lame

blahhh lame

Edited by th3hegem0n, 17 July 2006 - 09:15 PM.

Lemme put this in other words- be skeptic and rational.


Yours
~Infernity

Using the knowledge of prior events to predict future events (Bayesian logic) is sensible so long as you are placing equivalent weight across all the available knowledge of prior events such that the probability of future events can be determined in an unbiased fashion.

For instance, in your example of Terri Schiavo the mistake many people made (including some Judges) in forming their decisions was in placing insufficient weight on two critical elements:
1. Scientific - What brain damage is and how accurately today's medicine can diagnose the difference between PVS and lesser and possibly treatable forms of brain damage (many armchair neurologists continue to authoritatively promulgate that this woman died many years ago).
2. Legal - The conflict of interest associated with her husband being her sole guardian (and sole witness to her alleged wish of how she would want to be treated in such an eventuality) when he was the sole financial beneficiary and had a long standing relatioship and children by another woman.

Instead people generally placed a disproportionate amount of weight on the issues of right to die and the governments interference with such decisions such that at times the above critical points were entirely eclipsed.

So if one is to use knowledge of prior events to make determination about the future then such a methodology can only be workable if the historical knowledge base is treated in a balanced way with commensurate weight given to all critical areas of consideration. Knowing (or caring) more about one particular area of a problem does not imply that other areas should be ignored. I add "balanced" to Infernity's "skeptic and rational".

th3hegem0n,
You have no idea how many times I cursed for not trusting my feelings. I thought too much instead of trusting my instincts and found myself mistaken'...

Yours truthfully
~Infernity

Self-knowledge before anything then get smart.


Dear Th3:

I agree with everything you propound.

Just in case you have not thought about this angle of being smarter than others, allow me to suggest it here for visitors who really want some serious pointers of how to get smarter.

First, before anything else one should know oneself, what one really wants. Of course it's obvious, happiness.

So we have to decide what is going to make me, you, us happy.

Then we will apply all the directives Th3 is propounding here.

What will make me happy? I already have access to ways and means and people to satisfy my needs on the physiological levels, in a secure manner and degree. In that respect as a rational, provisional, and optional believer in God, I thank God because it's not everyone who is in such a kind of fortune.

Then also I am emotionally satisfied and socially well-situated.

What I seek now is knowledge. That is going to make me happy.

So, to visitors who want to be smarter, apply the guidelines of Th3, but achieve first self-knowledge.

In everything you do ask yourself why do I am I doing this? In everything you want, even of the least compulsion like just as in liking something you don't genuinely need, ask yourself whether on balance with all the risks it will make you happier.

Happiness is a matter of feeling. In this description of happiness a fool and a wise man can both be happy. And some people in the insane asylum can be said to be happy because they feel swell.

But to be intelligently happy, you have got to apply the guidelines of Th3.

Here is an example from yours truly, for which some people here will accuse me of self-plugging if not self-righteousness, and I will plea guilty as charged; and advise them to go and do likewise. Would that we have a lot of people who are like myself -- what self-vanity! But I don't parade images of copulation and defecation in my words and actions.

I had been toying with the whim to buy another good set of combination open and box wrenches (see below). No, I don't need another set, I already have some two or three sets; it's not a question of need, not even of convenience, but of luxury, the joy of possession of something when I look at it represents thousands of years of human inventive genius.

So one day last month I shelled out some money and got me another set which is now resting in my tool closet, and I am happy to be the owner of another set of beautifully crafted combination open and box wrenches.

And I think I have acted with wisdom and have been smart.

I could also get myself another second-hand car, one I would like to possess for sheer pleasure of possession, but it would be enslavement of myself to this machine for its guard, maintenance, repairs, and wash and wax. With a set of hand tools, you are not enslaved in any way. It's pure pleasure of possession.

What about the quest for knowledge being happiness for me? That is my main happiness in my leisure time. And that's why I am here writing messages and reading messages, and even when I am exercising my emotional disgusto with guys like Jaguar who can't contribute anything positive to my advancement in knowledge except to blame people for their deficiencies in English and in mental perception.


Susma

Combination open and box wrenches (spanners)

Unfortunately Hegemon, I am not up to one now, but that's applying to everything really...

~Infernity