Since there are intelligent people here who follow the topic of evolutionary psychology, I'd like to hear opinions about some research from 2009. Particularly if this idea seems reasonable or not, but possibly other opinions that people might have about it. The idea is a variation on one that's somewhat...
tl;dr: My grandpa died, and I gave a eulogy with a mildly anti-deathist message, in a Catholic funeral service that was mostly pretty disagreeable. I'm a little uncomfortable writing this post, because it's very personal, and I'm not exactly a regular with friends here. But I need to get it...
Since there are intelligent people here who follow the topic of evolutionary psychology, I'd like to hear opinions about some research from 2009. Particularly if this idea seems reasonable or not, but possibly other opinions that people might have about it.
The idea is a variation on one that's somewhat popular here: that some conditions usually regarded as mental illnesses (Asperger's for example) are beneficial, even adaptive. But the condition in question now is depression. Briefly, the argument is that depression, at least when it is a response to stimuli and not a permanent feature, can have the useful effect of encouraging more rational thought when this is particularly important, even at the... (read 193 more words →)
tl;dr: My grandpa died, and I gave a eulogy with a mildly anti-deathist message, in a Catholic funeral service that was mostly pretty disagreeable.
I'm a little uncomfortable writing this post, because it's very personal, and I'm not exactly a regular with friends here. But I need to get it out, and I don't know any other place to put it.
My grandfather (one of two) died last week, and there was a funeral mass (Catholic) today. Although a ‘pro-life’ organisation, the Roman Catholic Church has a very deathist funeral liturgy. It wasn't just ‘Stanley has gone on to a better place’, and all that; the priest had the gall to say that Grandpa... (read 960 more words →)
The club is now closed until further notice.
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the game went on last night as planned. The good news is that my parents won't be attending any more large games. The bad news is that there are still going to be more large games, at least one tonight. Although it's mostly the same population every time.
Previous versions of this question: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/11/open-thread-149-25/#comment-865412 https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/15/open-thread-149-5/#comment-865535
Hi, I haven’t posted in a while, and I hope that people are still reading new comments in this thread, because I need an answer fast, and this is the best place that I know to get a good one. (Well, second best. I posted to SSC first.)
My parents, age 70, live in Lincoln NE (population 285 thousand, no reported cases of Covid-19 yet, 17 reported cases in the State, schools just closed and are preparing to go online). They pretty much run their bridge club, most of whose members are in their 70s but generally in good health. The club has an event planned for tonight (March 15 Sunday),
Everybody says that immunity to coronaviruses is not robust (although we don't know yet about this specific one).
Greg Egan (who, you may remember, started out in supernatural horror before he switched to hard science fiction) has now written (and published) a p-zombie horror story: https://www.tor.com/2018/07/19/the-nearest-greg-egan/
Eliezer never wrote an epilogue, and probably isn't going to, since Alexander Wales already wrote a better one.
It's a fact that it messed with my suspension of disbelief for a bit. It would be better if it hadn't. I still like the story; it's just a minor flaw.
I thought that we were right about Y2K, people spent a lot of time preparing for it, and their hard work saved us all. Is that wrong? (I understand if you just link to somewhere else and don't clutter up your thread any further with this digression.)