ColdWontRise

Actions arent inherently bad, only the reasons. Drinking alcohol is bad if your reason is to dull your senses. Drinking alcohol is good if it accentuates a good mood and is in the spirit of celebration.

Its not a matter of whether it is irrational to believe in a god, but why she cant find strength, security, comfort or what as a result of her own ability to live. Confidence is derived from ones efficacy in dealing with reality. They are trying to derive it from nothing at all.

Part of the problem is that kids learn from an early age that reason and logic are not effective means to deal with most people. This is especially true of parents who selectively listen to reason. The extent of the parents' philosophical bankrupcy is the exent to which the children can be crippled. When children are forced to opperate irrationally, their mind becomes polluted, incapable of doing or even desiring productive work. Or even productive play. As a youngster, my parents were fairly reasonable, so I turned out all right. I spent the vast majority of my childhood doing creative things. Mainly playing with legos/knex, painting, drawing, playing piano. I was taught that using your mind is good and effective and right, not even directly, but by watching reason in action.

Your own lack of percetion is not proof of something's non-existence The universe acts in a certain, concrete way. Everything is "relative" but the nature of its relativity is concrete and consistent. Hell, his first postulate of special relativity is that physics is the same in all frames of reference. They should be the ones reading up on Einstein.

I think the ammount reason played in the culture's survival is directly related to how prevalent reason was in their culture. If a society had to develope conplex social structures and products for mere survival in the winter, there was more motivation for a society to center around reason. If you raise a child in an environment with barely anything for his conscious to latch onto spare very simple surroundings, he wont rationally develope as much as a child raised around lots of appropriate books, legos, or even the possibility of physical activity in the form of sports and games. The motivation must present itself in order for a being to grow. Organisms dont evolve on a whim, they evolve because they must.

I know the struggle that people experience when dealing with someone who isnt open to reason. It seems wrong to just accept that they are unreasonable. I want to understand exactly what they are doing, and act accordingly, even if it is ignoring them. To help this along, use the best of your knowledge to look at the full meaning of what they are saying. It is easy to help them disguise the nature of what they say. Question everything, and very importantly: ask them to define their terms. Not just a simple dictionary definition, but a few examples illustrating the term. The reason for this is terms like purpose, reason, rights and others are very complicated and layered concepts (though untimately definable down to a T) that should be very well understood before any sort of debate ensues.

If a bully walked up to you and accused you of not having any legs, then started to laugh histerically, you would probably shrug it off as nonsense. The ammount of truth in an insult, and your attitude toward that truth affects your reaction. If you are "insulted" for a quality that you are proud of (selfishness, for example) again, you shrug it off contemptuously. When you have a character empty of elements you feel less than proud of, you are immune to any insult.

An Atlas Shrugged DVD series? Can you say NetFlicks? But, I can totally see Brad Pitt as Galt, or Ragnar. They need a resonatingly confident and masculine appearance, which Pitt could handle. Bale would pull this of too.

Id check out how those fossils hold up to carbon dating. And as for the evolution of the mind, a thing can only evolve if the fittest survive. We live in a society where its quite the opposite, most everyone survives and can proliferate.

This is why I feel guilty getting any kind of job. Id want nothing more to produce and create. And would be damn good at it, too. In Atlas Shrugged, they disapeared to the valley and abandoned the other world, and let it burn itself out, solving the problem. Rand's solution would have worked around the time she wrote the book. It couldnt now. Essentially we are trapped. Black markets or underground societies couldnt last long, with the methods of survelance and information transfer in use today. There are also too many half-ways, people who produce a lot but couldnt leave the world behind, or (allow themselves to) understand why they should.

I cant stand it. I havent, and I wont. I want my city back! (bosstones song) Youll find that the better you become, the more they will hate you. They see you, and it shows them what they gave up on, what they decided not to become. Not in the sense of careers or specific goals, but in terms of standards. They dont want to win, they want you to lose.

