What a fun exploration of an idea! That if we're living in a universe with a creator (simulation or otherwise), even if we're blocked from knowledge of higher purposes, we might be able to pick up some hints from looking at the nature of the universe itself.
And the three items Scott points out are clever: (a) there are secret depths that pay rewards in exchange for structured intelligence, aka math and science, (b) many religious and psychedelic experiences report similar experiences of interconnectedness and higher meaning, (c) the world is set up in such a way that almost everyone experiences certain important things: love, suffering, growth, family, etc.
I'm sure this has been discussed to death in some branch of metaphysics - can anyone share pointers to interesting material? I feel like Bostrom's simulation hypothesis opens up a lot of space here that hasn't been fully explored yet (but I could be wrong).
>What a fun exploration of an idea! That if we're living in a universe with a creator (simulation or otherwise), even if we're blocked from knowledge of higher purposes, we might be able to pick up some hints from looking at the nature of the universe itself.
But that's a very human-centric view of reality, isn't it? Sure, we are humans, so we can't (don't want to?) think in a different way. Other living entities in this planet do not experiment all the 3 points above (or at least that's what we know). Who knows what other living entities experiment out there in the universe?
It's difficult to extrapolate meaning about reality with a sample of N=1 (humanity), but I guess we can't do better for the moment.
From a different, Christian perspective: human-centered view of reality is defined by the Creator of humans. Who also deems that humans are responsible / stewards of all other living entities on the planet. So, not human-centric in sense of we determine our own reality, but is human-centric in that humans are placed in a position of responsibility.
"Go to the ant" means "learn from the ant" not "abandon human-like thinking and always see reality as the ant does" (human-centric) because God says to do so (not human-centric).
In ideal world quantum entanglement is possible at any scale, but because their resources are limited, we can entangle only very small objects. They just don't have the resources to entangle larger objects so they introduced decoherence to keep entangled area small.
His full-length online novel was the funnest thing I've read in the last decade: https://unsongbook.com/ (a little googling will also turn up Kindle/ePub versions)
I went in skeptical, but I was quickly won over. I almost wonder if this is the next incarnation of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. And author seems young too. If I ever see hope for humanity, it is with works such as these.
Same, I didn't know what to expect when I started reading. Initially, (for the first two petitioners) I was expecting this to be one of those "how to optimise yourself" blogs that have been quite popular on HN and the author was using the idols for some sort of allegory to make a point. I'm glad I continued reading, what a delightful story.
Interpretations of I-Ching
divination seem to show the same: you can't gain "useful information", but you absorb background knowledge and understand your own motives better(like rubber duck debugging forces you to reify your mental model)
> Finally they transfer you to an easier assignment in the Moscow embassy. You make Vladimir Putin’s phone start ringing at weird hours of the night so that he never gets enough sleep to think entirely clearly. It’s an easy job, but rewarding, and no assassins ever bother you again.
I'm actually somewhat impressed by 'suction'. They managed to find probably the least interesting, but most inflammatory take. That must be deliberate trolling?
And the three items Scott points out are clever: (a) there are secret depths that pay rewards in exchange for structured intelligence, aka math and science, (b) many religious and psychedelic experiences report similar experiences of interconnectedness and higher meaning, (c) the world is set up in such a way that almost everyone experiences certain important things: love, suffering, growth, family, etc.
I'm sure this has been discussed to death in some branch of metaphysics - can anyone share pointers to interesting material? I feel like Bostrom's simulation hypothesis opens up a lot of space here that hasn't been fully explored yet (but I could be wrong).