Alexander Lamb

Simulation scientist, improvisor, programmer, soft skills trainer, dad, etc. Author of the Roboteer trilogy from Gollancz books.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@ArtemisConsort @Plinz The next step is to show that such a graph can be created without recourse to the use of a surface as a starting point. There are algorithms that do this. 2D is relatively easy. 3D is harder.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@ArtemisConsort @Plinz The easiest way to show this is doable is to take a sprinkling of random points on a surface and connect nodes to newest neighbors. Then look at notions of distance over larger numbers of hops from a chosen point.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

I wrote an article about reversible physical laws. https://t.co/06gXKbD0SL
I welcome any and all feedback.

[George Monbiot @GeorgeMonbiot]

We face an epochal, unthinkable prospect: of perhaps the two greatest existential threats – environmental breakdown and food system failure – converging, as one triggers the other. Yet the media concentrates on celebrity gossip. https://t.co/krsL5x2T0i

[Michael Thomas @curious_founder]

In the last few decades, the SUV market in America has exploded.

Automakers say the reason for this growth has been "changing consumer preferences."

But that's not the full story.

One of the main reasons for the growth is the "SUV loophole."

🧵

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@Peter_Turchin In that case, social media *would* be creating polarization, but not through the obvious direct mechanism. I wonder if anyone has tried looking at whether cultural backlash indicators anti-correlate with social media.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@Peter_Turchin It strikes me that one possible interpretation of that paper is that social media usage increases the rate of cultural drift for users. This might then increase the degree of cultural backlash experienced by non-users.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@DjangoWexler @paulkrugman Also Kurt Vonnegut's if I remember rightly.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

I wrote an article about capitalism, markets, and autocracy. Despite what the title might imply, it is not anti-Elon. https://t.co/tePlElbvTb

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@DjangoWexler A fair concern. For a system like this to work, it would have to retain some of the volatile opportunism of war, without the bloodshed.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@DjangoWexler The solution? Perhaps create the right incentives around the mechanism. Turn it into something that feels like a get rich quick scheme, but one that's only available to those who don't already hold power. I admittedly am not yet sure how one would do this.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@DjangoWexler This means elites looking to protect their wealth likely wouldn't bother investing in eroding the mechanism in the same way. The real question is how you keep the mechanism for enacting social repair in good condition while it's not being used.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@DjangoWexler Lol! Yup.

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@DjangoWexler Right. Though this is just another symptom of the social entropic decay. It feels like a direct manifestation of Turchin's 'elite overproduction'

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@DjangoWexler Thank you for the feedback. And I'm not sure my solution tracks either. Clearly war resets the machine. I think it's an open question as to what might else do the job. It's got to be worth us trying.

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

New paper! Here's the one-minute version. There's a puzzle I've been thinking about for a long time. Wealthy countries tend to be happier...

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

Seems like HSBC lack a moral center. Imagine that.

[Josephine Moulds @jomoulds]

1/ 🚨HSBC made a *secretive* multimillion-dollar loan to the energy company bulldozing a village in western Germany to expand its huge coal mine, just three months after the bank pledged to stop funding coal

https://t.co/X8P6dwfiXt

[Alexander Lamb @alex_lamb]

@PeteMC666 @MichaelMammay @gavingsmith My Roboteer trilogy has a relatively heavy Mil element.