Nobody asked but … A good friend and spontaneous order guru shared an article on why humans have grammar — it seems to be hardwired. I think this is implicit also in theories of natural order. We understand ideas by connecting their components serially. If the first order is position, then the second is direction.…
Category: Nobody Asked, But
Parenting Generations
Nobody asked but … I am in the fifth generation of parenting now. It is worth noting that I include parenting myself in the second generation, and my own parents before that — they learned from me as I learned from them. I will not try to argue here that I had a similar relationship…
Is Science Consensual?
Nobody asked but … Consensus among scientists is unrelated to precision among scientists. Wrong theories have had as much to do with knowledge advancement as correct theories, probably much more. For how many millennia did humanity believe, claim knowledge of, theories of geology before plate tectonics. And I fear plate tectonics itself will suffer some…
Climate Change-up
Nobody asked but … I could be wrong. Amiright? Here it is two days before American Thanksgiving and it’s 57 degrees fahrenheit at 2:30pm in Lexington KY. Maybe it’s warmer than usual but maybe not. It seems we’ve had a nice, long Indian Summer, but I also remember most Thanksgivings to be the occasion of…
Intolerance for Friction
Nobody asked but … I share an informed suspicion of the open market. Everything has friction. Statist offers of solution are offerings in the open market of ideas, also having frictions. To me, the crippling friction of government is the combined necessities of making it mandatory, not voluntary, making it arbitrarily applicable in a controlled…
The Singularity
Nobody asked but … I have very recently been reading The Information: History, Theory, Flood by James Gleick. After having absorbed twice the section on the Turing Machine, the coin has finally dropped after more than a quarter century. I will not attempt to explain the Turing Machine to you, referring instead to a starting…
Voluntary Polycentrism
Nobody asked but … This may take some explaining. I am not an anarchist, but a voluntaryist polycentrist. I feel that people will group spontaneously to meet true needs, and that these groups, to be successful must remain limited to a focused objective — AND must remain voluntary — AND must disband when the need…
Rural Filter
Nobody asked but … Speaking of Plato’s Cave allegory, what if we perceived of reality through country music lyrics? Would tractors and trucks be sex objects? Would we think that the things that happen under the influence are all good? Would we all be unsuccessful at love, particularly when we have reached the so-called objectives…
Who Will Build the Roads?
Nobody Asked But … Isn’t it grand what a fine job the USDOT is doing, together with their little tag-along state DOTs? I am on the road again, exercising my freedom to move about voluntarily. And once again I wonder who will build the roads? I am not asking who will have the existing, outmoded…
Ubi est iustitia?
Nobody asked but … Ubi est iustitia? This is Latin for “where is justice?” I have been listening to a very interesting podcast, Russ Roberts’ Econtalk, with his guest Paul Robinson, on Cooperation, Punishment and the Criminal Justice System. The gist is that even the most transitory societies may impose rudimentary justice, even at the…