Philosophical Questions: Remembered
Dec. 3rd, 2022 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithPeople have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.
How long will you be remembered after you die?
That depends on whether it's personal memory (the remaining lifespan of people who knew me, so maybe 50 years or so) or my writing (which depends on its popularity, but could potentially be thousands of years).
How long will you be remembered after you die?
That depends on whether it's personal memory (the remaining lifespan of people who knew me, so maybe 50 years or so) or my writing (which depends on its popularity, but could potentially be thousands of years).
tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-04 05:33 am (UTC)to me, the meaning of life is whatever's stopping you from killing yourself. if we really believed that life was meaningless we would all have ended our own lives. we persist for some reason, and that reason is the meaning of life.
"Why don’t we as a species take more advantage of the fact that we have almost infinite knowledge available to us?"
because deep down we know that ignorance is bliss.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-04 05:47 am (UTC)Good argument.
>> because deep down we know that ignorance is bliss.<<
While many people subscribe to this belief, my approach to knowledge is "devour everything in reach then go looking for more."
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-04 07:23 am (UTC)what kind of knowledge do you usually try to devour? is there a way that you keep yourself sane when learning something unpleasant, or to stop from going mad with so many questions? or in your experience has learning been pleasant enough that it doesn't require any coping?
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-04 08:59 am (UTC)I agree. The University of Utah framed it best.
>> have you heard of that experiment where flies grow legs from their heads? <<
Thank you! That was a fascinating read. I have explored a lot of genetics, and was aware of the reduplication effect and the iteration of a base concept into multiple subtypes, but I had not seen the vocabulary for it. That is a fantastic intro page so I linked it, my audience will love that.
>> knowledge for the sake of knowledge is something i can get behind <<
I enjoy both theoretical and practical knowledge.
>> so long as it's ethically sound <<
I also enjoy studying ethical systems. All of them. A favorite exercise is to take a current issue or moral dilemma, run it down a list of ethical systems, and solve it using the principles of each.
>> and won't drive you mad--so maybe certain subjects aren't as bad as others. <<
Linguistics, philosophy, ethics, religions, and politics are all systems that can break people's reality tunnels if yours isn't resilient. Math is much safer until you get into the far-out reaches like quantum physics. So is music.
>> knowledge-hungry scientists often have questionable ethics, <<
Painfully true. Science often attracts people who are more cerebral and less social. This means they consistently miss the fucking stupid things people will do with their inventions. It's not only weaponized stuff. The guy who invented the Keurig Cup regrets it. I could've warned him that would happen. Honestly, I think scientists in general and inventors in particular would benefit from the insights of an interdisciplinary ethics team, and not just the scanty ones they have here to minimize lawbreaking.
>> and there's the infamous existential dread that many philosophers are plagued with.<<
I think if philosophy makes you miserable, you are probably doing it wrong -- unless you got into philosophy because you already tend to ruminate, in which case it is not philosophy's fault.
I mean, sure, studying things like "what makes an S-risk and how can we prevent that?" or "why do so many souls not know what is on their life list?" can be depressing. But philosophy can also study uplifting things like "where does altruism come from?" or "what causes happiness?"
>> most of the time, questions just lead to more questions,<<
I read a poem in which the author climbed a mountain, and say beyond it mountains upon mountains, and despaired.
I thought, "Dude, if that doesn't excite you, then you are not cut out to be a mountain climber!" Those are the folks who climb mountains just because they are there.
Similarly, this excites me. It is reassuring to know that I will never run out of new things to explore. Even for an old soul, there are new experiences. I rarely get to watch a language during a period of high-change, and English is doing that right now. :D
I know that a few planets become dominated by colonial organisms rather than singletons, but it's rare because singletons tend to evolve first and lock down the ecosystem. But every so occasionally, something smacks down an ecosystem in a way that favors colonials. Like say, climate change and the man o' war. They might just have a chance to grab the brass ring and take over. I've never seen that before. It's exciting. Sure, it's sad that Earth is losing its biodiversity and megafauna. But after every previous mass extinction, Gaia has come up with something even better. That's my version of optimism. It weirds people out.
