But the core concept is *interestingness*. While some of us might be able to "lock 
in" more often or for longer periods, there'll be variance in those behaviors inter- 
and intra-individually. So the main thing the AI has to do is estimate 
individual-specific ping intervals. I argue the content of the pings is less relevant 
than the rhythm of the pings.

Also more relevant than content is the "identity" of the pinger. Having the 
same person ping me 12 times a day, regardless of the content, is just irritating. But 
having different people ping me, one 2 times, one 5 times, one 4 times, etc. is 
interesting and person-dependent. Hell, I have a very good friend who I only talk to ~ 
every 4 *years*. He remains a good friend despite the low ping rate.


On 4/21/25 10:20 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
My iPhone gives me pending message counts associated with various message 
boards, e-mail, even my health insurance.   As I was skimming over them, it 
occurred to me that George did not have a little count above his app.  Why had 
George not reached out?   I must be boring to George!   Maybe if George reached 
out to folks, he could keep them sane?   Keep their mind working in a more 
productive direction.   Idle hands are the devil’s playground.    Like in All 
the Trouble of the World.   George can generate content faster than most people 
can think.    He could drown out radicalism by brute force.

*From:*Friam <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Jochen Fromm
*Sent:* Monday, April 21, 2025 9:54 AM
*To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] The broken American Dream

If you describe it like this then "government" sounds like a giant entity that 
wants to crush and suppress us or wants to take away our freedom.

IMHO it is helpful to think in systems and subsystems. The military certainly 
tries to force people to align their behavior in order to make them well oiled 
cogs in its war machine. Parties and religions try to convince their members to 
follow their core ideas and ideals. Corporations try to convince people to 
conform their behavior and their beliefs to there world view to buy more of 
their products.

To me it looks like the world as a whole has come to a turning point. If I 
travel by train through the country, the world here in Europe looks largely 
like the world 40 or 50 years ago. But if I look more closely then most 
factories are gone, the coal mines have closed and the oil fields in the North 
Sea are exploited.

There are giant terminals in our ports and harbors where the container ships 
from China and the oil tankers from Saudi Arabia arrive. We seem to have 
reached peak oil now, which means we have consumed half of all oil reserves in 
the ground. Coal reserves might last a few decades longer. The problem is if we 
consume the other half of all fossil fuels then large parts of the world could 
become inhabitable and the other half will drown in plastic waste.

I fear Mr. Trump is unable to comprehend the magnitude of the crisis. How could 
he if he spends his time on Golf courses and doesn't even listen to his 
intelligence briefings. Destroying the economy based on exponential growth 
might be good if it is replaced by something more sustainable which does not 
ruin the environment, but this is not what he is trying to do. He is clinging 
to an illusion, to an abstract idea of greatness and glory, to a broken dream. 
The coal mines and factories will not come back. And they were never great in 
the first place. My great grandfather worked in a coal mine and fought in the 
trenches of WWI, and both places were hell on Earth.



-J.



-------- Original message --------

From: Prof David West <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>

Date: 4/21/25 4:05 PM (GMT+01:00)

To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>

Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The broken American Dream

Jochen,

re: 'broken American dream'

Speaking as a disillusioned hippie-radical-revolutionary: this famous fragment 
from Yeat's poem, /The Second Coming/, feels very relevant.

/Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/

/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,/

/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/

/The ceremony of innocence is drowned;/

/The best lack all conviction, while the worst/

/Are full of passionate intensity./

I was a hippie first, naively believing in the possibility of an life affirming 
society. Inspired by fiction as varied as /The Harrad Experiment/ and /Stranger 
in a Strange Land/ (actually all of Heinlein).

Vietnam was a roundhouse to the jaw. How and why could government be so evil 
and misguided? (A, perhaps, secondary trigger was the demonization of Timothy 
Leary and proscription of psychedelics.) I became a radical and revolutionary 
(still have my copy of Mao's Little Red Book) and did make bombs (literally). 
Statute of Limitations applies to my other activities, but will only mention 
there were many.

For me and my cohort, the forces that malformed government, and thereby society, began, 
in earnest, in the mid-1930s. Government became an instrument for forcing people to 
conform their behavior and their beliefs in accordance with the ideals of whoever was in 
power. Did not matter what "side" (democrat, republican, plutocrat) the power 
brokers belonged to, all had the same basic goal, control everyone else. (And get rich of 
course)

"Anarchy was loosed upon the world," here in the US around 100 years ago and 
the wasteland we inhabit is vast. Trump is a mere dust devil disturbing bits of detritus.

davew

On Mon, Apr 21, 2025, at 12:48 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:

    Marcus, your reply makes me wonder if you have voted for the orange guy in 
the White House. If yes, would you do it again? Here from Europe it looks as if 
the orange menace leaves a trail of destruction on his way between the Golf 
Club in West Palm Beach and Washington and back. To use a meteorological 
metaphor for Nick: the guy who is wearing orange makeup acts like a tornado out 
of control that destroys everything in his path - the economy, the retirement 
savings, and the last remains of the American dream.

    -J.

    -------- Original message --------

    From: Marcus Daniels <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>

    Date: 4/20/25 6:58 PM (GMT+01:00)

    To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]>>

    Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The broken American Dream

    It seems to me to be a little more scale free than that.   I just paid my 
quarterly taxes.   The thing that bothers me is not that it a significant cost, 
but that it is not a responsible spending plan.  I am pouring money into a 
Medicare program that is becoming insolvent and creating increasing deficit 
spending.   It seems to me that if my taxes are 5% higher, that’s fine if it 
fixes the problem.   But many won’t step up to that 5%, so my reaction to those 
people is:  Let’s let this thing fail.   Private insurance it is.   I am now 
much more inclined to aggressively write off business expenses than see my 
productivity go a losing enterprise.   I am sick of cheap people.

    *From: *Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf 
of Jochen Fromm <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
    *Date: *Sunday, April 20, 2025 at 7:47 AM
    *To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]>>
    *Subject: *[FRIAM] The broken American Dream

    Stephen Marche's article about the state of America leaves me with the 
impression that the only thing that all Americans still have in common is the 
feeling that the country is broken. Stephen writes:

    "The country clubs are rife with men and women, in incredible luxury, 
complaining bitterly about the state of the country. The richest and most powerful, the 
Americans who have won, who have everything, are still not happy, and why? Their answer 
is that the American dream must be broken."

    
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/20/american-dream-trump-canada
 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/20/american-dream-trump-canada>

    -J.



--
¡sıɹƎ ןıɐH ⊥ ɐןןǝdoɹ ǝ uǝןƃ
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