- Jack on Chad Nielsen’s Favorite Reads, 2026 edition: “I’m truly envious of people like you, Chad, who can read so much on a regular basis. I guess that’s why you’re so smart. Give me three lifetimes and I might catch up with you.” Nov 14, 17:28
- on Chad Nielsen’s Favorite Reads, 2026 edition: “rogerdhansen, first they’re not letters. Second, I am a student of mid-century Mormonism, and there are readers here who are. Third, I’m not aware of a published biography of Wilkinson. Fourth, yes, he was harmful and his portrayal of himself is biased. But that’s what Gary Bergera’s footnotes are there for in the book.” Nov 14, 17:01
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, October 2026: “I agree with anon, skip the journal of Mormon polygamy. Freeman’s book looks like a keeper. I wonder if somehow it might more productive looking at the general contributions of Mormon scholars in general. They must publish stuff for general consumption.” Nov 14, 02:04
- on Chad Nielsen’s Favorite Reads, 2026 edition: “There is no way Wilkinson’s Letters should be on a recommended list, unless the reader is a student of mid-century Mormonism. I doubt that reading his letters provides an accurate image of the man. Better to read a biography. Wilkinson was not a pleasant individual. He did a lot of damage to BYU’s reputation and to the CES system in general. The tattle-tale environment he created was disgusting to say the least. The mixing of ultra-conservative political ideas with religion was a disaster. Racism was also an issue.” Nov 14, 01:18
- on Chad Nielsen’s Favorite Reads, 2026 edition: “Appreciate this list and the time taken to summarize for those of us always looking for a new book to read.” Nov 13, 19:51
- on Zion will have data centers: “I’m in favor of datacenters. I work in a computing group that runs one, though it’s just a large room in a campus building. But where and how you build these hyperscaled datacenters makes a big difference. What’s cheapest for the tech companies is to build them in populated areas to take advantage of existing utilities and infrastructure. Put them in poor neighborhoods where land is cheap and political opposition will be poorly resourced. Supplement local power with “temporary” “portable” diesel generators to take advantage of a loophole in environmental regulation. And then just ignore the impact that air and noise pollution has on the quality of life in the neighborhood. No, the datacenter will not bring prosperity to the people who live there. A functioning datacenter has very few people actually working in it: some technicians to rack servers and swap out bad hard drives; some HVAC people. Most of the jobs created by managing or using the servers, and all the high-paying ones, are remote. They’re not going to live anywhere near the mess the datacenter creates. This is a well-understood “externalities” problem: much of the cost of running the data center is imposed on “external” people who have no say in the matter. Back when I taught Econ 101 I could have put this on an exam and expected the B students and up to lay out the gist of it, including strategies for government to try to fix the problem. So people are angry about the datacenters themselves, and using it as proxy for their anger about AI in general, but most of all they’re angry at a government that doesn’t seem to be able to stand up to the billionaires and give regular people a fair shake. And that seems like a pretty legitimate complaint to me.” Nov 13, 14:41
- on Female Veiling in Mormonism: “Thanks for your insights Dr. Cocoa. Yes, that’s why I mentioned “different variations on the Islamic dress code,” alongside Eastern Orthodox head-covering, because of the variation in “veiling” (I’m kind of confusingly referring to both the face covering as well as the head-covering with that term) across the Muslim world.” Nov 13, 09:52
- on Female Veiling in Mormonism: “Having lived in the Middle East for several years, I’ll clarify that while it’s true there are many women who are forced to cover up by men in their lives, there are also many women who choose various levels of covering out of their love of Islam and modesty. Some even wear it for religious signaling purposes. Just as there is a wide range of application, there is a wide range of reasoning as to why Muslim women cover. The only requirement in Islam is for the woman to cover the hair (and even this is debatable). The practice of veiling women of importance already existed in the region before Islam, so it’s likely that those pre-existing practices blended with Islam, but the Quran does not explicitly require it. Anyway, the point is that we shouldn’t point to Islam as a religion and say it requires women to veil, because this simply isn’t true. We can more accurately say some middle eastern men require their female relatives to veil, while some females choose to veil for various reasons, while others choose to not veil, and some don’t even cover their hair.” Nov 13, 07:24
- on Zion will have data centers: “LotL, you sound like a local AI enthusiast who hasn’t found the right GPU yet. AI without all the data centers, but you might start filling up your PC with terabytes of your favorite LLMs just in case you need them one day.” Nov 13, 02:59
- on Zion will have data centers: “Hey Jonathan, I will admit that I was being overly dramatic, I had just gotten off work, and wasn’t in the best frame of mind. And I’m not totally against AI being a helpful tool. Just as you are wary of attempts to block growth on too broad of a scale, I’m wary in the opposite direction. To me, most of this AI growth seems to be forced upon us from above, rather than below. Which makes me wary, knowing all the messed up things our government and corporations have done in the last few hundred years. I also partly reacted the way I did because of my temperament. I’m a very conservative person and believe in hierarchy, law & order, etc. However, when I know or believe my leaders are trying to gaslight me, be that religious, secular, or business, I quickly become very much like the Founding Fathers during the revolution.” Nov 12, 20:30
