Absurdism, Science And Creativity

One of my more important posts. Not too lengthy, but considerable information density and ideas that might take some time to internalize. You'd probably read the words and understand the meaning, but you won't get it till you reflect on it and one day it clicks, hopefully sooner than later, but it will take time and conscious effort by trying to applying the abstract principles to your daily real-life events and experiences till you internalize them and are able to appreciate it's real beauty and benefit from all it's advantages that I describe, because I myself still struggle to comprehend all the implications and radical shift in perspective and worldview it has resulted in; one of those ideas that changes the way you perceive reality itself and your place in relation to not just other people and the universe but reality itself.

New to this blog? Start here.

And that's even assuming that I did a good enough job to express the idea in words, because it's something that I just seemed to realize and had some difficulty putting into words, not due to my language skills, I like to think, but more likely due to the fact that natural language can't capture subjective mental experiences and states, and we don't have objective tools to know what it is, how it takes place, unsure whether or not it even exists, so I'd be setting unrealistic standards for myself if I attempted to describe something so subjective in a way that you get it exactly how I experience it, because that's impossible due to the ambiguity inherent to natural language and the fact that we may have different mental representations mapped to the same words.

Still, I try my best, and I'd be happy to discuss it in greater detail if anyone is interested. I hope that the ideas are as interesting and stimulating as they were to me, when they occurred to me and when I tried to write them, a process that always enables me to myself organize and understand for greater clarity, as my brain generates more ideas when I write, which sometimes leads to me turning a sentence into a whole book while analyzing a few words (or at one time, an emoji) and me getting ghosted though I don't care too much about that now (post on Asperger's). If you're interested in in similar topics, also check out my posts 'Confessions' and 'Objective is Subjective'. The post is somewhat skippable, but the edits are not, and I request you to go through all the edits completely if you really wish to get the important ideas. I'd say all the edits combined are more important than the main content, but the main content is probably easy and short enough for you to complete it in a few minutes.

Oh, and this is an unusual request but please maybe read the edits first. Or read it all, but if at any point you get bored or decide to not continue reading or skip or skim or think it's too lengthy, just search for "edit" and read from there.

“I have a friend who's an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is... I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.”

- Richard Feynman

I like this quote because deeply resonates with something I find very interesting and important, combining science and creativity and exploring their intersection to generate new insights as well as rediscover and bring out the true beauty of seemingly complex and daunting scientific phenomena that we overlook in our daily life and forget to be grateful for, neglecting a source of great joy and pleasure that could ignite in us a true sense of wonder and curiosity that we lose as we age, and so also discourage in kids, but that we could cultivate and rediscover if presented in the right manner, only if we start thinking in a more scientific manner.

Applying the scientific method to our daily life, being mindful of all our senses and all the sensory information that is trying to tell us something, being observant of our environment and immediate surroundings, and trying to understand the whole chain of cause-and-effect and mysterious stuff that makes life is it is, which is really so strange but we have got accustomed to it so we just don't see it, and I would not care about this at all if it didn't harm us in several ways I shall attempt to describe now.

I was earlier planning to come to this part later in this post, but I'll just get this out of the way now, so the rest of the stuff is easier to comprehend and less strange: trying to be completely objective and scientific, the universe is meaningless, life is pointless, nothing matters in the grand scheme of things, you are going to die one day that is going to come very soon, and everything and everyone you love is also going to disappear, and instead of taking this in a pessimistic way, as most people seem to do, I will try to explain why I believe this is a good thing, or if you are not convinced, how it may be a not-so-good thing yet true so we must try to find the good in it.

The true joy of life for me lies in embracing the absurdity of the universe and laughing at the pointlessness of the cosmos, mocking the irrationality of these bipedal carbon-based life forms we call homo-sapiens and the human society, while everyone takes everything too seriously knowing that nothing matters in the grand scheme of things, and the meaningless and freedom that most find paralyzing because of all the possibilities, I find comforting and liberating, especially- and just like- determinism and randomness that is also supported by current scientific evidence.

The complex and chaotic interaction of all the intertwined external factors make life unfair yet so hilarious, and instead of playing the game without being aware it's a game, you can play it while seeing it for what it is, and sit back and enjoy the experience while people go on with their lives like mindless unthinking automatons in a simulation, engaging in absurd activities and irrational behaviour and belief in ridiculous stuff and social constructs that make no sense, but that have a neat and fascinating biological and physical explanation which never ceases to be absolutely wonderful and mysterious.

And this is why trying to understand scientific phenomena and accurately describe them as well as combine it with creative writing, arts and philosophy bring out the real beauty of these phenomena, help us see things for what they are, detect irrational thoughts, subjective value judgments and logical fallacies more easily, and train our critical thinking skills and use the scientific method to improve our lives. I talk about a related topic in my blog post titled Nonverbal Communication Tactics and other Distractions.

Before proceeding, a little on the scientific method- you can never be absolutely certain about anything, you constantly keep changing and getting closer to truth, it is the process and the method that matters, because the content and the facts keep changing, and you can never be certain of anything so you rely on experts who have the logical reasons and the empirical evidence, and even for that you don't have the time and cognitive resources to go through all of the evidence so at one point of time you try to do the rational thing and take a leap of faith by placing your belief in the system, but keeping an open mind because as I have explained many times in other posts, it's very dangerous to fall for ideological dogmatic beliefs that make you prone to irrational behaviour.

That's one way to combine science and creativity. We could use multimedia tools that engage every sense and enable students and the general public to connect scientific concepts in their real life, and help them understand why science is relevant to them and their lives, and how it could help create a better society and lead better lives. This is not just true for topics like physics for which we already have some great popular-science books, but other more obscure areas that are more closed off to public, as well as philosophy, in which academics use too many technical terms which is understandable, but there must be some authority figure to distill the latest findings and contemporary research for the public, because otherwise the public would never know why the discipline is important.

That's why I feel the need for more serious academic public intellectuals and science communicators who don't fall for sensationalist and clickbait headlines and just write for the sole purpose of capturing and maintaining the reader's attention, not to educate and explain in simple, accurate, clear and concise language using appropriate examples and analogies, yet not oversimplifying beyond the point where it is distorted into another concept altogether, and at which point it just becomes misinformation and fake news.

Another interesting way is playing with the logical structure of everything. Trying to detect the general logical structure to extract universal general and abstract concepts or principles to generate new insights or find new analogies. I shall explain this idea in another post. One more way that I see people making complex concepts fun is by converting mathematical equations to music or art, and some people have a natural ability called synesthesia to combine it themselves, so that's another way to do it.

There are educators like Grant Sanderson of 3B1B, Huberman Lab podcast, then there are some more artistic people who use mathematics to generate music and cool designs, listen to music and create art, in fact there are some very interesting TED talks explaining how mathematics is a language, and how you can play with it converting it to art to graphs to different representations then music and back again to get an intuition, play with variables and see what comes out of it, actually understand how it works rather than rote memorizing formulas, and understanding the queen of the sciences, the language of the universe, the plays a role in literally every single thing you can see around you and in the world, and that makes you who you are- because underneath the biology lies the physics and the language of physics is, you probably guessed it correctly, mathematics.

Books like HPMOR, Alex's adventures in numberland, the calculus story, flatland and games such as Mastory, as well as game-like programming languages like Wolfram could also be great learning techniques, especially for young children. HPMOR, for instance, combines creativity and science in a way that uses both legit science and a great plot so as to fulfil the purpose of both escapism and educating at the same time, and I like Harry more but I'm biased as I'm a Ravenclaw myself.

Another great inspiration is Nathan Pyle's comics and book Strange Planet, and I encourage you to check it out. Now I'm going to talk about something that could help anyone and everyone see reality for what it is, develop their scientific and critical thinking as discussed, and at the same time develop an outlook of life that could provide them with mental strength by borrowing tools from some ideas from philosophy I found interesting and relevant to the present discussion. I will also connect everything with the talk about absurdism and meaninglessness I started this post with.

