I believe that knowledge is useful, and that there are [_general_ algorithms](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HcCpvYLoSFP4iAqSz/rationality-appreciating-cognitive-algorithms)—patterns of thinking and talking—that produce knowledge. You can't just get _one_ thing wrong—every wrong answer comes from a bug in your _process_, and there's an infinite family of other inputs that could trigger the same bug. [The calculator that says `6 + 7 = 14`](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yaCwW8nPQeJknbCgf/free-speech-and-triskaidekaphobic-calculators-a-reply-to) isn't just going to mislead you if you use it to predict what happens when you combine a stack of ●●●●●● pennies and a stack of ●●●●●●● pennies—it's _not a calculator_. The function-that-it-computes is _not arithmetic_.
-I am not particularly intelligent man. If I ever seem to be saying true and important things that almost no one else is saying, it's not because I'm unusually insightful, but because I'm unusually bad at keeping secrets. There are ... _operators_ among us, [savvy](https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/23/kolmogorov-complicity-and-the-parable-of-lightning/) Straussian motherfuckers who know and see everything I can, and more—but who think [it doesn't matter](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NG4XQEL5PTyguDMff/but-it-doesn-t-matter) that [not everybody knows](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/everybody-knows/).
+I am not particularly intelligent man. If I ever seem to be saying true and important things that almost no one else is saying, it's not because I'm unusually insightful, but because I'm unusually bad at keeping secrets. There are ... _operators_ among us, [savvy](http://web.archive.org/web/20200428132642/https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/23/kolmogorov-complicity-and-the-parable-of-lightning/) Straussian motherfuckers who know and see everything I can, and more—but who think [it doesn't matter](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NG4XQEL5PTyguDMff/but-it-doesn-t-matter) that [not everybody knows](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/everybody-knows/).
And I guess ... I think it matters? [One of the evilest reactionary bloggers mentioned the difference](https://blog.jim.com/economics/draining-the-swamp-2/) between a state religion that requires you to believe in the unseen, and one that requires you to disbelieve in what is seen. My thesis is that a state religion that requires you to fluidly doublethink around the implications of "Some women have penises", will also falter over something even the Straussians have [to protect](/2019/Jul/the-source-of-our-power/). But I can't prove it.
The [COVID-19](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019) news is playing hell with my neuroticism. [They say](https://virologydownunder.com/past-time-to-tell-the-public-it-will-probably-go-pandemic-and-we-should-all-prepare-now/) you should stock up on needed prescription drugs, in case of supply-chain disruptions. I guess I'm glad that, unlike some of my friends who I am otherwise jealous of, I'm not dependent on drugs for the hormones that my body needs in order for my bones to not rot. I wish I had _known_ tweleve years ago, that accepting that dependency in exchange for its scintillating benefits was an _option_ for cases like mine. There's at least a consistency in this: it's _not safe_ to depend on the supply lines of a system that didn't have the all-around competency to [just tell me](/2016/Oct/exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin/).
-Anyway, _besides_ the [Total Culture War over the future of my neurotype](/2020/Feb/if-in-some-smothering-dreams-you-too-could-pace/) tearing apart ten-year friendships and having me plotting to flee my hometown, my life is going pretty okay. I'm getting paid lots of money to sell insurance in Canada, and I have lots of things to look forward to, like the conclusion to the _Tangled_ sequel series, or the conclusion to the _Obnoxious Bad Decision Child_ sequel miniseries, or finishing my forthcoming review of the new Charles Murray book. (It's going to be great—a strategic bid to broaden the topic scope of the blog to "things that only right-wing Bad Guys want to talk about, but without myself being a right-wing Bad Guy" in _full generality_, not just for autogynephila and the [correspondence of language to reality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectification_of_names).)
+Anyway, _besides_ the [Total Culture War over the future of my neurotype](/2020/Feb/if-in-some-smothering-dreams-you-too-could-pace/) tearing apart ten-year friendships and having me plotting to flee my hometown, my life is going pretty okay. I'm getting paid lots of money to sell insurance in Canada, and I have lots of things to look forward to, like the conclusion to the _Tangled_ sequel series, or the conclusion to the _Obnoxious Bad Decision Child_ sequel miniseries, or finishing my forthcoming review of the new Charles Murray book. (It's going to be great—a bid to broaden the topic scope of the blog to "things that only right-wing Bad Guys want to talk about, but without myself being a right-wing Bad Guy" in _full generality_, not just for autogynephila and the [correspondence of language to reality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectification_of_names).)
Basically, _I want to live_. I know that now. And it's hard to shake the feeling that the forces trying to cloud my vision don't want me to.
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff