Why I no longer identify as transhumanist
Someone asked me how come I used to have a strong identity as a singularitarian / transhumanist but don’t have it anymore. Here’s what I answered them:
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So I think the short version is something like: transhumanism/singularitarianism used to give me hope about things I felt strongly about. Molecular nanotechnology would bring material abundance, radical life extension would cure aging, AI would solve the rest of our problems. Over time, it started feeling like 1) not much was actually happening with regard to those things, and 2) to the extent that it was, I couldn’t contribute much to them and 3) trying to work on those directly was bad for me, and also 4) I ended up caring less about some of those issues for other reasons and 5) I had other big problems in my life.
So an identity as a transhumanist/singularitarian stopped being a useful emotional strategy for me and then I lost interest in it.
With regard to 4), a big motivator for me used to be some kind of fear of death. But then I thought about philosophy of personal identity until I shifted to the view that there’s probably no persisting identity over time anyway and in some sense I probably die and get reborn all the time in any case.
Here’s something that I wrote back in 2009 that was talking about 1):
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The [first phase of the Excitement-Disillusionment-Reorientation cycle of online transhumanism] is when you first stumble across concepts such as transhumanism, radical life extension, and superintelligent AI. This is when you subscribe to transhumanist mailing lists, join your local WTA/H+ chapter, and start trying to spread the word to everybody you know. You’ll probably spend hundreds of hours reading different kinds of transhumanist materials. This phase typically lasts for several years.
In the disillusionment phase, you start to realize that while you still agree with the fundamental transhumanist philosophy, most of what you are doing is rather pointless. You can have all the discussions you want, but by themselves, those discussions aren’t going to bring all those amazing technologies here. You learn to ignore the “but an upload of you is just a copy” debate when it shows up the twentieth time, with the same names rehearsing the same arguments and thought experiments for the fifteenth time. Having gotten over your initial future shock, you may start to wonder why having a specific name like transhumanism is necessary in the first place – people have been taking advantage of new technologies for several thousands of years. After all, you don’t have a specific “cellphonist” label for people using cell phones, either. You’ll slowly start losing interest in activities that are specifically termed as transhumanist.
In the reorientation cycle you have two alternatives. Some people renounce transhumanism entirely, finding the label pointless and mostly a magnet for people with a tendency towards future hype and techno-optimism. Others (like me) simply realize that bringing forth the movement’s goals requires a very different kind of effort than debating other transhumanists on closed mailing lists. An effort like engaging with the large audience in a more effective manner, or getting an education in a technology-related field and becoming involved in the actual research yourself. In either case, you’re likely to unsubscribe the mailing lists or at least start paying them much less attention than before. If you still identify as a transhumanist, your interest in the online communities wanes because you’re too busy actually working for the cause. (Alternatively, you’ve realized how much work this would be and have stopped even trying.)
This shouldn’t be taken to mean that I’m saying the online h+ community is unnecessary, and that people ought to just skip to the last phase. The first step of the cycle is a very useful ingredient for giving one a strong motivation to keep working for the cause in one’s later life, even when they’re no longer following the lists.
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So that’s describing a shift from “I’m a transhumanist” to “just saying I’m a transhumanist is pointless, I need to actually contribute to the development of these technologies”. So then I tried to do that and eventually spent several years trying to do AI strategy research, but that had the problem that I didn’t enjoy it much and didn’t feel very good at it. It was generally a poor fit for me due to a combination of various factors, some including “thinking all day about how AI might very well destroy everything that I value and care about is depressing”. So then I made the explicit decision to stop working on this stuff until I’d feel better, and that by itself made me feel better.
There were also various things in my personal psychology and history that were making me feel anxious and depressed, that actually had nothing to do with transhumanism and singularitarianism. I think that I had earlier been able to stave off some of that anxiety and depression by focusing on the thought of how AI is going to solve all our problems, including my personal ones. But then it turned out that focusing on therapy-type things as well as focusing on my concrete current circumstances were more effective for changing my anxiety than depression than pinning my hopes on AI. And pinning my hopes on AI wouldn’t work very well anymore anyway, since AI now seems more likely to me to lead to dystopian outcomes than utopian ones.
My idea of sacredness, divinity, and religion
Here’s a conception that I have about sacredness, divinity, and religion.
There’s a sense in which love and friendship didn’t have to exist.
If you look at the animal kingdom, you see all kinds of solitary species, animals that only come together for mating. Members of social species – such as humans – have companionship and cooperation, but many species do quite well without being social.
