Brave New World

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

You both like philosophy.

You: Hey, I'm 24. I read/know about whatever interest we matched on. Vegetarian. Wannabe author. STEM student.

Stranger: Hello, what do you read/know about in regards to philosophy?

You: last few years mostly read about preference utilitarianism

You: now getting into discourse ethics

Stranger: Also, Daniel, 24. Meat-eater, also wannabe author, and law student.

You: also, informally, read a lot about the Effective Altruism movement

You: Ok

Stranger: I see.

Stranger: I'm more interested in psychoanalysis (Freud and also Jung), existentialism, Nietzsche, Camus, and others, both in philosophy and literature (Kafka is a big favourite), Eastern and Chinese philosophy, Daoism, Confucianism, etc and Stoicism.

You: Of those, I like Camus the most

You: Jung is fun though

Stranger: Yeah, but I've read mostly existentialism and psychoanalysis lately.

Stranger: Why is he fun?

You: theories of personality is fun

You: ISTJ, EST bla

You: fun stuff

Stranger: MBTI is bs.

You: somewhat, sure

Stranger: I'd say completely, not just somewhat.

You: I disagree

Stranger: Not saying that Jung's typology, on which MBTI is predicated, is bs.

You: Ok

Stranger: Just the MBTI-test itself; psychometrically speaking, it is pure and utter bs; and has the scientific validity of a horoscope.

Stranger: Predictive validity is 0 %.

Stranger: Not 1 %, 0 %.

Stranger: No factor analysis, no normal distribution, no psychometric or statistically valid methodology of any kind.

You: Do you know a well known paper detailing why it's a bunch of malarkey?

You: I'd like to make a list

Stranger: I don't have one in mind.

Stranger: But you can easily find it if you search, trust me.

You: No, I don't mean any old paper

Stranger: To anyone with basic knowledge in psychometrics, MBTI is pure and utter bs.

You: I mean one that's looked to most often

Stranger: Of course, I'm comparing it with the big five.

Stranger: I don't know; I haven't read about it for quite some time.

Stranger: If you want an accurate and psychometrically valid personality test; do the big five.

Stranger: It's based on factor analysis, normal distributions, twin-studies, research in neurophysiology, cross-cultural studies, behavioural genetics, etc, and the statistical methodology underlying that test is rigorous; and it actually has some predictive validity (unlike MBTI).

You: Interesting

Stranger: MBTI is just for idiots online who like to brag about what special and misunderstood snowflakes they are.

You: Haha

Stranger: You see all those cults, ''INTJs'', ''INTPS'', etc.

Stranger: Sheer and utter incompetence.

You: Like I said, they're fun

Stranger: Maybe if you find pseudoscience to be funny.

You: It's an opinion statement

You: Some people find shoveling shit fun.

Stranger: Sure.

You: So is psychoanalysis the field you're going into?

Stranger: Yes, it seems so. Freud in particular.

Stranger: Jung wasn't really a psychoanalyst, he founded analytical psychology, you know.

Stranger: And ofc existentialism, Nietzsche had a lot of pre-Freudian psychoanalytic insights; and Freud derived much from him, Jung too.

Stranger: But I like Jung too, I think many of his works contain a lot of wisdom and depth.

Stranger: Many people doesn't like him because of his mystical inclinations; and because he was kind of a religious thinker.

You: Interesting.

You: It's been a long time since I've had a good chat here.

Stranger: But Huxley is kind of considered to be a mystic too, and I like him, a lot, not only as a writer but as a philosopher.

Stranger: Yeah, you don't get them very often.

You: Know about Brave New World?

Stranger: Of course.

Stranger: It's the greatest dystopian novel that has ever been written (1984 included).

You: I believe that's how society is turning out

You: generally

Stranger: It is.

You: =D

Stranger: No one should read BNW without reading BNW revisited, and Island.

Stranger: Island in particular.

You: Hugh, I didn't know about that.

You: Thanks

Stranger: You have something to look forward to now.

Stranger: On the topic of Huxley; I would also recommend Doors of perception.

Stranger: It has nothing to do with dystopian stuff, it's basically a trip report written by a verbal genius, but it's a joy to read.

You: I'll put it on the list

You: Where are you from?

Stranger: Sweden, you?

You: US, Wisconsin

Stranger: Nice, wish I were American too.

You: Really?

Stranger: Of course.

You: Why on Earth would you want that?

Stranger: I like America (in many respects), and I hate Sweden (in almost all respects).

You: I'm pretty ignorant about Sweden, but what about Switzerland?

Stranger: Switzerland seems great.

You: Ok, agreed.

Stranger: But I don't speak French, German or Italian.

You: Lol

Stranger: So I'd prefer to live in an English-speaking country.

You: I see.

You: Age?

You: Oh ya

Stranger: 24, like you.

You: So are you still studying?

Stranger: Law school, but philosophy this semester.

Stranger: What STEM-field are you in?

Stranger: Computer science?

You: electrical engineering

Stranger: Oh, ok, I was wrong then.

You: What's your ideal life in like ten years?

You: Such as your job

Stranger: Hmm, that's a hard question.

Stranger: My dream would be to be a writer or a painter or an academic or something.

Stranger: That's not very realistic, so what's ideal within the realm of possibility would be something like a lawyer working abroad or something, but working independently.

Stranger: What about you?

You: perhaps a patent attorney

Stranger: I'd like to be in contract law or something like that, writing legal contracts, they can be quite long and complex.

You: Why do you want to do that?

Stranger: It appeals to me, the level of detail, precision of language, orderliness, etc.

You: Cool beans

You: What about your free time?

Stranger: The ideal would be to travel, read a lot of books, and have some kind of intellectually and/or aesthetically rewarding and meaningful hobby or side-career.

Stranger: Like writing.

Stranger: What about you?

You: Oh, yes, writing

Stranger: What do you want to write?

Stranger: Since you're a wannabe-writer.

You: A novel

Stranger: What kind of novel?

You: I have a vague idea of what I want it to be about

You: Kind of like a realistic science fiction

You: about a certain peripatetic group of individuals who live a very long time (age slowly)

You: kinda what they do with their time

Stranger: Oh, ok, doesn't sound that far-fetched, with transhumanism, etc.

Stranger: How long would they stay alive?

Stranger: I think if we got eternal life with technology, we'd all end up killing ourselves sooner or later.

You: how so?

Stranger: I think eternal life would be pure torture.

Stranger: I think death is what makes life meaningful.

Stranger: What would you want to do after 300 years?

Stranger: Or 5000 years?

Stranger: Sure, maybe if we become post-humans or transhumans, or Gods.

Stranger: But as humans, no way.

You: just work

Stranger: Work for eternity?

Stranger: That sounds like torture.

You: =)

You: I don't think it'd be that bad

Stranger: For a human, I think it would. For a post-human or a God, not necessarily.

Stranger: In any event; I'd never want it.

You: What age do you think they should roughly live to?

You: They basically just work.

Stranger: Depends.

Stranger: Are they human, or post-human?

You: human

Stranger: Hmm.

Stranger: I'd say a few hundred years.

Stranger: I don't think a human could make it for thousands of years.

You: right

You: some people were thinking 1000s

You: but I don't want them to be from that long ago

Stranger: So, what's the plot?

Stranger: What's the twist?

Stranger: Or dramaturgy?

Stranger: Work for hundreds of years, then what?

Stranger: I think it should be something like a philosophical issue of what the meaning of life is or should be in the absence of death

Stranger: And maybe whether or not they should end their existence

Stranger: And you'd have that philosophical underpinning, or sometihng

Stranger: Make it a bit existential

Stranger: Transhuman existentialism hehe

You: Die by a younger member of the order.

You: Well, I want to show how...what Huxley did with Brave New World

You: TV and media for soma

You: It's also similar to "A Cure For Wellness"

You: (movie)

You: Or "The Magic Mountain"

You: (book)

Stranger: Haven't read it.

