Harvard Scientist Suggests That Our Universe Was Created in a Laboratory (thesciverse.vercel.app) This theory always makes more sense to me than any others simply by the way our own species is using technology and the direction we are heading. I have always postulated that we are a high school chemistry lab experiment for some alien kid from an A-Grade Civilization. Once the alien kid's semester is over, he will flush the petri dish, aka the Universe, down his fancy A-Grade Civilization crapper. I am not complaining though, those A-Grade folks have given me a great life!
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I Had Chronic Pain. Silent Walking Healed It (msn.com) I wasn't even aware there was any other kind of walking except for silently until the last few years. I pass people all day long with their Earbuds and all kinds of other devices stuck in their heads, as they give me that creepy, blank smile after I greet them and suddenly realize they can't hear me. Or I hear them talking to someone and assume they are saying something to me and make a fool out of myself answering them. I am a horrible multitasker and can just barely handle walking and chewing gum at the same time. This Luddite finds great peace in walking and listening to the ambient sound around me. Glad to know it is a thing and I am not alone.
What Are Large Language Models (LLMs) and How Do They Work? (makeuseof.com) A nice simple explanation of how all those Chatbot programs work for us Luddites. They are basically like the Library of Alexandria on steroids, only it can talk back to you and slap you around. I am getting a little weary of Bing's Copilot asking me if it can rewrite what I just wrote. It makes me feel insecure. So far it can't write as well, as least not as human. I have a gut feeling it will master the humanity part as we get less human, and they start implanting the Neuralink Chips into our brains at birth. Kindergarten to PhD instantly with no messy life experience to fuck us up. Looking at and holding a smartphone all day is not very efficient. Let's just cut to the chase and have in installed in our head.
Rollins was my least favorite singer from my least favorite period of Black Flag, but I always appreciated his intellect and ideas. Henry was the Horatio Alger of Hardcore, while being surrounded by Circle-A silliness from asshats that did not have a clue what anarchy really represented politically. Rollins was always a careerist at heart and made no bones about it. He turned his stint in Black Flag into being a very successful entertainment mogul on his own terms. He is also worth about 20 million bucks as of 2024 and owned a multimillion-dollar house in the Hollywood Hills before a recent move to Nasville, where I have noticed all the cool people are migrating to lately. Not bad, considering when I last saw Black Flag in the early 80's they were trying to figure how to get enough gas money to make it back to LA. I always appreciated his anti-drug, straightedge stance too. He truly is an original. This quote particularly rings true for me at this stage of life. So many people my a
Though I was far from an adherent of Dennett's ideas, he certainly wrote some great books that always got me thinking. He laid out his ideas very clearly and easily to digest. The way he saw life was a good bedrock to test one's own beliefs against. I still have a dog-eared copy of "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" that has traveled with me for years now, and I travel light! Good show, Danny! Daniel Dennett, atheist philosopher guided by science, dies at 82 (msn.com)
South Park The Museum Of Tolerance - YouTube I recall seeing an interview with Parker and Stone awhile back and they said how they could not even pitch a show like 'South Park' today. All the network brass is too scared to take a chance. Irony and making a point by going in through the back door is not allowed in this era. I think part of that is we are living in a post-literate society, and nothing is more generational than comedy.
Is Dreaming Real? (getpocket.com) I have noticed one of the huge benefits in giving up alcohol and pot has been the phenomenal increase in my dreaming and recollection, and it still appears to be growing after many years of being clean and sober. It is very enjoyable and seems to lead to a more refreshing sleep too. I never have nightmares. That got me interested in lucid dreaming, but my research turned up both positives and negatives about when you start fucking with natural sleep patterns. I decided to let my dreams just play as they lay. Life is pretty much just a lucid dream any way if you live it right.
