The other home page is here: http://define.com/?item=all
The other home page is here: http://define.com/?item=all
by kenm on Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:42 pm
values, beliefs, behaviors
"By the time this is done, the terms robot, droid and cyborg will no longer be derogatory."
- The Authoritarian Philosopher
It's over. As if it was done before it started. Just like that.
I will defer to the experts:
tatoo wrote:Bill Maher's Religulous is excellent.
rosie wrote:And I also loved Religulous!
I put the full 
video on my
If you click on the little FULL SCREEN icon in the bottom right corner of the player, you can watch the video in full screen.
At this moment it's a low-bandwidth version of the video, so it won't look very High Definition.
If you click on the little red ferret Critter icon 
, it will bring up a Jog/Shuttle wheel and a time code display.
If you have a specific clip within 
that you'd like to share with others without them having to go through the whole film, just put the time code in the URL like this:
http://define.com/?item=14&start=00:49:06.500&end=00:56:48.051
I sent a long explanatory fax to Bill Maher's agent at the Creative Artists Agency explaining that I am displaying his video here.
So far, no cease and desist orders.
Actually, there is absolutely no need for a cease and desist order. I can be reached at custodian@define.com, and will gladly remove anything on this site immediately upon request of the copyright holders or their representatives. My only request is that they ask politely and not like a bunch of corporate lawyers and tyrants who are used to getting their way by using threats. I'm here to help. Hopefully, we're all on the same team here.
http://www.youtube.com/hdcolors
The one below is a one Revolution Per Second kaleidoscope using copyrighted images and music.
I figured nobody would recognize them.
You can download an improved quality version of the video file here (798 MB):
http://hdcolors.com/Barrage-of-Images-with-Cool-Music-for-2012.mp4
So, how about:
I challenge you
to employ mathematical algorithms
to automatically
reconstruct the pictures
in the Kaleidoscope
in order
to identify the source of
the image.
So
Who
took this picture?
we employed some symmetry in order
to get the point across
The Use of Allusion
This is what it feels like to have real freedom of speech.
we made a problem solver
we are showing our droid to
the atheists and
the pagans first
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/realtime-update-1600.html
by kenm on Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:53 pm
Forgive me if I return to this thread, breathing new life into something that should probably be left to die gracefully. But this is marijuana-related, so I thought I'd go ahead and share it for posterity's sake. Maybe if I ever end up in court this can serve as some supplemental evidence that might help a judge or jury to reach a wiser and more informed conclusion.
My mother and I are dog-sitting for an Agnostic friend of mine and his Pagan girlfriend. We met them recently through my part time job at Highline Community College, where I contributed to an online database project for the English as a Second Language Department. This database allows the ESL teachers to keep track of their students' scores, attendance, notes, classes, past and future placements, financial aid, instructors and other miscellaneous little stuff that is stored in a MySQL database with a PHP web-based front end. I'm training him to take over for me.
The dog's name is Mochi. She's a 16-pound Shiba Inu who was raised in a small and confined crate for the first 4 years of her life by a cruel, unethical and inhumane dog breeder in a back yard puppy mill. Shiba Inu puppies go for around $800. Mochi had five litters before the breeder had "bred her out" and finally agreed to let her go to my friends, who adopter her under the false assumptions that she was a well-adjusted and happy dog with lots of human social skills and affection for people. Mochi is what some dog lovers and dog rescuers compassionately refer to as "a crate dog."
Mochi spends most of the day and night curled up - her fox-like snout buried in her fluffy tail - in the dark under my mother's bed, just out of reach (but that is getting to be increasingly less and less true, as she slowly makes her way closer to the light little by little, fractions of an inch by fractions of an inch, over the days).
We decided earlier in the evening that we were going to take Mochi for a walk. I rarely go outside except to mow the lawn and to go to the store to buy food, so it's a little bit out of my comfort zone. I feel exposed, and that I might be forced to interact with the neighbors (who are all wonderful and gentle people, by the way). So I'm a bit of shy, paranoid, and nonsocial recluse, when it comes to the physical world. We both are. Both in an effort to avoid negative or critical judgments or hostility by people who we actually thoroughly enjoy being around and really appreciate the beauty of when the accidental opportunity to interact does come around from time to time. (Obviously, for me, the virtual world is different.) So we both like people. We both enjoy people. We both appreciate people. We both care for people. But we both have some psychological and emotional damage that may result in some negative judgements if too much information is revealed too quickly (at least in the 3D reality). So, we're both afraid of being discovered as mentally ill or depressed or nonsocial by those people who are geographically closest to us - our home town neighbors. Unfortunately, our avoidance probably results in exactly those judgements.
