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What Happened to Lee

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Re: What Happened to Lee

#101

Post by yters »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #13

Perhaps this is too philosophical, but for anyone who has dealt with someone with a long decline into dementia, it's very difficult for me to understand a belief in God after going through that (I certainly understand some people have the exact opposite reaction, so I'm in no way saying this belief is correct). It's just difficult for me to envision a crueler God if that is indeed the case. A person who has died long…

It's a very strange thing. For instance, the Bible is full of horrifying events, and the life of Jesus, a seemingly innocent, well intentioned man who is crucified in an excruciating death for no good reason, also seems to be in line with denying the existence of a good God. In fact, Jesus seems to agree with this in his last moments on the cross, saying "my God my God why have you forsaken me?" It is very mysterious why one of the world's largest religions has its foundation in such God denying aspects of reality.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#102

Post by pyuser583 »

billti wrote: post #25

> The neurologists delivered their verdict: He appeared to have a textbook case of frontotemporal dementia—known by the shorthand FTD Oh man, was that a kick in the guts when I got to that bit. My Dad was diagnosed with that in the past year, (after obviously struggling for a while), and declined rapidly. He had a different variant, and indeed the one thing that DIDN'T change was his personality. In fact, that's what…

I find the Obamacare rule about preexisting conditions confusing.

I’ve been managing a chronic condition for decades, and I’ve never had coverage denied because it was “preexisting.”

Maybe it was only if you were buying coverage outside a group it would be an issue, but I don’t know.

Regardless I many people who had preexisting conditions pre-ACA, and it never affected coverage.

For disability insurance, or life insurance, it’s probably a different story.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#103

Post by cyber_zhuangzi »

chromanoid wrote: post #98
Igelau wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the preexisting, running total of human suffering and tragedy in this world points to the fact that transcendent reality, the realm of God or a God, must have an alternative interpretation for human events You're begging the question. It doesn't point to that at all. Furthermore, I'd feel terrible accepting that "fact" if I were faithful. It would reduce my faith to that in a demiurge who can't (ergo impotent) or w…

Exactly, unless one sees the suffering of others as suffering of NPCs or punishment for a former life, I cannot understand how one can believe in a benevolent omnipotent god. The cruelty that some have to endure is simply not explainable with a such a god. It cannot be benevolent AND omnipotent by definition. It becomes far far far more likely that there is simply no such a god. It's not like this dilemma is new so t…

It's a deep problem with a long history of attempts at answering it, some more satisfying than others. One answer that appeals to many faithful is the idea that all this suffering will be "redeemed", or made to be worth it at the end. Augustine, for example, would take the "NPC" prong of your dilemma by saying that our earthly existence "in time" is not a full experience of reality at all. Indeed, you can find this view, that our conscious experience of reality-in-time is somehow illusory, in many non-Christian sources anywhere from Buddhism to Daniel Dennet. In Augustine's view it's only outside of time, with God, that human beings can fully exist - thus earthly suffering is nothing compared to the joy of being in Heaven. Obviously this is not a foolproof argument, but HN deserves to know the best answers Christian thinkers have come up with.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#104

Post by jdm2212 »

pyuser583 wrote: post #102
billti wrote: post #25

> The neurologists delivered their verdict: He appeared to have a textbook case of frontotemporal dementia—known by the shorthand FTD Oh man, was that a kick in the guts when I got to that bit. My Dad was diagnosed with that in the past year, (after obviously struggling for a while), and declined rapidly. He had a different variant, and indeed the one thing that DIDN'T change was his personality. In fact, that's what…

I find the Obamacare rule about preexisting conditions confusing. I’ve been managing a chronic condition for decades, and I’ve never had coverage denied because it was “preexisting.” Maybe it was only if you were buying coverage outside a group it would be an issue, but I don’t know. Regardless I many people who had preexisting conditions pre-ACA, and it never affected coverage. For disability insurance, or life insu…

The Obamacare rule about preexisting conditions was specifically to fix the individual insurance market. The pre-Obamacare individual insurance market was really broken -- you need the "three-legged stool" (pre-existing condition coverage, universal mandate, subsidized premiums) to have a functioning individual market, and that didn't exist until Obamacare.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#105

Post by JamesBarney »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #22

I come from a family of extremely gifted visual thinkers (PhDs from MIT/Stanford/etc) and in the last year one of us had a heart issue that coincided with a month long bout of psychosis, where dream-like real visualizations were overlaid onto the real world. I’m convinced that the genetic effects that provide us with extreme visualization and problem solving skills are related to this particular failure mode, where s…

I don't know if abstract problem solving is related to schizophrenia but genes that increase schizophrenia risk are generally correlated with lower iqs.

