Summaries – thathawkman

Cute, sexy, sweet, funny

It seems counterintuitive that the things people find cute or sweet, such as a baby or apples, don’t inherently show those characteristics but instead become what humans have evolved to find them. However, everything that we perceive around the world becomes a construct on how we perceive the world and everything we were evolved to perceive.

The simple fact that we perceive the objects around us by evolutionary advantages starts makes sense. A person can assume, ‘of course sugar tastes sweet because whatever makes up  sugar is sweet so therefore sugar is sweet,’ but that is not the case. All of these perceptions are based on a person’s brain interpreting things such as taste, which the brain then gives the sensation of the sweet taste. The reason why sugar and sugary foods taste so sweet is due to the fact that glucose is a very high source of energy. There is nothing in glucose’s molecular structure that determines that the food would taste sweet. Instead, it makes sense to search out and prefer the foods that would give a much higher energy source; so over time the brain found the foods with these glucose molecules much more desirable and gave these food the sensation of sweetness.

The same can be told about many other things that we believe to be inherent. A baby is ‘cute’ because we need it to be cute. Humans are hardwired to nurture their offspring, so we find our offspring cute so we immediately want to protect it. A human is deemed to be ‘sexy’ because the things that we find attractive showcases what we find beneficial in evolution wise and gives people the urge to mate; so we found those things attractive.  In fact, we can switch the objects such as sugar and arugula around but would inevitably think the same things. If something as bitter as arugula becomes a huge source of energy, we would then start to crave and perceive that food as something desirable.

The process of evolution and what humans need subconsciously shapes everything of the world that we perceive.  These sensations have become so embedded inside of our brains that it seems that is was luckily a coincidence that we find things such as ice cream sweet, but whatever can benefit the human race will eventually become desirable in our brains.

 

A new equation for intelligence

It seems counterintuitive that something as complex as intelligence can be replicated inside something as simple as an equation but the underlying drive that intelligence is based on maybe be able to be summarized by one single equation.

So what would be these huge convoluted equation that would try to incompace somthing as abstract as human intelligence? It so happens to be a simple 4 variable equation,”F = T ∇ Sτ”; where F is equal to the force that tries to keep any options as possible in the future, T equal to the strength of keeping options open, S equal to the diversity of the possible futures, and τ or tau equal to the time it would encompase. This equation seems to be completely random, but this equation is what solely drives the program known as Entropica.

Saying that an equation that drives a single software program encompasses all of intelligence does seem farfetched, but with this equation alone Entropica has solved many different problems that it seemingly should not have. Giving entropica a pole on cart, Entropica immediately assumed and achieved to keep the pole upright without being instructed to keep the pole up. Giving Entropica the simple game of pong, Entropica was able to play the game of pong against itself. Giving Entropica a map of the world, Entropica was able to direct the ships in the most optimal method of travel, including things such as discovering the Panama Canal on its own and then using it to further benefit the ships travel. Even giving Entropica something as complex as stocks, Entropica immediately figured out a strategy commonly used called the buy-low, sell-high strategy (which the name explains itself) and started to gain a profit. These very human like achievement by something that it

This program only equipped with the equation to optimize the options in the future started to achieve things that it wasn’t even directed to and found suprisingly efficient results. To say that all of intelligence is based off of one equation is farfetched, as it cannot replicate things such as human creativity or beauty that emotions drive. However, the very underlying drive of intelligence and what may drive may be simply drawn by “F = T ∇ Sτ”.

Why Trophy Hunting Can Be Good for Animals

It seems counterintuitve that allowing people to kill off endagered species would be beneficial to the species. After all, all trophy hunting is doing is killing something that is already in danger of extinction. However, in some situations it is much more benificial to allow trophy hunting than banning it.

The issue is even though trophy hunters are perceived to be a massive threat to the endangered species, they are not even close to the threat of poachers and habitat loss. As trophy hunters are regulated by what they kill and may kill one endangered animal, poachers illegally and massively kill endangered species in order to gain valuables such as ivory from the animals. Along with this, farmers are taking the land that these endangered species live in for their agriculture, which limits the population of the species as well.

The reason why trophy hunting can actually be helpful is even though they are killing off animals is that some nations are utilizing this demand and making a profit of it for animal conservation. From allowing someone to kill an such as an elephant or rhino for a price, the countries are able to take the money to help these animals. This money can become a huge source of income for wildlife organizations and may even go to communities which incentivizes them to protect the wildlife from poachers. In fact, this helped rhinos go from a population of 100 to 18,000.

The premise of killing animals to save animals seems quite bizarre and even immoral. However, the simple fact is that this process actually does help save endangered species in the long run for the price of one animal. It is much better to have one animal dead than for one species.