Today is my 2^5th birthday. I’m hoping to make it to 2^6, but 2^7 is probably out of reach, unless medical technology advances quite a bit in the next few decades. (Possible, I suppose.)
Since it’s my birthday, and since I can hear that everyone is clinking champagne glasses for me to give a toast, here are some thoughts that I think are interesting.
…
#1—I think knowledge of death can focus your thinking and prioritization, as long as you remember to live.
#2—I think awareness of pain and suffering in yourself and others is extremely important to face, as long as you can keep (or rediscover) your capacity for joy and happiness.
#3—I think one of the biggest challenges we have right now as humans is addressing the pain and suffering that we have either caused or have failed to prevent. I think this challenge can give us collective purpose and meaning.
#4—I think one of the most pressing ways to rise to that challenge is by reevaluating our relationship with other animals—I think the best way to start that journey is to stop killing and eating them.
#5—I think that things are only good or bad to the extent that they impact the well-being of individuals.
#6—I think it’s impossible to know the full extent of the effects of any of our actions—but I think it’s crucial to keep trying to understand the effects of our actions, and that this type of learning can help us make better choices.
#7—I think pretty much everything is a spectrum or gradient—nearly everything a shade of gray, and very few (or no) things that are black or white. I think this understanding helps us take more nuanced action.
#8—I think that thinking in terms of statistics and probabilities is extremely useful.
#9—I think everyone’s actions and beliefs are understandable if you dig deep enough into who they are and where they’ve come from—and I think this perspective can lead us to have greater compassion for others.
#10—I think if we want better outcomes for our society, we need to create better environments and systems for people to exist in.
#11—I think to change something effectively, you need to first understand why it is the way it is.
#12—I think there are a million paths to happiness, but there are commonalities in those paths—like having meaningful projects and relationships, and taking care of your health.
#13—I think most humans value other animals based on their usefulness or how interesting they are (“Is this animal useful, fun, or interesting?”), and this human evaluation has no relation to the inherent value of the subjective life of each animal.
#14—I think talking about “humans and animals” as two separate categories is confusing, since humans are without a doubt also animals.
#15—I think birds and squirrels are marvelous.
#16—I think perspectives on truth can be found in nearly every field, every person, every pursuit, and every tradition. I think that synthesizing those perspectives into a cohesive whole can lead to a phenomenally powerful worldview.
#17—I think the placebo effect probably causes a lot of the effects that people attribute to other things.
#18—I think that the existence of consciousness—subjective experiences—is one of the deepest and most interesting mysteries.
#19—I think that’s all for right now.
