• The bitter American
    Praxis' testosterone went down when he lost the status conferred by having the accepted answer. Now he is seeking to displace his aggression to recoup the loss.

    He is on his way to kill Alyona Ivanovna, that rent seeking wallstreet bitch. Good riddance... but maybe we should ring the police to save us the nightmare that is a Dostoevsky length novel.
  • Has Evangelical Christianity Become Sociopathic?
    Their thinking is no different than the kind of savage theology practiced by Muslim fundamentalists -- cutting off the hands of thieves, killing women for shaming the family, or throwing homosexuals off the roofs of buildings. — BitterCrank

    Just read a passage from Robert Sapolsky's new book, Behave, about honor cultures of today evolving out of the savagery of pastoralism (possibly the early American frontier).

    "What constitutes an honor killing? Someone does something considered to tarnish the reputation of the family. A family member then kills the despoiler, often publicly, thereby regaining face."

    ***

    In the rare instances of men being subject to honor killings, the typical cause is homosexuality. "

     — Robert Sapolsky, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

    Worldwide, monotheism is relatively rare; to the extent that it does occur, it is disproportionately likely among desert pastoralists (while rain forest dwellers are atypically likely to be polytheistic). This makes sense. Deserts teach tough, singular things, a world reduced to simple, desiccated furnace-blasted basics that are approached with deep fatalism. " Iam the Lord your God" and "there is but one god and his name is Allah" and "there will be no gods before me" -- dictates like these proliferate... — R. Sapolsky, Behave
  • Has Evangelical Christianity Become Sociopathic?
    The effectiveness of re-tooling or exploiting belief to make money is just a fact of human behavior (innovation satisfying basic needs, doing what works for you).

    Evangelicals historically probably had to sell other stuff beside their bibles to make a living. It's that guy who has bibles on one half of his coat and pornography on the other. An apt illustration of human nature (of the entrepreneur) if there ever was one.
  • What is the most life changing technology so far
    Haber process (nitrogen fixation) behind the combustion engine.

    about half of the nitrogen atoms in the body of an average person living in a developed country once passed through a chemical plant and participated in the nitrogen-to-ammonia Haber-Bosch reaction. Perhaps no other human invention has had a more dramatic impact on Earth than Haber-Bosch chemistry. — Steven K. Ritter

    Article: https://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/86/8633cover3box2.html

    Legumes (see crop rotation) and lightning are the pre-industrial nitrogen fixers.
  • The Pot of Gold at the End of Time
    Just inflate the operating metaphor of propagation without poetic shame.

    Every act is an act of bearing children (replication of acts). To be is to propagate the world with its own features. This is suggestive of memetic theory.

    Not procreating in this metaphorical sense is impossible unless you're dead. I suppose this is more an idea of inescapable karmic recurrence.
  • What do you think the world is lacking?
    An efficient use and a more equal distribution of very basic local resources.

    Two old farts next door not farming their farmland, mowing because people mow.

    40,000 gallon aesthetic pond (water in the drain) I maintain, using potable city and county water.

    Absurd... Water + Land = Sandwich Trees
  • The pros and cons of president Trump
    Trump believes in faux gilded stuff, Russian autocrats and Alex Jones narratives. I don't know enough about domestic and international problems, history, et cetera... to have a worthwhile opinion on the matter of his merits.

    He reminds me of a wanna-be mob boss, aspiring to be Putin like, a patriarchal conservative monarch of the plutocratic elite. Anecdotes about his character are seldom flattering.

    It's funny how it's okay (unstoppable) that currency can pass all boundaries and limits for the process of wealth accumulation but people cannot.
  • Is linear time just a mental illusion?
    The most distant end of the future is supposed to be timeless with regard to a high state entropy.

    There is a flavor of non-linear time in the experience of recurrent phenomena. The coffee I'm drinking this morning is the same as the coffee I drank yesterday morning. The learned patterns by which I navigate the world recur, just like every tomorrow will have a 7:00 am (with the Sun at it's seasonal point). We can time stamp a peculiar set of relations relative to another periodic phenomenon but I might soon forget.

    Everything that matters, that remembers itself, that persists in-itself, is enabled by recurrence in contrast with change. As the poet, William Blake, said two minutes ago: "Eternity is in love with the productions of time."

