24 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
    1. there’s “me” and a world of “others” existing in an infinite and vastly unknown universe of disparate objects

      for - quote - how things appear - quote - Nic Higham - key insight - duality

      • Because of our narrowed, distorted focus,
        • we’ve become apparently disconnected from our essential Aliveness, which is universal.
      • We are so accustomed to perceiving a dualistic paradigm;
        • there’s “me” and
        • a world of “others”
        • existing in an infinite and vastly unknown universe of disparate objects.

      comment - Nic summarizes the dualistic perspective succinctly

    2. On a deeper level, it’s imagined duality which creates all manner of separateness

      for - quote - imagined duality - unpack - imagined duality

      quote - imagined duality - author - Nic Higham

      • On a deeper level,
      • it’s imagined duality which creates all manner of separateness
        • from the kind I call “dualistic isolation,”
          • the sense that you’re identified with and alone in your body and your mind,
        • to “existential loneliness,”
          • a persistent sense of incompleteness that no amount of social or material connection can resolve.

      unpack - imagined duality and existential isolation - Alone in your body and mind - in my younger days, I had a metaphor for this - Life is a movie theatre for one, yourself - Only you have access to this movie theatre - Nobody else is there to experience the totality of your experiences, except you. - You are the sole inhabitan of your YOUniverse -

    3. Such feelings are rooted in seeing life through the distorting filters of desire and fear

      adjacency - between - existential isolation - desire and fear - adjacency statement -Desire of the other emerges from a sense of lack in the totality of reality - fear of the other emerges from a sense of avoidance of aspects of reality - Biologically , we have an innate desire and fear instinct - We desire to that which helps us survive - We fear that which threatens our survival - The psychological construction of the self takes cues from this biological attraction and aversion - the self-consciousness of the biological self as individual that is a separate entity from the environment - It is interesting to ponder how we could reconcile this difference

    4. relate authentically to our own nature

      for - insight - existential isolation - quote - existential isolation

      • Because we’re unable to
        • experience life genuinely, or
        • relate authentically to our own nature and to others,
      • we often suffer from a “dread of nothingness.”
      • Loneliness, Moustakas says,
        • is part and parcel of being, of existing, which,
        • if embraced, can lead us to “
          • deeper perception,
          • greater Awareness and sensitivity, and
          • insights into one’s own being”.
    5. But this other kind of anxiety was more like a quiet, unintelligible terror, a distant alarm bell, an uncaused danger

      existential isolation - evocative description - See David Loy's description of the same thing as the fear of our own inherent emptiness

      quote - existential isolation - Nic Higham

      • .But this other kind of anxiety was more like
        • a quiet, unintelligible terror,
        • a distant alarm bell,
        • an uncaused danger.
      • It seemed more real and fundamental than any passing concern.
      • Apparently arising from my innermost core,
        • existential anxiety was a lurking, menacing mythical figure.
      • It hid in the shadows of my very Being,
        • coming at me from
          • everywhere and
          • nowhere.
      • It wasn’t an entity but an inescapable mood
        • that cunningly evaded -reason and
          • remedy.
      • It was
        • a constant undercurrent,
        • an impending nothingness and hollowness,
        • a strange intimacy with an enticing void,
      • the cost of having a thumping heart and a free spirit.

      reference - Ernest Becker - Denial of Death - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=denial+of+death - The Birth and Death of Meaning - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=the+birth+and+death+of+meaning - David Loy - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=david%2Bloy

  2. Feb 2024
    1. for - 2nd Trump term - 2nd Trump presidency - 2024 U.S. election - existential threat for climate crisis - Title:Trump 2.0: The climate cannot survive another Trump term - Author: Michael Mann - Date: Nov 5, 2023

      Summary - Michael Mann repeats a similiar warning he made before the 2020 U.S. elections. Now the urgency is even greater. - Trump's "Project 2025" fossil-fuel -friendly plan would be a victory for the fossil fuel industry. It would - defund renewable energy research and rollout - decimate the EPA, - encourage drilling and - defund the Loss and Damage Fund, so vital for bringing the rest of the world onboard for rapid decarbonization. - Whoever wins the next U.S. election will be leading the U.S. in the most critical period of the human history because our remaining carbon budget stands at 5 years and 172 days at the current rate we are burning fossil fuels. Most of this time window overlaps with the next term of the U.S. presidency. - While Mann points out that the Inflation Reduction Act only takes us to 40% rather than Paris Climate Agreement 60% less emissions by 2030, it is still a big step in the right direction. - Trump would most definitely take a giant step in the wrong direction. - So Trump could singlehandedly set human civilization on a course of irreversible global devastation.

