Source: Original Site Post

  • “The Jesus myth at least tries to strive for perfection and teach about “what a

    —“The Jesus myth at least tries to strive for perfection and teach about “what a God would do if he was one of us.”—Igor Rogov Love it. I’m not against the jesus myth or character. i’m against abrahamism and the monotheistic religions.
  • Christopher Langan’s Ctmu Theory – Part 1

    **Hello**. I’m an analytic philosopher specializing in truthful (scientific and testimonial) speech. I’m going to just walk thru my normal process of trying to understand a theory. You might learn something from reading this analysis – even if not about Chris’s work, about what constitutes of truthful speech. (Italics are Chris’s Text. Normal fonts are my notes.) *Abstract: Inasmuch as science is observational or perceptual in nature, * Science consists of the use of instrumentation, measurement, and logic to reduce that which is beyond our ability to sense, perceive, recall, and compare, to an analogy to experience that we can compare, such that we launder ignorance, error, bias, wishful thinking, suggestion and deceit from our thoughts, words, and deeds. *the goal of providing a scientific model and mechanism for the evolution of complex systems ultimately requires a supporting theory of reality of which perception itself is the model (or theory-to-universe mapping). * As far as I know the human mind is capable only of constructing a hierarchy of relations, through a process of continuous recursion. As far as I know, all speech consists of using sounds and grammar (organization) to cause sympathetic relations, and iteratively disambiguate those until recognizable (a contract for meaning has been established that is at the very least identifiable, whether agreeable or not). As far as I know the universe consists of constant relations which, at various densities result in symmetries (consistent patterns) that are the optimum limits of the operations (changes in state) capable between the available relations. In mathematics we call these symmetries “Lie Groups” (“lee’ groops”). In the physical world we call them the subatomic, atomic, chemical, biological, sentient, economic(cooperative), and ‘emergent’ disciplines – those steady states of horizontal expansion of an opportunity made possible by evolutionary complexity. As far as I know this hierarchical process of complexity exists in physical reality, in the generations of our brains, in the layers of our cortex, in the formation of categories(subjects, relations, values), the complexity of ideas we can identify constant relations between, and in all aspects of life. *Where information is the abstract currency of perception, such a theory must incorporate the theory of information while extending the information concept to incorporate reflexive self-processing in order to achieve an intrinsic (self-contained) description of reality.* Um. I would call this literary, poetic, postmodern or pseudoscientific language, but it’s a loose enough analogy that I think it’s a less sophisticated means of trying to say the same thing. I’m going to rephrase it as “Any theory of perception, memory, sentience, awareness, cognition, action, and response, must use information as it’s cause of change in state.” *This extension is associated with a limiting formulation of model theory identifying mental and physical reality, resulting in a reflexively self-generating, self-modeling theory of reality identical to its universe on the syntactic level. * This is a very problematic statement, but I think I can disentangle it as “This continuous iteration and iteration of perception and accumulated, and increasingly complex networks of relations, results in a mental model of reality sufficient for our actions, and sufficient for our thoughts and imaginations unlimited by our actions. And this is the problem. It’s increasingly hard and expensive to test those perceptions, categories, relations, values and theories that we cannot ourselves act upon. *By the nature of its derivation, this theory, the Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe or CTMU, can be regarded as a supertautological reality-theoretic extension of logic. * Argh. I’m going to restate that as, the origin of that perception which we call logic – which itself consists of the test of the preservation of constant relations across categories, states, ideas, theories, and formulae – is the correspondence between our senses, memories, and actions in the real world. In other words, the universe consists of constant relations, we perceive and remember constant relations, and we perceive as logical and actionable constant relations between our ideas and our actions and the consequences. *Uniting the theory of reality with an advanced form of computational language theory, the CTMU describes reality as a Self-Configuring Self-Processing Language or SCSPL, a reflexive intrinsic language characterized not only by self-reference and recursive self-definition, but full self-configuration and self-execution (reflexive read-write functionality). * You know, we can describe the same phenomenon in various forms of measurement, from physical operations, to description, to narrative, to interpretation, to fiction(narrative arc), to fictionalism. A **fictionalism** includes **pseudoscience**(magic), **pseudo-rationalism **(philosophy), and **pseudo-mythology** (religion and mysticism). Each of these methods of analogy consists of a grammar that is increasingly imprecise, open to loading, framing, suggestion and obscurantism. Now, i understand that it takes VASTLY greater knowledge to describe something in operational language compared to describing it in the loose terms, but that it is possible to intuit a set of relations if one cannot explain those relations operationally. So at this point I’m going to say that this is very … postmodern … language, but that yes, we can use computational systems as an analogy to the means by which the human mind operates simply because it is the most advanced analogy we currently possess in the vernacular. So yes, by analogy, we can describe the constant relations and plateaus (levels of high return on complexity), from the subatomic to the sentient to the contitive, using computational models, from hardware, firmware, operating system, etc. *SCSPL reality embodies a dual-aspect monism consisting of infocognition, self-transducing information residing in self-recognizing SCSPL elements called syntactic operators. The CTMU identifies itself with the structure of these operators and thus with the distributive syntax of its self-modeling SCSPL universe, including the reflexive grammar by which the universe refines itself from unbound telesis or UBT, a primordial realm of infocognitive potential free of informational constraint. * You know, as a member of the autistic spectrum myself, I have an extremely high tolerance for aspie-speak (and this paragraph is a great example). But the problem with it, is that he’s made a logical leap from the rather tediously physical process of the nervous system’s incredibly difficult task, of sampling and remembering just enough of the relations between relations in reality, and predicting future states, so that we can act upon them and seize the caloric opportunity, without costing so much in biological computing power, that sentience, awareness, and cognition are disadvantages luxury expenses. And the end result of that logical leap is the anthropomorphization of the analogy. I have to read more to understand if he’s just being colorful, or using Abrahamic Pilpul in the tradition of Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant. Marx, Derrida and Rory. (Liars all). But I will translate this paragraph this way: as far as I know “there is no limit to the complex hierarchy of constant or semi-constant relations humans can imagine, nor limit to the language we can express it with.” Again, this is something we have known since at least Turing and formally since the late 50’s by Chomsky. *Under the guidance of a limiting (intrinsic) form of anthropic principle called the Telic Principle, SCSPL evolves by telic recursion, jointly configuring syntax and state while maximizing a generalized selfselection parameter and adjusting on the fly to freely-changing internal conditions. SCSPL relates space, time and object by means of conspansive duality and conspansion, an SCSPL-grammatical process featuring an alternation between dual phases of existence associated with design and actualization and related to the familiar wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics. * Well, again colorful analogy, but rather tediously obvious repetition of the previous paragraph’s idea. *By distributing the design phase of reality over the actualization phase, conspansive spacetime also provides a distributed mechanism for Intelligent Design, adjoining to the restrictive principle of natural selection a basic means of generating information and complexity. * Ok. Yes. He did it. He went into the domain of fictionalism( magic ) by the use of obscurantism to hide the conversion of a loose analogy to an operational possibility. Now, again, I have to be certain he’s not just using hyperbole, and really making that rather ridiculous claim. So let’s continue to dig into it. *Addressing physical evolution on not only the biological but cosmic level, the CTMU addresses the most evident deficiencies and paradoxes associated with conventional discrete and continuum models of reality, including temporal directionality and accelerating cosmic expansion, while preserving virtually all of the major benefits of current scientific and mathematical paradigms. * Well, that is a very nice promise. Although as far as I know, the only reason we can’t solve the remaining problems of the basic structure of the universe, is that it’s so expensive to do so, that we can’t marshall the energy requirements to perform a test. To say physics is a bit lost is … perhaps an exaggeration with a grain of truth in it. There is something very wrong with our current model. But a scientists does not seek an axiomatic description of reality, and instead seeks only to improve upon the contingencies upon which the current theories and laws depend. Ok, so, now I’ll continue until I can figure out whether this abstract is just colorful, or whether it’s full of analogies for the purpose of illustration, or wether he’s made the (usual) leap due to the natural human cognitive bias, of attributing intent to that which is merely deterministic consequence of opportunities to prevent entropy.