    The body that I inhabit today is by some measures the same as it was yesterday but different by some other measures. You can and can't step in the same river twice, depending upon whether it is (provisionally) the same river you're stepping in.
  • On being overwhelmed
    As you will notice, we have, at this forum, a few people whose referentless angry-noises are a reminder of our grunt-animal evolutionary heritage. — Ossipoff

    Oaaarghhhh! Oahooooooo...Ohhhhweeeee!
  • On being overwhelmed
    Flee from this place. These decadent armchair windbags will be your downfall (or consummate marriage).
  • Give me an idea..... I mean it literally.
    "There is no inktellectual exercise that is not ultimately useless."

    This is a variant of a Borges quote shelved somewhere in his universal library.

    I have a recurrent day dream about medical students reading tattooed instructions on how to fashion a magical fetish from my bones, something like the One Ring or a Horcrux by which my imaginary soul continues to wreak its ineffectuality and nonsense in the world.

    “Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-ra, the ever-living!”
    ~Mumra
  • Can an eternity last only a moment?
    Mircea Eliade's work might be worth exploring. He tries to articulate the difference between our modern linear conception of time and mythic (cyclic) time and the resulting existential attitudes evoked.

    Mythic time is a play or performance of world structuring/ordering myth, a recurrence of sacred forms and that which is of tradition or by necessity valued. The profane in his scheme is akin to chaos or the ignored possibilities of new ways of being and doing, that which doesn't enter into the mythic reproduction (or actual cyclic return, like 7:00 am every morning, the sun rising every morning, revolving habits, et cetera.

    Eliade believed that mythic time protected our forebears from the anxiety of an unknown and uncontrolled future full of contingency which we as moderns now have to live with. A belief in eternal return attenuates the modern fear of death. Though the myth of Buddhism represents this anxiety of time again with eternal return. We're now anxious of sufferings of an eternal return in this veil of illusions.

    Leading up to that, the person is already in Timelessness, not expecting, wanting or knowing of the existence of anything else. — Ossipoff

    We're hinting here at the psychological value of eternity and timelessness as an experience rather than an unknowableness (Nothing) that exists between experience.

    This moment here (now!) is the fleeting moment (eternity) before death.
  • Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor
    I want one of them to walk away from the fight and disappoint those who would be disappointed by it.

    I'm rooting for whoever is a disappointment or a spontaneous pacifist.
  • What pisses you off?
    Displacement aggression is such a relief. I have to displace the pissing off by pissing off something else.
  • Can an eternity last only a moment?
    This is the premise of a short story by J.L Borges, The Secret Miracle.
    Hladik spends a paralyzed year of time (a suspended moment of subjective time) before a firing squad with which he is able to finish a work of fiction (in his head) before he is killed.

    Jacobs Ladder (film) is another, where the protagonist is living a second hallucinatory dream life at the moment of death.

    There is also the Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (by Ouspensky) where a man gets the chance at reliving his life with the intention to change its direction but is oddly is unable to do so. Things play out exactly as they had before despite the knowledge he has about it. So in a way he is just a passive observer (ie. suspended in time) to what has already occurred.

    Then there is Groundhog Day (film) which deals with the eternal recurrence of a single day. So while the protagonist can learn and benefit from the passage of time he is somewhat cell bound but also liberated by the phenomena of recurrence.

    There is Nietzsche's idea Eternal Recurrence but perhaps there is another thread for that. What use did N. think this thought experiment had, I'm not sure? What insight can be gained from these fictional scenarios and though experiments?

    You can ask what happens in these fictional scenarios or how they relate to our actual experience with time and knowledge that we are going to die. We're a bit special with regard to the awareness of our own mortality and our the culturally contemporary impressed fears about death. Could it be otherwise? Is it otherwise for other people?
  • 'It is what it is', meaning?
    As I mentioned at the other topic where this came up the other day, "It is what it is", is a meaningless truism, conveying no information, saying nothing. — Ossipoff

    "It is what it is" is but a shadow, a poor truism
    That appears and is judged upon this forum
    And then is heard no more: it is a tale
    Told by a mind, full of banal cogitations,
    Signifying nothing.

    ~Michillam Shakessipoff
  • Is it ethical to have hobbies?
    If your other hobbie (career) is sourced in some kind of exploitation (ex. selling over priced diamonds or commemorative coins on QVC, sex trafficking, selling poison) and you feel guilty about this then you may want to attenuate this guilt by charity. Then you can give the charity back to those you are unfairly exploiting as a consolation for the inescapable violence of being.

