“I’m still not entirely sure of who I am, and maybe this is not surprising for someone who likes to do a lot of thinking and a lot of doubting. But over the years I have gotten more and more sure of who I am not.”
Love getting a sneak-peek into the mind of Silvio!!
Silvio! I feel like I could have at least an hour conversation with you on each of these quasi-related topics. Your riff on good prophecies reminds me of a few things: the problematic nature of utopian thinking ("ends justifying the means") contrasted with the neuroaffective appeal of doomsaying ("negativity bias and threat sensitivity").
The idea of poetically granting agency to emergent systems ("Moloch") reminds me of Solzhenitsyn's inquiry in Gulag Archipelago (what I've gleaned from discussions though I haven't read it yet.)
And the question of being and identity - well, that is the conversation of our lifetime, isn't it? Though I love the Jacobi reference. It reminds me of via negativa type approaches to spirituality and the "neti-neti" ("not this, not this") meditation.
Tai! So much packed in your comment. We can surely converse for one hour on each of these topics, but that would be mostly me listening to you talking about all these great references. Thanks for taking the time, I really appreciate it. When the times comes for me to expand on any of these three mini essays, you’ll be the first person I’ll want to chat with. :)
I especially like the "who I am" section Silvio. It's actually quite tragic how many people just follow what their parents expected for them and then wind up feeling lost, disconnected from themselves. Maybe we're all in the boat, and we just jump ship into our own waters when we're ready, some sooner, some later. I'm lifted up by the emerging energy of your questioning this, and I think you're right that sometimes we can only know what we are "not" in a given moment and have courage to exist in the gap before we know what we are—which is also always changing.
Thank you for taking the time to leave this thoughtful comment, Rick. “I'm lifted up by the emerging energy of your questioning this” -- I appreciate your catching this, cause to me that’s the essence of my reflection.
"Or that dancing will finally be banned on social media?" gets me every time haha!
I so relate to this idea of feeling compelled into a certain life path, even if it's well intentioned.
"I feel the same may be applied to trying to understand who we are: focus first on who we’re not, and the rest -- slowly but surely -- takes care of itself." Perfect thought to end on and one I'm thinking about now.
Thank you, Michelle! Yes, I wanted to end the thought there because I believe in food for thought. And I’m glad to see there’s enough of it there. As for the social media dances, my prophecy for the ban is nothing dictatorial. Just a massive wish lol :)
As someone who’s not entirely sure of who I am also, I know exactly where you’re coming from. I also was guilty of following someone else’s path for a long time. But I sense that we’re both on our own paths of real discovery.
Also love the reminder of Moloch. It got co-opted by the crypto community, in a way that feels disingenuous in 2023, but it’s a powerful reminder of everything we should seek to shield ourselves from. Complacency and inertia are strong, but the human will for beauty and truth are stronger.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse into your reflections
Latham! Thank you for reading and for your interesting and relatable thoughts. I’ve been thinking about who I am a lot, and it looks like I still have work to do! But maybe the beauty of life is really to embark ourselves on a never ending process of self discovery, rather than achieving absolute certainty of who we are right off the bat. At least I’d love for it to be like that. The journey is always better than the feeling of having arrived somewhere, I guess. Maybe because “somewhere” doesn’t really exist? Who knows.
Very interesting reflections, Silvio. Both the Greek and the Hebrew prophets were basically truth-tellers unaffected by the "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome to which most of us succumb. There's no reason why you can't tell beautiful truths about our bright future--in fact, I look forward to it. I climbed out of the quicksand of "Slate Star Codex" after clicking on the link. I look forward to further developments in your journey of self-(re)discovery . . . my guess is deeds will be even more important than thoughts.
Thank you, Chris. Love the depth and thoughtfulness of your comment. I’m glad you were able to climb out of the quicksand of SSC, which to me means that you went through it, and that’s brave! Hope you did find it interesting. As for deeds being even more important than thoughts, I’ll have to second your guess and declare myself in total agreement. :)
Loved all three mini-essays Silvio, especially the last one, that, as I mentioned, can deeply relate to and through the "invert" section you've given me a new way to look at my past 10 exploratory years :)
“I’m still not entirely sure of who I am, and maybe this is not surprising for someone who likes to do a lot of thinking and a lot of doubting. But over the years I have gotten more and more sure of who I am not.”
