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Interesting. I’ve had the exact opposite reaction. At times when I’d suffer from anxiety my most effective remedy would be to sit down outside and observe the s
by CuriousSkeptic 6y ago
Interesting. I’ve had the exact opposite reaction. At times when I’d suffer from anxiety my most effective remedy would be to sit down outside and observe the stars until that deep feeling of insignificance from really seeing it all presented itself.
Somehow the perspective of my life just being a tiny sparkle in the grand scheme of things would render any stress moot.
- keenmaster 6y agoThe feeling of insignificance is merely one possible response of a range of arbitrary emotional responses. It has been made more prevalent by a cultural, existentialist meme. I choose wonder and amazement as my arbitrary emotional response. It is more satisfying. I hope that whatever superintelligence we create will speak to us about the answers it finds to these questions, and not choose to wipe us out instead. There is no reason that a superintelligent AI cannot do the following: create superintelligent theories about the universe (using superintelligent intuition), create superintelligent tools to prove its superintelligent theories, leading to superintelligent empirical observation, ultimately producing the answer to the question of our existence far faster and far more eloquently than is predicted.
- CuriousSkeptic 6y agoPerhaps insignificant was a poor choice of word. Did not mean to imply that in an exclusive sense. Rather inclusive, a tiny tiny part of something inspiring, as you put it, wonder and amazement. And, I would add, to underline the inclusive part: pride.