what I said to you in 2016

I reviewed an old book about new China. I reviewed Use of Weapons, conceptual art, and Biblical literalism. I wrote a long poem about technical wonder. I poked about Civ V's ideology. I riffed on scientific and non-scientific knowledge. I listed a range of new and/or rare words. I was impressed by nonfiction about nonreal things.

I listed some free web services for developers. I gave an algorithm for working out why your boot drive doesn't work. I talked about songs about music critics and we listened to them. I reviewed British villainy, Accelerando, and an Estonian poet. I reviewed an excellent bedroom synthpop album. I listed more new and/or rare words with no clear theme. I reviewed books on social physics, 'The Hitch', and Japanese poetry. I reviewed the gentlest introduction to Bayesianism. I got very maternal about the former Bishop of Edinburgh. I listed more new and/or rare words, on maths and wrestling.

I applauded preppers with one hand. I listed more new and/or rare words, on science and the internet. I listed real magic spells. I echoed another's horror about new Russia. I tried to explain why Bukowski is not shit and bad. I was interviewed about nonstandard animal ethics. I listed various ways to save time, which is to save lives. I listed foreign words in some sense. I counted up the Black Panthers' murders and made you call them racist. I got very animated about a pop-punk song. I realised that machine learning is the answer to the Wittgensteinian challenge to conceptual analysis. I wrote a typology of automation and made a bunch of sci-fi economic policy proposals but failed to really evaluate them. I mocked my new profession but also srsly help what I do is ill-defined. I marvelled at the coarse dialect of English spoken when lots of money is implicated. I reviewed columns by the greatest scientific educator in the country. I reviewed a sexy moralist, an angry reasoner, and Martha Gellhorn who was both. I gave another name to the great divide among do-gooders.

I listed more new and/or rare words, on netspeak and Christian aliens. I reviewed a book about recent do-gooders, which worries that their strength is weakness but ends up thinking it isn't. I listed words which don't look technical but which are. I ranted about corporate self-help. I got very excited about someone saying obvious sensible things. I talked about arbitrary agent liberation, not totally seriously. I listed more new and/or rare words, with no theme at all. I investigated various buzzwords which have played the cultural role that "data science" currently plays. I reviewed a large gathering of effective altruists. I listed more new and/or rare words, on statistical dragons and channish. I modelled early modern science. I reviewed and codified Cathy O'Neil's model of bad models. I reviewed Joel on software, white nerds on rap, and Bennett on fame.



Previously: 2015, 2014, 2013.