What I am seeing, with the increase use of technology, and even nanotech coming along, is a very hackable reality, and if you live in a virtual world, it will have its own rules. I say civilization has this on top also. It is an artificial world, on top of a natural world, with its own rules and laws. And this is all pretty much based around intentions and wants, that can be subjective, based on a lot of things, but it is subjective and really hard to argue against someone they are wrong in that area, because then you end up undermining autonomy in a person.

With this, I hold a lot of philosophical systems can end up working to order a person's lives, but they also can work as fictions you apply on top of the world to shape direction.

I am likely going to be off and on here. I am actually doing far more with MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way, or single men trying to cope in life and go their own way against social norms) stuff now, and a YouTube channel, trying to find work, and kicking around my own mental frame I call "Metaism", which would look at the subjective side of things.

So, in regards to all this, what way does a person go in a world that is near magic and can do anything a person wants. Where do they get their identity and tell truth, when they can make their own reality? In the world of independent agents, it is an issue that needs to be dealt with.

Welcome Rich,
I hope you will have a chance to "hang out" here and contribute, or at least come by occasionally and check on what's going on. Your comment about "fictional worlds having their own rules" got my attention. One of the reasons I like this site is the dedication to logic and objective facts. This approach leads different people in different directions, but when the facts are presented logically, at least we understand each other. It gives me a respite from rest of the world, which frequently seems to defy logic (and deny that facts exist)!

The more I am reading about Objectivism, the more I am feeling a fixation on reason isn't going to end up answering questions. I am seeing a world that is increasingly artificial and subject to placating preferences and whim one can't reason for. Throw in also that the rate of change is leading to the inability to offer a track record, and it is a problem. I am believing a study of the subjective and personal is really what is going to be needed, because people are becoming world's unto themselves. The thing about fictional worlds is they have their own rules.

Anyhow, I press on.

Welcome Rich. I like your comment that you are a nonconformist. You are in the right place. Fans of Rand put reason at the forefront of our lives, and that's certainly nonconformist in today's world!

I am in favor of radical autonomy, and going my own way. I am not THAT familiar with Rand's works so far. I do think that a lot of life is subjective though, and you can reason preferences. I didn't finish the book on Objectivism I have, and need to find a way to get info without reading and dosing off which I tend to.

I am also not a person to be one of a single ideology. I also think we are living in an increasingly artificial and subjective world, that people can make their own rules for and they manifest in technology.

Again, I need to read more.

Welcome. What do you think of Rand's work?

I am still going to need to get up to speed on things. I am seeing the MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) thought community, is currently defining itself by avoiding women, and a lot of the YouTube comment has to do with the evils of Gynocentrism, etc... There hasn't been a focus on the best way to live one's life beyond this, but is in there, and I see that there is going to be a need to. If you keep fixating on what you are opposed to, it ends up defining you..

In some discussions, Objectivism came up, so I was studying it, and made reference to Galt's Gulch as an example in some discussion, so I am heading there.

For myself, non-conformity is not an end in itself, but merely a state of being I have, because the norm doesn't work for me. I am up for looking towards tradition for some answers, but am not interested in imposing anything on anyone. It is a mindset of tools, not burdens, with this.

Anyhow, there is a lot more. I have two YouTube channels I am doing now, I am trying to find a job also (or monetize who I am somehow), and a bunch, so I am not sure how much I will be on here.

I expect from you a wry smile when I tell you that you will find here many non-conformists in their thinking.
Enjoy your journey.