> I think I missed the original post on this one, but I am fascinated
> by the underlying assumption that one can develop into a 'whole',
> fully developed human by reading books! I think that books can play
> an important role in learning, but there is no substitute for getting
> out there and living, taking risks, pushing yourself beyond your
> limits, making mistakes, enduring the hurt and the raptures. Life
> events can be designed to provide experiential learning or boundary
> breaking (edge gaming), and one could look at life as one long
> experiment.
A very good point. I don't think anybody has assumed that one can
become human by reading books in this thread, it is mainly about what
books should be considered "required reading" or at least good
introductory reading to keep up with this list.
It would be interesting to see if the process of becoming oneself
could be aided by artificial means; so far it has been largely a
random accumulation of experience and a gradual abstraction from
them. Schooling is one method intended to make this process a bit
more efficient, maybe some initiation rites could be considered
growth tools too. Are there others reliable methods?
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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