Stranger: But I think I have watched the movie.

Stranger: My ideas for novels/short stories/novellas are often existentialist, often profoundly Kafkaesque, and very surrealist.

Stranger: If I ever write anything, it's going to be surrealist, fundamentally.

You: Ok

Stranger: Are you familiar with surrealism?

You: I am not

Stranger: Or as I think of it, hyper-realism.

Stranger: Too bad.

You: do you watch movies?

Stranger: Sure, but not very often.

Stranger: I think that most modern movies are pretty bad.

Stranger: I watch more tv shows than movies.

You: what're some of your favorite movies?

Stranger: Hmm, Casablanca comes to mind, I know I have others, but I can't recall any right now.

Stranger: What are yours?

You: That's super old

Stranger: Old movies are better.

You: Maybe. I just never give them a chance =)

You: I like Jack Reacher, Dredd, Good Will Hunting, Riddick (series)

You: and the most: Before I Fall

Stranger: I've seen most of them.

Stranger: They're nothing compared to Casablance.

Stranger: Casablanca*

Stranger: I like most old movies with James Cagney and those other old fellas.

You: Did your dad like 'em too?

Stranger: Humphrey Bogart too1

Stranger: !*

Stranger: No, I don't think so, why?

You: Idk, most our age don't give those old movies a chance

Stranger: That's because most people our age are idiots with no taste.

You: lol

Stranger: Same goes for their taste in music, clothes, hell, they barely read books anymore.

You: ya, a tragedy

You: really

Stranger: It is, it's the spirit of our time, no higher aesthetic or moral values, just pure decadence.

Stranger: Sure, we live in the golden age of technology and other stuff, but art, music, great literature, it's all dead.

You: Ya. I don't know if I would say that last bit. But I believe it's true.

Stranger: It is true.

Stranger: We don't produce any Dostoevsky's or Kafka's, or any Vivaldi's or Bach's.

Stranger: Or any Michelangelo's or Bottecelli's.

You: Yes...

You: Can I ask you something different?

Stranger: Sure.

You: ever heard of the Effective Altruism movement?

Stranger: Yes, I have.

Stranger: But I don't know that much about it.

You: where'd you hear about it?

Stranger: Hmm, I read about it on the internet.

Stranger: Don't remember how I found it.

You: Hmmm, ok

Stranger: What's your interest in it?

Stranger: Or involvement.

You: oh, um

You: absolute poverty

You: I'm really passionate about lessening it

Stranger: Why?

You: Because I care about lessening extreme suffering

Stranger: Why?

You: long story

Stranger: It's alright, you don't have to say it.

Stranger: So what do you actually do?

Stranger: To lessen poverty?

You: absolute poverty

You: I don't care too much about relative poverty

Stranger: I meant absolute poverty.

You: So you asked what I do. If I was someone else, I might do something different.

You: As for me, I donate to certain transparent, tractable and empirically supported charities (e.g., Against Malaria Foundation, SCI, etc)

You: Only 1% of my income now

You: (just to be consistent)

Stranger: That's admirable.

Stranger: I never donated anything in my life.

Stranger: I guess I'm too much of an egoistic asshole.

You: Well if I hadn't fallen upon the movement, I'd give later

Stranger: Well, it's an admirable thing.

Stranger: And absolute poverty is decreasing at a staggering rate.

Stranger: Globally, which is good.

You: Definitely

You: 40% in 1990

You: 20% in 2010

Stranger: Yeah, it's great.

Stranger: Soon, we'll all live in the Brave new world.

You: haha, yes

You: that could be the main purpose for the book I want to write

You: I suppose I mean, the main message

Stranger: You should read Island first.

You: Ok

Stranger: I'm too tired to explain why, but you can check out the Wikipedia page, and you'll know.

Stranger: If you're really interested, I can copy what I wrote to a friend the other day about it.

Stranger: But it's really, really long.

You: ahh