Without the concept of free will in humans, which many now accept as a possibility, what would be the fundamental difference between an entity such as the sun, a plant and a human? None, except the lifespan.
I don't think that was implied, but rather the sun does, what the sun does and we do, what we do. If we do not have free will, but every action, every thought is a determined reaction of the state of things, than we would also be "trapped". But we do not (normally) perceive it as such. We experience our lives and we live it. We act. Even though our actions might come from a deep automatism. For the sun it might be the same, just on a whole different level.
I think the point is a bit more interesting than that. If you instead suppose we don't have free will, and there is no indefinable quality, then suddenly it’s not anymore scary to be a conscious galaxy than it is to be a human.
Right, but you're supposing away the entire essence of the discussion. If you take for granted we have no free will, our indistinguishability from anything else in the universe is an immediately obvious logical consequence.
Those years during high school are a very challenging time in one’s life, when we develop into adults. The fundamental question of “Who am I? Where do I fit into society?” are subconsciously trying to get answered.
On the other side, in the west, we have a very body-centered idea of self-worth, exaggerated by TV, music and social media. Fundamentally, I do not see this situation getting any better because of how society is wired right now. There are more dramatical changes needed than what we are perhaps capable of.
3 main changes that might help come to mind -
1. We are in an obesity epidemic. Acknowledge this, make changes in the eating and exercise habits, feed children less sugar, especially what’s provided at school during lunch.
2. Due to most kids being overweight, find ways to acknowledge their other talents. Encourage high school kids to find paid work. Help them derive self-worth from other avenues.
3. Help them learn to work their minds. It does not need to be esoteric eastern meditation techniques but learning to sit still for 20 mins a day and watch the breath, and one more time for 5 mins or so before sleep, will have tremendous transference to the rest of one’s life.
We aren't grounded enough in reality anymore. For younger people, this is related to the twin evils of social media and video games, both of which are more captivating than ever. The disengagement from reality can also be seen in being shut inside during the pandemic, decline in teen employment and potentially even grade inflation. Teens are insulated from negative consequences and it's debatable that this is making them more miserable.
While we can't change society, we can make personal choices or choices within our families. I would say that it's beneficial to recognize parts of the modern world that are illusory and attempt to scale them back or avoid them.
> Fundamentally, I do not see this situation getting any better because of how society is wired right now.
It think tight regulation of advertisement industry could help. They really have all the incentive to make people feel worse. It directly translates to their income.
There should be pre-publishing check on every advert. Like a focus group paid for by advertiser, but organized by government body. If it makes people feel worse after watching it it shouldn't be allowed to publish.
It shouldn't be and whoever decided it is should have that reversed.
"The Supreme Court extended First Amendment free speech protection to commercial speech in Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc. (1976). The court held that commercial speech is protected by the First Amendment because it serves the public interest by providing information about products and services."
And since it became apparent that it's not the only thing it does, but also hurts people and leads to destruction of social and natural environment that decision should get reversed after 46 years. Especially since technology enabled us to have a single all encompassing catalog of products and services which customers can draw such information from whenever they request it instead of advertisements being shoved into their faces from all sources causing them psychological harm at no small cost to the economy.
(Although, IANAL, so I can't tell if that page is an accurate summary or if it's the legal equivalent of someone ranting about why the CEO of Facebook can't stop naughty pictures showing up in Google search results…)
The fundamental difference is animals are mostly controlled by nature. Humans have the ability to use their intellect to override their natural urges when prudent.
Second, animals are rarely at the top of the food chain, so they are structured for self-protection first and foremost. This means group dynamics rule over any individual needs. Each animal is expected to do its role in the group, no question of what’s “fair”.
Third, inability to communicate and find treatment when sick. When hurt or sick, they mostly just lay down and slowly fade away. How difficult would it be for us to face death in that way?
> The fundamental difference is animals are mostly controlled by nature. Humans have the ability to use their intellect to override their natural urges when prudent.
Could we nerdy say: animals has less controllers (one?) when humans has more (two? pure nature + new nature = powerful brain). And, also say that this two components conflict in the human?
Being nerdy++ I would say that humans needs a byzantine fault tolerance system. I don't know if we are there, probably we have a crash fault tolerance system or less?