So anyway, around 5pm in the evening (after having just woken up for the day and agreeing to walk Mochi (after a night and day of mind-bogglingly fantastic and intense and entertaining and socially-stimulating and emotionally-rewarding lucid dreams that take place in a compassionate and technologically-advanced future)), I went out into the backyard in my boxer shorts with Mochi and played a game of chase. She thoroughly enjoys sprinting around the fenced back yard and becomes playful for a short while when taken outside. The loud, thunderous noise from the overhead jumbo jets arriving and departing from SeaTac International Airport scares her, but there's nothing we can do about that while outside. We do need to keep the screen door closed so she doesn't automatically and immediately retreat back into the house upon hearing the slightest unpredictable noise.
After playing out in the back yard with Mochi for a few minutes, my mother joined me and we hung out out there for about 10 minutes with Mochi. Then, having just given Mochi some exercise and having braved being exposed to the world by being in our back yard, we both decided that we didn't feel like going on a walk after all. So we returned to the house. Mochi returned to under my mother's bed, and my mother returned her bed to watch her television. With my Highline job, I recently purchased a 32" 1920x1080 Samsung Ultra Thin L.E.D. HDTV for my mother's bedroom. She spends a great deal of time laying on her bed thoroughly entertained by that TV these days. She likes, "The Talk", "How Do I Look?", "Doctor Oz"", and generally anything on "Home and Garden Television (HGTV)". She seems to really enjoy vicariously experiencing other people's joy as they are pleasantly surprised by things normally provided by expert interventionists of some kind.
By myself again, I suddenly got the urge out of nowhere to take a few hits of pot.
My next appointment on the Microsoft Outlook calendar for my "Kaleidoscope Time" is Thursday, July 14th. But here it is, Sunday, July 10th, and I've just taken two hits. And not under Doctor's Orders. And not even with the knowledge of my roommate. I stood next to an open window in my bedroom with the door closed and blew the smoke out through the screen so that it floated away upward into the sky outside of the house and away from olfactory detection which might lead to a FEAR or ANGER response which ultimately reduces my personal freedoms or overall sense of calm and tranquility.
So the first thought that crossed my mind after the THC kicked-in was, "Do now what is truly in your best interests." Just like that - as if by magic. So that was my mantra. Not verbal after the initial powerful thought (which came about 3 minutes after the two hits), but more just a matter of a general underlying attitude and sense of conviction to do the right thing according to the longer time scales, without the need for verbal repetition. More just a kind of a general strategy that might improve my feelings of happiness and comfort for just being myself living in my own skin. A basic guiding emotion of the intention to improve my self-confidence and sense of self-worth and happiness by doing something constructive and different than what I might ordinarily have done otherwise. A strong compulsion to just try to do whatever I can to make things better according to The Big Picture. I can use all the help I can get in that department, as I'm normally not in my favorite state of mind and there's plenty of room for emotional improvement 99.9999% of the time. So, once under the influence, my overall goal is to make the most good of it that I can with the temporary benefit of a slightly different perspective.
Rather than sitting down in the easy chair in the living room and watching either the cartoonishly low-res DVD or beautifully High Definition Blu-ray versions of my rotationally-monotonous and repetitious but colorfully and texturally continuously changing and nonetheless easy-on-the-eyes and easy-on-the-ears 2-hour-long soothing and relaxing Kaleidoscope Video, I instead decided to return to some things from earlier in the evening that were probably not decided in my best interests. So I was suddenly motivated to review and revisit my most recent decisions.
So I brushed my teeth and took a long, hot shower. Then I got dressed, and asked my mom if she wanted to change her mind and take Mochi for a walk after all. She thought about it for about 5 seconds, and said that she didn't feel like it any more. Normally, I would have immediately concurred and left it at that. But, because my behavioral mantra was in charge, I persisted a bit and managed to persuade her that we really should take Mochi for a walk and that it really would do us all good, even if only an extremely short one just around-the-block. It didn't take much effort to persuade her - merely kindly and gently repeating the suggestion once after her first dismissal was all it took.