I included Absurdism in the title because Absurdism recognizes the fundamental tension between our desire for meaning and purpose and the apparent meaningless of existence. We all have a deep-seated need for meaning and direction in our lives, but when we look at the world around us, we see chaos and randomness. This creates a sense of existential angst and despair, which is often expressed through feelings of alienation, anxiety, and even nihilism.

Rather than succumbing to despair or nihilism, absurdism proposes that we can find liberation by embracing the absurdity of existence. This means accepting that life is inherently meaningless and absurd, but choosing to live with joy and purpose anyway. By embracing the absurd, we could break free from the confines of traditional values and beliefs, and find freedom in the face of meaninglessness. This is often expressed through a sense of humor or playfulness, which allows us to distance ourselves from the seriousness of life and find joy in the chaos.

This can be a difficult and sometimes painful process, as it requires individuals to let go of traditional beliefs and values, and to embrace the uncertainty and unpredictability of life. However, it can also be incredibly liberating, as it allows individuals to break free from the constraints of societal norms and expectations and to create their own unique path in life.

This is also in line with my belief in determinism and randomness, a good solution to nihilism yet not like (IMO) as existentialism in the regard that we can create our own meaning and there even is a meaning to discover; actually it depends on how you define "meaning" because if you take if to be your own proclivities, predispositions and inclinations, including your preferences, passions and desires, then there might be value in existentialist idea of discovering your true inclinations that your genes and environment have made you feel strong positive emotional affect for, and that I also discuss in my blog post titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

But I don't think it was that sort of meaning existentialists were talking about, so I'll go with Absurdism for now, as it recognizes this meaninglessness like Nihilism, and encourages us to create our own like Existentialism, but still acknowledges that this meaning is subjective and arbitrary, which also sounds convincing to me because we ourselves don't know what our 'self' is, constantly changing like the Ship of Theseus, as I have covered in the blog post titled the illusion of the self.

This is also consistent with my belief in probabilistic thinking and embracing the randomness in the universe and humans have this desire to find meaning in everything, like that cognitive bias that makes us see faces everywhere, and where we see success where it's just pure luck and chance, as Nassim Taleb discusses in the black swan. I would have told you to check out a summary or read the book, but this is actually an interesting topic and I feel like explaining it here itself so here goes a short explanation of what I intend to convey.

There's this great video by Veritasium I'm reminded of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LopI4YeC4I

What Veritasium discusses in this video is something that Nassim Taleb explains very well in his book 'Fooled By Randomness' which in very brief explains how humans tend to be overly confident in their ability to predict the future and understand cause and effect, and that this can lead to errors in judgment.

He argues that people often fail to recognize the role of randomness in events and instead attribute outcomes to skill or talent, and reminds us how often we overlook the role of luck in success and attribute qualities to people who don't have them and frequently mistakenly think we are good at something and that this success can be replicated by others if they follow our methods and that those who didn't succeed are in some way inferior or worse than you and deserve it; that's very far from the truth, and also reminds me to be humble and remember the role luck and privilege of birth, environment and genes plays in our success, which is a very large one, perhaps all there is to it, but I will try not to get into the free will and nature vs nurture debate here.

Lastly, I'll come back to Nathan Pyle. If you read his comics or book 'Strange Planet', you could have so much fun and also be better at rationality and more logical. I'll explain with an example. Say this is what I wish to write in my diary or convey to another person: "I am 19 years old, another normal weekday and trying to complete all the assignments I'm required to complete to get good grades in school, so I can pass and get admission into a good college, but then what? Do a job and sustain myself till the end? That's unacceptable, and frightening, because I hate the idea of not even trying to resist ending up mediocre, and not even try to not be average, at least if I push myself to be better and improve myself, I would be fine whatever the outcome, and best case attain my ideal self."

In the language of Mr. Pyle, it'd probably be something like: "Age 19. Day regular. Task: complete assignments to secure good school grades. Goal: earn college spot. And after? Existence sustained by labor until departure? No thank you. Frightened by the thought of a life un-extraordinary. Refuse to concede to mediocrity. Will push self towards improvement. Even if outcome is average, will be content. Ideal self within reach."

No, no, no. Forget that. That got too philosophical to start with, so let's try something more ordinary and suited to be a better example. "Enjoying in the sun, cold breezy wind with clouds gathering all around the still sunny sky, seems like it's going to rain, but the young children seem to be so carefree and oblivious to the surroundings, pure joy and fun, why do we lose this with age, I wonder. A kid slides down while another swings back and forth, and as I am thinking these words, I snap back to reality as my ice cream melts and falls on my clothes, which now I'd have to wash, as society does not approve of dirty clothes, and it might affect their perception of me."

It could be "On planet Earth, our local star emits warmth and light that illuminates our atmosphere. I am outside, feeling the rays on my skin while a cool wind breezes by. Clouds amass in the sky, as if they're gathering to share a story. Rain may be on its way, but the younglings here are unfazed, playing and frolicking without a care in the world. It's almost as if they have a limitless supply of joy and vitality. The contrast is stark; why do we lose this zeal as we age? In this moment of wonder, I am suddenly jolted back to reality by the sound of a splat - my ice cream has fallen onto my clothing, a visible stain. Unfortunately, in our society, we're expected to maintain cleanliness and composure, even if it comes at the cost of spontaneous and carefree moments."

That's a better still not perfect demonstration of the technique I was trying to explain. Now I'll try to explain the technique in a more general form. You just take any seemingly ordinary event from your past personal experiences (maintain a journal, more on this in another post) or in the real moment just observe and pay attention to all sense data incoming through all your sensory channels, be mindful and fully present in the moment, and observant of each and every detail.

Then choose any event, and focus on the whole chain of cause and effect as far back in the past and forward in the future you can go. Say you're eating dinner. You know that's food, and you know food grows on plants. So it could be something like this:

Plants give us food. They use the energy of the sun to convert carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil into simple sugars through a process called photosynthesis. The sugars are then stored in different parts of the plant, such as fruits, leaves, and roots.

The process of growing food starts with planting seeds in the soil. The seeds require nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which they absorb from the soil. Water is also essential for the growth of the seeds.

Once the seeds have germinated and grown into seedlings, they require care, such as regular watering, fertilization, and protection from pests and diseases. As the seedlings grow, they start to photosynthesize and produce their own food. The leaves of the plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil. With the help of sunlight, the plants convert these raw materials into glucose and oxygen.

But going even further back, there's a farmer. The farmer must first prepare the land by clearing it of weeds and debris, tilling the soil, and adding any necessary fertilizers or nutrients. Plant the seeds, tend to the plants, which involves watering, fertilizing, weeding, and protecting them from pests and diseases, transport to the market. The income earned from selling the crops provides a livelihood for the farmer and his or her family, as well as employment for any workers who were involved in the planting, tending, harvesting, and transportation of the crops.

When you buy it, it generates income for the shopkeeper too. Now that's just objective knowledge, of how things are in reality, and you could infuse it with a sense of wonder and joy by thinking about how wonderful the scientific processes are- that plants are able to do all that, that the society has created such a system, everyone is interdependent on each other, and we could never do all this by ourself and achieve the same level of efficiency and productivity, which goes back to the division of labor proposed by Adam Smith, the specialization of tasks in a production process, where different workers are assigned different tasks based on their skills and abilities. This specialization allows for increased productivity and efficiency, as workers become experts in their specific tasks, and can perform them more quickly and accurately.

From a sociological perspective, this process highlights the interconnectedness of different groups and individuals within a society. The farmer relies on the market to sell their produce, and the market relies on the consumer to purchase it. The consumer, in turn, relies on the farmer and the market to provide them with food. This process demonstrates how different groups rely on each other and are interconnected, forming a complex web of social relationships.