  • Christopher Langan’s Ctmu Theory – Part 1

    **Hello**. I’m an analytic philosopher specializing in truthful (scientific and testimonial) speech. I’m going to just walk thru my normal process of trying to understand a theory. You might learn something from reading this analysis – even if not about Chris’s work, about what constitutes of truthful speech. (Italics are Chris’s Text. Normal fonts are my notes.) *Abstract: Inasmuch as science is observational or perceptual in nature, * Science consists of the use of instrumentation, measurement, and logic to reduce that which is beyond our ability to sense, perceive, recall, and compare, to an analogy to experience that we can compare, such that we launder ignorance, error, bias, wishful thinking, suggestion and deceit from our thoughts, words, and deeds. *the goal of providing a scientific model and mechanism for the evolution of complex systems ultimately requires a supporting theory of reality of which perception itself is the model (or theory-to-universe mapping). * As far as I know the human mind is capable only of constructing a hierarchy of relations, through a process of continuous recursion. As far as I know, all speech consists of using sounds and grammar (organization) to cause sympathetic relations, and iteratively disambiguate those until recognizable (a contract for meaning has been established that is at the very least identifiable, whether agreeable or not). As far as I know the universe consists of constant relations which, at various densities result in symmetries (consistent patterns) that are the optimum limits of the operations (changes in state) capable between the available relations. In mathematics we call these symmetries “Lie Groups” (“lee’ groops”). In the physical world we call them the subatomic, atomic, chemical, biological, sentient, economic(cooperative), and ‘emergent’ disciplines – those steady states of horizontal expansion of an opportunity made possible by evolutionary complexity. As far as I know this hierarchical process of complexity exists in physical reality, in the generations of our brains, in the layers of our cortex, in the formation of categories(subjects, relations, values), the complexity of ideas we can identify constant relations between, and in all aspects of life. *Where information is the abstract currency of perception, such a theory must incorporate the theory of information while extending the information concept to incorporate reflexive self-processing in order to achieve an intrinsic (self-contained) description of reality.* Um. I would call this literary, poetic, postmodern or pseudoscientific language, but it’s a loose enough analogy that I think it’s a less sophisticated means of trying to say the same thing. I’m going to rephrase it as “Any theory of perception, memory, sentience, awareness, cognition, action, and response, must use information as it’s cause of change in state.” *This extension is associated with a limiting formulation of model theory identifying mental and physical reality, resulting in a reflexively self-generating, self-modeling theory of reality identical to its universe on the syntactic level. * This is a very problematic statement, but I think I can disentangle it as “This continuous iteration and iteration of perception and accumulated, and increasingly complex networks of relations, results in a mental model of reality sufficient for our actions, and sufficient for our thoughts and imaginations unlimited by our actions. And this is the problem. It’s increasingly hard and expensive to test those perceptions, categories, relations, values and theories that we cannot ourselves act upon. *By the nature of its derivation, this theory, the Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe or CTMU, can be regarded as a supertautological reality-theoretic extension of logic. * Argh. I’m going to restate that as, the origin of that perception which we call logic – which itself consists of the test of the preservation of constant relations across categories, states, ideas, theories, and formulae – is the correspondence between our senses, memories, and actions in the real world. In other words, the universe consists of constant relations, we perceive and remember constant relations, and we perceive as logical and actionable constant relations between our ideas and our actions and the consequences. *Uniting the theory of reality with an advanced form of computational language theory, the CTMU describes reality as a Self-Configuring Self-Processing Language or SCSPL, a reflexive intrinsic language characterized not only by self-reference and recursive self-definition, but full self-configuration and self-execution (reflexive read-write functionality). * You know, we can describe the same phenomenon in various forms of measurement, from physical operations, to description, to narrative, to interpretation, to fiction(narrative arc), to fictionalism. A **fictionalism** includes **pseudoscience**(magic), **pseudo-rationalism **(philosophy), and **pseudo-mythology** (religion and mysticism). Each of these methods of analogy consists of a grammar