pmoncada's comments

dank af

The idea is really starting from a core group of people who trust each other and then expanding that circle using the collateral mechanism for new entrants and then making the relationship less codified over time and more natural

The real value is in having an index of people you trust and all the things they’re willing to lend to you

I think as people gain trust over time the network effects start to become really valuable

I think a lot of people are put off when they hear the “buzzword” web3. And that’s with good reason, it is a marketing term, and it can be used as smoke and mirrors tricks for things with no real utility.

I don’t think this is the case here, smart contracts actually provide a very valuable service for this use case!

The important thing to note is that these rental agreements usually cost a lot of money and logistics that are being made much more convenient using ethereum

Re: Your example about the car — you would likely never lend out a car to someone you have 0 trust in. But you might keep some deposit just in case something happens, just like a regular rental service would. Automating that for people is very useful in my opinion!

Logistical issues will get better over time, but this suffers from the same logistics problem as Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, etc. and these services are extremely popular

Re: describing it as a library vs Airbnb — I think a library is a useful description of this. We are trying to be closer to a protocol service for people to create a library with their friends and lend things out to people. I don’t see the issue with using “library” vs “Airbnb for stuff”

100% agreed. This is why we’re building it for mobile web and not as an AppStore app

A rating system isn’t needed here. Just a history of transactions (% contracts successfully completed is a good metric)

+ Communities can decide who they let into these groups, or boot people who are multiple offenders

So it’s not all anonymous trolls, there’s context around each person that allows you to filter who is a troll

You’re right!

The issue with these trolls is that all that history exists publicly on the blockchain

So if someone is a troll you’ll see their transaction history of multiple blown up contracts and you’ll know to stay away

Not everyone is “rational” given the incentives, but you can choose who you play with based on how they’ve treated others

At some point you have to make peace with open questions you don’t have the answers to. That’s not being irrational, it’s just accepting that our rational brains are very limited.

I’d encourage you to try the experience for yourself. I may not be able to convince you that these visions are anything more than “scrambling of neurons” with my testimony. If you are intellectually curious enough and open to trying DMT/ayahuasca, then it can only give you more data to base your worldview on. Worth a shot imo.

I experienced different "spirits" for sure. Pachamama, the "techno-demons" as someone referred to, at points I saw a sea of souls as I was being taken on a boat -- I forgot what that "underworld" spirit is called. I saw a huge golden bird multiple times. All very interesting phenomena.

The only thing I'd refer to as maybe experiencing "God" was when I went into a white light. At that point I have very little recollection of what actually happened. I remember going in, and then everything was white, there was no concept really of time, or of me, or of anything else like that. I wasn't "seeing" anything, it was all just white. Coming out felt extremely "weird," everything felt so full of meaning and "spiritual" for lack of a better word. There was no personification of "God" there, but it was just a feeling. The one thing I do remember when I was there in that light was a deep feeling of peace and one-ness.

I don't know if that's all helpful, but it's what I experienced, at least.

The conversation was very civil though. I spoke to the moderators and they say that the flame-war detector was triggered, but when I asked him to read the comments he agreed that there wasn't a flame-war.

He said that since it was already taken down they would need "a good reason" to put it back up. And that the article's topic was "generic and sensationalist" so they don't feel like they should keep it up.

In my opinion, I think one of the moderators is more athiest and maybe it conflicted with their values and rubbed them the wrong way, so they decided to bury it when the "flame-war" detector went off, even though there was no flame war.

Hey I'm the author and I can jump into what I actually believe:

Basically, I'm still working on integrating my experience into a rational worldview. I definitely had the experience of meeting entities and speaking to them, and that's hard to reconcile with our everyday "sober" experience of reality.

There are tons of testimonies of people reporting similar things, so that makes me feel less alone in the potential delusion of thinking it's all "real."

Whether it's real or not actually doesn't matter so much to me. The experience is the same no matter if it's coming from my brain or from elsewhere. The only thing that matters is how I live my life as a result after having these experiences.

I've made peace with not having all the answers. If you asked me "Do I believe in God?" I'd say yes. But my definition of God is probably very different from the usual one. Since I now think of God as being an emergent property of communities of people coming together and forming a social contract through shared stories, morals, and goals. Where they are trying to make sense of a shared mystery of life and capture the ineffable transcendental experience into stories and myths. Personifying that into a "real" thing is useful for some, and experiencing that personification is a very interesting phenomena that I don't really understand, yet I've had the experience myself.

Anyways, I hope that's helpful :)

OP: I have no idea why, but the name of this posting was changed from "How Ayahuasca change my perspective on life and God" to simply "How Ayahuasca changed my perspective"

Also, the post abruptly dropped in ranking on the front page after the name change, it seems to have been de-ranked dramatically... Strange

Went from top 1-50, to now 200+... in a matter of a minute