Hacker News: cymian

New comment by cymian in "FDA refuses to review Moderna's mRNA flu vaccine"

cymian — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 21:45:01 +0000

May the science gods smite down their enemies.

New comment by cymian in "'Shallow' sports and 'deep' social hierarchies"

cymian — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 03:26:02 +0000

Could you elaborate on how human power structures are seen more as bridges?

New comment by cymian in "Here comes the Muybridge camera moment but for text"

cymian — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 21:19:50 +0000

Blind people are no more able to understand* (as qualia) "green" than a sighted human is able to understand* gamma rays. The confusion is between working with abstract concepts vs an actual experience. A picture of bread provides no physical nourishment beyond the fiber in the paper it is printed on.

In an abstract space (e.g. word vectors, poetry) green could have (many potential) meanings. But none of them are even in the same universe as the actual experience (qualia) of seeing something green. This would be a category mistake between qualia-space and concept-space

understand in the experiential, qualia sense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_mistake

New comment by cymian in "9 Charts that show US factory farming is even bigger than you realize"

cymian — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:34:31 +0000

only 20% of India is vegetarian: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/07/08/eight-in-...

New comment by cymian in "The pro-Israel information war"

cymian — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 23:07:49 +0000

Then maybe the Palestinians should oust whoever fires thousands of rockets into their neighboring country forcing their neighbor to respond in self defense.

New comment by cymian in "The pro-Israel information war"

cymian — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 23:01:37 +0000

And how many Jews live in any of the neighboring Muslim ruled countries? As you say "if my brother ... killed my children I will fight him just the same". The very reason for the wall between Israel and Gaza is because people from Gaza have repeatedly sent terrorists to kill people in Israel. Before Oct 7th (and continuing up to this day) they continually launch rockets that would have killed tens of thousands of Israelis were it not for the Iron Dome.

New comment by cymian in "UK porn watchers could have faces scanned"

cymian — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:13:09 +0000

The primary reason a government in control of a strong military (e.g. U.S.) wants to restrict private gun ownership is so that they can scare the populace indirectly by means of rampant crime, riots, etc. which they tacitly permit (or secretly encourage) The population is thereby forced to go along with ever more draconian laws and regulations because their safety is (or is perceived to be) threatened.

New comment by cymian in "New neurotech eschews electricity for ultrasound"

cymian — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 22:21:23 +0000

not pleasure centers but getting there: - https://consciousness.arizona.edu/sema-lab

New comment by cymian in "Ban of the printing press led to the decline of the Ottoman Empire"

cymian — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 20:26:37 +0000

A variation of "divide et impera" divide and rule - a strategy probably as old as the concept of an empire.

New comment by cymian in "Russia to punish ‘fake news’ about Ukraine war with 15 years’ jail"

cymian — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 23:08:05 +0000

Bingo

New comment by cymian in "Ivermectin Prophylaxis Used for Covid-19"

cymian — Sat, 29 Jan 2022 00:36:29 +0000

Exactly.

New comment by cymian in "Ask HN: Have you had Covid? How bad was it?"

cymian — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 03:09:43 +0000

Sick for a week like flu. Still under the weather for second week. Lost taste/smell which both returned. Had 8 relatives with similar experiences and 1 was bedridden for 2 weeks. Ages: 20 to 45.

New comment by cymian in "San Francisco’s vaunted tolerance dims amid brazen crimes"

cymian — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:53:34 +0000

It has nothing to do with compassion and everything to do with raising their social status in front of their peers (e.g. look at me I'm so wealthy/powerful I can live in place with theft etc. and it doesn't even effect me, i.e. a form of "peackocking"). Also a lot of virtue signaling - more important when you are materially well of but realistically can never enter the ranks of the super-rich. Can't compete by buying a mega-yacht but can compete (for social status) by being ever more "virtuous".

New comment by cymian in "The Emperor's New Clothes: a story of motivated stupidity"

cymian — Sat, 20 Nov 2021 22:00:50 +0000

Using a term like concept instead of "linguistic" to denote a mental representation (which could be "auditory", "visual", "kinesthetic", "feeling", etc). Then you are absolutely correct.

New comment by cymian in "The Plague of the Poor"

cymian — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 23:44:45 +0000

CFR (Case Fatality Rate) is very different than IFR (Infection fatality Rate). Many many more people have been infected but only the more severe cases tend to end up and be counted in the hospitals.