tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post1855036669798677114..comments2024-02-12T23:25:09.583-08:00Comments on Overweening Generalist: Nick Bostrom, Simulations, Modal Logic and Imagination, Featuring Sufis, Sir Martin Rees, Threats To Human Existence, and a Possible Reason to Quit Worryingmichaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-35509827751475075902013-11-15T14:44:52.492-08:002013-11-15T14:44:52.492-08:00As far as Sacred Geometry goes, I'm an ignoram...As far as Sacred Geometry goes, I'm an ignoramus. I've looked at it; I haven't studied it. The thing about it is: if enough believe(d) in it, it's therefore "true" in some sense.<br /><br />If there's some Platonic Eternal Realm from which Math emanates (the very idea militates against my tough-minded materialist bent), then the irony in it is too rich: math as the ultimate knowledge of God, and by its fruits we developed an advanced technological society in a mere 250 yrs, and now we've got apocalypses around every corner, the notion of "existential threats" is everywhere. Maybe we've always had a few martian-like math geniuses, most of humanity wants creature comfort and to not think of the future...and we go out of galactic history as thousands of other civs on other planets have gone before us?<br /><br />Math was not balanced by emotional intelligence in our species?michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-67454364390294623492013-11-15T09:08:14.558-08:002013-11-15T09:08:14.558-08:00Math as the Ultimate God?
I've actually wante...Math as the Ultimate God?<br /><br />I've actually wanted to delve a little more into the history of Sacred Geometry, it's a fascinating concept, and I wonder to what extent it sheds any light on the modern day worship of math?Psukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01116423188181098527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-8616143287398114012013-11-14T16:54:53.492-08:002013-11-14T16:54:53.492-08:00I love to think of this stuff too, because it'...I love to think of this stuff too, because it's sure to take me out into non-ordinary awareness, or a break from being with my goddamned Ego into a finite province of meaning.<br /><br />I read that bit on code in string theory when it came out and don't know what to make of it, except to remind myself there are far far FAR more things in heaven and Earth...<br /><br />About Bostrom and hidden code in string theory, and the Fibonacci numbers and how fluid dynamics describes Jackson Pollock, chaos math explains traffic jams, etc: I love the idea that my main model about "where math comes from" (cognitive embodiment) may be wrong and the most Platonic thinkers on math were right. I don't buy it, but I like to think maybe...because then...how did Pythagoras and his crew tap into that? I know they were vegetarians and mystics...michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-27831017455446546862013-11-13T13:14:23.775-08:002013-11-13T13:14:23.775-08:00It is...we're "screened" in some way...It is...we're "screened" in some way from What's Really Going On.<br /><br />Sometimes, when I like to mess with my own head, I consider the manner in which we could be living in a simulation even without the VR servers. Such as if we are living an a totally determined Universe (a la the Ultimate Materialist Reductionist Model, via Leibniz), or, if say, the version of the Many Worlds model wherein *all possible choices* lead to splitting into branch universes. How "real" are we under those circumstances? <br /><br />I don't have an answer, nor even sure I have an opinion, but it's interesting to ponder on. <br /><br />Speaking of such things, how fun was this? <br />http://disinfo.com/2013/05/physicist-discovers-computer-code-embedded-within-the-equations-of-string-theory/Psukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01116423188181098527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-38042824055623306492013-11-05T13:54:20.813-08:002013-11-05T13:54:20.813-08:00I'm pretty sure when I read Bostrom he noted a...I'm pretty sure when I read Bostrom he noted a precursor in Bishop Berkeley. <br /><br />I love all these ideas, not believing any of it. But taking a page from the pragmatists, it's good to think about. Framing existential risk in this way seems brilliant. To compare it to the screeds about rising ocean levels due to warming, climate change and mass migrations, etc: I get it: we're possibly fucked as a species. Let's do something NOW. I get it. But it's all so dire.<br /><br />But when you frame existential threats like citing the possible billions of planets that could sustain intelligent life, the probability that they suddenly achieve a very sophisticated grasp of technology (like humans: steam engine and 1750 to...THIS in only 250 measly years?), any advanced civ will hit a bottleneck like we're in, and either 1.) solve their problems and go on to make simulations of other possible life-forms, of which we are probably one; or 2.) die off due to greed, meanness, Ego, etc<br /><br />Bostrom's creativity in presenting Existential Threat is framed so much more interesting than say, Al Gore's creativity. But that's just my take.<br /><br />On a whole other level: what does it matter if we're a sim? On one hand, it's like angels dancing on the head of a pin; on another it provides a novel - even absurdist - way to think of the background of our narratives of history and ontology. There's something cosmically hilarious about a brainiac like Bostrom proving via probability that we're sims. Or I find it hilarious. It's related to Plato's Cave, isn't it?michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-76868440625544062522013-11-02T17:03:27.899-07:002013-11-02T17:03:27.899-07:00I think the notion of living in a simulation is to...I think the notion of living in a simulation is to most people like confronting Infinity...it's big and unresolvable, and many people don't seem to be content in sitting with questions. I wish I knew why, since I find questions much more interesting than answers.<br /><br />I think the first(?) philosopher, or the first famous one, to assert the reality of our living in a simulation was Berkeley...it was his answer to the mind/body debate. Matter doesn't "really" exist, we only live in the imagination of God.<br /><br />That's not to say he was the first to come up with the idea, but I think most philosophers prior to him attempted to "prove" that there was an "out there" that corresponded to "in here."