Programming jobs will not disappear, but it will not be similar to what programmers of today do on a daily basis. So, I think the significant shift needs to happen in the way we are educating kids about CS fundamentals, Math and Science.
As AI systems become more able to generate much code by default, the expectations of the customers will similarly increase. Just remember how much an IDE like Eclipse or IntelliJ changed the productivity of programmers 20 years ago. Similarly, how easy apps were to build when Rails would create a scaffold with a simple command. It only allowed us to build more complex customer experiences in the end. This will continue.
Second, there is the need to verify the output from such systems, and also tie them together with other modules. In large enterprises, they would also need to be integrated into existing codebases, often legacy infrastructure.
Then comes the implementation of tons of Govt regulations in finance, lending, taxes, medicine, and so on as code. Software has not yet penetrated these verticals as well as they can. In a recent podcast, chamath palihapitiya mentioned that now it is possible for the Dodd-Frank regulations to be in code, versus as a written document. It's a good example.
Lastly, there are THOUSANDS of companies with legacy software systems that will still need to be maintained, and transitioned to modern technology stacks and infrastructures. This space will continue to be a major source of employment for programmers for the next few decades.
I think we should only expect this situation to get worse, and apply to a majority of society. This will then perhaps further incentivize the Govt to put in place some sort of a universal basic income type of program. This segment of the population is most likely to vote, so it will not be long before we vote ourselves all the money.
I think this is a symptom of no longer closely knit families. Many people from cultures that value family would never leave their parents to live alone when they reach retirement age. They would have them move in with them to take care of them. Pooling money this way (any retirement accounts, social security, etc.) plus income from the children goes a much longer way.
One of the problems is that many people have a lot of debt when they go to retirement age as well as a lack of savings. For decades, people spend more than they earn and it's a habit.
UBI in this environment means the gov keeps feeding the consuming beast.
Financial issues are one of the top causes for divorce, having trouble sleeping, and more. UBI doesn't solve for the any of this when people spend more than they earn.
I'm only pointing out the deeper culture problem around money that UBI doesn't solve.
I believe the consuming beast needs to continually be fed, and this will be precisely one of the primary drivers of putting in a program similar to Universal Basic Income. Without this, the business impact will result in layoffs, etc which will need to be stemmed through such "stimulus" programs.
However, since this has become an ingrained habit, this cannot be a short term stimulus, and will need to be continued.
Inflation as a result cannot be ignored obviously, but I suspect this will be ignored, and will cause significant drops in people's standard of living, and create huge divide in the lifestyles of those who rely on UBI like programs, and those who do not.
Money doesn't have to come from anywhere - see the record levels of corporate UBI that have been handed out in the form of quantitative easing for the last few decades, PPP 'loans', and tax hacks formatted to save these entities money. There isn't some bag that money comes out of and once you run out of it it's all gone.
There are certainly consequences to be paid when you do that, but so far we seem fine with those consequences when they benefit the most powerful among us.
Its willed into being by the government, like any other money in a fiat money system.
If you are asking what will be done to offset the monetary effects of the additional government spending, then “increased high-end taxes, starting with taxing long-term capital gains the same as other income”.
If you are appealing to the myth of necessary fiscal balance in government operations, well, that’s a myth, but same answer as the monetary answer, to the extent anything is done.
> “increased high-end taxes, starting with taxing long-term capital gains the same as other income”.
This, plus finding a way to make people update their cost basis (and pay capital gains taxes) on property that they want to use as collateral for debt.
Absolutely. Inflation will be the result (it already is, but will continue) and will likely cause significant drops in people's standard of living, and create huge divide in the lifestyles of those who rely on UBI like programs, and those who do not.
Those are actually invasive in that they require something inserted into the skin. It’s extremely small and is supposed to be painless, but it’s still invasive.
Yep the FreeStyle Libre 2 is great. I bought one a few weeks ago to satisfy my curiosity. I'm a non-diabetic. It was around EUR 70 including shipping and lasted exactly 2 weeks. Sensor insertion was easy, quick and painless. 1-minute resolution with 8 hour memory between swipes. Curiosity satisfied!
