When my children were younger I wrote them a letter with my thoughts and beliefs so they could serve them as a guidance in life.
Below, I transcribe the original letter and, where appropriate, I add updates to my thoughts and beliefs after ten more years of life experience and some new learning about some of the subjects.
God I
It seems to me that God does not exist as man imagines Him on earth. I think the origin of the universe is something physical, like the big bang.
God II
This does not necessarily deny that God exists. In fact, it is possible that science may prove, in the end, that God exists. That is why I believe that religion and science are complementary and not opposite.
Soul
I believe that the soul and the body are not two separate things.
Our Existence
I believe that we are temporary as individuals and that our life does not continue after death. I do believe that our life continues through our children. In the long run, our life will continue in the species that will descend from ours, just as we descend from other previous species.
Update: Our life continues through our children and the children of our relatives and extended family as the genes are shared across direct and indirect descendants [1].
Evolution
I think we are one more species, product of evolution. We are not “chosen” or special. We have only developed strategies, tactics and tools that, for now, have allowed us to prevail.
Update: “To prevail” means to survive. In the same line of thought, any species that survives today, thus and its previous versions in evolution, has been equally successful. Worm, unicellular organism, man, giraffe, or any living species for that matter are the same in that paradigm. This means the measure of success is evolution, replication, and prevalence of genetic code.
Happiness
Paradoxically, permanent dissatisfaction is a pillar of our successful survival strategy as a species. Therefore we will always live seeking our happiness, but we are only going to feel it at various times and moments throughout our lives.
The Purpose of Things
Just as dissatisfaction is part of a successful survival strategy, wanting to make sense of things, or find purpose, is another key feature of our species’ strategy. That is why we invented religions and science, but things do not necessarily make sense or have purpose, so we may never find the answers we are looking for.
Our Goal in Life
I believe that although it consciously seems so, individual good is not our end, it is a means, our end is to originate and support our children.
Update: I would say to originate and support our children, either direct or indirect, is a high order individual goal, thus an individual good [1].
Selfishness
To be selfish is to be altruistic and to be altruistic is to be selfish.
Update: In evolutionary game theory, altruism and cooperation have evolved as strategies to benefit the individual because the cost of conflict is very high [2]. Therefore, altruism and cooperation are selfish goals, where selfishness [3], in this context, is more of a technical term, rather than a moral or ethical statement.
Our Individual Place Within Our Species
We have different roles as individuals, members of a family, members of a community, of a nation, and of humanity. Our priorities are different at each level.
Update: The relationship is bottoms up; the individual must benefit from higher level organization. If not, the system and the logic of participating in communities and society breaks down [1].
Our Roles in Humanity
The role of the individual is the lowest in the hierarchy and that of a member of humanity is the highest, but this order is useless if they do not complement each other. When this does not happen, hierarchies are inverted and chaos is generated in society.
Update: “Lowest” in this context means the order or level in a model or diagram, but not that the individual is lower in terms of priority or importance. It is exactly the opposite. The individual is the highest order for the individual himself and society. Terms like “humanity” or “society” are abstractions we have invented to organize ourselves and to manage them mentally, but the only true concrete entity that exists is the individual.
Our Organization
All human organizational models are flexible and temporary and serve as long as they are part of an effective survival strategy for the species. Other species are organized differently. Fixed dogmas tend to lose functionality over time.
Update: Rather than the abstract collective of the “species”, human organizational models are really effective for the individual. Some dogmas may remain useful for thousands of years. However, change is good when warranted.
Institutions
Institutions are part of our organizational system. As such, they are flexible and modifiable, but in the long-term and with organized and predictable processes.
Know How to Live in Society
I believe that we are born with natural abilities to be individuals, but that we need education to be effective members of a family, a community, a nation, and humanity.
Update: Education is certainly very important, but from trusted sources. Public education and mass market narratives have become brain washing devices. Benefiting the abstraction of the collective. A dose of skepticism and critical thinking when dealing with these sources is very important [4] [5] [6].
Being an Efficient Individual
I believe that the key to an effective individual are the conjunction of their principles and values, their formal education and their way of being, these separately are not effective.
Update: As individuals we live in family groups, communities, and cultural clusters. Those coincide and are consistent with trust boundaries [1]. In a world where species and individuals compete to advance their genes, trust boundaries are important to be aware of and foster. However, man has developed very sophisticated methods to trick others into believing that those trust boundaries are bad, evil, ineffective, or useless. For example, that the collective must be prioritized over the individual; that family and community are bad because they are closed and non inclusive; or that multiculturalism is good just for the sake of it, regardless of significant contrasts and real differences. Even worse, that one’s culture, that is Western Culture, is bad or evil by default. That is all false, and probably even immoral, as it invites the individual to destroy, discontinue, or reject his or her own ancestry, way of life, and culture.
Education I
I believe that to effectively educate our children we must first teach them family values (both immediate and extended), community values, nation values, and humanity.
Education II
In parallel, it seems to me that we must teach them in general all aspects of the knowledge of our species, both religious and scientific.
