The second group of people are NPCs specifically in the realm of philosophy and ideology. Their situation is trickier. Much of my account is an attempt to shake this second group out of their complacency. It's Sisyphean and if I'm honest I just like twitter dopamine hits
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Gamification: we must imagine Sisyphus grinding out just one more quest ma, and then I'll come to dinner I swear. His guild is counting on him.
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Compression algorithms like ZIP and PNG operate by eliminating redundant bits. The compressed artifact contains only "unique" bits in the information-theoretic sense. "Redundant" bits are removed. If humanity were compressed, how many bits of you would make it?
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If you only consume mass things you will only have mass thoughts. This is what originally drew me to the rationalists in the vein of Scott Alexander, who spend endless ours filling their cognitive toolbox with useful gadgets and then build a house that looks like everyone else's
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0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked Retweeted 0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked
Something I have tried hard to understand is what boundaries exist in our minds; what warping of cognitive space causes us to think in predictable, common ways?https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1034162623799906304 …
0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked added,
0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked @0x49fa98When you know the name of a spirit you can command it. The spirit world, the occult world, is in truth the world of words and ideas. What is a spirit? A virtual thing, in the body, yes, of the body, but also somehow ephemeral, made of invisible things, words and perceptionsShow this thread1 reply 6 retweets 57 likesShow this thread -
Via rationalism, "Mental stopsigns" are real, they are words or ideas that cause you to turn back and not journey down a particular line of reasoning. They exist everywhere. Some common ones: "Capitalism" "The Corporations" "Racism" "Oppression" "the Jews" “the Patriarchy”
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Scapegoats quickly turn into mental stopsigns. Whether you are left or right, you will always be an NPC if you instinctively turn away from avenues of heretical thought. The instinct to not have wrong thoughts is danger-avoidance. NPCs are above all, safe.
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Bad versions of ideas vaccinate you against good ones. Ridiculous conspiracy theories prevent you from considering plausible ones. Unflattering caricatures of right wing thinkers prevent you from listening to them
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Another consideration is fashion: In Scott Alexander's unusually good essay, Right is the New Left, he explores the idea that ideological alignments come down in large part to fashion.http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/22/right-is-the-new-left/ …
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When a meme like NPCs goes big, then it becomes necessary to throw your weight behind it, (get status by aligning with a popular thing) or throw your weight against it (get status by showing how smart and independent you are)
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Picking one of the two, There is no other way I have noticed!
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