>> and i refuse to let myself live in perpetual dissatisfaction. those things alone are enough to keep me happily living under my rock! <<
Do what works for you.
>> what kind of knowledge do you usually try to devour? <<
Pretty much anything. I have a lot of topics that I really love -- language, nature, writing, etc. But I will read the back of a cereal box, or whatever is on the front of a newspaper left on a table. My house is lined with books. Thousands of them are F&SF novels, our Pagan reference library is also over a thousand, I have a whole short bookcase of language and linguistics. I also have one book on ice skating, and lots of other random topics where I picked up a reference that just looked interesting.
>> is there a way that you keep yourself sane when learning something unpleasant, <<
I spend a majority of my time exploring topics I enjoy. When dealing with topics that suck, I tend to read in shorter sessions, stop when it gets to bothering me, and go do something pleasant for a while. I'm pretty good at sequestering things in my head if I need to. "Don't believe everything you think." Though admittedly, as the world in general becomes more miserable, I have less energy left over for this type of work.
>> or to stop from going mad with so many questions? <<
Most people seem to outgrow the "why" phase. Those who don't become scientists, philosophers, writers, poets. There are individual questions or lines of questioning that bother me, especially if I can't resolve them. But just having lots of questions is not troublesome for me; it's just how my mind works.
I'd been writing Polychrome Heroics for a while when I noticed that nobody ever seemed to wait more than 5-10 minutes or walk more than a few blocks to catch a bus. That's way better than here. So I wondered why that was, and dug into it. Terramagne-American cities have a much more robust public transportation system, although it is still denser in the middle and thinner at the far edges. Then I wondered how they were doing that, so I dug further. Turns out their whole federal budget is different, and a lot more goes to mass transit. But that revealed a lot of other differences, like the National Endowment for the Arts has a hundred times more money there than here. Another difference with transportation is that most big groups -- apartment buildings, community centers, malls, etc. -- have their own buses and other transportation, which takes weight off the municipal system. That's the kind of thing I get curious about, and it leads to some very different stories than the mainstream typically tells.
>> or in your experience has learning been pleasant enough that it doesn't require any coping? <<
I enjoy learning when it suits my interests and abilities. School was mostly very unsuited to my needs and was frustrating. I spent years stuck in classes I literally could have taught better myself. There were times I restored to torture resistance techniques to cope with that. I don't feel that I should've had to reopen those skills in a damn school. >_< But schools here are not really about education, so that was a bad fit all around.
Now that I am free to study as I please, it rarely requires coping skills.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 12:58 am (UTC)i love that mountain climbing metaphor! i suppose i'm like the guy who isn't cut out to climb mountains lol. in my case, infinite questions plus a mental disorder that causes endless rumination is just a recipe for disaster. that being said, i love learning about lesbian history and i simply can't stop myself from wanting to devour as much genshin impact lore as possible. we all have our interests, i guess. nobody truly hates knowledge--i think some of us are just more wary of it.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 01:50 am (UTC)Well, if we don't we'll never revive the Carolina parakeets or passenger pigeons we wiped out, and I'd like to do that.
As a general rule, it's a bad idea to gengineer things that see you as food, or otherwise are extremely dangerous. You really have to think about what it's for, how it will survive, how you're going to maintain control if it's something you don't want getting loose.
Gengingeers in this society are mostly going down the "don't" list like it's a set of goals, with the possible exception of human experimentation. My bet is people are doing that, just keeping it quiet.
>> here's another meme that resonates with me. i suspect that you'll disagree with it, but probably find it funny as well.<<
Broken link. :(
>> in my case, infinite questions plus a mental disorder that causes endless rumination is just a recipe for disaster. <<
I have an extrapolative engine in my head. It absolutely will get into trouble if I don't take care to keep it pointed in productive directions. It cannot simultaneously plot an epic and ruminate on climate change. But it takes practice to learn what will occupy it and how to keep it busy.
>> that being said, i love learning about lesbian history and i simply can't stop myself from wanting to devour as much genshin impact lore as possible. <<
That's cool.
