Please visit the LogicRulesOverAll reddituser.
https://www.reddit.com/user/LogicRulesOverAll/
Some excerpts
On rescusitation of the dead:
As far as resuscitation, I don't think it is necessarily easy to determine when exactly a person dies. But the thrust of my point lies in the idea that resuscitation is possible simply because the state of affairs concerning this little patch of substance called my brain is something that is capable of forming, and even if it takes a long time the substance called my brain will [organize itself into something intelligible once again]. It's sort of the same idea as finding the same string of words in the Library of Babel. You are reading through a bunch of random characters in a random book in the Library of Babel, and then you come across something intelligible, and then you continue reading through the unintelligible bits, and then you come upon another string of words you understand. The same goes for reality. Things go along unintelligibly until something intelligible comes along and then the unintelligible continues until something intelligible comes along again. Granted this idea is couched in the notion of time, which is itself a lens by which we understand reality, or in other words a key which we use to decrypt the otherwise seemingly unintelligible strings of characters. (but this must be granted because it isn't cognizable without being couched)
On Universal Tunings of the Fundamental Constants:
God is a possible explanation concerning what has caused the universe to be fine-tuned, however there are other explanations. It is possible there are multiple universes with different tunings of the constants, and we are a part of the one which is tuned for life.
Another concerns the idea that all of the possible tunings of the constants are active in the universe, and we only perceive the universe as fine-tuned because our perception of the whole entire universe is severely limited in scope. If we could, hypothetically, enhance our scope of things and objects in the universe (as of yet undiscovered) we might find other forms of intelligence. Who's to say otherwise?
From fictioninenglish.com called The Ring
What happens when the universe ends? I’m talking about when all of the stars have completely used up all of their fuel, and space has stretched so much that the scattered elements like hydrogen and helium are too far apart for gravity to wrangle them back together. When so much time has past that the elements have all radioactively decayed, and all that’s left is black holes suspended in the void. Then when those black holes over hundreds of trillions of years themselves decay due to entropy, what happens? Do time and space even make sense at that point anymore? Do particles moving at light speed in a vacuum experience time or space? What happens when entropy dominates everything?
Matter, human brain tissue to be exact, is made up of particles, subatomic particles like quarks and leptons, tiny things which make up protons. Protons in turn make up atoms. Atoms make up molecules. And molecules form complex chains and proteins, again in turn making brains. What are the odds that this universal particulate jumbly vibrating mash of stuff would make something complex enough to think about it? The entire universe going about its business spinning, pushing, pulling, smashing, forming, destroying, absorbing, colliding, frying things with gamma ray bursts, and then one day the unbelievable occurs. Life forms on earth.
Life, that little rogue mote of dust, burning through energy in such an inefficient fashion, organizing carbons, hydrogens, and oxygens into chains of tissues over and over and over again, replicating itself, establishing a new force in the universe. There’s gravity, electromagnetism, the nuclear forces, and then there is the
will of life, born as a sort of offspring of these parent forces, beginning its life as a helpless infant, its guardians with gentle arms shielding it from obliteration. Those fragile young years of life could have been wiped so quickly, none on earth would have even noticed the moment between business as usual and instant annihilation.
Being such a unique thing in the universe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For one thing the vast majority of everywhere and everywhen is completely uninhabitable, and that which is habitable is usually only just barely. Go outside on a really hot or cold day and see how long you survive before high-tailing it back indoors. And that’s just in the backyard for crying out loud. Most of the universe is just barely above absolute zero. How’s that for chilly? That’s no place where a person can live. A person would just puff up, implode, freeze, and suffocate all at the same time. You can forget about it when the earth ends, and all the stars run out of juice, and space expands so fast that gravity is negligible on just about everything. You can kiss humanity, consciousness, life, whatever you want to call it, goodbye. Nothing’s happening then, nothing.
Well just about.
It was approximately in the year of our lord 100 trillion trillion trillion…
…trillion trillion trillion that the large ring came upon something interesting. The large ring, the only thing in space or time, at least the only thing recognizable as a thing, was going about its business. The ring was an enormous particle accelerator, about 120.2 thousand miles in diameter. A nearly perfect circle in space going nowhere. The center of the universe was here, right in the middle of the ring. There was nothing else in the universe to say otherwise, so it might as well have been here.
It was in the space inside of the massive ring, (or small ring. however big you imagine yourself to be) that the anomaly was found. Over approximately two billion years, barely a drop in the bucket as far as the ring was concerned, the ring suddenly realized a pattern in the quantum fluctuating void contained in the space of which the ring was monitoring. The ring quickly isolated the frequencies of the fluctuating particles, using dark forces of which only the ring understood to capture each and every particle, freezing them in their tracks. The particles were collected and over a very long time reconstituted into recognizable matter within the accelerator. The material was then printed layer by layer onto lattices composed of exotic chemicals and matter. The material was printed with extreme precision and attention to detail in order to match exactly the patterns found fluctuating in the void.
When the project was finished, and everything was finally put together in perfect form without one error or mistake, the ring activated the thing it created, sending a short and almost undetectable zap to it’s brain. It became alive. It was Marie.
On Pleasure:
The idea of not having enough pleasure seems contradictory to me. Pleasure only begins when you have enough, when you are satisfied.
On the Self as Illusion
If the self is an illusion, what difference does it make whether I live 6 more months or if someone else lives 5 more years? If the self is an illusion then am "I" actually living 6 more months, and are "you" actually living 5 more years?
On luxuries and practice:
I allow myself quite a few luxuries. I like to drink coke. I like to play video games. I enjoy watching movies and tv shows with my friends. I enjoy listening to music. I always stay up too late reading and watching things on the internet. I often contemplate how many luxuries I enjoy, and I think about scenarios where I will lose these luxuries and how I will cope. There have been occasions where the power has gone out at my house, and those times have been good reminders as to how spoiled I really am.
