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SUPERIOR FISH BEINGS

2021-01-05 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore

Picking up 10-year-old Hank's prediction of superior fish beings for 2012, John riffs on what they might be and say, then argues that humanity, like an adolescent wanting wise parents, already knows much of what they would tell us: war is bad, collaboration works, everyone deserves health care and education.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's skipped 2012 prediction of superior fish beings

  • ★★★ John says Hank's video last week (week of 28 December 2020) almost skipped his childhood prediction that 2012 would bring the emergence of superior fish beings. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says the prediction is so weird that, according to Google, no one in the history of the web had used the phrase before. — 00:00:00 · Google

00:00:30 — What young Hank might have meant; Hank's novels; the brothers' speculations about beings announcing themselves

  • ★★ John asks whether young Hank expected fish-like aliens, a hyper-intelligent fish species rapidly evolving as in the cartoon The Snorks, or fish beings long hidden on Earth. (playful) — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Avoiding spoilers, John says adult Hank has arguably written the two greatest superior fish being novels of the century, with few actual fish beings. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58 · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
  • ★★ John recalls that he and Hank often speculated over the years about what would happen if the gods of Mount Olympus, the creators of the simulation or superior fish beings suddenly announced themselves. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — What superior fish beings would do and say, from dark matter to the Snorks' bubbles

  • ★★ John says he would be nervous if superior fish beings arrived tomorrow, but also relieved that someone actually knows more than we do. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John imagines the fish beings telling us to weigh the long-term consequences of our actions, especially large-scale changes to rivers and lakes. (playful, speculative) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ They might also explain dark matter and how to better account for the value of natural resources in economic systems. (playful, speculative) — 00:01:56
  • ★ John says that at night he sometimes cannot stop wondering where the air for the Snorks' nervous head-snorkel bubbles came from. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John grants the fish beings could crush or conquer us, or humanity could foolishly fight and lose, but he imagines them answering our questions with loving guidance, not orders. (hypothetical, speculative) — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — Humanity as an adolescent that already knows what the fish beings would tell it; sign-off

  • ★★★ John sometimes feels humanity is an early adolescent in need of good parental figures, such as superior fish beings. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John thinks we already know much of what the superior fish beings would tell us, such as that war is bad. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ We already know, John says, that humans and other superior beings accomplish more in collaboration than in isolation. — 00:02:55 · collective action
  • ★★ We also already know that every person deserves access to health care and educational opportunities. — 00:02:55 · education
  • ★★★ As a species, John says, we are too powerful and not powerful enough: able to change the planet's climate but not to choose how we change it. — 00:03:24 · climate change
  • ★★ So perhaps the superior fish beings have already emerged, John says, and we just need to learn to listen to them. (hedged) — 00:03:24
  • ★ John notes he has turned a video about superior fish beings earnest; unironic enthusiasm about them is on his 2021 vision board. (playful) — 00:03:24

Humor (significant)

  • The superior fish beings' long silence bodes well. — 00:01:27

    “it means they have the ability to stay calm and shut up, two talents humanity has shown a limited capacity for.”

  • John cannot stop wondering where the Snorks' bubbles came from. — 00:02:26

    “They didn't, where, where, where's the air?”

  • John catches himself turning the fish-being video sincere. — 00:03:24

    “Oh my god, did I just turn a video about superior fish beings into something completely earnest?”

  • John signs off by welcoming the fish beings, riffing on a famous meme line. — 00:03:53

    “I for one welcome our new superior fish being overlords.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Works: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor · An Absolutely Remarkable Thing · Snorks · What I Think Life Will Be Like in the Year 2020

Organizations: Google

Concepts: climate change · collective action · dark matter · education · evolution · extraterrestrial life · simulation hypothesis · universal health care · war

Myths: Twelve Olympians

Memes: I for one welcome our new overlords (“I for one welcome our new superior fish being overlords”)

Replies to

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 4 videos, 2020-12-29 – 2021-01-12.