Codex: internet speed, AI, COVID origins, DEI math, occupational licensing
learn more about the origins of COVID, why DEI math is insane and hypocritical, why occupational licensing is always bad, why internet speed is about to go crazy, and more.
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Speaking of which, let’s dive into today’s Codex.
March 29, 2024 Learn Arena Codex
Internet data transfer speeds might increase by 4.5 MILLION times in the coming years! https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/4-5-million-times-faster-internet-aston-university-makes-it-possible
New AI with emotional intelligence.
Some absurdly smart people debated the origins of COVID (lab leak vs. zoonotic origin) for hours and hours and hours with $100,000 on the line for the winner. The judges were all super smart PhD biologists and entrepreneurs in biotech. The animal origin side won a resounding unanimous victory. See all the evidence and make up your mind for yourself here:
Great article discussing the in’s and out’s of the TikTok ban bill.
In a revelation that should surprise exactly zero people, the lead advocate for a new “equity focused” form of math education for high schoolers both sends her kids to a $50k/year private school with rigorous traditional math programs, and she faked/lied about/made up all the “research” supporting her equity based math.
https://www.piratewires.com/p/jo-boaler-misrepresented-citations
This appears to be a well researched book about paternalism in public policy totally free online! https://iea.org.uk/publications/new-paternalism-meets-older-wisdom/
Fantastic short article musing about epistemic humility, why there’s something wrong with everything, and why that isn’t an excuse for nihilism.
Arguments for and against a super explosion of economic growth as the result of AI. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24108787/ai-economic-growth-explosive-automation
Continuing my crusade against all forms of occupational licensing, this study found that adopting stricter occupational licensing rules lowered the quality of CPA’s and drastically reduced the number of minority CPA’s at the same time. Occupational licensing is literally always bad! https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1475-679X.12518
This one is infuriating: these researchers are making the case that showing men in STEM fields for marketing materials for STEM degrees at universities discourages women from going into STEM. First off, there are way more men in STEM because men naturally like it more, on average. This is not a bad thing! Second, why would simply seeing women in advertising make women so much happier? Why is female gender solidarity so strong? It’s completely irrational, pops up everywhere you look, and drives me insane because it drives so many bad policy choices in the real world. I could not care less about seeing white men in ads! I could not care less about seeing white men succeed specifically! I care about human excellence in whatever form it takes, male or female. Gender solidarity is incomprehensible to me. https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1864-9335/a000535?journalCode=zsp