aschismatic's comments

You could also say least bad is not necessarily bad. It's a platitude.

Oooh that's really neat, thank you!

Can you elaborate on the feature you're referencing? I'm currently looking at getting a new e-reader and am specifically debating between the Kindle Paperwhite and the Kobo Libra 2.

I saw you mentioned using a Kobo eink device. Is that what you would recommend? It seems the 11th gen Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Libra 2 are pretty comparable. I'd like to support a non-Amazon product, but it also looks like I can get 20% off a new Kindle by trading in my very old Kindle Touch, making the Kobo effectively $50-60 more expensive...

I've seen plenty of other Ghibli films and thought I knew what to expect from Pom Poko, but it was quite a surprise experience. Definitely wild. I need to watch it again!

I think it's fair to say it's not anime, but if you were to recommend the show to someone and give a brief description or comparison, I think it definitely shares more stylistic elements with anime than it does with other cartoon media.

Yeah that's what I meant, sorry if I wasn't clear!

I checked out your app because I've been wanting something like it but hadn't bothered looking at what was out there yet. Looks great!

One thing I noticed though is that both barbell weight customization and plate customization is coupled together in one purchase. I feel like you may want to separate barbell weight into a free customization option because barbells made specifically for women tend to be lighter (~33lbs). By charging for barbell weight customization, you're inadvertently creating a difference in experience between men and women (for the base app, no purchases).

I imagine microsoft.com received quite a bit of direct traffic last Tuesday when preorders opened for the next Xbox consoles. Also, .NET Framework, .NET Core, Entity Framework, Entity Framework Core, and Azure documentation is all hosted at microsoft.com (to name just a few).

I don't mean to discredit your main point, that a lot of domain use can be credited to application or OS logic, but to say no one goes to microsoft.com is a bit weird.

I would think in that setup you'd have to have it such that you subscribing for another person would not guarantee that another person would subscribe for you. In other words, some people subscribing for others would not receive a subscription themselves, and some people _not_ subscribing for others would still receive a subscription paid for by some other user(s). Basically, you'd pay for a subscription and the benefits would go to some random user that is not you.

Thanks for taking the time to write about so many of your thoughts! I used to be atheist when growing up, but over time I've become agnostic. I'm not sure that's even really the best term for how I feel and what I believe, but it's the best term that I know. In that way, I found it compelling to read the path you took to your current beliefs, because I know that when I find the inspiration to read more deeply into religion, I will also likely start by reading more about religions with origins in the East. Mainly because, as you said,

> they are great works for humanity to better themselves they tend to be more philosophical than religious in their nature.

Right now, that's what resonates with me the most, and the closest I can envision myself to becoming spiritual. At least, at this point in time. As a result, I can't say there's a lot more I knowledgeable enough to respond to with regards to Judaism, Islam, Christianity (and its various offshoots). I've read a few stories from pieces of the Bible in high school, but I can't remember which ones specifically, and we approached them from a literary perspective rather than a religious one. I actually remember being unreasonably disgruntled at having religious texts assigned for reading. I like to think I've become much more open-minded since then, and hope to continue to develop in that positive direction.

I was going to say something about understanding why people believe in god or God, and why that is, but I realized it actually sounded condescending when I don't mean to be. All I can really say is, I have a very hard time taking leaps of faith, and with respect to God, I'm not ready now and not sure I ever will be. But I really appreciate your taking the time to say so much about the path you took to get to where you are with your beliefs today. I also really love your perspective on Jesus. Thank you!

Thanks for mentioning Locke's substances. It sounds like quite an intriguing idea. I have not read nearly as much philosophy as I would like, and that gives me a great indication of where to look when I pursue reading more of it.

I agree, the fact that we can observe so much order in the universe through math, physics, and chemistry leaves me with a feeling that there must be some reason such order exists. I don't know if that necessarily translates to the existence of a builder, a creator, or a god, but I do believe it means something. And it's interesting to wonder if that something is internal or external to our universe.

You mention the old testament and the Torah. What draws you to the scripts of religions that are monotheistic?

What do you think about older religions that are not monotheistic? For instance, Greek mythology and the Greek pantheon is an interesting case in which there are many deities, in particular because those deities, among others, are all very human in their nature. They experience love, hubris, envy, and hatred. The full spectrum of human emotion and behavior. Much of religion is human-centric, and I think what that truly reveals is the hubris of humankind. I think that's the main reason I tend to look toward philosophy and religion more for the values they espouse and the interesting contemplation they inspire, and less for worship. In relation to our universe and any possible god or gods, I believe that humans are dust in the wind.

Woefully incapable indeed. But at the same time, the inability to know or understand the entire nature of our universe creates an eternal, enchanting mystery, and drives our search for meaning in life. I find it romantic.

Thank you for sharing that. I understand completely.

I've had a lot of thoughts similar to yours. I especially wonder about the linear qualities we often attribute to life and death, and potentially rebirth. We often assume that if we are somehow reborn, it will be in the future. But what if I am reborn while I still exist, just somewhere else? After all, time is simply another dimension, right? At least, as we humans understand it.

Your comparison to computing, functions, and shared memory is very good at describing that. But to go even further, since computers as we know them still run in a linear fashion with regards to time (forward), what if all consciousness across all time and space is just one "thing?"

I think if you were to believe in becoming someone or something once again, then yes, like your memories, your consciousness would be gone. I think this because I think your consciousness is inherently tied to how you sense the universe and your own being, and that will obviously be different if you once again exist as someone or something else.

As a result, if you choose to believe you will one day exist again after you die, in order to make a connection between one or more consciousnesses or lives, you would need to invent something to explain it. Like a soul.

You could make thinking about all this even more wild by thinking about how time is involved in all of this. We are assuming if that you exist again it must be some time after you cease to exist. What if you exist "again," but at the same time you exist now? Are you also another person somewhere else? Is there another universe with another you? When you die do you then relive the same existence again? The questions are as limitless as our imaginations because we have no answers.

When you start thinking this way, about what defines your "being," you have to decide what you want to believe. If you believe in the possibility of "waking up" again, then you arrive at the conclusion that you must have a soul that connects your many lives. Or, you might believe that this is the one existence you'll ever experience, and that what we call consciousness is simply ephemeral.

But I tend to lean toward believing we are more than ephemeral. I think this because I am often left wondering why I am me and you are you. Why didn't I become you or you become me? Why am I experiencing life? Why is my body not just some physical machine moving through the universe? Why do I even have a consciousness? And we are only human. As much as we think we know about the universe, there's so much we don't know, and probably never will know.

I'm turning 30 this year and I still feel anxious about death every once in a while when I think about it. But I think usually my anxiety stems not from death itself, but what it means for the life I am experiencing right now. It means that I'll have regrets because desire is limitless, but I only have so much time to fulfill my desire. It's impossible to fulfill every desire. I also fear the pain of dying.

But I guess that's where various religion and philosophy come in, the ones that eschew desire. Maybe you will still have pain, but if you try to limit desire, you also limit your regret, or other suffering that desire can cause.

Life is difficult, but can also be filled with happiness. When you die you will no longer suffer, but you will also cease to be able to experience happiness. That is why death is such a conundrum. Depending on how you experience life, it can be a source of dread, or something in which to seek solace. Many times it is both.

I think that is the whole point. Why fear the big nothingness if it's not possible to experience it? Just like how it's impossible to experience or remember anything before you became alive.

I find it comforting to realize that I once wasn't and now I am. I will once again cease to be. We often think death is final, but if we already made the transition from not being to being, who's to say that, in some form, we might once again become something from "nothing."