Remember, idiot.

[avevale_intelligencer]

Facebook is bad for my mental health.
Facebook is bad for my mental health.
Facebook is bad for my mental health.
Facebook is bad for my mental health.
Facebook is bad for my mental health.
Facebook is bad for my mental health.
Facebook is bad for my mental health.
Facebook is...

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Re this, and taking my cue from your comment on the previous post:

1. [HUGE HUGS]

2. It was *not* a stupid argument. And while the article's framing argument hit a nerve with me, many of the things mentioned in it are actually worth making more people aware of. *I'm* sorry for coming on a bit strong, driven largely by a 29 year old big-bear on the point of people assuming a metaphor chosen to illustrate one point constitutes my entire approach to understanding a given topic (how human memory works, as it happens!).

And it occurs to me, belatedly, that maybe the writing of the article was driven by just such a bugbear on the author's part. Trying to fight a battle that's already been won, bar a bit of mopping up...? If so, I hope that having got it all off his chest was as cathartic for him as it seems to have been for me. =:o}

3. [MORE HUGE HUGS]

---

On to happier thoughts: They're (*finally*!) letting me leave town for a bit next week! Any preferences for when I should come down?

Would also be very interested in any thoughts you have on modular synths, btw (beyond "Well I can't afford one, can you?"/"Nah")... which you may have noticed have been much on my mind of late, along with various other obsessions from my teenage years.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

1 and 3. *hugsback*

2.It was stupid of me not to just let it lie. As it was, we had you patiently trying to correct my (or the author's) "uninformed misunderstanding," Chris trying to validate it (or whatever he was doing), and Jane C, who seems to enjoy going from zero to rude and obnoxious in 0.23 seconds (and who I think was actually upset by my tiny gesture in the direction of a non-mechanistic view of consciousness), and all together it sucked all the joy out of something that, as I said, had made me feel good enough to want to share it.

But it wasn't any of you. It's Facebook. It does that. Post something you're upset about and someone will come along to say how dare you be upset about this when there's this this this this this and this that are far worse, and by the way you're a moron. Its collective experience always trumps and invalidates one's individual experience, and I can't be doing with that. I'll stay here on LJ.

Incidentally, I've remarked before about another "uninformed misunderstanding" of mine, that in writings I've read about scientific matters I've noticed a tendency to coin metaphors and then treat them as part of the reality. Like the (unaddressed while I was there) point I made about washing machines "deciding" things--I'm pretty sure they don't. You input some numbers and a result pops out that's dictated by the algorithms the programmers put in, just like with any other computer. If the algorithms contain a random element or bugger factor, then the results will vary slightly, but the day a washing machine decides it's had enough and goes out for a curry (or tells you it won't work till you give it one), I'll start believing in AI. All of which is not me restarting the argument, but merely to agree with you that metaphors can be a problem.

4.*more hugs* You are a rare and precious friend. And by the way, since we're jumping posts here, you may not know it, but you made me very happy yesterday with a pronoun. So thank you for that as well. You were right the first time, but even so. :)

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

P.S. We'll be happy to see you whenever it's convenient.

Modular synths? You mean VSTs?

I have a few, left over from when I last had money. I agree they're horribly expensive (though there are still some nice-ish freeware ones out there, I think). The problem I've always had with them is that it's so much fun playing with the sounds, I never get any actual music done. Which of course is because music starts with the song, not with the kit.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Also, thankyou for forcing me to crystalise in words things that I have previously just spent years mulling over. You have a knack for that. I often find it valuable (if sometimes inconveniently timed! =:o? ), and I'm sorry that the experience of getting into such discussions distresses you. I wish we could find a way to do it that doesn't hurt, but if we can't, I fully understand if you prefer not to do it at all.