life on Peterhiltz.com

Lip Service Thanks Rant

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 14:18:19 -0400

We just had Veterans Day in the US (honoring those who served in the US armed forces) which is not the same as Memorial Day (honoring those who died in the service of the US armed forces). That means we get to watch more lip service “Thank you for your service” statements performance theater. You don’t see these people giving those thanks to visibly disabled former service personnel. You don’t see these people giving condolences to families who lost family members in the service.

The R is not silent

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 14:18:19 -0400

I recently played a short music set at a venue and the host introduced me as “Pete”. Hey, I’m standing in front of a live microphone too. I called out that the “r” in “Peter” is not silent and then proceeded to play. Afterwards the sound person said that they appreciated my calling out the host on getting the name right, adding that the host kept forgetting their name. I talked to the host at the end of the evening to ensure no ruffled feathers on his side.

Church Happiness BUT

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 14:18:19 -0400

Recent data indicates that churchgoers are happier than non-churchgoers. The real reason seems to be that the church community acts as a support group and that this would be the case regardless of whether the religion is true. I would assert that you can’t stop the analysis there. I haven’t seen data for this yet, but anecdotal stories indicate that some church communities intentionally cause more unhappiness for those outside that specific community.

Society is a Fragile Fabric

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 14:18:19 -0400

Society is a fragile fabric, make up of the threads of gentlemen’s (and ladies') agreements. There is a distinct shortage of gentlemen (and ladies). As usual, feel free to disagree using this contact link. My world view is a hypothesis, not a belief.

Idioms from Acrydaanth

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:18:19 -0400

Some idioms from a friend: First a fun one: Cæ sirek ceruf kunʋareʋ conkomes ʋymkomet momet. (The universe moved left one pink cow - sudden realization that changes a world view.) More political ones: Cæ surej kanuf cemy dølkomej ranuf. (More hugs and less beatings.) Cæ ŋymʋonej tyrʋomeceʋ dinu koret semjømes. (Treating people like things is evil.) Cæ duldumec cæu jennæmes. (Morals before loyalty.

US Health Insurance Deaths

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:18:19 -0400

Health Justice Monitor estimates approximately 200,000 annual deaths in the US potentially representing insurance-related mortality. I would be interested in information from anyone with actual expertise in this area who can review the methodology. US News reported “For example, an analysis from health policy research organization KFF found that major medical insurers offering plans to individuals via the Healthcare.gov marketplace rejected nearly 1 in 5 in-network claims in 2021. Yet while close to 17% of claims were denied, rates varied drastically among plan issuers, ranging from 2% to 49%.

Winds of Change

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 04:18:19 -0400

Something I wrote a few months ago with nothing to do with current political events.

Onion Peeling in a Post Truth World

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:18:19 -0400

It is obvious to the 3 people who read this blog that my enthusiasm for doing the research required for trying to honestly analyze something that caught my eye has waned. Back in 2021 I posted “When an honestly mistaken person is confronted with the truth, he is either no longer mistaken, or no longer honest.” I am confronted with the reality of a post-truth world, where onion peeling analysis is irrelevant.

Susanna the Healer

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This song was written about an episode in a cozy fantasy novella called Andras Hill, which can be found at Anthracyda.org.

Loving Strangeness or Cruel Sanity

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:18:19 -0400

I saw the following recently on reddit: When I worked in a book store, we had a guy come in once looking for waterproof books. I asked why, and he said he wanted something to read to chickens. He went on to say he already had one laminated book of poetry that he read to them every night, but he thought they might want something else. I’ll take that.

Information Shaped Sentences

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 14:18:19 -0400

Neil Gaiman coined the term “information shaped sentences” for the results from ChatGPT. He is right. Much of what comes back from ChatGPT and other “AI” products looks like information, but isn’t. It is one thing for “AI” to look for patterns in actual physical data (e.g. medical research). It is quite another for “AI” to mine from datasets like the internet that is full of misinformation, disinformation, opinion, fiction and a trillion biases.

