Thanks for asking! I think rationalism eventually felt too removed from reality, and I don’t agree with consequentialism. I didn’t want to live in a framework where I had to turn things into calculations to know what was right or morally obligatory. The isolation of COVID exacerbated that I guess, as well as graduating college and getting thrown into “real life.” I felt such a deep emptiness in the absence of faith/tradition/experience, which are completely deprioritized in Rationalism. It all felt hollow. AI ethics also felt completely futile.
I moved onto a farm during COVID and learned to grow food for my community. It was the best decision I ever made :)
That sounds practical, wholesome and something that Rationalism would not have been able to provide. Thank you for sharing! I haven't ever been into Rationalism but what you described has been my experience with 99.99% of the things I pick up from the Internet: after some time they felt hollow, and I craved the stark reality and groundedness of real life
The Internet, for all its wonderments, can never be real life, and the cultures bred here are usually untested against reality and so collapse when they come in contact with it
Seeing as the internet was born into a dominant culture - our Western media - I guess maybe it was inevitable that the kind of online culture we've now got would eventually dominate. Have you ever read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death (it's brilliant)?
Thanks for asking! I think rationalism eventually felt too removed from reality, and I don’t agree with consequentialism. I didn’t want to live in a framework where I had to turn things into calculations to know what was right or morally obligatory. The isolation of COVID exacerbated that I guess, as well as graduating college and getting thrown into “real life.” I felt such a deep emptiness in the absence of faith/tradition/experience, which are completely deprioritized in Rationalism. It all felt hollow. AI ethics also felt completely futile.
I moved onto a farm during COVID and learned to grow food for my community. It was the best decision I ever made :)
That sounds practical, wholesome and something that Rationalism would not have been able to provide. Thank you for sharing! I haven't ever been into Rationalism but what you described has been my experience with 99.99% of the things I pick up from the Internet: after some time they felt hollow, and I craved the stark reality and groundedness of real life
Ugh, so true. Makes me wonder if that’s an inherent property of the internet or whether it is made that way by the kind of culture that is bred online
Both, I think
The Internet, for all its wonderments, can never be real life, and the cultures bred here are usually untested against reality and so collapse when they come in contact with it
Seeing as the internet was born into a dominant culture - our Western media - I guess maybe it was inevitable that the kind of online culture we've now got would eventually dominate. Have you ever read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death (it's brilliant)?
No! But you’re not the first to recommend, maybe it’s time for me to grab a copy