always changing. What's status quo now was new and flashy decades ago. There are also some things that stay status quo forever. We will always be carbon based life forms.

In many games where you can set the tax rate, increasing taxes decrease happiness of your population and overall productivity level. There's a trade off, just like in real life. I don't think incorporating

I disagree that Civ is Western-centric. Babylon and Korea are the best in-game civilizations for winning the scientific victory. Shoshones, Incas, Aztecs, Polynesians, etc are also very powerful in-game,

I see, so this is the post you mentioned in your comment. Interesting stuff. I think statism vs anarchism is a false dichotomy. Strong willed people will take control of the situation during times of crisis

You made a post? Please link me. Regarding politics, some immediate thoughts that relate to 4x and grand strategy games: History is cyclical, we go in and out of golden ages. Even when you prioritize cultural

Nice. I have Endless Space, EU4, CK2, and Stellaris. Haven't gotten the chance to play them as much though. Paradox games are definitely even more complex.

Yes, culture is not a subset of religion, intertwined is a better way to phrase it.

Good analysis. I'm not paraphrasing, but my points aren't all that different from Taleb's. Here's what I said to a friend in message: Sam Harris’s book is called Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without

It looks like you have no clue how the human brain evolved...

I don't believe in any fairies or sky daddies, but atheism is a nihilistic movement that promotes ignorance of history and anthropology, and decreases the probability of long run human survival.

Nice poem and pictures!

No comment on the personal drama, but in terms of the ideas, I'm inclined to agree with kyriacos more. I think Alexander is misusing Nietzsche and Popper here. Nietzsche's view was very evolutionary. Our

Yes, that would be interesting. There's another point of not just size, but also polished look. For example, this guy isn't natural, yet he's quite small: He doesn't stand out at all in a shirt, but you