The Luxury of Existential Crises

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 14:18:19 -0400

I was once told by a left wing activist that existential crises were a luxury for the rich. There was a recent discussion on social media (the askphilosophy subreddit) about whether philosophy is a borgeouise hobby. I thought the most interesting comments came from the “third world” perspective. They distinguished between western academic analytic philosophy and philosophizing done by persons outside that small circle. Some thought the first was becoming a bourgeois hobby, but the second happened every day, every where.

Rise to the Bait or Not

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 14:18:19 -0400

I was at a Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. A guy at the party was wearing a shirt clearly intended to trigger liberals. The wording on his shirt read, in part “I am a Christian but I am a born warrior. I will fight for ….xyz things.” The language was clearly written so that if you objected, you would be played as opposing motherhood, apple pie etc, while at the same time demonstrating that he had no intention of following the Sermon on the Mount.

Gell-Mann Amnesia

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 14:18:19 -0400

How often do you read a story in the media in your area of expertise that is misleading or even completely wrong, then turn to the next story in a different subject and assume that its correct. This is called Gell-Mann Amnesia. Michael Crichton coined the term. In his words: Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well.

Is Heaven Communist?

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 14:18:19 -0400

TRIGGER WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU TAKE THE BIBLE LITERALLY.

Computer Generated Fan Fic

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:18:19 -0400

Now that ChatGpt is claiming the ability to write stories and have conversations, I was talking with someone about whether published authors could have chat rooms where paid subscribers could “talk” to their favorite characters. Requiring a paid subscription would cut down on the internet troll problem and generate additional revenue for the author (and publishing company). On the other hand, just think about a simple user question like “[Protagonist], when you did [X], what were you thinking?

Winds of Change

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’m trying to get back to songwriting. This was in response to a challenge on writing a song involving listening to the wind. I started playing around with the theme of “winds of change” and how everything is always changing. So often we don’t hear the first whispers and, when we do, we try to fight it instead of accepting it and going with the flow. The changes can be physical (I can’t stop getting older), they can be cultural, they can be economic or environment or scientific or lots of other things.

Someone once said “Things were simpler when we were younger” and the response was “No, we were simpler”. We can’t go back to the naïveté of our younger days, but we can reset how we engage with life, the universe and others.

For those of you who care, this was actually written in an open D minor tuning.

Christians Dislike Atheists More Than Atheists Dislike Christians

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 14:18:19 -0400

A peer-reviewed study found Christians hold more animosity towards atheists than atheists hold toward them. The going in assumption of the researchers was that both groups would be more favorable to their own in-group but it is actually asymmetric. The atheists do not really view Christians any worse than they view other atheists. On the other hand, Christians view atheists as worse than Muslims or convicted criminals. Unlike some other studies, this one took a cross section of the American population rather than just getting samples from atheist organizations and samples from Christian churches.

Sonder

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 14:18:19 -0400

I’m really only posting this so I can find the word again. Sonder - from the urban dictionary: The realization that there aren’t any main characters in the world and everyone has a complex life, thoughts, crushes, relatives, dreams and mind just as your own. Essentially while you’re the main character in your life, you’re also a background character in someone else’s. Coined in 2012 by John Koenig, whose project, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, aims to come up with new words for emotions that currently lack words.

There is no Paradox of Tolerance

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 14:18:19 -0400

I occasionally run into people who complain that I am tolerant of X, but I am not tolerant of them, so if I claim to be “tolerant”, I need to be tolerant of everything. NO I DON’T. I am tolerant of people whose actions do not adversely affect others. I do not pretend to be tolerant of people whose actions and beliefs do affect others. Two gay people getting married does not adversely impact anyone else.

What is Human?

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:18:19 -0400

I’ve been reading some of the attempts on the anti-abortion side to avoid tying themselves into knots with respect to the definition of when something is a person. This is similar, but not exactly the same as the Cartesian duality question of whether mind and body are separate. In a religious sense it also seems to touch on when a soul is attached to a body. Obviously they can’t say “soul” in the United States due to separation of church and state, but they can use “personhood” as a substitute.

