Curt Doolittle

Category: Human Behavior and Cognitive Science

  • DEFLATION AND RECONSTRUCTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRANSCENDENCE (esp: Joel Davis H

    DEFLATION AND RECONSTRUCTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRANSCENDENCE

    (esp: Joel Davis Herbert Vogelsang John Derbyshire Nick Heywood Russell Moore )

    (this is the first meaningful and helpful conversation I have had in months and thank you very much for it. I hope you will stick with me for a bit as I work through it.)

    1) Again, to repeat, so that we understand what I *need* to do, by choosing a series of concepts I am trying to deflate *and scientifically reconstruct* cooperation: our moral intuitions and the *value* of morality.

    In other words I am converting from storry and intuition to algorithm and measurement. Just like all sciences have done. The difference is, that this one science has more impact on us than any other.

    Which is why everyone fears it.

    2) assumptions:

    (a) prior to consciousness we needed only to acquire resources, stay alive, stay with our ‘kind’ for protection, ‘alerts’, and reproduction, and feel dominance or submission in order to obtain access to resources and reproduction.

    (the reptilian brain phase) We developed the ability we call ‘sentience’.

    (b) the consequence of consciousness (modeling and self reflection) is a need for mindfulness. mindfulness was provided in our developmental eras by band(pack) and tribal(herd) life, where problems were relatively simple and all persons well known, and our status and position well understood, and the relationship between cause and consequence within our perception. This mindfulness was possible within the ‘tipping point’ of 150 people, or the approximate maximum product of two people over four possible generations.

    (the mammalian brain phase) We developed the ability to ‘wonder’. But we could perceive by observance and familiarity sufficiently to largely defend against ‘folly and deceit’.

    (c) As cooperation, language, the scale of cooperation, differentiation, specialization, and causality increased we developed a need to direct our minds that evolved for the purpose of tribal mindfulness to something within our ability to calculate and reason. We created various techniques by which to provide ‘mindfulness’ in the absence of constant empirical feedback.

    (The human-mammal brain phase) We developed the ability to tell stories. These stories provide ‘rough measures’ in modern terms so that group calculation was possible, and that fear of uncertainty was diminished, and that (worse) we could defend against ‘folly and deceit’.

    (d) just as there was a higher method of reason than literary analogy in aristotelian reason, and just as aristotelian reason was ‘incomplete’, there is a possible higher method of *mindfulness* than Stoicism because stoicism was incomplete.

    (the ‘complete’ human brain phase) We developed the ability to ‘magnify’, measure, and record, and thereby reduce the imperceptible to the perceptible and to create analogy to experience.

    We are not yet fully human. Or at least, few of us are. But we have the potential to complete the transition from beast to human – and it is within our grasp.

    While the mastery of fire and metal began our journey into transcendence, Aryans were the first peoples who attempted to fully transcend the beast and evolve into fully humans. And they did so by accidentally discovering deflationary truth. And then profiting from the transcendence (domestication) of the remaining human animals.

    We profited from transforming rocks, then animals, then plants, then the human animal. And the evidence is clear, that it is the most profitable industry every invented by man.

    3) So while I understand the need to hold onto animal spirits, it is clearly not true that we must, and the evidence is quite the opposite, that our function over the past six thousand years has been largely the eradication of animal spirits evolved during the mammalian and and the incremental replacement of them with measurement and calculation so that we provide extensions to our senses and reason sufficient to train our intuition, so that we are no longer dependent upon comforting falsehoods, and no longer vulnerable to ‘folly and deceit’.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-26 09:56:00 UTC

  • YES YOU ARE A TEST SUBJECT 😉 The question is whether you are a voluntary one or

    YES YOU ARE A TEST SUBJECT 😉

    The question is whether you are a voluntary one or not. The second question is whether you are also a fellow researcher or not. And if not, if you are either intellectually honest or self deceptive or not.

    Again, this is what I do here:

    —“Facebook is quite literally my sketch pad. If I am thinking about a certain problem I do my research, then I look for opportunities to debate someone about it. Then I propose a ‘controversial’ or ‘provocative’ *prosecution* of whatever assumptions underlie the assumptions in the idea. The idea is to ‘taunt’ people into arguing with me, so that I can work through whatever I don’t see and feel that others do see and feel. I continue this process until I have deflated the topic into nothing but operational understanding of incentives and methods of argument. Then I try to make the argument iteratively – often dozens of times – until I can say it somewhat poetically: as close to an aphorism or ‘series’ as possible. That’s my work process. Really. That’s all there is to it.”—

    IN OTHER WORDS I USE FB TO CONDUCT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT THROUGH DEFLATION BY ARGUMENTATION

    People cannot report truthfully.

    The way to get at what they ‘think’ and ‘understand’ and ‘value’ is to attack their sacred cows.

    People will defend them and I learn (a) what their real incentives are (what property in toto they defend), (b) how they make their arguments, (c) how to answer and explain those arguments.

    Now some people find this process ‘fun’ or ‘interesting’. Because they can play both researcher and test subject.

    Others find it insulting or aggravating.

