Conversation

A good way to think of it is: every belief is a micro-reality. A little universe or timeline. You live in the intersection of millions of such universes. You might share almost all with me, but if I can’t portal-gun into one, you can’t just go there and yell at me to come over.
2
23
I like multiverse metaphors because it makes it easier to practice systematic doubt. I like a version where there are only possible worlds no actual world. Considering actuality to be an unknowable belief intersection with others means you never quite know where you are.
1
18
When you are alone with your thoughts you are maximally doubtful, existing in all possible belief universes consistent with your senses. Like a wave function. Every person you entangle with collapses some shared ones into actual beliefs. The bigger the borg, the more you believe.
1
23
Getting to mutual belief states with >1 person gets progressively harder, but if you get there, the states are more powerfully belief-like. This is why cults are like gravity wells. You’re in an entangled deep belief collapse state with a lot of others. Extreme decoherence.
1
19
Doubt is the live state, belief is the dead state. The relief of belief is the relief of dying a little, with company. To create belief with another person is to destroy doubt with them, and trap a small part of each of you in the universe of that belief. Multisig horcrux.
1
20
Gotta refine this metaphor a bit. A better picture might be: you cannot enter the belief multiverse alone at all. Only in company. Where you exist by yourself is just unfactored phenomenological ground. Any sense of belief you experience alone is either memory or anticipation.
1
12
This is why seeing/being seen and “recognition” are such a big deal for humans. It’s shared entry into parts of the extended cinematic beliefverse. You see each other by recognizing that you’re each seeing the same thing. You’re now bound by universes you can only enter together.
1
14
Sidebar, this is my elaborate explanation for Trump’s weird inability to “see” martyrs and war veterans. I don’t think it’s a moral failing. It’s a mental disability. You don’t have to be patriotic or altruistic to grok why people might risk their lives in wars for fellow humans.
1
7
Whether you’re doing it for your buddy in the foxhole or for a larger egregore of patriotic feeling, you’re risking life for beliefs. Which are things shared with others. Completely not mysterious for a normal human. Trump is like a blind man who can’t parse talk of sight.
Replying to
This is also why it seems like a Trump has no beliefs. That’s because he doesn’t. He’s never entered the beliefverse. Only pushed buttons without understanding what they mean, because meaning rests on mutuality and belief.
1
10
But you can’t say he exists in pure doubt like some idealized spherical philosopher in a vacuum, because to know doubt you have to have experienced, and recovered from, belief. As best as I can reconstruct what it is like to be in his head, it must be a sensory-aesthetic soup.
1
10
The mathematician in the joke still isn’t living with knowledge alone. He shares the belief-concepts “sheep” and “field” with the other two. It can unravel way more than that.
1
8
You’re unable to view this Tweet because this account owner limits who can view their Tweets. Learn more
Replying to
I’m not arguing about whether it is stupid. I’m arguing about whether it is possible. It’s clear;y possible and something normal people can experience if they want, whether or not it’s stupid. He can’t.
1
Show replies