From extropians-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Tue Mar 23 13:18:49 1993 Return-Path: Received: from usc.edu by chaph.usc.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1+ucs-3.0) id AA15593; Tue, 23 Mar 93 13:18:47 PST Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: from churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu by usc.edu (4.1/SMI-3.0DEV3-USC+3.1) id AA09902; Tue, 23 Mar 93 13:18:38 PST Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: by churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) id ; Tue, 23 Mar 93 16:09:28 -0500 Message-Id: <9303232109.AA25252@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu> To: ExI-Daily@gnu.ai.mit.edu Date: Tue, 23 Mar 93 16:09:01 -0500 X-Original-Message-Id: <9303232109.AA25246@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu> X-Original-To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu From: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: Extropians Digest V93 #0151 X-Extropian-Date: Remailed on March 23, 373 P.N.O. [21:09:26 UTC] Reply-To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Status: OR Extropians Digest Tue, 23 Mar 93 Volume 93 : Issue 0151 Today's Topics: BRAIN: Information content [1 msgs] Biosphere 2 [1 msgs] Crypto-Finance--How to Find Info [1 msgs] DATES: EXTROPY 5th Birthday Party; 1994 Conference. [1 msgs] ECON/POLI: Copyrights [1 msgs] ECON: Financial derivatives [2 msgs] Electronic Cafe & Biosphere [1 msgs] Evolving trader bots [1 msgs] Filtering and feedback [1 msgs] GAs and Economics [1 msgs] Inspirational piece in the Times [1 msgs] Lucid Dreaming [1 msgs] META: Accountability Society [1 msgs] New Libertarian book [1 msgs] PARABLES: Extropian Parables [2 msgs] PARABLES: Extropian Parables -- a proposal [1 msgs] PARABLES: Extropian Parables -- an example [1 msgs] POLI: ["Schar.Brian": New Libertarian book] [1 msgs] PRIVACY: End of Anon service [1 msgs] organizations [3 msgs] private law [1 msgs] Administrivia: This is the digested version of the Extropian mailing list. Please remember that this list is private; messages must not be forwarded without their author's permission. To send mail to the list/digest, address your posts to: extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu To send add/drop requests for this digest, address your post to: exi-daily-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu To make a formal complaint or an administrative request, address your posts to: extropians-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu If your mail reader is operating correctly, replies to this message will be automatically addressed to the entire list [extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu] - please avoid long quotes! The Extropian mailing list is brought to you by the Extropy Institute, through hardware, generously provided, by the Free Software Foundation - neither is responsible for its content. Forward, Onward, Outward - Harry Shapiro (habs) List Administrator. Approximate Size: 53592 bytes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 4:29:49 PST From: more@chaph.usc.edu (Max More) Subject: Electronic Cafe & Biosphere Last night, for the first time, I went to the Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica. Probably many of you have read about it in Mondo, Omni, and elsewhere. It's a 60's type cafe plus plenty of high tech equipment. They do special evenings involving VR, and interactive poetry readings and other interactive performances with people all over the world, using videophones projecting onto large screens, and (sometimes) an ISDN link. This weekend they were talking with Roy Walford and others in Biosphere II, each side reading peetry, our side sending the live band music, and Roy sending us a bizarre (but interesting) semi-musical composition made up of sounds within Biosphere II. Two particularly interesting items: Walford mentioned the hypothesis that, for groups in isolated locations, the third quarter of their period of isolation is the most trying. He said their experience confirms that - they are six days away from ending their third quarter in there (i.e. 18 months). The other item is a sign that they must get pretty bored in there: They transmitted pictures of them producing a painting on a wall. The painting implements were their naked bodies; they painted each others butts, then held each other up against the wall to make an imprint. I hope to return to the Electronic Cafe in a couple of weeks, when people from several locations including Walford from Biosphere II will be interacting to discuss the life extension experiments at Walford's lab at UCLA. Max More more@usc.edu President Extropy Institute (ExI) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 10:44:29 EST From: eisrael@suneast.East.Sun.COM (Elias Israel - SunSelect Engineering) Subject: PARABLES: Extropian Parables -- a proposal I think that this activity is already taking place in the world of Science Fiction. Libertarian science fiction is already a recognizable sub-genre and it's growing all the time. I would like to encourage everyone here who can write to think about extropian visions of the future and write about them. I myself am hoping to take a foray into the world of fiction soon. (Like Eric Raymond, I'm satisfied that I can write non-fiction tolerably well and I'd like to expand my horizons.) Elias Israel eisrael@east.sun.