[HN Gopher] We're treating self-improvement like a software upgrade
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We're treating self-improvement like a software upgrade
Author : tomhoward
Score : 81 points
Date : 2020-07-24 12:27 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (medium.com)
| [deleted]
| awillen wrote:
| There are a lot of leaps of logic here - somehow he jumps from
| the fact that wristbands that count our heartbeats and footsteps
| are trying to improve health to the idea that our humanity is
| reducible to a bunch of data points.
|
| Then somehow we've jumped to digital implants that don't exist
| yet and some extremely theoretical ideas of how they might be
| terrible for society.
|
| Just a whole lot of doom and gloom with no real substance behind
| it.
| micdr0p wrote:
| requires account?
| sidkhullar wrote:
| We _are_ objects. Our humanity comes from how we 're used and for
| whom. One of the purposes of meditation is to separate the ego
| from the self and be able to look upon ourselves dispassionately
| and objectively, for the purposes of improving both, the spirit
| and its current vehicle.
| xg15 wrote:
| Yeah, I'm very happy to be using myself for myself (and for
| others), thank you very much.
| blueyes wrote:
| When really it's more like a SaaS product. You need to keep
| paying for the self-improvement, month after month, with your
| time...
| elchin wrote:
| Yes, success is rented, not bought, and the rent is due every
| day.
| thealienthing wrote:
| Never heard this before. Good rule of life.
| noble_pleb wrote:
| Off-topic but medium has almost turned into a paywall these days,
| it won't allow you to read more than 5 articles without
| subscribing to their paid service. Should HN and Google be
| promoting such a walled garden, especially when creative commons
| content is found aplenty on the interwebs?
| robynsmith wrote:
| Agreed.
|
| This is becoming a pet peeve of mine. When I run into my limit
| I just skip the read or find a way around it :)
|
| Wish people would just stop posting to or linking to medium.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| The anti-self-improvement arguments usually devolve into weird
| strawman arguments and non sequiturs. In this case, the author is
| trying to portray modern technology and companies as the enemy
| because he wrote a series of books on the subject.
|
| > It's that we humans should be making active choices about what
| it is we want to do to ourselves, rather than letting the
| machines, or the markets propelling them, decide for us.
|
| Self-improvement isn't synonymous with buying products or
| following companies. In fact, two of the most common self-
| improvement goals are to reduce the amount of time spent in front
| of screens and to spend more time with friends and family.
|
| This article reads more like an anti-technology or anti-corporate
| piece disguised as a criticism of self-improvement.
|
| Ironically, the author of this post would like to sell you his
| thinly-veiled self help books such as "Program or Be Programmed:
| Ten Commands for a Digital Age" and "Get Back in the Box: How
| Being Great at What You Do Is Great for Business". This blog post
| is marketing material for his specific brand of self-improvement.
| m463 wrote:
| "The Rise of Fake Gurus - The Dark Truth Behind Making MILLIONS
| from Online Courses."
|
| https://youtu.be/L9Gpr7PEnbs
| m0xte wrote:
| Nailed it.
|
| There are so many ideological knowledge and mindset cults out
| there competing for attention. I could probably come up with
| one and make millions just from looking for drifters after the
| first several failed for them.
| ggggtez wrote:
| > gender fluidity would disappear
|
| Transhumanism would result in the opposite. The very idea of a
| gender binary should be called into question when you reach the
| level of augmenting and transcending the limits of your flesh.
|
| The author seems to have a very narrow understanding of
| Transhumanism.
| tomrod wrote:
| I played Gris recently. An absolutely artistic, captivating
| platformer. But it was still deterministic along several
| dimensions. I feel that it is a counterexample to the all-
| encompassing claims made by the article. Why can't _parts_ of
| self improvement be like a software upgrade?
| antonzabirko wrote:
| > Your value is not utility.
|
| Lol let your value feed you when you run out of money with that
| line of thinking. Once you are wealthy, then sure; but not till
| then do humans have value in these systems were born into.
| jungletime wrote:
| On the specific mechanism of self improvement. Cycles of Intense
| focus, activity, followed by deep rest. Checkout Andre Huberman's
| podcast "a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department
| of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine"
|
| http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/andrew-huberman
| drivers99 wrote:
| Video version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLJowTOkZVo
| ecmascript wrote:
| > Self-improvement of the transhumanist sort requires that we
| adopt an entirely functional understanding of who and what we
| are: All of our abilities can be improved upon and all of our
| parts are replaceable. Upgradable.
|
| Yeah right, but we're so far away from creating even a single
| "upgrade" that's comparable with the human body. For example,
| even the best cameras would never even be in the same competing
| arena as the human eye. No sensors come close to our sense of
| touch.
|
| The transhumanist ideology is nothing else but some kind of
| perverted ideology that we somehow would be upgraded with a usb
| port sticking out from the skin.
|
| Even the very best tools we have today to save lives and help our
| bodies sucks in comparison with the biological counterpart. Sure
| there may be a future that we would "upgrade" ourselves, but when
| that time is here (which would be very, very far into the future)
| everyone will instantly do it because it will be so much better.
| There wouldn't be some kind of discussion about it since the
| result is so obvious.
|
| For it to happen, whatever we replace something with will have to
| have all the features that we currently enjoy + a lot more.
| classified wrote:
| Transhumanism is just a poor copy of christianity where
| deliverance is an npm module hosted on GitHub, accepting pull
| requests from the enlightened priesthood and deployed to the
| cloud. If you don't have at least a wireless transceiver
| implanted, downloading timely updates, then you're a heretic.
| After all, you also have to upload yourself so you can live on
| in purity after you cast off your biological remnants, for as
| long as the subscription fees are payed. Christianity has
| invented all this much earlier, and it was dubious then
| already.
| scoutt wrote:
| > everyone will instantly do it
|
| With the current state of software development, I'd wait at
| least a year, like when a new Windows version comes out (or
| less in case of iPhone iOS).
|
| I don't like to beta-test with my HW; I wouldn't do it with my
| body.
| ggggtez wrote:
| > even the best cameras would never even be in the same
| competing arena as the human eye
|
| All it takes is looking at photos from space telescopes, or
| electron microscopes... It should be obvious that technology
| can make better cameras than human eyes. Or slow motion video
| cameras... Infrared cameras...
|
| The only thing about human eyes that is superior is that they
| come connected to the brain.
|
| For now, technological augmentation is "air-gapped". It's
| incorrect to ignore air-gapped augmentations. Hell, even
| _glasses_ could be considered the first step, and have existed
| for hundreds of years.
|
| Using glasses is essentially the "no brainer" conclusion that
| you are looking for. People already accept that it's ok to try
| to do better than nature provided for you.
| aesclepius wrote:
| Think about insulin pumps, cataract surgery, LASIK/PRK, or any
| type of surgical augmentation for disability (limb replacement
| or hip replacements) - we are definitely improving and
| upgradeable, it's only a matter of degree.
| bpatel576 wrote:
| True
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