Point Delve
I'm a floral diver from Atlantis, laying carpet on the sea floor
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for Duckstack
Imagine you are both of the Wright brothers. You are a transhumanist, and having already succeeded in splitting your consciousness into two people, you are now attempting to force the next step in human evolution, by fusing biomechanical wings to your conjoined torso. You’ve never heard the word biomechanical before, but it sounds transhumanist-y to you, so you feel compelled to do this, driven, helpless, impelled forth by powers beyond your control madly, incessantly, whispering in all of your ears: “birds think they’re so smart.” What do birds have that you don’t?
That’s right, they live in the moment.
They Do it for Free (to get paid)
the focus of GOD: laser pinpoint, infinite
The average duckstack post is around 1700 words. The average Vanity Predilect chapter is around 2500 words, and the average tweet is like 15 words. This is science and irrefutable unless you look at the data, which I haven’t, I’m just making these numbers up. But they’re close.
I was checking my word counts, because with my new Vanity Predilect project I wanted to see how I was doing- to stack myself up against professional writers, and get an idea of what was realistic. Brandon Sanderson for example says he writes 2000 a day minimum. But as I investigated these things, I found a very interesting theme: All big writers say they do it in their free time.
In the above linked article, Brandon Sanderson says its how he spends his free time. “Its what I do to relax.” Isaac Asimov claims the same thing: “If there are 15 minutes in which I have nothing to do, that's enough to write a page or so.” Another writer I respect, Zero HP Lovecraft on twitter, said the same thing once though I cannot cite it- “Its what I do for fun”. So the takeaway here is that if you want to be productive at something that you don’t enjoy, you’re hosed LOL
Kidding.
But you do have to want it. And you do have to do it in your free time. This is the case with top tier programmers, also. This is also how I got good at contact juggling and read much of the scriptures- Carrying them and applying myself to them in free time. Now I often play video games4, which drains my vitality.
The good news is I have been experimenting and it seems fully possible to weaponize boredom5- To notice myself sliding into a disagreeable default and tell myself "I don't feel like it" and to make it be true, to get into that headspace where I'm "bored" of the bad habit. At that point, all I need is for my desired productive project to be slightly more desirable, and I take to it naturally! Wonderful. Modern medicine is amazing. We are going to need this technology to keep our kids alive.
Memetic technology is required to counter memetic terrorism, which companies and AIs will commit against humans by accident. Like a giant stepping on an anthill, they are simply too large to see us. Why does every social media intentionally remove the functionality to see what people you are following are posting? Why does every social media turn to algorithms for content prioritization? Why does every human resources department suck the life out of business relationships? Because their sensory organs aren’t even capable of perception on the same scale as us.
I grew up with the internet, but I wasn’t raised by algorithms- My kids are going to be raised by algorithms. That’s not a statement of personal failing- Even if I keep porn out of my kids bedrooms, I can’t keep it out of their friends bedrooms, and the same is going to be true of an entire society and culture governed by the skinners box. Everyone’s very way of thinking is going to be informed by what the algorithm fed them. But it won’t be virtual reality, it will be augmented reality. It will be weird cross sections of reality inflated and deflated as regimes and virality dictate- literally a funhouse mirrors of outrage stoking and convenience. And survival will basically depend on how well you can see through the smoke. In fact it already does, in regards to basic positive choices like having kids and sexuality6, we're starting to see them already, but its going to get worse.
The good news is kids are insanely adaptive, and things that are difficult for us will be incredibly simple for them- the difference will be as transparent as the difference in telephone scam vulnerability between millennials and boomers. But it will certainly pose its own dangers, and there will be knowledge and culture loss even worse than we see today. In the last two generations we've seen a complete collapse of every social construct that held up anything important- No more gender roles so no more formalized ways of setting expectations7, no fault divorce so no more need to "keep it together because you're going to have to live with each other forever." No more taboo against homosexuality so male friendships must be kept at a certain distance to avoid confusion, to name a random few, but there are many more, in the workplace, in family relations, even a lot of recreation things. This isn't going to get better, from what I can tell.
So the best thing we can do right now, I think, is to invent countermemetics. Beliefs and techniques that subvert these things early- we probably won’t get the forms our kids will end up using, but if we can get a baseline, they’ll be able to build things that work and have an advantage in the coming storms.
