byrnema comments on Open Thread: December 2009 - Less Wrong
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Yeah, I think I can relate to that. This edges very close to an affective death spiral, however, so watch the feedback loops.
The way I argued myself out of mine was somewhat arbitrary and I don't have it written up yet. The basic idea was taking the concepts that I exist and that at least one other thing exists and, generally speaking, existence is preferred over non-existence. So, given that two things exist and can interact and both would rather be here than not be here, it is Good to learn the interactions between the two so they can both continue to exist. This let me back into accepting general sensory data as useful and it has been a slow road out of the deep.
I have no idea if this is relevant to your questions, but since my original response was a little off maybe this is closer?
Agreed. I find that often it isn't so much that I find the thought process intrinsically pleasurable (affective), but that in thinking about it too much, I over-stimulate the trace of the argument so that after a while I can't recall the subtleties and can't locate the support. After about 7 comments back and forth, I feel like a champion for a cause (no objective values RESULTS IN NIHILISM!!) that I can't relate to anymore. Then I need to step back and not care about it for a while, and maybe the cause will spontaneously generate again, or perhaps I'll have learned enough weighting in another direction that the cause never takes off again.