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 9:50:34 -0600 (CST) From: F_GRIFFITH@CCSVAX.SFASU.EDU Subject: ECON: Financial derivatives Would someone please provide me with a reference to learn about "crypto-finance"? Thanks Reynolds ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 09:10:58 -0800 From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) Subject: Crypto-Finance--How to Find Info > Would someone please provide me with a reference to learn about >"crypto-finance"? > Thanks > Reynolds First you have to say the pass word. -Klaus! Seriously, there is no established subject called "crypto-finance." There are some technoligies of cryptology, digital money, privacy protection, etc. which may justifiably be _called_ crypto-finance....probably this is what was intended. The latest "Extropy," #10, has an article by Hal Finney on "Protecting Privacy with Electronic Cash." This article also gives references to David Chaum's seminal articles. If you find this stuff interesting, there's a mailing list devoted to it, called the "Cypherpunks" list (send a request to "cypherpunks-request@toad.com"). The Cypherpunks archive at "soda.berkeley.edu" (in /pub) contains my own "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" and several other articles. -Tim May -- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: MailSafe and PGP available. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 20:55:07 -0500 From: "Perry E. Metzger" Subject: ECON: Financial derivatives X-Reposting-Policy: redistribute only with permission Sneal says: > [Those more experienced with the theories of crypto-finance > might wish to correct me on this.] From what I know of > crypto-finance (hereafter CF), it's not so much a replacement for > existing markets as it is a mechanism for participating in those > markets in an anonymous manner. However, the usual objections to > anonymity arise; if either side of the trade was dishonest or went > banco, they could vanish into the bit bucket. Presumably, the use of cryptographically signed banknotes and the like would permit you to deal with your counterpart in a simple trade safely without having to trust him. So long as the bank verifies that his cryptocash is good, what do I care? Even in simple derivatives transactions, like writing options, it should be possible for a guarantor to back an anonymous counterparty without much risk to any of the parties involved -- such transactions are fairly quick, and presumably guarantee deposits could be required. The problem does, however, arise in complex swaps transactions in which long term creditworthyness is a very big consideration in the trade -- in that sort of case, if there was no guarantor to the transaction like a large bank or insurance company presumably you could not safely deal with an anonymous counterparty. The interesting thing here is that whats safe to do with an anonymous counterparty more or less is the trading of truly fungible commodities -- swaps are not really that fungible because the counterparty is significant. Perry ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 13:45:07 EST From: fnerd@smds.com (FutureNerd Steve Witham) Subject: Filtering and feedback Hi, folks. Maybe you haven't noticed my not posting recently. I found a trick. I took Perry's advice and stopped compulsively skimming every message. Now I sort by subject, scan the subject lines one long page at a time, and delete 90% of messages unread. My experience of extropians is very different now-- it's a very peaceful group! I recommend it! There's also a side effect you volume- and flame-weary readers might find interesting: Having a lot less to read, I have a lot less provocation to respond. respect friendship cheers -fnerd ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 12:41:01 PST From: Robin Hanson Subject: BRAIN: Information content Robin Hanson writes: > Hope comes, I think, from the fact that the design has to be pretty > modular to function under sexual reproduction. Derek Zahn responds: >By modularity, do you mean that proteins tend to be expressed >in restricted areas of the brain? I don't see the link between >sexual reproduction and modularity (though I certainly agree >that modular systems are easier to understand). Peter McCluskey responds: >I don't think this is true. The only requirement I can see sexual >reproduction creating is that the position of base-pairs must have >semantic importance. I don't find it hard to imagine things like two >unrelated proteins being encoded in overlapping regions, and for higher >level functions I don't have any idea what kind of modularity to expect. I was refereing to the fact that a particular gene on one location in the genome must in general function well with most all the different genes (currently in the population) at the other genome locations. Genes which are only work well if a bunch of other locations are just so lose fast. How this gene modularity translates into functional modularity is not known. Peter continues: >>Hope also comes from the fact that our high level abilities, those >>that distinguish humans from the rest, evolved in relatively few >>generations. > > This (among other things) leads me to suspect that they are hasty kludges. >While the critical last steps must have been simple, this provides little >indication of the information content that had to exist before things like >language could develop. I agree. Robin Hanson ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 16:13:50 -0500 From: "W. Scott Meeks" Subject: META: Accountability Society >To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu >From: derek@cs.wisc.edu (Derek Zahn) [...] >The rules are very simple. > >1. Membership in the A.S. is open and is granted immediately > upon public declaration. There are no procedures for > being thrown out, though a member can be effectively thrown > out if s/he breaks the rules (see below), and can resign > at any time. A member who has resigned may not rejoin. Okay, sounds easy enough. I publicly declare myself to be a member of the Accountability Society. Scott (A.S. 3/22/93) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 20:49:31 GMT From: "Stephen J. Whitrow" Subject: PARABLES: Extropian Parables -- an example I'm forwarding Garret Smyth's *Turkey Story* with permission; it has appeared on a couple of mailing lists already, but I thought this would be a great example for Extropians who've missed it so far. Enjoy! Steve Whitrow ---------------------forwarded article------------------------------- From: Garret Smyth <100030.254@compuserve.com> Turkey Story SG Smyth 9.12.92 Once upon a time there was a farm, and on the farm were some turkeys. They lived in a great big barn. It was a warm and cosy barn, and the turkeys were looked after well. One day a young turkey, whose name was Tommy, was waddling about and making those odd noises that turkeys make that sound a bit like the juices of the stomach of a rather large animal rearranging themselves. He was fairly contented. He'd just stuffed himself with grain and felt like stretching his legs. He decided to go outside and waddle about a bit in the open air. There was a sort of enclosed run outside, which allowed the birds to mill about in the air and be safe from foxes and other predators which might infringe their liberties. Although far to small to allow all the turkeys out of the barn at once, it did allow the farmer to call his birds "Free range". In fact most did not go out at all for they felt far more secure in the barn. "Hello Tommy", said Tina, a friend of his who liked going out in the open air, "How are you today?" "Oh, fine thanks, Tina, and yourself?" "Well, pretty good all round, I must say." "Are you out here for a stroll, Tina?" Enquired Tommy. "Yes indeed" replied Tina. "Well fancy that, so am I! "Goodness me Tommy, so great minds think alike after all!" And they both made that vaguely impolite, sort of water-down-a-plughole noise. "I say, Tina, how would it be if you accompanied me on my walk?" "Well I don't mind if I do Tommy, don't mind if I do." So they both set off for the far fence. Usually, when they reached it there didn't seem a lot else to do but turn round and go back, but this time they lingered. "Tina" mused Tommy, in a far away sort of voice, "Do you ever wonder what's beyond the fence?" "Oh, Tommy, you dreamer." Tina smiled at Tommy (as much as is possible when you've only got a beak), "I mean, you may as well ask if there's life after Christmas." "No, really Tina, there must be something beyond the fence. Where does the farmer live?" "Well I'm sure there's an answer, but its beyond me. Perhaps Aunty Trish knows, she's been around a bit. Let's go in now." So the two young turkeys returned to their quarters and Tommy made a mental note to ask Trish about Beyond- The-Fence next time he met her. Inside the barn there was a commotion going on. Everyone was very amused. A group of turkeys was standing in one corner, looking sheepish (no mean feat since they'd never seen a sheep). An old turkey cackled, "Must've eaten some grain that had started to ferment." Another, who wasn't so amused, said, "Well, its disgusting if you ask me. The thought of it. It... well its... its just plain wrong. Shouldn't be allowed. Tommy waddled over as fast as his short fat feathery legs would carry him. "What's going on?" "Oh, said a bystander, "this silly lot have announced that the've formed an escape committee. It seems they think that they can escape from Christmas! Har har!" His laugh had a slightly hollow ring. "What a good idea", thought Tommy. He decided to wait until the hullabaloo died down, and then find out more. Later that day he mentioned his plan to Tina. "Oh, they're loopy, or trouble makers, or both. Don't have anything to do with them." "How do you know, Tina?" "Everyone says so" "Have you spoken to them?" "No, I've got better things to do with my time. It seems to me that they're just scared of Christmas." "Aren't you?" " ...no, of course not. Its part of life. Its quite natural." "You sound a bit afraid." "Well, naturally the process of reaching the state of Christmas worries me, I don't want it to be painful or messy, but Christmas itself holds no fear for me." "You mean you want to reach Christmas with dignity?" "Yes, exactly" "Well I don't bloody well want to reach it all" "Chicken" "Cluck bleedin' cluck" "I think you need some Christmas counselling" "Christmas what?" "Christmas counselling. I learnt about it on my consciousness raising course. We live in such a Christmas denying society that people need counselling to come to terms that they're going to have to face Christmas one day. In the old days, before centrally heated barns and so on, Christmas was part of daily life. Christmas came and the farmer would just walk amongst the turkeys, pick out the big fat juicy ones, grab them by the neck, and one by one twist their heads round until there was a snapping sound, and then pluck gut and truss the turkeys there and then." "Er..." Tommy whispered, "and that was good?" "Well at least we all knew what was happening, even the little ones, and we could come to terms with it. Much healthier. And