    Just remember, every vinyl disc requires a virginal sacrifice to the Sun to come into being. They call them blood vinyl in my culture. Willing sacrificial virgins are a dime a dozen though, so you've nothing to worry about.
  • What pisses you off?
    That reminds me: people who say cliche lines right out of a book in response to negative situations. Bonus points if you just opened up to them or asked them for personal advice. — Chany

    Yeah, well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Duh.
  • What pisses you off?
    ↪Michael Ossipoff


    Your reply is insufficient but it is what it is. It could've been other than what it was.
  • What pisses you off?
    Everything happens for a reason. Say what you will about it, but it is what it is.
  • Why? Philo? not Agape or Eros?
    Don't forget about divisions of Eros as conveyed in personified deities.

    Pothos (Sehnsucht), desire for the dead or missing, a lack, the unobtainable, the past.

    Pothosophy (wandering the necropolis or desert in search of life, wandering the vale of illusion in search for truth or wisdom which is never satisfying, never ceasing, never a sufficient substitute for unmet needs, like other kinds of love)
  • What is spiritual beauty?
    I guess the following is just about affective realism...

    Perhaps the Pieta was associated with warmth in Cavacava's memory because it was inside a warmer place (inside rather than outside). If the Pieta was luminous for viewing it might further strengthen the the association, especially if the background was much darker, the way an experience of a fire place does in winter.

    The coldness of death (the effects of winter exposure) juxtaposed with the memory of a mother's love (warmth of a caressing body). Mary is inside, grieving (not hysterically since she is quite silent, stoic) over a corpse (which is quite fresh, sterile and pure like the marble it's made out of). Mary is the hearth (source of warmth and light). Mary is a good ma (not an uncaring selfish vindictive bitch who is suffering from Munchausen by proxy syndrome) .

    The light attenuates the subtle universal anxiety of darkness, the warmth attenuates the uncomfortable cold, the marble does not stink of death, et cetera.
  • What is motivation?
    But at the moment, there is no tea, and therefore no pleasure. The pleasure that has not yet happened cannot be the cause of its own production. It can only then be the pain of thirst. — unenlightened

    Likely you're lacking a bit here. Dopamine peaks at a much higher level to get you to make tea than when you're actually drinking it. Desire/anticipation is pleasurable(?) or motivating. Apparently worn out amphetamine users get high before the drug enters their system by anticipation and a conditioned reward circuit.

  • What is motivation?
    Is there a contemporary theory about sublimation (Freud's idea) that works or is relevant to explaining motivation? Hunger, sexual or social desire, status seeking, and pain avoidance could all be very fundamental to what moves us to do anything.

    We play games where the pathway of reward is intelligible (we know what folks expect from us in this setting). The dopaminergic reward system helps to habituate patterns of conduct that help us satisfy instinctual needs in a socially acceptable way.

    The variable reward (ratio) schedule of the forum might explain why folks here are attracted to come back. There must be a dopaminergic reward in worthy types of positive feedback relative to the expectations or needs of the poster.
  • What is spiritual beauty?
    Isn't it a kind of category error. Sure brainwaves may indicate thought, but they are not thoughts, they are brain waves. — Nils Loc

    I'm not sure what the significance is of category error.

    In those articles it appears that interoceptive or exteroceptive status (ie. whether or not you are hungry or horny, suffering, cold, hot etcetera) heavily influences value appraisal and what you read or project into an aesthetic construct or object at any time.
  • What is spiritual beauty?
    Scientific American: The Neuroscience of Beauty

    NYT: A Small Part of the Brain and Its Profound Effects
  • Denial of Death and extreme Jihadism
    It's not hard to imagine the state of being and existential conditions in which one would die or kill for a cause.

    There are some crazy historical scenarios of ritual suicide and sacrifice. Indian kings cutting off parts of their body in front of everyone, Native Americans joyfully (?) being killed by their captors, Japanese sticking a knife in their gut in a public display of Seppuku, wives being burned alive with deceased husbands (Sati), Mayan ball game winners partaking in voluntary sacrifice, a sacrifice to the cornerstone of the city state, entire servant retinues being killed and interred with the a king...

    I think we fear death too much in our Western culture.
  • Consequences of death awareness
    Scientific American: Fear, Death and Politics: What Your Mortality Has to Do with the Upcoming Election

    Mortality Salience (wikipedia)

    Terror Management Theory (Wikipedia)

    It seems that being reminded of death brings about a negative effect, enhancing the sense of your own importance and the importance of your own culture and group whatever it may be based on as opposed to 'others'. — eddiedean

    Why not just characterize this as a "positive" effect, especially in rare cases where an existential threat (terror) is imminent like war. The amplification on "self-esteem" by MS would make sense as an evolutionary adaptation, priming the brain in facilitating action, decision-making and movement to avoid death.
  • What is spiritual beauty?
    Some ideas that could work into your absurdly beautiful and tragic narrations:

    Sublimation -- An indirect or learned means to fulfill desire. Putting desire to work for you, or the effects of limits placed on desire.

