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Pegida is a anti Islam, anti-immigration, anti-EU group. From what I’ve seen it’s major part poor white trash, a segment of clear skinhead/hooligan types, older xenophobic men and confused anti-refugees/AZC activists. There was a protest not far from my home, and I shot a video while eating an ice cream. The protest was nominally non-violent,…

(minor edits may be pending in a few days, depending peer review and feedback. Email me if you have suggestions or wish to express your objections – I will print meaningful discourse below this article. I will submit this article to te IEET in a few days. Reprinted by the IES. ) All this is…

We can use whatever label we want – Transhumanist, Extropian, Singularitarian, Techno-Utopian, whatever – it’s generally the same crowd, the same scene of people. People with an optimist, enterpreneurial mindset and grande deals are in fact coming together in the Netherlands and organizing, however more tentatively than in surrounding countries. Here’s an (incomplete? Email me!)…

Max Planck wrote – science advances one funeral at a time. The same concept features heavily in the work of Thomas Kuhn. The basic idea is that in science there’s a major flaw in terms of progress. The problem is that entrenched stakeholders of the current paradigm stop caring about advancement and – as they…

I call for divestment from Saudi Arabia. Do not allow your citizens to travel there, for whatever reason. Immediately confiscate all possessions of Saudi Royals and associated people or groups in every single democratic country world wide. Make investments in Saudi Arabia illegal and punishable with prison sentences. Boycott their products. Disallow all imports from…

I own a PC from 2008-2009. It was a great era for me, 6 years of PC with a (back then) relatively decent graphics card, but my PC has become outdated – so I intend to spend a good 1000 euro (which I don’t have) come May to obtain a new Desktop personal computer. It’s…

The United States is no longer a democracy. There is no accountable or anywhere near acceptable government, judicial system or law enforcement. A significant section of its politicians are in denial of science. The US has commited numerous war crimes in recent history and is arguably committing war crimes this very moment. The government does…

In a perfect world migrants would all be quite lovely people who integrate instantaneously, are open and eager to adopt to other cultures, modes of though, varied spiritual values, alternative lifestyles, women’s sexual rights and freedoms, modernity. They are all really entrepreneurial and self-supporting hard workers and most go back to their country of origin…

In reference to this. Well, planets that allow for complex tool using, abstract symbol communicative social-programmable neurology (yadda yadda, caveat caveat) “species” occur almost certainly in very tight windows of existential contrivance. I am not at all certain the tides-water-oxygenation-carbon sequestration mechanism we have on Earth is the only one, but energy-dynamically it’s a pretty…

A decade ago AI research wasn’t as hot as it is now. But right now, in 2016 AI is very much a profitable endeavor. Many now argue that with regards to AI there is a risk for (a) mass unemployment, (b) mass political destabilization (for instance mass-abuse of intelligent drones by terrorists), or even (c)…

All of what I am writing is nothing more or less than unproven conspiracy theory. I would love to provide anything else than circumstantial evidence, but it is what it is. If you don’t mind that, join me on a wonderful journey of exploration, and if you see any merit in this, feel free to…

Here’s an article about the same presentation. I am quite annoyed with one of the speakers in the presentation, specifically by Ian Ground. Here is his academic page. I am not especially bothered with the condescension of Ian towards Aubrey in the opening statements, markedly refusing to acknowledge or even mention his name. That is…

The US has passed a bill through congress that allows US companies to claim and thus own interplanetary resources and pretty much do with these as they see fit. That means conceivably – making a profit as big as the sky. A casual reading of the High Frontier, and a few SF books 1, 2,…

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I am one of those people who “believe” (for lack of a better term) in the future. I am sure advancing technologies are mostly a good thing. Progress makes existence for humans better, and beyond that technological advances allow us to change undesirable aspects of the human state (and there are many) and engineer these…

I’ll be sparse with the spoilers, but the following are a few short meandering thoughts I had about the premiere of the TV adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke novel “Childhood’s End”. In the novel (which differs from the TV episode) aliens arrive at Earth and put everything in order. Depending on who you ask,…

I am not an economist nor an astrophysicist. But I find both fields intensely fascinating, when embedded in their proper context – economy in the theater of international or “geo”-politics, and astrophysics when looking at the proper context of the innermost galaxy. In both there is an ephemeral understanding that can not be gathered from…

Precisely the same uncanny phenomenon happened end of the soviet union – in particular middle aged men with certain expectations were disappointed and beyond a certain age entitled men can no longer accept and live with disappointment. They lament, become militant, gripe, sabotage whatever they can sabotage (vote for Jeltsin or Trump just to spite…

(link) Israel is a very peculiar nation. Israel as a very peculiar nation is doing very peculiar things we have come to dismiss as unthinkable for a democracy. Democracies do not do the kind of things Israel is doing, or so we believe. Of course Israel is under considerable existential threat from it’s neighbors, but…

Nope they are not. At least not in the Netherlands. This is the position of the SP (Socialist Party) on Basic Income. SP-Tweede Kamerlid Paul Ulenbelt: ‘Een onvoorwaardelijk basisinkomen is een sympathiek idee, maar ook niet meer dan dat. Socialisten vinden dat iedereen zijn bijdrage moet leveren aan de maatschappij. Dat wij produceren en diensten…

(By Extropia DaSilva) Maritme Admiralty Law is what is known as the law of the water. It is superceded by civil law and only applies to those that willingly contract themselves into it. The definition of Admiralty Law is a body of private international law governing the relationships between private entities which operate vessles on…

If you identify as “religious” and have read my previous articles or book chapters dealing with religious issues, you almost certainly count me as an enemy, not a friend, an atheist bigot lacking empathy—or even worse. And I understand why you feel like that. After all, I still refer to Religion as A serious delusiomal…

Democracy is in a crisis. Democracy in most countries does not deliver. While there many reasons for this malfunction, the most important reason democracy is not working particularly well is singular – special interest. Right now lobbyists has taken over the political decissionmaking process. In many cases this process is clearly a form of political…

We can print houses now. I written about this earlier, describing specifically for my country the potential to engineer a sharp deflation in home prices. In the Netherlands home prices are extremely and unnaturally inflated because of a confluence of government, industry and speculation mechanisms. It is now taken for granted that a house “that…