Worth and Dignity

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 14:18:19 -0400

The first principle of the Unitarian Universalist Church is “to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” I find this easy to apply as a default position and more difficult to apply in specific instances. If I don’t know you, I start with an assumption that you are honest and are competent in what you present to the world as your current function when I meet you. From that standpoint, it doesn’t matter whether you are a President, CEO, policeperson, waiter, roofer, farmer or internet influencer, regardless of race, creed, etc - I start with the same baseline of respect for your inherent worth and dignity.

Useful Terry Prachett Quotes

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 14:18:19 -0400

Just a collection of quotes from the British author Terry Pratchett that people have found useful for various contexts: Give a man a fire and he’ll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life. In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods. They have not forgotten this. Personal’s not the same as important. People just think it is.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1s: Well Being, Wittgenstein and Values in Science

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 09:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1s with the topics being Well Being, Wittgenstein and Values in Science. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1r: Rational Disagreement, Moral Principles and Gender Categories

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1r with the topics being Rational Disagreement, Moral Principles and Gender Categories. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1q: Consciousness, Mind Uploading and Hard Problem of Consciousness

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1q with the topics being Consciousness, Mind Uploading and The Hard Problem of Consciousness. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1p: Analysis of Knowledge, Arguments for Theism and Morality

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 27 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1p with the topics being Analysis of Knowledge, Arguments for Theism and Morality. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1o: Chinese Room, Possible Worlds, Human Genetic Engineering

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 26 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1o with the topics being “Chinese Room”, “Possible Worlds” and “Human Genetic Engineering”. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1n: Other Minds, Ought Implies Can and Newcombe's Problem

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1n with the topics being “Other Minds”, “Ought Implies Can” and “Newcombe’s Problem”. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1m: Time, Immortality, Politics

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1 with the topics being “Time”, “Immortality” and “Politics”. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1l: Logic, Perceptual Experience, Proper names

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 15:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1 with the topics being “Logic”, “Perceptual Experience” and “Proper Names”. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1k: Knowledge Claims, Vagueness and Moral Motivation

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 15:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1k with the topics being “Knowledge Claims”, “Vagueness” and “Moral Motivation”. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1j: Metaphilosophy, Political Philosophy and Mental Content

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 15:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1j with the topics being “Metaphilosophy”, “Political Philosophy” and “Mental Content”. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1i: Zombies, Teletransporter and Laws of Nature

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 15:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1i with the topics being Zombies, Teletransporter and Laws of Nature. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1h: Moral Judgement, Epistemic Justification and Personal Identity

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 15:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1h with the topics being Moral Judgement, Epistemic Justification and Personal Identity. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1g: Truth, The Experience Machine and Abstract Objects

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1g with the topics being Truth, The Experience Machine and Abstract Objects. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1f: Science, Gender and Race

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1f with the topics being Science, Gender and Race. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1e: Metaethics, Analytic-Synthetic Distinction and Aesthetic Value

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1e with the topics being Metaethics, Analytic-Synthetic Distinction and Aesthetic Value. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1d: Mind, Meaning of Life and Knowledge

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1d with the topics being Mind, Meaning of Life and Knowledge. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1c: Normative Ethics, Footbridge Experiment and the Trolley Problem

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1c with the topics being Normative Ethics, Footbridge Experiment and the Trolley Problem. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1b: External World, Free Will and A priori knowledge

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 15:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1b with the topics being External World, Free Will and A priori knowledge. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

2020 Philosophy Survey Part 1a: Aim of Philosophy, God and Eating Animals

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

This post is Part 1a with the topics being Aim of Philosophy, God and Eating Animals. I recently came across the 2020 Philosopher Papers Survey of 7,685 academic philosophers around the world. (I think < 1,800 actually responded). I then ran into my first problem - uhh, what do those answers mean? It reminded me of tax lawyers writing for other tax lawyers. One piece of advice I used to give younger tax lawyers when they were writing for a business audience - drop the nuance.

Responding to Sophists

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 14:18:19 -0400

I just want to quote from a reddit comment I ran across on how to deal with people who want to argue about terrible positions and are more concerned with scoring debate points than having a reasonable discussion. This is as much a reminder to myself as a note to others. This comment can be found at https://old.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/77hda6/how_to_deal_with_unproductive_gadflies_like/. “Card carrying Sophist here (a rhetorican who teaches philosophy). There is no sure fire way to deal with these folks, but there are a few things worth suggesting.

