Third, my kenshō was deliberately induced. I think I understand the mechanisms behind how, and I believe I can convey them in a usable way. I plan to do so in an upcoming post.
If you learn how to Look, you can see things that you can learn to interpret as novel patterns. This gives you a lot more room to do some pretty epic stuff.
…but explaining that more concretely is really best left for the upcoming post.
The next post isn’t about evidence about why Looking has something important to say about epistemology. It’s a model of how I have done several things like reach kensho, and the model has been refined as a result of what I’ve come to see as a result of Looking.
Has this follow-up post been written? (Apologies if I missed it; could I get a link, if so?)
I am curious too but it looks like Valentine is never going to write the promised post, as it’s been almost 6 years and looking at his profile, none of the 4 immediately subsequent posts (1, 2, 3, 4) really deal with the topic of meditation & enlightenment, as only #2 even briefly links here (and then he stopping posting entirely for almost 4 years, and his resumed posts are on rather different topics—unless “Creating a truly formidable Art” is that?).
(If I may generalize about Internet writers, if someone has some big piece in mind about their current interests and their interest drift and they haven’t written it up after a few years, then you can safely assume that it is never going to happen and be pleasantly surprised by the rare exceptions; this is why it is critical to ‘strike while the iron is hot’ and not let perfectionism stop you because for most people, what will happen is that nothing will happen, rather than write an exquisite perfect essay (or video, or fanfic, or novel etc). Once it exists, cleaning it up is less demanding, and if you don’t, at least it exists, and can do whatever good it can do.)
…it looks like Valentine is never going to write the promised post…
It was Mythic Mode. I guess that went over everyone’s heads.
I had a sequence in mind, on “ontology cracking”. I gave up on that sequence when it became obvious that Less Wrong really wasn’t interested in that direction at all. So I ended up never describing how I thought mythic mode worked on me, and how it might generalize.
But honestly, Mythic Mode has all the ingredients you need if you want to work it out.
It also seems worth noting, I’ve gotten way more PCK on the whole thing since then, and now I have approaches that are a fair bit more straightforward. More zen-like. Kinder. So the approach I advocate these days feels different and is more grounded & stable.
You seem to have quite missed the point of that exchange.
But honestly, I’m tired of arguing with logic machines about this. No, I cannot prove to you that it’s not your daughter’s arm. No, that fact does not cause me to question my certainty that it’s not your daughter’s arm. Yes, I understand you think I’m crazy or deluded. I am sorry I don’t know how to help you; it is beyond my skill, and my human heart hurts for being so misunderstood so much here.
But honestly, I’m tired of arguing with logic machines about this. No, I cannot prove to you that it’s not your daughter’s arm. No, that fact does not cause me to question my certainty that it’s not your daughter’s arm. Yes, I understand you think I’m crazy or deluded. I am sorry I don’t know how to help you; it is beyond my skill, and my human heart hurts for being so misunderstood so much here.
Isn’t this an ironic choice of metaphor? The situation rather more resembles you insisting that it’s your daughter’s arm, being certain of this despite many other people thinking that you’re not quite in touch with reality, being impervious to demonstrations or proofs that it’s your arm, etc.
(Of course, I don’t think that the metaphor is quite apt either way. I don’t think that what you’ve said is obviously wrong in the same way that the stroke patient’s arm-ownership claim is obviously wrong; rather, it’s mostly unclear to me what you’re claiming in the first place, and to the extent that it is clear, the claims seem vague, etc. Indeed, it would be a much easier discussion if you were merely saying [apparently-]straightforwardly-wrong things… And, conversely, I don’t think that I’ve said anything, or at least not anything very important, in this discussion, which could be construed as a straightforward claim like “this [is / is not] my daughter’s arm”, which might then be claimed to be obviously true or obviously false.)
Isn’t this an ironic choice of metaphor? The situation rather more resembles you insisting that it’s your daughter’s arm, being certain of this despite many other people thinking that you’re not quite in touch with reality, being impervious to demonstrations or proofs that it’s your arm, etc.
Of course it’s not ironic. What do you think the patient must think about the doctor’s certainty?
Has this follow-up post been written? (Apologies if I missed it; could I get a link, if so?)
I am curious too but it looks like Valentine is never going to write the promised post, as it’s been almost 6 years and looking at his profile, none of the 4 immediately subsequent posts (1, 2, 3, 4) really deal with the topic of meditation & enlightenment, as only #2 even briefly links here (and then he stopping posting entirely for almost 4 years, and his resumed posts are on rather different topics—unless “Creating a truly formidable Art” is that?).
(If I may generalize about Internet writers, if someone has some big piece in mind about their current interests and their interest drift and they haven’t written it up after a few years, then you can safely assume that it is never going to happen and be pleasantly surprised by the rare exceptions; this is why it is critical to ‘strike while the iron is hot’ and not let perfectionism stop you because for most people, what will happen is that nothing will happen, rather than write an exquisite perfect essay (or video, or fanfic, or novel etc). Once it exists, cleaning it up is less demanding, and if you don’t, at least it exists, and can do whatever good it can do.)
This might be related to his statement in a followup discussion that he is unable to provide any cake. (It is an odd discussion, I think, and reading Valentine’s attempts to comment there remind me of Kennaway’s comment.)
It was Mythic Mode. I guess that went over everyone’s heads.
I had a sequence in mind, on “ontology cracking”. I gave up on that sequence when it became obvious that Less Wrong really wasn’t interested in that direction at all. So I ended up never describing how I thought mythic mode worked on me, and how it might generalize.
But honestly, Mythic Mode has all the ingredients you need if you want to work it out.
It also seems worth noting, I’ve gotten way more PCK on the whole thing since then, and now I have approaches that are a fair bit more straightforward. More zen-like. Kinder. So the approach I advocate these days feels different and is more grounded & stable.
I might try to share some of that at some point.
You seem to have quite missed the point of that exchange.
But honestly, I’m tired of arguing with logic machines about this. No, I cannot prove to you that it’s not your daughter’s arm. No, that fact does not cause me to question my certainty that it’s not your daughter’s arm. Yes, I understand you think I’m crazy or deluded. I am sorry I don’t know how to help you; it is beyond my skill, and my human heart hurts for being so misunderstood so much here.
Isn’t this an ironic choice of metaphor? The situation rather more resembles you insisting that it’s your daughter’s arm, being certain of this despite many other people thinking that you’re not quite in touch with reality, being impervious to demonstrations or proofs that it’s your arm, etc.
(Of course, I don’t think that the metaphor is quite apt either way. I don’t think that what you’ve said is obviously wrong in the same way that the stroke patient’s arm-ownership claim is obviously wrong; rather, it’s mostly unclear to me what you’re claiming in the first place, and to the extent that it is clear, the claims seem vague, etc. Indeed, it would be a much easier discussion if you were merely saying [apparently-]straightforwardly-wrong things… And, conversely, I don’t think that I’ve said anything, or at least not anything very important, in this discussion, which could be construed as a straightforward claim like “this [is / is not] my daughter’s arm”, which might then be claimed to be obviously true or obviously false.)
Of course it’s not ironic. What do you think the patient must think about the doctor’s certainty?