Comments by "Peter deWolf" (@StoneShards) on "Jordan B Peterson" channel.

  1. At 17:20 the metaphor of the "interface" is introduced by the guest to good effect. I see this "interface" as a "barrier region" formed where Chaos and Order meet. Chaos exerts a pressure of disorder, the spirit of perversity, offering the diabolical opposite of the order it meets as a pressure of disorder that stimulates a balancing response from order whereby the intensity of the intrusion of the pressure of disorder is modulated in an act of "judgement" on the part of order. This modulation occurs over a space which is the thickness of the barrier region. As a result of this balance, the integrity of the order is maintained as the extent of the order is delimited; expanding this limit is the business of "growth", or the ability to establish a further extent of the order. The character of the modulation defines the "interface", filter, or template representing an abstraction of the underlying stimulus, the pressure of disorder, into the order's characteristic pattern of knowledge. Ordering these patterns engenders another interface layer...and so it goes.
    1
  2. "Beauty" is the exhibition that commands attention without coercion.
    1
  3. Well...that was unexpected!
    1
  4. True vs false is a trap. The "ideal" is the pinnacle of perfection; an ultimate goal. "Perfection" may be though of as a static state of absolute completion. "Perfection" is also a process of becoming more perfect, approaching the ideal. These are slightly different meanings.
    1
  5. "God only knows where ideas come from!" Why? Ideas form themselves by your attention and intention to identify your perceptions!
    1
  6. "Honest, incremental movement forward..."...which is...the heart of patience.
    1
  7. "Beauty, truth, love, and gratitude...?", Jordan wonders. "There could be possibilities...we can't imagine because we don't have the requisite minds", Sam says, while justifying imagining the worst: "so we can avoid it". Gratitude is the posture of worship; love is the universal tendency of association; truth is the certainty of experience; and beauty is the appearance of Order. I also take exception with the commonly-held conceptions of "mind" and "imagination", never DIFINED, and so often mentioned...as if "everybody knows" what they are! Note the inherent appeal to nebulous authority.
    1
  8. "Awe" is the feeling of "admiration"--"I could be like THAT!"
    1
  9. Imagination...invention...innovation...imitation...in order of decreasing awareness...
    1
  10. "Unity, discord, or nothing is at the top..."...🤔 Since "nothing can not exist", how 'bout unity at the top and discord at the bottom?! God is both the design of existence and the substance of existence. At the top is the fully integrated; at the bottom is the fully differentiated--"God", in any case. At the bottom are the points or particles of simple, basic awareness--quanta of God. "Consciousness" is a complex of point awarenesses, as are all FORMS. Everything is conscious by virtue of its formation.
    1
  11. It's not convenient to believe "memory" is not a "permanent and complete record". The Universe is permanently impressed by your experience--the matter of complexity is irrelevant, as far as the impression is concerned. Access to memory is a different issue. Thought as "internal dialogue" is a memory access exercise...almost like an audio tape assembled from discrete recordings of words in a way that makes sense. Awareness directs attention to an object, which elicits associations in memory, occurring as "flashes" of relevant--guaranteed to be relevant--memories. These comprise your inner symbol system, providing the material we use to assemble thoughts. We might happen upon an assemblage appearing to us as unique, original. But it's likely much like other such unique thoughts, since the human experiences that generate our memories are largely held in common by everyone. Sanity is the balance with which we govern this movement of memory associations. Governing this movement requires the other side of awareness: intention. Attention is the yin, and intention the yang, of the Tao of awareness.
    1
  12. Thornhill's a smart guy, I have no doubt. However, he is having to correlate biological and psychological paradigms using the same terminology! So, it's about as illuminating as it is confusing. The "parasite-stress" theory attempts to explain the superiority of materialism: psychology is a function of biology. Reminiscent of the behavioralists...always sounding a dead note...
    1
  13. "Ideology is resonating, not religion"...I must have missed his clearly drawn distinction between "ideology" and "religion"...It's the word-association game intellectuals like to play...
