What goes up must come down. Newton of all people should have known.

For an lengthy but amazing alternate-reality account of same (and much... much more), check out Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle

The first line:

> Science writer and MIT professor Levenson reminds readers that rulers throughout history have taxed citizens to pay bills.

Not really, the first goal of any state is to collect taxes and prevent other states to do that. First states were basically racqueteers, who robbed their subjects at gunpoint (tribute), and for the money hired larger squads, making a system with positive feedback. The conversion of tribes to states was unlikely to be peaceful.

I mean, the first priority of any state is to collect taxes, that are financing the taxation system and preventing others doing the same (military). Everything else must be secondary, otherwise other states with more efficient systems will come over.

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

Isaac Newton's Financial Misadventures in the South Sea Bubble - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29032752 - Oct 2021 (1 comment)

Newton's Financial Misadventures in the South Sea Bubble - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21007541 - Sept 2019 (15 comments)

Newton’s Financial Misadventures in the South Sea Bubble [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16245284 - Jan 2018 (35 comments)

Doh, I always thought it as South China Sea!

South Seas in popular culture typically does refer to the South Pacific and Polynesia though. I’d also say the South China Sea too.

But in Newton’s day yes, I think the colonial adventures were still very much focused on the Atlantic.

Precisely why one should not place much emphasis on the takes of people like Paul Graham and LeCun outside their specialization. They are as susceptible as anyone to be suckered into an ideology.

IQ does not mean one thing. It is a range of things. You can be totally brilliant at one thing and a complete fool on something else. It is what I call the smart person trap. You know you are smart at one thing. So therefor you are smart so therefore you are probably good at everything. Poor logic. I heard a con artist put it this way 'i love suckering smart people they think they are never wrong'.