Tom Daniel D

@Zweistein I guess what you mean by alone is working without an organization of people, but possible still collaborating. This is certainly an interesting idea. I do have a hard time seeing how this approach could have a rapid positive impact. It's the unification and working together towards a well defined vision that achieves the vision effectively. In the startup world you either band together and work towards the vision extremely focused with very tight feedback loops, or you die. Ego itself is not entirely a bad thing, as it serves a purpose. However I believe we will evolve beyond its purpose when we have matured enough as a species to realize we don't need it anymore. Just as the ego has a purpose, so does the collective ego to guarantee survival. If we think of humanity as an organism, there are collective systems that cannot die or humanity will stop evolving and adapting to the ever-changing cosmos. These collective systems within humanity are analogous to the organs of the body, serving a purpose for the entire population that creates the single organism. Ego is currently what keeps the systems of society together and functioning in harmony with itself. In order for humanity to maintain the organism that its seemingly meant to be, our individual systems must begin to work together in harmony just as well as all of the components of our bodies. I guess the big question is, is this possible without ego? I suspect it is only when us individual humans have outgrown our own egos. So for now we must work within the current framework, or Spiral Dynamic level, in order to have a sustaining positive impact. Another extremely important aspect of a successful system is diversity itself. Diversity allows for innovation and adaptability. When you get a group of the right people together, it is more powerful and effective than any individual partly because of diversity. I think an organization with the right foundational principles is able to protect it from corruption. Perhaps blockchain is an effective approach to power distribution in order to mitigate a coup from corruption. I am really inspired by the open source software community. Much of the Internet runs of open source software. What's the most effective way to drive forward progress towards a vision in the most equally distributed way possible?

@Xenomorf Any updates? I am curious of what you meant.

I definitely am taking the effective altruism approach. I had to look it up to refresh my memory, but I think the first time I heard the term was a podcast with William MacAskill. The question that I continue asking and revising the answer to is, "How do we achieve the most positive influence in the Universe"? One thing that must be answered is if life is even good or is that perspective just an evolutionary manifestation. I believe that life is good but I do not have any evidence to turn that belief into actual understanding. For now I can only follow my heart on this one. Let's just assume that life is good. Resting upon that assumption, I believe that extreme suffering must be reduced for all that can experience it. This is not limited to humans, but to anything that can experience suffering. Focus should be prioritized based on the intensity or capacity for suffering. If one dolphin has the capacity to experience more suffering than 1000 humans, then that dolphin should get the priority. Why should suffering be prioritized only by the form it manifests itself in? However, since humans are essentially an organism than we must have more focus on fixing ourselves through society. We should focus on ourselves as a whole just as us as individuals should focus on ourselves before focusing too much on that outside of ourself. We must radiate positivity into humanity by first fixing ourselves individually. Humanity must radiate positivity into the Universe by first fixing itself as an organism. Even while we are working to fix ourselves individually it's a continuous process. While we work on ourself we can still use some resources to produce good outside of ourself. There's a balance to be found there. I am currently focusing intensely on resource building, financial and social, because I believe the more intense focus right now will have a greater impact in the future than having not built these resources. On the side I am working on myself and starting to reach out to build a like-minded network. I plan to slowly shift my focus from resource building heavily over to self development, contemplation, and think tank building to use the resources in the most effective way. Our society is at a point where corporations have the most power out of any type of system in our society. Therefore we should use corporate principles to build a system that has great power to influence society. However, power to control the most powerful systems in society MUST be distributed or else we are back to square one. We should use all practical tools at hand to spread positivity. I cannot see a reason to not use the same tactics that Russia used to influence our election, but for the right causes instead. Anything else is just waisting time and energy while extreme suffering continues. A huge problem though is if such a positive machine was created based on corporate principles, psychological manipulation, etc, to have great influence on society, then how do we prevent concentrated corrupt power from taking control of it eventually? I think this is the real problem that must be solved. Discovering a way to prevent corrupt egos from gaining power. There are so many questions that need to be answered. I am thinking that a powerful system could be created that in turn establishes a distributed system that still has power to influence. Perhaps creating a standard organization to study, develop, and then implement a distributed system of positive influence. For example, build an insanely profitable corporation on the scale of Apple, Google, etc, and then use all extra resources for R&D of a new government and the building of a better society. Then begin to integrate the better system into the wild slowly. Performing rapid testing and feedback. Slowly evolve the system until it works well. There is no reason that once such a system worked well enough, then our current governments would have no reason to exist any longer. They surely wouldn't go down without a fight though, but I think they could be starved of funding or something. Just like Leo mentioned, all systems develop their own macroscopic egos and even departments of larger systems of their own egos. These egos come with self preservation instincts. Anyway, I think I am rambling now. Let's work out the problems together everyone!