Update: Unfortunately, as explained above, education and the sciences have also been or are also prone to capture by perverse ideological activism. It is advisable to always be skeptical of personal values and views of the interlocutors, and to pay attention to the true facts and findings, regardless of method or medium [7] [8].
Aspects of the Knowledge of Our Species
The origin of the universe, the laws of physics, the laws of chemistry, the origin of life and biology, the theory of the evolution of species, the origin of our species, the ramifications of the knowledge of our species: Philosophy, religion, mathematics, art, sociology, politics, economics, the exact sciences, etc.
Update: Additional cultural containers as religion are very important to know and pay attention to, not just hard sciences. Culture contains many millenary teachings that are and will be impossible for pure science to figure out [9] [10] [11]. In other words, religion and culture contain critical knowledge, and one has to learn how to identify and find it to use it for life purposes [12] [13].
Basic Principles and Values I
Each of us is unique in the universe. Nobody but one is oneself. Each of us is the son of his or her father and his or her mother, and the brother of his or her brothers. There is no person to replace another.
Basic Principles and Values II
If this is so, then all individual members of humanity are unique and irreplaceable. Both today and those that existed in the past and those that will exist in the future. Regardless of your race, creed, age, sex, convictions, physical appearance, health status, marital status, nationality, or any other human characteristic.
Update: This means that each individual has the right to associate or not with other individuals or collectives. Values and world views are individual and everyone must respect them. Values and world views must not be imposed, but shared and accepted voluntarily. Coercion or imposition of values and world views lead to violence, chaos, and social catastrophe.
Basic Principles and Values III
If all individuals of humanity are unique and irreplaceable then we are all equal in one thing: that we are unique! Therefore we all have the same rights and obligations to any other individual in humanity.
Update: Consistent with the update in the previous point, equality does not mean an obligation of association. Each individual is free to associate or not, and interact or not, with whoever they wish. In other words, free individuals and free societies must not fall for the “openness fallacy”. That is, there is no obligation to tolerate and it is not moral to forcefully impose other individuals or collectives on others.
Basic Principles and Values IV
If we all have the same rights and obligations before any other individual in humanity, then we are all equal before God, nature, the law, and all human institutions.
Update: We all have the same rights and obligations, and protections of such, within our trusted national boundaries and jurisdictions according to their rules and laws. Although true, the principles of equality are not interpreted homogeneously across individuals and cultures. Therefore, one must be skeptical and vigilant of false openness, and avoid letting the deterioration of local legal, cultural, ethical, religious, and moral rules for the sake of false or misinformed openness.
Basic Principles and Values V
This respects Principle I, that we are unique, and it does not mean that we are not different and that each individual does not have the right to carry out his or her life freely, but without detriment to respect for others.
Update: Again, be careful of false prophets of openness and supposed better values and world views at the cost of your individuality, freedom, family, and culture, which are the true higher order values.
Family Values
The most important people in our lives as individuals are our family and relatives (siblings, parents, cousins, spouses, etc.). We must always put our relationship with them above any other minor matter (pride, fights, money, betrayal, etc.) before any eventuality in life, our relatives will always be an unconditional resource.
Community Values
After our family, friends are the most important people for us as individuals. Also, the members of our community who are not our friends are very important and we must always have a positive and respectful attitude towards them. Directly or indirectly, all members of the community have to do with the life of each one as an individual.
Nation Values
The sum of the individuals, families, and communities that make up a nation must respect the national organization above all other minor forms of organization. When a conflict arises in a smaller form of organization and a larger form, the larger form should be privileged. This, in fact, guarantees the protection and evolution of the lesser forms of organization. If this is not the case, it means that the system is not working correctly and that the rules must be reformed in an organized manner and within the ways stipulated by the system itself.
Update: The individual and the family are the units of the nation. The above is wrong in the sense that the nation must respect and benefit the individual and the family, not the other way around. This concept is clarified at the end of this point, but the first part is not well worded.
Values of Humanity
Today, at the level of nations, there is no organization or institutions effectively established. Outside of the few and weak existing institutions, the law of the strongest is “the system.” That is why nations must organize themselves with a system that works in the same way that nations work internally.
Update: The above is completely wrong. The farther away organization levels are from the individual and the family the worse they are and less effective. Supranational entities such as the UN, EU, and even the old empire models (e.g. the British Empire, Roman Empire, Mongol Empire, Persian Empire, etc.) were absolute failures. The most effective organizational levels [14] [15] are the individual, the family, community, and the City State. The latter up to a certain extent.
Jesus
I don’t think he was the son of God, but he must have been very smart and a great philosopher [11].
Science
For me it is very important to explain where things come from and where they are going.
Update: In other words, to understand how things work. Therefore, I recommend to learn physics, chemistry, biology, math, engineering, law, aspects of medicine, neuroscience, computer science, geography, and other disciplines. It is very easy today to have access to this information. It is not necessary to have diplomas, certifications, or go to the university for this. It is important to have as personal knowledge and to be critical when others try to impose their values and ideas.
Where Do We Come From?
The big bang.
Update: Or other physical phenomena.
Where Are We going ?
To the big crunch.