In theory, you could imagine a world with no social species at all.
In theory, you could imagine a species of intelligent humanoids akin to Tolkien’s orcs. Looking out purely for themselves, willing to kill anyone else if they got away with it and it benefited them.
And then in another sense, some versions of love and friendship do have to exist.
Social species evolved for a reason: cooperation does pay off. Individuals who band together and help each other out even when that requires making the occasional personal sacrifice actually do have greater success.
If no social species existed yet, but the conditions were right for them to evolve, then given enough time it would be inevitable for them to evolve.
Think about that for a second. It would be inevitable for them to evolve. Why? Because of how the laws of natural selection and game theory work. There’s a path from pure selfishness to cooperation, and cooperation is beneficial.
It’s not a given that any single species that evolved sociality would be successful – they could still get unlucky and be wiped out by something completely different. Sociality won’t help you if the only valley you live in gets covered by a volcanic eruption.
But sociality would still keep evolving, over and over again, until some social species would manage to maintain themselves.
There’s a sense in which the laws of natural selection and game theory are deeper than the laws of physics. Cooperation would likely still be beneficial in universes with five physical dimensions, or where life was based on elements very different from carbon, or ones where D&D-style magic was real. Assuming that something like life could evolve at all, cooperation would be beneficial in a broad range of possible universes.
And where do the laws of natural selection and game theory come from? At their heart, they are mathematical laws, inevitably following some given axioms. There are universes where those axioms wouldn’t necessarily be true – ones where no organisms could exhibit heritable variation, for instance. In those worlds, nothing could evolve.
But if the “structure of reality” refers to our laws of physics, then the laws that create companionship somehow go even deeper than the structure of reality. Across a vast range of possible realities, something akin to companionship must come into existence. Somehow, this is just an intrinsic fact about something that governs everything that could ever exist.
In Egyptian mythology, the first god Atum created himself out of the waters of chaos. Likewise, the structure-of-that-deeper-than-reality is such that across many many possible universes, cooperation and companionship will create themselves out of the waters of selfishness.
Love doesn’t always win. There are situations where loyalty, cooperation, and love win, and there are situations where disloyalty, selfishness, and hatred win. If that wasn’t the case, humans wouldn’t be so clearly capable of both.
It’s possible for people and cultures to settle into stable equilibria where trust and happiness dominate and become increasingly beneficial for everyone, but also for them to settle into stable equilibria where mistrust and misery dominate, or anything in between.
When I look around in my room, it’s filled with the fruits of cooperation. For one, the very fact that I even live in a building that someone else built, surrounded by roads that someone else built, filled with everything from books to sophisticated electronics to everything else that I did not personally create. And yes, some amount of coercion and exploitative labor practices no doubt played a role in the creation of some of that, but it’s still our nature as a social species that allows us to have any amount of specialization and the creation of such things in the first place.
To me, if anything deserves the label “divine”, it’s this force of cooperation that transcends universes. Everywhere I look, I am surrounded by artifacts that are of divine origin. Even discarded food packaging is a divine artifact.
And I have friends and I have people who I love, I have happiness. I live in a local pocket of the universe where even my interactions with complete strangers – such as the salespeople at stores – tend to be friendly and warm in tone, or at least politely neutral.
All that because of a cosmic force of love and cooperation which happens to be predominant where I live, whose energy and nature shapes much of my psyche – even as I also carry the energy and nature of unhealthy selfishness and destructiveness in the shape of much of my psyche.
If there is a multiverse, if there are universes beyond our own – then those two forces are locked in an eternal struggle across all the universes that are capable of supporting something like intelligent life. The dance of good and evil within me, in some form mirroring the dance of good and evil across the entire multiverse.
To get even more mystical about it – to me, this doesn’t feel like just an abstraction. I’ve experienced altered states of consciousness – induced by things like meditation, therapy and ritual – where I have felt something like an energy pattern of pure love, confidence and okayness arising through my body, experienced the term “uplifting” as a literal force pulling me up on my feet.
There is a feel to all that, a particular kind of – for a lack of a better word – “energy”, that feels different from the kind of “energy” that comes up when I am being insecure, or selfish in a bad way, or subtly manipulative. Now being able to notice the difference doesn’t always mean that I’d be capable of acting any differently – I can recognize that the energy of what I’m doing doesn’t feel good, and still end up acting according to it since it’s the only energy I have available at the moment.
