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Posts by Lanny
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2016-02-04 at 3:11 AM UTC in Experience Machine
You're right. I was simplifying for, well, the sake of simplicity. A more accurate way to say it would be that all knowledge is based upon cogito ergo sum. However, I don't know what you're talking about it not being undisputed; there is no philosophical argument, at least that I am aware of, that disputes Descartes' assertion that it is the one core fact from which we can derive knowledge. You'll have to be more specific with what you believe Kant said on the subject.
So all empiricists, by definition, don't think we need cogito ergo sum to have knowledge about the world. They all posit other means by which we can derive knowledge from ideas (objects of consciousness, or "experiences").
Kant is not an empiricist of course, but his transcendental arguments, if we accept them, give us knowledge that doesn't require Descartes' reasoning. Mind you, if we accept Kant's arguments for things like unity or plurality we'd seem to have no grounds to reject Descartes' cogito, but since there's a more tangible relationship to the external world Kant would argue we have a far more direct path from his transcendentals to the external world than by Descartes' proof of God followed by an argument for why God wouldn't deceive us (i.e. the meditations no one reads because they suuuuuuckkkkk).
In light of both empiricists and other rationalists arguments for a basis of knowledge that don't tread through Descartes' territory I think calling his cogito the "one core fact from which we can derive knowledge" doesn't pan out. -
2016-02-03 at 6:13 PM UTC in Experience Machine
The distinction you are trying to make is imaginary. Descartes addressed this hundreds of years ago; There is only one fundamental, unitary fact in the universe that you can be sure of; that you are thinking.
That wasn't Descartes' position (he actually thought we could know a lot of things deductively, existence of cogito was just the first) and it's a far cry from an indisputable fact. See Kant for an example of someone who thought (and many metaphysicist still hold the position that) we can have certain knowledge about the world beyond existence from mere experience. -
2016-02-03 at 8:13 AM UTC in The forced collective suicide of European nationsSo the propaganda videos are kinda tasteless but I do have a certain odd sympathy for european nativists (is there a less loaded term to use here? I feel like "nativist" carries a pretty negative connotation). I have all the sympathy in the world for refugees of a war torn country but European populations have an actual of risk of losing meaningful viability in the future without the whole migration situation (ala Japan's age/birthrate crisis), unrestricted grant of asylum is frankly tantamount to genocide. Like we should honestly engage with that, genocide is not a priori impermissible, it may be a moral necessity sacrifice European cultures or parts thereof for the benefit of larger populations but I think it's disingenuous to act like white people are magically immune to the woes we regularly consider other native (and non-native but non-majority) populations to be subject to.
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2016-02-03 at 6:32 AM UTC in It's the Year of the Monkey
Is that the prelude to that chick who went on oprah who had her face and hands torn off by some kind of monkey? I remember seeing that when I was a kid, like before the internet had exposed me to enough gore porn to dgaf about anything on a screen, shit was gnarly:
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2016-02-03 at 5:57 AM UTC in So I'm withdrawaling from alcohol like a cystic fibrosis stricken little bitchBuy a few hundred milligrams of flubromazolam to help you taper off the alcohol.
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2016-02-03 at 5:41 AM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
Sherry is surprisingly nice. A bit sweet, but it was the only thing left in the cupboard.
My mom used to drink sherry from time to time and it was accordingly the first alcohol I ever drank in enough quantity to get drunk. I remember it being pretty nasty and avoid it but I was a kid, wouldn't have know good booze if it hit me in the face, so maybe I should give it another shot. -
2016-02-03 at 5:35 AM UTC in do i have the best life out of anyone here?I don't feel the need to say (or lie about) how much I make on the internet so I'm counting that as a win.