Upcculfity

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I was watching a youtube video on Bonhoeffer’s Theory of Stupidity and reading the comments left me thinking about the many feet of lumber in both the eyes of the commenters and myself. I’m going to somewhat change the terminology used because it is rather loaded with dog whistles and use a made-up word “upcculf” or “upcculfity”, which I will define as a state of conciousness of a true believer in X (left wing, right wing, multi-level marketing, crypto currencies, anti-vax, blind intellectualism, … [insert name your belief to which you have become a convert]).

Either they work or they don't. NOOOOOO!

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I recently had a useless discussion with someone who was unwilling to either wear a mask or vaccinate and took the position: “If the vaccines work why the fear, and if they do not work why take the risk of getting them?” His refusal to wear a mask was based on his trust in his immune system “I’m healthy and if you wear a mask you are living in fear and halfway dead already.

Creativity and Semantic Distance

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I am in the process of reading a study on creativity and semantic distance. A McGill University newsroom article on it is here. The concept is fairly simple - more creative people will find connections between words that general usage would indicate are “less” connected. “Cat” and “dog” have the feeling of being “related” words. “Cat” and “test tube” feel like “more unrelated” words. Efforts have been done (see the study link) on measuring the “relatedness” of words by crawling the internet and measuring how close the word pairs are to each other in normal usage.

Giving Compliments

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 14:18:19 -0400

The BBC has an article on why people should give compliments to others. There are studies that indicate that giving compliments results in a sense of reciprocity. Other studies indicate that people significantly underestimate how happy people would be to receive a compliment. All that being said, as an older male, there are a few things I need to remind myself about: Compliment something someone has done, not something they genetically have.

Stupid, Ignorant, Brain Freeze or Troll?

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 14:18:19 -0400

When reading stuff on the intertubes, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a comment is stupid, ignorant, brain freeze or troll. You cannot see the other person and have no knowledge about their background. I would treat a lot of statements as simply trolls if I didn’t have the personal experience of an 18 year old American “honors” student ask me why people in Switzerland spoke German because their minds think in English.

Procrastination

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I recently finished a 260 page analysis of some open source software projects at the request of someone in Switzerland (no one getting paid, this is open source software). That took about a month. It was followed by a week helping a guy in Italy resolve the performance problems of the software he maintains which had come dead last in the analysis. Then four days adding an feature to some software I have found myself as the maintainer at the request of someone else on the intertubes.

Do People Actually Want Solutions?

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 14:18:19 -0400

It seems like a lot of people would have no meaning to life if they didn’t have someone to hate. Fortunately I hate everyone so a lot of targets would have to go away. From time to time friends in the international tax arena call and update me on the latest goings on. Usually it is fairly clear that most of the parties at the table are engaged in political posturing but do not actually seem to want to resolve the issues.

What Constitutes 'Research on Humans'?

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:18:19 -0400

Suppose you are an ethical researcher so you needed informed consent before experimenting on people. Now suppose a group of people writing really complicated software read email suggestions for patches on the software and any emailed patch will go through several of review before it is accepted. Finally, suppose you decide to “research” whether you can get patches accepted that look like they are positive on their face, but in reality create security holes in the software.

More Deaths by Pens than by Guns?

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I’ve been hearing horror stories from friends in the medical field about COVID deniers even as they are gasping for breath. Many of these people (and their families) simultaneously deny the existence of COVID and insist that the doctors gave it to them to get more money. How did this happen? Because people told them lies. Children are taught the saying “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Spherical Cow or Assume a Can Opener?

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I was told yesterday that business people don’t cheat or cut corners because if they did, investors would punish them and that if I had studied finance I would understand that. It was all I could do to avoid just responding with maniacal laughter. Last year I had an economics professor tell me that Google and Amazon are not profit maximizing companies because they do not operate the way that microeconomic theory says that they will.

Irregular Verbs/Noun

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 14:18:19 -0400

Courtesy of Paul in a comment on Charlie Stross' blog. “I know the facts.” “You have opinions.” “He’s biased.” “They’ve been brainwashed.” Like everyone else, I occasionally need to be reminded of my own biases and preconceptions. As usual, feel free to disagree using this contact link. My world view is a hypothesis, not a belief.