<br /><br />I'm never sure what side of this debate I'm on...it usually depends on how sure the other guy is he's got the Truth.Psukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01116423188181098527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-41885789585592027792012-04-11T00:40:04.188-07:002012-04-11T00:40:04.188-07:00I'm TRYING to bust this shit open! And if we&#...I'm TRYING to bust this shit open! And if we're gonna succeed, we need help. As Leary said, Find The Others. In you, I've definitely found one.<br /><br />I wonder if there is some sort of unseen, not yet discovered or unarticulated wall that only allows some to see this? In my PKD blog post from a month or so ago, I tried to steer clear of pathologizing this stuff, even though that was the thrust of the post. There seem enough wonderful weirdos out there (I consider myself a member of the set) that pathologizing seems beside the point. It gets to the point where there are only 12% that "are" "really" "mentally healthy," which to me seems utterly meaningless. <br /><br />I prefer the frame of Imagination.<br /><br />The Erik Davis thing: he thought the 20th century's "trashy" pop kulch of conspiracy theories, monster movies, comic books, Robin Hood/Dillinger gangster as hero newspaper stories, porn, UFO cults, etc: the stuff that was always declasse until humanities professors made them "legit" around 1985 or so...articulated the collective imagination/unconscious. Marginalized by the Establishment/Academia, all that "trash culture" was closer to something divine than anything in the mainstream...And Davis quoted PKD along these lines, from Valis: "The symbols of the divine show up in our world initially at the trash stratum."<br /><br />In Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information, Davis uses the work of RAW to illustrate how "trash" can lead to the Divine.michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-87405839215953682872012-04-10T17:42:37.405-07:002012-04-10T17:42:37.405-07:00And thanks for a great reply! I am curious about y...And thanks for a great reply! I am curious about your rather cryptic penultimate paragraph. What is it that Erik Davis has to say about PKD that you agree with (I am familiar with his name but haven't read his work ?) And about those suspicions...I'm intrigued. Please do tell! I should mention that I'm currently reading the Exegisis (the small published fraction anyway) and am enthralled. He has eloquently stated many aspects of reality that until now only lurked about unvocalized in my subconscious; even my conscious conceptions are clarified reading his ramblings. It's funny how things come together sometimes. My suspicions of Eastern Philosophy as the kernel of Christian teaching seem validated. Hopefully we can be a part of a global revolution of consciousness. Let's bust this shit open! :)lavafacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03827596134540945946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-81710446541147250282012-04-05T02:23:26.065-07:002012-04-05T02:23:26.065-07:00Jeez! As for the first comment: I just read it and...Jeez! As for the first comment: I just read it and enjoyed your voice and intelligent articulation. <br /><br />And I LOVE "The Kugelmass Episode." I bet I've read it 15 times at least. How wonderful to think of Emma Bovary - or any character in any novel - diverting from the book's plot. This is an idea that runs through a lot of Woody's work, and I always considered it his entre into a surreal world. Woody's film for New York Stories has a guy's Jewish mother appear in the sky, like a goddess, being a Jewish mom, even though now everyone in the world can see her nagging him. <br /><br />The characters in Illuminatus! eventually find themselves together, and one proffers an answer to the wild nd weird trips they've been on throughout the book: they're characters in a book! Maybe? Well, supposing this is right, what kind of a book? I mean, what GENRE? And who is their Author? <br /><br />I wonder about an Author. We all have our favorite models, if we've been thinking.<br /><br />But still, I think maybe the signs of the True god are revealed initially at the trash stratum; I agree with Erik Davis about PKD. Why? I have my suspicions...<br /><br />Thanks for reading and giving fantabulous comment, lavaface.michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-11119270810135219602012-04-05T02:10:48.217-07:002012-04-05T02:10:48.217-07:00Another note: I followed the possible Worlds link ...Another note: I followed the possible Worlds link you left and was immediately struck by the reference to Madame Bovary. This called to mind a Woody Allen story, The Kugelmass Episode, in which a fictional character enters a fictional (well, real to us) novel to have an affair. Is this Bohm's implicate order at work in the world? Are we characters? What is the story????lavafacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03827596134540945946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-47813081669117230862012-04-05T01:43:19.833-07:002012-04-05T01:43:19.833-07:00Another good post, as usual. The notion that we li...Another good post, as usual. The notion that we live in a simulation has been with me for a long time. Even before I saw The Matrix I wondered about it. Perhaps it was the early SimEarth/SimCity games (don't forget SimAnt!) After that, and even more so Cronenberg's Existenz, the idea took a tighter grip on my mind. Reading some of PKD's novels (Time Out of Joint and Ubik in particular) I was truly concerned that the entire universe was a figment of my imagination; I felt like a solipsistic sack of shit. Gradually, I have come to a more refined understanding of the situation. Like the Buddhists, I believe that we are confronted with Maya (I see what you did there, Autodesk.) Like many Gnostic thinkers (and PKD by way of VALIS and the Exegesis), I believe that there is a "truer" reality that lies behind the phenomenal world that consists of the Logos (or Plato's Pure Form, etc. etc.) What I find interesting is all of the speculation about the Singularity, particularly the advent of Artificial Intelligence. It is my current opinion that AI is in perfect abundance right now in this world. What is lacking, and what is sorely needed, is true Intelligence, i.e. God. I'm not sure if I can fully explain myself in a little internet comment so I won't try too hard. I just thought it may be useful to plant a seed. Suffice to say this ordered message reaches through to us beyond the constraints of time. We are all co-creators of God, who in turn is the creation of our universe. It's late so I don't feel I can explain more. Good post though :)lavafacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03827596134540945946noreply@blogger.com