Messages

It's all so stupid.

Things don't have to get worse for them to get better.

Things can get worse without ever getting better.

Voting isn't an act which precludes taking other actions.

Addiction to rationality is caused by irrational motivations. if we were truly rational we'd give up on rationality. As Roger was fond of saying, it's no way to run a human being.

Indeed.  Logic is often a useful tool for achieving a specific goal, but it's entirely useless at figuring out what root goal to select.  Axioms cannot be arrived at rationally.

It seems obvious now, but I was well into my twenties before I figured that out.

feel like he'd read like BIP and take away all the wrong messages . if he makes a single tweet about this all of the cryptocurrency/roko's basilisk guys would overwhelm us in seconds

He won't. He's too pig-brained to actually recognize any value in Discordian messaging. The one to worry about is Yudkowsky.

I vaguely recall that Yudkowsky mentioned Discordianism once?  So it may already be too late.  I was reading through some of the writings on lesswrong a while back.  Google isn't helping me find the specific reference, though.

I find a lot of Yudkowsky's rationalist ideas to be interesting/useful, but his views on AGI are bonkers.  His reaction to the Roko's Basilisk nonsense, at least, indicates to me that even if he can discuss the mental tools of rationality, he isn't very good at applying them consistently, and is highly susceptible to fear-motivated rationalization.

Just so you know elon bought the principiadiscordia.com last year for 10 dollars.

It was for sale?!!!?!??  I would have paid twice as much.

Scott and Fatima are back, only now they have wedding rings.  They got married the same day they were moved out of the ICU, apparently.  That is so Tucson, I don't even know where to start.

They were in the ICU?  I am morbidly curious as to how they had the shaker table programmed, and the type of injuries incurred, but... some things are better left unknown.

Our CPO actually said, with a straight face, "we must leverage our synergies" to improve purchasing BY MAKING THE ENTIRE GLOBAL ENTITY RUN *ALL* RAW MATERIAL PURCHASES THROUGH THE HOME OFFICE.  I found myself desperately trying to choke my computer out, because you apparently can't strangle anyone through the internet (note:  save this idea for the next round of proposals).

Our management has a fetish for something called a "single source of truth."

"Single source of truth" and "single point of failure" are strictly synonyms.

To be honest, I have been off and on forums decades ago, this is my first forum in years.  To encounter prejudice at the first is weird, but whatever.

Your posts were effluvial from the first.  No prejudice was required.

It is irritating being treated as an enemy by Discordians, considering a lifetime of devotion to Eris.

Your faith is too weak, or whatever.  Go on a pilgrimage to a fetid swamp with no communication with the outside world and meditate for a couple decades, that'll sort you out.

Everyone is haunted by ghosts only they can see.

They're with us from infancy, wandering, lurking, following.

Even before we learn to speak, we learn they are not part of the common experience.  No one else sees them, hears them, smells them, feels them.  Language can only be used to convey concepts we have in common; what only one person can perceive, can have no meaningful name.

We form blindspots.  No-one else sees them, so they're not there.  This isn't mere disbelief, but a strong and unshakeable belief in non-existence.  Sometimes it takes a little longer to develop, and the adults laugh and say we have an "imaginary friend", and that we'll grow out of it.  And to be fair, sometimes it is an imaginary friend...and sometimes, it's neither imaginary, nor friend.  But we always learn.  We must.

They're  opaque.  They're with you even now.  When you're driving and a car comes out of nowhere;  maybe your attention lapsed...or maybe there was a ghost blocking your view, and you simply couldn't see it, or the vehicle behind it.

You bump into a chair.  You stub your toe.
Maybe you misjudged your path...or maybe you were subconsciously side-stepping to avoid the ghost only you can see.

I had a dream.

I dreamt that I was character in a work of fiction, and I raged and screamed against the author to let me out, to give me freedom.

But that's nonsense.  For an author to write characters as if they have independent existence is self-indulgent and pretentious.  The author does not have unlimited power within the scope of his writing; he cannot create something which acts in opposition to his will.

With a god, it is not quite as clear; a limited god, who participates in a universe, but is not of it, may co-existent with independent entities.  But a truly omnipotent god, who created a universe from scratch, and whose constant attention and intervention sustains and continues that universe, cannot create beings with free-will.  He can only pretend he can.

If I dreamed of this crap, what does that mean?

I am the belly-button lint of the universe, contemplating itself.

My mother's cancer, which has been controlled for years now, is galloping off with her.

I've lost an aunt and three uncles to cancer.  My mother, on seeing her sister's body, shook her shoulder and tried to wake her, I don't know why.  It was heartbreaking.

Fuck cancer.

They can't even grasp the concept that animals literally can not make protein

That doesn't sound right.  Animals certainly make protein.  Humans can't adequately synthesize all the types of amino acids they need, and have to get those by breaking down protein consumed from animals that can synthesize those amino acids, or via certain specific vegetables (beans are a good source of lysine).

DNA is essentially a chemical instruction book for how to synthesize various proteins.  Any organism that employs DNA is making its own protein...

Turns out making all the doctors and nurses flee to Canada and Australia [...]was not a winning strategy.

Send more, please.  We still have a shortage.

Tell them Saskatchewan really isn't as bad as the right-wing regressive provincial government and technically uninhabitable climate might make it seem.

Sorry, there is no future left.  My generation and the one before mine used it all up.  Sorry about that.

It's the middle of September, and Saskatchewan is still getting air quality warnings because of smoke from wildfires.

After this summer, I'm surprised there's anything left to burn.

The screaming in my head is around 17 or 18 kHz, and it's not alone.

I'll trust your judgment and good will.

We haven't been introduced, so I'll just think of you as "prey".

I'm marking all as read.

I wish I could say you're not missing anything, but I don't read his posts either, so I wouldn't know.