Are nicer LLMs less truthful? (Hint: yes)
And other things that turned up while I was away
Culture
Nicholas Gruen.
Weekend readings on political rhetoric, free speech, and public discourse.
Recent essays
30 of 41Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once
And other things I learned while travelling in the Old Country (my excuse for being late).
Working class + Plutocrats => Fascism
And other equations you'll want to know about …
Blogging the 2008 crisis
The first of many out from the Club Troppo vault
Terrorists 3: Rational self-interest: 0
And other things that require your attention this weekend
Should we have called fascism 'gangsterism'?
And other things I wouldn't have included if you didn't absolutely NEED to know.
Utopianism or bust! How about neither?
And other things you simply MUST read
Are you moral typecasting (but of course you are!)
We all are, all the time. And other things to think about this weekend.
Where’s your Australian Idol?
In praise of imaginative vigour and the joy of human accomplishment.
Cometh the hour, cometh the fruitcake
And a host of other things (with a surprise appearance of Malcolm Turnbull's great grandfather).
Unthinking aloud
And other food for thought - or unthought (according to taste).
Milestones of intellectual progress
An overflow edition
Let that sink in …
And many other things encountered this week
Louis Theroux and the manosphere
Bemusement as a service
Don’t tell us your vision. Where’s your red line?
And other things of interest
The joys and disappointments of AI
Civilisational collapse: my part in its downfall
Equality as the consolation prize
And lots of other fine things I discovered (or created) during the week just past
The anti-dictator playbook
And other things I found on my travels this week
Societies collapse for lack of virtue: Srsly!
And a whole host of other things
The two giant markets gnawing at our soul
Why Wikipedia works
Sociopathy as a service: Facebook edition
And a range of other really interesting things I encountered.
Cancelled!
And how you can help me out …
Great speeches and truth telling
In the wake of Mark Carney’s great speech, I thought I’d reprise this piece from 2012 when I published it at Troppo. Thing is, Carney’s speech occupied a category of speech I didn’t mention (and I think Dennis didn’t either) — great speech as truth-telling.
Hate speech and free speech
And some other things I encountered on my round: Oh and I miss out on the Nobel - again!
Free speech and garbled-speech
And other things that coursed through my tiny mind this week …
Stop voting. Start sampling
And lots of other things from the last week
Sliding into soft despotism
With a nice little number from Julie Andrews. (And other things I encountered as the year ticked over.)
Faith: a Christmas reflection
Some shy thoughts …
Bondi: four takes
And some other things I came across
Peter Thiel and me
And other hopeless mismatches …