Moreover, the process of growing and selling food is often tied to questions of economic inequality and social justice. Farmers may struggle to make ends meet, while consumers may struggle to afford healthy and nutritious food. This highlights the importance of addressing issues of economic inequality and creating a more equitable society.

From a philosophical perspective, this process raises questions about the nature of human society and the role of human beings in shaping the world around them. It highlights the role of human labor and ingenuity in creating and shaping the world, as well as the role of society in creating and maintaining systems of exchange and commerce.

Additionally, this process highlights the importance of sustainability and the need to think about the long-term consequences of our actions. The choices we make as individuals and as a society can have significant impacts on the environment, the economy, and social relations.

There's also the fact that somehow you're eating something that is made by soil made of decomposed remains of dead animals, and a mixture of sun, water, photosynthesis and much more. And in all of this there is always life. How did we gain this ability to be sentient and create everything? Conscious life from immaterial objects? Do I have free will, or is everything just a random and deterministic system of cause and effect? How wonderful it is that we can control and move our hand at our will! (?)

How mysterious and fascinating it is that we are actually all built of the same fundamental atoms and molecules governed by the same physical laws.. how did such a word come to be, why is everything the way it is, how does it even work- what are the rules of the game that we happen to be a character of, given certain abilities and character traits selected on random (literally, you were born with your genes and in the environment by random chance and other complex deterministic forces!) and now how do we discover our character's latent superpowers and make it happy, help other characters who happen to be less fortunate, and figure out the game in the limited time we have till it's game over! And not being afraid that the game will be over, because it almost certainly will, but enjoying the game while it lasts; not being sad that it would end, but happy that it even happened at all!

That was one very small example. I even did this, though not as explicitly, in my first blog post questioning the social norm of congratulating someone when they survive the time period of one solar rotation- their birthday- even though now they have one year less on Earth and it's just another ordinary day and also why a happy new year.. just out of curiosity, not to say they're wrong, but you'd get what I'm trying to say if you read the post. Similarly you could be much more objective in your daily life and look at everything in a logical way, making it easier to detect irrational biases and fallacies to help you make better decisions.

There's more, but I'm too busy and too lazy, both at the same time, and so I may continue this post later. In the meanwhile, some resources:

http://www.hpmor.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@3blue1brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQElzjCsl9o

Here's a quote from one of my all time fav books, HPMOR: "one symptom of the disease called wisdom is that you begin laughing at things that no one else thinks is funny, because when you’re wise, Harry, you start getting the jokes!"

I don't consider myself wise, because I know I am a fool and I have much more to learn. The only think I know is that I know nothing, and that might sound like me trying too hard to sound like I practice intellectual humility, which I do, but this quote literally makes sense if you think about it for a moment, because nothing is certain, nothing is absolute even in science due to the epistemic uncertainty that plagues all of the universe and all disciplines. We can only get closer to truth and be right enough, never see the absolute truth.

Coming to the quote itself- what it's trying to say is so true it strikes a chord deep within me and I have no freaking idea how on Earth I missed it on my first reading and didn't stop to try to understand it's significance and reading between the lines; let's keep that for the second reading next time I get the time, hopefully within my lifetime while I still have these higher-order executive functions intact that would allow me to fully grasp and enjoy the novel, glean more new hidden insights that I might have missed.

Edit: I revisited this post that I published not too long ago, and realized how much I have developed this and how poorly I have expressed this idea. I got some of the main concepts right, but did a woefully inadequate and pathetic job of clearly explaining everything, cause anyone who doesn't already know it and takes the time to try to make sense of it would probably fail, and it would be my fault for not using the right words and right way of expressing it, unlike my other posts in which I have tried my best, I can do better with this one, much better.

The examples are also very basic and simple, and a person who wasn't already aware of these ideas might think I'm just rambling and talking nonsense and it would be understandable because I also haven't done a good job explaining why it is important and how much if could improve people's lives and help them avoid irrational biases and fallacies.

But I have written about it in more detail now, and I think my current latest draft is much better and goes better job of expanding on the ideas I touched upon here, and introducing some new ones that would make more intuitive sense to a newcomer who has no prior knowledge, and I'll make sure to create a new post as soon as I get the time, and include it's title her in the edit, so anyone who reads it could be redirected to the newer and more comprehensive version with a more in-depth and rigorous treatment on these topics.

I will stop this self-criticism now (it's constructive criticism though, because I explained how I went wrong and what I need to improve, something I actively seek from others who read my posts.) and will talk about the improved ideas in the newer version, a new post, but there is something that I need to talk about right now because it's important.

I seriously doubt that anyone would fall for this because I have good reasons to believe that it's just related to my quirks and eccentricities, and strange way of thinking possibly related to Autism, but just in case, here's the warning:

Do not think too hard and deeply about how the objective scientific real-world objects and events give rise to subjective values associated with how we feel and think, that are not about the objective events- (though it's highly debatable if anything is objective at all, and most things are either social constructs or neuroscientific phenomena, our brain's mental models and representation of reality, including everything we call 'objective', including all historical and scientific facts, but let's not get into that and keep it simple here, for the purposes of this warning, cause if you fall for this, that idea will probably make you outright crazy and I don't want that, myself somehow trying to maintain my sanity while reflecting deeply and trying to grapple with such logical yet contradictory and counterintuitive unconventional and unpopular ideas, though most people who know me would probably disagree, or find that claim questionable at best. My parents definitely would.)

Let's assume objective events are.. objective. For now. Don't think too deeply about how objective events give rise to stuff that is not 'objective' and that seems like it has no strong foundation or absolute basis in observable reality, that can't be empirically tested using scientific experimentation, that we can't collect evidence for or against using the scientific method, and hence can't falsify or verify, and that usually- but not necessarily- involve subjective value judgments.

It's going to be just as confusing as trying to make sense of qualia and how subjective mental states or subjective experiences emerged out of immaterial lifeless matter, or how the big-bang got the energy or whatever from absolutely nothing, or what the universe if expanding into, and if it's even expanding or galaxies drifting further apart (a lot of similar questions I've listed in the post about my research interests) or trying to predict how intelligence and sentience might look like in machines or predict the actions of superintelligent artificial intelligence systems or trying to visualize higher dimensions. Just like doing all of these things, you'd probably not get anywhere but almost definitely go insane in the process, if you get too obsessed with this stuff and get too curious about it.

Just like the big bang thing- how something came out of nothing, but nothing is everything, cause the universe if big bang is true came out of nothing (existentialism v essentialism) and the very foundation of set theory and fundamental principle of counting came from nothing (phi, literally nothing, also called zero which in ancient India was more like everything either than nothing, or a different kind of nothing) and also there's this thing in quantum mechanics where if you go out to prove nothing exists you find everything does, and neuroscience where exactly the same idea can be seen when we try to study the basis of consciousness which seems to be nothing yet literally everything cause it's everything we have ever experienced, so similarly in maths you assume nothing (zero) then go on to discover every number till infinity and beyond, but forget that to even start you had to assume zero (nothing) and so assume the existence of nothing! Also occurred to me how in physics a photon is able to be everywhere all at once and so it's like the same thing but in time and time is mental construct and so in consciousness and so it comes together nicely..

Oh wow I also just made the connection with the Gödel incompleteness theorem- if everything is nothing, then does everything include everything, but how could it be nothing if it has everything; and if nothing has everything, like the set of all sets containing itself, paradoxical, how can nothing have nothing and everything cause they're literally opposite.. yeah so that's just what I said but with one of the cooler mathematical principles that I know of..my brain is unable to go any further and make any sense of this. Can you?