You are Stepping on My Foot

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I’ve been read some of the excuses for bad behavior, most recently discussions about Richard Stallman being neurodivergent and therefore he did nothing wrong. In this context I and others thought to dig up this comment by someone calling themselves Hershele Ostropoler about sexual harassment at public gatherings in John Scalzi’s blog in 2012: “If you step on my foot, you need to get off my foot.” “If you step on my foot without meaning to, you need to get off my foot.

Phantom Tollbooth

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 14:18:19 -0400

Norton Juster, the author of “The Phantom Tollbooth” died yesterday at age 91. In my opinion, it is a book that everyone should read (or have read to them - you can choose to take this as snark or not as you see fit). It is possible to appreciate it more as an adult than as a child. Below are some of my favorite quotes. “You must never feel badly about making mistakes … as long as you take the trouble to learn from them.

Morality - Religious and Atheists

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:18:19 -0400

An interesting study was recently released (Feb 24, 2021) on morality and atheists v. religious. It started from the observation that while attitudes in the US have improved towards minorities over time, attitudes towards atheists have not. According to a Pew poll in 2019, 44% of Americans think belief in God is necessary for morality (apparently people only behave well if someone is watching). The researchers decided to look at morality among the atheists and religious in the US (a religious country) and Sweden (a non-religious country) and investigate “whether disbelievers differ from believers in how they conceptualize morality.

Conversation Length, Journalism and the Apparent Inability of Scientists to Write a Coherent Report

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 14:18:19 -0400

Psych News Daily reports that Conversations Rarely End When People Want Them to End. Scientific American reports that People Literally Don’t Know When to Shut Up or Keep Talking. You would think this was consistent reporting. Are you sure about that? Psych News Daily states “On average, participants wished their conversations had been 1.9 minutes (or 24%) longer. They also said they believed that their partners wished that the conversation had been 5.

Nothing is that Simple

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 14:18:19 -0400

Sometimes (some people would say often) I feel the need to flag some study in an area I am completely unqualified to comment on the substance. I am, however, really good at pulling apart logic, generalizations and over-broad journalistic pronouncements, however, so I feel completely at ease in doing that. What else is the internet for? WARNING: Long read. Cambridge University researchers just came out with a study entitled The cognitive and perceptual correlates of ideological attitudes: a data-driven approach with a rather astounding claim in the abstract: “[W]e uncovered the specific psychological signatures of political, nationalistic, religious and dogmatic beliefs.

On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I mentioned William James when talking about all the different personas that exist in personal interactions I think William James Undercounted. I think I should mention his On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings. You can find an abridged version here. If I was to summarize as concisely as possible, he says that there is a lot more of life and the universe to appreciate than any of us, encased in our own experiences and training, realize.

I think William James Undercounted

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 07 Feb 2021 14:18:19 -0400

One of many quotes attributed to William James is “Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.” Interestingly, no collection of quotes actually provides a cite to when or where he said it. A similar concept was raised by Oliver Wendell Holmes in “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table”.

Groundhog Carols

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 14:18:19 -0400

Groundhog Carols by Gail Pilgrim. Click the title to get to them.

Frazz and Unnecessary Paranoia

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I like the daily comic strip Frazz. The main character is a young man who is a janitor at the elementary school that he went to as a child. He gets along with teachers and kids talk to him about questions they don’t want to ask an authority figure. There are also lots of strips involving kids talking to their teachers. It is a bit of homage to Calvin and Hobbes, with a little less snark.

Amanda Gorman - Inaugural Poem - The Hill We Climb

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I thought I would just put Amanda Gorman’s Inauguration Poem “The Hill We Climb” here. I have no idea where line breaks should be. Note to self - there are poetry readings on Youtube, but check out the ones by the poet, not by actors reading the poetry. Do poets do poetry readings on Zoom? “Mr President, Dr Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr Emhoff, Americans and the world: when day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

Character

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Early early draft. Sometimes you drop nuance and need to be heavy handed. This song is a bit unusual in that it starts with an accidental.