    And the reason is generally one’s degree of intellectual honesty and openness. versus the opposite.

    But what some people object to is that they realize that they are ‘test subjects’, or that they are unable to play both researcher and test subject. Or that they discover that their pretense of intellectual honesty and intelligence is a fraud, and that they are just searching for excuses.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 21:20:00 UTC

  • WE AND OUR LIES OF SELF PROTECTION We all collect identities (“I feel, think, an

    WE AND OUR LIES OF SELF PROTECTION

    We all collect identities (“I feel, think, and act like a person who thinks feels and acts by these criteria”) both as tools, as goals in pursuit of self image, as standards of measurement, and as self deceptions in lieu of achievement – in order to lie to ourselves about our status.

    We all use identities for nothing other than the usually literary model of Transcendence > Monomyth > Archetype > Plot > Virtues > Assets (property-in-toto) > Status. In other words, role playing a character. When we know that the archetypes map to personality types.

    We can deflate all identities into attempts at acquisition both real and illusory. (acquisitionism)

    There is nothing that one can experience that we cannot communicate without deceit (pretence, fictionalism, lying).

    And attempts to say otherwise are attempts to preserve self deceptions.

    In other words, I have not yet found anything that cannot be converted into scientific language. I have only found people making attempts to preserve deceptions.

    This is what psychologist get paid for: what lie do we tell ourselves and how can we correct it by eliminating the trauma or feeling that prevents us from avoiding it.

    SO TO THOSE WHO CLAIM THEY PURSUE TRUTH AND WISDOM:

    Why is it you need to preserve the lies?

    Because the only answer is, that you are weak or cowardly.

    “In other words, LARPING”

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 20:54:00 UTC

  • Leave men no psychological safety but sovereignty, agency, and mindfulness

    Leave men no psychological safety but sovereignty, agency, and mindfulness.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 20:51:00 UTC

  • OK. (FRUSTRATED) I’M GOING TO DOUBLE DOWN ON ATTACKING SELF DECEPTION

    OK. (FRUSTRATED) I’M GOING TO DOUBLE DOWN ON ATTACKING SELF DECEPTION.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 20:42:00 UTC

  • COMPETITION VS STUDY —“Because intense disagreement and subsequent argumentati

    COMPETITION VS STUDY

    —“Because intense disagreement and subsequent argumentation generally results in me learning faster.”— Joel Davis

    (The secret to basically everything. Competition in creases velocity and produces more accurate result than study.)

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 09:03:00 UTC

  • Facts about (Facebook) friends by Tyler Cowen 1. For the population of the avera

    Facts about (Facebook) friends

    by Tyler Cowen

    1. For the population of the average county, 62.8% of FB friends live within 100 miles.

    2. Over distances of less than 200 miles, the elasticity of friends to distance is about – 2.0, and about – 1.2 for distances greater than 200 miles.

    3. Conditional on distance, social connectedness is significantly stronger within state lines.

    4. “Counties with a higher social capital index have less geographically concentrated social networks.”

    5. Social connectedness predicts trade flows, even after controlling for distance, and it also predicts patent citations.

    That is all from a new NBER working paper by Bailey, Cao, Kuchler, Stroebel, and Wong. Here is an ungated version.

    (CURT: Not true for me at all.)

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 07:24:00 UTC

  • MATURITY 1) In the family we subsidize one another. 2) In the community we coope

    MATURITY

    1) In the family we subsidize one another.

    2) In the community we cooperate with one another – at least to the point where we do not impede each other.

    3) In business we conduct a cold war by competition for customers.

    4) In internal politics we conduct a warm war with the possibility of rebellion or revolution if we fail.

    5) In international relations we conduct a continuous hot war that we try to keep as cold as possible.

    Only children try to extend the family and community to business, politics, and international relations.

    There are a lot of children. Especially women.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 07:05:00 UTC

  • “Your success has made you weak”. This is aristocratic man’s recurring problem

    “Your success has made you weak”.

    This is aristocratic man’s recurring problem.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-25 06:18:00 UTC

  • (You say ‘eugenics’ like it’s a bad thing, and imply dysgenics is a good thing.)

    (You say ‘eugenics’ like it’s a bad thing, and imply dysgenics is a good thing.)

    Anyway,

    1) personality traits evolved as an intersection between gender strategy and prey drive. The prey drive consists of five physical systems. These systems are altered by gender and neotonic selection (success at extending immaturity).

    2) The personality traits which most influence lifetime success are intelligence, industriousness, and conscientiousness.

    3) Intelligence is categorizable a personality trait, appears to be the most important trait, appears to be largely a function of neoteny, size, and verbal ability.

    4) It’s controversial but I’ve talked to Lynn about it, and he’s adamant that we’ve lost 15pts of aggregate IQ in the past century, even if we’ve seen flynn effects from (a) ending developmental nutrition problems, and (b) the power of training in general (scientific) rules vs specific case rules. World IQ is dropping precipitously.

    5) the most important feature that determines the standard of living (and political stabiity) of a polity is IQ.

    Net is, 20th c was a disaster.

    Source date (UTC): 2017-07-24 21:37:00 UTC