of course the souls of the turkeys went to a far better place. If you believe in that sort of thing." Tommy was silent. "Listen," said Tina, "I could arrange for you to have a course of Christmas counselling, if you like. Aunty Trish does it." Tommy thought. He wanted to talk to Aunty Trish. "OK then, you arrange it and I'll go along. But that night, when all were asleep, he tracked down one of the turkeys everyone had been laughing at, and joined the escape committee. --------------------end of forwarded article------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 21:52:21 GMT From: Richard Kennaway Subject: ECON/POLI: Copyrights A footnote to my posting on intellectual property. Consider the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I have just seen a documentary about them. The Dead Sea Scrolls were in the possession of a cartel of scholars, who refused everyone else access to them, yet were appallingly slow in publishing translations themselves. The cartel was eventually broken by several means. It had published a concordance, from which a graduate student reconstructed the originals by computer. The "official" possessors of the scrolls denounced this action as "theft". The Huntingdon Library, which had a photographic copy of the scrolls, under stringent conditions of secrecy, decided to grant open access to them. They knew they risked legal proceedings, but decided that the court of public opinion would vindicate them, and so it turned out. The cartel still has the physical scrolls themselves, but no longer has exclusive possession of the information therein. I am pleased to observe that the cartel was broken by non-statist means. Concerned individuals simply took such unilateral action as happened to lie in their power, including the breaking of contracts which in their opinion had become no longer worth holding to, and which were unlikely to be enforced if it came to the crunch. I leave it to readers to consider how the Dead Sea Scrolls situation would be handled under whatever scheme of intellectual property rights they prefer. -- ____ Richard Kennaway \ _/__ School of Information Systems Internet: jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk \X / University of East Anglia uucp: ...mcsun!ukc!uea-sys!jrk \/ Norwich NR4 7TJ, U.K. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 17:07:14 -0500 From: "W. Scott Meeks" Subject: organizations >From extropians-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Fri Mar 19 21:14:12 1993 >Received: by geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) > id ; Fri, 19 Mar 93 20:55:55 -0500 >Message-Id: <9303200155.AA02446@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu> >To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu >X-Original-Message-Id: <9303200016.AA00385@snark.shearson.com> >X-Original-To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu >Subject: organizations >X-Reposting-Policy: redistribute only with permission >Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 19:16:51 -0500 >From: "Perry E. Metzger" >X-Extropian-Date: Remailed on March 20, 373 P.N.O. [01:55:54 UTC] >Reply-To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu >Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu > > >drw@bourbaki.mit.edu says: >> This seems to touch on one of the "problems" of libertarianism -- >> libertarians view society as a network of *rules*, whereas society is >> really a nework of *relationships*. > >No more of your zero-semantics libertarian-baiting here, Dale. If you >want to do it, do it elsewhere. > >.pm Caveat: Dale is a good friend of mine. I agree with Perry's two previous criticisms of Dale's postings. I think his flaws are well-known at this point; universe knows I've all but shoved The Machinery of Freedom down his throat and he still won't stop and read it. However I still think he can make useful contributions to this forum. I think the most effective ways to deal with his innappropriate posts are to ignore them so that he doesn't get any useful information and to privately, preferably in excruciating but accurate and non-inflammatory detail, explain to him why his post was inappropriate. That said, I don't think that the post Perry is responding to is zero-semantics. Sloppy, yes, but it actually forms a somewhat interesting query, and I believe at least one person has responded to it already. Scott A.S. 3/22/93 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 21:56:51 GMT From: Richard Kennaway Subject: Inspirational piece in the Times Check out today's (London) Times, Matthew Parris' column on p.14. Check out his column every Monday, in fact, but today's is of particular extropian inspirational relevance. He is considering the case of Paul Bedworth, the 19-year-old computer hacker in the news recently. Parris quotes another journo writing the expected tosh that "Paul's computers were a substitute...he sat at his computer in a world where he felt comfortable..." etc. Now hear Parris: "I do not criticise the journalist who wrote this. It is perfectly professional, it is engaging, it is exactly what his readres will have wanted. But it is baloney. Pernicious baloney. It beautifully illustrates the anti-achievement, anti-individualistic, anti-solitary, comfy, companionable, conformist, herd-seeking mediocrity which is rammed down English children's throats from the moment they try to throw the rattles out of their prams. ... So relentless has been our determination to project an idea of gentle, well-ordered, companionability as