But feeling that energy does at least let me know that I could be doing better. It does let me know that my actions are not in the service of the kind of power I would like to be serving.
For that’s what it feels like when I am best able to tap into it. Like I am in the service of a greater power, that is by its nature impersonal but takes a human form by channeling itself through me as one of its many vessels.
This has a religious and mystic flavor to it, but not the kind of religious that would require belief in anything that would be called supernatural or contradictory to science. It is the kind of religious and mystic practice that Eric Raymond describes in his essay Dancing with the Gods: one grounded in experience, not belief. As Raymond puts it, we do not need to “believe” without evidence that the sun rises in the morning; we can experience it ourselves.
In the same way, I do not need to “believe” in a god of which I have no direct experience; I can feel it in myself and my body, see what it does to my behavior and state of mind, and call the thing-which-is-all-that a god or divine power that I would like to see myself in the service of.
The 99% principle for personal problems
Often when people are dealing with an issue – emotional, mental, or physical – there’s genuine progress and the issue becomes less and seems to go away.
Until it comes back, seemingly as bad as before.
Maybe the person developed a coping mechanism that worked, but only under specific circumstances. Maybe the person managed to eliminate one of the triggers for the thing, but it turned out that there were other triggers. Maybe the progress was contingent on them feeling better in some other way, and something as seemingly trivial as sleeping worse brought it back.
I’ve been there many times. It is often very, very frustrating. I might feel like all the progress was just me somehow perpetuating an elaborate fraud on myself, and like all efforts to change the thing are hopeless and it will never go away.
And I know that a lot of other people feel this way, too.
Something that I tell my clients who are experiencing this despair is something that I got from Tucker Peck, that I call the 99% principle:
The most important step is not when you go from having the issue 1% of the time to 0% of the time, but when you go from having the issue 100% of the time to 99% of the time.
It’s when you go from losing your temper or going into a fawn reaction in every disagreement, to staying cool on some rare occasions.
It’s when you go from always procrastinating on an unpleasant task, to sometimes tackling it head-on.
It’s when you go from always feeling overwhelmed by anxiety to having some moments where you can breathe and feel a bit more at ease.
When you manage to reduce the frequency or the severity of the issue even just a little, that’s the beginning of the point where you can make it progressively less. From that point on, it’s just a matter of more time and work.
Of course, not all issues are ones that can ever be gotten down to happening 0% of the time, or even 50% of the time. Or even if they can, it’s not a given that the same approach that got you to 99%, will get you all the way to 0%.
But even if you only get it down somewhat. That somewhat is still progress. It’s still a genuine improvement to your life. The fact that the issue keeps occurring, doesn’t mean that your gains would be fake in any way.
And also, many issues can be gotten down to 0%, or close to it. Over time both the frequency and severity are likely to decrease, even if that might be hard to remember in the moments when the thing gets triggered again.
For many issues, it can be the case that the moment when it finally goes to 0% is something that you won’t even notice – because the thing had already become so rare before, that you managed to forget that you ever even had the problem.
Creating a family with GPT-4
ME:
Create a merchant character suitable for a medieval fantasy setting. Start by coming up with their age, gender, and one defining personality trait. Then add two other personality traits. Then describe some internal conflict created by the interaction of these traits. Describe the history of the character and how their personality caused them to end up where they are now.
GPT-4:
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Defining Personality Trait: Shrewd
Other Personality Traits:
- Charitable
- Ambitious
Internal Conflict:
Her ambition and shrewdness often clash with her charitable nature, leaving her torn between her desire for personal success and her innate need to help others. This struggle leads her to make difficult decisions, sometimes prioritizing her own interests over the needs of others, resulting in guilt and self-doubt.
Character History:
Meet Gisella, a 52-year-old merchant who runs a successful general store in a bustling medieval town. Born into a family of modest means, Gisella had to help her widowed mother to make ends meet from a young age. As a result, she developed a keen sense of resourcefulness and the ability to spot a bargain. Gisella’s shrewdness allowed her to save enough money to open her own store, which quickly became a popular destination for travelers and locals alike.
As her business flourished, Gisella also discovered her passion for helping those in need. She would often donate food, clothing, and other necessities to the local orphanage or provide aid to families in times of crisis. However, her ambition to expand her business and become a prominent figure in the community has sometimes caused her to prioritize her own interests over her charitable instincts.
