AKA Rowan Jupiter. Astrophysics student, PauseAI UK volunteer, she/her, 20.
There’s no heaven? Alright humanity, let’s build our own.
✦ https://blueprintingheaven.substack.com/
✦ https://x.com/LaibaRehmanRJ
✦ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rehmanlaiba/
✦ https://rehmanlaiba.github.io/
Damn, just looked through the reviewers I screenshotted and yeah, all but one have only posted one review. However, “Only customers who have spent at least $50 on Amazon in the last 12 months can submit ratings and reviews.” (Should have put that in the original, my bad.) That makes it seem like it would only be profitable if you intend to reuse the accounts for future reviews? Unless the value of a few 5-star ratings is much higher than I realise.
Wondering how robust Amazon’s process of labelling a review with “Verified Purchase” is. Are we sure these are all users using AI to write their reviews and not bots?
Amazon say, “We check if the reviewer bought or used (e.g., streamed) the item on Amazon and paid a price available to most Amazon shoppers. If we confirm both, we label the review with Verified Purchase… Our automated and human checks stop millions of suspicious reviews.”
I wonder how it varies between people — for me, abstaining from sweets leads to not really wanting them. My desire for sweets after a month of no sweets is lower than it is after a few days of no sweets. (But lower than it is a day after sweets… I think?)
Obviously it isn’t perfect because I always return at some point haha (although I’ve never made a total effort to completely cut sweets out of my life)
I became an atheist in September of 2025. I really sympathise with you here.
I like being alive, it’s fun! Things have meaning because we assign them meaning, in my opinion. Fight for good things, and help others be happy. Sorry for the short and simple reply (I’m tired) but I hope it’s better than nothing, and if you want to talk deconversion feel free to message me!
You may find my blog post on my deconversion interesting: https://blueprintingheaven.substack.com/p/deconversion-has-been-a-real-productivity
For me, becoming an atheist translated into a burning fire to live and help humanity live, for us to progress and be happy. I hope reading my post can help you feel this way!
That is true but I think would lead to net-complacency… Let’s hope if we ever do find out that free will is definite and humanity accepts it that people take the view you describe here!
True, I’ll rephrase. If we do not have free will, would it be beneficial for our belief in free will to be destroyed? If you were a divine operator with humanity’s best interests at heart, would you set up the causal chain of events to one day reveal to humans that they do not have free will?
I also sleep and my heart beats, but “I” don’t get to decide those things, whereas free will implies “I” get to make day-to-day decisions.
I don’t think I’m 100% following with the second-to-last sentence. Are you saying it’s detrimental to disregard the debate of whether we have free will?
″...because you make decisions that determine your actions” I don’t know that this would fit with the idea of no free will. Surely you’re not really making any decisions.
“my decisions will be determined by my values”—“what do my values actually imply I should do in this situation” But your values wouldn’t have been decided by you.
I agree with your last sentence. I’m leaning towards, “If we do not have free will, people should not be told about it.” (Assuming the “proof” of no free will eliminates any possibility of constructing selves that do have free will because in that case I would want us to build them and “move into” those bodies.)
P. C. Hodgell said, “That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.” What if we have no free will? Disregarding the debate of whether or not we have free will—if we do not have free will, is it beneficial for our belief in free will to be destroyed?
Hello! My name is Laiba, I’m a 20-year-old Astrophysics student and new to LessWrong (or at least, new to having an account).
I’ve been into science since I could read and received a lot of exposure to futurism, transhumanism and a little rationality. I remember thinking, “This would make a lot of sense if I were an atheist.”
Lo and behold, about a month ago I gave up on religion, and I was no casual Muslim! I thought now would be a good time to join LessWrong. I’ve read a few posts here and there, and greatly enjoyed Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (which is where I found out about LessWrong).
My first blog post talks a bit about my deconversion: https://blueprintingheaven.substack.com/p/deconversion-has-been-a-real-productivity
I’m also starting up a PauseAI student group at my university. Taking death seriously has made me rethink where I’m putting my time.
Looking forward to having interesting discussions and being able to interact with the community without the fear of sinning!
2026/06/02 EDIT: Blog post link updated since name change.
My shorter timeline expectation (around 5-10 years) meant that I launched straight into starting a PauseAI society at my university as opposed to, say, just talking about it in general or trying to “raise awareness” for a far-off possibility. Which… thinking about it is pretty much all I’ve done for climate change.
I read this yesterday but it only clicked this morning who this bright-eyed bushy-tailed new member probably was haha, if my suspicions are correct I’m very flattered. :)
Much more often I find myself in situations where I’m surrounded by young kids or it’s a really happy occasion and I don’t have it in me to ruin these children’s lives or I don’t want to crash the party, which definitely isn’t good to do anyway; no one will keep AI safety advocates around if they’re always ruining the good times. I’m less sure about whether you should be telling kids about this, maybe watered down versions or on a case-by-case basis. My little brother (14) has read IABIED and is convinced it’s a serious problem but he doesn’t seem to have emotionally reacted to it (probably because he’s religious) which is pretty ideal I think, because he can defend the point if it ever comes up in conversation but I’m not worried about his mental health.