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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3451 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 29, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on Watts' The Way of Zen. So far his discussion of relativity has been clarifying.

Gave the longer book I was reading on the philosophy of personal identity (Daniel Kolak's I Am You) a break to read David Pearce's The Hedonistic Imperative. 1995 Manifesto on how and why we should use bioengineering to totally eliminate suffering. Not just specific kinds of emotional suffering in the Buddhist sense, but literally all negative-valence qualia. He does a good job anticipating and responding to most objections too. Was a huge influence on Nick Bostrom and it's publicly available online if anyone is interested: https://www.hedweb.com/hedab.htm

Is this like most interesting topics on earth, something where humanity has pathologically, systematically stopped the depth of the discourse at the introductory level, or has this author or any human on earth cared enough to specify a semblance of a roadmap towards the stated hedonistic goal via bioengineering?

Where can I find a e.g. an exhaustive list of pharmacological pathways that promote positive valence qualias and of pharmacological pathways that downregulate or dampen negative-valence qualias?

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