that is increasingly imprecise, open to loading, framing, suggestion and obscurantism. Now, i understand that it takes VASTLY greater knowledge to describe something in operational language compared to describing it in the loose terms, but that it is possible to intuit a set of relations if one cannot explain those relations operationally. So at this point I’m going to say that this is very … postmodern … language, but that yes, we can use computational systems as an analogy to the means by which the human mind operates simply because it is the most advanced analogy we currently possess in the vernacular. So yes, by analogy, we can describe the constant relations and plateaus (levels of high return on complexity), from the subatomic to the sentient to the contitive, using computational models, from hardware, firmware, operating system, etc. *SCSPL reality embodies a dual-aspect monism consisting of infocognition, self-transducing information residing in self-recognizing SCSPL elements called syntactic operators. The CTMU identifies itself with the structure of these operators and thus with the distributive syntax of its self-modeling SCSPL universe, including the reflexive grammar by which the universe refines itself from unbound telesis or UBT, a primordial realm of infocognitive potential free of informational constraint. * You know, as a member of the autistic spectrum myself, I have an extremely high tolerance for aspie-speak (and this paragraph is a great example). But the problem with it, is that he’s made a logical leap from the rather tediously physical process of the nervous system’s incredibly difficult task, of sampling and remembering just enough of the relations between relations in reality, and predicting future states, so that we can act upon them and seize the caloric opportunity, without costing so much in biological computing power, that sentience, awareness, and cognition are disadvantages luxury expenses. And the end result of that logical leap is the anthropomorphization of the analogy. I have to read more to understand if he’s just being colorful, or using Abrahamic Pilpul in the tradition of Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant. Marx, Derrida and Rory. (Liars all). But I will translate this paragraph this way: as far as I know “there is no limit to the complex hierarchy of constant or semi-constant relations humans can imagine, nor limit to the language we can express it with.” Again, this is something we have known since at least Turing and formally since the late 50’s by Chomsky. *Under the guidance of a limiting (intrinsic) form of anthropic principle called the Telic Principle, SCSPL evolves by telic recursion, jointly configuring syntax and state while maximizing a generalized selfselection parameter and adjusting on the fly to freely-changing internal conditions. SCSPL relates space, time and object by means of conspansive duality and conspansion, an SCSPL-grammatical process featuring an alternation between dual phases of existence associated with design and actualization and related to the familiar wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics. * Well, again colorful analogy, but rather tediously obvious repetition of the previous paragraph’s idea. *By distributing the design phase of reality over the actualization phase, conspansive spacetime also provides a distributed mechanism for Intelligent Design, adjoining to the restrictive principle of natural selection a basic means of generating information and complexity. * Ok. Yes. He did it. He went into the domain of fictionalism( magic ) by the use of obscurantism to hide the conversion of a loose analogy to an operational possibility. Now, again, I have to be certain he’s not just using hyperbole, and really making that rather ridiculous claim. So let’s continue to dig into it. *Addressing physical evolution on not only the biological but cosmic level, the CTMU addresses the most evident deficiencies and paradoxes associated with conventional discrete and continuum models of reality, including temporal directionality and accelerating cosmic expansion, while preserving virtually all of the major benefits of current scientific and mathematical paradigms. * Well, that is a very nice promise. Although as far as I know, the only reason we can’t solve the remaining problems of the basic structure of the universe, is that it’s so expensive to do so, that we can’t marshall the energy requirements to perform a test. To say physics is a bit lost is … perhaps an exaggeration with a grain of truth in it. There is something very wrong with our current model. But a scientists does not seek an axiomatic description of reality, and instead seeks only to improve upon the contingencies upon which the current theories and laws depend. Ok, so, now I’ll continue until I can figure out whether this abstract is just colorful, or whether it’s full of analogies for the purpose of illustration, or wether he’s made the (usual) leap due to the natural human cognitive bias, of attributing intent to that which is merely deterministic consequence of opportunities to prevent entropy.