Okay that went out of control very fast.. I mean, that's one of the more extreme instances of me going wildly off-tangent- definitely not the only one though, but just the sort of stuff that usually gets me ghosted, or declared mentally ill and ghosted- but you get the idea.

Repeating the warning, don't try to do that because it could make you insane and not the fun type but the pains-in-the-head and disorienting type, leaving you mentally exhausted but still nowhere closer to the solution but even though you know it's futile due to the limitation of your brain, it's a compulsion and curiosity kills the- dog (yeah why just cats, cats are already going through enough alright? Schrodinger also used a cat, and now I don't want to start killing cats too, and you get the point anyway.) okay it's cruel to kill a dog too- so how about a plant- no plants might be sentient (my post 'veganism') so maybe rocks, Yeah let's kill some rocks. Pet rocks- no offense to those who have pet rocks- cause I think panpsychism is too unlikely so I feel more comfortable and less guilty killing a rock.

So yeah where was I. Yes it's a compulsion and curiosity kills the- rock, and so you won't be able to focus on other stuff and must divert your time and energy towards things that are more urgent and where you have higher probability of succeeding, which is pretty much everything, literally everything, even though everything is nothing but I meant to say pretty much everyth- stop. Gotcha, brain. So I mean it's good to be curious if you too happen to have those levels of curiosity, but it's rational to wait till we have the computational or cognitive power and resources to tackle problems of such scale and complexity.

Or you know what. Do what you want to do and don't listen to me cause I'm no one to tell you what to do and what not to do. No, I'm not using reverse psychology here. I am no one to tell you what to do and what not to do, I'm not your mom, and it also just occurred to me that some real genius child prodigy might be reading this (unlikely and highly improbable- no offense to you if you consider yourself a child prodigy- but a non-zero probability, with high opportunity costs and a worst case scenario that outweighs the best case and any potential upsides or expected utility, though I don't see any upsides, but I can see the downsides as I myself know what it's like to be discouraged and demotivated, so I felt like I ought to include this negation of my own advice; seems like the rational thing to do.)

Or even if you don't think you're a prodigy- which just makes it more likely that you are (Dunning-Kruger effect)- then you should wrestle with such questions, because it might be the case that you are much more intelligent than me and if you try you actually arrive at a solution, but my warning makes you discouraged and hence you don't even try, which would be very bad, because as much as I wish to prevent you from going crazy, I don't wish to deprive you of the pleasure of grappling with such questions, so definitely do try doing so, and please let me know if you arrive at anything that looks like a solution, or even a framework to arrive at a solution, or even if not that, then give me some credit when you get the Nobel, and if you don't do that, then you could rely on me bringing about certain events, and the most likely events won't be too desirable for you, and yes this is a threat :)

(just kidding, or rather half- cause if you find a solution you need to tell me-)

Edit 2: Almost 3 AM at night again.

How do we will our hand to move- or it appears like we do, such a convincing illusion- and it actually does, or our vocal chord to make some vibrations that moves air in such a way and frequency that it could be interpreted by another human and they actually get it, it has some mental representations mapped to the frequencies- or symbols- for that matter and the person is able to interpret- not exactly and accurately; we can't know cause it's not possible yet to read subjective mental states- just at the right rough level of approximation to get it.. isn't it mind blowing? But that isn't nearly as fascinating as-

How does chemicals and physical signals in the brain cause such mental states as suffering and pleasure and satisfaction; where in the chain of cause-and-effect does all this objective, perfectly scientific stuff made of matter and atoms and physics turn into this subjective mental state.. how does, for example, just meeting and talking to a certain type of person cause biological reactions in the brain and body to make you feel romantic attraction, and it'd be fine if it was all seemingly behavioural input-output (which it most probably is) but how does this make us feel love and affection.. the subjective qualia, how does that arise.. out of such immaterial stuff that is seemingly so unconscious and perfectly objective..

How does redistribution of atoms and loss of conscious 'life' affect the being and why are people so sad even though the person actually just.. apparently disappeared into nothingness and we all voluntary do that at night, even though we know (hope, with good reason to do so) that we are going to wake up again next morning, regain this consciousness and sentience with all our cognitive faculties intact, even though our brain has flushed out toxins and greatly changed and it's constantly changing and still we remember everything we remember and we still have that same sense of 'self'!!!

Also how on Earth do we feel everything or anything at all- guilt, shame, fear, pride, affection, love, anger- and we know it's all biology and environment, deeper down mathematics and physics, but how does that result in not just our cognitive thoughts and observable behaviour but cause mental states that make us suffer or feel good, depending on the specific molecular physical processes and reactions, and how could be control them to minimize suffering- why does this consciousness even exist, would we not be better off as we all can see how suffering is probably greater than temporary pleasure; but perhaps I must also take into account eudaimonic pleasure, meaning and satisfaction? What about drugs- medicinal and recreational- how do such molecules and chemicals so directly and greatly alter our states of consciousness, perception of reality, our whole sense of self, even causing us to lose it, what's called ego dissolution..?

Why do such organisms see the world they do and have such mental models of reality, interacting with each other seemingly so intuitively yet in such complex ways- as an Aspie I'd know this, if nothing else- social cues and complex word games and persuasion and influence tactics, stuff like how charm and certain types of emotions, both favourable and unfavourable, are elicited by certain behaviour even thought most of them are controlled by external factors (but then so are the emotions, and literally everything else) and that determines that status of the person, but to a lesser extent their likeability and how they are perceived by others, which would matter if the person cares about social needs and desires, which they would most probably do if they are a human.

My head is hurting for real now, it's giving me headaches, and at the beginning it was all fun and games cause it's so fascinating and losing a little sleep to ponder on such questions can't be that bad, right? Turns out it is, when you lay down to sleep and your brain appears to be relaxing and you finally think you're going to sleep and then it gives you this idea or question- now it's this, all this, how and why does it happen, how is this even possible, how could be predict and control it, why could be made to mean anything again though- but I still don't want it to be any other way.

I also knew but now I'm realizing intuitively how- I'm wordless cause there is no word to describe the disillusionment from reality and it feels as if everything was a lie and.. it's the fact how nothing is actually objective, and even your core values and traits- not just every cognitive ability and personality trait you associate with the 'self' but even your core values- open-mindedness, kindness, compassion, honesty, rationality (or lack thereof) how all of it could be manipulated by modifying the right genes and brain areas, neural processes, early environment, and so there is nothing like such values- it's all a social construct- not that makes it any less unimportant, but it's kind of astonishing how these things don't really exist, it's all in your mind just because you happen to be born in this biological machine we call the human body; an AI or a plant or a bat probably won't be so aware of it..

I won't be able to even focus on my studies if I go on like that.. I would feel like doing certain things, like other humans- the routine, get into a prestigious college, if you don't then rationalize and convince yourself prestige doesn't matter- and it actually doesn't cause it's just social conditioning and norms, doesn't really mean anything, but then I could just be following my inclinations, but I don't wish to be ruled by external factors without at least knowing what they are.. that's so unacceptable and I'm still baffled how no one is bothered by this..

I might just now give up everything and assume everyone is a p-zombie (input-output organisms simply responding to stimuli and giving the appearance of sentient but don't really have any sort of subjective mental experience or qualia) and just give up all values and morals like Schopenhauer said (check out the post series with that name as the title) cause we are all just driven by desires and we can't control it and be the Overman .. and

Edit 3: Another edit, because why not! It's night again and it's ideas relevant to this post again and I need to write so I can sleep because I need to wake up early tomorrow and my vampire brain needs rest in order to be able to withstand the overwhelming disorienting sunlight, and also because I think this could be my only post with a record for the most edits made, cause again, why not!

