Posted: May 15, 2019 10:59 pm
SafeAsMilk wrote:
But if you've discovered the secret of the universe, that this experience is an illusion, then you're already free, aren't you?
If you ask me to talk about my philosophy I usually would, but this thread is more-or-less about all things cryptocurrency.
The thing is, nobody here really understands my philosophy so they always ask me daft questions like yours as a means to undermining it in response to something I've said about [say] crypto investments. This isn't the first time it's happened and it won't be the last.
I don't want to turn this into a thread about reconciling my philosophy with my attitudes reported within this thread, so though I will respond it will be the only time that I do so within this thread. If you're after a more in-depth discussion about the subject then seek to start a new thread afterwards.
... So, although I believe everything in the world is an illusion, a dream of sorts, the orchestrated sensations/qualia giving rise to experience are real. For example, the sensation of pain is real. Therefore, merely understanding that the world of everything is an illusion does not suffice to save you from feeling pain. If I feel terrible pain, I'll probably cry like a baby.
When you're playing a game on the Xbox or whatever, you KNOW that the game is an illusion but you still try to do the right things within the game in order to avoid unwanted consequences, such as having to restart the mission from scratch. There's no pain involved. The motives energising you to get through the scenario are those associated with maximising your satisfaction-through-achievement levels whilst minimising your boredom/frustration levels. We hate being bored and frustrated yet love to feel satisfied, which are real feelings associated with the reality of what we are, so the extent to which we play the game hinges upon how much boredom and frustration we're willing to accept in order to achieve success. That's the psychology of it all. The bottom-line is it's the reality of what we are and what we feel which manage to motivate how we behave when playing illusionary Xbox games.
Now, imagine yourself knowing that from now on, all Xbox et al games will only give you just one chance. You'll never be able to play again after the first time that you fuck up sufficient to end your experience of it according to the rules of that game? Of course, the gaming business would be kaput because nobody would be willing to pay significant money for a game which will probably only last a few minutes.
Worse still, imagine instead a future whereby technology has improved so much that whenever you play Xbox games, you won't just have emotions associated with boredom and success. From now on, you'll also feel pain! For example, if your character in the game gets hit on the head by a hammer from some other nasty character, you'll actually feel the pain associated with such an event!!
This of course would also obviously spell the end of the gaming business. However, let's go one stage further and propose that it's the ONLY game in town. Which leads to where I am at with my philosophy, which is to the realisation that I have no desire to feel any kind of pain that 'life experience' deals me, whilst simultaneously not wanting to become another victim of said game.
And so, I'm doing what I'm doing in order to minimise my pain by maximising my freedoms from that game, by doing such things as wearing a hard hat and investing in bitcoin. It's a hedge, designed to prolongue one's continuity within the game.
Reconciling my philosophy with the illusion of the world is that simple. Clearly, the more quality time I have in the game, unconcerned with pains of all kinds, yields more chance of a satisfactory outcome.