being the highest aim of civilised humans, that we have Bowdlerised even our religion to promote it. Christ said he came to Earth to tear families apart, but this is seldom mentioned from the pulpit or dispatch box as our mentors lecture us on Christian standards and family values. From the day we enter this world it is drummed into us that the supreme purpose of existence is to be sought, and found, in our associations with other people, in the mutual help and support we may learn to give. ... Boys like Paul Bedworth, who was joyriding other people's computer systems, along with joyriders of the more yobbish sort, along with brilliant and obsessive students in every sphere, along with football hooligans, would-be tycoons, poets in garrets, rock drummers in basement bedsits, mercenaries in Bosnia, painters in attics, dons in ivory towers and kids riveted before cannibal monsters in electronic games in a thousand amusement arcades...all of them share this: security and contentment is not enough. They want something to square up to, something -- be it only themselves -- to compete with, to fight. They want to get something in life out of proportion. ... People like him are the way the human race advances and a symptom of its health. The jungle is the thing. Companionship is the substitute. Other people are the evasion." -- ____ Richard Kennaway \ _/__ School of Information Systems Internet: jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk \X / University of East Anglia uucp: ...mcsun!ukc!uea-sys!jrk \/ Norwich NR4 7TJ, U.K. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1993 15:02:32 -0800 (PST) From: GRAPS@galileo.arc.nasa.gov Subject: Biosphere 2 Max More says: >This weekend they were talking with Roy Walford and others in Biosphere II, I thought that I would mention that the Whole Earth Review Winter '92 issue has a very good article on the current status of Biosphere II. The project had been generating a lot of controversy, especially at the start. The press coverage got pretty nasty then. The article titled: "Biosphere 2 at One" by Kevin Kelly discusses some of the interesting results that have come out of the project so far. For example, since the Biosphere 2 is such a controlled environment, the physical condition of the scientists can be monitored closely. A surprising result of their blood samples showed increased levels of pesticides and herbicides in their blood which they know didn't come from inside. The current theory is that as the biospherians lost weight, they burnt up fat reserves stored in the past and are now flushing out toxins deposited then. The article states other results, such new techniques in intensive farming, evolutionary behavior of agressive sparrows and weeds, the interesting interplay of environment governing organisms and organisms governing environment, how to perform high-tech work in a paperless environment, how the levels of CO2 and oxygen compare inside the Biosphere to that outside the Biosphere, and how the biospherians relieve boredom (Max mentioned one way). I highly recommend this article! Amara Graps graps@gal.arc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 15:11:46 EST From: sulko-m@acsu.buffalo.edu (Mark A. Sulkowski) Subject: PARABLES: Extropian Parables From: eisrael@suneast.East.Sun.COM (Elias Israel - SunSelect Engineering) >I think that this activity is already taking place in the world of >Science Fiction. Libertarian science fiction is already a recognizable >sub-genre and it's growing all the time. It's good to see, but I was aiming at something more compact... Like a short story that could fit on a single sheet of paper. Something that could be read and then told from memory to a friend. We are living in a barely literate society. It can be difficult to get people to read even a good sci-fi novel. Parables have the potential to reach out beyond the science fiction fans. >I would like to encourage everyone here who can write to think about >extropian visions of the future and write about them. I myself am >hoping to take a foray into the world of fiction soon. (Like Eric >Raymond, I'm satisfied that I can write non-fiction tolerably well and >I'd like to expand my horizons.) Great! Let us know what you write. =============================================================================== | |\ /| | "But we must not follow those who advise us, being men, to | | \\ // | think of human things, and, being mortal, of mortal things, | | \\// | but must, so far as we can, make ourselves immortal..." | | Mark \/enture | - Aristotle, _The Nicomachean Ethics_ | =============================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 17:12:55 EST From: pmetzger@shearson.com (Perry E. Metzger) Subject: private law X-Reposting-Policy: redistribute only with permission Today's Wall Street Journal, page B2, has a fascinating pair of articles on the growing reliance of business on private mediation and adjudication services as an alternative to the ever-worse public court system. Perry ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 20:17:26 PST From: more@chaph.usc.edu (Max More) Subject: DATES: EXTROPY 5th Birthday Party; 1994 Conference. EXTROPY 5th Birthday Party Extropaganza! >From the responses I received stating a preference, August 28 1993 will be the date of the EXTROPY 5th Birthday party, at Mark Desilets abode. Further details will appear in EXTROPY and EXPONENT, as well as here. EXTROPY INSTITUTE CONFERENCE 1994: An ad hoc Conference planning group is forming, and beginning