= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Do you have the script that you use on your Github?
No; my script only contains the handful of unicode characters I commonly use, and is so idiosyncratic to me that it wouldn't be of much use to anyone else (mine includes autoreplacements for directories, email addresses I commonly type, etc.). But it's easy enough to make your own with whatever characters you use -- the syntax is simply
::text-to-replace::desired-replacement
::alpha::α
::em::—
etc.
In response to
Crazy Ideas Thread
I just started using the MessagEase keyboard on Android.
It has a nice feature whereby pressing alⓒ gives you α and beⓒ gives you β.
On the other hand I have to press Alt +3B1 or Alt 224 to get α in windows and that's extremly difficult to remember. I think it would be great if somebody would write a program that also allows me easy access to such unicode characters on windows.
I use Autohotkey on Windows for that purpose.
Networks of the Brain by Olaf Sporns certainly doesn't cover all of computational neuroscience, but is a good accessible introduction to using the tools of network theory to gain a better understanding of brain function at many different levels.
In response to
Recovery Manual for Civilization
One could bury Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, or a bunch of other items suggested by The Long Now Foundation
Since no one's yet included the links to the Long Now Foundation's blog posts in which they discuss suggestions for such items and other projects that are attempts in this direction, here they are:
http://blog.longnow.org/02010/04/06/manual-for-civilization/
http://blog.longnow.org/category/manual-for-civilization/manual-book-lists/
In response to
Negative visualization, radical acceptance and stoicism
I find that negative visualization in conjunction with Mark Williams' guided meditation "Exploring Difficulties" is useful for getting me in that stoic mindset of being more okay with a worst-case scenario. (Or at least, I hope so - I guess I'll see how well it worked if the worst-case scenario ever comes to pass.)
In response to
Lesswrong 2016 Survey
[Survey Taken Thread]
By ancient tradition, if you take the survey you may comment saying you have done so here, and people will upvote you and you will get karma.
Let's make these comments a reply to this post. That way we continue the tradition, but keep the discussion a bit cleaner.
In response to
Open Thread March 21 - March 27, 2016
How many of you guys keep a journal? How many of you would like to? What do you specifically write down?
I feel like it should help, but I have trouble coming up with a structure with which it could: Opening up a journal, with separate sections for work done, (and TODOs for the future, and how these two diverged), exercise, and others seems more useful than one with a massed 'Dear Diary' format.
I keep a daily journal. Beginning of day: Two things that I'm grateful for. End of day: Two things that went well that day, two things that could have gone better. Each "thing" is usually only a sentence or few long. I find that going back through the end-of-day sentences every so often is useful for doing 80-20 analyses to find out what seems to be bringing me the most happiness / dissatisfaction (at least as judged by my end-of-day assessments).
In response to
Open Thread March 21 - March 27, 2016
t;dr how do you cope with death?
My dog has cancer in his liver and spleen, and learning this has strongly exacerbated some kind of predisposition towards being vulnerable to depression. He's an old dog so it probably wouldn't have changed his life expectancy THAT much, but it's still really sad. If you're not a pet person this might be counterintuitive, but to me it's losing a friend, and the things people say to me are mostly unhelpful. Which is why I'm posting it here specifically: the typical coping memes about doggy heaven or death as some profoundly important part of Nature are ruined for me. So I wanted to ask how people here deal with this sort of thing. Especially on the cognitive end of things, what types of frames and self talk you used. I do already know the basics, like exercise and diet and meditation, but I sure wouldn't mind a new insight on getting myself to actually do that stuff when I'm this down.
I've thought about cryopreserving him, but even if that were a good way to use the money I just don't think I can afford it. All I'll have is an increasingly vague and emotionally distant memory, I guess, and it sucks. I've been regretting not valuing him more during his peak health, as well, although maybe I'd always feel guilty for anything short of having been perfect.
I've been thinking a lot about chapter 12 of HPMOR, and trying play with and video and pamper him while I can. I don't want to say "fuck, it's too late" about anything else. It's the best thing I can think of right now.
This whole business with seeking Slytherin's secrets... seemed an awful lot like the sort of thing where, years later, you would look back and say, 'And that was where it all started going wrong.'
And he would wish desperately for the ability to fall back through time and make a different choice...
Wish granted. Now what?
I'm very sorry to hear about your dog. It's a very difficult thing to go through even without any predisposition towards depression.
This is probably an idiosyncratic thing that only helps me, but I find remembering that time is a dimension just like space helps a little bit. In the little slice of time I inhabit, a pet or person who has passed on is gone. From a higher-dimensional perspective, they haven't gone anywhere. If someone were to be capable of observing from a higher dimension, they could see the deceased just as I remember them in life. So in the same way that someone whose children are living far from home can remind themselves that their children are in another place, likewise your dog is* living happily in another time. *English doesn't quite have a tense that conveys the sentiment I want to convey, but I think you get the idea. Don't know if that line of thought does anything for you - I find it a small but useful comfort.
Re actually doing exercise/positive self-talk when you're down, setting up little conditionals that I make into automatic habits by following them robotically has sometimes worked for me. "IF notice self getting anxious - THEN take five minute walk outside". Obviously setting up those in the first place and following through on them the first n times only works when in an OK mood, but once they become habits they're easier to follow through on in more difficult states of mind. I've also found the Negative Self-Talk/Positive Thinking table at the bottom of the page here to be useful.
But hard things are hard no matter what. Sounds like you're doing the right thing now by making the most of the time you have together. Best of luck to you.
No, I don't think it remains to be seen.
How large a human population can Earth support without agriculture, do you think?
That's the point of the article: agriculture allowed the Earth to support a vastly larger human population than it could have otherwise, but at a cost.
Personally I'm more optimistic than the author of the article I linked that the median quality of life of a human on Planet Earth will ultimately exceed the median quality of life of a human on an Earth where agriculture had never been developed -- in fact I think there's a good chance that that's already the case. But I don't think it's completely obvious, for reasons the author describes in detail.
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(had the idea after seeing this)
Each person's vote should be weighed by their life expectancy given their age.
(ETA: I will downvote any comment in this subthread discussing the object-level issue of whether Britain had better stay in the EU, no matter how reasonable and insightful it is.)
This seems like a slippery slope. Minorities tend to have shorter life expectancies than whites, at least in the U.S. and U.K. Do their votes then count for less?