    1
  14. "Delusional or self-deceptive revelations" may be the most important problem of psyche for each individual. Currently, I'm working from a peculiar conception: the natural, unperturbed process of the "imagination" is the presentation to the mental awareness of the previous moment's experience of psyche, reflected, as it were, in the "skin" of the spiritual awareness, which also provides "leadings" as if through a two-way mirror. What the mental awareness does with this presentation in critical to the development of the being, as the movements of the emotional awareness may produce powerful perturbations in the imagination, distorting the presentation and obscuring the leadings of the spirit, resulting, perhaps, in an existential confusion "loop". You dedicate yourself to God by holding to truth as the highest good within yourself, and its pursuit, your greatest purpose. "Pain" you suffer by knowing the truth is a good and proper corrective; that fact should provide the courage to confront yourself relentlessly. As a child, rudimentary intelligence drove us to touch everything, and explore, to know what there was in our existence. We developed our intelligence as we matured, but its foundational value persists as "the monkey mind", enthusiastically contrary and rambunctious like the child, and a disruptive influence in the adult, it has become the "trickster", the "tempter", and saboteur of focus. Follow your thoughts relentlessly and you will see the monkey in action--and as soon as you do he'll insist you don't. But, in this way, relentlessly following your thoughts, you can chase the monkey until he stops running! A bit like the wild horse which, once "broken", serves its rider devotedly.
    1
  15. You can't act without "faith", being the expectation of result, not the simple desire of a certain result, nor an emotional lust of result, but rather an absolute psychic vacancy of doubt, which is an actionable metaphysical value! It's something you can DO AT WILL!
    1
  16. jeez...what a ridiculous mess! Can you get licensed elsewhere, Jordan?! If they don't cancel your degree(s)!? If this unjustified action against you is consistent with settled Canadian law, you're screwed. Unless...there's a history of the board's investigatory behavior that your case's treatment greatly deviates from.
    1
  17. Some animals didn't like the names given to them by Adam?! Uh...I don't know where that came from; Matt had so far seemed pretty articulate...I didn't follow the rationale for this assertion. This seems like he's stretching his analogy to its limits with the early Eden inception of "error" represented by the animals' perception that Adam failed in his identification/naming of them. The identification process is crucial, though, especially to memory formation and recall. There is also a compulsion upon observation to identify. Observation without identification is difficult, if possible, and probably resembles samadhi. The act of identification involves all the senses in an imaginary caress of the object which forms a "connection"--you KNOW the object...and the object stands to gain by knowing you.
    1
  18. In the generic sense, "faith" is "conviction". In the religious sense, though, "faith" is "expectation"! And perfect expectation admits of no doubt! "Expectation" is a state of awareness, where your power of conception and imagination is held strictly to a single point, admitting of no distraction or doubt--any contrariness is disallowed. It's almost as if you are drawing the intended reality directly out of the background of existence. Can you resist "jumping to a conclusion", as if in a state of perpetual consideration? Such is the condition of "expectation"...
    1
  19. The artists aren't blazing a trail. Their desire is pure enough to penetrate a truth, that they then are driven to express, or articulate in the form of their art. But that truth is available to all. Imagination is so much more than a "gap filler". Imagination is the seat of spirit, and the only genuinely creative ability we can lay claim to. It is the executor of the truth of our awareness, giving form to our experience of existence. It is the mechanism of operation of the psyche. It is also the One Universal Mind laid bare! Train it to know it!
    1
  20. Everybody thinks everybody knows what consciousness is! It's one term philosopher's would be wise to DEFINE with great care! Similarly, the notion of "imagination" deserves definition, elaboration. The casual use of such terms muddies the waters.
    1
  21. If I remember correctly, Christ said, "Resist evil", not "overcome" it, nor "integrate" it, though, learning to resist it we may, both, overcome and integrate it, as a side-effect. The point of resistance is to hold it at bay long enough to establish a barrier region by which to modulate its pressure. By correct modulation you can USE it as a sort of energy source. By incorrect modulation you can create monsters that use YOU!
    1
  22. The "dialogical element" is the process of the Ouroboros, the snake eating its tail, the dog chasing his tail. The mental churn that usually passes for thinking is a view on a chain of associations composed of one association triggering another, repeatedly, in FLASHES of awareness.
    1
  23. On the contrary, Jordan, the majority of people easily agree what a "woman" is! However, the miniscule minority opinion on this point is entrenched in high profile, yielding to an observer the impression the minority is very large. The attribution of moral authority to this minority is a logical error. Now is never the time for exasperation-driven exaggeration, Jordan.
    1
  24. God is the cosmic clock, ticking off the moments for all of existence, setting speed limits, governing rates of change. "Eternity" is the temporally-rarified space around the throne of God, so to speak, where time appears to disappear because the space between moments is so small--the time between "ticks" of the cosmic clock is the shortest possible time--virtually nothing in existence can change as fast as one tick. God is the source of Intelligence: a function of intelligence is the speed with which you can change your full attention from one thing to the next--how quickly you can "vibrate". The more quickly you can do this the more intelligent you must be.
