On the other hand, fictional worlds are not constrained by such trivial things as “plausibility”—how smart or conscientious or strong a character is is purely up to the whim of the author. Comparing yourself to these “superstimulus role models” might not be a mentally healthy thing to do—look at how many young girls (and boys!) are starving themselves in the pursuit of magazine-model beauty.
Of course the aliens couldn’t possibly really look like that. A holo, only an overoptimized holo. That was a lesson everyone (every human?) learned before puberty, not to let reality seem diminished by fiction. As the proverb went, It’s bad enough comparing yourself to Isaac Newton without comparing yourself to Kimball Kinnison.
That particular analogy (cf. “thinspiration”) had occurred to me, though I suspect the general process (look at superstimulatory examples of what you aspire towards) is something most people have an intuitive grasp of, and I (and perhaps other people broadly like me, who are probably over-represented on Less Wrong) simply haven’t cottoned on to it until now.
You have to be careful with this sort of thing. It’s possible to accidentally make yourself unhappy even if you don;t actually harm yourself or something. I think different people respond to this sort of thing in different ways.
On the other hand, fictional worlds are not constrained by such trivial things as “plausibility”—how smart or conscientious or strong a character is is purely up to the whim of the author. Comparing yourself to these “superstimulus role models” might not be a mentally healthy thing to do—look at how many young girls (and boys!) are starving themselves in the pursuit of magazine-model beauty.
That particular analogy (cf. “thinspiration”) had occurred to me, though I suspect the general process (look at superstimulatory examples of what you aspire towards) is something most people have an intuitive grasp of, and I (and perhaps other people broadly like me, who are probably over-represented on Less Wrong) simply haven’t cottoned on to it until now.
You have to be careful with this sort of thing. It’s possible to accidentally make yourself unhappy even if you don;t actually harm yourself or something. I think different people respond to this sort of thing in different ways.
Already done this to myself—it lowers your self-esteem enormously.