sanddbox

Karma: 47

sanddbox 28 Nov 2014 21:55 UTC
1 point
in reply to: Fivehundred’s comment on: Misdiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome is ruining my life.
Honestly, whether you have aspergers or not a lot of alarm bells are ringing in my head right now.

You’re not just set on joining the IDF, but rather any random army. Why?

And if you think aspergers is defined by “fluency” then you don’t really understand what aspergers/autism is, honestly.

sanddbox 6 Jun 2013 17:05 UTC
0 points
in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Great big ocean waves in an even bigger blank spot

If someone would guide you through recalling a memory of a pastlife that feels as real as the memories that you recall from your present life how much would that cause you to update?

Knowing how easily manipulable the human mind is, I wouldn’t weight that as very strong evidence, especially when it comes to subjective feelings. As an example, humans modify their memories all the time without really realizing it, as in the case of people who point fingers at the wrong crime suspect and decades later are proven wrong.

sanddbox 5 Jun 2013 2:25 UTC
0 points
in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Great big ocean waves in an even bigger blank spot

Beliefs have to pay rent.

Exactly. When has a belief in god payed rent?

Would you start believing in some greater force if someone demostrates to you that those experiences exist by guiding you through the experience?

This is very wishy-washy language. If there were enough evidence of a ‘greater force’ to make it worth believing, I would believe it. Naturally, that would have to be a lot of evidence.

How much different kind of spiritual experiences would you need to experience to drop your belief in materialism?

For future reference, you’d use “many” instead of “much” in your first sentence. Anyway, by materialism do you mean physicalism? As above, I would need an enormous amount of evidence to change my views in this case.

sanddbox 3 Jun 2013 22:04 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Thomas’s comment on: Open Thread, June 2-15, 2013
Oh, don’t get me wrong (no pun intended) - I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be frequently wrong. It’s only bad to a) refuse to change your opinion and b) not realize you’re wrong.

sanddbox 2 Jun 2013 23:36 UTC
2 points
in reply to: Thomas’s comment on: Open Thread, June 2-15, 2013

Still, I could be wrong now and then.

If you think you’re only wrong “every now and then”, then you haven’t really learned much from LW.

sanddbox 2 Jun 2013 22:29 UTC
0 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Open Thread, June 2-15, 2013
Wow, that’s a lot of information. Thanks!

sanddbox 2 Jun 2013 22:29 UTC
2 points
in reply to: wedrifid’s comment on: Open Thread, June 2-15, 2013
Definitely—there’s a lot of concepts that seem rather obvious to me, while others take me a lot longer to wrap my head around, so I’ve been skipping the ones that are really obvious to me.

sanddbox 2 Jun 2013 5:27 UTC
−2 points
on: How much was creating Google worth?
Obviously the actual number itself is completely arbitrary, although I think you did a pretty good job estimating and giving a relatively realistic range. The full impact of Google, of course, can’t really be quantified; it’s impacted the world culturally, technically, socially, economically, etc. When you think about it, things that we understand qualitatively but not quantitatively are usually massively complex.

sanddbox 2 Jun 2013 4:26 UTC
6 points
on: Open Thread, June 2-15, 2013
Has anyone on LW compiled a list of books/subjects to read/learn that basically gives brings you through all the ideas discussed on LW?

The sequences are the obvious answer, but it’s nice to go into subjects a little more in-depth, plus the sequences are somewhat frustrating to navigate (every article in the sequences has links to plenty of other articles, so it’s hard to attack the sequences in linear fashion).

sanddbox 1 Jun 2013 0:39 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Pentashagon’s comment on: Great big ocean waves in an even bigger blank spot
Well, yeah. The ability of humans to self-delude themselves is well-known, and of course mental illness exists as well.

It seems a little silly to say “I believe these experiences exist”; it almost sounds like you’re trying to imply that some greater force exists. It’s reminiscent of those people that say “well, I don’t believe in God, but there has to be something” as if they’d just uttered a profound statement.

It’d be silly to doubt that at least a small portion of the people reporting experiences believe they experienced whatever they said.

sanddbox 28 May 2013 2:19 UTC
4 points
in reply to: MugaSofer’s comment on: [LINK] Soylent crowdfunding
Huh? Diets are on a spectrum, from shitty to healthy.

sanddbox 28 May 2013 2:19 UTC
4 points
in reply to: beoShaffer’s comment on: Boring Advice Repository

just professing a desire to X

sanddbox 27 May 2013 6:55 UTC
6 points
in reply to: beoShaffer’s comment on: Boring Advice Repository
Doesn’t this, to a large extent, describe LW?

sanddbox 26 May 2013 22:40 UTC
3 points
in reply to: DanArmak’s comment on: Being Foreign and Being Sane
Facing the front of the elevator seems to be the better choice—you can press buttons, watch the floor numbers tick up, and exit the elevator more quickly.

Facing backwards also sort of cuts out human interaction in cases where, say, somebody new enters the elevator.

sanddbox 26 May 2013 22:39 UTC
−1 points
in reply to: endoself’s comment on: The Power of Agency
Either way, the guy’s a moron. He’s basically a much better packaged snake oil salesman.

sanddbox 26 May 2013 6:43 UTC
2 points
in reply to: fowlertm’s comment on: Being Foreign and Being Sane
So, simple is a type of equation?

Jokes aside, that’s an excellent answer.

sanddbox 26 May 2013 6:43 UTC
6 points
in reply to: fowlertm’s comment on: Being Foreign and Being Sane
There’s a clear difference between interacting with foreigners in your own country, and being a foreigner in another country, which is basically that when you’re a foreigner, it’s your beliefs/customs/mannerism that are being questioned. If everybody faces the back of the elevator, you’re going to start pondering why in the U.S. you face the front of the elevator, whereas those facing the back wouldn’t stop and think about why a foreigner might be facing the opposite direction.

Also, obviously, the immersion factor is there. Speaking to foreigners in your own country is not nearly as new/scary an environment as being in a completely foreign country.

sanddbox 26 May 2013 6:07 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Vaniver’s comment on: [LINK] Soylent crowdfunding
Dietary cholesterol and lipid cholesterol aren’t the same thing either, and just as your body can compensate for an intake of 0 cholesterol, it can likewise compensate for an intake of excess cholesterol.

sanddbox 26 May 2013 5:57 UTC
1 point
in reply to: Vaniver’s comment on: [LINK] Soylent crowdfunding
“Can produce” doesn’t mean optimal intake is 0.

sanddbox 24 May 2013 18:14 UTC
0 points
in reply to: RomeoStevens’s comment on: Health/Longevity Link List
We know a lot less about hunter-gatherers than most people think, and hunter-gatherer tribes fluctuate a lot in terms of their diets/lifestyles, as one would expect with the diversity of the world.

Vegetables tend to be low calorie, so you wouldn’t expect tribes to expend a lot of effort getting them. That doesn’t really apply to a modern environment where getting enough calories isn’t a concern and vegetables can be bought at your local supermarket.