Constructive Criticism

Recent posts

Jun 25, 2024
Imperfect abstractions: On “Software in the natural world”
There is an interesting paper from earlier this month called “Software in the natural world: A computational approach to hierarchical emergence” by Rosas, Geiger, Luppi, Seth, Polani, Gastapar, and …
May 29, 2024
Read a book with me
I added a page to the site of books I am reading, have read, or want to read. If you’re interested in reading or discussing any of them with me please get in touch.
May 6, 2024
“Seeing Red” intro speech
This past Saturday (May 4th) we held the first event in a new series called “Seeing Red”. I opened the event with a speech describing the aim of the series. This speech is reproduced below, …
May 6, 2024
Red Seder Haggadah
This Pesach, I helped organize a Seder for lefty Jews. For this we wrote a haggadah, which focuses on the actual history of the Jews with an eye toward understanding the phenomenon of Zionism. You can find the …
Mar 1, 2024
Concise definitions of dialectical & historical materialsm
Dialectical materialism is the philosophical foundation of Marxism, and historical materialism is its scientific foundation. Both concepts are thus very important for communists1 to understand. Their claims are …
Feb 14, 2024
Mondragón 1: More an island of kinder capitalism, than an aircraft carrier for communism
Mondragón is a famous complex of cooperatives, primarily based in the Basque country. It has been widely acclaimed for providing stable employment to tens of thousands, a degree of internal democracy, and …
Nov 28, 2023
Poem: Blenders
Poetry flows from the fingertips like threads of silk Birds have nests and spiders webs And humans friendships. But webs too. And nests come to think of it. Looking a little closer we see a big blender of some …
Sep 29, 2023
Specifying communism: autonomous access to the means of subsistence
Soren Mau’s ‘Mute Compulsion’ does an excellent job of calling attention to the ways that our environment – physical, social, technological – mutely compels us to act in certain …
Sep 25, 2023
Everybody Knows, but should they?
To start, two quotes: Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed …
Aug 30, 2023
On the human mode of history (001)
Several interesting properties of the human mode of history: Humanity has the capacity for surplus labor. I.e., in $N$ hours, a group of humans can act on its environment to procure sufficient material …