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2016-02-02 at 5:04 PM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
I think it'd be interesting to get every TRTers take on what happiness is.
inb4 10 one word posts of either "benzos" or "opiates" -
2016-02-02 at 4:33 PM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
I was a a hyper-systemizing infovore, and I was so out of touch with my emotions I didn't even realize I was depressed until close to the breaking point, it took me a decade to realize I had been in a cycle of isolation and depression, damage from both, both skewing my worldview. I would have been much happier enjoying life like normal, well adjusted people, do.
This is what Sartre would call "acting in bad faith". The refusal to acknowledge your own unhappiness as a consequence of freely made choices is the root of the problem. So you're going to say something like "muh genetics" but remember the "useful lie" characterization of radical freedom I gave before. It's interesting in that it's an idea that's almost self-proving. If you can give assent to it then you've essentially demonstrated its truth since the metaphysical constraints on radical freedom are considerably lighter than libertarian freedom.Do mathematicians experience the same emotional highs, the same satisfaction, happiness/joy, utility, as others. vivacious lovers of life dancing atop the social hierarchy? There's the question of how you would measure it, and it may be possible to come to a measurement that's close enough by monitoring brain activity, and my bet would be: Not even close.
I'd be interested in findings on the matter but my intuition is just the opposite, that mathematicians in general (let's exclude logicians because the whole insanity thing) are pretty happy people, or at least beat the average. Have you seen that famous interview with Andrew Wilkes? The darkened mansion one? The guy seems pretty emotionally on top of it, I mean he actually end up crying. Here it is: https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Fermat-s-Last-Theorem-Professor-Andrew-Wiles
Like I said before, in a lot of ways I think they are the modern embodiment of sisyphus, just look at the history of mathematics, it's a veritable tug-of-war between nihilating the work of others and standing on shaky foundations, men and women condemned to operating within the most ridged systems we can imagine, and yet people still line up for it, choose it of their own will. The fact that people still participate in this dusty old institution is, I think, a testament the the notion that participation itself is worthwhile. Unlike engineers of various sorts there really is a pretty minimal social desire for more of what mathematicians produce, if they all quit tomorrow we'd suffer for it but no one's TV is going to stop working, we'll still keep on churning out consumer electronics, I'm not sure the world at large would really even notice for a few hundred years. -
2016-02-02 at 9:03 AM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
Also, Lanny, requesting some advice. I hope you note that you should be flattered I value and specifically seek out yours.
If I wanted to become an IRL Macguyver, what do I study? In a healthy state I'm naturally an infovore and capable of pouring constant hours, day after day, thousands upon thousands of pages, countless questions and ideas, into understanding and developing something I'm interested in.
Honestly probably a business degree, which I believe still has the best return on investment just in terms of money earned over a lifetime. Money is likely to be a bigger impediment than any lack of skills. Getting good gadgets fabricated really wouldn't be that expensive if you're thinking of a batman kind of setup. The sciences might also be a good choice if you don't want to deal with people in business, the inauthenticity of "business men", the obvious plays picked up from some pop psych book (ala the classic use-your-first-name-way-too-much strategy). Failing that I imagine some kind of military/paramilitary training would be the way to go if you want the whole survival skills thing.
Ah, definitive drinking playlists.
I always end up listening to shitty emo too loud when drinking, but that's mostly because I listen to shitty emo at reasonable volume when sober. Clutch is pretty fun drinking music though:
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2016-02-02 at 8:52 AM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
Or maybe not. TRT stopped showing up in Active Topics so I'll wait till Lanny has fixed that.
Jesus fuck, nothing ever works. What braindead admin runs this shithole?
try it now. -
2016-02-02 at 8:40 AM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first editionI work a block down from where they blocked off Market street for "superbowl city". I enjoy watching drivers get confused by and trying to blow through the road block (it's not actually blocked, public transit still gets in, but a traffic guy jumps out in front of personal vehicles). I swear, I've never seen more inept drivers than in this part of town even without something to throw them off, dumbshits are in gridlock for like half the day.
