I have mixed feelings about this post. On the one hand, it’s a new, interesting idea. You say it’s helpful to you, and it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if it’s helpful to a great many readers. This could be a very good thing.
On the other hand, there’s a tendency among rationalists these days to turn to religion, or to the closest thing to religion we can make ourselves believe in. For a while there were a great many posts about meditation and enlightenment, for instance, and if we look at common eregores in the community, we find multiple. Azathoth, God of Evolution. Moloch, God of Prisoners’ Dilemmas. Cthulhu, God of Memetics and Monotonically Increasing Progressivism. Bruce, God of Self-Sabotage. This can be entertaining, and perhaps motivating. Yet I cannot shake the feeling that we’re taking a serious risk in trying to create something too closely akin to religion. As the saying goes, what do you think you know, and how do you think you know it? We’re quite certain that e.g. Islam is founded on lies, with more lies built up to try to protect the initial deceptions. Do you really want to mimic such a thing? A tradition created without a connection to actual reality is unlikely to have any value.
I won’t say that you shouldn’t pray to your future self, if you find doing so beneficial, and you yourself say this isn’t your usual subject matter. But be careful. It’s far too easy to create religious-style errors even if you do not consciously believe in your rituals.
I have mixed feelings about this post. On the one hand, it’s a new, interesting idea. You say it’s helpful to you, and it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if it’s helpful to a great many readers. This could be a very good thing.
On the other hand, there’s a tendency among rationalists these days to turn to religion, or to the closest thing to religion we can make ourselves believe in. For a while there were a great many posts about meditation and enlightenment, for instance, and if we look at common eregores in the community, we find multiple. Azathoth, God of Evolution. Moloch, God of Prisoners’ Dilemmas. Cthulhu, God of Memetics and Monotonically Increasing Progressivism. Bruce, God of Self-Sabotage. This can be entertaining, and perhaps motivating. Yet I cannot shake the feeling that we’re taking a serious risk in trying to create something too closely akin to religion. As the saying goes, what do you think you know, and how do you think you know it? We’re quite certain that e.g. Islam is founded on lies, with more lies built up to try to protect the initial deceptions. Do you really want to mimic such a thing? A tradition created without a connection to actual reality is unlikely to have any value.
I won’t say that you shouldn’t pray to your future self, if you find doing so beneficial, and you yourself say this isn’t your usual subject matter. But be careful. It’s far too easy to create religious-style errors even if you do not consciously believe in your rituals.