On genocide and the worst modern ideology
Some time ago I read Bradley Campbell's The Geometry of Genocide: A Study in Pure Sociology. Like his other books, it's short, to the point, and well worth reading. First,…
“public policy never necessarily follows from scientific findings”, yes and no
I am currently reading Bryan Caplan's new book collection of old blogposts in book format. One of them was pretty interesting: Behaviorial Geneticists versus Policy Implications from 2009. He quotes…
Austrian economics: worse than expected — Review of Democracy, the God that failed (Hoppe)
After reading a book defending limitations to free trade/protectionism, it was time for something completely different. So I looked around after any current, well-regarded (in their circles) Austrian libertarian economist.…
Some thoughts on online voting
I was asked to comment on this Reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/s1t2c/netsec_how_would_you_design_an_electronic_voting/ This post is written with the assumption that a bitcoin-like system is used. Nirvana / perfect solution fallacy…
Paper: Why Not Epistocracy? (David Estlund)
Why Not Epistocracy (i fixed the PDF found on google) Previusly mentioned, but its pretty good, and right to the topic. Also, the Wiki page about meritocracy sucks.
Paper: The impact of genetic enhancement on equality (Michael H. Shapiro)
The impact of genetic enhancement on equality found via another paper: The rhetoric and reality of gap closing—when the “have-nots” gain but the “haves” gain even more (Stephen J. Ceci and…
Quotes and thoughts: Deliberative Democracy and Political Ignorance (Ilya Somin)
Very interesting two papers by Somin! I will definitely check out his other stuff when i have time. I just took the time off reading papers before i start reading…
Quotes and comments: Knowledge about ignorance: New directions in the study of political information (Ilya Somin)
Knowledge About Ignorance New Directions in the Study of Political Information Quotes from If political ignorance is rational and most voters choose not to learn much about politics for…
Reading material about: evidence-based policy
First read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_policy Then, Mad Cows and Ecstasy: Chance and Choice in an Evidence-Based Society by: Adrian F. M. Smith Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (Statistics in…
Recent paper about democracy and self-assessment/Dunning-Kruger
More mainstream article that mentioned the study: http://news.yahoo.com/people-arent-smart-enough-democracy-flourish-scientists-185601411.html The actual paper: A Mathematical Model of Democratic Elections Original Dunning-Kruger paper: unskilledandunaware "Abstract: Democratic election is the preferred method for determining…