Hmm, related to a recurrent theme. Is it just due to severe depression and other factors, or have I simply gone too far and become the kind of person for whom there isn't really anything out there. The university system has many major justified criticisms. Classes I have no interest in and would prefer not to take, work I don't have any actual interest, find joy in doing, signaling (conformity, traits of an employee), people I'm not interested in. For the young and naive that can become enamored by the "college experience" it's fortunate that they can experience such a thing. Then again, I'd really just be using it as a stepping stone for recovery, intellectual stimulation, an outlet for creative energy, possibly some socialization, but would it really be sufficient, or would I just come away disillusioned?
There's definitely a level of tedium, but isn't there everywhere? I think to be disillusioned you have to actually have a positive image of something first. I thought "the college experience" was pretty much bullshit on the classes were an actual worthwhile academic (in the literal sense of the word) pursuit. There's this weird thing, especially at "better" universities where the first year or two is a total shit slog of GE courses, things don't get really interesting until years 3 and 4. I don't know if it's a "weed out people with ADD" thing or just part of the "well rounded person" myth but it's a shame, I bet there's a significant population with a lot of domain potential scared away from higher education by GE.Imagine Sisyphus is happy. We have the capacity for happiness, even if it's absurd and ultimately amounts to nothing, there can be a freedom in embracing it. Play the game, at least give it a try and try to enjoy it before checking out. But will this make me happy? Is it the best route?
Ahh, did you read the essay? The point of the allegory is that questions like "is this it the best route" are meaningless, it requires an objectivity that is simply doesn't exist. There is nothing out there in the world that necessitates your internal mental states. I mean clearly it's not entirely truthful, your brain is part of the world, your mind an emergent property of physical systems as far as we can tell, but it's a useful lie at least. People kinda make fun of Sartre, he said something along the lines of "part of radical freedom is, minimally, you can choose killing yourself as a reaction to anything" and people are like "oh shit, I stubbed my toe, instead of yelling in pain ima shoot myself" but he was, on most modern readings, talking about something closer to the idea of stoic resignment. Like we can, to a large degree, choose our mental states, at least after some practice. He had some interesting metaphysical arguments to back that up that go above and beyond the usual platitudes we see from the stoics (and I like the stoics, but the ancients just didn't have the rigor, formality, to really engage with the ideas they accepted).
Sisyphus is the an icon of the worst possible state of being, if we can imagine him happy then it seems like we couldn't find a compelling reason not to be happy ourselves. In the absence of external meaning "best" stops really working in a semantic sense, it's subordinative to one's subjectivity. We get to choose what's the best route. If you can be happy rolling a stone up a hill forever then you can be happy at a day job or in college or whatever.
I actually think about this sometimes, how some things I love are incredibly boring to others. Sometimes I look at mathematicians and wonder what must have happened to them to make them like this, to enjoy what they do. Like shit, maybe I got tricked into rolling the stone up the hill and by force of will and social pressure came to love it. It's kind of a silly fear of course, if we buy into the premise it's not "tricked" since there's nothing that's not analogous to rock rolling and if you're twisted enough to like it then you've really hit the jackpot. But still, an amusing idea. -
2016-01-29 at 8:35 AM UTC in My big gay ideaSince zoklet there's been endless handwringing over merging forums. I was all for the big merge once upon a time but ultimately it costs nothing to have a subforum no one posts in and rolling them together tends to generate drama "ala MY THING is not the same thing as OTHER THING and should have its own forum".
