religion

Bilingual

Secrets of the ancient memelords
2 months ago
- Religions succeed by offering both a brainy version for intellectuals and a folksy version for everyday people, which keeps them relevant and robust.
- Political divides often reflect a split between brainy and folksy groups, but each side needs the other to avoid becoming insufferable or superstitious.
- Two strategies from religions can bridge this divide: fractal beliefs (simple core ideas that scale) and memetic flexibility (adapting details without changing core tenets).
- Progressives must make their ideas accessible and appealing to win long-term support, rather than relying on proof-of-work or rejecting engagement with opponents.
- Effective governance requires integrating both brainy and folksy perspectives to avoid extremes of pedantry or reactionaryism.
Consumerism: The First Universal Religion Humans Actually Practice
2 months ago
- Apple Stores are designed like minimalist temples, evoking a religious pilgrimage experience.
- Apple's logo and product presentations mimic religious iconography, replacing the cross with a bitten apple symbolizing knowledge and temptation.
- Steve Jobs is portrayed as a secular prophet, and new product launches are treated as messianic revelations.
- Consumerism adopts religious patterns: evangelists, conversion, confession at Genius Bars, and liturgical unboxing rituals.
- Brands like Tesla, Nike, and Leica similarly create complete worldviews and meaning systems for consumers.
- Consumerism serves as a modern religion offering transcendence, community, and identity through consumption.
- People's primary identity is reduced to being a 'consumer,' with worth measured by purchasing power.
- The ultimate commodification is the extraction of spiritual values (transcendence, community, purpose) and their repackaging as products.
Keep Your Identity Small
2 months ago
- Politics and religion lead to unproductive discussions because people feel no need for expertise to have opinions, unlike topics like JavaScript or baking.
- These topics become part of people's identity, making them partisan and unable to engage in fruitful arguments.
- The issue is not the topic itself but whether it engages participants' identities; any topic can become a 'religious war' depending on the people involved.
- Fruitful discussions are possible only when participants' identities are not engaged, even with topics like politics or religion.
- To have better ideas, one should minimize the number of things that become part of their identity, as identity limits clear thinking.
- Being a scientist can be an exception to identity because it commits to following evidence rather than specific beliefs.
The Assumption of Maria (near future sci-fi)
2 months ago
- The Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project paired eight faculty members with eight veteran speculative fiction authors to create an anthology titled 'Android in the Archives'.
- The story follows a detective hired by a pastor's son to find Maria Haddid, a CFO who disappeared from a church that uses debt redemption and baptism.
- Maria had restructured the church's debt, faked her disappearance to escape a finance man with metal eyes, and planned to start a new life with her lover Susan.
- The detective helps Maria escape, confronting a robotic dog and a rival financier, while themes of faith, debt, and speculative futures are explored.

religion

Secrets of the ancient memelords

Consumerism: The First Universal Religion Humans Actually Practice

Keep Your Identity Small

The Assumption of Maria (near future sci-fi)