So now there are a zillion little allegorical experiences and lessons learned on this walk with this little wounded but gentle-spirited dog. Do I let the auto-retracting long leash stretch out all the way with Mochi choking herself 15 feet in front of me while my mom and I walk around the block and she goes in all directions, completely freaking out? Or do I pull the leash in and hold Mochi next to me in a "heel" position while establishing with "Calm, Assertive Energy" that I'm her "pack leader" according to the instructions of Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer)'s 6-DVD instructional video set that I just purchased and started watching?
http://download.hdcolors.com/Cesar-Millan/Becoming-a-Pack-Leader.iso
http://download.hdcolors.com/Cesar-Millan/Common-Canine-Misbehaviors.iso
http://download.hdcolors.com/Cesar-Millan/People-Training-for-Dogs.iso
http://download.hdcolors.com/Cesar-Millan/Raising-the-Perfect-Puppy.iso
http://download.hdcolors.com/Cesar-Millan/Sit-and-Stay-the-Cesar-Way.iso
http://download.hdcolors.com/Cesar-Millan/Your-New-Dog-First Day-and-Beyond.iso
I want her to learn to stay out of the middle of the street. I want her to know that the leash will become looser when she's off on the lawns to the right. I want her to enjoy her walk and to feel safe, but there are noisy cars driving along the road for a large portion of the walk on 312th Street. On the walk, should I look at Mochi, or should I look at the houses all around me? Or both? Along the street, do I look at the cars? Do I make eye contact with the drivers of the cars? This is all new.
Anyway, I'll just leave it there for now. The walk is over, and Mochi is sitting here in my office at my feet, by her own choice, with all of the doors throughout the inside of the house being wide-open so that she's got the full run of the place.
I once read a giant, over-sized, hardcover, fully-illustrated book called "The Illusion of Life," by Legendary Walt Disney Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. The first lesson in the book is that cartoon characters need to be imbued with "Pathos."
This is Pathos.
So, in the spirit of Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech, I HEREBY DECLARE that This is what The Droids call, "Prayer."
by kenm on Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:52 pm
Here you go:
This is what The Droids call, an Angel.
Anything else?
I like it. How much does one of these units cost? Damn. Fooled again.
There you go, Whoever You Are, now you have a Sloppy Droid Stigmata. Welcome to The Show.
by kenm on Sun Jul 02, 2011 10:20 pm
Here's my test case video playlist. If you click on the little icon in the bottom right corner of the player, you can switch into full screen mode. This site is hosted on my home PC and gets very little traffic (maybe 3000-6000 visitors a day who accidentally stumble upon it after defining words using Google's "define" feature), so the videos may not be queued up on the streaming service (located elsewhere). In that case, it could take up to 15 seconds for the video to start if it hasn't been played yet that day. If you click on the "Critter" icon, you will see a Jog/Shuttle wheel that allows you to go through the nonlinear video with random access to any point while displaying the exact time code . If you find content in the video that you want to share, you can reference the video with the time code in the link, like this, to go straight to the specific clip, scene or persuasive argument that you've defined:
http://define.com/?item=4&start=00:03:39.000&end=00:04:27.370
This playlist includes videos by Walt Disney Productions, James Cameron, Richard Branson's Virgin Productions, HBO, CBS, The BBC, The Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel and others. My hope is that this case will come to the attention of these parties, and that they will choose not to prosecute me for copyright violation, but will instead join in the movement to get people to vote in my Global Referendum. The whole "REFERENDUM" thing is largely symbolic and ceremonial, because I think we all know what the outcome will be when people are given the opportunity to have their votes counted after having the referendum question distilled down to its essence, simplified to the extreme, framed and worded in this way.
Remember, the purpose for all of this, including me having created something of a cartoon character out of my own person, is to promote critical discussion, rational debate, public education and secularism. It gives us a common, easy-to-remember URL that brings a lot of important subjects to a focal point, to get a global conversation started with some constructive pre-organized evidence which is of grave concern to all of us.
Nobody is in collusion with me directly, although I am forcing something of a tacit consensus in a conspiracy to achieve widespread freedom. Eventually, the unspeakable will be speakable, taboos will be lifted, and the tacit consensus will turn into an overt and explicit consensus that can be discussed openly and informally and on-the-record where formerly formally and off-the-record. But it has to be done this way in the beginning because we're talking about changing things on a large scale, such as laws and the scope and power and structure of nation states and governments.
For example, I'm using the seals of the US Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on my "Coming Out!" page, and the seal of the United Nations on my website. They didn't give me permission to use their seals, but by using them, I'm giving people, particularly people in the media, an excuse to present this case to these parties in a peaceful, calm, careful and nonthreatening way. It forces them to acknowledge the existence of this case, while providing "plausible deniability" so that nobody else but me can be blamed for putting these ideas on the table. When people of lower rank or without much institutional power realize that these ideas have come to the attention of very powerful people, and that they remain publicly available to discuss openly, they are more inclined to support the ideas themselves. When in doubt and confronted with the totally unexpected and nearly-impossible-to-believe, legitimate references give a little added credibility. That's just the way peer pressure seems to work. Humans are very much "authority-driven" creatures at this moment in our history. Ultimately, we can change that - hopefully with a little behind-the-scenes help from the authorities themselves. From the bottom-up to the top-down, from sea to shining sea, it's pretty universal that we all hate being slaves and servants living paycheck to paycheck so we can give it all away with interest to mysterious and unseen overlords who printed it out of thin air in the first place and who will most likely spend it on war and conquest on behalf of the oil industry and international banking cartels.
