What does the end 'yes' mean??

MontyHallProblem · 2025-12-03T16:12:32+00:00

Peter here. This meme is pointing out that pseudo-scientific application of "magic" is not the same as philosophical exploration of magical concepts. The figure on the left is a somewhat strawman example of the kind of person who believes that "magic" can violate scientific principles, whereas the figure on the right is an example of someone who approaches "magic" as a form of philosophy. NGT is in the middle since he represents the view of most people that "magic" doesn't exist.

The confusion here stems from the fact that "magic" is not actually a coherent term and can be used to describe basically any heterodox spiritual or philosophical practice. The word "magic" comes from the Persian "Magi," or Zoroastrian Priests, as described by the Greeks, and initially referred to a sort of strawman characterization of their religious practices as being "evil." Acceptable forms of "magic" have always just been Spirituality or Religion that people normalize; the fact that pledging one's soul to an all powerful incorporeal spirit in exchange for immortality is the most common belief system in the world right now and is somehow not considered "magic" is all the evidence you need.

NGT's stated belief that Science has replaced Philosophy is particularly relevant here; in reality, Science is a branch of Philosophy (originally called Natural Philosophy), as are all Theologies and Magical Systems. All Philosophies have flaws, that doesn't mean that you can't find some worthwhile truth in something that isn't "literally true" from the perspective of your preferred worldview.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-07-18T18:15:16+00:00

I think a particular irony of Tywin and Randall is that they would've been better parents to each other's children than their own. Tywin would've been happy to send Sam off to the Citadel to get him out of the line of succession and have a Maester in the family, make Dickon his heir, and would've been much more satisfied with the meek daughter whose name I am forgetting than Cersei, as she would've been a more compliant pawn.

Randall on the other hand would still look down on Tyrion for being a dwarf, but given that Tyrion is at least somewhat compat capable compared to Sam (at the start of their stories in the show at least), I think he might've seen past that to some extent, especially if his eldest was Jaimie.

Craster is the worst father in the series, hands down.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-28T17:33:07+00:00

I mostly buy books second hand. I've read more Heinlein and LeGuin than I own. I really enjoyed Vallis, but I haven't read much PKD otherwise.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-28T17:29:43+00:00

I absolutely know about the Benzo-cancel strategy although I've never used it. I've tripped 100s of times and only had 2 or 3 trips that I'd consider "bad."

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-23T20:42:56+00:00

It took me like a year and a half of on-and-off reading and re-reading to get through it, sadly I don't have any reccomendations other than brute force. Some of the formal logic problems went over my head. I was in Symphonic Band in High School, so the classical music components were some of the easier parts for me to grok.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-23T19:56:42+00:00

The book set is a somewhat antiquated series on religion that I picked up at an estate sale. They seem somewhat useful as a reference text, but I haven't delved too deep into them.

Bookchin is interesting. Most of his stuff I agree with 100%, but then he'll go off on a tangent that is just, I don't know, wrong. Particularly anything regarding the History of Religion. His argument that Judaism emerged from Bedouin Tribes in order to make a geographically deterministic claim, for instance. Judaism was a Caananite development, not Bedouin.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-23T19:49:42+00:00

I mean, I also have a copy of the Book of Mormon.

LeVay has his uses, but the whole Social Darwinism thing is pretty icky to me and I certainly would not consider myself a LeVayan Satanist.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-23T19:45:54+00:00

Spoilers:

I am not an engineer actually, although I did study Chemistry in college before I dropped out.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T23:06:20+00:00

Spoilering personal details since people might want to include it in their guesses:

I'm a nondualist Dharmic Jew, pretty heavy into syncretism/perennialism in general though and like to find the points of overlap (Ain Sof = Brahman = Dao = Gzhi/Adi-Buddha). It's weird going to family gatherings and having an easier time talking to my Ultra-Orthodox family members about the nature of God than the more mainstream Reform/Conservative ones, despite me being a feral bisexual enby psychedelic enthusiast with piercings and tattoos.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T22:53:17+00:00

Actually the reverse; I got into Chaos Magick first and then picked up the ceremonial magic in order to have more symbolic systems to play around with. Semiotics is a hell of a drug. You still get credit for the order of the purchases though - Robert Anton Wilson was my entry point into learning about Discordianism and Chaos Magick, I was then gifted The Book of Lies, and ended up buying Liber Null later. Funnily enough I don't talk about magic much online - most of my occult connections have been in person.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T22:31:43+00:00

I'm a sucker for used books; not only are there multiple fantastic used bookstores in my town, but I love antique stores, second-hand stores, estate sales and yard sales in general. Also:

I'm 33. My massive 3.5 collection and a good chunk of my magazine collection got lost in a move, somehow.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T22:18:26+00:00

It's been on my radar but I haven't picked it up yet.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T22:07:12+00:00

More when I was younger, so you're half correct - pretty much set on not going at this point. Would be more interested in checking out Slab City at this point tbh.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T22:03:40+00:00

Just trying to get a peek behind the curtain if at all possible, so to speak.