I bought a Libre 3 a couple weeks ago—I’m not diabetic, but there is some early Alzheimer’s in the family that might be related to diabetes.
…so far, I’m finding it wildly inaccurate. It shows trends well enough, but blood glucose is anywhere from 0-40 mg/dL off from a finger prick test depending on the day. I couldn’t imagine relying on this thing as a diabetic.
I was primarily struck by the awesomeness of this whole autonomous glucose regulation thing. My last meal is usually around 18:30 in the evening and during the night glucose would fluctuate around 4.5 mmol/l between 4.0 and 5.0 in 1 hour periods, like a crappy PID controller that needs a firmware update. Other nights it would be flat instead of fluctuating, but unfortunately two weeks were too short for a controlled experiment, meal repeats and figuring out what caused the difference.
Some nights it would show a couple of hypo's where glucose would drop to 3.5, quickly to be countered by an increase. I didn't notice a thing.
Additionally every morning before my alarm went off, I could see my glucose increasing, most likely preparing for wakeup, all by itself. Amazing!
It gave me a new-found respect for these otherwise invisible processes happening in this fleshy vessel on autopilot with closed cockpit doors. I only got to peek through a small window during 2 weeks.
Now imagine having that entire responsibility yourself, having to do it all manually. That's what we type 1 diabetics do every day!
The nighttime fluctuations could be legit changes in glucose level, but could also be weird sensor issues. The sensor will often give low readings when lying on it in your sleep. These are referred to as 'compression lows'.
The morning glucose spike you noticed is called the 'dawn phenomenon'. I inject a little insulin every morning to counteract it.
For me, I found that sleep quality was correlated with my blood sugar levels dipping too low during sleep (which I was able to address by eating fewer low quality carbs during the day).
In general you'll be able to basically see in real time the glycemic impact of all the foods you eat. Which would probably be helpful to a lot of people - you can find all the info online, but having the physical real time stats in front of you makes a difference.
But mostly its what you'd expect. High carb, fast digesting meal -> blood sugar spikes, then drops in accordance with you feeling tired afterwards. Eat keto -> blood sugar is mostly stable.
I think they might have been able to get one because they're in Europe, while in the US it requires a prescription. But you can just find a doctor who will prescribe one for you. (You will still have to pay out of pocket regardless).
Could be wrong on the above but that's been my understanding/experience.
The device itself is a one time use device that has a this mechanical mechanism to inject a thin needle underneath your skin and lasts for a couple of weeks
This is heart-breaking. So many young lives changed forever. I hope the right changes happen to stop this.
I wonder if us humans are getting worse, or if things have always been so gut-wrenching, and there is just more awareness of such things now due to journalism, social media, etc.
Any reading of history indicates that people have gotten less violent and callous to suffering over time.
But it's easy to global awareness of bad stuff to warp your perspective. It's the "things are better than ever before yet everyone things we're living in the worst time ever" phenomenon.
Was a little disappointed to see so little from the east in terms of recommended books. The Bhagavad Gita and ZhuangXi made the list, but nothing in terms of other important works by the Buddha, or Yoga or the epics like the Mahabharata.
If someone were to read some of the Upanishadic works, it would be really interesting to see their influence on the works of Plotinus, etc.
The College offers a Master’s degree in Eastern Classics, applying the same approach to a literary tradition which, while it intersects with and interacts with the Western tradition, easily also stands on its own:
https://www.sjc.edu/academic-programs/graduate/masters-easte...
The monolithic, slow-to-change Great Books list that forms the core of the St John’s undergraduate Reading List is famously and self-consciously concerned primarily and narrowly with the Western intellectual tradition that informed the Founding Fathers, etc. - so as, in the creators’ thinking, to prepare graduates for citizenship in a liberal democracy.
It’s likely no one is more critical of the List than the students and faculty, who argue constantly over omissions, additions, and alterations (there is barely enough time to read all the works on the Program, so for each added, one must often be taken out).
The historical context of the creation of the Reading List accounts for its significant bias towards dead white cis men, as the creators of the list were themselves white cis men at a time when the American education system was not integrated.