Saying this as someone whose mother scored in the top 1% on the SAT and was schizophrenic.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#106

Post by chromanoid »

cyber_zhuangzi wrote: post #103
chromanoid wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, unless one sees the suffering of others as suffering of NPCs or punishment for a former life, I cannot understand how one can believe in a benevolent omnipotent god. The cruelty that some have to endure is simply not explainable with a such a god. It cannot be benevolent AND omnipotent by definition. It becomes far far far more likely that there is simply no such a god. It's not like this dilemma is new so t…

It's a deep problem with a long history of attempts at answering it, some more satisfying than others. One answer that appeals to many faithful is the idea that all this suffering will be "redeemed", or made to be worth it at the end. Augustine, for example, would take the "NPC" prong of your dilemma by saying that our earthly existence "in time" is not a full experience of reality at all. Indeed, you can find this v…

It always seems to me that faithful people just don't confront themselves with the suffering that is happening and has happened. When you know about such events it seems to me to be either a lame escape or maliciously ignorant to claim there might be a god who sees the big plan and is still omnipotent. When there is not even a glimpse of a reason for certain acts against children I refuse to accept any far fetched esoteric excuse.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#107

Post by rubicon33 »

Terrifying.

As a software engineer, shit like this scares me. I've felt like I'm on a steady, slow, decline for the last ~4 years.

Is it just burnout? Do I need a new hobby?

I used to love programming... Spent 12 hours a day jamming on it. Now, I struggle to keep my mind on a line of code for more than 5 minutes.

At what point is it just burnout, or at what point is it something more? That's what's terrifying to me. I imagine that was a challenge for those close to Lee.

We just know so little about the human body. Our ability to easily query the state of the body, to assess which functional components are working, and which need help, is dismal.

I just hope that Lee, in whatever state he is in, isn't suffering.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#108

Post by zamfi »

pyuser583 wrote: post #102
billti wrote: post #25

> The neurologists delivered their verdict: He appeared to have a textbook case of frontotemporal dementia—known by the shorthand FTD Oh man, was that a kick in the guts when I got to that bit. My Dad was diagnosed with that in the past year, (after obviously struggling for a while), and declined rapidly. He had a different variant, and indeed the one thing that DIDN'T change was his personality. In fact, that's what…

I find the Obamacare rule about preexisting conditions confusing. I’ve been managing a chronic condition for decades, and I’ve never had coverage denied because it was “preexisting.” Maybe it was only if you were buying coverage outside a group it would be an issue, but I don’t know. Regardless I many people who had preexisting conditions pre-ACA, and it never affected coverage. For disability insurance, or life insu…

> Regardless I many people who had preexisting conditions pre-ACA, and it never affected coverage.

This mostly affected the individual and small-group markets, in which a pre-existing condition either disqualified you for coverage, made it prohibitively expensive, or explicitly excluded coverage for that condition (sometimes, the exclusion was only for a set period of time).

Typical failure modes were: individuals unable to get coverage on the open market; small businesses and non-profits that offered employees health insurance being forced to fire people because they got expensive illnesses and their insurance providers threatened to 10x their premiums; etc.

It made entrepreneurship and freelancing a much harder choice for many (typically older-than-30) folks, especially since you risked getting fired & losing insurance if you worked alone or for a small-ish firm.

Some states had remedies for these issues -- either through a high-risk pool for people who were rejected in the individual market (though often these policies had coverage limits that made them not ideal), or through guaranteed-issue insurance in the small group market (i.e., if you and a partners start a business, insurance companies in your area who serve small groups HAVE to a) insure you, b) not charge you more than 10% the average rate, and c) renew your insurance when it's up for renewal, usually annually).

California in particular had both these in place pre-ACA.

Ask me how I know. :/

Re: What Happened to Lee

#109

Post by abbadadda »

Igelau wrote: post #86
david_w wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be cruel, but the preexisting, running total of human suffering and tragedy in this world points to the fact that transcendent reality, the realm of God or a God, must have an alternative interpretation for human events, one which humans cannot fathom. So for example, the tragedies which occur in your nightmares, after you wake, are given a different interpretation- the interpretation of "non-reality", i.e. it…

> the preexisting, running total of human suffering and tragedy in this world points to the fact that transcendent reality, the realm of God or a God, must have an alternative interpretation for human events You're begging the question. It doesn't point to that at all. Furthermore, I'd feel terrible accepting that "fact" if I were faithful. It would reduce my faith to that in a demiurge who can't (ergo impotent) or w…

Aren't there more than two explanations for "won't" beyond (1) ignorance or (2) malice? Perhaps we are the ones who are ignorant for why things are this way.

Re: What Happened to Lee

#110

Post by gonehome »

wigl wrote: post #58
billti wrote: post #25

> The neurologists delivered their verdict: He appeared to have a textbook case of frontotemporal dementia—known by the shorthand FTD Oh man, was that a kick in the guts when I got to that bit. My Dad was diagnosed with that in the past year, (after obviously struggling for a while), and declined rapidly. He had a different variant, and indeed the one thing that DIDN'T change was his personality. In fact, that's what…

I'm so sorry for your loss. Dementia and schizophrenia are present in my family as well and caring for those in the later stages has been really hard. I found myself torn by the same question of whether to test for genetic predisposition. After reading The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee, whose author is in a similar position, I have found some comfort in deciding not to test for now. As he says in an NPR interview: > T…

Schizophrenia seems like a tricky one given that its triggers are less well understood and trauma seems to be part of it (so maybe knowing would lead to increased anxiety/stress which could make onset more likely?).

Otherwise it seems like whether or not you test the reality is set independent of your knowledge of it. I'd like to think that I'd want to test given that, but I suppose it's hard to know how I'd act without really being in that position.

I loved his book, but I think I disagree with him on this - feels like a rationalization of an irrational thing.

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