Update: Or other physical phenomena.
Why Do We Exist?
There is no particular reason, things don’t necessarily make sense.
Update: There is no purpose in existence, we just exist for no particular reason.
Happiness Maximization
Since we are going to live, and largely without knowing what for, then being as happy as possible is the smart thing to do.
From the smallest to the largest, appreciate everything that exists.
Be Simple
Do not complicate things, always choose the simplest, clear, and logical path, and not the most complicated or twisted.
Be Austere
Money is not very important, although it helps a lot. Even with a lot or little money, it is not necessary to have expensive things or live very sophisticated lives, that’s for idiots.
The World Today
For now there is still a lot of conflict, but little by little it will go down in general. Democracy and the values of freedom are going to be around the world in a few decades.
Update: Other government forms more adapted or adjusted to local needs may exist. If democracy works in your regions, that’s great, but it does not mean that other regions or cultures may not develop other forms.
The Importance of Information
We are in the information age. Then comes the intelligence age (human or artificial) and also genetic modification. Information is everywhere. You don’t have to know everything. You just have to know how to reason and be able to process the information and draw simple and intelligent conclusions.
Update: Nevertheless, to acquire a priori knowledge is very useful, especially to reason about and deal with short term or on-the-go situations. To learn science and culture a priori as explained above is also good.
What I Like
Being mentally and physically healthy. Have good family and friends with my same values.
What I Don’t Like
Tattoos, piercing, bad people, envy.
Update: Bad people, envy!
What I Expect From You
That you finish your education, choose good people to marry, and have children and be happy.
The Value of Education
Very important!
The Value of Work
Nobody gives you anything. Everything is the effort of your own work.
Update: And nobody has the right to take away things from you to give it to others or strangers. You can do that voluntarily.
Being Citizens
Respecting society and the laws.
Update: Protest when society is not being functional as in this guidance.
Values as a Person
– We are all the same and at the same time we are all different, respect everyone equally.
– Be honest, don’t lie.
– Be fair.
– Recognize your mistakes.
– Defend your beliefs.
– Be flexible and be able to change when you realize that you have to change or you make mistakes.
– Do not steal in any of its forms.
– Never hide the truth, even when no one notices.
Update: Always keep studying new subjects in science, humanities, and culture. Information is available, be a cultured person.
Notes and References
[1] The Individual vs The Collective Fallacy – by Donald McIntyre:
“The individual has a 1 to 1 copy of its own genes, but because it passes those to descendants combined with other individuals’ genes through sexual reproduction, it passes only 1/2 to them. This makes relatedness a marginally decreasing connection with offspring and other family members, or organisms of the same kin.
Also, if replicating their genes is the ultimate goal of organisms, and non-direct descendants share the same genes up to a certain extent, then producing direct descendants is not the only way of accomplishing the same goal.”
Source: https://etherplan.com/2020/07/04/the-individual-vs-the-collective-fallacy/11957/
[2] The Logic of Animal Conflict – by J. Maynard Smith and G. R. Price: http://etherplan.com/the-logic-of-animal-conflict.pdf
[3] The Selfish Gene – by Richard Dawkins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene
[4] Noise, Signal, Skepticism, and Trust – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/12/15/noise-signal-skepticism-and-trust/14193/
[5] Brain Plasticity and the Education System – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/11/06/brain-plasticity-and-the-education-system/13498/
[6] Using Genetics and Brain Capacity to Model Reality – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/10/08/using-genetics-and-brain-capacity-to-model-reality/12920/
[7] Truth is Independent of Method – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/10/25/truth-is-independent-of-method/13318/
[8] Big Question Problems and the Scientific Method – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/11/10/big-question-problems-and-the-scientific-method/13517/
[9] Monotheism was a Disintermediation of Power – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/11/25/monotheism-was-a-disintermediation-of-power/13855/
[10] The Solution of Goodness – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/12/04/the-solution-of-goodness/13908/
[11] Analysis of the Beatitudes – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/12/22/analysis-of-the-beatitudes/13796/
[12] On Religious Submission – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/12/23/on-religious-submission/14575/
[13] Objective Versus Intersubjective Truth (1998) – by Nick Szabo:
“The genetic codes (especially their ‘semantics’, the corresponding metabolisms) of plants and animals are examples of such highly evolved structures. We have only very recently achieved some understanding of the syntax of such codes, and grok only a minuscule portion of their ‘semantics’.
Memetic codes, such as legal traditions, are a still more complicated example of such highly evolved structure: dealing with interactions between highly information-rich minds over multiple lifetimes, during which certain actions at the start of life can have irrevocable but not feasibly foreseeable consequences on the rest of a life and on later generations, they typically fall within (a), (b), and sometimes (c). Only a highly evolved tradition can contain the information needed to solve such problems.”
[14] Evolution of Social Structure – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/08/27/evolution-of-social-structure/12515/
[15] Evidence of Sophisticated Social Structure in Archaic Homo – by Donald McIntyre: https://etherplan.com/2020/11/25/evidence-of-sophisticated-social-structure-in-archaic-homo/13807/