  • Nearly everyone will miss my point (in the beauty of races and subraces). Sigh.

    Nearly everyone will miss my point (in the beauty of races and subraces). Sigh. How did I end up writing so much on race? It can only be because it’s one of the most common postmodern lies.
  • Nearly everyone will miss my point (in the beauty of races and subraces). Sigh.

    Nearly everyone will miss my point (in the beauty of races and subraces). Sigh. How did I end up writing so much on race? It can only be because it’s one of the most common postmodern lies.
  • The Most Beautiful Race?

    Hmm… —-”Are white people really the most beautiful race or do we just think that because we grew up being told that?”—- Well, sort of, yes. And we can measure it. However…. let’s explain why. Because it’s very interesting. In general, humans favor a certain set of ratios, and in general, humans favor pedomorphism(retention of juvenile features) – for obvious reasons of fertility and fitness – especially since we take so long to mature, and because of that can demonstrate our fitness due to our behavior, easily. If an individual possesses those ratios, apparent health, apparent awareness (intelligence), and SUFFICIENT RELATIVE juvenile features, then we tend to judge them as beautiful regardless of skin or hair color, or minor racial features (lips, eye folds, nose sizes). Ratios and pedomorphism are selection criteria for healthy growth through symmetric development over a long time period. This generally means more ‘aquiline’ features (fine features) and lighter coloring. It’s not a mystery why ‘whiteness’ spread in at least two if not three phases. It was a selection preference AND a geographic utility. (The math is pretty simple really.) All populations contain more and less pedomorphic individuals. All populations (races, subraces, tribes, clans) contain a distribution of individuals with hyper mature (masculine) and hyper immature (feminine) features. In general the middle and upper classes are more attractive than the working and underclasses, but only loosely. So to say all white people? No. More white people than other peoples? Yes. It is harder to evolve-out (remove) certain features, and easier to evolve-out (remove) other features through the process of pedomorphic evolution. Whites have for some reason, achieved somewhat less pedomorphic evolution than east Asians, but whites have achieved that evolution from a LATER version of man under greater outgroup competitive pressure than east Asians. There is too much uncertainty about White development compared to the current clarity of East Asian development. Africans have less pedomorphic evolution, Arabs less, Central Asians less, Mediterraneans less, West asians less, Germanics less, Slavs less, Indians the entire spectrum, and east asians the most. Arguably indian women with less Dravidian contribution are only marginally indifferent from Scandinavian women. And low dravidian contribution Indian men and women like european men and women, have developed symmetrically with men and women equally attractive across the class spectrum. (in general, the problem for the world is the steppe and desert people who did not go through sufficient ‘genetic grinding’ under cold weather agrarianism. And in africa there is high value to early maturity since the continent, in disease gradient alone, is extremely hostile to human life. And we can measure the correlation between physical (facial) features and development, by a rather obvious endocrine analysis: testosterone levels. (We aren’t very different from wolves and dogs really. A few endocrine pathways produce profound differences. ) In a perfect fantasy world men could have African physiques, Northern European appearance and brains and east asian fat distribution, and women could have northern european appearance, and height, east asian brains , body size, longevity, fat distribution, scent, and hair-density. I could state the opposite by race, subrace, and ethnicity (or tribe), but it would be too uncharitable. However, a gander at the distribution of features in indigenous Australian women and a gander at the physique of certain southeast Asian men, will demonstrate that the distribution of features in a population can work both very positively and very negatively. One of the ways to interpret the attractiveness of at white populations is that whites successfully killed off large portions of their underclasses, as well as previous generations of european inhabitants, and are a predominantly middle class race. East asians evolved in isolation and killed off vast portions of their underclasses, but more importantly close gene pools can correct better than diverse gene pools** and the han are the largest subrace, and the han, koreans, and japanese are extremely homogenous. Diversity is always and everywhere a bad thing. It makes correction of weakness, defect and error difficult. No matter what Abrahamic religions, Marxists, Postmodernists, and Academic Pseudoscientists propagandize. (Understand this research has been suppressed actively since the second world war. But technology has finally made it possible, and other countries are now providing the information that western peoples suppressed for almost a century.) Stereotypes are the most accurate measurement in the social sciences. They have to survive the market for verification for generations across entire populations. (Yes, really). At present the intermarriage between lower quality white males, and average quality east asian females is doing something very nice in that particular gene pool, because both east asians and europeans have something to positive to contribute to the gene pool. Genes can’t lie. Science isn’t kind. Reproduction is just another economy analyzable and explicable by economic criteria. I hope this was helpful. I work regularly to end denial of our differences, so that we provide institutional solutions to our differences. Markets are always better than monopolies. And large states are always monopolies that compete at the expense of some group or other of their people. Cheers.