Just my two cents -
2016-01-29 at 6:03 AM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
Score! http://www.edsmart.org/top-community-colleges-california/
Possibly Diablo Valley or De Anza. Start off with a normal workload, see how I handle it, then full time, I mean max efficiency, every single day, which would be effective for recovery as well, then possibly transfer with a (genuine) sob story attached, possibly feasibly manage to make it through with a perfect GPA. I'd genuinely have no other obligations, but, fuck has this decade+ damaged me. I still had natural potential not so long ago that it makes me think it's impossible to claw my way back, it's just such an innate part of human experience, fortunately I wasn't isolated before that period as well and end up like Genie (feral child). If Nardil + NSI-189 can manage to kick me into hypomanic mode, it may be possible. Still, a lifetime of a lack of development and bad habits, never having the right environment, no emotional support…
Study a little and sit a SAT and you could do better than a community college, calgrant alone payed 100% of my tuition (granted I didn't go to stanford), fafsa gives about the same in grants (you could milk the whole hispanic thing for considerably more) and a ton more in subsidized (interest free) loans that you can drop in a low risk investment plan and collect a few bucks over 4 years for toys before handing it back. You can get in on scores alone (that's what I had to do, my highschool's curriculum wasn't even recognized as sufficient to apply to UCs).
It's an ugly truth that post secondary education is just as stratified as the ecosystem it empties out into. Mobility exists but by and large the quality of your peers is determined by the pricetag. -
2016-01-29 at 4:23 AM UTC in Sorry if anyone needed me...
I was joking, Lanny. Lighten up, dude.
It's joke to be sure but I'm yet to be convinced you were joking. -
2016-01-26 at 7:11 AM UTC in stimulant bath sawltsAre you ever able to find vendors that actually accept visa? I feel like everyone who isn't some shady one-review type operation is BC only. I imagine as soon as a payment processor catches wind of someone selling RCs they shut that shit down.
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2016-01-23 at 3:53 AM UTC in Sorry if anyone needed me...
My machine is way old, but it's powerful enough for everything I need. I have a dual-core 3GHz Intel in it, which I've been running since the '90's. Match that with the flawless operation of WinXP SP3 and a manually-configured firewall behind a good router, and that's all anyone really needs.
What chip is this? You didn't see a lot of dual core 3GHz processors in the 90s. -
2016-01-22 at 6:07 AM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first editionMore Camus dickriding:
“I think according to words and not according to ideasâ€
Reminds me of the famous "Chinese Room" thought experiment. Sometimes during good relatively lucid trips I have the striking sensation of being a mechanical process for transforming linguistic inputs to linguistic output, my thought process is really inseparable from language and when I think about the turns of phrase that make up my written/spoken "style" I realize these are really an ingrained part of my ability to reason. Kinda related to the eval/apply comment a few pages back, I sometimes think "if I'm an S-expression, which one am I?" and it's interesting that given a finite human lifespan there must be at least one that really could be substituted in any system for myself. Whether or not it could be simply enough expressed in a sufficiently general system to call it endowed with intelligence is another question (I have the strong intuition the answer is yes, if we admit that simplicity of expression is a sufficient criteria for intelligence at least) but the idea of being a linguistic thing before a rational thing seems immediately and intuitively appealing to me. -
2016-01-22 at 5:57 AM UTC in Lanny, you're a mentally deficient pretentious cunt.
Also: some halfway decent emoticons would be nice, you lazy fuck. ;)
So far this is the singular true statement in this thread. -
2016-01-22 at 5:47 AM UTC in I'm so fucking mad right now.
*Gasp* Hrmph.
It's not necessarily a matter of independence, more of having taken social isolation to an extreme. I wonder how much of some of the great works depended on external input, how much was just the product of them being holed off reading and thinking alone.
We don't really reason independently except when taking social isolation to an extreme. What I mean by that is most of normal human reasoning is done for the sake of convincing someone else of something, not for coming to true conclusions. But that's OK, if we all do this it at least approximates a marketplace of ideas. This is why we have things like anchoring biases, all of our tendencies to deviate from formal reasoning. We're "designed"(evolved) to think about things as groups, to take positions and hang on to them well after we should change our mind, because it empirically turns out "clash of ideals" is a better survival paradigm than Cartesian "think about things carefully while sitting by a fire not doing much else". It's kinda fascinating really, we've evolved traits that transcend genes, like we have group traits, species level behaviours now. In a meaningful way there exist "organisms" or organic self-sustaining systems that are composed of multiple human consciousnesses.
