I’m Thomas, 23 years old, from Germany. I study physics but starting this semester I have shifted my focus on Machine Learning, mostly due to the influence of lesswrong.
Here are a few things about my philosophical and scientific journey if anyone’s interested.
I grew up with mildly religious parents, never being really religious myself. At about 12 I came into contact with the concept of atheism and immediately realized that’s what I was. Before, I hadn’t really thought about it but it was clear to me then. For a long time I felt a bit ashamed of not believing in god. I never mentioned it to anyone, probably fearing the reaction I would get. I would have called myself agnostic then. Only recently did I realize the extent to which religion can be dangerous and how deeply irrational it is. I consider it completely useless these days and I’m get actually confused whenever I find out that someone I thought of as rather intelligent turns out to believe in god.
Apart from that I had a minor existential crisis when I realized the implications of a deterministic world on free will. I was in the equivalent of high school when I read an article about the topic. Afterwards I felt strange for days, always thinking that nothing really mattered. But then I was actually able to (crudely) ‘dissolve the question’ and found peace with this issue.
After that, I spent very little time on philosophic topics for a long time. I thought I knew roughly what there was to know. I was wrong there.
Regarding my scientific education, I did always very well in math and consequently began studying physics (and as seems to be the case with some other physicists here I’m very skeptical towards the Many-World Interpretation). I always wanted to do something to advance our society and I thought physics was the right way. My original plan was to work on fusion reactors to solve the energy crisis this world is facing. Though, now, after spending some time on this site, I don’t think anymore that the energy problem is our most urgent problem.
Discovering lesswrong was not that easy for me. Until 19 I spent my time in the German-speaking part of the Internet. Then someday I stumbled upon reddit (was that a pun?). Incidentally that really improved my English. And somewhere on reddit I clicked on a link which led me to HPMoR (thank you who ever posted that). Then I found lesswrong and now I’m here.
I’m about halfway through the sequences and I hope I can contribute once I finish. Learning about biases has already helped me a lot. For the future I think I’m most interested in learning about reasoning and decision theory.
Welcome! I am also basically a newcomer here. I’d suggest not waiting to read all the sequences before you contribute. The worst that happens is that someone corrects you, right? I’ve had a few interesting discussions and I’m still not quite done reading the main line.
Was your dissolving of free will different from the one presented in the Quantum Physics sequence?
I’m Thomas, 23 years old, from Germany. I study physics but starting this semester I have shifted my focus on Machine Learning, mostly due to the influence of lesswrong.
Here are a few things about my philosophical and scientific journey if anyone’s interested.
I grew up with mildly religious parents, never being really religious myself. At about 12 I came into contact with the concept of atheism and immediately realized that’s what I was. Before, I hadn’t really thought about it but it was clear to me then. For a long time I felt a bit ashamed of not believing in god. I never mentioned it to anyone, probably fearing the reaction I would get. I would have called myself agnostic then. Only recently did I realize the extent to which religion can be dangerous and how deeply irrational it is. I consider it completely useless these days and I’m get actually confused whenever I find out that someone I thought of as rather intelligent turns out to believe in god.
Apart from that I had a minor existential crisis when I realized the implications of a deterministic world on free will. I was in the equivalent of high school when I read an article about the topic. Afterwards I felt strange for days, always thinking that nothing really mattered. But then I was actually able to (crudely) ‘dissolve the question’ and found peace with this issue.
After that, I spent very little time on philosophic topics for a long time. I thought I knew roughly what there was to know. I was wrong there.
Regarding my scientific education, I did always very well in math and consequently began studying physics (and as seems to be the case with some other physicists here I’m very skeptical towards the Many-World Interpretation). I always wanted to do something to advance our society and I thought physics was the right way. My original plan was to work on fusion reactors to solve the energy crisis this world is facing. Though, now, after spending some time on this site, I don’t think anymore that the energy problem is our most urgent problem.
Discovering lesswrong was not that easy for me. Until 19 I spent my time in the German-speaking part of the Internet. Then someday I stumbled upon reddit (was that a pun?). Incidentally that really improved my English. And somewhere on reddit I clicked on a link which led me to HPMoR (thank you who ever posted that). Then I found lesswrong and now I’m here.
I’m about halfway through the sequences and I hope I can contribute once I finish. Learning about biases has already helped me a lot. For the future I think I’m most interested in learning about reasoning and decision theory.
Welcome! I am also basically a newcomer here. I’d suggest not waiting to read all the sequences before you contribute. The worst that happens is that someone corrects you, right? I’ve had a few interesting discussions and I’m still not quite done reading the main line.
Was your dissolving of free will different from the one presented in the Quantum Physics sequence?
Hi!
I can’t seem to find a discussion of free will in the Quantum Physics sequence. I only know this: http://lesswrong.com/lw/of/dissolving_the_question/ (which demonstrates the method I was talking about).
See this wiki page for links to discussion of Free Will in the sequences: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Free_will