I agree, it looks like a parody skit to me.
Sesquipedalist
Karma: 1
Interesting. I thought that was a typo and you meant ‘guff’; (UK slang—nonsense, humbug) which seemed to make perfect sense in context.
I just wanted to point out that the article says “People who see outcomes, both good and bad, to be due to their own doing are said to have a strong internal locus (the left side of the below scale).” but the scale shows the internal locus on the right.
Hi,
I am brand new to LW (this is my first comment!) and have only just started reading the sequences. I’d love to meet up with some fellow rationality-enthusiasts, but am not likely to be able to make this meet-up (I will negotiate with my other half, you never know).
Any future gatherings in Edinburgh would be most welcome, though. Keep me informed if any are being arranged.
This is an interesting take on post-scarcity. I haven’t read Biting the Sun, but from a quick look at the synopsis I can see how it (and your comment) echoes some of the things I’ve been thinking about.
Is it really stress that these studies are measuring? I think of it more as struggle. Of course, stress is often correlated with struggle, but it doesn’t always have to be. I think the crux is that most of us need to feel like we are contributing to our society in some way, or at least that we are able to stand independently, and without some kind of struggle our accomplishments feel hollow. There are a lot of things that we can struggle against, though, and not all would be vanquished with an end to scarcity. Climbing a mountain would still be as satisfying, as would being the best football player in the town, or solving a really difficult puzzle.
What it comes down to, I think, is exactly the kind of thing which video games have been trying to optimise ever since they were invented; game balance. For a task to feel worthwhile it needs to be difficult, but not so hard that you give up on it.
The overwhelming majority? I am more inclined to think that these kinds of hedonistic pursuits would be a phase which people pass through as they mature, but as they lack that feeling of meaning most people would come out the other side looking for something more (with the option to dip back in to that hedonistic outlet whenever they want to). Unless, of course, the drugs in question are able to evoke that sense of meaningfulness within us, like LSD can.
Whether or not we could be viewed as the ‘pet’ species of an AI probably comes down mostly to our capacity for self-determination. As long as we can over-rule the AI we should be okay, although if we get into the whole ‘superintelligent AI convincing us to care about non-issues so we can use our veto and feel empowered without actually conceding any power on things which it considers important’ there’s not really much hope for us. It’s worth remembering that many religious people derive satisfaction from their lives even though they genuinely believe that a god or gods are the ones truly in control of what happens to them.