Beauty, utility, eternity. Pick 2 of 3.
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Nearly 10 years since I made up the first version of this shitpost in 2012. I think the 2021 version is better.
Utility = generalized money
Eternity = asymptotic longevity = long-half-life truth = generalized make-sense ribbonfarm.com/2012/08/09/the
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If you want to avoid infinities, think of it as beauty, utility, longevity
Actually I think I like that better
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The logic of the tradeoff hinges on identifying beauty with a resource surplus used in way that produces a stable signal that serves as a persistent identity over time. Whatever signature identifies a thing as the _same_ thing at 2 points in time is a function of its “beauty.”
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So under survival stress the surplus gets used for utility, destabilizing identity. If it is completely used up even fit an instant, identity continuity is broken, so you get death and non-eternity.
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Useful to consider each pure case
Beauty + longevity = purely symbolic monument
Longevity + utility = pure creative destruction
Beauty + utility = pure transient instantaneous consciousness
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I find the pure longevity+utility case most interesting. There is no beauty, because there’s no persistence to be either beautiful or ugly. It’s “not even ugly.”
Annihilated-self amnesiac pure process non-being-and-time.
In a Bergsonian mood this morning.
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Pure utility+longevity only has coherence only to the extent it has a perfect thermodynamic boundary. It’s a mindless sub-universe unto itself that leaks out and dissolves into the universe. Maybe like how a black hole can evaporate.
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This kind of useless shitpost is what happens when I don’t get enough sleep and haven’t had a second cup of coffee.
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Since all 3 asymptotic cases are impossible, and you have to be in the interior,… calibration practical near-pure cases:
Beauty + utility = latte art
Utility + longevity = interchangeable commodity component
Longevity + beauty = family heirloom
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Sorry if this thread ruined your Saturday morning buzz, but it’s not my fault you’re on Twitter instead of out and about, enjoying the wildfire-smoke-haze
Replying to
Living things, cars, computers … anything that’s complex and very high utility while “alive”
You can get more longevity bu giving up utility through simplification. A beautiful desk may last longer than a beautiful computer but is less useful.
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