Why Conspiracy Theories?

[vimothy]

and its your view that this direction comes from... where?

 

[constant escape]

But the "best of all worlds" thesis also seems like it is missing the point, which seems to be one of, if not the, central conclusion of idealism, no?

Closer to the point would be that the world tends toward its optimal state, sometimes overstepping and sometimes understepping, and such imperfect calibration is the tell-tale sign of a finite system, only able to imperfectly represent its environment.

How this relates to conspiracy theories: Most conspiracy theories, to my knowledge, consist of libertine impositions of our internal organizational tactics onto the external.

 

[vimothy]

why assume that the world can be described as a kind of optimisation problem

 

[constant escape]

and its your view that this direction comes from... where?

I think what I'm arguing here is that any discernible order of these forces, including their from-whereness and their to-whereness, is an artifact of our internal mechanisms, which allow us only imperfectly to "understand" the external.

But if you're just asking what my best wager is, ideologically, I would say that these forces are the ones moving upstream from disorganization/entropy, and all order in the cosmos is the product of these forces.

But the trick is to avoid believing in these forces for long enough for the belief to solidify. Perhaps the central claim here is not that these forces exist, but that if we go on as if they exist, we will be better able to calibrate to optimal states.

 

[vimothy]

but that seems absurd - how can we approach an optimal state which doesnt exist?

 

[constant escape]

why assume that the world can be described as a kind of optimisation problem

Another deep position taken by all this, as has been pointed out here.

I recently realized that I have been going about understanding the cosmos in a manner similar to going about understanding how to program the cosmos. How to program base units under some set of forces/parameters such that they compound and complexify ever upward until something like intelligence emerges.

But why go with this approach? It just seems like it could be an effective means of synthesizing as many belief systems as possible, not that it would sufficiently synthesize them all - at least so far.

 

[constant escape]

but that seems absurd - how can we approach an optimal state which doesnt exist?

A beautiful way of phrasing the question, In my opinion.

The intensity that is "the optimal" would be whatever intensity leads from less complex matter to more complex matter, a measurement that does, ultimately, believe that our science does tend toward the absolute.

 

[constant escape]

That is, that human intelligence does emerge from such base units as particles, the parameters being the forces, I suppose.

edit: That would be near the heart of the belief in science. Without being a scientism. It would be a belief in the heart of science, without being a belief that science is enough. Enough to what? To reach whatever the extremity of complexity is. Or, if there is no extremity, to move ever closer to the asymptote.

 

[vimothy]

it's crazy that you haven't read delanda yet

 

[constant escape]

The lecture of his you posted was informative, in which he got into the conservatism of idealism and the progressivism of materialism. I started reading his piece on Anti-Markets, but I haven't finished it. Its a short piece though.

 

[constant escape]

But yeah like two paragraphs in I was like, this guy gets it.

 

[vimothy]

you should really read 1000 years of nonlinear history

 

[luka]

it's crazy that you haven't read delanda yet

He's literally never read a book. Young people can't. They're moving too fast. It's literally impossible for anyone under the age of 30 to read a book nowadays.

 

[Mr. Tea]

The best conspiracy theory I've ever heard is that Moe in The Simpsons knows it's Bart and Lisa who keep pranking him and he just plays along because he wants to make them happy.

Bart somehow once got him to say "I'm a stupid moron with an ugly face, and a big butt, and my butt smells and I like to kiss my own butt", so I think this is very plausible.

 

[constant escape]

I want to. Even the way that book is set up, its chapters, is appealing.

 

[vimothy]

intelligence is a.big problem for materialists

 

[constant escape]

He's literally never read a book. Young people can't. They're moving too fast. It's literally impossible for anyone under the age of 30 to read a book nowadays.

Almost as if the zeitgeist itself doesn't read, and you need to be free from its grip in order to. At least the sort of monster books in question.

 

[constant escape]

intelligence is a.big problem for materialists

You mean, something that materialists have trouble accounting for? The "hard problem of consciousness", if you file that science under materialism?

 

[vimothy]

you need a kind of magic explanation for it

 

[vimothy]

delanda wants to look at history as if it were geology, but rocks dont think. so what if thought was a purely material phenomenon