The problem youre having is "why dont they get it too?" or "It makes sense, why cant I make them understand?" Most people throw themselves at anyone who tells them that they are ok, that the things they know to be wrong about themselves are all right. The loneliness is because most people have given up, and theyll die before they submit to reason. This means that they will resort to any form of nihilistic response in order to get you to lose. They dont want to win; they want you to lose. As Ayn Rand puts it: "those who deny reason cannot be conquered by it." When someone acts like this, their goal isnt to prove a fact, but to evade one. You can see this occuring when you convict a child of doing soemthing they are guilty of; they arent very good at hiding it. Not yet. Its easy to see intuitively what they are hiding. The reason for this is that you are not guilty of it, or approving of the action within yourself. You will find that the more you improve your thinking and character, the more flaws you see clearly in others. As to your friends, and what you should do: dont give in. If you want to know what happens when you do, look at what they are. When someone doesnt accept something that you know makes perfect sense, no matter how clearly you articulate your point, they dont want to get better. "Well thats just the way I am" or "Thats just my opinion" are common subjectivist rationales youll hear. Watch what happens when you stop arguing, and ignore them. It will start to sound like begging. As long as you set truth and reason as your standard, and stop at nothing to be right, you arent one of them.

This sounds remarkably like the first 18 years of my life, right down to taking a year off after a crappy first semester. I was confused and depressed all of the time, and other people were the object of my motivation. Obviously I was miserable as well. Without a suitable understanding of the nature of reality and of the mind, you are basically doomed to being on autopilot. For some people who were raised well or who effectively raised themselves, this doesnt matter. Thinking is a skill, which is to say that it must be learned. Its also nessesary for living, and living happily. Trying to teach yourself to think is like a bird teaching itself to fly, when it needs flight to stay alive long enough to learn. When you give up on learning, when you forgo thinking, when you accept defeat when it is you whove won by right, then youve put a knot in your brain. For most people, this happens a whole lot when they are younger. Some people break under a small ammount of pressure, others take more. These desisions and doubts dont fix themselves, they become very real and very stubborn elements of your character. The people around you? They have them too. There is a difference between you and them, though. You want a way out, they dont. As for seeing yourself in the evil characters, question what makes them evil. What exactly are they doing? Are they naming facts, or avoiding them? Are they trying to break someone? Life doesnt have to be like Peter Keatings, or any of the other characters. The reality is that it takes a lot of work to get yourself whole again. Your mind is a road map right now, but several of the cities are swaped, some dont exist. Locally the roads are fine, but any long distance travel between concepts gets you terribly lost. Zoom out, check out the big picture. Dont try to fix everything at once, you need to set up a system of rules with yourself and comb through your mind. When trying to change yourself, youll often find that a whole bunch of other things need to change as well, as in a ripple effect. There are going to be a lot of things that youll have to give up, things that you never really had to start with. If you want to get physically fit, you will need to make a ton of changes to your life style, eating habits, sleep schedual, among other things. If you want to feel serene in a croud of 10000 you need to be ruthlessly rational with the people in your life, including yourself. You cant have your cake and eat it too; you cant be awesome at life without doing the very things that make your character so strong. A is A. Think about the things that you love to see or do. Anything that arouses any kind of enjoyment, think about memories that make you happy, and analyze their cause. Make it your goal, if you dont do it automatically. Become what you love. Dont make it a duty to change, do it because it makes sense to do. Odds are your approach to the problem is wrong, which is why it is frustrating and seemingly impossible. Check your premises. Take solice in the fact that contradictions dont exist, and they dont have to in your mind.

That will only work when he understands why he should feel indifferent, if he should.

Except the human race, which has exceded at this in the past, it seems. Im sure several of the first bacteria werent much better at this, but at least our existence is volitional.

