Tag Archives: Monsanto

CHAINS OF RECIPROCITY

Leave a reply

CHAINS OF RECIPROCITY

Someone has done me favors in the past, when I needed them, say got me out of trouble. I naturally feel indebted to *that* person. But the ethical reaction should not be to pay the same person back since his generosity, if genuine, should be unconditional. My debt should be to the system (something called “society”), or, less abstract, someone else, preferably a stranger…

This is similar to the mechanism of bedouin hospitality. And it becomes multiplicative.

Likewise, like anyone who isn’t a saint, I have done things in my past for which I have remorse. But, to clear my conscience, I do not have to rectify the *exact* situation. I just need a large action that does not benefit me but helps the largest number of people, say, take risks by going after evil such as Monsanto, debunk BS vendors, prevent Hilary Clinton from getting close to the White House, etc.

—-

It is nearly impossible to change one’s opinion about ideas without *also* changing one’s opinion about the people associated with them.

The best way to know people is to find out what they lie about.

via: Facebook

Lindy Effect, GMOs, Shills, Solar Energy, Pope Francis |Twitter @nntaleb

Leave a reply

NNT has been VERY busy on Twitter lately. This is just a sampling from the last few days. Usually but not always, I select Tweets that include links to additional information.

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/631789212686094336

https://twitter.com/benhayesnyc/status/631547333973516288

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/631475970847940608

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/631469357667893248

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/631226823326633984

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/630857997359648769

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/630767097023471616

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/630758660751421440

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/630748570228908032

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/630380237533151232

ANSWER: Every loss of crop raises total ruin 100 fold. Halving crops raises total ruin by 100 quintillion 10^20 (assuming independence).

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 13, 2015
@nntaleb you will like this onion article on GMOs http://t.co/1m2TtHFTqG

— Ben Hayes (@benhayesnyc) August 12, 2015
Relgious heuristics have played in role in intergenerational risk management http://t.co/FFY7OTbe8c @Streitapfel

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 12, 2015
The pope is reciting a version of our Precautionary Pple: Pope Francis Joins Battle Against Transgenic Crops http://t.co/Z9LsDsZdog

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 12, 2015
Additional aphorisms added to INCERTO https://t.co/NNpAtYK9N5

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 11, 2015
Deep down,thrilled to see political established annihilated by Trump whom I can’t stand. Prefer stupiddemocracy to fakedemocracy @ianbremmer

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 10, 2015
The value of solar energy is in the optionality: raw material is free AND doesn’t change in price, with no of negative optionality (waste).

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 10, 2015
A new scholarly article on the fake “consensus” on GMOs and the travesty of science by corporate interests. (Gated) http://t.co/PqEDT5U3dr

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 10, 2015
We are witnessing the prostitution of science: Like Monsanto, Coca-Cola Funds Shills to Distort Science. http://t.co/U5bMx7mwRF

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 10, 2015
Wrong to evaluate a statistical concept (unconditional life expectancy) from (conditional) exceptions. #LindyEffect https://t.co/cUQvM72ANx

— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) August 9, 2015

So, finally, after our Precautionary paper, a GMO (Monsanto) lobbyist…

Leave a reply

So, finally, after our Precautionary paper, a GMO (Monsanto) lobbyist (name: Val Giddings) seems to be after us, with naive demonization techniques, very elementary efforts at delegitimizing me in person. I thought we were doing something wrong before that. But the problem is that the fellow is not very skilled at it and can’t seem to get more than 900 pple on twitter (a net of 300 followers after reciprocation).

I wonder if something has changed in the smear campaign business. Not that it has ever been a great idea. Ralph Nader a lone activist faced a smear campaign by GM (failed). Same with Edmond Safra with American Express paying journalists to smear him (failed too, but he got them to pay big bucks and benefited hugely from the affair).

Anyway, worth inspecting how these things work.

——

UPDATE: So far reactions by lobbyists to our paper are not worth answering scientifically so far as they have been ALREADY addressed in text. The lobbyists just perform strawman deformations. Answering these other than telling them they are spinning means entering their game.

http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=51&page=G

‘The Terminator technology is not unethical. It is unethical to empower farmers with the ability to steal value added by companies.’

via So, finally, after our Precautionary paper, a… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb.