On May 12, 11:08=A0am, pataphor <patap...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> For me this question looks a lot like the situation in the Matrix movie
> where someone is asking to be put back into the matrix in exchange for
> betraying his friends.
That is a Hollywood blockbuster movie. I am talking about REAL LIFE,
pal.
> How do you know you did not already make that choice in the past and
> are now inside some degraded form of reality for your pleasure? Or
> someone else put you in there against your will.
Occam's razor slices solopsism to smithereens by the seashore where
saint jennifer sells . . . whatever the hell she's selling this week.
Cootie picker tweezers or something. I forget.
> Are quantum effects evidence that we are in a simulation? The computer
> running the simulation is having problems with its processing capacity
> and because of that it is cutting corners? =A0And how about time
> dilation?
No. No. No.
> The slowing down of time itself for objects that move very
> fast. Few people seem to appreciate this. Scientists treat relativity
> as a dry scientific fact they want to describe instead of using it as
> exhibit A in the case against reality.
Then there are scientists who consider relativiy a magnificent part of
reality. Like Mount Everest or a raccoon.
> I can even explain why we are not seeing technologically
> advanced alien life forms in this universe. They all switched to
> another routine in the same computer that gets more processing cycles
> and this enables faster than light travel. =A0Or maybe they gain extra
> time because nature's algorithms are not too bright and they are using
> better algoritms in order to arrive somewhere years before nature
> reaches that point, maybe even forcing nature to take a certain path
> because since they arrive somewhere first they can channel the energies
> before things come into existence.
We are the technologically advanced alien lifeforms. How far from
equilibrium gray goo do you think matter can get? You're supposed to
be the gnostic. Don't you know humanity progresses to godhood? It's in
the books!
> What about curiosity? The meaning of life?
Asked you first and you didn't answer. That's OK. I'll ask again and I
will show you mine if you show me yours.
What gives meaning to _your_ life?
> What is the purpose
> if you throw it all away if it makes you unhappy?
Right. That's the question. Would you rather be Schopenhauer or
Anthony Robbins?
> You'd have to start
> all over again. Unless you don't like the process of retrieving your
> lost knowledge. In that case maybe death would be the optimal outcome,
> at least if one would die with a smile on ones face, without being
> wiser.
Many people I know are afraid of dying. They have this negative
fantasy that on their death bed they will be perfectly lucid and
conscious of a long set of life regrets. Real Life death doesn't work
like that unless the mechanism is you are perfectly healthy and the
state has an execution scheduled for you next Thurdsday at a minute
past midnight. Sick dying people are out of it. That long set of life
regrets is outside of what p***** for their consciousness.
There is almost no rational reason to be afraid of dying.
> I believe your routines would make Yalom sad ...
Probably not. The tone of his books is that Yalom is overwhelmingly
interested in Yalom.
> I'm having trouble weening myself from oracle use. I know it's
> just random input but at the same time I prefer it over the horror
> vacui. But most of the time the procrastination results in avoiding
> action. Is staring at a wall or exhausting oneself by physical exercise
> any better?
Ten million buddhist monks can't be wrong.
> Why don't you tell us what protagoras said?
We don't have any books. All we have is fragments. And the caricature
who taught virtue that Socrates demolished in debate. The only proven
way to teach virtue is very slowly, by example, one day at a time. And
watching how people behave under duress can be transcendentally
illuminating. Do you like Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" movie? The Gene
Kranz character was a teacher of virtue to those around him, assuming
what happens in the movie was accurate, which presumably it was.
Incidentally right at the end, before the astronauts are safe and they
were getting warm coming down through the air on their iffy heat
****eld, I didn't get the impression the actor playing the part was
projecting a lot of optimism. I would love to have that guy's data
point in regards to Seligman's thesis.
I work with a clown who likes to say "failure is not an option". Every
time he says that I want to kick him in the nuts and then sometimes I
stop myself and think on the inside he could be the most holy perfect
vehicle. In the psycho literature they refer to this as _cognitive
dissonance_.
> I can see how that would be almost optimal for you, since you seem to
> be trying to escape the questions by giving the public impression of
> studying them.
No. I am deluded. My life actually has a meaning. I will be glad to
tell you buddy but I ASKED YOU FIRST.
B.
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