(You may be pleased to hear that, for at least the last several decades, the college has admitted people of all colors and genders!)
Yes, makes sense. It just struck me that someone who graduates from such a learning list might totally miss that eastern thought heavily influenced the Greek philosophers and the practice of Gnosis, derived from the Sanskrit root word Gnana(Knowledge or wisdom).
When investigated down to the fundamentals, it is liberating to realize all the deep enquirers of all regions of the world arrived at many of the same insights regarding life. This hopefully leads to more unity, tolerance and mutual respect between people and different religions.
True, but the name of the school predates the curriculum in question by more than a century; the school has for many years been in no way associated with any religion.
(Likewise, at its founding in 1696, the college was called King William’s School; a name that probably sounded a bit off in post-Revolutionary America, leading to the adoption of the current name in 1784, a year after the War.)
Wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Such acts of selfless kindness are what make life beautiful. They enrich everyone - the giver, the receiver and all those who witness such acts.
There are a few ways people take such a message - yes, life is precious, be conscious of what we invest our time in. This part makes sense.
Yet, it is worth asking, what makes for a meaning life? What makes the 4000 weeks worth it?
For some, they chase wealth, power, career success, get one's name recognized, etc - these are milestones to be achieved. Things to accomplish.
Others will say, such accomplishments are not the purpose, let us accumulate as many meaningful experiences as possible. So do things like travel the world, and so on.
But it is worth reflecting, a few years from now, what really is the difference between a dream you had a few days ago, compared with an experience from, say 10 years ago? The difference is very little. Our memories are fuzzy, and to chase experiences will also likely leave us feeling unfulfilled.
Human relationships are also similarly shallow, even if we seek social connection, the odds of it being reciprocated in the manner we value, or of it lasting when we need it, is low.
So what's my point? The point is, whatever pursuits we undertake with the belief out there that something that I accomplish, accumulate or experience will bring me happiness and fulfillment is a futile endeavor.
Instead, if we can function from a state of feeling content as we live each day, whatever the circumstances, then what we do during the lifespan given to us matters little. However long or short, the inner contentment makes it meaningful.
Sorry for the long response, but wanted to share how I look upon this topic.
> So what's my point? The point is, whatever pursuits we undertake with the belief out there that something that I accomplish, accumulate or experience will bring me happiness and fulfillment is a futile endeavor.
I recently came across a term for this. Telic vs. atelic activities [0]. Telic activities are things with some terminal state, e.g. a typical goal-oriented project, or something like the act of getting married.
Atelic activities are those activities where the continuous process is the goal. Certain types of learning, being a good parent, and so on.
The important thing to realize is that in most cases it's not the activity itself that defines whether it's atelic or telic, it's how we approach it. You can make "traveling the world" a very goal-oriented activity with a checklist that you must get through, or you can approach it as a continous lifelong project where the enjoyment is in figuring it out as you go.
I believe this distinction is also important for work. Making something telic, e.g. with an agile process, comes with the danger of taking the day-to-day enjoyment out of an activity such as programming that you would normally enjoy. Of course there must be some amount of planning, but I think we've pushed too far into the goal-oriented direction that makes people miserable.
> I recently came across a term for this. Telic vs. atelic activities [0]. Telic activities are things with some terminal state, e.g. a typical goal-oriented project, or something like the act of getting married.
> Atelic activities are those activities where the continuous process is the goal. Certain types of learning, being a good parent, and so on.
Reading the article, I understand this differently. Telic activities are indeed activities that have a terminal goal. However, the idea of a continuous process being the goal seems orthogonal to the telic/atelic distinction. You can have an activity that is both enjoyable and has a final goal: one can play a video-game both because they want to beat it and because they enjoy playing it. An activity being telic doesn't mean it's not enjoyable by itself. You can also have atelic activities that don't have any goals.
There's no reason, a priori, that making an activity telic should take away from the day-to-day enjoyment. Having a final goal shouldn't stop people from enjoying the journey. It does change the game (from an open-ended sandbox to a more linear game), but it doesn't make it unenjoyable per se. What really takes out the enjoyment of the process is not the introduction of the goal, but rather an excessive optimization toward a goal at the expense of the process.