In recent years, Gisella’s internal conflict has only grown more pronounced. Her store has become one of the most successful in the region, and with that success came the opportunity to open new locations in other towns. Faced with the prospect of even greater wealth and influence, her ambition has increasingly overshadowed her charitable nature.
This shift in priorities has led to strained relationships with some of her closest friends and confidants, who have noticed Gisella’s change in character. They worry that her success has begun to compromise her integrity and that the compassionate woman they once knew is slowly disappearing.
As Gisella continues to pursue her ambitions, she finds herself at a crossroads. Deep down, she knows that she cannot ignore her charitable instincts forever, but her pursuit of wealth and power has become an all-consuming force in her life. The internal conflict has started to take a toll on her well-being, leaving her feeling restless and discontent.
Will Gisella find a way to reconcile her ambition with her desire to help others? Or will the lure of success continue to pull her away from the values that once defined her? Only time will tell as Gisella navigates the challenging landscape of her own heart, seeking balance and purpose in a world where the line between right and wrong is often blurred.
ME:
Next generate Gisella’s husband. Create three personality traits for him, one of which is shared with Gisella and two which are different. Then describe an internal conflict created by the interaction of these personality traits. Describe the personality of the character and how their personality caused them to end up where they are now.
GPT-4:
Shared Personality Trait: Ambitious
Other Personality Traits:
- Optimistic
- Cautious
Internal Conflict:
The husband’s cautious nature often holds him back from fully embracing opportunities for growth and prosperity, while his optimistic outlook keeps him hopeful that things will work out in the end. This creates tension between his ambition and his cautiousness, leading him to second-guess his decisions and sometimes miss out on potentially beneficial ventures.
Character History:
Introducing Aldric, a 55-year-old merchant who co-owns and manages the general store with his wife, Gisella. Aldric hails from a family of skilled craftsmen, and his background has taught him the value of hard work and dedication. He shares Gisella’s ambitious spirit, always aiming to provide the best for their family and ensure their business thrives.
Aldric’s optimistic outlook on life has been a source of strength for Gisella, offering her a constant reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is hope. His warm demeanor and natural charisma have earned him many loyal customers and friends, contributing to the success of their store.
However, Aldric’s cautious nature has sometimes proven to be a double-edged sword. While it has kept their business from making impulsive and potentially disastrous decisions, it has also led to missed opportunities.
As Gisella’s ambitions have grown stronger, the contrast between her drive and Aldric’s cautiousness has become more apparent. This dynamic has started to create tension in their personal and professional lives, with Gisella often pushing for bold moves and expansions, while Aldric advocates for a more conservative approach.
Aldric’s internal conflict between his cautiousness and ambition weighs heavily on him, as he struggles to find the right balance between seizing opportunities and protecting their hard-earned success. This conflict is further complicated by his desire to support Gisella and her dreams, even when they seem to conflict with his own instincts.
Their differing perspectives have led to some disagreements and difficult conversations, as they each try to determine the best course of action for their family and their business. Aldric worries that Gisella’s relentless drive may lead them down a path of potential ruin, while Gisella feels held back by Aldric’s hesitancy.
Over time, Aldric has started to question whether his cautious nature is truly a strength or a weakness. As he grapples with this internal conflict, he must also find a way to reconcile his differences with Gisella and ensure that their partnership remains strong, both in business and in life.
ME:
Next, describe their eldest child. Age, gender, personality traits, internal conflict, relationship to mother, relationship to father, and overall history.
GPT-4:
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Personality Traits:
- Idealistic
- Creative
- Empathetic
Internal Conflict:
The eldest child struggles to reconcile his idealistic and empathetic nature with the more pragmatic and business-focused values of his parents. He grapples with the desire to make a positive impact on the world and follow his creative passions, while also feeling a sense of duty to carry on the family business.
Relationship to Mother:
The eldest child admires his mother’s ambition and determination, but he also worries about the effect her pursuits have on her well-being and their family’s relationships. Although he appreciates her charitable nature, he wishes she could find a better balance between her business endeavors and her desire to help others.
Relationship to Father:
He shares a strong bond with his father, often turning to him for guidance and support. The eldest child values his father’s cautious nature and optimistic outlook, finding comfort in his wisdom. However, he sometimes feels that his father’s pragmatism stifles his own dreams and aspirations.
Overall History:
Meet Tristan, the 28-year-old eldest child of Gisella and Aldric. Growing up in the family business, Tristan learned the ins and outs of commerce from an early age. However, his true passion lies in the arts, particularly painting and music. Despite his parents’ success, Tristan has always felt a strong pull towards using his creativity to make a difference in the world.
