Essays on Werk Space

Thoughts

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 15:38:40 -0500

Some words

Heuristics

Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

THIS IS A DRAFT! A running collection of heuristics I regularly use but have not yet fully thought upon or expanded. I may do so in the future.

Introduction

A collection of lenses I use to make sense of why people, and societies, behave the way they do — why we exploit resources to the point of depletion, why status drives so much behavior, why fear and regret dominate so many lives, why our small-world wiring struggles in a large world. These are heuristics in the original sense: shortcuts to explanation, not guidance for self-improvement. Each is a seed; some may grow into longer pieces later.

Exploitation: To Depletion or Steady State

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

DEFINITION Exploitation means to use some resource for advantage, benefit, or profit.

THIS IS A DRAFT!

Introduction

Lately, I started using a model of “humans as an exploitation machine” to analyze or gain a different perspective on our world. The definition alone does not imply good or bad but we have many contexts of this word which have very negative associations.

Some contexts:

Social: exploitation often refers to the unfair treatment or abuse of power towards individuals or groups with less power, resources, or agency.
Market economy: exploitation can take various forms, including labor, natural resources, intellectual property, and market.
Computer science: an exploit is a code that takes advantage of a software vulnerability or security flaw.
Military: exploit the initiative to gain a tactical or strategic advantage.

Considering “humans as an exploitation machine”, refers mainly to market exploitation which is neutral toward the ethics of exploitation. In the social context, which sometimes gets mixed into the market context, exploitation is clearly negative.

Privacy, Secrecy, and Data

Fri, 01 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In January of 2020, I made a post to Facebook. It did not get the level of feedback I had hoped for.

I had hoped to get feedback on the idea to inform and clarify my thoughts. Without that, I have tried to expand the idea and try to cover not only the positives from the idea but also consider many of the negatives.