When are Aphorisms Profound or Trite?

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 14:18:19 -0400

I was helping a friend with some data analysis which included a file of roughly 500k quotes collected from the internet. Looking at the “quotes”, I thought a dismaying number were trite aphorisms from motivational speakers/writers and religious feelgood writers. I began to wonder why are sayings I consider “trite” obviously not “trite” to enough people that there is a market? Actually, I seem to be misusing the word “trite”. The dictionary indicates that trite means “not evoking interest because of overuse or repetition”.

Practicing the Little Lies

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Ars Technica published an article on Christmas Day (yesterday) entitled Children’s Belief in Santa is more Nuanced than you Think. The story talks about studies showing that children have hierarchies of belief, with individual figures falling categories like: “Real Person”, “Virtually Real”, “Cultural Figures”, “Ambiguous Figures” and finally “Fictional Figures”. So, like so many things, there is no binary on/off, but rather a spectrum between “real” and “nonreal”. One of the studies argued that three factors influence children’s belief and placement of the figures in the spectrum: Testimony (being told about the figure), indirect evidence (which included rituals like leaving milk and cookies for Santa or hunting for Easter Bunny eggs, and direct evidence like visiting Santa in the mall.

The Spreadable Butter Assumptions

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 14:18:19 -0400

You would think after all the years we’ve been married that we would know each other’s little ways and preferences. That is by and large true, but the spreadable butter question had never come up before. Taking a step back, we normally use some type of easily spreadable margarine and real butter is for cooking and special occasions. Just prior to the COVID mandated cocooning, we had been watching the Great British Bake Off and Shirley started baking a couple times a week in the afternoon.

Your Brain on Grievances

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 14:18:19 -0400

There is an interesting article on Politico about Grievance Addiction focusing on Donald Trump. The author is James Kimmel, Jr., a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale Med School and he notes that “your brain on grievances looks a lot like your brain on drugs. In fact, brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics.”

An Honest 2020 Christmas Medley

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Back to less serious stuff. Malinda just put up a highly enjoyable parody mashup of Christmas songs sung from the standpoint of both her optimistic and pessimistic sides looking at 2020. She also has done this for 2019 and 2018. She has two channels on youtube. The first, Translator Fails she runs various things through Google translate into multiple languages and back until it makes absolutely no sense. The second, just entitled Malinda is both more personal and has more original stuff.

Update on Kentucky Police Training - Warrior or Guardian

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

An update on an earlier post about a training deck used by the Kentucky State Police urging cadets to be ruthless killers and quoting Hitler advocating violence. At the time that story broke on Oct 30, the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet claimed the material had been removed in 2013. Since that date, state police have not replied to subsequent records requests. Maybe that particular slide deck was removed in 2013, but the Lexington Herald Leader reported today, confirmed by the Governor and the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet that another training video had been approved for training use in September of this year that featured Nazi symbols.

Suggestions? I don't want to watch assholes be assholes

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

I don’t want to watch assholes be assholes. This seems to eliminate all news, any social media where echo chambers interact, all sitcoms (really, is there any sitcom which doesn’t consist of making fun of people?), most dramas, most movies and most social media or forum where people are anonymous. Any suggestions would be appreciated. As usual, feel free to disagree using this contact link. My world view is a hypothesis, not a belief.

Dreams and Overfitting - Broken Conversations

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

We don’t know a lot about dreams. A recent paper by Erik Hoel The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved ot assist generalization at Tufts Universtity suggests that one possible reason for weird dreams is your brain is trying to avoid “overfitting”. If you don’t want to read the paper itself (long but easy read), you can read an article about it at Discover Magazine. The concept of overfitting is borrowed from deep neural networks where the network is trying to “learn” from a dataset, but focuses so tightly on that dataset that it can’t generalize to similar but not identical datasets.

Guardian or Warrior?

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

A high school newspaper in Kentucky broke a story on October 30 about a training slideshow used by the Kentucky State Police urging cadets to be “ruthless killers[s]” and quoting Hitler advocating violence. By 4:15 PM that day, the Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear responded with the following statement: “This is absolutely unacceptable. It is further unacceptable that I just learned about this through social media. We will collect all the facts and take immediate corrective action.