Here's my stream of thoughts once again, so you can share a little part of my brain and experience a fraction of my thoughts and be a little less sane because I've started thinking that insanity is underrated, and no I'm not glorifying mental illness, I'm talking about the insanity that compels people to question social norms and conventions that lead to irrational beliefs and behaviour and reform systems that are outdated and counterproductive to the goals they were originally established for.. let's not get into that here~

But before coming to the main content, that is more philosophical in nature, here are some updates on stuff I learned about how to use the intersection of science and creativity; to be more accurate, how creative arts could be used to not just bring out the beauty of science but also educate in a way that makes learning fun, and allows kids and general public alike to develop the thinking skills required to make better decisions and live more rational lives.

Previously, I just knew about using writing as a medium to achieve this goal, such as combining fiction with real scientific concepts in an interesting way, like HPMOR, Flatland and other books; also knew about games like Mastory. In addition to that, I realized the importance of the Socratic method, plus why it's necessary to teach the history and philosophy of the subject, including it's relevance to the present world, daily lives, current problems and teaching students how to think like the researchers who first came up with such principles, and how they could come up with it to if they were in a universe where such things were not invented but the scientific and technological progress was sufficient.

Which means that they should not just be able to recall (without having memorized) all general abstract concepts from first principles and be able to explain it in simple language in several ways and how to apply it to novel situations and contexts to solve problems, but go a step ahead and play with those ideas and principles (which requires them having an intuitive grasp, understanding it at a deeper level and the whole chain of cause-and-effect including the why and the how, and how each of these disciplines relate with each other and how all disciplines interact in complex ways in every real-life event, and changing variables and looking at the same principle in different forms from the lens of different disciplines (which is not nearly as daunting as it sounds and really fun if taught in the right way.)

And finding connections with previously acquired information, and knowing why they are studying what they are studying and if it's the best way to learn it, how to utilize their time to maximize their probability of living a fulfilling life, (tailored to their personal strengths and inclinations; personalized education that's not a competition to beat other kids or get into the most prestigious university or get the most coveted corporate job, though for the less interested students that might become a separate institution like diploma and workforce training, but I think everyone could be made more curious and passionate about how the universe works and think more deeply, enjoy life better and be in a better position to help those who are less fortunate and suffer.)-

Questioning everything; discover their values, inclinations, interests; being students in a world where everyone is plugged into their little devices (Nozick's machines, see my Schopenhauer posts) so they can be the ones to take charge and create a better society- be more mindful and rational leaders, intelligence is not nearly enough, need to develop the mindset and cultivate the necessary qualities and virtues required to handle such responsibility- which is fair to everyone and doesn't give anyone less fortunate unfair advantages or make them suffer due to random chance of birth.

Plus how to think about such concepts using a-priori logic and reasoning rather than rote memorization of concepts, so they could delegate the more annoying stuff to AI and focus on augmenting their abilities and how to think and solve problems, including how to live fulfilling lives which most students don't realize until it's too late (I might create a post on such learning tools and techniques). And personal experiences to teach general principles through multimedia and hands-on projects. This approach promotes logical thinking, problem-solving, and understanding rather than memorization. (I'll just create a post about this soon, and stop the point about education right here.)

Additionally, I recently discovered the power of memes as a method of educating when used effectively. I've seen some memes on philosophy that use complicated concepts but use templates that are commonly recognized by the most average layman on the planet, and it's more powerful than it might appear at first impression, because memes are a way to communicate complicated ideas in simple ways using pre-existing templates or mental representations of general principles in our mind that we could fit into various situations. It could get people more interested in learning and trying to understand why it's funny, while understanding just enough to be able to appreciate it's humour even when they know absolutely nothing about the concepts involved, no prior knowledge of the topic.

Same could be done with science and mathematics, and I have some awesome mathematics plus philosophy memes on my Instagram page, an app I don't use too frequently due to reasons you'd know if you read my other posts and that I won't explain here because then I will go too much off-topic. Text me for the memes.

I also see some potential in stuff like theatre and improv, some ideas that might be incorporated into drama and thinking-on-the-feet plays, by adding in rhetoric and elements of acting to use what's usually a distraction to our advantage by adopting it and doing it the right way; it could be really fun- talking about real world issues but you won't be judged for your opinion (no one is judged by their fictional character) and free to use rhetoric, literary devices, poetry, body language, micro expressions, all acting and influence skills, kind of similar to how people with power and ulterior motivates do it in the real life, so also life training!- similar to what I'm going to describe now.

Cinema and video-making can also be used to highlight social issues and create awareness in an engaging way. I describe one such movie, that combines dark humour and satire very effectively to communicate pressing social issues that involves people suffering but that people don't like to talk about because they like to think such things don't exist; but these funny movies catch their attention, makes them laugh, and then forces them to think; the movie I saw did a great job of employing dark humour and satire as a way to highlight something that’s a neglected social issue that needs urgent attention (I talk about this movie in the second post of my Schopenhauer post series).

Next, there is potential for using a psychological condition that allows people to experience reality in a unique way, synesthesia. A few artists I've seen, and fascinating research, yet unexplored area. I'm thinking the research is so little because people might think there are more pressing issues with disorders that involve suffering, rather than stuff that's just interesting, but don't realize how it's indirectly related to reducing suffering and how even if it were not, it's analogous to how people create art and music even though there is no 'practical' aspect to it and no one can deny that good music reduces suffering by allowing them to de-stress and relax my releasing all mental tension and worries, allowing them to appreciate the beautiful parts of life even more.

A lot of possibilities because all information is acquired from our senses, and I've been focusing on information processing but I also have some interesting ideas for information acquisition, by discovering, enhancing, extending, combining senses and exploring and putting yourself in novel situations so you can optimize your ability to extract lessons from any personal experience; conscious learning and thinking tools are important, but so is training your brain, using training that enhances higher-order executives skills transferable to real world situations and direct manipulation when the science and tech is advanced enough, which it's currently not, but behavioural sand psychological tools will do for now.

Recently, I spoke with an AI engineer working in the field of human-centered design who uses computer vision to enable people to create music using only their body movements. We discussed the potential of AI in the creative space and agreed that while the top few percentiles of creatives will be safe from automation, AI may eventually take over and automate everything. However, we disagreed on whether the potential consequences of this development should be a concern for humanity or whether we should focus on self-actualization. I talk about this in my post 'Roko's Basilisk'.

It's about speculative design and human-centered design applied to solving and spreading awareness around social issues, using innovative and creative real world media to create beautiful things that excite and educate, and ad to the human experiences by inciting joy using the current advancements in science and technology, to remind people to live rather than get lost in the complicated responsibilities of life.

And also give them hope and encourage them by empowering them to believe that their situation is not fixed, get them out of the pessimistic mindset and outlook on life that is prevalent in society today and helping them get out of learned helplessness by showing them how it is possible, only if they decide it's possible and play a part in being the chance, and eventually making society a better place. Also making them realize that art is as powerful as science, and together it can do wonders and make miracles happen, and that both are equally respectable professions and require equally admirable abilities.

Coming back to the main topic, continuing from the previous edit:

I might just go Walden like the Main hermit, the stranger in the woods, not the hills or forests, somewhere cold dark rainy snowy silent isolated and adopt Schopenhauer or more like Nietzsche give up all ambitions to help others its always an option cause time is limited and just like its not my fault being born with these society genes inclinations its not my fault being born as a human on this planet and conditioned to conform to prevalent norms and beliefs, but def not without even trying.

I have learned about and identified three main categories for thinking about the world: subjective value judgments involving your personal opinion, how you instinctively or viscerally feel or the emotional affect generated by system 1 depending on personal preferences, and objective scientific descriptive how things are in the real world how an external unbiased observer perfectly rational and logical alien would see happening concerning only events that we can perceive through our senses before we form value judgments about them or before it produces any affect in us the objective cause and effect event, and normative or how things ideally logically should be in order to be most efficient, productive or whatever depending on the the goal.