I agree that nothing makes any of your categories better than the others: achievement, fun experiences, relationships. But if I look back on my life so far, something that does seem worth optimizing for is intensity/high quality.
I've had experiences that I enjoyed every minute of (for example because they were new, or doing things that I love). Periods of hard work that stand out in my memory because of how much I learnt, accomplished, felt the 'flow' state. And time spent with people I'm close to that deepened those relationships and gave me a huge sense of connection.
For me, being conscious of what I invest my time in is less about the category of experience, and more about generating opportunities for high quality experiences, making sure I don't pass them up, and being present in the moment during them. I'm not great at this, but it's what I try for.
Yes, I agree. It is not so much about what we do or experience during our given lifespan, but what instead matters is the state of body-mind we are in, while doing or experiencing.
I don't think I agree that relationships are shallow. Sure some are but not all of them. And even the ones that aren't deep can be extremely meaningful. For example, being a good teacher and influencing your students in their lives (teaching them something, inspiring them, etc...). Those seem meaning full to me, unless you're a nihilist.
I think a life full of connection is generally better than one with no connection. I'll even go so far is if anyone response to this saying they're better off with no connection they're lying because the fact that they wrote a response at all suggests they're trying to connect. I'm not saying HN = connection but writing to people in forums is reaching for connection.
I also don't agree contentment is the end of it. I know of every few people who claim being content is best who would give up their partner or be just as happy without them.
> I don't think I agree that relationships are shallow.
I agree. The older I get, the more important they become. And I say this as a person who is generally comfortable alone.
Of course not every connection is deep, but that doesn't make them any less meaningful.
You're spot on about teaching/influencing others, and you don't have to be an actual teacher. Just giving advice and/or helping others when asked (and sometimes when not) is a bigger deal than I think many realize.
I am not saying nothing matters. I'm pointing out that "what matters" is not found "out there" in achievements or experiences. What matters is the state of our being. We seek out things, people, experiences and so on because they make us feel fulfilled.
So, if I am acting from a state of fulfillment or contentment, what I choose to do with my life might be quite different from what I would do if I felt unfilled and lonely.
One way to counteract fading memory of events is to sit down and write a few thousand word diary entry when something great happens. Describe the whole experience from start to finish in as much detail as possible. File it away with the time it happened and an appropriate title. I've done this for great experiences in my life. I go back and read them on a regular basis.
I did this for a few years and I’ve never read my diary since. I’m not sure I ever will, let alone anyone else. Thinking some more about it, it’s pretty clear I mostly did it for comments (livejournal.com).
You do a good thing. My dad passed away suddenly 3 years ago and I exported the 1000 emails he sent me over the years. I read them in random order with Vim. If only I had more.
It’s funny, now that you mentioned it I remembered I did keep a journal like that - in high school, long time ago. It was a very private, well hidden, handwritten journal where I mostly wrote down my dreams, and tried to analyze them. I also described my interactions with friends, girls, parents, my insecurities, plans, etc. Several hundred pages over a couple of years. Even though this journal is valuable to me, perhaps as an archive, I’ve never felt even a slightest desire to open it.
I agree. And also easier to be truthful. I write down events with no intention of ever going back (not that I won't), and the act of writing is helpful. In many ways I re-experience the event and get more out of it - good and bad.
What is the goal? Reminds me of intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. If the goal is personal development, that should be intrinsic and not need outsider validation.
The type of shit I write in a journal is not the type of stuff I want people to read. It is internally processing and organizing thoughts and private matters. It is shower thoughts all the way through processing relationships and emotions. My family, for instance, doesn't need to know half-thought out things that would offend them. Maybe later those journal entries would help me with a difficult conversation with them or serve as a jumping point for a "real" article or post. Most are just private.
There are three levels of visibility in livejoirnal: public, private, and friends-only. Many of my online journal entries are set to private, those are, as you said, for internal processing and private matters. I have the least interest to read those thoughts today. I’m more likely to reread friends-only posts which generated discussion with people who I’ve never met in real life, but who nevertheless became my good online friends. But in any case, if I were to open my journal today it would be to write new entries, not to read old ones.