Enough With the Name Calling

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

All the jokes and insults about the other side just make the polarization worse. So stop it. We are wired differently, we think differently we respond to different motivations. For example, one study Political Ideology and the Perceived Impact of Coronavirus Prevention Behaviors for the Self and Others indicates that conservatives apparently are more likely to wear masks if you point out it keeps them safer and less likely to wear masks if you point out it keeps others safer.

Think of the Children and Other Political Lies

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

If politicians actually believed in their pleas to ‘think of the children’, they wouldn’t make so many outright lies. Think of the bad example it sets. And that goes double for the people writing the lies in the political ads. Criminal defense lawyers are not allowed to lie for their clients. Why is it allowed in the political process? As usual, feel free to disagree using this contact link. My world view is a hypothesis, not a belief.

I Guess I Don't Match Lifewire

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

So, trying to keep myself from fixating on the political news, I asked DuckDuckGo for suggestions on random websites. One of the suggestions was from lifewire that claimed “cool websites to look at when bored”. It claimed “Whether you need to kill some time or you’re in the mood to laugh, learn, or be inspired, this list of cool sites is all you need.” It was a typical list with “what we like” and “what we don’t like”.

Changing the Clocks for Daylight Saving

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Today I woke up at either 6:10 am or 5:10 am depending on whether I was looking at a clock that automatically reset itself for the end of daylight savings time in the US. I remember writing a song 20 years ago about the hassle of resetting all the digital clocks in the house. You had to hold down buttons and some of them didn’t go backwards or get faster, so you had to wait while it slowly advanced 23 hours.

Most Dangerous Jobs in the US and Where Do Those Numbers Come From?

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

This blog is eclectic because I can get sidetracked by lots of different things. Yesterday was the origin of the word “scientist”. Today it is data sourcing and analysis. WARNING: This is a data analysis rat hole expedition. Someone made a comment to me that police were the 22nd most dangerous job in the US which triggered some recollection in my brain that I had seen a report where they were 16th.

[Gender] in Pronouns

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

The 2014 Nebula Award winner for best science fiction novel was Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. It was interesting (sometimes pleasantly, sometimes horrifyingly) to watch reactions to the use of pronouns in the book. The main character and narrator natively speaks a language that doesn’t make gender distinctions in pronouns. (Finnish and Hungarian are similar in this respect). English, of course, does have gendered pronouns so to get the point across, the author has the narrator using feminine pronouns throughout the book except in dialog.

How Many Razors Do Philosophers Need?

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Think of a generic picture of a philosopher. When I did, I came up with a picture of a bearded old white guy. Now why do they have so many razors if so many of them have beards? All of the following rules of thumb are intended to reduce the explanations you should have to think about. “Occam’s razor” says that simpler explanations are more likely to be true than complicated explanations.

What Data do Companies Collect on You?

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

One of the many cultural differences between the US and Europe seems to be that Americans don’t trust the government collecting data about themselves but seem to find it acceptable that companies collect data and Europe seems to be the reverse. The American idea becomes an exercise in futility as soon as you understand that the government buys data from companies if it can’t collect the data directly. But what about other geographies and what data is getting collected about you anyway?

Is the Universe a Simulation?

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Warning: Very Long Post and Very Deep Rabbit Hole about something that doesn’t really matter. Elon Musk has publicly said that we’re most likely in a simulation. Before we get into anything, please note that this is a hypothesis, not a theory. What is the Simulation Hypothesis? The super simple description of the idea that the universe could be a simulation is you assume unlimited computing power and God/aliens create a sufficiently complex version of the Matrix, Inception, Minecraft or the Sims and we are just the characters running around inside a computer program.

Diversity Training or Divisive Training?

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

UPDATE: Apparently a judge has blocked the order. See USA Today The President reportedly signed an executive order banning diversity training in federal agencies, the military, federal contrators and grant recipients. I use the word “reportedly” because you can read the literal words of the order differently depending on your philosophical persuasion. Executive Order 13950 bars the military, federal contractors and federal grant recipients from teaching “divisive concepts”. OK, what are “divisive concepts”?

