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Comment by MDMA on Embedded Agents · 2018-11-06T09:52:01.716Z · LW · GW

I have been thinking about this for a while and I'd like to propose a different viewpoint on this same idea. It's equivalent but personally I prefer this perspective. Instead of saying 'embedded agency' which implies an embedding of the agent in the environment. Perhaps we could say 'embedded environment'. Which implies that the environment is within the agent. To illustrate, the same way 'I' can 'observe' 'my' 'thoughts', I can observe my laptop. Are my thoughts me, or is my laptop me? I think the correct way way took look at it that my computer is just as much a part of me as are my thoughts. Even though surely everyone is convinced that this dualistic notion between agent and environment does not make sense, there seems to be a difference between what one believes on a level of 'knowledge', and what you can phenomenologically observe. I believe this phrasing allows people to more easier experience for themselves the truthness of the embedded environment/agent idea, which is important for further idea generation! :)

Comment by MDMA on Recommendations vs. Guidelines · 2018-04-13T16:26:09.122Z · LW · GW

I am aware of the "Things that sometimes help for anxiety/depression" list of recommendations that you have made in the past. However, you mention having implicit guidelines for depression, and presumably, anxiety. A blogpost making those guidelines explicit would be greatly appreciated!