From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Nov 13 2002 - 12:25:00 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
>Samantha writes
>
>
>
>Yes, it does seem a shame that one of the brightest groups I know of on-line
>doesn't have questions and issues that ought to be ironed out. I tried to
>follow SL4 for a while, but it was *too* much, and with the time I had
>available, ancient loyalty won out.
>
>
Some of our "ironing out" looks more like polishing turds - intellectual
exercise that can't lead to much beyond brief entertainment as it is
often not about anything of real importance or that moves us along on
achieving our goals. There is nothing wrong with entertainment.
Unless one does it much too often to the exclusion of productive work
in service of one's goals.
>The problem is deeper and much more personal for me: my best friend
>may be undergoing a mid-life crisis, and the ostensible surface
>phenomenon is that fundamental issues---which excited him so
>completely for so many years---appear to be all dried up for some
>reason. Me, I'm rather used to it. I stopped having any major
>philosophic advances in about 1988, and only once in a blue moon
>now have any fundamentally new ideas.
>
>
Periods of questioning all of one's assumptions, goals and means are
actually quite crucial to growth even though they are painfully
difficult. I have learned to cherish such periods. They are a
valuable check. Sometimes we discover or suspect that a lot of our
"fundamental issues" actually aren't so fundamental or we aren't
interested in them for the reasons we thought we were.
>>You would think that our lives were rather boring and that we
>>are at pains to take any excuse imaginable for a little diversion
>>judging from the recent predominant list topics. For the sake of
>>*the* future, starting with our own, I hope this is simply a
>>temporary anomaly.
>>
>>
>
>Me, too. The inappropriately named thread "duck me" still holds
>my attention because I'm curious about the psychology of what will
>happen when uploads spawn copies of themselves and how they'll
>value each other. Moreover, I would still like to become more
>quiescent about my own anticipations, *anticipation* remaining
>a central part of my daily life, yet evidently theoretically
>incoherent.
>
>
Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting though to first work on the myriad
problems of how to do uploads? Or how we effectively combine and
augment our intelligence to acheive some of our goals?
Quiescent? Meaning more at peace or seeing the future as less
problematic and threatening in this area? I am not sure I parse your
intent correctly here.
>Why didn't you change the name of the thread? Why does Damien,
>either here or on SL4 have to scold the list for lack of thread
>discipline? How is it, psychologically, that people who can
>write a substantive message for ten minutes cannot take 15 seconds
>to change the topic line. Are there manifestations of addiction
>here? (maybe I should have started a new thread for that! ;-)
>
>
I didn't change it on purpose as I wanted it to be read inline with the
rest of the thread messages as a possible "antidote".
>Amazing. Eugen has himself made two contributions, albeit minor
>ones: the handy term "forking" is entirely due to him, and, so
>far as I can tell, his position is not entirely the same as it
>was years back.
>
>Moreover, I saw at least two people, Jef and Rafal, go to level seven,
>and one or two more get closer to it than they were before (I think).
>
>
Reminds me of my former roomies who are utterly addicted to EverQuest.
They have played in nearly every waking moment they are not sleeping or
working the day job. They take a great deal of sense of accomplishment
in maxing out their characters. But of course it doesn't mean anything
real.
- samantha
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