I am very active in physical self improvement, for a variety of reasons. First, I enjoy the human figure, I love my body. Im curious to all the things Ill physically be able to do, so I increase my strength, speed and flexibility as much as I can. Having an increased metabolism accompanied with a good diet can improve mental health, energy levels, and overal functioning throughout the day. Second: self defense. I dont lie to people, which means that generally they can get very angry at me (and have). I want to know my body and its limitations. I want to know how and where to move, and what to do to protect myself. I want as few limitations as possible, as this allows me more flexibility (literally) in a tight situation. Third: Pure functionality. Being able to lift something really heavy is quite useful, as is running/biking somewhere as a means of travel in a pinch can be quite useful. With weight lifting and stretching, you can perform actions that would otherwise be impossible. Ive caught falling glasses mid air with an instants notice, crawled through a crawlspace with about 2 feet of clearance only getting my hands and toes dirty, and fallen into a pushup when tripping on something without scraping my hands. When you are physically active, you cant help but know and trust your body. You cant help but remember how long you can hold your body up in certain positions, how high you can climb, how far you can throw, etc. If youre interested in being alive, I see no reason why you wouldnt want to improve your physical health, or at least maintain it. Why be good, when you can be better? --- If youre interested in what you can do to improve yourself try this for starters: This takes practice and patience, but can be very benefitial for your reflexes. Get a ball that is quite bouncy, and find a wall. Sit in a chair, and bounce the ball so it hits the wall, the floor, then comes back up at you. At first, get used to catching it. Take note of your hand, which hand you use, where you move it. Learn to anticipate, concentrate on getting as good as you can at catching the ball. After you master this, close your eyes, and open them only after you hear the second bounce. This will force you to react faster and more precisely. Again, anticpate. Put your hand where the ball will be, instead of where it is. Grasp it out of the air, move your arm with its movement to ensure your grasp. Do this every day, twice a day if you please. Make it part of your daily routine. Be creative, making the situation more challanging. In time, watch how much more efficiently you use your hands, in all tasks. Its an addiction =D --

Ive been in a situation similar to this. Very recently a girl Ive known and loved for 3 years left me for another guy. Our relationship and friendship had been on and off over the years, which initially began as an intense 2 month relationship. Through the years, weve dated other people, but she was always in the back of my mind. Id date other people and think "they arent as good as her." Finally as we grew as people, we really started to go head over heels for eachother again. It was around the time I started reading Atlas Shrugged, so we learned a lot from eachother, especially when she began to read as well. However, as we learned more, we became more aware of eachothers faults and their nature. When we understood them, we stopped sanctioning them in eachother. Some days Id be "on it" and quite ruthless about it, other days, she would. She met someone who was a natural, someone who was raised right and had very few false premises in their character. She went for them, as she had more to gain from him than I. Most people, when a relationship ends, try to ignor the problem, rather than analyze its cause. Filling the gap with someone else does NOT fix the problem. The relief you have is generally an excuse to ignor your problem. The rationale is "someone really values me, I couldnt be that bad." Generally people have some very nice qualities, but at the root of them there are contradictory premises. At first you may be adored by someone, but as things develope, people become more exposed. This method is like fixing a leak by bailing the water. Recollect situations and converstions you have had in the past, reread online conversations (if you have logging) and look at what was motivating you to say what you said. Same goes for them. What were you thinking about? What facts were you/they avoiding? Often that rotten feeling you get is when someone calls you on what youre trying to do. Other times they may have tried to wear you down emotionally, to make you feel guilty for things you did right. Dont go on the premise that you wont find anything wrong with your actions, quick way to get a self-fufilling prophecy. Analyze your actions as you would a math problem, be willing to make any changes that are nessesary. Sometimes making a change in your character involves changing a whole slew of other things that are barely related. Cant have your cake and eat it too, though. In my time without her, Ive grown far more than I would without her. I looked at my problems, some of which Ive carried since childhood, deeply analyzed exactly which of my actions were causing the self-denial later on, then I figured out what motivated those actions, etc. Im still on this quest, but the point is that you must be ruthlessly rational with yourself. You may have a few really bad nights, but ultimately you find that none of the pain is nessesary.

The way the brain is organized, it lets its function transcend matter without actually violating the laws of physics. As a brain develops into a mind, it makes physical changes within it that are not a function of the cells themselves, but on the outside world and it's interactions with it. Its like a black and white photo, something that would be impossible to occur 'naturally;' what the picture is of is whatever the person took it of, what the paper is comprised of may be materials specifically gathered from around the globe. That particular organization of matter in the photograph would have been impossible without something to guide it. Its true that the photo is made of all physical elements, none contradicting the laws of reality, but the way they are organized is impossible via the normally entropic workings of nature. The mind is similar; its creation is a product of so many various events that occur outside the physical nature of the brain, whether they are on pure chance or guided by the nature of the mind/brain up to that point. Looking at that photograph changes and adds memories, possibly my concept of photography, or maybe my knowledge of chemestry. Another example is of pond, where a stick is blown from a tall tree into the water. The ripples of the water didnt occur spontaneously via the nature of water, but of the twig that splashed into it, an event caused by wind, caused by any number of weather effects. Somtimes (actually, most of the time) the nature of matter allows it to interact with other entities. The formation of life is essentially an entity whos nature is to preserve its existence, which began with some molecule that was self replicating by its nature. It survived simply because it could. Any molecule that couldnt reproduce itself obviously didnt last, just as there arent any species that act to their own destruction. Check out my "strange story about the universe" in the productivity section for a more vivid example of this occuring.

