The First Annual Austen Erickson Intellectual Audit

Dear Friends,

I occasionally reflect that my blog resembles the noble tardigrade. A small creature, surprisingly adorable yet still slightly horrifying, and which has the ability to revive itself after many months (or even years) of apparent death.

Left: Adorable tummy-rubby floof; Right: NIGHTMARE SURPRISE

In honor of its current resurrection from cryptoblogosis, I'd like to try something which I've tossed around in my head for a few years: an intellectual audit of my belief system carried out with the assistance of you all - my brilliant friends with whom I frequently disagree about a variety of topics.

This is still an experimental process, and I hope to refine it considerably in future years, but the basic idea is to spend some dedicated time challenging my strongly held beliefs, and exploring deeper into areas in which I still have weak beliefs and/or sparse knowledge. This will necessarily be an incomplete audit (like most people I believe many things about many things), but I hope that it moves my beliefs closer to True (or rather, appropriately increases or decreases my confidence in them).

Below is a (somewhat haphazard) list of broad belief systems I approximately subscribe to, specific beliefs I hold, and some unanswered questions I haven't been able to find a sufficiently convincing answer to.

I'm looking for encompassing refutations or alternate belief systems I should consider, specific challenges or counter-examples, and any evidence one way or another that I may not be aware of. (NB: published evidence > expert opinion > personal opinion, consequentialist arguments preferable but not required - anything is welcome)

Importantly - I am NOT trying to start a debate! This is a (purely selfish) exercise in updating my own beliefs (though I will make every effort to give you my own thoughts if you run the same exercise).

I look forward to your thoughtful responses, safe in the knowledge that no one is ever unreasonable on the internet.

1. Libertarianism: What are some cases where more government might be better than less (or some better than none)?
2. Transhumanism: I want to learn more about this topic and would love any good primers (laudatory or critical) that people could recommend.
3. Many-Worlds: I admit that my belief is mostly based on the LW Quantum Physics Sequence, so I'd be eager to see similarly intuitive explanations of alternative interpretations of quantum mechanics.
4. Intermittent Fasting: I incorporate occasional (up to 24-hour) fasts into my diet. At the very least this seems to reduce my total caloric intake - is it likely to have other health benefits/risks?
5. Exchange-Traded Index Funds: Most of my long term saving goes into various low-fee ETFs. Can I realistically be doing better (given that I don't want to spend a lot of thought/energy on this)?
6. Existential Risk vs. Efficient Charity: I would like some advice on how I should be splitting my charitable donations between efficient charities (i.e. Against Malaria Foundation) that have concrete effects now, and non-profits that focus on existential risk (e.g. MIRI)
7. Nuclear Fission: Currently, its the safest, greenest, and most efficient form of electrical power generation that exists. Am I right?
8. What supplements should I be taking? (Nootropics, and for physical health)
9. What is the current state of cyronics in Australia? Is it worth signing up for with an international provider or best to wait until there is a local facility?
10. If I wanted to start teaching myself more about architecture, what are the best introductory texts?

A FINAL NOTE: I encourage all of you to perform your own intellectual audit! Make sure you link back to this post to help feed my insatiable ego (and let me know so I can share some knowledge your way!)

Things What I Done

"My goodness," you have certainly thought many times since my last post, "What on Earth has Austen been up to that has been distracting him from the important things in life, like updating his blog?" Wonder no longer, my dear reader!

Despite the condescending attitude of a certain Obi-Wan Kenobi (who I have heard is actually only a Jedi Bachelor), it was actually quite a bit of work. However I finished almost a month ago and since then I don't have any excuses. Mea culpa.

However I have managed to get my e-mail inbox down to only two items (a record since my undergraduate days) - and I also built this nifty Deadwood Faro board for a couple awesome friends of mine:

It can be used to play a classic game of Faro for anyone who likes the adventure of frontier gambling, or to play the Deadwood Drinking Faro game while they are watching the show! (The rules are at the bottom of this post)

So these days I'm just waiting around to hear about my potential PhD program - if everything goes well I'll be starting that up this semester, and if not I'll be on the hunt for a job in Sydney. Either way big fun changes coming ahead! I have no idea what this means for my frequency of blog postings, but if the past predicts the future, expect the next post promptly by 2014.

If you cannot wait until then, watch this video repeatedly and await further instructions.

Deadwood Drinking Game
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-Place your drink (ideally whiskey) on a card – move it only after you or another player drinks

- Drink whenever the event associated with your card occurs (see below)

- Banker refills empty beverages

A - Swearingen curses, kills someone, or abuses an underling

2 - Mr. Wu, Dan, Silas or Johnny curse or kill someone

3 - E.B. Farnum is abused or abuses Richardson

4 - Doc Cochran is frustrated with a patient or Merrick is pretentious

5 - Anyone says 'Cocksucker,' 'Hooplehead' or 'Pinkerton'

6 - Anyone mentions or alludes to gold

7 - Anyone takes or mentions dope (opium)

8 - Charlie Utter or Jane Canary curse or drink, or Wild Bill is mentioned

9 - Anyone curses, or is fleeced or killed in the Bella Union

10 - Anyone curses, or is injured or killed in the No.10 Saloon or the Livery

J - Anyone takes a drink

Q - A whore curses or mentions a sexual act

K - Bullock curses or becomes enraged, or Sol tries to be reasonable

High Card - Anytime any other character curses or dies

Austen the Poet

I present for your consideration two poems written by me in lieu of paying attention in high-school English:

Shortest Poem Ever
I,
Spy.

English Class
This class is extremely dull,
I would rather drill holes in my skull,
But I have no choice,
And I can't raise my voice,
To break the monotonous lull.

Obviously, I have a hard time with poetry. I think that in many ways this stems from it being a very ill-defined concept in my head. Wikipedia calls it "a form of literary art which uses the aesthetic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning," or in layman's terms, words that are more than words. Of course the problem with that definition is anything besides an extremely technical piece of writing will qualify as poetry.

I am more and more of the opinion that art is a purely relational class of things - a method of communication between an artist and a consumer or even artists and themselves. This supposition has the added benefit of allowing it to be coupled onto any sort of medium. In all honesty though, my entire aesthetic philosophy still needs a lot of work!

Austen the Artist

First things first: Moved to Evanston and have settled into my typical man-cave routine of wearing nothing but a robe most of the day. Classes start in a few short (six days each - screw you Tuesday) weeks, so I'll soon be finding out how little of that number stuff I actually remember.

Now on to business! I have some more high school stuff from the archives.

If anyone hasn't seen it, I used to run a comic in the UR campus times called the Grimoire. The roots of the comic actually date back to a silly idea I came up with in High School. 'Deth Omelet' (featured in Grimoire XIV) was a band featuring the Grim Reaper (and in its early days, the Easter Bunny). Here is the original album cover for 'Corn on the Macabre' drawn circa 2005:
To keep canon continuity (which is oh-so important in the world of discontinued campus comics), I'm gonna say that this is a solo country album released by Deth Omelet after the unfortunate events in Grimoire XIV.

I also dug up a t-shirt design for my school's Science Olympiad team, which I recall was rejected immediately upon submission:


Finally, here is... something. I have no idea of the context but don't doubt that I had some incredible conclusion planned:

My money is on the pirate.