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Eli Tyre Profile picture
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26 Feb, 7 tweets, 2 min read
This reddit post on getting the intuition for how free will depends on determinism is _excellent_.

old.reddit.com/r/HPMOR/commen…
In particular his analogy of a calculator (for a computational view of the self) is great.

"The point is to realize that both The Physics Explanation and The Math Explanation are true, and in _fact the entire purpose of the calculator is to make them coincide_."
This points directly at the source of the horror that I've expressed in the other thread.

The only way that I am anchored in this world is via this body. And all kinds of random (or non-random) things can break the coincidence between computational me, and the physical process implementing it.

The physical process can be subverted to be something other than me.
...which is a little like being replaced by a pod-person / body snatcher.

Creepy.
h/t to @RobTheReticent for bringing the post to my attention.
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More from @EpistemicHope

Eli Tyre Profile picture
25 Feb
Most of the self reflective, self-changing, decision process that is me, is NOT conscious.
The thing that chooses my actions is the thing that is ME.

I am (mostly) the unconscious thing.
And I'm somewhat surprised that other people seem to be conceiving of themselves really quite differently?

Read 26 tweets
Eli Tyre Profile picture
25 Feb
Someone correctly raises the point that I'm always changing, and that my so-called "self" is not persistent.

To which I respond (thread):

Being physically implemented, all change has to be physically implemented.

But some change is the result of the system taking inputs, responding to them, reflecting on itself, and changing the way that it operates, often it quite radical ways.
Read 7 tweets
Eli Tyre Profile picture
25 Feb
Does anyone else find being an embedded / naturalistic agent disturbing?

Like, I could be injected with a chemical that would cause my cells to make new proteins, which could alter my brain.

It could change the algorithm that this body is running.
Which, from a computational theory of identity, is to say that you could inject me with a chemical that would delete ME, and replace me with someone else.
That's horrifying. It feels like one of the things that "shouldn't be allowed".
Read 6 tweets
Eli Tyre Profile picture
24 Feb
@uncatherio @diviacaroline I'm not sure I'm thinking about the right sort of thing.

But I think I would have self-talk which is more like "I'm not going to do that again" as opposed to "don't do that again [you idiot]."

...which adds some weight to @AnnaWSalamon's hypothesis.
@uncatherio @diviacaroline @AnnaWSalamon Let me try to think of some specific instances.

...
@uncatherio @diviacaroline @AnnaWSalamon For one reasonably big fuckup, I specifically remember my thoughts being of the flavor,

"Welp, that happened."

and then,

"Maybe my life, for months, is just going to be about fixing this, now."
Read 33 tweets
Eli Tyre Profile picture
23 Feb
My experience of self-talk:
2
3
Read 5 tweets
Eli Tyre Profile picture
23 Feb
Ok. Let's try and make a technique for each one of these.
1.

My first suggestion is "TAPs", but I think that's too general.

Maybe something that puts you in a "long term mode" or helps you recall your specific long term desire?

I've been getting mileage out of the "Bezos criterion": "When faced with a decision, let your 80 year old self decide."

Very crisp, for helping me steer towards the things that matter to me in the long run, without precluding meaningful things in the moment.
Read 39 tweets

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