literature

PERSONAL CATASTROPHE AND PROBABLE SOLUTIONS

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Literature Text

Your life is headed for a disastrous end.

Everyone will die.
That is a fact.

Especially you.
You will die.

Your friends will die.
Everyone you know will die.
These are indisputable facts.

Your body will break down and crash in one way or another.
Your heart will stop.
Your brain synapses will cease firing.
100% guaranteed termination.
You and everyone you know has less than 122 years left.
The oldest person alive was 122.
Oldest person alive now is 115.

Death should be your number one enemy.
Do not accept it.
Do not welcome it.

The question is - are you willing to extend, improve your life and the lives of those you love?
Why haven't you done it yet? Do you think it's impossible?
Flying for us was impossible until airplanes were built.

Now, the question is- how do we stop the personal catastrophe of death?
The logical answer is - science!
We can slow death down using modern medicine, and we can stop and reverse some accidental causes of death.
Aging is one cause that we cannot currently stop.
Should we simply focus all our efforts on stopping aging?

No.

Humanity as a whole is not ready for immortality.
If immortality was invented tomorrow, only the richest would attain it and use it as a tool to gain more control over others.
Control that equals to war and misery. Are the richest countries, companies and people solving problems?
They are not- a lot of them support wars and fund unsustainable developments.
If immortality was given to everyone tomorrow, overpopulation would quickly destroy civilization.

Before we can stop aging we MUST shift the pattern of human thought itself.
Of your thinking and my thinking.
Can it be done? Yes.
Will you do it? Probably not.
Not unless you take my words seriously and read this article every morning when you wake up.
Not unless you and I shift, or at least learn to shift our modes of thinking entirely into logical, rational and problem solving.

Basically, become amazing at life and solve all your problems.
Once all of your personal problems are solved, you can focus on solving problems of humanity as a whole.

-How does an individual become a problem solver?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 1:
Become a rationalist.

Understand the principle of "Occam's razor" to manage your life.
"Simpler explanations are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones.
Among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected."
Occam's razor is used in medicine when there are many explanations for symptoms and the simplest diagnosis is usually is the correct one.
If a child has a runny nose, they probably have the common cold instead of a rare birth defect.
If a tree suddenly feel down in a forest - wind was responsible, not a wizard.

When faced with two or more answers, you can use Occam's razor to trim away improbable ones.
Any statement or answer made without proof or scientific evidence backing it, can be trimmed.

Learn to apply skepticism when faced with new information, especially information that has no logic or scientific proof behind it.

If you enjoy reading sci-fi books, a fun way to become a rationalist is to read "Harry potter and the methods of rationality".
Google it and read it.
If you know of more articles that explain rationalism and help learn it, link in your comments.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Step 2:
Understand statistics and probability.

Embrace the scientific method.

Statistics rule the world. Probability defines it.
If you understand statistics you can master the art of understanding and interpreting reality most correctly.
If you know which decision leads to statistical win, you can make great decisions in life and solve problems very easily.
There is a pattern to all things in life. If you can figure out this pattern you will accomplish anything.
Yes, you need to know math, especially % math, to do it!

Real life example:
In 2007 I used probability to figure out a statistical pattern that would (at that time) get my artworks seen by millions all over the net.
Seasonscape now has 1.8 million views just on deviantart and I'm a successful freelance illustrator.

Others:
Joan R. Ginther, a former statistics professor, had won four different multi-million dollar jackpots in Texas—three of which came from purchasing scratch-off lottery tickets. It was speculated that there was actually a pattern to where and when the winning tickets were sold, and that Professor Ginther had figured out this pattern.

If you know of great articles that explain how to learn statistics and help apply them, link in your comments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 3:
Become a problem solver.

Google is a collective knowledge of all of humanity. It has countless answers to questions(including incorrect ones).

A rational googler can differentiate between incorrect answers and correct ones.
A statistics-knowledgeable googler can calculate the probability of the most correct answer, discarding incorrect ones,
(by calculating amount of proof that applies to each answer and by statistically estimating how likely is each thing to happen)
Thus such a googler can answer ANY question as correct and as detailed as possible.
A talented googler can solve almost any problem in their personal life and help others solve their problems.

When faced with buying a new product- Google about it and read some reviews.
Some products are 50% cheaper online, obsolete, have better versions, or do more harm than good.

When faced with any problem in life from small to impossibly large- learn to immediately google for existing solutions or at least google and find tools that can help arrive at a solution faster.

If you know tutorials on improving googling skills, post them in comments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 4:
Change the world.

Embrace and promote scientific literacy.

-How do we create a "problem-solving" society?
We must raise a generation that is masterful at problem solving.
We must raise a generation that actively uses the internet to learn.

Education itself must be changed from "fact-memorizing" to "problem solving".
As soon as kids are old enough to understand logic, rationality and probability,
they must be taught how to utilize the full potential of google (or any other search engine).

Schools must first teach logical thinking and scientific literacy, and then they must teach the "art of googling for answers".
Once these two steps are achieved, a student has the skills to move forward on their own, solving all basic problems in their way and finding or creating tools to solve more difficult problems.

Imagine a school with wi-fi where students would be taught to to google answers on their laptops, instead of forever reading facts from books.
Imagine a school where students would be taught how to look at search queries and taught to understand which answer is most likely to be correct out of all the answers google provides.
Imagine a school where logic, skepticism, and critical thinking (information evaluation) are taught.
Imagine a school where students and teachers would be allowed to argue among each other to figure out which answer from google is most probable and most logical and which are answers can be disproved and how.
What if kids learned how to get their questions answered, instead of being provided answers by teachers to memorize?
What if kids were actively encouraged to google all the things in school?
What if right away kids would learn how to google topics that they are actively interested in learning about?

If all knowledge is immediately accessible, there is potential to destroy embarrassment and ignorance.
If a student is talented at something, they could immediately learn specific skills that would move their talents forward.

What if we figure out a way to raise kids who would actually get ALL of their questions answered from the beginning of their life?
A generation of kids who wouldn't be too afraid/embarrassed to ask the internet for help and would always know how to ask the right questions to get the right answers.

The world can be a much better place for everyone, if we change our mode of thinking from:
"oh god why"
to
"lets google it and solve this problem".
Behold, a philosophical poetic letter dedicated to improving human life.

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The problem is that the reason for most of the shit in the world is because rational problem solvers who understand statistics are being rational and trying to solve the problem of "how can I get more than others have regardless of whether that's good for anyone else, yet have everyone believe that me having more is the equivalent of everyone having more".