Category: fiction
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The image collector and the director
It was July, there was wind and it was 24 degrees. The sun was shining. Ernst, who considers himself more of an image collector than a director, expected at least two heat waves, just like last year. And the year before that, and the year before that. Janine couldn’t tolerate more than 23 degrees since…
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An ideal AlphaZero player am I
I’m talking about myself as an AlphaZero player, not about a computer. About conscious thinking, not about artificial intelligence. There is little that amazes me more than the eagerness with which multitudes of fellow human beings direct their allotted time and conscious brainpower to how to numb it best and in a hedonistic manner (numbing…
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Rectifications in Yan’an
I never cease to amaze myself when I think of the degree of hubris it takes to begin building a toy world that can mimic the social forces of Chinese culture on the behavior of the government and the individuals (and vice versa) . Perhaps it helps to see how the actual builders of that…
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Propaganda
You know, a hundred years ago, propaganda wasn’t a dirty word. It was linked to authority. Propaganda refers to the art of persuasion. 2500 years ago we called it eloquence. Attention then turned to the speaker demonstrating a skill. Now. When you hear propaganda, you now mainly think of an idea or ideal that is…
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Ding Ling and Ramsey Nasr
Mr. Sum received the book entitled I Myself Am a Woman and started reading. The title made him wary. As soon as I feel like a peeping Tom I stop, he decided. But he didn’t. First that detailed introduction, and then the stories. The first of these are about young women and men and how…