WAGMI: The %TOTAL Maximizer

This , about Futurism, tagged , , , , was written by for , on November 4, 2021 .6 Comments

Fictional short story in which an AI takes over the world by leveraging its financial dominance in the cryptocurrency space.

Русская Ноосфера 2.0: масштабный обзор уровня IQ по регионам России

This , about HBD, tagged , , , , , was written by for on April 26, 2020 .No Comments

Данная статья была впервые опубликована в журнале Спутник и Погром в январе 2019 года (и потом озвучена на YouTube-канале CzarSputnik). Не смотря на то, что к тому времени этот журнал был заблокирован на территории РФ и находился в своих предсмертных муках, статья широко разошлась по Интернету и была упомянута в ряде влиятельных российских СМИ. Это […]

The Katechon Hypothesis

This , about Philosophy, tagged , , , , was written by for on October 20, 2019 .379 Comments

That Which Withholds Eschaton: The Katechon Hypothesis for Resolving the Fermi Paradox

Синореализм 101

This , about Geopolitics, tagged , , , , was written by for on December 28, 2018 .No Comments

Wei Gensheng: Шанхай, Китай. У меня появилась в среде русских националистов некая репутация “синофила”. На самом деле, мне как-то безразлично, считаете ли вы, что китайцы – наследники древней, пятитысячелетний культуры, чья страна заслуживает снова стать “Среднем Королевством” всего мира, либо что они – аутистичные, богоборствующие роботы, которые убивают своих девочек в матке и едят собак. Но если меня […]

Стена и Сингулярность

This , , about Futurism, tagged , , , , , was written by for on January 15, 2018 .No Comments

В течении этого века, наша с вами игра в Civilization как фракция “Россия” завершится одним из этих четырех сценариев: (1) Технологическая Сингулярность: Достижение искусственного сверхинтеллекта, технологическая сингулярность, и настоящий “конец истории.” Обсуждать что дальше – не то что бесполезно, а невозможно. (2) Биосингулярность: Технологии редактирования человеческого генома, вместе с пониманием геномике интеллекта, приведет к стремительному росту среднего […]

The Russian Cross Becomes A Hexagon

This , about Demographics, tagged , , , , was written by for on January 30, 2013 .31 Comments

One of the standard memes about Russia’s demographic trajectory was the “Russian Cross.” While at the literal level it described the shape of the country’s birth rate and death rate trajectories, a major reason why it entered the discourse was surely because it also evoked the foreboding of the grave. But this period now appears […]

My Piece On Pussy Riot At Al Jazeera

This , about Society, tagged , , , , , was written by for , on August 23, 2012 .54 Comments

A PR disaster: Five views on Pussy Riot’s war. Go, read. Comment there if possible. Just a couple more notes: Since I submitted the article, commentator peter made one of the most convincing arguments against the validity of the sentence against Pussy Riot. I suppose this will be raised in PR’s appeal. Just to clarify, […]

The 5 Types of Russian American

This , about Society, tagged , , , , , was written by for on June 11, 2012 .172 Comments

In my nearly 20 years experience as a Russian living in the West, I have found that almost all my fellows can be reduced to five basic types: 1) The White Russian; 2) The Sovok Jew; 3) The Egghead Emigre; 4) Natasha Gold-Digger; 5) Putin’s Expat. My background and qualifications to write on this topic? My […]

Education as the Elixir of Growth III

This , about HBD, tagged , , , , was written by for on February 25, 2012 .20 Comments

Just in case you thought the correlation between human capital and economic development was an artifice of the post-socialist world, here is a similar graph (R2=0.4273) for all the world’s countries that have participated in the Math and Science portions of the PISA or TIMMS (8th grade) international standardized student assessments. The methodology is the […]

Corruption Realities Index 2010

This , about Economy, tagged , , was written by for on May 25, 2011 .20 Comments

The most famous corruption indicator is Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Its only problem is that the perceptions of their self-appointed experts have nothing to do with reality! As I explained in previous posts on this blog, it suffers from numerous flaws. Part of it has to do with its questionable methodology: using changing mixes of […]

Rosstat and Levada are Russophobia’s Bane

This , about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on July 1, 2010 .27 Comments

Still no economic collapse. Still no anti-Putin bunt. Still no demographic apocalypse. As the years pass by, Russophobe canard after Russophobe trope is relegated to the dust-heap of history, only to rise back out of its grave, zombie-like, whenever Boris Nemtsov pens a brilliant indictment hysterical screed on the failures of Putinism or when the militsiya […]

10 Myths about Russia’s Demography

This , about Demographics, tagged , , , , , was written by for on December 7, 2009 .36 Comments

This post tries to debunk some popular, but misguided, views on demographic trends in today’s Russia. These consist of the perception that Russia is in a demographic “death spiral” that dooms it to national decline (Biden, Eberstadt, NIC, CIA, Stratfor, etc). Some extreme pessimists even predict that ethnic Russians – ravaged by AIDS, infertility and alcoholism […]