After some thought, my new inclination:

Whether intrinsic value exists or not is unknowable to us, specifically because we did not create our own universe. I can’t say for certain there is value in truth, justice, love, etc. beyond what we humans assign to these things. Yet, I can’t say for certain that there is not. Intrinsic value by its very nature and definition is a mystery.

Could be. Interesting tactic. Energy does indeed seem to intrinsically exist. Existence does seem to exist. Scarcity does seem to exist. Even shared feelings of value for things that are hard to make a logical case for them seem to intrinsically exist. Yet, I feel unsatisfied that intrinsic value exists. Maybe I mean something harder to define.

I like this idea of life in general defining inherent value. What if we encountered an alien race that developed completely separate from us and we happened to view certain common things as having intrinsic value? Could we make a case that these concepts of intrinsic value truly exist?

Yet, if life itself were high on that list we might be a bit bias.

Say, existence = value maybe? Or, energy = value?

A good question. Does value exist without an entity to experience and quantify it? Is there value in a universe without humans - assuming such a universe could exist?

Loved this game. Used to play with my bro. Always XL map, hours until we even found each other.

A year or so ago he showed me: https://goblinzstudio.com/game/heros-hour/

Very similar but a hilarious battle system that actually renders ALL of your creatures. Love it

Understandable. Would be nice if it were available through sidequest or something more wholesome. Cool game though.

Agreed. Always a good thought to have when one is considering going down that road. Is the future predictable enough to really expect that particular end?

I think you’re onto something saying toxic is a pretty unspecific term to use when talking about such things. Maybe it would be a better conversation to ask: when do the ends justify the means?

I think you’re right that there are people out there trying to manipulate and influence social media - I mean even that platforms themselves do this to a certain extent.

The idea that they purposely try to make it toxic to push the more intellectually-honest, emotionally-controlled people out of the conversation is the interesting part to me.

This particular facet feels less like intentional manipulation and more like a side-effect of our platforms and how they function.

Intriguing. I don’t totally know what I think about this argument. A purposeful initiative to make politics toxic to get people to stop paying attention. It’s not one I had totally considered before. You think that’s really going on?

I have had many experiences with real people not on the internet that seem to fixate largely on politics and believe so fervently that they are right that they allow themselves to become toxic. I always thought it was a kind of inconsistent latent belief in utilitarianism combined with overconfidence.