Tristan’s empathetic and idealistic nature often leads him to volunteer at local charities and offer his artistic talents to various community projects. He dreams of one day opening a cultural center where artists and musicians can come together to create and share their work, promoting social change and fostering community connections.
As he has grown older, Tristan has faced increasing pressure from his parents, especially Gisella, to take a more active role in the family business. They believe that his skills and talents would be invaluable in expanding the store and maintaining its success. While Tristan respects and appreciates his parents’ hard work and dedication, he can’t help but feel torn between his own aspirations and the expectations placed upon him.
This internal conflict has led to some tension within the family, as Tristan tries to navigate his own path while still honoring his parents’ wishes. His close relationship with his father, Aldric, provides some solace, as Aldric understands the struggle between personal desires and familial responsibilities. However, Tristan can’t shake the feeling that he is letting his parents down by not wholeheartedly committing to the family business.
As Tristan continues to search for his own identity and purpose in life, he must find a way to reconcile his dreams with the legacy his parents have built. The journey ahead will be filled with difficult choices and personal growth, as Tristan learns to embrace his passions while honoring the family he loves.
ME:
Next, describe their second child. Age, gender, personality traits, internal conflict, relationship to mother, relationship to father, relationship to elder brother, overall history.
GPT-4:
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Personality Traits:
- Resourceful
- Adventurous
- Loyal
Internal Conflict:
The second child is torn between her adventurous spirit and her loyalty to her family. She longs to explore the world beyond their town, seeking new experiences and challenges, but is held back by her sense of duty and commitment to her family and their business.
Relationship to Mother:
She shares her mother’s resourcefulness and ambition, often impressing Gisella with her clever ideas and sharp instincts. However, their relationship is sometimes strained due to Gisella’s expectations for her to be more involved in the family business and her daughter’s desire for adventure.
Relationship to Father:
She has always been close to her father, Aldric, who appreciates her adventurous nature and encourages her to follow her dreams. Their bond is strong, and she values his support and guidance, even when it conflicts with her mother’s wishes.
Relationship to Elder Brother:
She admires her elder brother Tristan’s artistic talents and idealism, and they have a close sibling relationship. They often confide in each other about their dreams and the pressures they face from their parents. They support each other’s aspirations and offer encouragement when it’s needed most.
Overall History:
Introducing Isabella, the 24 -year-old second child of Gisella and Aldric. Growing up in the family business, Isabella quickly demonstrated her resourcefulness and sharp mind, helping her parents solve problems and coming up with new ideas to improve the store. However, her adventurous spirit and desire for new experiences set her apart from the rest of her family.
As she grew older, Isabella’s longing to see the world beyond their town only intensified. She would spend hours reading books and maps, dreaming of the places she would visit and the people she would meet. Her curiosity and sense of adventure were infectious, inspiring those around her to think beyond their own horizons.
Despite her desire to explore, Isabella’s loyalty to her family held her back. She knew that her parents expected her to contribute to the family business, and the thought of disappointing them weighed heavily on her mind. This internal conflict made her feel trapped between her obligations and her dreams.
As Isabella struggles with her conflicting desires, she seeks solace in her relationships with her father and elder brother, who both understand the challenges of forging one’s own path while maintaining family ties. With their support, Isabella hopes to find a way to balance her adventurous spirit with her responsibilities, allowing her to pursue her dreams without leaving her family behind.
ME:
Next, describe Gisella’s and Aldric’s youngest child. Age, gender, personality traits, internal conflict, relationship to mother, relationship to father, relationship to elder brother, relationship to elder sister, and overall history.
GPT-4:
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Personality Traits:
1. Curious
2. Intuitive
3. Hardworking
Internal Conflict:
The youngest child grapples with the expectations placed upon him as the last in line to inherit the family business. He struggles to find his own identity and interests outside of the shadow of his elder siblings and the legacy of his parents.
Relationship to Mother:
He has a deep respect for his mother’s ambition and determination, seeing her as a role model for his own hard work. However, he also wishes for more freedom to explore his own interests and identity without feeling constrained by her expectations.
Relationship to Father:
The youngest child shares a special bond with his father, Aldric, who encourages his curiosity and intuitive nature. Aldric’s gentle guidance helps the young boy navigate the pressures of being the youngest in a successful family.
