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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Anders Sandberg<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, March 01, 2013 12:54 AM<br><b>To:</b> extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Progress<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 01/03/2013 02:04, spike wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>WHOA! Anders, you have been in the presence of GOD! I am in awe! Wow, that makes me a friend of a guy who has talked with GOD! Definitely, Kasparov would have made a great extropian. Of course had he shown up here, I would swoon like a civil war era maiden, and then nobody would be doing the moderation tasks. But still.<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal><br><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>But still. He is a fun guy, very smart. (No, chess grandmasters do not have to be supersmart. As I earlier mentioned, studies show that at first among kids chess performance correlates with intelligence, but then the smartest kids get other interests leaving only the merely smart to go on and dedicate themselves to the game) Pro-technology, pro-freedom, smart, what is there not to like?<br><br><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>His current project is a book with Peter Thiel and Max Levchin about the need to get back the spirit of innovation. His (their?) analysis of the difference between horizontal innovation and vertical innovation was pretty astute<span style='color:#1F497D'>… Anders<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Anders it was a great relief to see your post midnight (PST) comments, for it indicated the world had not come to an end. The Keynsians were assuring us that if sequestration were not averted, the apocalypse would be upon us. Clearly it is not. I have a theory that the US would not be destroyed by a small budget cut. The evidence is already coming.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I would like to have been present when Peter Thiel met Gary Kasparov. Theil loooooves chess, with a passion seldom seen. That would have been fun to watch a multibillionaire stammer in awe like Ralph Kramden: hammina hammina hammina…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Regarding the spirit of innovation, the way we have chosen to do intellectual property law in our major corporations is working against innovation. More details available soon, after I work out some IP issues, which should be in the next few days.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <br><br>Earlier this week we had a big debate on the causes of obesity ( <a href="http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2013/02/28/balaji-ravichandran-are-all-calories-equal-or-are-some-more-equal-than-others/">http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2013/02/28/balaji-ravichandran-are-all-calories-equal-or-are-some-more-equal-than-others</a> ) and I think my main take-home surprise was that obesity suddenly started to grow worldwide (with some lags) in the late 70s. Yet the causes seems to be fairly complex - I was not too convinced by the explanations given. In the same way, I think Gary's (and Tyler Cowen's) analysis of a dearth of innovation post ~1970-1980 is roughly right, but there doesn't seem to be a really good single explanation. We have complex systems that seem to shift in a fairly thourough way fairly quickly. Maybe this is just nonlinear responses or bifurcations, in which case it might be surprisingly tricky to fix them other than just keeping trying to change the rules profoundly and hoping that sooner or later we hit the right combination. <br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Anders Sandberg,<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Future of Humanity Institute<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University <o:p></o:p></pre></div></body></html>