#mind #information #transhumanism #rationality # Fine-tuning your [[Mind|mind]] ![[DALL·E 2022-07-10 18.56.14 - A man tweaking his own brain with a screwdriver, painting by Escher.png]] From a [[Computing]] point of view, when you receive information, it more or less fine tune your internal algorithm. If you see a documentary about planet earth, the ecological problems faced by humanity etc. you will likely be more ecological. Basically, **you become what you consume**. Of course, a more or less [[Rationality|rational]] person have more or less control over how [[Information|information]] is painting its [[The Map is not the Territory|map of the territory]]. The trick to reach your goal then is to consume information that align with your goals, what we call [[Signal]], while information that does not align with your goals is called [[Noise]]. One must not get fooled by information, though, and must be aware that one's emotions are influenced by the [[Availability bias]]. ![[DALL·E 2022-07-10 18.57.05 - A man tweaking his own brain with a screwdriver, painting by Picasso.png]] ## You become what you consume ![[You become what you consume]] ## Bottlenecks Bob is 12 years old, suddenly he read this page and think "I'll make myself fall in love with Quantum Physics" (because **to learn anything, you need to fall in love with this learning process**). But Bob is completely ignorant in [[Mathematic]] and [[Physic]], so that won't work, because [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]] is hierarchical. Bob will first have to fall in love with [[Physic]], [[Mathematic]] and fall in love with every parent node of [[Quantum physic]], seeing this as a graph/tree. ![[Drawing 2021-11-15 13.28.57.excalidraw.svg]] Then there are tricks to fall in love with a learning process, my experienced examples are: - learning [[Programming]], challenge yourself to do something related to your hobbies with [[Programming]] ## God delusion >Those who think religion is about “belief” don’t understand religion, and don’t understand belief >~ [[Nassim Taleb|Taleb]] In [Belief in Self-Deception](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wP2ymm44kZZwaFPYh/belief-in-self-deception), [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]] presents a seemingly intelligent woman who made herself believe in God, as it is supposed to bring upsides. >I am most often irritated by those who attack the bishop but somehow fall for the securities analyst--those who exercise their skepticism against religion but not against economists, social scientists, and phony statisticians. Using the confirmation bias, these people will tell you that religion was horrible for mankind by counting deaths from the Inquisition and various religious wars. But they will not show you how many people were killed by nationalism, social science, and political theory under Stalin or during the Vietnam War. Even priests don't go to bishops when they feel ill: their first stop is the doctor's. But we stop by the offices of many pseudoscientists and "experts" without alternative. We no longer believe in papal infallibility; we seem to believe in the infallibility of the Nobel, though >~ [[Nassim Taleb|Taleb]] ### The upsides of believing in God >Religious statements are not epistemic (scientific, literal) claims, but risk-survival heuristics under incomplete understanding. Populations with the right risk heuristics survive. Others perish >~ [[Nassim Taleb|Taleb]] So Taleb argue that [[We will always play an incomplete information game|our incomplete information game]] has some hidden cheat codes: religion? I think the risk survival heuristics brought by religion are growing less and less useful as our scientific [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]] evolves. I can’t find his quote, but he says that believing in after life allows you to have more energy in life, not fearing [[Death 💀]]. I can clearly see the [[Morality|ethic]]al heuristic though, if you are scared of punishment by an omnipotent being when doing something un[[Morality|ethic]]al. # External links https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rZX4WuufAPbN6wQTv/no-really-i-ve-deceived-myself https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wP2ymm44kZZwaFPYh/belief-in-self-deception Similar topic links: [[Epistemology]]