Essentially, the ultimate value of anything that can have values has to be the thing that makes the value possible (i.e. the valuer). Say my child is my ultimate value, and I only have enough money to keep one of us out of starvation. Logically, I cant let myself die, because then Im betraying my ultimate value; it is irrational to let myself die, it is logical to keep myself alive in order to provide for the ultimate value. However, in the situation where Id want to keep my child alive because my life without them wouldnt be worth living (Similar to the situation in Atlas, where Galt is tortured and threatened; hed rather die than live as a slave and betray the best in himself) Id provide for the child, serving my own ultimate value which is my life. Every value serves that which makes the value possible. Thats what a value is meant to maintain, the faculty of value.

If someone actually took my idea and built it, Id probably be more excited to see the working model. =D I havent met too many people who have actually gotten their head around the idea. As to that link, thats a very clever engine design. The one standard that I stuck to on my design is that there would be no occilating parts what so ever. Also, I tried to invent something where the direction of force is continually tangent to the axis. Ive seen no other design that comes close to this, spare the wankel, as most have some form of occilation. Mine has smooth (fixed speed) rotational motion. Ideally, it will be limited by surface friction between parts, and nothing else. Kind of works like a potato cannon, only the potato is fixed and the gun flies back =D

Im actually working on an animation for it, which will most likely clarify the idea. =D

I know. In my engine, the "piston" surface only continues in one direction, as the design lets it, without having to turn around again. I used it as a visual comparison to show why occilation isnt nessary, according to my design. If a piston didnt turn around, it would hit the top of the chamber and break. I made it so the top wall moves out of the way, so the piston could keep going up, and consequently a new piston comes in from the bottom.

Yes, theyd be spinning perpendicular to eachother, so it would have to be a tight seal but also have minimum friction. As long as the parts were made with enough precision (which is undoubtably possible *cough* Bugatti Veyron) and had well enough lubrication, then it should make each chamber air tight.

Elaborating on the idea of setting an ultimate value other than your own life: What if a value that eventually lead to your alternate ultimate value killed you? Your ultimate value is what you have decided to ultimately work for, but in order to, you have to stay alive. If the other is truely your ultimate value, i.e. you do whatever is absolutely logical to attain that end-in-itself value, then you must keep yourself alive in order to attain it. Even if this means feeding yourself in order to stay alive to even have values. Every value has to make sure that the entity it is benifiting stays around to have the faculty of value, essentially.

With the wheel moving, and thus the "walls" attached to the wheel moving also, they would normally crash into a stationary barrier, much like the top wall of a piston chamber in a normal car engine, so it has to turn back around, occilating. However, if it is a temporary wall, the piston could keep going up past it. Basically, the top wall (the separator wheel) moves out of the way of the "piston" wall. After it passes, the separator wheel spins back down into the chamber, again cutting the chamber in half. The combustion keeps pushing the wheel forward with each burn, like a hand pushing a wheel chair. The two separator wheels (look like rectangles, as viewed from the side) spin in a way that allows the wall to move under them, via the notch in the wheel (hopeflly the vaguely 3d drawing shows this =D). The compression occurs in the green section. The air in the chamber gets moved into a pressure tank near the engine, instead of remaning in a highly compressed state inside the engine. After the air is compressed in the tank, it dumps it into the combustion chamber, then is sealed off, allowing the combustion to occur. Heres an older 3d model I rendered. The only real difference is the orientation of the separator wheels in relation to the primary wheel. It would technically work both ways, but orienting the separator wheels in the middle would be more effient (less gears, less bulky engine) This may make mentally picturing the design easier, as the 2d drawings can be a bit fuzzy.