Taking an example, say someone is homophobic or think neurodivergent people and Aspies should be imprisoned and tortured or something. I'm intentionally taking an extreme and exaggerate example to demonstrate the principle and also for dramatic effect and cause no one can accuse me of selecting just those groups or communities cause I'm myself an Aspie and have several queer friends. So anyway, in this case, the person's subjective value judgment would be that they deserve to be segregated and die.

The objective would be the biological and sociological observations that can be tested and found using scientific method and experimentation, called scientific facts about the world, events described objectively in terms of physical principles in order to understand and predict a chaon of cause and effect so we could control it. The normative theory would depend on the person's core values- and this is the most important part of what the person thinks, keep in mind there is another 'normative' which talks about the absolte best way of doing things independent of the opinion of people, but I'm not talking about that here-and this is what is more directly under a person's control because as you might notice, the subjective judgment is produced by their visceral intuitive system 1 brain and not under theor control, just like you can't help desiring what you desire or liking the flavour, songs or colours you like, you just happen to like it cause your system 1 intuitive preferences make you feel positive emotional affect towards them.

And nor is the descriptive or objective perceived facts about the world under your direct control because it's influenced by a complex interaction of several external factors such as physical phenomena, social events, actions and behaviour of other people, butterfly effects, everything in the world is in some sort influencing it due to a chain of cause and effect that makes everything interconnected, and you probably can't control everything in the world and universe including other people according to your will, please let me know if you believe you can do so, but for now I'm presuming that you can not.

So that leaves the normative theory which depends on the person's system 2 deliberate rational brain. Well it's more complicated than that, because in reality even your system 2 and normative theory generating rational brain is influenced by your genes and early environment, but that's also an area of overlap with system 1 intuitive brain and it's unclear where the line divides the two, so for now we assume that it's under your direct control while keeping in mind that it might be incorrect, cause current information and evidence is inconclusive and data is insufficient to make any inferences. So if the person is inclined to have values such as hatred for all humans and he enjoys killing people, and believes that ethics are just social constructs and he will live by his own morals, then his normative theory would be the same as his intuitive theory that is to kill them all Aspies and queers.

But if he believes in logic and compassion, even if he aconowledges that ethics and morals are subjective but that every being deserves kindness, and thinks that it's bad to hate, harm or make people suffer just because they have life choices, desires and preferences difference from theirs, they would try to override their subjective feeligs of aversion towards queers and aspies, and even if they feel negative emotions towards aspies, they would try with their best of ability to control their intuitive and primitive visceral part of the brain with it's irrational desires, and try to act as a civilized human who believes in compassion and kindness would, in a polite manner such that he doesn't offend them and if he can't bear being around them, just remove himself from such situations but most importantly, not harm them or bear any evil malicious intent with the aim of causing them any harm or suffering, and plan all his actions, behaviour and beliefs around the principke that he must not let his irrational subjective bias (dislike for aspies and queers) affect or influence in any way his actions and behaviour in real world, as it'd be irrational and inconsistent with his beliefs to do so and he would then have to rationalize his behaviour to avoid cognitive dissonance and go down the vicious cycle that would lead them to harm others while trying to lie to themselves in order to justify their behaviour, even if there are logical reasons to not be ethical and he thinks that morals are subjective and that he would really like torturing some Aspies, if he thinks that he wouls not like that done to himself and he should apply the same standards to others, or if believes that people should not be judged by or punished for something they didn't choose (in this case the genes and environments that cause queers to be homosexual and Aspies to develop aspergers) and so he must not harm them, then he would try to act accordingly, and seek help without being afraid of social stigma if the desires get too much to control, as might be the case with certain people with sociopathic or antisocial mental disorders.

There is nothing "right" or "correct" way of thinking or doing things or "evil" or whatever, and it's just social constructs and your brain cause even your reality and time are subjective, as I discuss in the post 'objective is subjective'. If you want anything that seems like a good rule for being moral, not ethical cause ethics is what society believes and society believes in a lot of irrational and stupid stuff, you don't want to associate with society's standards if you are anyone who is able to think and cares about morality in any way. We always attribute qualities and properties to real world (!?) objects and events when in fact it tells us more aout our own brain than the world, stuff like good, back, evil, interesting etc.

The only seemingly best alternative for morality seems to be the one I had realized and later discovered Schopenhauer proposed the same which just made me more confident- its either suffering or no suffering, and all actions and beliefs must be judged my it, and if you wish to go a step further, you could try to not endorse and impose it on others- that's foolish and I would have said its so hilarious, funny and comical in several ways, if it had not resulted in lot of death and suffering in the past and even today- you could try talking about it with an open mind and asking for logical reasons to arrive at a better standard for morality, and if you find one, please let me know so that I can update my belief system too, as always I'm open to changing my mind, but until then I believe that it's my- and everyone who thinks I'm being logical and reasonable- responsibility and obligation to help all of those less fortunate than me, starting from those who suffer more than necessary, eventually moving to those less privileged in all of society and creating a society where no one suffer or is at a disadvantage. Need to grapple with the pareto principle though but lets keep it simple for now.

It's also essential to investigate mechanisms responsible for certain cognitive processes more than others, such as how some people are more calm, indifferent and apathetic than others, such that they aren't too neurotic, like monks and certain other neurodivergent groups, because I believe that knowing this and developing interventions to enhance these qualities in everyone could help reduce excessive negative emotions such as anger, fear, guilt, shame, anxiety, depression, mania, and help people be much more logical, rational, cool minded, calm and compassionate with each other, create a safer society. Same goes for intelligence, even though I have realized intelligence is nowhere as important as many other qualities and virtues that are easier to cultivate and also much more effective and stronger predictors of success, likely to help you attain your goals, I still think intelligence if used in the correct way, either computational or biological, could help us come up with optimal and creative solutions to the hard and pressing social problems and construct better social systems from the ground up while being more logical and less prone to mistakes that could prove disastrously wrong in important issues such as these.

It's also very sad how some people, unlike others, are born with genes and in environments that are much more conducive to living a fulfilling life than others, and I think that everyone no matter which society and what other factors, they should be allowed to live a fulfilling life; fulfilling not by any vague definition that could be interpreted to mean literally anything (I have used literally correctly here; if unclear text me and I'll explain) but by fulfilling I mean according to what their genes and early environment has predisposed them to find fulfilling. We must, not matter what place or society or family, allow everyone to at least not live a life that involves suffering- at the very least, not net negative over a lifetime, in utilitarian terms- and slowly build a society where no one suffers and everyone can self-actualize, and eventually control the factors itself to help the people who suffer cause they happen to have genes that compel them to hurt or cause harm to others (see my post Schopenhauer).

I like (and obsessed with) science and logic just because I happen to have genes and an upbringing that incline or predispose me towards liking them, and have core values that makes me feel attracted or positive emotional affect for them, like scientific skepticism, open mindedness etc. but what if there are people who think that emotions and intuition and homoeopathy and astrology is better than science, and inclined to believe in irrational stuff that makes them prone or susceptible to harming themselves and others? There are some who say they are gullible and deserve it, and I am very disappointed when I come across such arguments, because let's get it out of the way- no one deserves anything.

That's too extreme and unconventional I know, but in my opinion, much better than beliefs that make people think that those who suffer must be left to suffer and that we are under no obligation to help such people because "they asked for it and brought it upon themselves" or something. It's true that I myself think I should not waste too much time and energy trying to talk to or convince someone being irrational and who intends to do something pseudoscientific that might cause them suffering, if they happen to be too closed-minded and nothing I could say would change their mind.

In that case, I have better uses of my valuable time and mental and emotional energy and cognitive resources than working on a lost cause, fighting a war that's already predetermined to be lost, arguing in a debate that's already been fixed to be won by the opposition no matter how logical and convincing I am. But this absolutely doesn't mean that I don't wish to help them or that this is not my problem; it is, it's just that the current solution is not too efficient and too impractical to even try, but the problem remains, the problem is pressing and must be solved through other solutions, because it's only solutions that change you never give up on the problem.

