Posted by nixass 3 days ago
On the subject, I'll say that voluntary solitude is amazing, loneliness sucks. However, the number of people you interact with has nothing to do with either.
What matters isn't the number of people you meet or the amount of human interaction you have, but the amount of intimacy you desire and how much of that is fulfilled. With that said, the road less traveled is always harsh, humans are social animals; fighting nature is a tumultuous affair.
Ephraim Winslow: "Alright, have it your way. I like your cookin'."
The emergence of monastic life and how religion/cultures create space for it, in a sustainable way(cuz why even bother?), is fascinating for what its implications are about group behavior.
Think of monk like personality traits within any group being out of phase with the majority. Rather than filtering it out it survives. Not just in one culture. But in all.
One great example of what comes out of monestaries (trying to self sustain) is the emergence of Pastoral Care as a core feature of the church (some say more than any other feature it has contributed to how the Church survived down fall of empires, nations and kings that supported them). So Irish monks would walk into the local village listen to peoples problems in exchange for food and drink. That turned out to be so popular (probably the earliest forms of therapy) that it became institutionalized.
I imagine the translation to lighthouses would be to ensure that your time there is spent in a good routine of keeping yourself active and to have some training on how to maintain psychological health. Over wintering Antarctic research scientists and astronauts probably also have rigorous routines although they would be in a small community which can regulate mental health.
I'm also reminded of the requirements of people being asked to move to small communities on isolated harsh islands. One would imagine that they would be attractive to people who do well alone, introverts, who work alone and are happy quietly, but they actually want and favour people who like others, need to work with others, who work well in a community and are socially outgoing.
Sadly I did not see any mention of monkey pump in either of these, but I think they show nicely how lighthouse work self-selects for individuals who can handle (or even prefer) the solitude that comes with the job.
I learned a lot about myself. I love being alone, more than most people, but after a few months I did start to feel I was going a bit crazy. This was made worse by the fact at that point in my life I had a big drop off in friend groups (mostly people getting married/moving/having kids/etc.) My health and hygiene definitely suffered. What was the tipping point for me, and I'm still unsure to this day, but I felt I was having auditory hallucinations (mostly hearing my name). I ended up joining a group video-chat app that pitched itself as unofficial group therapy, and things improved a lot. It was this way I learned I'm not actually an extreme introvert like my doctor liked to tell me I was, and consider myself far more extroverted than I used to since this experience. Since then I make an effort to socialize once a week even if I really don't feel like it.
Speculation: What you actually like is independence, not being bound by others or being chained by those around you - the feeling of freedom. However, it does make you go a bit crazy so I do recommend getting at least something to take care of like a pet or even some plants since humanity historically relies on a purpose and the lack of it has pretty severe side effects. By chaining yourself and getting something to take care of is an easy way to make it less impactful while still experiencing that freedom.
Does the AI model hallucinations somewhat linked to this, does computer AI model too need some sort of socializing?