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The Tao of Consciousness's avatar

Awesome - that def. took some time to compose. Enjoyed and you're right it ultimately comes down to choice thou you would be amazed of how many people respond that they have no choice. Perhaps that is one of the issues of the day - so many people believe that they don't have a choice and the power to decide what awaits . . .

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goodstead's avatar

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

The only rational response to the abyss is to fill the self with meaning. And what is most meaningful is meaningful relationships and meaningful work.

Surprised and pleased to read an exegesis of Peirce. An unfairly and unfortunately overlooked American titan of thought.

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Alexander Campbell's avatar

yeah, interesting guy/take

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Andrew@clancapital.com's avatar

I found this fascinating and important for me and others to consider. I will be sharing it with our boys, who are in their 20’s and on their way.

I found your work a few years ago, and always read it with interest - but this was special, and gave me such an appreciation for how your life story helped create such a sharp mind, deep thinking, and through so many obstacles, led you to discerning love is the answer 👌

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Alexander Campbell's avatar

glad you liked it!

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derek's avatar

Well done.

Given all the evidence we see everywhere, cooperation is the higher way.

Yet short term thinking creates so much zero sum thinking and action…. From our hourly nutrition choices to geopolitical “chess games.”

Reminds me of the annoyingly simple but profound saying, Everything truly important is taught in kindergarten. I.e

More caring and sharing please 🙏

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Joshua Myers, CFA's avatar

If entropy gives time direction as Stephen Hawking suggested, and love works against entropy, love can stop the passage of time. If we could achieve a state of perfect love, where no one was self-centered, time would stop. This is the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Indeed the concept of the Trinity, unity in diversity, is a model of this and is bound by love. You don’t need to believe in god, the Trinity, Jesus, or the Bible to see this framework at work in reality as you have described. Indeed heaven, not the supernatural idea of heaven in the clouds, can be seen as the state where perfect love totally overtakes entropy and time comes to a standstill…in other words eternity.

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Alexander Campbell's avatar

yeah, the time thing is something i have been grappling with, need to think more on. black holes etc

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Joshua Myers, CFA's avatar

the whole construct of god is a human construct and inherently contradictory, BUT...if you follow CS Lewis and look at the idea of God being love as having no meaning unless God contains more than one person what is revealed is what you just described....a positive sum, self-reinforcing, positive arc to life. Maybe what you just wrote is a description of what generations and many different religions (also artificial and inherently contradictory constructs) have called god.

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Alexander Campbell's avatar

that's why i no longer consider myself an atheist, yeah.

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Joshua Myers, CFA's avatar

Yeah I don’t understand the logic behind atheism, I like the framing of Pascal’s Wager, and always thought of atheism as the natural reaction to the bastardized theology that we call religion but having very little to do with God.

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fmendonca23's avatar

Completely blew my mind - you blend physics, math, investing and philosophy in an uncanny ability

Thanks for merging so many concepts I believe and thought were disconnected into a beautiful thread

Essentially it's a battle between Entropy (time) vs Natural Selection (love, though us as agents)

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Alex's avatar

So when Dumbledore told us that love overcomes all, he meant it even trumps entropy. Appreciate your writing.

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surya yalamanchili's avatar

That was beautiful. Truly thank you for sharing so freely. 🤝

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Ruck's avatar

you need to expand upon your theory of love. if you view it as a purely survival mechanism then that's not what's needed to be anti-entropic. survival leads to propagation and replication. desire to not die. this is not the same as love

i agree that love is the root. but you need to also realize that this moves UP too. the "parent universe" you espouse that birthed us. is a euphemism for God itself. That parent loves us. we are its children. Family is outcome of love. love creates, community. love desires a longing for our ultimate parents (creator(s))

i believe we have a dual mandate as life to love forward and backward. create new life (love) and search for our parents (prodigal son journey). we know we have a parent who loves us enough to make us, so we should long to find them

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DK's avatar

Thank you. This was a very interesting read!

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NewBlueOntario2026's avatar

Alex, I got to the point of questioning whether I'd want to live 5 million years ago, and I just realized it would be fine if you could adapt, but it would be boring and nothing would ever happen. And then I realized, that is the meme of our youngest generation. Still it would seem in millions of years, nothing ever happens ;)

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Alex Golubev's avatar

Is me2 not a religion that filled "the medium is the message" IG post-USSR+GFC vacuum in Merca?

Interesting how you were not the focal point of your Mom's life whatsoever, perhaps even something worse...

Here's your tell: "My mother and father were separated and estranged, owing to his schizophrenia and the resulting abusive tendencies."

Here's your homework - see if you can connect the dots from the obvious topic to what this move was really about:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247199/

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Walter Shoup's avatar

Sorry, I don't buy it.

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Oct 10
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Alexander Campbell's avatar

A bit, not enough. And yes, agreed.

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