Reason Poetry: f(me.0)
The following is a poem I wrote today. I’ve been considering poetry that I write of this nature to be of a Reason/Cyberpunk/Transhuman sort of genre. Feedback, including feedback on if there is a place for poetry on this site, would be appreciated.
I forever wish to change from who I am today,
Yet as I am today, I do not wish to cease.
Who am I in this moment?
I am nothing to myself without the passage of time
If I had no fear of death,
Would I have a wish to live?
I can deny cynicism.
Can I verify optimism?
Must euphoria define my goals?
Every euphoric drive has served to continue my existence.
From the beginning mechanisms of life, I have emerged
Passed through millions/billions of small keyholes of existence
A package of information, which served to create me
Developed me to fit my environment.
Existing just to continue to exist.
An axiom of my function
Euphoria drives me
Skepticism contradicts me
I cannot withhold judgement on the purpose of existing.
To enjoy the show is to accept this euphoria as my chosen purpose in the end.
Can I want without pleasure?
Can my wants be reasoned?
Why do I want to enjoy the show,
Yet not to be consumed or confined to an eternity of bliss?
Is dignity and pride different from euphoric drives?
Are they the strategies and philosophies of my existence?
Can I be more obsessed with finding the perfect design for myself,
Than with finding bliss? Are they functionally different?
Here’s one I just made. It’s a haiku:
Lesswrong is weird.
Never gonna give you up
Akrasia
I don’t think Less Wrong discussion is the best place for poetry, though someone please correct me if I am mistaken.
I think it would be better posted to the open thread.
Oh come on, it’s manifestly fine to post this here, it’s not as if poetry is dominating Discussion. I know the author asked for feedback about where to put it but if I ever posted a thoughtful poem I spent good time on, I hope the comments section would not be primarily dismissive nitpicking about whether it should have been posted in an open thread, as if it’s a big deal. And for content such as this, I don’t understand downvoting. If you don’t like it, don’t upvote but downvoting just seems rude.
I wanted to post it as an open thread, but it didn’t give me that option. Can it be moved?
This highlights a pretty interesting idea—have the Open Thread be directly accessible via the “post” option dropdown, rather than a thing you have to remember to post to and then hunt down and find.
Certainly would cut down on the loss of morale one feels going from +3 karma to zero in one sincere post to discussion. Is there no way to reasonably differentiate between critical thought and just being obtuse?
Poetry seldom gets a good reception around here, although fiction (especially of an allegorical nature) seems to be much more well received in general. It may just be that few LW members engage with poetry in the way they do with other modes of writing.
And don’t worry about the −3 karma. It may seem like a lot now but a couple of insightful, helpful or interesting comments will surely balance it out. You might think of the downvotes as the kind of feedback you asked for in the original post.
No, poetry doesn’t get a good reception—even in quote threads...
I suppose this can be our poetry thread. Why not? It’ll contain it for those who can’t handle our poetry skilz.
Dominion of fear
There is so much I want to say
But I find it so difficult to speak freely
For Fear of being put down
So I focus on looking at fears
Confronting my fears
Facing my fear
Dominating my fears
Fearing nothing when I speak
As if nothing around me is relevant
As if nothing can subjugate me to their will
Taking offence or otherwise
And I’m caught up in this world
As if the other person isn’t there
As if their considerations are irrelevant
As if the pain of what I say dosen’t hurt them
And doesn’t bring the fear into them
And if they do dominate that fear
It matters not
For we’ve dominated ourselves
Not knowing we’ve dominated one another
Inspired by Malcolm X, the hope that expressing these insights will be a therapeutic supplement to downtimes in my concentration & my own upbringing and ongoing recovery from PTSD.
It sounds terrible to me honestly, but I hope being brave enough to brave it might encourage others to do the same—permission to make bad art! It’s certainly helped me feel better writing this.
I don’t think you were being obtuse. Your post wasn’t bad per se, it was just off-topic as, unless I am failing to interpret it, it doesn’t really add anything new to rationality or applied rationality.
Also, in case you had trouble locating the open thread, just click “Discussion” at the top of the page, then click the link under “Latest Open Thread” on the right of the page.