It would be better to teach children that this is a wrong question. After enough levels, this question simply stops having an answer and starts being an example of the mind projection fallacy (thinking the universe has a “reason” for X or somesuch, like a person would in that situation.) That’s pretty clear-cut.
On accepting doom:
It is absolutely less psychologically painful to accept certain doom than to have a twinge of false hope. That is why non-transhumanists are okay with death; they think it is inevitable. The trouble here is that accepting something that isn’t actually inevitable is far more harmful, for non-psychological reasons. Edit: I have a short essay about this now.
On abuse of the word “love”:
There are many things to blame for this, but I’m going to point the finger at how many entirely distinct concepts this word points to in the English language, that other languages have individual words for, but ours doesn’t. The love between friends, combat allies, pets and owners, family, romance, et cetera, are all very different feelings, but they get muddled together when you think about them. In other words, thinking about “love-in-general” makes no sense and is a compression fallacy.
There are many things to blame for this, but I’m going to point the finger at how many entirely distinct concepts this word points to in the English language, that other languages have individual words for, but ours doesn’t. The love between friends, combat allies, pets and owners, family, romance, et cetera, are all very different feelings, but they get muddled together when you think about them. In other words, thinking about “love-in-general” makes no sense and is a compression fallacy.
Indeed, I see the difference between English and my own language. I really miss the casual word “rad” as the normative “not-just-lust-but-not-love-either” relationship descriptor, it sort of translates to “being fond of someone” and can be used in reference to a family member too.
On “Why?”:
It would be better to teach children that this is a wrong question. After enough levels, this question simply stops having an answer and starts being an example of the mind projection fallacy (thinking the universe has a “reason” for X or somesuch, like a person would in that situation.) That’s pretty clear-cut.
On accepting doom:
It is absolutely less psychologically painful to accept certain doom than to have a twinge of false hope. That is why non-transhumanists are okay with death; they think it is inevitable. The trouble here is that accepting something that isn’t actually inevitable is far more harmful, for non-psychological reasons. Edit: I have a short essay about this now.
On abuse of the word “love”:
There are many things to blame for this, but I’m going to point the finger at how many entirely distinct concepts this word points to in the English language, that other languages have individual words for, but ours doesn’t. The love between friends, combat allies, pets and owners, family, romance, et cetera, are all very different feelings, but they get muddled together when you think about them. In other words, thinking about “love-in-general” makes no sense and is a compression fallacy.
Indeed, I see the difference between English and my own language. I really miss the casual word “rad” as the normative “not-just-lust-but-not-love-either” relationship descriptor, it sort of translates to “being fond of someone” and can be used in reference to a family member too.