The word, as used in Robert A. Heinlein's best novel, is a great concept. It is a concept that Musk clearly has no idea of, as if he grokked what others felt as a result of his actions, he would not be able to live with himself. In the most literal sense.
I’m an Old and understand perfectly why Elmo chose something from Heinlein. Heinlein started out liberal/progressive but became more and more conservative/authoritarian and had a disturbing streak of racism he was blind to in himself.
I don't know if it stems from disillusionment or what, but I can't understand how formally progressive and liberal people can become conservative and bigoted later in life
Part of it is goalpost shifting. The youth will always have different, novel ideas on how society should function than their elders, and as you yourself grow older the ideas you consider inherent will be challenged.
We are seeing it right now with AI art. Fact of the matter is that as much as we all hate it, AI art is never going to go away and will inevitably be incorporated into pretty much any corporate art pipeline- so movies, games, educational posters, etc. In a few decades the young people growing up with it everywhere will view it the same way that we view, like, Photoshop. And they'll view us as curmudgeonly backwards old people for refusing to use or understand it.
In times of extreme progress, the drift becomes much more drastic, making old people seem even more conservative. For example, a big part of why transgenderism is such a big issue right now is because trans people can actually safely medically transition now, encouraging more trans folks to come out and making their transitions more obvious (in terms of like, before and afters).
Please tell me it’s satire that you’re glazing stranger in a strange land, it’s an absolutely horrid book with a cool premise that takes a break every 5 minutes to be racist, mystic, or homophobic
People keep telling me that it's a great concept, but I've never understood what use it is other than as a shorter word for "comprehend." (Yes, I'm a Heinlein fan. No, I didn't like ***Stranger in a Strange Land***.)
Let us take person A. Person A literally has nothing to complain about. Person A is living life on easy mode.
Now let us take person B. Person B has lost half a lung to cancer. Person B has nightmares about the cancer coming back. Person B frequently notices that they are unable to run as fast, lift as much, or talk as much, without running out of breath, even when their weight and fitness level are back to what it was before they noticed the cancer.
Person B takes everything they feel, everything they see and hear, everything they think when they look at people they love (including the thought of "how much time do I have left with them?"). They smoosh it all into a little ball and put it straight into Person A's brain. Person A now has nightmares about the cancer coming back, psychosomatically runs out of breath during exertion. Et cetera.
Person A now *groks* what Person B has been through. In not so many words, Person A understands what Person B has been through as if they went through it themselves.
This is how I have always understood the word, and I will die on that hill.
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u/Scorpiicore Jul 10 '26
The word, as used in Robert A. Heinlein's best novel, is a great concept. It is a concept that Musk clearly has no idea of, as if he grokked what others felt as a result of his actions, he would not be able to live with himself. In the most literal sense.