Hacker News: pochamago

New comment by pochamago in "Study That Impregnated Male Rats Stirs Controversy"

pochamago — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 20:51:29 +0000

There's no rational reason to care about non-human lives at all. When we talk about pragmatic, secular ethics, we do so for the purpose of creating a stable and happy society. We know that by training other humans not to harm humans we reduce the likelihood that we will face hardship. There is no reason to include animals in this system other than that some people feel more sympathy for them. But animals can't engage in ethics with us, treating lab rats better will not make the rat species less likely to cause damage to us. Animal rights are a purely emotional impulse

New comment by pochamago in "Libertarian Party of Colorado First to Officially Support Ending IP"

pochamago — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 23:48:08 +0000

That sounds super interesting to me, do you have a link to something about where and when that happened?

New comment by pochamago in "“Older unlisted videos will be made private unless you opt out”"

pochamago — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 01:33:42 +0000

That sounds extremely feasible to me. One of the companies i used to work for will definitely have a bunch of their training videos lost this way, and it's totally reasonable to believe that a new hire for the warehouse would not bother telling anyone that the video wouldn't play. I don't know that any real injury will result from this, but i wouldn't call the scenario absurd

New comment by pochamago in "Warren Buffett donates another $4.1B, resigns as Gates trustee"

pochamago — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 17:04:16 +0000

I think it's good that taxes can solve problems a decentralized, and therefore disorganized, system will struggle with, but in the same way i don't think that a centralized economy will run as efficiently as a free market, I think philanthropy will make greater gains if a variety of parties are allowed to spend their money on what they think is important without needing collective approval.

New comment by pochamago in "Warren Buffett donates another $4.1B, resigns as Gates trustee"

pochamago — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:04:03 +0000

The alternative is letting Congress decide how to spend it. Decentralized philanthropy seems to me like a better system

New comment by pochamago in "Facebook Launches Podcast and Live Audio Room Services"

pochamago — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 17:10:18 +0000

Yeah, it was weird to completely lock out anyone without an iphone.

New comment by pochamago in "Ring provided 100 LAPD officers with free devices to influence adoption"

pochamago — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 01:33:08 +0000

I don't think you need to be too worried about that, young e-commerce competitors still pop up and seem to do well at taking a slice of the market. Shopify is larger than Amazon for my workplace, and Etsy is definitely getting bigger month by month.

New comment by pochamago in "“YouTube is shutting down dissenting Biology PhDs and MDs”"

pochamago — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 21:17:49 +0000

There's a very common misconception that libertarians believe that what should be legal and what is beneficial are the same thing. It's not difficult to believe that YouTube should have the ability to remove these people from their platform, but also that they're wrong to do so. The libertarian preference for decentralization actively presumes that many actors will make poor choices, but that because it's not enforced top down it will be easier to persuade them to change those policies. New competitors are one way that you can create that pressure, but it's not the only one, simple dialogue is another viable avenue and the purpose of critiques like this one.

New comment by pochamago in "Diabetes Drug Metformin Reduces All-Cause Mortality and Diseases of Aging (2017)"

pochamago — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 20:30:44 +0000

My dad actually switched doctors because his original one refused to prescribe metformin to anyone who wasn't fully diabetic

New comment by pochamago in "Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador"

pochamago — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 09:06:33 +0000

The only other legal tender in El Salvador is the US Dollar. If, for any reason, you have qualms about the US financial system, especially as someone foreign to the US with little priority in its decision making processes, it might be desirable to opt for a different currency. Is BTC the right currency for their government to bend to that purpose? I guess we'll find out.

New comment by pochamago in "Seasteading Creates RPG"

pochamago — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 18:25:05 +0000

There are other laws libertarians would like to circumvent. Occupational licensing, over scheduling of drugs, civil asset forfeiture spring to mind. Starting a new country on the ocean is a pretty drastic way to fight back, but i can't deny the impulse to opt out when change appears impossible.

New comment by pochamago in "Once a bastion of free speech, the ACLU faces an identity crisis"

pochamago — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 22:36:31 +0000

There are limitations, but yes. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas... I would also personally draw a line between access to a military prison and what is effectively a refugee camp

New comment by pochamago in "Once a bastion of free speech, the ACLU faces an identity crisis"

pochamago — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 22:22:04 +0000

The press freedom index places Burkina Faso, a country that bans journalists from visiting displacement camps, higher than the US, so I'm a little skeptical of its findings

New comment by pochamago in "El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender"

pochamago — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 00:18:06 +0000

The smaller countries who don't want to be beholden to either the US or China's fiscal policy. We seem to be building up a second cold war, and I imagine for many countries being able to back your economy with a currency that isn't controlled by either of the two major players is tempting. China may well end up regretting discouraging its miners from holding the majority stake, given the Sino power that could project. This is all very heavily speculative, though, I'm just spitballing an interesting potential chain of events

New comment by pochamago in "G7: Rich nations back deal to tax multinationals"

pochamago — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 19:32:51 +0000

These seven countries have a lot of sway, but even if it's only these countries that implement it it will likely affect a number of corporations. There are benefits to being legally located in stable modern economies, so this at the very least minimizes shopping around for the lowest tax rate among them.

New comment by pochamago in "Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office"

pochamago — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 23:58:11 +0000

Inertia, perhaps. We certainly have been seeing reports of digital nomads growing over the last decade, but major shocks can be useful in speeding up transitions. Likely very few CEOs previously imagined how robust the remote work infrastructure had become, and certainly didn't have obvious incentive to implement all the tools until now.

New comment by pochamago in "Why workers are calling BS on leaders about returning to the office"

pochamago — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 23:53:21 +0000

I'm not sure I'd classify licensed professions as rare, frankly most US states have an overabundance of occupational licensing in my view.

New comment by pochamago in "Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September"

pochamago — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:21:09 +0000

There are also plenty of people who like their coworkers and enjoy spending time with them each day. I don't think everybody finds work to be an unfulfilling drain on their leisure time

New comment by pochamago in "Tech groups sue Florida over content moderation law"

pochamago — Sat, 29 May 2021 23:23:46 +0000

It sounds like his argument is that moderation isn't speech, and the posts on these sites, due to 230, aren't attributable to the would be moderators, therefore the tech companies don't have a right to claim that their first amendment rights have been breached. I'm unsure what the caselaw on site moderation looks like, so i have no idea if the assertion is correct

New comment by pochamago in "Strong Towns Has Filed a Lawsuit Against the Minnesota Board of Engineering"

pochamago — Wed, 26 May 2021 21:07:45 +0000

I legitimately think we should consider replacing all licenses with certifications and just require anyone who practices a profession without a certificate to be totally upfront with their clients about that