myriad tiny computers … repeatedly computing some basic circuit representing maximum bliss.
Surely you mean experiencing maximum bliss. That is completely different from merely “representing” it.
“Representing” maximum bliss would be like writing “I love school” 100 times on the blackboard. That does not make me actually love school...
You think so? To me, the part in Tolkien’s world that sounds closest to the Fall from Eden is the part where Melkor gradually corrupts the race of Men by making them fear death.
That, plus the Flight of the Noldor.
It seems that regulation can do some good
Was there ever doubt about that?
Tolkien describes some themes/messages here which I think he failed to express well in his fiction.
The Ring of Sauron is only one of the various mythical treatments of the placing of one’s life, or power, in some external object, which is thus exposed to capture or destruction with disastrous results to oneself. If I were to ‘philosophize’ this myth, or at least the Ring of Sauron, I should say it was a mythical way of representing the truth that potency (or perhaps rather potentiality) if it is to be exercised, and produce results, has to be externalized and so as it were passes, to a greater or less degree, out of one’s direct control. A man who wishes to exert ‘power’ must have subjects, who are not himself. But he then depends on them.
This analogy does not work great IMO. Why does Sauron become much weaker than ever before after his Ring is destroyed?
...these ‘wizards’ were incarnated in the life-forms of Middle-earth, and so suffered the pains both of mind and body. They were also, for the same reason, thus involved in the peril of the incarnate: the possibility of ‘fall’, of sin, if you will.
Sauron and the Balrogs “sinned” and “fell” without being bound to a limited body like the Istari were.
The Enemy in successive forms is always ‘naturally’ concerned with sheer Domination, and so the Lord of magic and machines; but the problem: that this frightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root, the desire to benefit the world and others – speedily and according to the benefactor’s own plans – is a recurrent motive.
Tolkien barely ever shows this in his fiction. He tells us this, through Gandalf and Galadriel. But we do not see it. The only example I can think of is when Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo. I don’t remember that The Lord of the Rings even mentions the topic that Sauron might once have had good motives. Neither is it at all clear that the evil deeds of e.g. Fëanor derive from good motives.
The Fall of Valinor
Do you mean the Darkening of Valinor, after the destruction of the Two Trees?
standard advice is don’t grocery shop while hungry, but I wouldn’t buy enough otherwise.
I would be interested in hearing more about this.
Civilized people have emotions and limits willpower. They cannot be expected to always act in a rational or civilized manner. Errare humanum est. Society needs to account for that fact.
Your point 1 makes sense. But as for your point 2, it seems to me that the observer would need to have just as good social skills in order to tell who is wearing the newest fashion.
Alas, I suck badly at ballgames and most sports, and I have been severely soured against team sports in school. :(
Thanks!
I over-solved the problem by meditating a lot and woke up enough to find merely existing to be pretty pleasant. Then exercise was not so bad, because it’s also just existing.
How long did this take you (i.e., how many years or hours of meditation)? :)
Some people think that computer chess players are already near the standard where they could draw against God.
It is known that God likes tabletop games as long as they do not involve dice.
I understand the second part of your post. But I do not understand the first part:
It’s cheaper, you can customize your HRT regimen to your specifications
Why does crypto enable this?
Valid points. Thanks.
That makes sense. Thanks!
This was a very good explanation (the part about people in countries with unstable currencies). Thanks! Upvoted.
I did not understand your last paragraph, though.
I agree that many rationalists are way too libertarian for my liking.
IMO at least one other respondent addressed a strawman of my argument, but ironically I think that your take here makes a strawman out of the cryptophiliac rationalist...
1 Bitcoin is currently worth about AUD$108,000. The current total value of all Bitcoin is around $1.5 trillion USD; of all Ethereum, around $280 billion USD. If only I had some of this negligible value for myself!
I did not mean market value. I meant the kind of value that makes the world better.
Perhaps you deplore that rogue states and organized crime are among the holders of cryptocurrency. May I nonetheless point out that the majority of paid evil that has been done in the world, was and is paid for using old-fashioned national currencies?
This argument seems invalid to me. It is the equivalent of saying: “Perhaps you deplore that some criminals have guns. May I point out that the majority of crime is committed without guns?”
If you want to clean up the Augean stables of world finance, crypto probably isn’t very high on the list.
This sounds as though you have some kind of action in mind. What do you suggest?
Thanks for the reply.
I feel that way about currency too.
I did not understand this part. How do you feel about currency?
I too like the hedonium shockwave, for the same reasons as you.
Some may argue I have just read too much Buddhism, but I think wellbeing and freedom from suffering is worth the loss of personal identity.