@Xenomorf I am not offended or discouraged at all. I don't quite understand what you mean by managing love or the subtleness of believing in good/bad to the extent that you sacrifice too much. Could you please elaborate? From a dualistic perspective, I do believe that humanity, nature, and earth should continue to grown into a singular organism. Society should begin to function as well as individual living organisms already do. We are the cells forming a more macroscopic organism, we just aren't cooperating as well as the cells of our own bodies. Surely we aren't the only organisms in this Universe on the same path. Maybe organisms grow into infinity both micro and macroscopically. Maybe we'll merge into an even higher organism with an alien organism. I can only dream... haha. I really admire your mission to unify Science and Spirituality. I think science has turned a blind eye to the intuitive side of things. Yin needs Yang and vice versa. Humans usually find some sort of truth before science is able to explain it in any materialistic capacity. I don't have enough experience with nonduelism yet to deeply grasp spirituality. Just some hints of experiences. Yeah, I am a programmer. Actually I am focusing on AI. I want to be part of using it for good and mitigating its dangers, because whether we like it or not, it's already impacting our society. It will be the most powerful tool humans have found. Maybe, eventually, even the new brain for our Earth organism .

@Robert Thanks! I'll do my best. Truth in it's most pure form is what I really strive to understand, otherwise I am just deluded chasing my tail. I will continue to explore, learn, and develop myself. Also, I am saying this out of purely good intentions, but your comments do come off as a bit egotistical. I am not judging, but it's just the perspective I naturally received and others seem to have received. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing yourself in this conversation

Wow. Thanks everyone for all of the responses! I really appreciate the time everyone took to give such thoughtful answers. Sorry to have been so distant. There is a lot of argument about what is real and not real and what real even means. So what is real? Whatever is happening right now in this moment. I think the answer is as simple as that. Someone that is schizophrenic is having an absolute real experience in their own perspective, it's just not the same experience that the rest of us are having. I think we easily confuse the difference between real experience that is personal and objective experience. All experience is real, just not shared. If this is all a dream then why bother making sacrifices to change it right? The question I care to understand is am I the only sentient agent experiencing this so called dream, or am I having a shared dream with other sentient agents? If everyone that I perceive as a sentient agent is only a hallucination and has no actual perceptual experience, then yes, I am completely waisting my time and shouldn't think about "them", for they are only a simulation. On the other hand, if I am having a shared dream experience with other sentient beings, then this means their suffering is as true as my own suffering. So why should I let other sentient beings suffer immensely if I might be able to do something about it? That pain is certainly real because I have experienced it. If I wish to not experience extreme suffering for myself, then I should also wish for others to not experience it as well. Just because I am not experiencing the suffering of others outside of my own bubble of consciousness, doesn't mean that other conscious bubbles' suffering is less important than my own, because it still occurs "out there" to the same intensity as my own, or even more.

This is my first post here. After watching Leo on YouTube for a while I feel like this is the right community to get some feedback. To start off, I am compelled from the depths of my soul to do whatever I can to have as much of a positive impact on humanity as possible and beyond to all sentience that exists. After overcoming the depths of hell in my own life I just can't sit around while I know so many others are experiencing the same hell. Then I realize suffering to a certain degree is required for growth itself. Mentally and physically it builds resilience and character. Suffering is a mechanism of evolution and a pillar to life itself. Adversity is the mother of virtue, of beauty. We also seem to exist in this reality between a particular balance of order and chaos. There are optimal balances to everything, which includes suffering. So I think humanity should move in a direction of reducing extreme suffering, but not suffering altogether. Basically there is a tipping point of suffering that disturbs the optimal range of balance. Okay great, it seems like I am on the right path... but wait. I want to do what is good, but good is only defined by our evolutionary context, forged out of the desire for survival. Basically all things that we call good are centrally based on our survival instincts created by evolution itself. All things that we think or feel are bad are just factors related to death. Good and bad seem to rest upon complete subjectivity and have no distinction outside evolution. Well, there's also the meaning of life. I should just live true to my life purpose, which I define as following my heart while maintaining balance. Not falling too far into a cycle of chasing desire. My heart tells me I can be part of transforming humanity into the best it can be (Just part of the process. I really don't want to sound egoic here. Please correct me if I come off in a negative way). What if humans are actually a bad thing in the Universe in the end? Hell, we are fucking up this planet beyond repair. We are currently a cancer. At this point my heart is only a puppet of evolution itself to serve its purpose. Decreasing suffering in humanity is going to be a lot of damn work. This will and is requiring tremendous sacrifice. My current conclusion is that I should still follow my heart, do a lot of hard work, make the required sacrifices, but in doing so also have enough of a balance where I am enjoying life through the process. Then accept the fact that what I don't sacrifice and give to myself will just mean I allowed some people to endure extreme suffering. What does everyone think? Next up, let's discuss what steps are needed to actualize humanity. I have been thinking about it and pursing it in some fashion for years, but I am reaching a stage where I want to start discussing this with like minded people. In the end nothing will happen until we all come together towards a common pursuit with a common strategy.