it’s a bit of a joke image and greatly oversimplified but
the general format is a bit of a play on “eeveelution” from pokemon where you use different items to evolve into different pokemon (hence all the “pills”, also a reference to the matrix “red pill”/“blue pill”)
Conversation
post rats are a cluster on twitter that talk a lot about feelings, trauma, meditation, etc.
i mentioned only trauma (and feelings in the image), just cuz it’s a very loose group that’s hard to summarise (and this, again, just a joke image really)
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think there is also a group that wants to take art more seriously than “traditional” rationalists? not too familiar w/ that side myself
meta rats are a group around that are into heidegger, continental philosophy, etc. as a critique of rationalism
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the girl part is a reference to the surprising number of trans woman in the rationalist-adjacent community.
i’m being a bit unfair here, of course, some trans women stay rationalists proper, but i think some also leave it behind as they transition or move to meta rat / post rat
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I’ve noticed this and suspect it’s significant. Personally interesting as well as theoretically, inasmuch as I identified as trans in my teens & twenties, and am married to a nb/trans person. We’ve repeatedly discussed doing a podcast about this but never gotten around to it.
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i am extremely fascinated by all aspects of this revelation.
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Oh. Well, I was about to encourage you to write about the connection if you feel moved to do so. I don’t feel I understand it very well, which is probably part of why we’ve never quite felt ready to write or podcast about it.
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oh hah I come from a similar place! My working theory is, if one takes temet nosce (famously used in The Matrix) seriously, it just rubs one's nose really deeply in the limitations of, well, pretty much all our traditional science toolset
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to list some:
- the dozen-ish ways in which one can delineate man and woman, all valid in ~some~ context
- identity formation, reconciling nature and nurture, grokking that certain things are the result of ongoing negotiation
- 'trying on' identities and corresponding frameshifts
some people, when confronted with a question, think "I know, this is the perfect opportunity to get into meditation". Now they have a thousand questions
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