The Speed of Swoosh

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Have you ever heard somebody say something that you think is so incorrect that, to use physicist Wolfgang Pauli’s phrase “Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!” — “That is not only not right, it is not even wrong!”? As a result you see it as your duty to jump in to correct them. I am as guilty of that as anyone - why else this blog.

That which can be destroyed by the truth should be?

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Author Pat Hodgell in her book Godstalk has a character say “That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.” I think we can probably all agree that often little white lies can keep relationships from blowing up, so maybe the statement is too broad. But during the disputes about fake news and lies on Facebook and Twitter, maybe we should look at the corollary: “That which is created by lies shouldn’t be”.

Use the Right Tool For the Job

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 14:18:19 -0400

When all you know is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In the most recent case, the UK managed to drop almost 16,000 COVID-19 cases from their result compilation because they were using Excel in the data gathering process. Excel has a limit on the number of rows or columns and apparently the amount of data exceeded one or the other of those limits. A BBC Report claims that the row limit was breached because someone chose to use a very old file format.

We Are All Bit Players In Other People's Plays

Peter Hiltz — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Most of us are the main character in the plays running through our heads. As those scenes happen and as we review them later, all the other people are either focused on us or are NPCs (non-playing characters). And that’s fine so long as we remember that while our play is happening, every other person is the center of their own play and we are not the main character in their plays.

Missing from the working from home debate

Peter Hiltz — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 14:18:19 -0400

There have been lots of discussions about whether employees are more or less efficient working from home. I certainly see lots of comments from people who are happier left alone to work from home. I also see occasional comments from parents trying to juggle working from home, helping their kids learning from home and how all the distractions at home get in the way of being efficient. What I have not seen is the impact on new young workers of not having informal face time training.

I Can Learn From Anyone

Peter Hiltz — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 14:18:19 -0400

I’m an infovore. I take in a lot of information (or in the words of my sister-in-law - “more useless crap”) and occasionally it makes new patterns that I can learn from. Its not just written information. I can learn watching two carpenters do things differently. I can learn from listening to different conversations about practically anything (maybe not sports because I really don’t care). It doesn’t matter the socioeconomic level, intelligence level or age level.

Hubris or Aspiration

Peter Hiltz — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 14:18:19 -0400

There is a trope throughout history about hubris. Wikipedia defines it as “foolish pride, dangerous overconfidence or arrogance”. The Encyclopedia Britannica has a more nuanced definition: “overweening presumption that leads a person to disregard the divinely fixed limits on human action in an ordered cosmos.” The general theory of the trope is that hubris will lead to your downfall. As examples, in Greek mythology, think Icarus flying too close to the sun; in Christian theology think the fall of Lucifer.

Make the Chili

Peter Hiltz — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 14:18:19 -0400

There is a Carrie Newcomer song called “Forever Ray” where the wife (Ella) shooes the husband (Ray) out of the house and suggests that since it is a nice day, maybe he could do something in the yard. So Ray goes out and buys a little cement statue of a rabbit on its hind legs holding a tray. Then everyday he leaves Ella a note on the tray held down by a stone with just something to say that he loves her.

Woe is You

Peter Hiltz — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 14:18:19 -0400

Terry Pratchett once said “Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it’s not satire, it’s bullying.” I absolutely agree. At the same time, I want you to think about the phrase “people who are hurting”. Let’s assume that someone is hurting but it is not “justifiable” in your mind. Have you now decided that they aren’t really hurting? There seems to be a tendency by both parties to a disagreement to deny the reality of any hurt feelings by the other side and claim that they are the only side that has the right to feel hurt.

What is Respect?

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 06:18:19 -0400

I was reading an interchange on social media the other day about a shoplifting incident at a Lowe’s. In the discussion was a short interchange that got me thinking. One commentor said don’t bother reporting it to the police because they won’t do anything. Another commentator responded this is what happens when people don’t respect the police. My first thought was “What does respecting police have to do with shoplifting”. Then I wondered whether the second commentator was saying you don’t respect the police the police will not respond i.

Mondays

Peter Hiltz — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mondays. Everyone’s “favorite” day of the week