A while ago, a friend asked me something along the lines of “if you could beam a kilobyte of information straight into the minds of every person alive, what would it be?” Here’s one attempt. (Actually maybe this is more like stuff I wish I could tell myself from a few years ago. It’s probably obvious to most people.)
- Beliefs don’t feel like beliefs. They feel like the way the world is.
- Your worldview isn’t perfect. There are big things you’re wrong about. Growth is beautiful.
- Death doesn’t have to be…well…a death sentence. We can and should try to cure aging.
- Understanding how a sunrise works makes it more beautiful.
- It’d be very bad if the only known life in the universe suddenly disappeared.
- There’s a vast universe inside every person’s head. 8 billion of em. That’s beautiful and incomprehensible.
- It’s only disappointing that life has no intrinsic meaning if you go in assuming it should.
- Extraordinary claims should require extraordinary evidence. Ordinary claims shouldn’t.
- Institutions can have emergent properties very different from their constituents.
- It’s fucking INSANE that anything exists. Thinking about that brings up some really hairy paradoxy questions. You should think about them, it’s good fun.
- There are no Adults. You’re not the only one who’s confused.