4 ms·

I was hoping this would be an article for beginners to understand daemons, as in the Ancient Greek daimon (δαίμων: "god", "godlike", "power", "fate") :-) Growi

I was hoping this would be an article for beginners to understand daemons, as in the Ancient Greek daimon (δαίμων: "god", "godlike", "power", "fate") :-) Growing up on a (quasi fundamentalist) christian household, daemons were for a long while a very real threat, and my mom would not allow me to watch horror movies, "receive things from strangers", an other procedures to protect us from "inviting the daemons home". My rational mind leaves no room for such creatures these days, but even so under the right circumstances, sometimes my lizard brain begins to think maybe the Bible (and my mom for that matter) was right :-). Hard to erase some emotive memories from childhood I guess. A while ago I read this book [1] which is pretty cool, covers the mind mechanisms behind things like the placebo effect, "daemonic possession", alien abductions, mass hysteria, out of body experiences, etc... 1: https://www.suggestibleyou.com/ https://www.suggestibleyou.com/

Skunkleton 6y ago
Usually I see δαίμων latinized as "demon" not "daemon". You got me looking and I found an interesting discussion on these words over on stack exchange [1]. TL;DR, "daemon" sometimes means "demon", but without the negative connotations, other times it is just an alternative spelling. [1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39266/what-is-the-difference-between-daemon-and-demon-in-a-religious-context https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39266/what-is-th...
- emmanueloga_ 6y ago
  Oh! The good daemons! "benevolent or benign nature spirits...". Not in the Judeo-Christian tradition, for sure :-) Also got me curious about the C.S. ethymology of the word. According to the venerable Jargon File (which has entries for both "daemon" and "demon"), it is named in honor of one of Maxwell's thought experiments! [1] 1: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/D/daemon.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/D/daemon.html
  - Skunkleton 6y ago
    Ahh, neat. Thanks for the link.
disown 6y ago
> I was hoping this would be an article for beginners to understand daemons Why? On hacker news, you hoped for that? > Growing up... Placebo effect, demonic possession, alien abductions, etc? What's going on here? Your comment had nothing to do with the actual post.
- emmanueloga_ 6y ago
  Sorry you don't share my sense of humor! I've seen countless conversations about psychology subjects here at HN so I thought someone would find this subject interesting.
slavik81 6y ago
King James I wrote a book about witches and demons: Daemonologie (1597). http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25929/25929-h/25929-h.html http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25929/25929-h/25929-h.html King James is more famous for the Bible he commissioned. And his treatise on True Law and the divine right of kings. This work of his is somewhat less well-known, I think. Anyway, it's an amusing read.

Skunkleton 6y ago

Usually I see δαίμων latinized as "demon" not "daemon". You got me looking and I found an interesting discussion on these words over on stack exchange [1]. TL;DR, "daemon" sometimes means "demon", but without the negative connotations, other times it is just an alternative spelling. [1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39266/what-is-the-difference-between-daemon-and-demon-in-a-religious-context https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39266/what-is-th...

emmanueloga_ 6y ago
Oh! The good daemons! "benevolent or benign nature spirits...". Not in the Judeo-Christian tradition, for sure :-) Also got me curious about the C.S. ethymology of the word. According to the venerable Jargon File (which has entries for both "daemon" and "demon"), it is named in honor of one of Maxwell's thought experiments! [1] 1: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/D/daemon.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/D/daemon.html
- Skunkleton 6y ago
  Ahh, neat. Thanks for the link.

disown 6y ago

> I was hoping this would be an article for beginners to understand daemons Why? On hacker news, you hoped for that? > Growing up... Placebo effect, demonic possession, alien abductions, etc? What's going on here? Your comment had nothing to do with the actual post.

emmanueloga_ 6y ago
Sorry you don't share my sense of humor! I've seen countless conversations about psychology subjects here at HN so I thought someone would find this subject interesting.

slavik81 6y ago

King James I wrote a book about witches and demons: Daemonologie (1597). http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25929/25929-h/25929-h.html http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25929/25929-h/25929-h.html King James is more famous for the Bible he commissioned. And his treatise on True Law and the divine right of kings. This work of his is somewhat less well-known, I think. Anyway, it's an amusing read.