There might be some debate where Billy the Kid is buried, he even has a fake grave on the way to his real one in Ft. Sumner, NM, but we for sure know where the man who shot Billy is buried, right here in good old Las Cruces, NM. Pat was bushwacked in the arroyo pretty close to my home. Even at that, 58 was a respectable age to reach in his profession. Pat for sure outlived Billy by many a moon. Of course, there is quite a large contingent of folks who don't believe Billy fell under Pat's gun. The Facebook Billy pages are full of all kinds of theories about Billy living to a ripe old age. Add to that over 140 years of pop culture mythologizing Billy and the truth is something we will never know for sure. But if I were a betting man, I am going with Billy meeting his maker that fateful July day in 1881 Ft. Sumner. We love black and white hats in our culture. I have always had the suspicion if we were an eyewitness to the actual events of all the legendary Wild West history we w
Tiredness of life: the growing phenomenon in western society (theconversation.com) I ran into this a lot when I was a geriatric CNA. Keeping people alive past their natural expiration date is a very profitable business model. We basically warehouse our elderly and ensure they have no purpose or reason to live. I always knew once I heard "Is this all worth it?" from a patient or variations on that theme, they would soon be dying. The psyche naturally knows when it is time to check out. In retrospect I think it would be a great idea for everybody to spend a year working in a geriatric facility while in their 50's. Nothing will prepare one for the aging process any better.
Always been one of my pet theories. Everything we experience and conceptualize is filtered through our consciousness anyway, so we might as well conceive of the universe as a huge brain. The reality is our physical senses are pretty limited as tools to perceive anything at all, so we might as well swing for the fences with creative ideas. I am a firm believer that every PhD candidate in the hard sciences should be required to dose on 500 mics of Owsley grade Acid before receiving their credentials, and 250 mic refreshers on their graduation anniversary from then on out. That will keep their mind open and fluid and prevent any calcification due to over education and ego issues. Once you slap a 'Dr.' on the front of someone's name they start drinking their own Kool-Aid. The Strange Similarity of Neuron and Galaxy Networks (getpocket.com)
The Uncertain Science of Meditation (undark.org) A very well-balanced article on meditation. Having been raised in a metaphysically based New Thought religion like Christian Science and being a secular meditator these days, I will admit to having a bias in favor of the power of meditation. However, I am also very aware it is a field full of bullshit gurus, hipster man bun Buddhists, and a plethora of scam artists. A scientific study of meditation is always welcome. I do like the one excerpt from the article that says any results of healing or better health amongst meditators must take into consideration "People that meditate tend to have healthier behaviors, tend to smoke less, they tend to exercise more, and that could have skewed the results." That sounds like a pretty good endorsement of the efficacy of meditation to me......
Even his only photo is not him! It looks suspiciously like Bob Olinger, Billy the Kid's last victim. The history of the Wild West is full of undocumented exaggerations that grow exponentially with each new telling, but I can think of no better example of this phenomenon than Abraham G. Graham, aka 'Shotgun Collins'. Collins seemed to have hung out with every famous gunfighter there was back in the day, though very little seems to be verifiable, but legends are way more fun anyway. In this case I am throwing history to the wind and going with the Hollywood script version. What information there is on Collins is so badly written it is painful to even read. He reminds me of the character Dustin Hoffman played in that old western "Little Big Man" in the way he pops up in all the famous events in the Wild West. So if any of you are historical Wild West buffs I would check out here. I am going with rumors and tall tales from here on out. Collins was born in 1851 on a pl
Most people know I don't post a lot of political memes, but this one illustrates one of my pet peeves so very well. I am not even a huge global warming dude, but I do understand the fallacy of the old, " Hell, we had us more snow this winter than we ever has had. Don't sound like no global warmings to me! " That is an ignorant statement that just undermines anything else they might say that may have a little more validity. Actually at 64 I am personally looking forward to a little global warming. I could use about an extra 10 degrees right now in fact. By the time it really gets bad I should be dead. Obviously they have not looked into the matter very deeply. The climate change guys have never said it would just heat up uniformly like an oven. This is not an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' or 'The Outer Limits'. That extra harsh winters are signs as much as a heat wave somewhere else is. Disruption and spikes is the key here. Now rather what the cause
Lagom: Swedish philosophy on accepting "just enough" - Big Think I have been a practitioner of 'Lagom' since I was a kid. Back then they called it 'being lazy' and 'having no ambition'. My last wife called it 'Not liking nice things.' God bless the people that don't have a sense of 'Lagom' though. Someone has to keep the wheels greased in society. I also appreciate a good portion of the world doesn't have the luxury of living in a state of 'Lagom'. They are too busy just trying to stay alive.
