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All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

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Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#101

Post by mlsu »

moffkalast wrote: post #94
mlsu wrote: post #12

I think Tao correctly sees the problem with AI. It’s not that it is ineffective or has weaknesses. It’s that it’s not human. Like, it ought to be enough to say that the problem with AI is that it’s not human. Unfortunately, we live in a world where many (most?) people have willingly put away the childish things, so as to achieve some goal. The problem is that the point of life is to explore and have fun and have huma…

"The problem with dogs is that they're not human." You can make this case for pretty much anything? Are cars human? Are excavators human? The universe does not exist to cater to the human experience, it just is. Not everything we do in it has to be for the greater enlightenment or whatnot, sometimes you just need to get something done.

[dead]

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#102

Post by lynx97 »

WalterBright wrote: post #53
sevenzero wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children have no concept of violence or empathy or right or wrong. Children often are extremely violent to other kids and sometimes even adults. They kick they scream they punch and they destroy objects. It's on the parents to teach them these concepts and its fun to have settings in which that behavior is allowed.

> Children have no concept of violence or empathy or right or wrong This is not correct. I remember having a sense of shame when I was 4 when I tried to hurt another kid. Kids will also hide the things they do wrong, because they know it is wrong.

> ... because they know it is wrong

No. They hide the things they do wrong because they learnt there are consequences and they dont want to get caught.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#103

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

shifto wrote: post #92
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get piñatas, but there is an extreme version of this that I find just too much. Not sure in other places, but in Spain there is a kind of fair stall where children use a plastic fishing rod with a magnet or hook to catch some plastic ducks with the corresponding magnet or hook. The ducks have some points and give you rewards, but the payoff is terrible - maybe you spend €10 and you get a gift that you could buy for…

My kids love something like this we see every year at the traveling fair. It's the same idea but with rubber duckies floating around and having to catch them with a small pole with a hook attached. It's €20 for 2 kids to have 2 minutes of fun and the payoff is a €1 Aliexpress/Temu pollution generator disguised as a toy. They play with it for a day before it ends up in the trash. The first few years I hated this for e…

In fact it's the same thing. I said fish by mistake (probably because my mind made an association with the fishing rod and what it's usually used for) but they're ducks. I have edited the comment now.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#104

Post by jcarrano »

cbolton wrote: post #37
burticlies wrote: post #3

I see this clearly at kids birthday parties whenever there is a piñata. Adults hate them. All they see is the goal and the incredibly inefficient path the kids are taking towards it. But the kids love it, they don’t care when they miss, they are just enjoying hitting something with a stick. And every miss heightens the excitement for the eventual lolly scramble.

It never occurred to me to consider efficiency in piñata, but I dislike them because it's making a game out of violence.

Destroying things is part of human experience. Kids got to have that.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#105

Post by bcraven »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #88
burticlies wrote: post #3

I see this clearly at kids birthday parties whenever there is a piñata. Adults hate them. All they see is the goal and the incredibly inefficient path the kids are taking towards it. But the kids love it, they don’t care when they miss, they are just enjoying hitting something with a stick. And every miss heightens the excitement for the eventual lolly scramble.

I get piñatas, but there is an extreme version of this that I find just too much. Not sure in other places, but in Spain there is a kind of fair stall where children use a plastic fishing rod with a magnet or hook to catch some plastic ducks with the corresponding magnet or hook. The ducks have some points and give you rewards, but the payoff is terrible - maybe you spend €10 and you get a gift that you could buy for…

In the UK this is called:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook-a-duck

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#106

Post by skydhash »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #83
rolfus wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only tangentially directed at your reply, but this is the kind of statement that I'll sometimes hear other parents say, and it makes me think that they've completely forgotten what childhood was actually like. Like, the idea that normal, fun activities and sports are bad because they bear some abstract resemblance to adult violence feels very contrived and misses what childhood play is about.

It's not really that abstract. You smash the shit out of a cardboard box and candy comes out. Breaking things is not fun. I also hate youtube videos of people breaking stuff for fun.

> Breaking things is not fun.

I don't know. I broke a lot of things when I was a kid, mostly because I was excited to see how they work, but have no knowledge of their value or how to safely disassemble them. I don't do it as an adult because I now have that knowledge. So don't judge a kid as an adult.

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#107

Post by giov4 »

astura wrote: post #100
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get piñatas, but there is an extreme version of this that I find just too much. Not sure in other places, but in Spain there is a kind of fair stall where children use a plastic fishing rod with a magnet or hook to catch some plastic ducks with the corresponding magnet or hook. The ducks have some points and give you rewards, but the payoff is terrible - maybe you spend €10 and you get a gift that you could buy for…

I would have killed to play carnival games like that when I was a kid but they were absolutely strictly forbidden, because 1) they are obviously not worth the price (scam) and 2) prizes are just junk that we didn't have room in the house for anyways. You can just say no. I have never played a single one of those types of games in my life because once I was old enough to work I understood my parents point of view. I'm…

is there a price or cost for happyness?

which lesson is it exactly?

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#108

Post by ryuuseijin »

orlp wrote: post #26
ryuuseijin wrote: post #6

This reminds me of a video I saw from Alan Watts [1] where he talks about how from childhood it is hammered into our minds that we must work we must do this or do that or we will be punished. And he talks about how you can choose to change your perspective or mindset and see work as a form of play, where you live in the moment. This is probably harder to do than to say, but this video resonated with me because your m…

That's a nice story and all but it isn't a reality for most people. For most people on this planet it's work or starve on the street.

I think the argument is not to not work, but to change the mindset that is so ingrained in our society that you must work. You don't want to starve, so you work, but you can do it with mindset that is fundamentally different, where you choose to focus on being in the moment, and don't let yourself get stressed by outcomes you have no control over, just as you would if you are playing a game or playing music.

Changing your mindset is hard, you are fighting against an entire society where your are expected to be "serious" as an adult and identify yourself with your work, but you do have a choice

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#109

Post by ddorian43 »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #88
burticlies wrote: post #3

I see this clearly at kids birthday parties whenever there is a piñata. Adults hate them. All they see is the goal and the incredibly inefficient path the kids are taking towards it. But the kids love it, they don’t care when they miss, they are just enjoying hitting something with a stick. And every miss heightens the excitement for the eventual lolly scramble.

I get piñatas, but there is an extreme version of this that I find just too much. Not sure in other places, but in Spain there is a kind of fair stall where children use a plastic fishing rod with a magnet or hook to catch some plastic ducks with the corresponding magnet or hook. The ducks have some points and give you rewards, but the payoff is terrible - maybe you spend €10 and you get a gift that you could buy for…

It's kinda like a slot machine. Or loot boxes. Kids love drugs too!

Re: All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it

#110

Post by helpfulmandrill »

I can remember a lot from being a child. Mostly a sense of frustration and powerlessness.

But also the way in which things seemed more interesting than they do now. Like I could be fascinated by watching a tree sway in the wind in a way which wouldn't happen now - at least, not without conscious, meditation style effort. I remember when an hour seemed like an almost intolerably long stretch of time.

I also remember loads of events in visual detail, though I'm terrible at remembering when they happened.

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