    1
  25. The next time you're "upset", turn one corner of your mouth up ever so slightly, and gently laugh. Spell broken!
    1
  26. The liar believes in the illusion of deception...the notion that "falsehood" can be somehow "real". This delusion renders every facet of his existence with a degree of uncertainty, unreliability, deceptiveness. The effect on thinking/knowing is utterly disastrous, as every realization brings a ghost upon its heels, the haunting of the inability to be certain of even one single thing. This must be the beginning state of "anxiety"...a sort of psychological vertigo, where the world of awareness is constantly spinning...though, perhaps, not utterly incoherent in its rotation...
    1
  27. "Why is there life?" It must be a complexification that improves efficiency.
    1
  28. "You can't be sane by yourself", Jordan says; it's a social thing. That defines sanity interestingly as relating solely to sociocultural standards. That's not how "sanity" is defined in my estimation...maybe the third or fourth listed definition. Do societies need to be "rational"?
    1
  29. Take the leap, Jordan: metaphysical psychology! Imagination is the unique creative capacity to form the World. Continuously operative, its direction makes every difference! Metaphysical psychology is about providing that direction--deliberately, purposefully, and personally.
    1
  30. I've found it useful to reiterate, in the style of an "echo", every instance of awareness as it occurs. If any "thoughts" arise, follow them to their completion through a process of grammatically correct articulation. Tie up all loose ends. The initial resistance to this process is...instructive...
    1
  31. Jim's an extraordinarily difficult interview subject! Jordan seemed a bit perplexed by Jim's penchant for fizzling interjection. Jonathan tried to help Jordan's assertiveness by his example in persisting through Jim's interjections. As the interaction progressed exchanges became somewhat more gracious, efficient, though.
    1
  32. The fear of death is instinctual, with links to the unknown and pain, in accordance with the individual's experience. Mostly, we don't really understand the depth and breadth of our fragility. A hidden physiological defect may end a life at any moment. But we are driven to understand/experience life's backdrop, death.
    1
  33.  @omowhanre  <--No, it doesn't matter which "sect". The "higher-order unity" Jordan mentioned must be his way of recognizing the unity of the deity as distinct from its trinity. The "mystery" I referred to is that there is no actual distinction--the three ARE the ONE. Such mysteries serve the same purpose as a Zen koan: to avoid the snare of trusting too much in the mind, and the machinations of reason..."How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
    1
  34. "Purpose" is the "story"...the "core issue"...
    1
  35. Ouch! Quite rightly lambasted! You've identified the heart of "systemic racism"! The left can't let you rest, now...You're a bit of a lightning rod for the awakened in battling the woke...
    1
  36. We do what we do in order to have the experience we need in order to learn what we need to know. This process is the "Gift of Spirit" we each possess. The details of the process are unique to each of us, though.
    1
  37. "A field of affordances"? Ah, jeez...everybody develops his own private vocabulary; and academics write books about their private vocabulary, USING their private vocabulary. Defined as the quality or property of an object that defines its possible uses or makes clear how it can or should be used, "affordance" is not a meaningful word from my perspective. "The possible uses of an object" cannot be inherent in the object! For one thing, "uses" can't be possessed by the object. For another thing, judging what is "possible" is a function of intelligence, and objects don't possess intelligence.
    1
  38. How mechanical are these "language models"? Is meaning, then, merely probabilistic?!
    1
  39. The "metaphysic" you're looking for is "reincarnation". Without such a conception, even "purpose" is purposeless. Without such a conception, life is pointless, beyond its simple fulfillment. The mere perpetuation of life is valueless, in the human context. It demeans consciousness, itself.
    1
  40. Biblical "fear" is reasonably translated as, "awe", "respect", more than "mortal trepidation". In pondering the limitless greatness of God we experience this awe, a sort of hyper-attentive vacancy of intention into which flows a sense of identification of the features of this awesomeness, into a fuller concept of God.
    1
  41. The human birth event is far more consequential than Keller's "error reduction" AI. Jordan gets to the point of AI's inherent inability to "desire" and the whole matter of motivation. The organic basis of human motivation is experience simply not available to AI. Imitating human behavior, the AI must ultimately fail. What will be the result of this failure!?