That’s what parenting is about: Your job is to build something, and your kids job is to take that base and build something better. If you can put together something to real to pass on, you can give them an advantage, keeping them safer, and in many cases, to enable them to build something incredible.
Big Business
Here’s a gross concept for you: hair carpet8
Dust is a nuisance and a pest9, and every house has a lot of it. So I've been working on an idea for you: if we could embed tiny magnets in the floor, then we could polarize the dust to collect into each other, forming a long north-south chain of dust specks. Dust is fairly soft, so you would probably end up with something softer than household carpets, but which also regenerates. When it gets too high, you could bring in your lawn mower, mow your carpet, and take it right back outside. Easy stain removal, and you could also probably use it to fertilize your garden or something. This is what it means to “Go Green”
“one problem mr duck, dust is made of dead skin flecks10, magnets don't work on it.” eat more iron
HISTORY
“Knock knock” “Who’s there” “Bannana” “Bannana who” “Bananna Knock Knock”. “That was my funniest joke EVER11
We have reached the age where I cannot distract the toddler by knocking two blocks together without the kid running in with “I wanna try!” like it is two blocks, you have all of these toys, and I had finally found something to keep the toddler out of trouble, why
The older kid had some great quotes this week. In church he leaned into me and said: “Papa I don't like giving knuckles to people that aren't my parents. But I do like giving knuckles to people that are. Oh and kisses, and hugs.” Which was not a particularly church related statement but I will take it.
He also was helping mama cook, and she told him they needed to find the recipe, and he chimed (he has a very musical voice and always talks in a singsong) “Recipe, where are you! I bet the silly recipe is hiding in the fridge.” Incorrect, but extremely logical.
We went out to eat this week, a rare treat but we were trying to get rid of some longstanding gift cards12 which were thickening my wallet beyond all reason13. And the kids finished eating first and were getting antsy, so we put them in the car and mama drove them around in circles while I finished paying and such. But our oldest didn't know what was going on at all. "We forgot papa!" *wails*; And then she looped back through and kept going and he was like "We forgot papa AGAIN!" and started wailing all over again, but I came out and we all made it home together.
One other thing is he loves “cooking” for us, and he left to “make us a pizza”, and a few minutes later we heard a horrible wailing, and he came and tearfully explained to us that he was “dancing to the pizza in the oven and then I hit my elbow on the table”. Consider reader: When was the last time you danced to the pizza in the oven? Consider that this kid may be living a better life than you, minus the hitting his funny bone.
The toddler is doing great but seems to be teething again, which seems way early or way late depending on which teeth you’re counting from, but I suspect he is just doing it for fun rather than for exercise this time. One suspects he is part beaver, probably 1/64th coming through my dad’s side of the family
Trading Imports: Evil Political Scientist explains cope
Recently banned and unbanned on Twitter, our favorite Evil Political Scientist14 reflects on the human condition
When you believe something absurd, and reality threatens that belief, your only recourse is violence. This exterminationist instinct takes all sorts of forms and you can’t educate it out of someone- no amount of manners unwires this, because anger is the basic response to a situation you don’t feel like you have the life tools to deal with effectively. Its however many years of emotions and violence in the human condition, and it still gets people banned from Twitter to this day. The psychology of it is invaluable to explore, because many of these things absolutely do scale up from the micro to the macro, to the group, to the civilization, and when we see outbursts of real violence its more and more often a result of these real needs going unmet, or these unreal beliefs going uncorrected. I am not doing it justice, but I definitely recommend these reflections on the subject, on another substack:
You’re reading my substack so you’re already excellent, of course. This post is just for people who don’t read my substack
Achievement Unlocked!
Hopefully nobody points out here that teachers are people who couldn’t do, I would be so owned
It is harder, though not impossible, to practice juggling on the toilet
Essential reading: Bennett’s Demilich on the fertility crisis, bobdaduck on the fertility crisis
“get written consent each time before you have sex”
It sounds bad but if your vacuum isn’t very strong odds are all carpets in your house are hair carpets
like mice, or termites.
well fingernails are dead cells also, so I guess the first order of business before any of this would be to figure out if the carpet would end up being more like hair or more like fingernails
He has such heights ahead of him
“I know what they want for their birthday. Money they can only spend in one place!”
“This amount of gift cards is unreasonable!” screamed my wallet, helpless and bursting at its leather seams. “Eat up you, need to grow big and strong!” I told it, and shoved more gift cards down its throat
the others just have something lacking tbh