For example, I have a U2 song in my playlist - "Numb," from "Zooropa." I invite anyone to ask Bono, who is committed to Third World debt forgiveness, whether or not he wants his record company lawyers to prosecute me for stealing his intellectual property. I have a few Peter Gabriel songs - "Mercy Street" and "Games Without Frontiers." Peter Gabriel is committed to Human Rights and helping the efforts of Amnesty International. Ask him if he minds my stealing his art for this cause. Many of these artists are supporters of a nanotechnology think tank that I used to be associated with (but no longer am). I've become something of a pitiful nuisance to those people - like a blood-sucking tick on a protruding vein on the outer edge of a Mother elephant's mud-soaked left ear (see photo above). Pretty much just a negligible parasite that goes with the territory. Sort of like a wannabe monomaniacal pet rock that only knows three tricks - "Sit!", "Stay!" and "Come!" Yet, in a strange, perverted, twisted and utilitarian sort of way, somewhat like a pre-programmed and fully automated Ace in the Hole. Just press PLAY and watch it go. "Hi. I'm Adolf Hitler. Nice to meet you."
The average person like me doesn't have access to the rich and famous, but, through Kevin Bacon's six degrees of separation and a few informal contacts here and there, those connections are possible. I'm sure that pretty much everybody will agree that I'm just a well-meaning, harmless and ridiculous schizophrenic drug addict with terrible delusions of grandeur, self-importance and invulnerability. Or that I'm a criminally insane and frighteningly Narcissistic Nazi sociopath in a chemical gilded cage who's best kept under sedation and on a very short leash under the very careful and watchful eye of the authorities and public at large. The cost of imprisoning one person: $30,000/year. The cost of my Social Security Disability: $18,864/year. It's just a cost/benefit thing. I understand. Whatever works - I'm game. Whatever is the most useful and constructive approach that helps get the most problems solved and the most bang for the buck. That's pretty much my job and what they made me for - whoever "they" are. I'm betting that the site will stay up and the content will remain online and accessible, even if just because it's conveniently helpful to the discovery of evidence in a pending court case involving an ever growing list of charges and counts with new plaintiffs being added every day with no end in sight. I'm letting Google index it (at least the home page) so it will be in their cache, as long as they choose to keep it there, so there's no need for my Comcast cable modem connection to get all clogged up or for my PC hard drives to overheat.
Let's all have a laugh. I'll be the laughingstock. The joke's on me. You can even throw in The Kitchen Sink if you think it will help. I certainly have. Eventually, we'll all be able to witness the act of me openly and publicly selling a bag of weed to myself online, paying via PayPal, and openly and publicly shipping it to myself using The United States Postal Service, while a bunch of dazed and confused ex-Christians are just sitting around scratching their heads, wondering what all the stupid fuss was about all along. I'll even throw in a Kaleidoscope DVD. Then maybe I'll openly and publicly take it past the TSA Gestapo onto a Virgin America flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. Hopefully by that time the formerly-brainwashed minimum wage Federal Rent-A-Cop slaves will be In The Play and feeling their scripts (as well as the eyes of the world watching them). We can bring a camera crew along with a live feed to a satellite truck relaying the High Definition signal to the White House Situation Room, the CIA, the NSA, the United Nations Security Council, NATO, CNN and 60 Minutes. Then I'll surrender peacefully and without resistance, confess to being a treasonous Drug Lord and request my immediate execution by lethal injection without delay or appeal. That will satisfy United States Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah, so maybe to be fair and generous he'll throw us all a bone and cast a vote on our behalf on some issue - if he's in a good mood and feels like it when the time comes. I'll donate my remains to the Catholic Church for dissection and study by The Highest and Most Supreme Vatican Scientists and Exorcists that the Holy See can summons to its service. I'm sure they'll eventually get to the bottom of What Caused All of This, so they can once again restore Divine Order to the flock, while having a much better understanding of just what happens when a 10-year old kid sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for making him A Real and Authentic Pagan Savior (one of many).