Relationship to Elder Brother:
He looks up to his elder brother Tristan, admiring his artistic talents and idealism. The two share a strong sibling bond, with Tristan often offering advice and support when their youngest sibling feels overwhelmed by the expectations placed upon him.
Relationship to Elder Sister:
He is inspired by his elder sister Isabella’s adventurous spirit and resource
ME:
currently it feels like all three children are torn between loyalty to the family business and their own natures, and are more aligned with their father than their mother. rewrite the youngest child so that his inner conflict is something different, and that he aligns more with their mother.
GPT-4:
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Personality Traits:
1. Competitive
2. Analytical
3. Charming
Internal Conflict:
The youngest child struggles with his competitive nature, which constantly drives him to outdo his elder siblings and prove himself worthy of the family legacy. He is torn between embracing this aspect of his personality and seeking a more balanced approach to life, where he can enjoy his achievements without constantly comparing himself to others.
Relationship to Mother:
He is deeply connected to his mother Gisella, sharing her ambition and drive. He admires her success and views her as a role model, hoping to one day surpass even her achievements. Their relationship is strong, and Gisella takes pride in nurturing her son’s competitive spirit.
Relationship to Father:
While he respects his father Aldric’s wisdom and cautious approach, he feels more aligned with his mother’s assertive and ambitious nature. This sometimes leads to a slight disconnect between him and his father, as Aldric tries to encourage a more balanced perspective on life.
Relationship to Elder Brother:
The youngest child is inspired by his elder brother Tristan’s artistic talents, but also sees him as someone he needs to outshine in order to secure his place within the family business. Their relationship is a complex mix of sibling rivalry and mutual admiration, with both brothers learning from each other while striving to make their own mark on the world.
Relationship to Elder Sister:
He is captivated by his elder sister Isabella’s adventurous spirit and resourcefulness. However, his competitive nature sometimes gets in the way of their bond, as he feels compelled to outperform her in various aspects of life, including their shared involvement in the family business.
Overall History:
Meet Lucas, the 16-year-old youngest child of Gisella and Aldric. Growing up surrounded by the success of his parents and the talents of his elder siblings, Lucas has developed a strong competitive streak. He has always been eager to prove himself and make a name for himself within the family business and beyond.
Lucas’s analytical mind and charming personality have made him a valuable asset in the family store, where he often wins over customers with his charisma and clever sales techniques. While his competitive nature has driven him to excel, it has also caused tension among his siblings, as they each strive to define their own paths and identities.
As Lucas continues to grow, he must learn to balance his competitive drive with the importance of maintaining strong family bonds and personal well-being. His journey will involve navigating the complex dynamics of sibling rivalry, parental expectations, and self-discovery, as he seeks to forge his own path within the family legacy.
ME:
Great. Now describe how Gisella’s and Aldric’s relationships with their children affect their marriage and their relationship with each other.
GPT-4:
Gisella and Aldric’s relationships with their children have a significant impact on their marriage and their relationship with each other. The differing perspectives and approaches they have towards their children create both harmony and discord in their marriage.
On one hand, Gisella and Aldric’s shared ambition and drive for the success of their family and business bring them closer together, as they work in tandem to ensure their children’s futures are secure. They take pride in their children’s accomplishments and celebrate their successes together.
However, the differences in their personalities and parenting styles sometimes create tension between them. Gisella’s strong ambition and alignment with their youngest child, Lucas, can lead her to focus more on the competitive aspects of their children’s lives, which contrasts with Aldric’s more cautious and nurturing approach. This divergence is particularly evident when it comes to their elder children, Tristan and Isabella, whose dreams and aspirations do not always align with the family business.
Aldric’s empathetic understanding of Tristan and Isabella’s struggles to forge their own paths often puts him in the position of mediator between Gisella’s expectations and their children’s desires. This can cause friction between Gisella and Aldric, as they each try to balance their love for their children with their own beliefs about what is best for them.
Moreover, their children’s varying aspirations and interests require Gisella and Aldric to navigate the delicate balance between supporting each child’s individuality and maintaining a united front as parents. This challenge can lead to disagreements and misunderstandings between the couple, as they try to find common ground and the best approach to parenting their unique children.
Despite these tensions, Gisella and Aldric’s love for each other and their family remains strong. They are committed to working through their differences and finding ways to support and guide their children while respecting their individuality. They understand that their relationship as a couple forms the foundation of their family, and they continue to invest time and effort into maintaining their connection and resolving any conflicts that arise.
This work by Kaj Sotala is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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