to plan ExI's first major conference, to be held in 1994. We (currently Derek Zahn, Dave Krieger, and myself) encourage suggestions for speakers, and for events, as well as locations (in Northern California). If you have an urge to offer help of any kind, please get in touch. We want to settle on a date soon, for planning purposes. It would be helpful if a significant number of you would let us know whether you'd prefer Spring or Summer, and whether there are any especially inconvenient or particularly suitable dates. We aim to make the Conference the densest, most energetic mass of intelligence ever gathered in one place! Onward! Max More more@usc.edu President Extropy Institute (ExI) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 02:49:43 -0800 (PST) From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo) Subject: Evolving trader bots A bunch of work is being done with evolving market agents. This is mostly with simple, computationally efficient economic theories, but the possibility of applying such agents to real markets is intriguing. I believe our own Pete McCluskey has done some work along these lines. Anybody made money off this stuff yet? :-) Forwarded from ga-list: From: Bernard Manderick Date: Wed, 24 Feb 93 15:36:16 +0100 Subject: GAs and Economics Hi everybody, Some time a go I put a request in GA List to get some information about the use of GAs in economics. I got a number of responses and below you will find a compilation. By this way I also want to thank everybody who helped me. 1. References to people working on GAs (and CSs) and economics. Don Lavoie Center for the Study of Market Processes Victoria Square #200 Fairfax, VA 22030 USA dlavoie@gmuvax.gmu.edu Mark Miller 13020 W. Sunset Dr. Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 USA mark@xanadu.com John Miller (miller@santafe.edu) and Brian Arthur are using GAs in economics at the Santa Fe Insitute -- a list of papers J. Miller is shown below. Some of this work is avialable as SFI tech reports -- send mail to Andi Sutherland (ars@santafe.edu) and request that she send you the list of tech reports electronically, and then you can order the ones that look relevant. Erhard Bruderer - School of Business Adminstration - University of Michigan (email: Erhard.Bruderer@um.cc.umich.edu) has done work in economics with GAs and classifier systems: e.g. Is free Riding Rational? A Computer Simulation with Artificial Agents. John Koza has used genetic programming in the field of economics - see his book. 2. Bibliography --------------- Erhard Bruderer ``How Organizational Learning Guides Environmental Selection'' Erhard Bruderer ``Hierarchical Search and Evolution: The Discovery of Strategies or Long Chain Actions'' Erhard Bruderer ``Strategic Learning'' RESEARCH PAPERS IN PROGRESS by J. MILLER (some of this work is probably finished already) ``(Machine) Learning to Play the Double Auction'' (with John Rust and Richard Palmer). ``A Strategic Taxonomy of Repeated 2x2 Games Played by Adaptive Agents.'' ``A Behavioral Investigation of a Simple Exchange Game with Multiple Equilibria'' (with Martin Shubik). ``Money as a Medium of Exchange in an Economy with Genetically Reproduced Decision Rules'' (with Ramon Marimon), notes, 1990. WORKING PAPERS by J. MILLER ``Behavior of Trading Automata in a Computerized Double Auction Market (Preliminary Results)'' (with J. Rust and R. Palmer), 1990. (Santa Fe Institute working paper, 92-02-008.) ``Auctions with Adaptive Artificial Agents'' (with J. Andreoni), Santa Fe Institute working paper, 90-01-004, 1990. ``The Coevolution of Automata in the Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma,'' Santa Fe Institute working paper 89--003, 1989. ``The Evolution of Automata in the Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma,'' University of Michigan working paper, 1988. ``A Genetic Model of Adaptive Economic Behavior,'' University of Michigan working paper, 1986. PUBLISHED PAPERS by J. MILLER ``Random Catalytic Reaction Networks'' (with Walter Fontana and Peter Stadler), forthcoming, {\it PhysicaD}. ``Spatial Voting Models with Boundedly Rational Parties'' (with Ken Kollman and Scott Page), forthcoming, {\it American Political Science Review}, December, 1992. ``Behavior of Trading Automata in a Computerized Double Auction Market'' (with J. Rust and R. Palmer), forthcoming in {\it The Double Auction Market: Institutions, Theories, and Evidence}, D. Friedman and J. Rust (eds), Addison Wesley, 1992. ``Characterizing Effective Trading Strategies: Insights from a Computerized Double Auction Tournament'' (with J. Rust and R. Palmer), forthcoming in {\it Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control}, 1992. ``Simulations and Spatial Voting Models'' (with Ken Kollman and Scott Page), forthcoming in B. Grofman (ed), {\it Information, Participation and Choice}, University of Michigan Press, 1992. ``Artificial Adaptive Agents in Economic Theory'' (with J. Holland), {\it American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings}, May 1991. ``Artificial Intelligence Techniques and the Analysis of Strategic Behavior,'' invited paper, DRET, INSTITUT d'Expertise et de Prospective de L'ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE, Paris, 1990 (translated into French). ``A Double Auction Market for Computerized Traders'' (with R. Palmer and J. Rust), {\it Proceedings of the 1989 Advanced Computing for the Social Sciences Conference}, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990. ``The Dynamical Behavior of Classifier