>> we all have our interests, i guess. nobody truly hates knowledge--i think some of us are just more wary of it.<<
It's certainly true that some are more wary than others. But some people are just hostile to the idea of knowledge, and all of them around me will gravitate because I'm really conspicuous with mine, I can't hide it. I pretty much have to stab them in the ego until they back off and leave me alone. Besides, I spray knowledge everywhere and that's something they don't want on them.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 03:47 am (UTC)Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 04:00 am (UTC)You're right, I don't agree. Things that would be useful to know about the ocean:
* what 71% of the planet is like
* how bad the thermohaline cycle is wobbling
* effects of climate change on hurricanes that are trying to kill us
* whether it is safe to keep eating seafood, has become dangerous for health reasons, or the supply is collapsing
* what the seafloor is doing because it can buck up into earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc.
* and then the more far-out stuff like how deep-sea species live very long lives, which some people like to study in hopes of extending human lives.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 04:33 am (UTC)as for the safety of seafood, my first thought was that everybody should already be vegan anyways. my immediate second thought was to smack my past self with a roll of newspapers because that isn't feasible for everyone, especially not for islanders and those living on the coasts. i'm not sure if i'd categorize that as ocean exploration though--i'm more inclined to see it as health research. either way, i'm on your side on this one. it's very important to know about food safety and supply. health research is one of the things i think we really can't get enough of.
the seafloor is indeed crazy. i'm in my fourth year of university with a minor in geology and as far as anyone knows right now, earthquakes and tsunamis are pretty unpredictable. they have something to do with tectonics and a buildup of stress, but it's anyone's guess as to when that stress will be released and cause a disaster. it's a huge deal, and whoever figures it out first will be hailed a hero forever!
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 05:03 am (UTC)If we don't know what problems are occurring and precisely why, then we can't prioritize responses or devise effective solutions. And the fact is, people don't know nearly as much about climate as they think they do. The models keep getting revised worse and worse as new information comes in.
>> it's mostly just bad politics and corporate greed.<<
That's true. There are very few areas where individuals can have a big impact. One of those? Reduce eating beef. Cows are terrible for the environment in many ways. If people stopped buying beef, then people who only raise it for the money would stop doing so.
>> honestly, it'd be best if we set aside our thirst for knowledge for a minute and focused on protecting the ocean instead. even if we don't know much about what's going on there, we do know that pollution and climate change are royally fucking things up.<<
We can't protect it effectively if we don't know about it. Which fisheries are sustainable and which are about to collapse? If we block fisheries unnecessarily, people reliant on them will go hungry -- especially poor countries. If we don't protect the ones most in danger, they will collapse. Which areas of the ocean are most critical to protect? We don't know that unless we have a pretty good idea not only what's in them but what it's doing there. Breeding grounds are the most important to protect, for instance.
With pollution, I agree. People shouldn't dump things in the oceans. But people are stupid and greedy, so they will keep doing that unless you can explain how it harms them. You need a ton of data for that.
>> all resources spent researching their effects on thermohaline cycles or hurricanes would be better spent on clean energy and disaster relief.<<
If the thermohaline belt breaks, the entire weatherworks will rearrange itself in ways that are really not conducive to human habitability. Hurricanes kill people. Things that kill people are motivating. Most of the stuff, they don't give a shit about. They do give a shit about things that might kill them. So those can be used to prod people to make useful changes.
Clean energy is good in theory, but only if it works out in practice. Does the benefit of solar energy outweigh the harm done by mining the rare materials to make them? And what will we do when those run low? Same for the batteries in electric cars. Now passive solar, that's a lot safer and more sustainable, but its uses are more limited. Hydropower? Is killing the rivers, the fish, and thus endangering both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Without good information, we can't make good decisions about which actions are safer and more effective.
Disaster relief is running along after a problem trying to mop up the mess. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We can't afford to keep rebuilding in areas prone to flooding and hurricanes; it's just a question of when people will give up. Some disaster relief is needed, but it can't solve the root problems.
