I appreciate this framing a lot and I really enjoyed the post.
On the topic of living forever, I worry that people who aren’t super smart might not be able to find nearly as much joy in random activities/concepts. If I were locked in a room with Richard Feynman I’m not sure that I would actually love physics; I might just come out very confused and a bit drained.
I worry that my brain is simply unable to deeply understand and appreciate theoretical physics, and even if it were, I don’t know if I have the willpower to sit through Feynman explaining quartz to me for the tenth time. Would I find this willpower at some point over the span of a million/billion/infinite years? Maybe? Maybe not?
Is it possible that smarter people have more concepts they can play with, and maybe if you’re smart enough you have essentially infinite ideas to play with, but people less intelligent than this certain threshold will run out of interesting ideas after X years/decades/millennia?
(Even if this was true I still think most people would like to live forever. I just think they will likely relive/rethink the same things and visit their great-great...-great grandchildren, rather than learn the secrets of the universe. Heck, most people relive the same thing every day, and yet most aren’t suicidal, so I don’t think they would be suicidal if they did this for a million years rather than 80 years.)
I appreciate this framing a lot and I really enjoyed the post.
Thanks!
On the topic of living forever, I worry that people who aren’t super smart might not be able to find nearly as much joy in random activities/concepts. If I were locked in a room with Richard Feynman I’m not sure that I would actually love physics; I might just come out very confused and a bit drained.
I worry that my brain is simply unable to deeply understand and appreciate theoretical physics
I am of the opinion that this stuff is just generally interesting to the human mind, and that the core concepts actually can be simplified and framed such that the average person can understand them. Executing on it is definitely a huge task though that we are not close to succeeding at.
I don’t know if I have the willpower to sit through Feynman explaining quartz to me for the tenth time. Would I find this willpower at some point over the span of a million/billion/infinite years? Maybe? Maybe not?
I think I’m envisioning it differently. I’m envisioning it being explained excellently such that you’re never straining, and are always being pushed just slightly beyond what you currently know. In practice this rarely happens, but it is theoretically possible.
Is it possible that smarter people have more concepts they can play with, and maybe if you’re smart enough you have essentially infinite ideas to play with, but people less intelligent than this certain threshold will run out of interesting ideas after X years/decades/millennia?
I suppose. Although I think that in practice, once you reach whatever point where people run out of interesting ideas, technology will have reached the point where we’ll be able to side-step that problem.
I appreciate this framing a lot and I really enjoyed the post.
On the topic of living forever, I worry that people who aren’t super smart might not be able to find nearly as much joy in random activities/concepts. If I were locked in a room with Richard Feynman I’m not sure that I would actually love physics; I might just come out very confused and a bit drained.
I worry that my brain is simply unable to deeply understand and appreciate theoretical physics, and even if it were, I don’t know if I have the willpower to sit through Feynman explaining quartz to me for the tenth time. Would I find this willpower at some point over the span of a million/billion/infinite years? Maybe? Maybe not?
Is it possible that smarter people have more concepts they can play with, and maybe if you’re smart enough you have essentially infinite ideas to play with, but people less intelligent than this certain threshold will run out of interesting ideas after X years/decades/millennia?
(Even if this was true I still think most people would like to live forever. I just think they will likely relive/rethink the same things and visit their great-great...-great grandchildren, rather than learn the secrets of the universe. Heck, most people relive the same thing every day, and yet most aren’t suicidal, so I don’t think they would be suicidal if they did this for a million years rather than 80 years.)
Thanks!
I am of the opinion that this stuff is just generally interesting to the human mind, and that the core concepts actually can be simplified and framed such that the average person can understand them. Executing on it is definitely a huge task though that we are not close to succeeding at.
I think I’m envisioning it differently. I’m envisioning it being explained excellently such that you’re never straining, and are always being pushed just slightly beyond what you currently know. In practice this rarely happens, but it is theoretically possible.
I suppose. Although I think that in practice, once you reach whatever point where people run out of interesting ideas, technology will have reached the point where we’ll be able to side-step that problem.