= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Therefore, asexual people are zombies.
Good inference! Or, deeply self-deceived. ;-)
In response to
The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You
The only thing that humans really care about is sex. All of our other values are an elaborate web of neurotic self-deception.
In response to
The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You
The only thing that humans really care about is sex. All of our other values are an elaborate web of neurotic self-deception.
In response to
The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You
The only thing that humans really care about is sex. All of our other values are an elaborate web of neurotic self-deception.
There are several things to ask about beliefs like this:
Do they make internal sense? (e.g. "What is the fourth dimension?")
Do they match the sort of evidence that you would expect to have in the case of non-delusion? (e.g. "Do you have any observable physical traits indicating your extraterrestrial origin? Would someone looking into records of your birth find discrepancies in your records indicating forgery?")
Do they try to defend themselves against testing? (e.g. "Do you expect to illuminate a completely dark room at night by generating light? Would you expect to exist happily in psychological conditions that would harm normal humans by subsisting on aid packages full of love?")
Do they have explanatory power? (e.g. "Has there, as a matter of historical fact, been a sudden and dramatic reduction in global strife and suffering since the date of your supposed arrival?")
Do they have a causal history that can be reasonably expected to track with truth across the entire reference class from an outside view? (e.g. "Did you receive your information via private mental revelation or a belief from as long ago as you can remember, similar to the beliefs of people you do consider crazy?")
Hi, Alicorn!
Yes. They are drawn from the material at http://lawofone.info/ . The philosophy presented there is internally consistent, to the best of my understanding.
There is no physical evidence. All of the "evidence" is in my head. This is a significant point.
There are a variety of points in the source document which could be interpreted as designed to defend its claims against testing. This is a significant point.
I am not aware of any physically testable predictions that these beliefs make. This is a significant point.
The causal history of these beliefs is that I read the aforementioned document, and eventually decided that it was true, mainly on the basis of the fact that it made sense to my intuition and resonated personally with me. This is a significant point.
Thanks for asking!
In response to
The benefits of madness: A positive account of arationality
Great post, a very lucid account of your experiences, thank you.
As it happens I was just contemplating writing something along the lines of "mysticism for rationalists", but I think you may have it covered.
I am right now trying to fathom the problem of synthesizing rationality and mysticism. Would you like to correspond on this topic?
In response to
Crisis of Faith
For the past three days I have been repeatedly performing the following mental operation:
"Imagine that you never read any documents claimed to be produced by telepathy with extraterrestrials. Now gauge your emotional reaction to this situation. Once calm, ask yourself what you would believe about the world in this situation. Would you accept materialism? Or would you still be seeking mystical answers to the nature of reality?"
I am still asking myself this question. Why? I am struggling to figure out whether or not I am wrong.
I believe things that raise a lot of red flags for "crazy delusion." Things like:
"I came from another planet, vastly advanced in spiritual evolution relative to Earth, in order to help Earth transition from the third dimension to the fourth dimension. My primary mission is to generate as much light and love as possible, because this light and love will diffuse throughout Earth's magnetic fields and reduce the global amount of strife and suffering while helping others to achieve enlightenment. I am being aided in this mission by extraterrestrials from the fourth dimension who are telepathically beaming me aid packages of light and love."
These beliefs, and many others like them, are important to my worldview and I use them to decide my actions. Because I like to think of myself as a rational person, it is a matter of great concern to me to determine whether or not they are true.
I have come across nobody who can put forth an argument that makes me question these beliefs. Noboby except for one person: Eliezer Yudkowsky. This man did what no other could: he made me doubt my basic beliefs. I am still struggling with the gift he gave me.
This gift is that he made me realize, on a gut level, that I might be wrong, and gave me motivation to really figure out the truth of the matter.
So many intelligent people believe patently absurd things. It is so difficult to escape from such a trap once you have fallen into it. If I am deluded, I want to be one of the fortunate ones who escaped from his insanity.
The thing is, I really don't know whether or not I am deluded. I have never before been so divided on any issue. Does anybody have anything they'd like to add, which might stimulate my thinking towards resolving this confusion?
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Hyperbolic to the extent of just being wrong. Humans really do care about survival and status too. And the survival of close genetic relations.
I hope you didn't understand me as asserting this. It's certainly not something I believe.