Towards Underflowing Depression
We are all condemned to be ourselves to a degree that has implications for the suicidal.
The human mind is finite. And the world is very, very large. Finite patterns recur. We are finite patterns. To use the LessWrong jargon, we live in a Big World. And this feels very over-determined to me. If Everett is wrong, then inflation predicts the same thing. And if inflation is false, then merely a sufficiently large universe gets us there. And if our universe is finite then simulations of me can and will be made. And if there is some law passed everywhere to prevent human simulations, there's always Egan's dust theory from which we can derive a multiverse from a piece of chewing gum.
There are all sorts of strange paradoxes and indexical problems that a multitude of "yous" raise. (I have been told only Eliezer Yudkowsky is allowed to think on such matters. But one cannot help but think. Even stupid people must do so. I sometimes wonder if smart people truly understand this. It may be instructive for the intellectual class to get extremely drunk and then meditate on the disdain they feel towards those people whose stupidity gifts them the pleasure of contemplating their own superiority.)
Whatever resolves all the indexical confusions, I am pretty confident it will not grant our suicidal a self - only selves. And so their desire is incoherent, at least if their goal is to not exist. And they will predictably find themselves failing in their crime, often in a manner where they have diminished themselves in ways that can only increase their suffering; though most copies of them, of course, will never attempt in the first place.
In assuming there is an escape from his sorry existence, the suicidal man is too optimistic. We have, then, a depressing argument to avoid attempts at self-harm. And who loves depressing arguments more than depressed people? And who are more resistant to appeals to optimism?
In this way, we see the outlines of a psychological program: motivating depressed people with depressing arguments. I propose, then, we develop depressing arguments for doing all those things a depressed person needs to do to escape depression. Depressing arguments for brushing one's teeth. Depressing arguments for exercising. Depressing arguments for going out with friends. Depressing arguments for taking antidepressant medication. Depressing arguments for ruminating on small pleasures. Depressing arguments for writing gratitude journals.
There is some research on "depressive realism," which notes depressed people have more accurate beliefs on some matters. I say, the only way out is through! With sufficient development, I think we can create depressing arguments of incredible power. Could we create a depressing argument for seeing the inner joy and light of all things? Could we create a depressing argument for feeling a child-like wonder and blessed happiness in every action and interaction, in a manner so contagious all around you feel, by your very presence, paradoxically more human and more angelic?
This task seems tractable, and so I propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of this program be carried out during the summer of 2026 at Dartmouth College. I think that a significant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of psychologists work on it together for a summer.