Ready, Set, Think!
is an internet blog devoted to discussion about psychological phenomenon, social commentary, and criticism of many patterns in modern society. The blog asks philosophical questions, attempts to explain complex ideas and technologies in simple terms, and attempts to point out cognitive biases in everyday life. The writing style makes complex ideas easy to understand, but is sometimes too abstract to really be useful.
The blog is explicitly atheist, with the main contributor having a background in computer science and frequently talking about how technology and Artifical Intelligence might create a God in the future, but at the moment there is none.
Transhumanist elements and the simulation hypothesis are recurring topics, mostly because of the fact that those two topics are closely related to philosophy and technology, in which the author is clearly very interested.
Tropes:
- Above Good and Evil: Frequently mentions that the universe is this, and doesn't care about morality.
- Agree to Disagree: When describing the terrorist attack in May 2017 during the Ariana Grande Concert, it is invoked by complaining about how people just won't do that for the greater good."Even in situations where literally everyone agrees (except for the perpetrators I guess) that what happened was horrible, everyone quickly runs to their internet echo chamber to hear more about how this is the other side’s fault".
- At Least I Admit It: Whenever mentioning or discussing a cognitive bias, the author will say that they are also victim to this all the time, but at least they admit it.
- Ban on Politics: Since politics often bring flame wars and will usually make people angrier for no reason, the blog explicitly states that you should imagine their politically-neutral examples as examples that agree with your existing views, since this will get the point across more efficiently and also make it seem smarter to you.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: One of the more important things to understand about Artificial Superintelligence is that it doesn't hate you or love you. It just doesn't care. We are not significant enough to be worth protecting or killing, and we probably aren't even worthy of attempting to communicate with us. Also, the community seems to regard morality as necessary for the survival of an intelligent species like ours, but completely meaningless and arbitrary in the big picture.
- Fake Memories: Discussed in the Mandela Effect article."Do you think that jumping around infinite universes is more likely than you ever being wrong about a childhood memory of the spelling of a book about talking bears? I’d like to be that confident, but I just can’t shake the idea that my brain is not perfect."
- The Horseshoe Effect: Frequently mentioned and discussed.
- Humans Are Flawed: Often discussed, and seems to be the core belief of the blog. Any post mentioning this will usually include an explicit comment about the possibility of the author himself being flawed and therefore imagining the discussed flaws.
- Logical Fallacies: One of the main topics of discussion is how everybody is falling victim to them all the time, and there's no objective way (or no way to tell if a method is objective) of figuring out when you are currently wrong because of one.
- Take That Me: Often mentioning their own blog as an example of something unpopular, worthless or stupid."When we run out of food, water or heat, we no longer have time to think about philosophical questions and post them on our blog to feel good about our own intelligence.""Even if reading this blog is not the most efficient or pleasant use of your time, you should keep doing it. I didn’t come up with a credible-sounding reason for that yet, but I’m sure there is one." - At the end of the post explaining the best way to use your limited amount of time alive.
- Transhumanism: Discussed as not only a perfectly valid way of surviving as individuals and as a species, but also sometimes described as our only real chance to survive the rise of Artificial Intelligence.