    Sehnsucht -- Unfulfilled desire which no attempt quite satisfies, whether we undertake philosophical or poetic means or not to try to fulfill that desire. A desire for something dead or passed, nostalgia for the most beautiful time, the 1st of times, for God, for the ideal, et cetera.

    Dopaminergic Reward System-- Greed is good. Every time around you have to transcend the base rate to maintain addiction. Without dopamine beauty isn't what it is. Beauty helps you to bootstrap (lure you) out or into situations with the promise of reward.

    Maya (Veil of Illusion) -- Beauty Incarnate beyond which Nothing Exists. Endless sublimations, sehnsuchts and dopamine hits that go on and on until death. Symbolizing the whole in a nutshell (or in a part) by sheer force of illusion.
  • Consequences of death awareness
    Judges give higher bonds, people are less open to other cultures and religions, etc. — eddiedean

    Could you unpack and explain this a bit more with regard to death awareness. Any links to share about how such experiments were conducted.

    How does one know when a judge is aware of his own mortality versus when he is not and whether that significantly (or statistically) influences such decisions?
  • Create your World
    Where's Nil Loc when you need him. — praxis

    It's all about Bitter Crank or John Rawls really. They're the cat's meow and the answer to all questions.

    Now I will go and cry, alone, in my closet... (burning Praxis in effigy).
  • Extroversion feels fake / phony
    Most cashiers I encounter don't say much that isn't related to the utility of the transaction. A few of them are somewhat dour with an inverted Mona Lisa's smile.

    I found UK cashiers seemingly more gloomy and disinterested than USA cashiers from my locality.

    Hair cutting folks are the small talk monsters.
  • The World Doesn't Exist
    The thing in itself (ie. the world pre world) needs an observer to be known.

    Without senses and the apparatus of perception you can't sense the objects of sense or perceive perceptions.

    Whether the world exists without an observer is not an interesting question. You might as well flip a coin for the answer.

    Are we in a simulation? When we find out, we'll find out.
  • Extroversion feels fake / phony
    Obviously we see why there would be an intolerance for shyness in the service industry. Extroverted traits and pro social skills will always be preferred in these settings.

    There is a small part of my job that requires superficial social interaction and small talk. Several times I've reflected that my behavior might've seemed rude but it is never intentional, just a poor response because I'm pressed for time and don't know how cut it short.

    I think conversation is a social skill and that you can down regulate the fear response that gets in the way with practice. Just because it feels fake now doesn't mean it will always feel fake.

    Why isn't all the anonymous conversation generated here not an example of extroversion? Do your posts feel phony to you?
  • Geographic awareness and thinking, where are you?
    The earth is flat, last I heard.
  • Is Misanthropy right?
    A Darwinian version of the question would be under what social conditions could misanthropic beliefs be more adaptive than they are now (as opposed to maladaptive).

    If for instance we all lived in a Cormac McCarthy novel like The Road (societal collapse), or Blood Meridian (lawless wild west) default paranoia and doubt about the intent of others might help you to survive.

    Misanthropy is a post hoc rationalization for reinforcing or conserving behavior, that emerges out of any number of painful experiences where trust in others was repeatedly abused or exploited. You learn to distrust others if it generally saves you trouble (but compared to what?).
  • Intellectual life offers no financial reward
    Is there room for such thing as an intellectual fool in your narrative?
  • My shot at the popular "meaning of life" topic
    always choose the ability to create X over X itself



    Do the ends justify the means?
  • Dreaming.
    Only two recurrent types of lucid dreaming that I can remember well. One is about driving blind.

    I realize that I'm trying to overcome the sleep paralysis that keeps my lids closed and there is intense effort and strain to open my eyes but I can't. Meanwhile in the dream I'm usually driving, both memorable accounts being a motorcycle and a limo with something like Gweneth Paltrow and Tom Hanks in the back seat (I saw them even though I couldn't open my eyes). I actually think I'm getting real visual data that is interfering what I see in the dream (blurrrr).

    The other is hovering by tilting forward. It's like flying or floating but my toes nearly drag on the ground.
  • Random thoughts
    "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed"

    Thorongil is not impressed. Who is impressed that he is not impressed?

    The quality of this rug (a quilt of rags) does not justify its price.

    The quality of this person does not justify his/her existence (here).

    Bench # 52.
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