Posts by Joshua Rivera3

True. It just feels like in this game MC16 is talking about, we aren't actually players—we're just puppets.

Video games and the internet are still pretty fresh, almost like a passing trend for today’s kids given how widespread they've become.
People tend to jump into new things without really seeing where they lead.
I don't see this being a permanent threat to how we relate to one another—even if it's true that kids hang out in person less often these days. I honestly believe people will eventually weigh the pros and cons and figure out a better way to handle all this entertainment.
Thank God we still have sociologists, teachers, child psychologists, and experts looking into these developments to write up new guides on how to raise kids in this era.
At the end of the day, though, it falls on the parents. Every generation has faced its own set of risks. Ultimately, it's the parent who carries the most responsibility to notice what's helping their kid and what's hurting them.
We shouldn't just blame the tech or the market trying to reel them in; it's up to us to decide how much we consume or let our children engage with it.
It isn't a huge deal to just unplug the computer and tuck it away in the basement if you see your kid becoming addicted or antisocial. Then, you just have to encourage them to go out and socialize again.

But I suppose that's actually where the bigger issue lies.

It feels to me like parents are becoming more and more checked out because of the frantic pace of life and all the pressures society puts on them nowadays.
It seems like they've become consumers of their own version of "games." They're constantly competing for career status, a nicer car, the latest iPhone, or having the most successful kids—basically chasing a pile of useless status symbols (which is just an expensive game for adults). Even though it looks like a social game, everyone is really just playing against themselves.
In the middle of all that, there's hardly any time left for quality time with the kids. Most parents are actually relieved when they can just park a child in front of a computer or the TV to get a little peace and quiet. It gives them a chance to focus on themselves and their own little distractions.

I honestly think our intelligence, even though it’s just a byproduct of evolution, is what actually gives us free will.

o.k. I'll try to get everything into one single post next time. It's just hard when I'm posting during work hours—I have to keep jumping off the internet constantly.

I was thinking about how much harder life used to be back in the day—you know, when everyone was doing heavy manual labor all day long. Honestly, having three or four arms would have been a total game-changer back then. And hey, mutations like that actually exist! But instead of waiting for evolution to catch up, humans just went ahead and invented things like the plow and the wheel to get the job done faster. Even now, we still have this incredible ability to push back against the constraints of nature whenever we want. We do it constantly. It really makes you wonder about the whole concept of free will, doesn't it?

Apemant said:That’s actually a great question. I think you might be framing it slightly off, though—it almost sounds like you're implying that self-awareness itself serves a specific purpose. But mutations don't really happen with an end goal in mind. It’s not like a bird suddenly grows a longer beak *so that* it can reach food inside a tree trunk. Instead, that long beak happens because of a random mutation. If that fluke turns out to be useful, those birds get a leg up on the competition, which helps them survive and pass those traits down. I'm assuming we're on the same page regarding the basic principles of Darwinian evolution here!
Same here—self-awareness doesn't really have an inherent purpose. It’s just a given, a plain old fact. If we assume self-awareness emerged naturally through evolutionary processes, then it happened somewhat by chance, much like any other mutation, without some grand design. But, individuals with that trait—us humans—turned out to be better at ensuring our species survives. At least, that's how it looks today. There's nothing in the books saying self-awareness isn't a ticking time bomb that might actually trigger human extinction in some hypothetical future, similar to what a lot of contemplative sci-fi writers "predict" (though I think "imagine" is a better word for it).
By the way, this "pseudo-accidental" thing seems to be targeting that idea of randomness found in deterministic chaos theory—where true randomness doesn't actually exist because everything is predetermined. Even chaos itself follows a set pattern; it just looks random from the outside, and honestly, it’s impossible to even prove that it isn't truly random. Man, if Plato had known about DTK...

It’s all good, really. No need to go into detail—I definitely covered genetics and evolution back in my school days. I totally get that evolution is what brought us to where we are today.
Does it ever feel to you like natural selection has just... slowed down? Or maybe it’s stopped working the way it used to? It always seems so incredibly slow, anyway. I mean, it feels like survival isn't just about being smart, or good-looking, or resourceful anymore. Even though intelligence is passed down through genes, things feel different now. Look, if you don't buy into science fiction—you know, the whole "we'll all turn green and grow three arms one day" thing—I'm right there with you. I don't believe in that stuff at all. I'm much more inclined toward that tempered bomb theory you mentioned before. But seriously, how much has the human race actually evolved since the era of the ancient Greeks? Where did the selection process go? What exactly put the brakes on it?

They really do keep things up to code.

What’s actually the point of being self-aware, anyway? I mean, animals seem to be doing just fine navigating life without it all.

Apem - basically said:

But where do those different desires, interests, and talents actually come from? Is it all just stemming from how we perceive ourselves? Some kind of total fluke? If that's the case, why does everyone see things so differently? Even identical twins raised in the exact same house in Chicago?

Oops, my bad. Typo on my part. That last sentence was supposed to read: So... FREE WILL??

...Or maybe it’s just that little something extra—beyond our DNA and life lessons—that actually makes us individuals.

Alright, I need someone to help me make sense of this. Studies on identical twins—you know, two people with the exact same genetic code who grew up under the same roof and shared basically the same life experiences—have shown that they still turn out to be two completely different people.

Personally, I’m leaning toward thinking it’s because there's this deep-seated drive to be unique, even if just in one small way. So, free will, right?