tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post9037778161797915633..comments2024-03-28T19:14:33.619-07:00Comments on The Splintered Mind: "Crash Spaces" for Ancestral Ways of Meaning-MakingEric Schwitzgebelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-8076094212264738032016-03-22T23:20:09.551-07:002016-03-22T23:20:09.551-07:00Well, that one got through, so I just wanted to po...Well, that one got through, so I just wanted to post the idea of a vicious cycle the other way - where intellect does not control guilt or bliss and that emotion then turns off more of intellect, which then controls those emotions less and so on. Probably often seen in zealots.<br /><br />I'd say part of what gives the story bite is that we do tweak ourselves, even in our vanilla state. That's why the tweaking in the story is attractive to some degree (or was it just me?). It's probably one of our main differing traits to animals (though orangutans probably tweak their initial impression of a mirror in order to use it for preening rather than see an opponent). So self tweaking is part of us. It's just had no satiation built into it as mechanically we could only self tweak so much. Hope this post gets through, for whatever it's worth :)Callan S.http://philosophergamer.blogspot.com.au/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-20336748190183305112016-03-21T23:29:47.733-07:002016-03-21T23:29:47.733-07:00Could have sworn I left a comment - is bloggers sp...Could have sworn I left a comment - is bloggers spam filter eating my posts now as well?Callan S.http://philosophergamer.blogspot.com.au/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-71971872681994719352016-03-21T09:50:11.009-07:002016-03-21T09:50:11.009-07:00Thanks for the link, Anon! Lynch is doing good st...Thanks for the link, Anon! Lynch is doing good stuff. That's a nice piece on it.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-38378655489248411282016-03-19T06:43:51.955-07:002016-03-19T06:43:51.955-07:00ES & RSB this might be of interest:
http://www...ES & RSB this might be of interest:<br />http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/21/the-internet-of-us-and-the-end-of-facts<br />via http://www.ufblog.net/quotable-148/#comment-12824<br />-dmfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-41226255933519507672016-03-17T16:49:46.304-07:002016-03-17T16:49:46.304-07:00In fact, once you even start to dampen down your m...<i>In fact, once you even start to dampen down your moral emotions or long-term thinking, that might create a situation in which you'll then dampen those emotions farther -- since there will be less guilt, shame, etc., to prevent you from continuing to downregulate. It's easy to see how a vicious cycle could start and be hard to escape.</i><br /><br />It's worth considering the other way has just as much capacity for a vicious cycle as well - where a lack of dampening allows emotion to dial down dampening even more, and so on. Going into a full on emotional outburst.<br /><br />I think with regular, vanilla brains we can dampen our emotions as well. It's why we put up with the dentists needle and drill rather than run away - we suppress our emotional responce to some degree. That's why, at least to me, the tweaking in the story has some attraction - it's because it's what we already do every day. We try and modify our responce to various situations. Only this tweaking is far more effective. That effectiveness, at something we do already, is attractive. That part of the stories bite.<br /><br />So I think what makes things harder is that we already do self tweak - indeed, it may be a main distinguishing element from other animals (though orangutans can use a mirror to groom rather than see another ape - they may have a capacity to tweak their original emotional response as well). And a lack of intellectual down regulation can lead to emotion spirals - possibly some segment of suicide and self harm are a result of this lack of self regulation.<br /><br />So we have a desire to self tweak that is naturally occurring. But no cap on that desire - no satiation point, because none was needed. The cap was a hardware limit. And the story explores where that hardware limit is removed.Callan S.http://philosophergamer.blogspot.com.au/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-89891692086903318392016-03-17T13:27:24.105-07:002016-03-17T13:27:24.105-07:00Yes -- very helpful post, Scott! I think we'r...Yes -- very helpful post, Scott! I think we're pretty much in full agreement here.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-1987010067444419022016-03-17T13:05:02.115-07:002016-03-17T13:05:02.115-07:00I live to bedevil, so this makes my day.
I began ...I live to bedevil, so this makes my day.<br /><br />I began responding, then stopped when I realized my comment was approaching the word count of your post (thus breaking a cardinal rule of commenting). So I ended up turning it into a post of my own at: https://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/human-enhancement-as-paradigmatic-crash-space/ . <br /><br />It turns out that Allen Buchanan has some very well thought out arguments that seem to cut directly against the crash space thesis. I'd be very interested to hear your take on his position, Eric.Scott Bakkerhttp://rsbakker.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com