  • The Most Beautiful Race?

    Hmm… —-”Are white people really the most beautiful race or do we just think that because we grew up being told that?”—- Well, sort of, yes. And we can measure it. However…. let’s explain why. Because it’s very interesting. In general, humans favor a certain set of ratios, and in general, humans favor pedomorphism(retention of juvenile features) – for obvious reasons of fertility and fitness – especially since we take so long to mature, and because of that can demonstrate our fitness due to our behavior, easily. If an individual possesses those ratios, apparent health, apparent awareness (intelligence), and SUFFICIENT RELATIVE juvenile features, then we tend to judge them as beautiful regardless of skin or hair color, or minor racial features (lips, eye folds, nose sizes). Ratios and pedomorphism are selection criteria for healthy growth through symmetric development over a long time period. This generally means more ‘aquiline’ features (fine features) and lighter coloring. It’s not a mystery why ‘whiteness’ spread in at least two if not three phases. It was a selection preference AND a geographic utility. (The math is pretty simple really.) All populations contain more and less pedomorphic individuals. All populations (races, subraces, tribes, clans) contain a distribution of individuals with hyper mature (masculine) and hyper immature (feminine) features. In general the middle and upper classes are more attractive than the working and underclasses, but only loosely. So to say all white people? No. More white people than other peoples? Yes. It is harder to evolve-out (remove) certain features, and easier to evolve-out (remove) other features through the process of pedomorphic evolution. Whites have for some reason, achieved somewhat less pedomorphic evolution than east Asians, but whites have achieved that evolution from a LATER version of man under greater outgroup competitive pressure than east Asians. There is too much uncertainty about White development compared to the current clarity of East Asian development. Africans have less pedomorphic evolution, Arabs less, Central Asians less, Mediterraneans less, West asians less, Germanics less, Slavs less, Indians the entire spectrum, and east asians the most. Arguably indian women with less Dravidian contribution are only marginally indifferent from Scandinavian women. And low dravidian contribution Indian men and women like european men and women, have developed symmetrically with men and women equally attractive across the class spectrum. (in general, the problem for the world is the steppe and desert people who did not go through sufficient ‘genetic grinding’ under cold weather agrarianism. And in africa there is high value to early maturity since the continent, in disease gradient alone, is extremely hostile to human life. And we can measure the correlation between physical (facial) features and development, by a rather obvious endocrine analysis: testosterone levels. (We aren’t very different from wolves and dogs really. A few endocrine pathways produce profound differences. ) In a perfect fantasy world men could have African physiques, Northern European appearance and brains and east asian fat distribution, and women could have northern european appearance, and height, east asian brains , body size, longevity, fat distribution, scent, and hair-density. I could state the opposite by race, subrace, and ethnicity (or tribe), but it would be too uncharitable. However, a gander at the distribution of features in indigenous Australian women and a gander at the physique of certain southeast Asian men, will demonstrate that the distribution of features in a population can work both very positively and very negatively. One of the ways to interpret the attractiveness of at white populations is that whites successfully killed off large portions of their underclasses, as well as previous generations of european inhabitants, and are a predominantly middle class race. East asians evolved in isolation and killed off vast portions of their underclasses, but more importantly close gene pools can correct better than diverse gene pools** and the han are the largest subrace, and the han, koreans, and japanese are extremely homogenous. Diversity is always and everywhere a bad thing. It makes correction of weakness, defect and error difficult. No matter what Abrahamic religions, Marxists, Postmodernists, and Academic Pseudoscientists propagandize. (Understand this research has been suppressed actively since the second world war. But technology has finally made it possible, and other countries are now providing the information that western peoples suppressed for almost a century.) Stereotypes are the most accurate measurement in the social sciences. They have to survive the market for verification for generations across entire populations. (Yes, really). At present the intermarriage between lower quality white males, and average quality east asian females is doing something very nice in that particular gene pool, because both east asians and europeans have something to positive to contribute to the gene pool. Genes can’t lie. Science isn’t kind. Reproduction is just another economy analyzable and explicable by economic criteria. I hope this was helpful. I work regularly to end denial of our differences, so that we provide institutional solutions to our differences. Markets are always better than monopolies. And large states are always monopolies that compete at the expense of some group or other of their people. Cheers.