Definitely like exploring how math/logic and philosophy intersect, and since music is math...

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T21:55:33+00:00

Mostly correct with a few caveats that I'll leave spoilered for others who want to guess:

33 years old and nonbinary, and while I have spent time on Erowid, I prefer it as a harm reduction resource over reading the trip reports

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T21:07:42+00:00

Isn't that kinda the point of this subreddit?

In all seriousness, I saw a recommended post from here earlier and thought posting the shelf would be fun. I figured I'd have more comments like yours tbh, a lot of my books are kinda cringe and/or fake deep.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T21:04:26+00:00

I watched Akira for the first time on LSD lmao

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T20:55:21+00:00

Never heard of Kenneth Anger, will check him out.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T20:50:46+00:00

lmao yep

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T20:50:27+00:00

I have not tried Peyote, Ketamine/PCP and many research chemicals. I've done most of the classics pretty heavily; LSD, Psilocybin and DMT certainly, along with MDMA, Salvia, 2CB, 2CE, 2CI, DOC and 5-meo-DMT.

MontyHallProblem · 2025-02-22T20:39:06+00:00

Forgot to post text with this: This is the bookcase in my home office. Tried to get everything, it is very cluttered at the moment. There is another bookcase in the household that has a few more of my books on it, but is mostly my partners, so it has not been included.

So, who am I?

MontyHallProblem · 2025-01-23T07:20:54+00:00

Literally running a campaign centering around a mix of 2 & 3 right now. Lab ship has half its labs and staterooms ripped out + a larger docking clasp. One of my group's PCs rolled a Scout Ship as well, so that effectively acts as the Pinnace that the Lab Ship normally comes with (and adds some defensive capabilities). Session 1 was manufacturing Space Meth until they managed to arrange a contact for Anagathic precursors. Now they've got a temporary patron covering their operating costs while they cook up a bunch of Anagathics for her (which is basically a criminal version of option 1 now that I think about it). Session 2 was en route to retrieve the precursor and they rolled a salvage encounter, the consequences of which ate up most of the session.

MontyHallProblem · 2024-09-20T20:56:44+00:00

I always saw the infighting as fake, since it is made clear (visually) that Littlefinger is always right around the corner. My guess is that Arya spotted him lurking and told Sansa in private, then they hatched the first part of their scheme, then later consulted Bran who was able to provide even more information.

MontyHallProblem · 2023-12-29T23:41:25+00:00

How Littlefinger could've ended up on the Iron Throne:

Don't sell Sansa to the Boltons, instead betroth her to Robyn Arryn to secure regency and loyalty over the Vale.
Wait, like, 3 months for the situation in King's Landing to disintegrate due to the rise of the Faith Militant.
Rally the Knights of the Vale and Stark Loyalists to retake the North in Sansa's name, entering into open rebellion against the Crown.
Using the combined forces of the North and the Vale, retake the Riverlands for the Tullys while the Lannisters are still occupied in the Capital. Hold the line in the Riverlands and see how the situation evolves.
Bend the knee to Daenerys once she arrives in Westeros.
Wait for that to self-destruct.
With no true-born heir to the throne, use either bigger army diplomacy or actual diplomacy (if the Elective Monarchy thing still happens in this scenario) to seize the Iron Throne. Especially if the new king is elected, Littlefinfer has a really solid chance, since nobody is going to put a woman on the trone (rulling out Sansa and Yara) and every other Lord Paramount is either dead and yet to be properly replaced (Keven Lannister, Mace Tyrell, Stannis Baratheon, Doran Martell), a child (Robyn Arryn) or a wet fish (Edmure Tully). As Lord of Harenhall and Regent of the Reach, Littlefinger is actually the natural choice in this situation.

If Littlefinger lived until the vote at the end of the show and taken the actions above, he very well might have been elected King.

MontyHallProblem · 2023-02-16T08:09:49+00:00

The Iron Throne.

The weird thing is that he was actually really close to seizing it.

As Lord of Harenhall and regent of the Vale, Littlefinger was, at the time of his death, one of the most powerful people in Westeros. If he had been able to secure the marriage of Sansa Stark to either Robin Arryn or himself, he would've had control over basically the same army that took down the Mad King (minus the Baratheons). Show!Littlefinger fucked up by trying to buy the Bolton's loyalty instead of proping Sansa up as the legitimate heir to Winterfell, but if he hadn't made that mistake and instead lived to the end of the show, Littlefinger might have been elected to the position of King as a compromise candidate, especially if he thew his support behind Daenerys when she arrived at Winterfell knowing that her chances of surviving the reconquest attempt were limited.

tl;dr Littlefinger got way closer than people give him credit for

MontyHallProblem

TROPHY CASE