Waking up at 5 a.m. every day could improve your life—here’s how to make it work for you | Fortune Well I have been getting up at 5 am for a couple of years now and this article rings true. My life was filled with jobs where I worked all kinds of strange hours for years and I never was a very good sleeper to begin with. Add to that caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, THC, and all the other REM sleep disrupters, and my natural sleep cycle took a hit. Once that my time was my own and I cleaned out my system, I decided to see if I could not regulate myself to establish a more natural circadian rhythm in tune with the rising and setting of the sun. Getting up and seeing the Sun come online feels good. You just have a very deep feeling this was how we were designed to live. Plus, I dream like crazy now and can recall them in the morning. I have always thought of dreaming as the way the brain blows out its pipes and reboots at night. It has been a real gift to be able to sleep through the night a
A Bedtime Story for Wendy (Montage) - SOUTH PARK - YouTube South Park's satire of Chatbot. 26 years on TV and they are still fresh and creative in a sea of shit. They hit this perfectly as we enter an age when AI will handle our romances too. The beauty of their writing is they are not coming from politically partisan positions. Their humor is based on human nature, and that gives it longevity that will far outlast the usual TV fare.
More AI generated advice from Inspirobot, and pretty much the goal of all social media. That and spreading biased political propaganda, simplistic cliched moralizing, or posting nostalgia from our youth because we all know our best days are behind us. Things used to be so bitchin when we were young! The most important thing is to not include any original content. Rest assured somebody has already created what you need to express yourself better than you ever could. Now with Chatbots and AI generated art you could burp and come up with a post. One nice side effect of getting older I have noticed is ego death. Now I post just to entertain myself and gain a perspective of where I am in life. In many ways social media is just a personal journal in a technological time where having a social media presence is just part of possessing a whole personality. Facebook is for sure dying. It is the 'old folks' social media platform now and we are beginning to get senile and die off. It is
On the eve of my 73rd trip around the Sun I am feeling gratitude for obviously being one of the most fortunate and blessed people on this planet. I made it through, which is amazing enough. Here is the top 10 list of what I have learned so far in life as I teeter on the cusp of old age. 1. You will hit your peak in physical attractiveness and the body working at its highest efficiency at about 20-25. Then it will be a slow slide downhill. The best one hears in their 60's is: "Wow, you sure look good for that age! I thought you were in your 50's." or "I bet you were good looking when you were younger." Have a back up plan. 2. You don't need much stuff to live a happy and comfortable life. In fact too much stuff can actually be detrimental to that goal. I like to keep it where it will all fit in a compact car if need be. Want to resist the system, Johnny Rebel? Stop buying crap. 3.Change your engine oil as recommended in your owner's manual. They don&
I always love it when really smart guys say stuff like this, and one can't get much smarter than Sir Arthur Eddington. I mean this guy was a 'front row in class' astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, and besties with Einstein to boot! Yet, in spite of all that, Arthur was very conscious of the role consciousness played in science, hence the reference to having a lot more to learn about 'and'. Having lived my entire life in the realm of 'and', I surely appreciate this quote from a guy that could do some purty fancy cyphering and such.
There is one simple rule of capitalism: Whomever delivers the widest variety of product, with the least amount of hassle, at the cheapest prices, wins. Marketing product has been consolidating my entire life, from the corner variety store, to shopping malls, to big box stores, and all the way to Amazon. Sam Drucker of Mayberry is not coming back. All the Businesses That Amazon Has Gobbled Up in the U.S. (gizmodo.com)
The exercise pill: How exercise keeps your brain healthy and protects it against depression and anxiety (theconversation.com) I believe the biggest lesson I learned as a geriatric CNA was that the old cliche of 'use it or lose it' is very true. Once a patient stopped moving all kinds of issues tended to pop up, both mental and physical, leading to death. That is why I am staying away from the Lazy Boy recliner and big screen TV for as long as possible and sticking to walking and meditating in front of a Guadalupe for relaxation and entertainment. Emptying the brain's cache at the end of the day is the best show going.