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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 13/05/2026

To quantize a qualitative question is to incinerate all the qualitative aspects and then do mathematics on the dubious quantitative ash that is left behind: locusmag.com/feature/cory... 37/

locusmag.com

Cory Doctorow: Qualia - Locus

Last summer, the pandemic was in its first wave and the nation was in chaos. A lack of federal leadership left each state to figure out how to interpret the science, and many states punted public heal...

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 13/05/2026

In their paper, Farrell and Shalizi cite Ben Recht's maxim that "you can’t optimize a trade-off": www.argmin.net/p/are-there-... But of course, we optimize trade-offs all the time. 38/

argmin.net

Are there always trade offs?

If so, then everything isn't optimization.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 13/05/2026

That's what being a boss means, and it's also at the very core of self-determination: the right to decide what trade-offs you want to make. What Recht means is "you can't optimize a trade-off *for everyone else*." 39/

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