Just like my research questions and startup projects, I try each and every method and solution to solve them or implement them, and if I fail, I modify the plan or try another solution but never give up on the problem. I also used to think these people are being stupid, and they are, but it's not their fault they happen to be stupid and gullible, so prone to irrationality. What if the whole society was inclined to believe in pseudoscience? It's possible, and them reality would be that anyone who believes in science would be considered "stupid" and "irrational" but the consequences would be clear because rockets would blast mid air and society will exterminate itself, human civilization would wipe out itself and everything will end, for better or worse. But in cases that are less obvious people still believe in irrational beliefs and ideas, and it's clear cause otherwise everyone would believe in logic and science, and it's not blind faith or being irrational, it's in a large part due to the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the real world.

I'm absolutely not saying that science is wrong and and logic is irrational or anything like that, if you think so, you need to reread it or better just send me a message, because that's a foolish idea and you might get yourself killed or worse into great suffering, if you're someone easily influenced by ideas and adopt anything that sounds logical and convincing, not being able to evaluate and objectively analyze ideas by holding them at a distance, scrutinizing them with your critical thinking skills without attaching your self to them emotionally.

If that's you, then you also must not read my posts till you develop such critical thinking, scientific skepticism and logical thinking skills, because there are a lot of dangerous ideas and I don't wish anyone to be harmed by misunderstanding them or blindly adopting them without thinking too deeply, because that's what this blog is for: playing with ideas and having a productive debate, not building a cult around my ideology and imposing it on everyone by all possible means. Probably. Good idea though. Just kidding.

But what about belief systems and social structures that have less apparent and obvious consequences or effects? What if the majority in the near future happened to have genes and environment that predisposed or inclined them to be homophobic, and think that it's ethical to commit acts of violence against queers or maybe neurodivergents? Those in power- not even the few who have wealth, but literally the majority of human population that has all the power if they want something to happen and make it happen by any means- like when witch burnings, the geocentric model was the prevalent belief, it was the norm to torture mentally ill people, so why not all of this?- then who would convince them that suffering is bad?

You would tell them it was unethical in the past, but even you would probably not be so stupid to use such weak and fallacious arguments, because even further back in the past the current unethical was the ethical. If someone- with sufficiently advanced genetic engineering and neurotech or biohazards, there are several means I can imagine, with someone who has wealth and power- behavioural, psychological, pharmacological, biophysical- decides to, being, say, a sadist or homophobe himself and wanting to influence the masses, decides that it's time for chaos, even the little order and peace that's left in the already messed up world and society, if they decide that this is what they want to be 'ethical' it would be so easy to make suffering the norm.

And that's very possible, powerful people already control everything, like I explain in the post series Schopenhauer, everyone is plugged into their neat little versions of Nozick's devices, and their reality is already being controlled by the multibillionaire executives of corporations that build those devices or software, apps and machines built to distract you by maintaining your attention and keeping you hooked, addicted, and as we can see it's working very well, it's like everywhere I look, my own generation, teens distracting themselves, escaping from reality, don't even see to aware of the fact that there is something to see because they have conditioned by society (that's been conditioned by those in power, mostly those in political power or positions of wealth) that there is nothing to worry about so shut up and study and get good marks and slave away your life in a little job without too many dreams or ambitions, and drown yourself in addictive devices designed especially to hold your attentions. Coming back to thr powerful evil genius with malicious intent, he could control people's sense of ethics and what's the "right" and "correct" way of doing things such that they stay in power.

And not just that, with the correct words, charm, rhetoric, language skills and scientific and sociological tools and techniques, they could control their very sense of reality and abilities and desires- its already happening to some extent by those in positions of less power being less wealthy and hence being born in environments and to parents who cant fulfil all their nutritional needs ans provide quality education and so theie cognitive and emotional and physical growth is compromised, and so is their dreams, cause even if they happen to desire ambition and power, you can be almost absolutely certain that society and their own community is going to absolutely butcher and crush their dreams and make them stay in the position they were born into and this is how powerful people have conditioned them so well, they dont even have to care anymore and the underprivileged and less powerful just stay in their place without being told to and dont even try to get out of their suffering, its like the psychological principle of learned helplessness at the sociological level. (the community itself poor and underprivileged, conditioned by the powerful and privileged to believe nothing can change and this is their fate cause they deserve it or god wants it or whatever that allows them to accept their condition without even trying to change it; and you might have a more narrow definition of "underprivileged" than what I have in mind, because I have in mind those who are underprivileged not just by accident of birth in poor societies, but also genes that give them cognitive deficits or mental disorders, or anything that pits them at a relative disadvantage to others, or more importantly, make them suffer and harder to live according to their inclinations) This is why the rich might grow complacent and why it might be easy to create a better society for everyone, where no one is more privileged than the other, like Rawls veil of ignorance.

The rich person could control the reality of all possibly sentient beings- plants, bugs, animals, humans- they could make it normal and I am damn sure no ones would even question it if they are conditioned in just the right way, brought up in the right manner and taught the rigtht stuff at a very early age, plus maybe some genetic and neural tweaks. I am so sure because even today people seem to be so fine with everything, beings are suffering and thet don't even know and if they know they don't care and if they care they are still somehow able to sleep peacefully by selectively paying attention when they happen to get in the mood and feel like maybe going to some protest or speaking up in certain situations, no one seems to actually try to eradicate all the suffering and I find this totally baffling and unacceptable in a society like ours, and now all this has made me realize- there really is nothing wrong or incorrect, there would be nothing wrong with being that seem to suffer, but the most likely event is that these beings have subjective mental states and experience the suffering just like when someone tortures you you would, and you could just not care and you could deny that oh it's humans in another country I don't know I don't care or oh it's just bug and plants and cows and crows I don't care- but I can bet all the money in the world that you would care, and you would care with all your life, when the same stuff is done to you, and then you would realize what it feels like, what compels people to go insane, why I'm ranting on the society and not just chilling and watching Netflix and going out making friends or something, why my mom tells me I'm overworking and write too much and think about this stuff too much, because all my life no one really understood my ideas or seemed to care, and now I also don't care what others think, but this is important, and I'm not saying people adopt my worldview, all I'm asking is why they act the way they do and don't seem to care as much as I do and sleep peacefully every night with a clear conscience with everything that is happening, and I'd love to be criticized and to be corrected, presented with logical reasons and evidence that I'm wrong, and I'd be happy to change my mind, because trust me, I'm not enjoying this, getting up every two minutes I'm close to sleeping till it's morning and it's simply impossible to continue, and I crash.

So yeah, that's kind of an overview of my update post and I expand upon them in more detail in it (I realize the edit itself might already be too dense for some LOL sorry not sorry). But in a brief summary do reflect on the idea that nothing, including your values, morals, facts, and perception of reality is completely objective, and everything is influenced by your subjective bias and a neuroscientific or social construct.

Remember to practice being calm and less neurotic, be indifferent and apathetic to events that cause negative emotional affect, so you can focus on enjoying the positive parts of life that you constantly overlook, and avoid suffering too much by the negative part and hard days that also make you more prone to irrationality. Remember to be grateful and always mindful of this absurd universe that you have been born into by an infinitesimal probability, by random chance, with all this strange way of doing things and thinking, how mysterious, fascinating and wonderful it is that you can feel or experience anything at all, the qualia or subjective mental states, that are a result of just seemingly lifeless matter made of atoms going around in random ways doing their own thing, causing other beings to behave and talk and act in certain movements and cause frequencies in the air and use their limbs to imprint certain symbols that actually make sense and build cool and awesome stuff that allows them to look far from this thing we call our planet, and how all this started at all.. maintain this sense of joy and wonder, it makes life much more fun and interesting, but don't overdo it as I warned you earlier it causes some really bad headaches and migraines, and could mess with your sleep cycle and productivity.