Systems: An Approach'' (with S. Forrest), in {\it Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference on Genetic Algorithms and Their Applications,} Morgan-Kaufman, 1989. Last year I met in Ann Arbor a PhD student in Business Adm. who used classifier systems to simulate Free Riding in economics. The title of his research was: Is free Riding Rational? A Computer Simulation with Artificial Agents. His name is: Erhard Bruderer School of Business Administration Ann Arbor MI 48109-1234 tel 313/ 434-2458 Email Erhard_Bruderer@ub.cc.umich.edu Bernard Manderick email manderick@cs.few.eur.nl ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 1993 12:23:49 -0500 (EST) From: KMOSTA01@ULKYVX.LOUISVILLE.EDU Subject: organizations Scott defends Dale's post: >drw@bourbaki.mit.edu says: >> This seems to touch on one of the "problems" of libertarianism -- >> libertarians view society as a network of *rules*, whereas society is >> really a nework of *relationships*. This is about as accurate of a description of libertarianism as Khrushchev's description of Capitalism: There seems to be a problem with Capitalism -- its productive output is much smaller than that of socialism, and that's why we will bury you. The statement is blatantly false, libertarians in fact argue for removal of almost all "rules", while accepting "relationships". But the oldest rule of propaganda is (re: Mr. Goebbels) keep repeating the false statement ad nauseam, they will believe it eventually. The problem with Dale's statements is that most often they are blatanlt false, and that is always when he talks about economic aspects of liberty. True, unlike the feds he does not do that with a gun put to my head, but he sure sounds as if he wanted to. Alas, gun is unavailable on internet. This looks like fanaticism to me: No, I will not read "Machinery of Freedom", I just know better. OK, Dale, let's see how fanatic you are. Read one of the following: - "Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal" - "Human Action" - "For A New Liberty" unless, of course you are capable of reding "Machinery of Freedom". Krzys' ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 1993 12:44:01 -0500 (EST) From: KMOSTA01@ULKYVX.LOUISVILLE.EDU Subject: PARABLES: Extropian Parables opus 30, a comedy, by Krzysztof Ostaszewski (a.k.a. Krzys') They say the lion is a wild and cruel animal.They also say that the lion is lazy,it lays about for whole days and does nothing. By a strange coincidence a certain respectable man became the owner of a lion. A lion in a cage. For quite a long time he could find it no activity. Then finally he managed to get some piecework for it -- knitting. The lazy lion did not want to knit. The respectable man bought a whip and a riding crop. With the help of these instruments he encouraged the do-nothing to work. But the widely held opinion of a lion's laziness was confirmed. Under the influence of the man's determined action, the animal did start to work, but it did very little and ruined a significant amount of expensive wool in th eprocess. The widely held opinion of the lion's cruel character was also confirmed. One day it broke out of the cage and and ate its master. Lodz, March 15, 1980. Translated by Wojtek Stelmaszynski copyright 1986 by Krzysztof Ostaszewski P.S. This is also a comment on the Matthew Parris' piece in The Times. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 22:37:15 CST From: derek@cs.wisc.edu (Derek Zahn) Subject: organizations Perry responds to Andrea: >> Malone argues that computers and telecom are essentially coordiation >> technology, and therefor coordination rich systems like markets will now >> be able to compete with coordination cheap systems like beaurocracies. > > This would seem to me to be a very interesting topic, especially for > the prospective capitalists on the list and for those of us who > subscribe to some of the principles of "How I Found Freedom in an > Unfree World". I agree; an absolutely fascinating topic. I've always thought that such a system of loose networks of contractors could be wonderful, except for two things, which I'm hoping extropians can solve for me: (1) Can contracts of this kind be implemented in practice without the huge overheads of lawyers and courts imposed on us by current U.S. reality? (2) What is the maximum size of problems that can be solved with such an organizational structure? Bureaucracies may be inefficient, but they CAN get large jobs done. derek-in-waiting ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Mar 93 14:38:31 EST From: Andrew S Hall Subject: PRIVACY: End of Anon service I was just scanning my fluff outlet (alt.supermodels) and saw that due to pressures from various adminstrators, the anon server at penet.fi has been eliminated. According to julf, the creator, some VINP (very important net person) raised enough stink that he was basically forced to remove the service. Does anyone know any more about this (like who it might be)? I know there have been some abuses of the service, but why the hell does this always happen to these anonservers? Most of the gripes are idiotic. Some immature idiot writes an inarticulate rant attacking the subject of a news group. The most amusing one that really got people in a total dither was someone posted a picture of a burn victim to alt.binaries.pictures.erotica under the title Renata: Italian Beauty. I guess those who decoded it and were prepared to get their rocks off were a touch upset. Hell hath no fury like a penis deflated! :) Maybe these