Those of us who prefer to be on the outside looking in are not generally the most popular. Old Testament apocrypha vilify the "Watchers" as creeper angels who decide human women are hot, leave heaven, and get with as many of them as possible. This creates the Nephilim, whose existence is at least part of the reason God sends the Flood to reboot the Earth. Of course, depending on the story, the Watchers are also the ones who teach humanity various sorts of forbidden knowledge, a la Prometheus.

There's something to both ideas. We are different, and sometimes not in a good way. Rejecting people and "society" broadly can be an excuse for either not being comfortable in one's skin and/or not being willing to accept those negative traits that make other people not want to be around. I have no comment on whether I may or may not be a creeper. At the same time, different experiences and a different perspective on things can also be valuable.

Nonetheless, I do hope that I can offer some kind of insight that someone will at some point find useful. I don't really have a niche to speak of; unfortunately I tend to lose interest in something long before I can do any kind of deep dive. To the extent I have a consistent interest, it's usually looking at something people say or do and then trying to think about what assumptions underlie it. We tend to divide the world up in specific ways, and it's not something we pay attention to as much as we should. We're always doing some kind of Riemann sum on the universe, but without the ability to use infinite parts. I expect Hume will come up a lot.

m15o

We're always doing some kind of Riemann sum on the universe, but without the ability to use infinite parts.

This is a very poignant statement, and I've never thought about it that way. Great perspective.

At the same time, different experiences and a different perspective on things can also be valuable.

It's hard sometimes to hear other perspective, to be challenged. Depending on one's mindset, it can either motivate or demotivate you. Be knowledge is a strong asset.

By the way, love what you did with your homepage, zampano!

zampano

This is a very poignant statement, and I've never thought about it that way. Great perspective.

Thanks very much, I appreciate that.

I'm somewhat agnostic on knowledge's power. Not in the "ignorance is bliss" sense, but I'm finding it increasingly hard to avoid the realization about how far beyond us the universe, even our own small parts of it, really is. I often think that God laughs at our plans the way we laugh at the very serious things that small children do.

By the way, love what you did with your homepage, zampano!

Thanks once more. I much prefer a [minimalistic](https://thebestmotherfucking.website/) style to web pages, and usually light on dark while I'm at it. If only I didn't have to use Google for the font embed....

m15o

Haha "thebestmotherfuckingwebsite" and all the other ones are spot on. Loved what you wrote on cyberpunk [1] by the way. For some reason, I got passionate about cyberpunk a few month ago and started to read as much on the topic as I could. The fact that cyberpunk in literature happens in 2020 makes it incredibly exciting, because it's happening now.

[1]: https://zampano.midnight.pub/elegyforcyberpunk.html

zampano

I've definitely been a fan for a long time, although I don't pretend to any literary insight necessarily.

it's happening now

Sort of, although as I wrote, I'm not sure it's happening in the ways we would like.

brewed

“Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point.” The idea is that, over time, increasingly powerful technology will be in the hands of everyday people. It’s kind of like the cliché about how we all walk around with smartphones that are orders of magnitude more powerful and capable than the computers used to send people to the Moon.

It's mind-blowing when we think about it. As much as technology progresses, humans stay human, for better or worse. It's like our capabilities as individual grow exponentially until they don't anymore.

zampano

Yep. The way I think about it, we're adolescents as a species; we have a lot more power than we used to, but haven't learned how to be responsible with it yet.

Through the windows