    1
  42. The physical level of reality is the sphere of force resolution: the laws of physical reality guarantee the correct outcome, whatever it may be, with perfect equanimity. That fact should be a great comfort. Power has no choice in its resolutions--Nature is the decider. Self-sacrifice would seem strictly unnatural; Nature should mostly prohibit it. But the belief in an afterlife mitigates against the urgency of the "instinct to survive", thereby allowing the unnatural action. Indeed, the expectation of continuance beyond physical death enables a vast variety of unnatural actions. 😩
    1
  43. At 18:40--Jordan's starting to speak my language: "...the hierarchy of attention you bring to bear on it, and so your intent"...he goes on to be quite correct. The dynamic interplay of attention and intention IS awareness, which Jordan might call "consciousness", where, to me, consciousness is the tendency for association. Awareness is very much the Tao, as attention is the yin and intention the yang. This is the origin of the direction of our internal lives under the auspices of IMAGINATION, the seat of spirit.
    1
  44. Every "problem" stems from a rational inconsistency, some comparison has yielded contradictory valuations. Comparison establishes relation. A pattern of relations appears as comparisons proceed. "Pattern" is "image"...is "symbol". The look of the pattern resembles something, associates with that thing, and attaches to the pattern symbolically. As this pattern develops, novel appearances of the pattern present.
    1
  45. The "Rubber Arm" phenomenon is a hypnotic affect. It's not an "illusion", though! 😉
    1
  46. At 6:50, Jordan says, "The emotional functions that fill us with enthusiasm and hope and also the emotional functions that quell anxiety and despair are related to our apprehension of sequential goals." His use of the term, "apprehension", is problematic: first definition, "fearful or uneasy anticipation of the future"; third, "understanding". Fortunately, I'd like to focus on the earlier part of the statement where we find the idea that there are "emotional functions"; and they can fill us with enthusiasm, hope, as well as QUELL anxiety and despair. A casual search turned up only "function of emotion" stuff. At any rate, I don't get it. What is it that fills us and quells us? An "emotional function"...sounds like a fancier variable name than "x, the unknown"...hehehe. The fact is you can generate the emotional values you wish at any time--it's the actor's art. You don't need an intermediary emotional "function" to act for you. The emotional/mental distinction is mistaken in modern "psychology".
    1
  47. C'mon, you've gotta be able to discriminate between a principle and an expression of that principle. Hierarchy is a natural principle which manifests "Order". You simply CANNOT oppose the hierarchical principle rationally. You can oppose particular manifestations of the principle; corruption of the manifestation is not a corruption of the principle. It's the flip side of "correlation is not causation": it's just not the fault of the principle of hierarchy that a given manifestation/application of the principle is corrupt. Oh, and, just for you, MAGA!
    1
  48. "Order" and "success", as ideas, are as apples to oranges: only tangentially related. "Short term success is meaningless if the end result is failure" is a baseless assertion: "short term" is undefined; what "end result"--success is success, how does success retroactively become failure at some "future" time; "meaningless" is impossible! How can any identifiable thing be meaningless?!! The identification itself supplies meaning. Your further statements are similarly baseless assertions. And you ask if I can give you a "long term" (what's that?) "successful" (what's that?) example of a hierarchy that "stands alone" (what's that?), as if there would be value in providing such, while, actually, you mean to simply assert that no such example exists, and, therefore, "hierarchy" must be a deficient notion deserving of (what?) destruction, derision. Examples of the expression of the natural principle of hierarchy can not implicate the principle itself. Get real.
    1
  49. In this case, substitution of equivalent terms yields a meaning not inconsistent with the original; but not identical, either. In virtually all cases, a synonym is subtly different in meaning, and will alter some aspect of the possible interpretation of the sentence. In this case I don't object to system=order=hierarchy. But "success" seems out of order to me; I have no idea what value this term is meant to convey in this context. I don't see the value in denigrating a system just because it fails to endure eternally--that's, to me, an unrealistic expectation. Only the principles endure eternally. The expressions endure according to their natures: maybe some eternally, but not for the most part. That doesn't mean they weren't "successful". Time expresses through cyclicity, so anything time-dependent experiences cyclicity. Structure is a manifestation/expression of the principle of hierarchy/order/system. Ask yourself what elicits the impetus to expression.
    1
  50. Maybe it "can be all these things simultaneously" from different perspectives. The thing doesn't change in itself just because it appears differently from different angles. It makes the most sense to me that time should be a property of materiality--the denser the matter the slower the time frame expressed...a given "collapse" rate for a given density...
    1