Love getting a sneak-peek into the mind of Silvio!!
Thanks for reading, Grace. :)
Silvio! I feel like I could have at least an hour conversation with you on each of these quasi-related topics. Your riff on good prophecies reminds me of a few things: the problematic nature of utopian thinking ("ends justifying the means") contrasted with the neuroaffective appeal of doomsaying ("negativity bias and threat sensitivity").
The idea of poetically granting agency to emergent systems ("Moloch") reminds me of Solzhenitsyn's inquiry in Gulag Archipelago (what I've gleaned from discussions though I haven't read it yet.)
And the question of being and identity - well, that is the conversation of our lifetime, isn't it? Though I love the Jacobi reference. It reminds me of via negativa type approaches to spirituality and the "neti-neti" ("not this, not this") meditation.
Tai! So much packed in your comment. We can surely converse for one hour on each of these topics, but that would be mostly me listening to you talking about all these great references. Thanks for taking the time, I really appreciate it. When the times comes for me to expand on any of these three mini essays, you’ll be the first person I’ll want to chat with. :)
As a futurist, I'm hoping for a longer essay on Think Good.
Tons to write about there :)
I especially like the "who I am" section Silvio. It's actually quite tragic how many people just follow what their parents expected for them and then wind up feeling lost, disconnected from themselves. Maybe we're all in the boat, and we just jump ship into our own waters when we're ready, some sooner, some later. I'm lifted up by the emerging energy of your questioning this, and I think you're right that sometimes we can only know what we are "not" in a given moment and have courage to exist in the gap before we know what we are—which is also always changing.
Thank you for taking the time to leave this thoughtful comment, Rick. “I'm lifted up by the emerging energy of your questioning this” -- I appreciate your catching this, cause to me that’s the essence of my reflection.
Love these brilliant mini essays. A wonderful trifecta :)
Thank you, Rachael. Glad you liked this experimental format :)
"Or that dancing will finally be banned on social media?" gets me every time haha!
I so relate to this idea of feeling compelled into a certain life path, even if it's well intentioned.
"I feel the same may be applied to trying to understand who we are: focus first on who we’re not, and the rest -- slowly but surely -- takes care of itself." Perfect thought to end on and one I'm thinking about now.
Thank you, Michelle! Yes, I wanted to end the thought there because I believe in food for thought. And I’m glad to see there’s enough of it there. As for the social media dances, my prophecy for the ban is nothing dictatorial. Just a massive wish lol :)
Really great thoughts Silvio.
As someone who’s not entirely sure of who I am also, I know exactly where you’re coming from. I also was guilty of following someone else’s path for a long time. But I sense that we’re both on our own paths of real discovery.
Also love the reminder of Moloch. It got co-opted by the crypto community, in a way that feels disingenuous in 2023, but it’s a powerful reminder of everything we should seek to shield ourselves from. Complacency and inertia are strong, but the human will for beauty and truth are stronger.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse into your reflections
Latham! Thank you for reading and for your interesting and relatable thoughts. I’ve been thinking about who I am a lot, and it looks like I still have work to do! But maybe the beauty of life is really to embark ourselves on a never ending process of self discovery, rather than achieving absolute certainty of who we are right off the bat. At least I’d love for it to be like that. The journey is always better than the feeling of having arrived somewhere, I guess. Maybe because “somewhere” doesn’t really exist? Who knows.
Very interesting reflections, Silvio. Both the Greek and the Hebrew prophets were basically truth-tellers unaffected by the "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome to which most of us succumb. There's no reason why you can't tell beautiful truths about our bright future--in fact, I look forward to it. I climbed out of the quicksand of "Slate Star Codex" after clicking on the link. I look forward to further developments in your journey of self-(re)discovery . . . my guess is deeds will be even more important than thoughts.
Thank you, Chris. Love the depth and thoughtfulness of your comment. I’m glad you were able to climb out of the quicksand of SSC, which to me means that you went through it, and that’s brave! Hope you did find it interesting. As for deeds being even more important than thoughts, I’ll have to second your guess and declare myself in total agreement. :)
Loved all three mini-essays Silvio, especially the last one, that, as I mentioned, can deeply relate to and through the "invert" section you've given me a new way to look at my past 10 exploratory years :)