Read on Twitter
Ok so i wasn't even actually gonna write about this but usually writieing on twitter helps and this hit me like a ton of bricks so let's talk about RATIONALIST DECONVERSION https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1356273568426774530
I choose my words carefully. Why did it hit like a ton of bricks? Because I've been called 'prince of the post-rats' but only today i seem to have acquired something fucking VGR tags as necessary for being a post-rat
Now, the post-rat label is fake and gay, we all know that, BUT - rival works as personality R&D for me - hahaha, wouldn't it be funny if i were a post-rat
It's future pacing as they say in persuasion, painting a clear picture of the future so that you can actually move there. Phenomenologists also talk about this.
Anyways i think there is A LOT to rationality. A full analysis would have to use Zero's framework, but I can't be arsed https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1022156924035391488?s=20
HOWEVER, HOWEVER, let me tell you about one fundamental deep piece that I think BECAUSE of being fundamental and deep becomes transparent and so rarely has attention pointed at it:
The fundamental view of ratism is that you are an AGENT with GOALS and MEANS to meet your GOALS.
The difference between your present state and the goal state is a PROBLEM
(This is a very AI-inspired view, ofc, Long Yud isn't an Ai researcher for nothing)
Now this makes people conceive of themselves as always problem-solving, all life is problem-solving, there is a VERY LARGE but finite number of problems and once you solve them you can REST and RELAX and ENJOY and BE HAPPY
In other words, it introduces this continuous time pressure - you're always behind the problems you could've already have solved.
(It's not suprise rats and EAs are striken with guilt and depression)
There is of course an ALTERNATIVE view: you're just a person, among many people. There's no problems, not in any real sense. There's just you. You're not 'behind' anything, because there's nothing to be behind ON.
Life ISN'T an endless sprint where, like the Red Queen, you must run as fast as you can just to not stay at the negative ------- (minus minus minus) you start off at
You're just at... neutral. There's you, there's thing you might desire and that it would inspire you to move forward, and you might choose to go towards or not, but you're not FUNDAMENTALLY AT A NEGATIVE FROM THE START and having to WORK TO MOVE AWAY FROM THAT
That concludes this essay on ONE of the aspects of ratism one must deconvert from
