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Freitas Homepage
Personal blog · rfreitas.comsciencephilosophy
Freitas Homepage is a personal blog at rfreitas.com about science and philosophy. Since 2010, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “Xenopsychology”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Robert Freitas's essays on xenopsychology (alien minds), self-replicating probes, and refutations of nanotech claims. One commenter called the xenopsychology essay interesting.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Xenopsychology8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2011-05-05
- The Legal Rights of Extraterrestrials (1977)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-02-03
- /Astro/ComparisonReproNov1980.htm2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-05-05
What Hacker News says?
>Our discovery is that every region of the neocortex learns 3D models of objects much like a CAD program. Citation needed. If this was the case, certainly we'd have some experiments that show this? Especially since every part of the neocortex is supposed to be doing it. Now if we can make artificial neural networks that work with 3D data, learning such things as 3D data to value, 3D data to 3D data mappings that wou…
Comment linking /Nano/Microbivores.htm
on “What intelligent machines need to incorporate from the neocortex”Submitted Xenopsychology as a story · 90 points
HN discussionRefutation: http://www.zyvex.com Much longer refutation: http://www.rfreitas.com
Comment linking /
on “There is no nanotech, stop talking about it and start laughing at it”Submitted The Legal Rights of Extraterrestrials (1977) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionTo bounce off on your penultimate paragraph: http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
Comment linking /Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
on “Pando (tree)”Submitted Xenopsychology as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttp://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/Xenopsychology.htm This is an interesting essay on the minds of our ocean-dwelling aliens.
Comment linking /Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
on “The Octopus: Stable Genius”Submitted Xenopsychology and the Sentience Quotient as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFrom the 1984 essay Xenopsychology by Robert Freitas Jr: http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/Xenopsychology.htm The elements of human nature: Age-grading, athletic sports, bodily adornment, calendar, cleanliness training, community organizations, cooking, cooperative labor, cosmology, courtship, dancing, decorative art. divination, division of labor, dream interpretation, education, eschatology, ethics, ethnobotany, etiqu…
Comment linking /Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
on “Ant responses to social isolation resemble those of humans”Submitted The Legal Rights of Extraterrestrials as a story · 1 points
HN discussion> It has been theorized that a self-replicating starship utilizing relatively conventional theoretical methods of interstellar travel (i.e., no exotic faster-than-light propulsion such as "warp drive", and speeds limited to an "average cruising speed" of 0.1c.) could spread throughout a galaxy the size of the Milky Way in as little as half a million years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft cit…
Comment linking /Astro/ComparisonReproNov1980.htm
on “Water Planets in the Habitable Zone”Submitted Xenopsychology (1984) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAhahaha alien psychology! http://rfreitas.com/Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
Comment linking /Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
on “Every time you click this link, it will send you to a random Web 1.0 website”Submitted Fermi's Paradox: A Real Howler as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThere are decades old papers [0] on this subject that explicitly use humans as a analogy and call it "reproduction" because of the need to learn or evolve for local conditions. I don't think using terms in a way they've been used since the first serious analysis of the concept is going to confuse anyone. I think it's pretty extreme to imagine their nth descendants caring about the goals of the parent civilization. I…
Comment linking /Astro/ReproJBISJuly1980.htm
on “A Metallurgist's Doubts About Self-Replicating Probes”Submitted Xenopsychology as a story · 1 points
HN discussionWorthwhile to invest in I think is the bigger question - from a practical 'can we build a self replicating probe fleet that would eventually cover the galaxy', there's at least evidence that it's possible in the next hundred years or so. http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/ComparisonReproNov1980.htm https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2005/2005.12303.pdf In general I do think it makes sense to not just contemplate interste…
Comment linking /Astro/ComparisonReproNov1980.htm
on “Laniakea Supercluster”