>> as for the safety of seafood, my first thought was that everybody should already be vegan anyways. my immediate second thought was to smack my past self with a roll of newspapers because that isn't feasible for everyone, especially not for islanders and those living on the coasts.<<
Yep. Not everyone can thrive on a vegan diet. It's very difficult -- and usually expensive -- to get all of one's nutrients that way. Plus, seafood is the best source of many nutrients, for instance in oily fish. The best approaches I've seen include African, Mediterranean, and flexitarian diets. They all emphasize plants and use primarily fish and seafood, some poultry, and little if any red meat. If seafood is lost, many people would sicken or starve to death.
That said, vegetarian, vegan, and other plant-based diets do put less burden on the Earth and can be healthier than heavily meat-based diets. The western diet is just plain awful, but it is all that many people can get or afford. Come on, our government is so fucked up it subsidizes sugar but not apples or spinach, then tells people "half your plate should be vegetables." I'll consider that fair advice when half the subsidies go to vegetables.
>> i'm not sure if i'd categorize that as ocean exploration though--i'm more inclined to see it as health research. either way, i'm on your side on this one. it's very important to know about food safety and supply. health research is one of the things i think we really can't get enough of.<<
Depends on what people are looking at. Clam gardens are coming back on the west coast and a few other places. They attract tons of sealife. They also require maintenance, which means not just picking up the rocks knocked loose by wild weather, but also observing what is in there. Traditionally the elders would decide what to harvest, how much, and when -- based on their own observations or reports from the scouts. A different approach to science.
>>the seafloor is indeed crazy.<<
Have you explored the Cascadia Subduction Zone? That one has a pretty high chance of a full rip, because it's overdue; and enough other faults are overdue that it could chain down the whole west coast. Hence my thread about the Big One. It's only in the last few years that I've seen anyone other than me pointing out things like chain-reaction earthquakes or how high the death toll would be giving all the building in the kill zones. 0_o
>> i'm in my fourth year of university with a minor in geology <<
That's a fun topic. What's your major?
>> and as far as anyone knows right now, earthquakes and tsunamis are pretty unpredictable. they have something to do with tectonics and a buildup of stress, but it's anyone's guess as to when that stress will be released and cause a disaster. <<
Well, we know some things, like that faults often have a period -- a pattern of inactivity and activity that lets us roughly estimate when they are likely to shake loose. But we don't have a good warning system yet; we don't know enough for that. We know an underwater earthquake often causes a tsunami, and how fast it'll travel, so we do have warning systems for those. Unfortunately some places will only get 10-15 minutes of warning at most and that's not enough to clear the kill zones.
>> it's a huge deal, and whoever figures it out first will be hailed a hero forever! <<
True. That's Nobel science prize territory, and it'd be a lot faster than average because if your prediction system works, the first major quake will prove it and there's your major impact on society.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 05:07 am (UTC)I usually have something running in the back of my mind - a story, a problem, etc. I've even had people worry that I overthink things (sometimes I do) but turning my brain of completely all the time would be really boring. And slow. Plus, I can often solve a bunch of problems by just running them in the back of my mind.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 05:44 am (UTC)Not everyone's brain is like that, though. For one thing, I have a linguistic coprocessor. It lets me do incredible linguistic stunts. However, it's taking up space that other folks use for different things, such as face recognition. Mine is the cheap shareware version of that. But I wouldn't trade what I have for what they have. I like my brain the way it is. The fact that it annoys other people is their problem. It can't be changed just because they don't like how it is.
Re: tried some out..
Date: 2022-12-05 04:26 pm (UTC)I also tend to squirrel away stuff to be ready for what-ifs: first-aid gear in my purse, extra shelf-stable food in my locker, toolkit in my car, etc. That way, I am prepared for stuff...and I don't have to listen to my brain running the "What do I do if my car gets a flat tire at 1am?" on repeat.
...Thinking through puzzles and what-ifs is useful, but comes with the side-effect of maybe thinking myself in spinning-loops.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-04 07:30 pm (UTC)“No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away- until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone's life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence.”
Yes ...
Date: 2022-12-04 08:34 pm (UTC)By that logic, I just planted several oak seedlings. So that's several hundred years, if nobody cuts them down.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2022-12-04 11:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-05 05:11 am (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2022-12-05 05:52 am (UTC)