    2. we face an American election unlike any other. It will determine not only the course of the American experiment but the path that civilization collectively follows.

      for - quote - Michael Mann - quote - 2024 U.S. elections - future of civilization - quote - existential threat of 2024 Trump win - polycrisis - politics - inequality - climate

      quote - Michael Mann - date: May 11, 2023 - source: The Hill - Op Ed - https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4290467-trump-2-0-the-climate-cannot-survive-another-trump-term/ - (see below)

      • It is not an overstatement to say, one year out, that
        • we face an American election unlike any other.
      • It will determine
        • not only the course of the American experiment
        • but the path that civilization collectively follows.
          • On the left is democracy and environmental stewardship.
          • On the right is fascism and planetary devastation.
      • Choose wisely.
  3. Jan 2024
    1. In the next presidential election, 40.8 million members of Gen Z (ages 18-27 in 2024) will be eligible to vote,

      for - Gen Z influence on 2024 US election - Trump 2024 win - an existential threat to humanity - stats - Gen Z - 2024 U.S. election

      comment - Gen Z can play a role in determining the future of human civilization. How? Their vote in the upcoming 2024 U.S. election. If Donald Trump wins, it can pose an existential threat to human civilization - https://hyp.is/mwqwpsA-Ee6bAd9C2MLeKg/www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-2024-presidency-climate-change-rcna131928

      stats - Gen Z - 2024 U.S. election

      • In the next presidential election, 40.8 million members of Gen Z (ages 18-27 in 2024) will be eligible to vote,
        • including 8.3 million newly eligible youth (ages 18-19 in 2024)
        • who will have aged into the electorate since the 2022 midterm election.
      • These young people have tremendous potential to
        • influence elections and to
        • spur action on issues they care about
      • if they are adequately reached and supported by parties, campaigns, and organizations.
    1. Rational optimism regarding our future, then, is only possible to the extent we can find prior evolutionary steps which are plausibly more improbable than they look. Conversely, without such findings we must consider the possibility that we have yet to pass through a substantial part of the Great Filter. If so, then our prospects are bleak, but knowing this fact may at least help us improve our chances. For example, if our prospects are likely bleak we should search out and take especially seriously any plausible scenarios, such as nuclear war or ecological collapse, which might lead to our future inability to explode across the universe. A long list of such scenarios for concern can be found in [Leslie 96]. Our main data point, the Great Silence, would be telling us that at least one of these scenarios is much more probable than it otherwise looks. With such a warning in hand, we might, for example, take extra care to protect our ecosystems, perhaps even at substantial expense to our economic growth rate. We might be even especially cautious regarding the possibility of world-destroying physics experiments. And we might place a much higher priority on projects like Biosphere 2, which may allow some part of humanity to survive a great disaster.

      Especially note:

      With such a warning in hand, we might, for example, take extra care to protect our ecosystems, perhaps even at substantial expense to our economic growth rate. We might be even especially cautious regarding the possibility of world-destroying physics experiments. And we might place a much higher priority on projects like Biosphere 2, which may allow some part of humanity to survive a great disaster.

  4. Nov 2023
    1. The earlier a serious Manhattan-like project to develop nanotechnology is initiated, the longer it will take to complete, because the earlier you start, the lower the foundation from which you begin. The actual project will then run for longer, and that will then mean more time for preparation: serious preparation only starts when the project starts, and the sooner the project starts, the longer it will take, so the longer the preparation time will be. And that suggests that we should push as hard as we can to get this product launched immediately, to maximize time for preparation.

      for sure?

    1. the Center for the 01:00:29 Study of existential risk dedicated the study and mitigation of risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse and the interesting thing is that modernity is 01:00:41 not on their list either in fact it's not on the list of any of the agencies that now are dedicated to do this work
      • for: Center for the Study of Existential Risk - excludes modernity

      • Comment

        • Center for the Study of Existential Risk still assumes a modern framework to solve the polycrisis
  5. Aug 2022
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  11. Feb 2014
    1. You're as bad as that character in Moliere who didn't know he was talking prose! You've b een committing philosophical nonsense with your \rigorous pro ofs of existence". Don't you know that what exists has to b e observed, or at least observable?
    2. It has never o ccurred to him to question what the word \exist" means here. One could try to discover its meaning by watching him at work and observing what the word \exist" signi es op erationally.