Hedonism, if it's logically consistent and takes a long-term view, is basically Epicureanism, which is far from what comes to mind when we hear the term hedonism.
Everyone needs to find the level at which they are content with asking no more follow up questions.
Happiness and fulfillment are both choices.
Otjerwise where does it end? You start worrying about the purpose of your legacy since what does it matter anyway the sun will explode, swallow the earth whole, and eventually the whole universe will go through heat death.
Yeah. Absurdism is pretty rad. Embrace the abyss, and you will never have to gaze directly at it again. Life is inherently meaningless. That means it has any meaning you want it to. Comparing it to the alternatives of what I'm told life is supposed to be all about and mean, I have to say I like making it up as I go along far better. I'll never know everything, and that means I'll always have something to live for. That makes me feel at peace.
Life can't be meaningless if it can also have whatever meaning you give it, unless you give it the degenerate meaning of 'nothing', though.
Hence my issue with this: If you need to use (1) "life is meaningless" as a stepping stone to (2) "therefore, life has whatever meaning you give it", you've already agreed to that constraint by default. I'm sure it helps a lot of people get from (1) to (2), but better still is to realize (2) is in a sense _deeper_ than (1) and you can just throw out (1) once you have (2) locked down enough in your psyche.
You misread my statement. Life has no inherent meaning. It is inherently meaningless. Therefore you make your own meaning to give it one. Simple as that. You can, of course, let someone else make a meaning for you, and choose that instead, but it's not something integral to life itself. Just your life.
That's not the same as life having no meaning, just not an inherent one. A fireplace is not inherently burning, but if you stack a bunch of logs in there and light it, it will burn all the same. The meaning of life is just the same. The physical reality of it is at it is, but what you do with it is up to you. You can follow the path laid out before you, like lighting the fireplace, but nothing's stopping you from grabbing a knife and running off to the woods to run with the wolves if that's what you'd rather do. Nothing but yourself, anyway.
It's not so much that I've stopped asking questions, as it is that I am no longer unsafe about what I know. I question my reality every day, but not having all the answers no longer scares me. I know what I know, I know what I don't know, and I know what I think but can't prove. I find out new things every day, and that makes me happy.
I stop asking questions once I am satisfied I understand something, not before. Sometimes I'll leave a question for later, to give my brain some time to digest it, but besides that, I'm always working through something or other. Just gotta ask the right questions is all.
Im having a water-shed moment where I have, picked apart my life's most dissatisfying areas. I was stuck on productivity and outcomes, even for others (parents and partner), but now I can do as you suggest I think. The intrusive thought that yet another dissatisfying aspect of life will arrise may just be a toxic thought that I can manage, or the only next thing to productively address.
I agree - that is why I find such general instructions, such as "Answer all Emails immediately", as often emphasized by other "self-optimisation/productivity" articles, so irritating: Emails, as everything else, initially move to the (really long) 'open task list' - as mentioned in the article here. Depending on their importance, they may move to the 'closed-task' list, which is limited in length and sorted by priority. That means two things: a) emails will be answered in descending priority, meaning that some may be answered faster than other and b) some emails have such a low priority to me that I may fail to answer them at all - which is Ok. I have limited time available, so the outcome is if an email isn't important enough there is a chance it won't get answered, and I won't regret it.
> But it is worth reflecting, a few years from now, what really is the difference between a dream you had a few days ago, compared with an experience from, say 10 years ago? The difference is very little
Depends on the dream and the experience. I can recall many dreams and many experiences in breathtaking clarity as if they were actual photos. Compared to photos, these also carry sentiment, meaning and they have impact.
> Human relationships are also similarly shallow, even if we seek social connection, the odds of it being reciprocated in the manner we value, or of it lasting when we need it, is low
the chances of it happening are definitely low though.
almost everyone has some kind of long term connection with other people because we meet so many people in our modern lives.
but chances of "them being reciprocated in the manner we value, or of them lasting when we need it" are extremely low.
Many people don't even have a good relationship with their families or with their parents or with their kids.
It is also closely linked to aging.
The older we get, the fewer friends we have. According to a recent study by experts from Aalto University in Finland and the University of Oxford in England, our social network shrinks after we reach our mid-20s.