  • Religions And Lies

    Would you build a religion around Frodo Baggins? It would be a pretty good religion really. Why not the Trials of Achilles? I mean. that’s the ancient world’s ‘great book of inspiration.’ What about the trials of Alexander? What about the lives of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno/Aurelius and Epicurus? History is the only mythology not false, and stoicism the only mindfulness not false. WHY DO YOU NEED LIES?
  • Religions And Lies

    Would you build a religion around Frodo Baggins? It would be a pretty good religion really. Why not the Trials of Achilles? I mean. that’s the ancient world’s ‘great book of inspiration.’ What about the trials of Alexander? What about the lives of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno/Aurelius and Epicurus? History is the only mythology not false, and stoicism the only mindfulness not false. WHY DO YOU NEED LIES?
  • What Does Truth Mean?

    (edited for clarity) Truth can only mean ‘descriptive testimony free of error, bias, suggestion, obscurantism and deceit’. In other words, speech, the semantic content of which corresponds with existentially possible reality. One speaks TRUTHFULLY, or UNTRUTHFULLY, or HONESTLY or DISHONESTLY. To be precise, one speaks HONESTLY not having done due diligence, nor warrantying one’s speech. One speaks TRUTHFULLY having done due diligence, and warrantying one’s speech. Truthful speech evolved from and refers to testimony for which you are accountable (have skin in the game). So you might speak honestly – not having done due diligence on your speech. But that is not the same as speaking truthfully – having done due diligence on your speech. So you might give your honest opinion, but that differs from doing diligence that such an opinion survives criticism – meaning tests of correspondence with reality. Both the physical sciences and law specialize in the art of due diligence. (Although much law has adopted the art of lying, testimony in court tends not to.) As an extension of law, anglo analytic philosophy attempts to specialize in the art of due diligence. Strangely, continental philosophy does the opposite. But if speaking truthfully requires that we perform due diligence, and warranty our speech, then how does one perform such due diligence? How do we test correspondence? In the most simple of terms, a truth statement must be: 1. CATEGORICALLY consistent (non conflationary) 2. INTERNALLY consistent (logical), 3. EXTERNALLY correspondent (empirical), 4. OPERATIONALLY possible (existentially possible), 5. COHERENT categorically, internally, externally, and operationally (consistent across all tests) 6. FULLY ACCOUNTED (you haven’t cherry picked cause and/or consequence) And if you want to claim it’s ethical and moral (and objectively legal): 1. RATIONAL: consisting of nothing but a series of fully rational choices 2. RECIPROCAL: consisting of nothing other than productive, fully informed, warrantied, voluntary exchanges free of imposition upon others by externality. HONESTY AND TRUTHFULNESS IN THE USE OF THE WORD “TRUTH” We use the word ‘Truth’ in many, many contexts. Most of them somewhere between a convenience and a dishonesty. True, honest, logical, and good are independent concepts frequently conflated to attribute authority where it is absent.