Do You Hide Your Special Interest?

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Last night I asked ChatGPT to explain the Big Bang in Kabbalistic terms, because some scientists say the Big Bang was in the Jewish Zohar before it was in science.

Do I tell my family about this kind of stuff? Or anyone in real life?

Pretty much never because they would just look at me like I'm an alien. Most people are not that interested in their own religion beyond the basics, let alone other people's religions, or ancient cultures and esotericism. Then there is a lot of people who only research to prove this or that wrong, rather than a love for the mystery and the unknown.

Was ChatGPT's response brief enough to post here? Or, at least summarize?

It is apparently within bounds of one of your special interests. This thread is about special interests. Close enough to be an excuse to tell us what your "hiding" because no one cares...

(I'm not particularly interested in this because of the religious aspect. One of my special interests is using computers so I'm curious, even if no one else is, what answer a computer cooked up for you.)

^ Here is the response from ChatGPT. Maybe someone will find it a bit interesting. I think the chatbot is great at explaining things.

Kabbalah, a mystical tradition within Judaism, offers a unique perspective on the origins of the universe. While it doesn't directly address scientific theories like the Big Bang, some parallels can be drawn between Kabbalistic concepts and modern cosmology.

In Kabbalah, there's the notion of "Tzimtzum," which suggests that before creation, there was an infinite divine presence that contracted or withdrew to make space for the universe to exist. This withdrawal is often likened to the Big Bang, where the universe rapidly expanded from a singularity.

Furthermore, Kabbalistic teachings describe the process of creation as emanations from the divine, known as the "Sefirot." These emanations represent different aspects of existence, ranging from pure spirituality to the material world. The unfolding of these emanations can be seen as analogous to the evolutionary development of the universe following the Big Bang, where matter and energy gradually organized into galaxies, stars, planets, and ultimately life forms.

Additionally, Kabbalah emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things and the notion that everything in the universe is imbued with divine sparks. This idea resonates with the scientific understanding that all matter and energy in the universe are fundamentally interconnected and arose from the same primordial event.

While Kabbalah and the Big Bang theory stem from different frameworks—mystical and scientific respectively—some intriguing parallels can be drawn between their concepts of creation, expansion, and interconnectedness.

^^^^^^^^^^^. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This directly applies to own experiences.......And has many more than dozens of times, I have felt inhibited to speak on many Things many many times .

This seems consistent with other things I've heard about the current crop of AIs. They don't know what they're talking about and don't know whether it is right or wrong. They look at large quantities of input and pull in parts and string it together to reflect what it found in the input.

Supposedly, if you ask an AI "What is 2 + 2?" and it gives you the answer "4" then you can argue with it. Tell it that is wrong and to try again...and it will likely try a different answer. It doesn't know that 2+2 = 4, it just knows that is the answer it sees most often in the input.

I suspect you could get some very entertaining revisions on the Kabbalah answer by arguing with it.
- Your answer is wrong! Give me the correct answer!
- Your answer is incomplete. How do Batman and Donald Trump figure in?
- Your answer misses the most important point. Everyone knows Mickey Mouse is involved.
Etc.

It could be fun if you can make an artificial intelligence sound like an artificial fool.

My special interest seems to be self-hiding. People can read articles about what I've done, and not really learn anything. I suspect that they can't believe that such important things can be as simple as the way I explain them.

I tend to hide my special interests because these days they usually spring either from some difficult suppressed emotion, or from association with someone I have feelings for. I don’t want anyone to guess things about my deep psychology or feelings for people so I usually keep them fairly private.

I tend not to discuss them, unless I know for sure it's ok or only places online. I just answered this in another thread but yeah after some negative blowback, it's best I find to keep a lid on it.

Dear One , you have experience and knowledge that is just not common to everyone .And you have provided me with some valuable simple answers to , Things i thought were going to be a total loss. Methods to repair the unrepairable.
Very very likely you have heled alotta of people on this planet called Earth. IMHO

Wasn't allowed to even talk about them, yet the other girls could. I actually bonded with most of them over it.

I think it's important to find people with whom we share interests (special and otherwise). It has always seemed to me that shared interests are one of the building blocks of friendship. There is, of course, much more to friendship than JUST shared interests, but it seems to me that shared interests are an essential part of companionship (having fun together), which is one of the foundations of friendship.

I generally don't discuss my interests with random people in my immediate neighborhood, but, throughout my adult life, I have always sought out people to discuss at least some of them with.

I'm sorry that you're experiencing people bullying it for you. It seems like the older we get, the less we care about others having interest in cartoons and stuff. I hope that as you grow older you experience this. I have classic My Little Pony toys and unicorn decor at my desk at work. No one has ever made fun of me for it. This definitely would have been different when I was younger, I would have been very self-conscious, but now I don't care.

Anyway, as for my special interest and whether or not I hide it. I believe my special interest is woodwind instruments historical and modern as well as early music in general. In which case, I'd say it's complicated how much I hide and do not hide it. I think it's less that people disrespect the subject and instead it's the enthusiasm that I have it and how I can go "overboard" in their eyes.

In high school, I was known for loving the bassoon. I didn't care what others thought about me back then, but it is clear to me now that people thought it was weird. Perhaps my sign should have been people nicknaming me "Bassoon"? I took it in stride instead. xD

But my delving into, like, ancient instruments has got me some interesting looks. Like a coworker years ago who mentioned once she played the clarinet and me deciding that was my queue to info dump on the history of woodwind instruments. Obvious to me now, she wasn't into it.

Even my Music History I professor (who I did like) kinda playfully joked about my obsession.

I think since, I've learned that my interest is odd and the vast majority of people don't have any interest in it, so I've toned it down.

yes, i always try not to speak about my interests to people, even in my own family. i used to up until the age of maybe 14 but its just caused me a lot of ridicule, embarrassment and bullying. so i dont let myself anymore.

Very sad you had to do that...!

I used to collect and customize these. Might get back into it.


I also used to collect the ones from the early 90's too. For some reason I was only "allowed" to talk about my special interest if other people were talking about it too. My mom was like, "If you talk about what they are interested in, they will return the favor and talk about what you are interested in". I pretended to be interested in Goosebumps, a children's horror anthology book series which was INSANLEY popular at the time.

I never understood why it was okay for people to talk about Harry Potter/boybands/insert whatever is trending all the time but I was told off for being "obsessive". Well all these NT girls in my classes at school have a true obsession with the Backstreet Boys. That's ALL they talk about when they get together. Why is it okay for them to do that but I can't talk about obscure animal?

But I never truly loved Goosebumps, I just pretended to because I was trying to take my mother's advice and maybe some one would at least pretend to be interested in niche zoology. I vowed to never feign an interest in something ever again and never did. I could never have children because there's no guarantee they'd have the same special interests as me and therefore I could not bond with them. I can only bond with people who share my interests and it doesn't matter if they are immediate family or not. My brother used to bully me for my special interests...and wonders why were are not close as adults and why I make such an effort to avoid him. If you wanted a brother/sister relationship you should have been like our other brother who embarrassed my special interests.

Never happened and eventually I gave up and stopped pretending to be interested in things I was not. Held a grudge against my mom for years for telling me that. I wish she would have just encouraged me to be myself like she did when I got older and she finally realized the only way she'd get me to stop talking about my special interests was to cut my vocal cords like they do dogs to stop them barking.

She also realized "You know? I'd rather have a girl who runs around talking about meerkats instead of one who's obsessed with boys and going to get herself into trouble" or just gave up. She believed it would be too cruel to take my special interests away from me like some therapists suggested back then.

She threatened to on occasion but never actually went through with it. "If you don't straighten up, you will loose all your meerkat themed things!" (Her favorite term for taking things away from me was "loose") she never went through with it but if she had I probably would have attempted suicide...I think my mom knew this. We were a religious family but the only person who suggested my special interests might be an "idol" was my ex boyfriend who is also autistic and got his special interest.

I chewed him out like, "Oh? So meerkats are an idol now huh? If that's the case, than so is your anime stuff." I knew LOTS of religious people and not a single one of them ever told me my special interests were idiolatry. I see lots of Christians doing things that I consider idiolatry every day. I'm from the US but I always refused to say the pledge to the flag because I saw it as idolatry. Sorry Flag, but I'm pledging my allegiance to God, not a scrap of fabric that symbolizes a country that pretends it's "free". If the US is so "free", than why am I forced by law to go to a school where I get abused everyday?

But anyway, I stopped hiding my special interests and pretending to be interested in things I wasn't when I realized things were never going to change. I was never going to find another kid at school who shared my niche interests and even if I did, I'd probably weird them out with how obsessive I could be. I made up for all the friends I never had as a child as an adult when the internet became mainstream and I could find other autistic people who shared my special interests. I made no effort to hide my special interests. I make an effort to show them.

Is it a bad thing I'm an otaku?