crispinb

87 ms·

871.
by crispinb 8y ago
Human sexuality may be famously plastic, but this could be going a bit far.
872.
by crispinb 8y ago
The ecological collapses are now occurring at such a rapid pace that it would require a turnaround of unprecendented ambition, starting right now. The race isn't exactly against natural systems breaking down - that's a process tha
873.
by crispinb 8y ago
We depend on the evolved complex systems that sustain a planetary-scale agricultural society. Taking a sufficiently large-scale view, perhaps not even the survival of the planet "matters" (surely there are other planets? other e
874.
by crispinb 8y ago
All our evolved natural systems are collapsing, and are being replaced by crude early-stage technological ones. "Fighting" each as a separate policy issue is a continuation of the fluffy-minded & neurotic economic/busines
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Portrait of a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe(theguardian.com)
5 points by crispinb 8y ago|0 comments
876.
by crispinb 8y ago
That's fair: we have managed a pretty remarkable act of scaffolding up from an impressive evolved set of cognitive abilities. My sloppy throwaway line didn't capture my thought, which should have encompassed far more than 'co
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by crispinb 8y ago
Western Europe, NZ, Australia, Canada. The US has always been an outlier amongst the rich nations: more religious, more violent, etc. None of the attitudes referred to by the parent would be 'hyper-' anything in most of these nati
878.
by crispinb 8y ago
> recruits people that are hyper liberal individuals Only from the very narrow perspective of current US politics - just normal in the mainstream West.
879.
by crispinb 8y ago
Anyone still think a hominid with cognitive facilities honed by evolutionary processes for small group interactions is (magically) up to the task of managing a global civilisation?
880.
by crispinb 8y ago
I agree your conclusion is undeniable, but I don't think conceptualising endless growth as mere 'resource' consumption quite captures the danger & tragedy of the physical processes involved. 'Economic'(1) growth
881.
by crispinb 8y ago
That would seem to be a use of the term 'pleasure' rarifying it beyond meaningful use ;)
882.
by crispinb 8y ago
I'm quite happy to admit (it's kind of self-evident) that criticism is easier than building. It's a known known now that our economy does end in catastrophe - the collapse of ecosystems (on which all life, ours included, depe
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by crispinb 8y ago
Indeed. There is a fair bit of incoherent conflation going on in this article. I'm definitely a generalist, yet somehow this has, to my dismay, failed to result in me being hailed as either polymath or genius.
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by crispinb 8y ago
Yet most spiritual disciplines proffer strictures against chasing pleasurable meditative states. They can arise, but are generally not supposed to be sought, nor held on to. After arising, they fall away, and that is fine - all the same to
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by crispinb 8y ago
> Meditation is passive and lazy It truly is neither. "Passive" meditation would be daydreaming, which all meditation techniques aim to minimise. Hardly 'lazy' either - retreat drop-out rates are high precisely becaus
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by crispinb 8y ago
Where by 'the world' he means 'the economy', whose neurotic demands for ever greater consumption are precisely what 'the world' does not need.
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by crispinb 8y ago
They're monks, who have made an ethic and set of practices (including meditation) the focus of their life. > Could they do this high-level mediation in a busy office with people on phone meetings all around them ? There is no such c
888.
by crispinb 8y ago
The subjects of the studies in question really have done 1000s of hours of actual meditation 'practice', ie. sitting down (also lying down & walking) and going through programmatic sequences of meditation exercises. It is true
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by crispinb 8y ago
People using meditation for therapeutic purposes generally establish a half to one-hour daily habit. They're not aspiring to becoming experts. Those with such aspirations (supposedly requiring 1000s of practice hours) have different mo
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by crispinb 8y ago
You're setting a high bar for belligerence. The US is diplomatically & militarily sophisticated enough that it frequently exercises rational restraint. It also is an admirably open society, undergoing strategic policy shifts as int
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by crispinb 8y ago
> At what point do their aggressions spill over into a larger conflict? When perceived benefits outweigh costs. The US's multiple invasions of, and coup plots against, other countries didn't 'spill over into a larger confl
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by crispinb 8y ago
It is only if you buy into the denatured myth of "humanity" that has prevailed in modernity. The reality is that we (with all our capacities, including ethical cognition & emotions) did not evolve to exist in faceless societie
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by crispinb 8y ago
> implementing policies to help deal with climate require coordination at scale, which is something we particularly suck at. Yes, quite. We're primates with a impressive cognitive, linguistic & cultural abilities, but there&#x27
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by crispinb 8y ago
He's making the point that the politics of a human cull are feasible (ie. a nation with nukes can decide to unilaterally launch), whereas those of emission reduction are intractable (ie. requiring a serious global agreement).
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by crispinb 8y ago
I think you're confusing policy & politics. Start with policy. Ignoring the human-cull-with-nukes snark, there is no population policy that is relevant to the timescale at which climate breakdown needs to be tackled. Population pol
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by crispinb 8y ago
Cool. To clarify: of course we'll need to find some way to keep a check on human population. But it's a generational policy issue which we won't remotely have the global social/political stability to address if we don&#x
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by crispinb 8y ago
Well, yes, but that doesn't contradict what I'm saying. "Usually" implies "not necessarily". It's trivially true that population is part of the equation. But it's pragmatically irrelevant to short-med
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by crispinb 8y ago
Only one is quickly remediable via policy though. Reducing global population may happen, but it would take multiple generations, so is hardly relevant to short-medium term climate change policy. Reducing emissions however is practicable ove
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by crispinb 8y ago
No expert either, but it seems fairly apposite. The atmosphere is continuously generated by a vast complex system. This incorporates many homeostatic mechanisms tending to push the system back to its dynamically stable state. As long as we
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by crispinb 8y ago
Some do, some don't, in my experience (there are many scions of the ruling class who choose to do little). But that's all irrelevant in any case, because the issue in question here wasn't working or not-working, but having

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