085 Ideas: a force of nature

Almost everything to do with the evidence of modern civilization is the manifestation of thought.

Think about it for a second… from the simplest of wheels to the largest of flying machines, from Stone Age doodles to the Mona Lisa, the significance of the dollar bill, the footprints on the Moon—all is a product of thought.

Look around you and you’ll see the evidence of civilization. You’ll find inventions that inevitably trace their way back to some theory in a human mind.

This is not just any theory. It contains real world, objective knowledge.

Ideas have the power to shape and mold the physical universe not unlike any other force of nature.

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The Amazing Things & Ideas List

1. Pessimism is dangerous

A system that is smart enough to turn us all into paperclips, will also be smart enough not to do such a dumb thing. Tom Howard writes an excellent piece on why AGI Doomers, Not AGI, Will Doom Us All:

AGI Doomers, Not AGI, Will Doom Us All

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2. Scientific theories can never be proven, only refuted

Karl Popper explaining our deepest theory of epistemology:

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3. Consumption entails creation

Lulie @reasonisfun

Consuming is a myth. Whenever we watch or read something, we’re coming up with new ideas—otherwise, we get bored. So it’s not - consumption vs production it’s - creation vs boredom Mindless consumption isn’t fun, nor is it even really consuming. It’s noise.

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4. On “order in reading”*

“It was a volume of Herbert Spencer. He went through a quiet agony trying to read it to the end. He read it to the end. He understood one-quarter of what he had read but this started him on a process which he pursued with a systematic, fist-clenched determination. Without advice, assistance, or plan, he began reading an incongruous assortment of books. He would find some passage which he could not understand in one book and he would get another on that subject. He branched out erratically in all directions… There was no order in his reading. But there was order in what remained of it in his mind.”

— Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

*emphasis mine.

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Onward,
Arjun

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