One thing that I practice every day is sitting back and relaxing. Just pausing the monkey brain and allowing myself to relax. Turn off the computer. Turn off the phone. Just lean back and relax for an hour. It was difficult for me at first because I had become so conditioned to stimulation, but it has become a very good and healthy practice, and now I actually look forward to the hour where I just sit back and relax.
On the differences of times and worlds:
The world we live in is very different from the one Epicurus lived in. These days we have conveniences of all sorts out the wazoo due to our market economy. You can buy anything you need. And we are relatively secure from harm because we needn't really worry about gangs roving through the country or simple injuries/ill health possibly leading to our death, etc.
Back then though, you had to live with other people simply because it was necessary in order to survive. Having other people who had your interests in mind relieved the real anxiety of being unable to secure yourself. The majority achieved this via living in a city-state, but Epicurus wanted to escape the politics inherent in city-state life by essentially building his own little city-state, occupied not with thousands of inhabitants but only with some like-minded friends.
While having friends these days is not absolutely necessary in order to survive in the world, I find that for my own personal health, having a few friends is very beneficial, and the risks are quite minimal. This is similar for many other things such as exercise. Exercising can be risky because there is a good chance you will feel displeasure, however I find that for my own personal health, exercising on a regular basis is very beneficial, and the risk of pain is minimal and easily tolerated.
On satiation and pleasure:
Imagine I have two buckets that I want to fill with sand. One bucket has a small hole at the bottom which lets sand out slowly over time. The other bucket has no bottom at all. Logically I should choose the bucket which has the possibility of being filled (even if only for a time) instead of the bucket which cannot even be filled.
Regarding desire, vain desires are like a bucket with no bottom. You will never be filled to the point of satisfaction. You might think, 'Is this it? Is this what I have been striving for?' There will always be (perhaps an obvious apparent thought or one lingering in the back of your mind) the notion that you need more. Just a little more, and that'll do it; I'll be satisfied. But there is no end.
But when it comes to desires which are necessary to be happy, such as healthy food, clean water, a place to get in out of the cold, etc, there is a natural limit. You can eat and be full. You can drink and be quenched. You can be cold and then get warm. Satisfaction is possible because there is a natural limit.
Ultimately the wisdom here is not saying that desiring wealth or fame or anything like that is wrong or bad in themselves, but that desire without limits is wrong because it leads to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. This is how it is possible for the rich and famous to be sad and depressed, because they have not limited their desires. Limit your desires. Set goals for yourself, and allow yourself to feel satisfied and happy when you accomplish those goals. True wealth is satisfaction and true poverty is dissatisfaction, regardless of how many followers you have, how good looking you are, or how big your bank account is.
On finding friends:
I am pleased that you would be willing to take a risk in order to find a friend, but I hope that you are not too eager to find a friend from reddit.
On Beginnings and Ends:
Beginnings and ends are simply ways in which we come to an understanding of what Kant called the phenomenal world, the world of things as we perceive them. This is distinct from the noumenal world, the world of things-in-themselves (things as they truly are independent of how we, humans, perceive and understand them).
We may come to understand that the universe has a beginning via scientific discovery and (more fundamentally) the categories of understanding, but the absolute true nature of the thing-in-itself (the noumenal world) cannot become known to us.
And this is important to understand, that the thing-in-itself cannot be KNOWN; it is a limitation upon our capacity to know and understand.
I don't think anyone would disagree with the idea that we might not have all of the facts and our judgments might be wrong (even logic itself may be a misguided affair).
What we do is not gain access to the noumenon. We (you, me, and many others) operate in accordance with what Kant called 'pure intuition' and 'pure understanding.' We (beings capable of cognition who happen to cognize one another) automatically agree upon fundamental operations - the pure intuitions of space and time and the categories of understanding. Otherwise we do not perceive and understand one another. (The pure intuitions and understandings are like keys which decrypt the otherwise jumbled mess)
Epicurus says that we need not worry about an afterlife because there is no afterlife. We will be dead and without sensation. Nothing could possibly disturb us in this state.
But I critique this idea, because I think that we do not know what will happen after we die. We know that people are insensible just after they die. You can't wake up a dead person. However, sometimes you can wake up a dead person. There are people who have died and been resuscitated. Some describe visions, and others describe there being nothing. They were awake at one moment, and then they just jumped to the next moment, totally unaware of anything which happened in between. The universe is going to be around for a very very long time, and all of the stuff in the universe (of which we are made) will have a very very long time to mix around and become other things, things which we don't really know will be conscious or not. We simply don't know what will happen.
But this doesn't cause me anxiety. And in fact it is a relief to me. The idea that I would be dead forever is one that I really didn't understand, and I didn't really understand how it was supposed to bring me relief. However the idea that I do not know what will happen upon death does bring me relief (literally takes my worry away) because there isn't anything that I know of to be worried about.
On Endurance:
What is terrible is easy to endure in that what is terrible does not last for very long. I think it is natural to grieve over the deaths of those close to you, but you needn't grieve forever. And in fact I suspect those who one grieves over would not want that. I suspect they would want you to be happy, and there is no reason to excessively postpone your happiness against their wishes.
Please read and enjoy. There is so much more. There is still much for me to analyze myself and explain, all in the Lord's time of course.
fictioninenglish.com has other stuff to use. May the Lord find these a suitable offering.
If you eat a lot of fatty food before you have to work in the cold weather, you actually feel a lot warmer. Wear a thick hat because you can lose a lot of heat out of your head, trapper hats are good.