anon servers are not crucial to privacy, but they are a useful service. I didn't use may account much, but I also have several accounts from which to post. I have this since sometimes people at OSU can be complete assholes about postings that don't agree with a certain orthodoxy. My wife encountered problems with her fellow med students thanks to postings that didn't agree with what they thought a doctor's demeanor should be. Besides being pissed at the lard-asses who applied pressure to ruin the service, I am also pissed at the immature fuck-ups who caused the complaints. I have participated in several on-line and off-line discussions about how wonderful it would be for Net access to be universal. I don't believe that anymore. Call me elitist, but it really seems that a lot of people aren't smart or mature enough to handle free speech. Andrew Hall ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 16:34:05 -0500 From: "W. Scott Meeks" Subject: POLI: ["Schar.Brian": New Libertarian book] ------- Forwarded Message Date: 16 Mar 1993 09:11:07 U From: "Schar.Brian" Subject: New Libertarian book To: "Libernet" I have been asked by a friend with no Internet access to post this request to Libernet. There has been no shortage of books in the Libertarian world that talk about the workings of a Libertarian society. However, there has long been a need for a book to examine the transition between current society and Libertaria. Mechanisms for implementing our ideas are needed, and these mechanisms need to be explained to the general public so they understand liberty does not lead to chaos. In addition, there may be reforms to our system of government that would be desirable in Libertaria, ranging from proportional representation to the use of a lottery system in place of electing public officials. If you have ideas in either of these two areas--implementing Libertarian ideas or government structure reform--you could be a part of this book. Send an essay or paper on your topic or topics of choice to the address below. Everyone whose work is published in the book will, of course, be credited. Please send all submittals (and address all questions) to: Alan Copeland POB 1428 Huntington Beach, CA 92647 Please do not send submittals electronically to me. I do not have E-mail contact with him, so I cannot forward him anything that is sent to me electronically. ------- End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Mar 93 16:33:43 EST From: sulko-m@acsu.buffalo.edu (Mark A. Sulkowski) Subject: Lucid Dreaming >In article <9303170009.AA24863@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu>, >sulko-m@acsu.buffalo.edu (Mark A. Sulkowski) writes about lucid slide-show >visualizations of landscapes. Joseph Truitt responds: >!! You're the only other person I've heard mention this. That's because we're both part of the same Universal Mind. Ommmmmmmmmmm. ;^) (Who needs Occam's Razor?) >My clearest >lucid 1/2 awake 1/2 asleep dream images are of typical Terran desert, >slightly weird Terran desert (plants are mutated; sky isn't quite the >right color), and down-right alien landscapes. They are gorgeous, very >sharply focused, and so 3-D that they almost hurt my 'eyes'--yet the >images do seem to evade a normal depth perception, like you mentioned. It's sort of like watching television. The images look like they should be 3D, but then again they don't give the full effect. Right? >The alien worlds, in particular, are so unfamiliar that it seems unlikely >that I am simply replaying a glom of sci-fi movie effects. Maybe my image >synthesizer is just hyperactive at times. There are never any people or >other mammals in these scenes. That was mostly true for me too. The 'whale' (if that is what it was) was the only exception. Maybe my brain has difficultly generating such complex things, or maybe it simply didn't 'want' to. >Sometimes they are static, but usually >they seem to be in 'real-time' (butterflies flit, other insects buzz >around, heat mirages wrinkle the distant part of the image, etc.). Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Many of the images I saw were 'still-shots', but some involved wind blowing through trees and other special effects. I don't believe I saw insect life though. >I see the most interesting images after unusually cathartic sex. Hmmm, I guess I will have to try that method. :} >How is this vaguely extropian? Uhh... I get to take micro-vacations >without leaving home or requiring exotic VR ware? I'm using parts of >my brain that don't normally get exercised? ...okay, I'll go away for >a little while. It is obvious we will simply have to coin a new futique neologism in order to give this topic a sense of legitimacy in the extropian community. :) Wetware Generated Virtual Reality (or WGVR for short) This term applies to any form of dream or powerful visualization generated within an organic brain (wetware). Examples are: normal dreaming, lucid dreaming, daydreaming, meditation involving visualization, etc. =============================================================================== | |\ /| | "But we must not follow those who advise us, being men, to | | \\ // | think of human things, and, being mortal, of mortal things, | | \\// | but must, so far as we can, make ourselves immortal..." | | Mark \/enture | - Aristotle, _The Nicomachean Ethics_ | =============================================================================== ------------------------------ End of Extropians Digest V93 Issue #0151 ****************************************