Not even getting to qualia, how everything is so systematic as is created by an intelligent creator, like a simulation, and this is coming from someone who doesn't believe or rather have blind faith in imaginary humans in the sky who tell people to act violent against other religions or act in a certain way and who are all knowing all benevolent yet have large egos and want people to give them flowers and food and their time and attention instead of trying to spread love and help those who suffer, the same people he apparently created who greatly suffer due to none of their own fault, innocent babies and people compelled to commit acts like torture and sexual harassment and incurable genetic diseases and mental disorders that mess with their whole reality, the same gawd.

Anyway, coming back to the main topic. If nothing else, just remember that nothing, absolutely nothing, is worth taking too seriously, no idea or belief is worth your well being and mental health, and you must never suffer, make others suffer and always try to help those who suffer and who are less fortunate than you are, and be grateful and compassionate, because everyone deserves to be loved, and no one deserves to suffer, including you. (I sometimes wish I could apply my own advice to myself; If I took 0.0001 percent of advice I give while talking to ppl who are depressed or hate themselves or suicidal- I do that a lot cause even though I dislike social interactions I know that these are the people who are abandoned and don't get the social connection and someone to listen and understand them when they need it the most, I know because I was in a similar position not too long ago- Id be the most mentally healthy person in the world but nah why the hell would I do that LOL. Ok I admit I am getting better at being compassionate and confident in myself, and I have a long way to go but at least have a well-planned and clear roadmap in front of me unlike before.)

Never attribute to malicious intent what you could attribute to stupidity, so you're more likely to try to understand and help rather than label them as evil and a lost cause. If there is anything that you need or desire, but doing so goes against any rules or lessons that you have been conditioned to unquestioningly accept for no good reason, question it. Question everything, but don't let any societal or neuroscientific construct- fear, pride, shame, what others might think, emotions, intuition- hold you back and let influence you without it being rigorously scrutinized by your logical and rational brain; do what you feel like doing, just make you have thought about it and accept all the possible consequences including the worst case scenario and associated opportunity costs; and other decision making tools such as alternatives or counterfactuals. Also keep in mind that you must do what you like, not what you think what you like, which is why experimentation and explorations is important. I'm also absolutely not saying that you should engage in hedonism and take foolish uncalculated risks that give you intense short term pleasure but harm you in the long run also making you susceptible to harming others and giving you a false sense of reality and illusion of fake pleasure.

I'm saying that you should instead strive for eudaimonic pleasure that's an even greater kind of pleasure with no diminishing marginal utility such as I explain elsewhere- a scientist doing research or artist creating art, as opposed or a drug addict doing drugs- that would allow you to live a fulfilling life; live rationally in a way to optimize for maximum amount of happiness over the long term with no significant harm, or probability of harm, as I never explicitly say probability but you must learn to think in terms of probabilities; probabilistic thinking if a very useful and powerful way of thinking about events in the universe, even considering the possibility that having perfect knowledge about everything would make it all perfectly deterministic (cause and effect) but we are nowhere close to having perfect knowledge and it's uncertain even if it's possible, as we are constricted by not just the epistemic uncertainty but our neurobiological limitations, so you can rest assured that if you don't plan on trying to be immortal, it would help greatly to think about everything in terms of probabilities, because deep down it's all physics and mathematics, and in the quantum world it's always probability functions and grey fuzzy areas and regions of uncertainty, and same goes for events and knowledge; you can never be certain, just go really close to a cent but never really get to hundred, and that's for cases when you are sure, which you can't be without lots of good reasons and empirical evidence.

All negative emotions associated with suffering and neuroticism make you act in stupid ways and harm yourself and others, and you must through any means and techniques, learn to think more logically, rationally, calmly, engage in activities and subjects that are intellectually stimulating for you, and practice meditation till I figure out a way to develop accessible and effective interventions to eradicate all such mental states from the roots, through neurotechnological, pharmacological, behavioural, psychological, biophysical, sociological, neurobiological and other tools. I don't think I'm being overconfident or overambitious, and I know it's going to be difficult but I'm going to try my best, because I know how difficult it is for those who suffer to live. That's just one aspect of it, in which I wish everyone to explore and discover their inclinations and live according to their values without thinking about anything that prevents you from doing what you desire or even more importantly forces you to act or behave in any way that makes you suffer.

I also wish to create a society where no one is disadvantaged or underprivileged by accident of birth, and eventually understand all- and if possible, manipulate and control- all external favtors to eradicate suffering, make it easier for everyone to self actualize, and enhance to transcend the limitations of biology that result in unnecessary suffering. Suffering here includes all diseases, disabilities, disorders, illnesses, and anything and everything that anyone any type of harm or stress; all forms of physical, mental or emotional pain. If I'm too ambitious and still somehow alive, then try to wrap my head- now hopefully with much better computational and cognitive resources and time- around how immaterial matter gave rise to consciousness and eventually sentience.

Negative emotions and neurotic feeling need to go away first, and of course I could easily be selfish and live my life in peace with my personal philosophy and techniques that I have developed to allow me to live a fulfilling life, but that's too selfish and unfair to those who are less fortunate than me, and so I wish to share the framework and ideas that have made me much better able to enjoy life, starting from a time when I was unable to comprehend even simple english word and felt intense anxiety and depression suicidal all the tine multiple attempts, to the way of being capable of enjoying playing with much more complex ideas and also express them clearly enough for them to make sense and build upon ideas of great philosophers, let alone comprehend words and put together simple sentences, which I was unable to do once upon a time in a not too distant past, not even exaggerating (see post flowers for algernon) so I know its malleable and transient, and not only that I might lose my abilities and motivation again so must make the most out of it in the little time I have, but also that others can be helped and those who think its not possible to change such "fixed and immutable" traits and abilities which is almost everyone could be shown that is is possible because I have experienced it and fortunately its also happens to be by research interests and passions obsession so i can bot just help those who suffer from cognitive deficits but also those who have it much more subtle relative disadvantaged like low IQ that causes difficulties (enhance for those who want it, not just rich) while somehow preserving diversity individual differences just the right balance tradeoff.

Remember that there are no objective morals and values, and you can live however you are inclined, but that this makes it your responsibility to choose a good criteria for morals, and no matter what your logical mind might be telling you, you need to only do stuff that reduces suffering and helps beings, and never ever causes harm or suffering to other sentient beings- and that's coming from a person whose whole life is based around logic and who has been multiple times accused of annoying people by overusing logic to overanalyze small decisions to figure out the most optimal decision to maximize the probability of attaining my desired goal, and using logic to analyze every component in every chain of cause and effect by closely observing every event in my daily life and surroundings, so you could trust me on this when I say such a thing for morals.

Also remember to detect and question whenever you encounter subjective value judgments that are more obviously subjective and have no absolute scientific basis in reality, and hence could be used to mean anything you want if you know the right words and ways of thinking. Same goes for objective reality, if you add some raw intellect or cognitive ability to the mix, and throw in some power, influence and rhetoric, with which you can literally take over the world and people won't even notice, just like they don't notice how they are being controlled, manipulated and influenced by the rich and powerful today, and how the whole society is structured in a manner to preserve their status quo and make it unreasonable difficult for everyone except the powerful few to live according to their inclinations and values, and live a fulfilling life. Rest are left to struggle at best, and greatly suffer at worst, and we need to create a society that's favourable for all, accommodating of their inclinations, allow everyone to live fulfilling lives, an egalitarian and compassionate society where there is no hate and anger and violence, just kindness, empathy, compassion and love, for all sentient beings. Everyone deserves to be loved, without exception.