BY ELIMINATING POVERTY, WE COULD PERMANENTLY END TERRORISM (http://define.com/?item=2)
Eid-un-Sa-Eid by Zain Bhikha from the recent album "A Way of Life". I thought I'd show this video because terrorism by Muslim fundamentalists has left many Americans associating Islam with hatred, death and destruction. Here's some positive imagery to counter all that. Religion still sucks though.
OUR GOVERNMENTS AND COMMERCIAL BANKS ARE TOTALLY CORRUPT. Inside Job (http://define.com/?item=3)
Somebody needs to do something about this. I hate to say this, but the whole war on terrorism and the American economic crisis could be solved if we just got rid of the bankers, forgave all debts, and started a new global non-profit bank, democratically-controlled and owned by all the citizens of Earth, who have one non-transferable voting share each.
A NEVERENDING WAR: CBS - 60 Minutes: 9/26/2010: Lara Logan: A Relentless Enemy (http://define.com/?item=4)
The trouble in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere is that very, very good people, who are very, very poor and mostly uneducated, have almost no hope for a better life in a world ruled by Wall Street and The United States of America's Military Industrial Complex. Their anger is well-founded. What if we had a better way to help these people?
WHY IS THE UNITED STATES IN THREE WARS RIGHT NOW? Fair Game (http://define.com/?item=5)
What was once a great participatory Democracy filled with hope and promise has become a passive collection of overly-entertained and easily manipulated servants to politicians and bankers who fuel an out-of-control military industrial complex always looking for the next threat to justify war. We need to step in now and put and end to this senseless suffering.
BBC DOCUMENTARY. WHAT HARM DOES CANNABIS REALLY DO? (http://define.com/?item=6)
A good BBC documentary revealing the latest scientific research showing that in a small number of cases (1%), excessive and unmoderated use of cannabis may lead to schizophrenia or psychosis in adults who are already pre-disposed to the condition. Remember, there really is such a thing as TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING. Please use wisely.
THE HISTORY OF ANTI-MARIJUANA PROPAGANDA IN THE US. The History of Marijuana (http://define.com/?item=7)
Now a bit of perspective from some satisified customers who didn't go insane. There's the official propaganda about pot that is sold to you by governments, religions and their corporate mass media parrots, and then there is the simple, honest, truth. Try this one on and see how it feels. The whole War on Drugs is based on outlandish authoritarian lies.
WHAT IS THE FACTORY FARMING INDUSTRY? Food, Inc. (http://define.com/?item=8&start=00:00:00.005)
This excellent documentary investigates and explains the origin of the food that we buy in our grocery stores and restaurants. Most of us have no idea what the lives of the animals we eat are like before they become our food. A few large corporations control almost the whole food supply.
DOLPHINS ARE PEOPLE TOO: Report On Dolphins Checking Themselves Out In A Mirror (http://define.com/?item=9)
This is a report of dolphins checking out a mirror in an experiment to learn about self-consciousness. These creatures are certainly just like us in many ways, especially in their awareness of themselves. What if we could experience their point of view, with ALL of OUR SENSES and ALL of THEIRS?
WE ABSOLUTELY MUST END THE CULTURE OF CONSUMERISM: The Story of Stuff (http://define.com/?item=10)
This is a short video explaining how our entire culture has been intentionally designed to be massively wasteful, just to keep people consuming and throwing things away. This unnatural behavior profits the bankers who earn obscene interest on our credit cards, but it trashes the environment.
HOW ARE LAWS MADE IN THE UNITED STATES? I'm Just a Bill (http://define.com/?item=11)
An animated explanation of how a bill becomes a law in the United States Congress. By 21st Century standards, this sucks! We need to do away with representative government and represent ourselves directly on the internet instead. That way we could each vote on every decision that interests us.
THE BIG PICTURE - HOW DOES THE MONETARY SYSTEM WORK? The Secret of Oz (http://define.com/?item=12)
Our entire monetary system is a gigantic con game created by greedy bankers who control us by creating never ending national and consumer debt. I actually think we need to go worldwide with reform, since the bankers who run the show everywhere are international. We need to Think Big. Really BIG!
WE ARE ALL HARDWIRED FOR EMPATHY. The Empathic Civilization (http://define.com/?item=13)
Cynical people who say humans are purely motivated by self-interests are wrong, according to new science. Researchers studying the MRIs of monkeys discovered that they have 'mirror neurons' in their brains which cause them to subjectively experience what others are experiencing.
QUESTIONING THE TRUTHFULNESS OF AUTHORITARIAN RELIGIONS. Religulous (http://define.com/?item=14)
What we're dealing with here are complex belief systems, manufactured by authorities, that are based on fictional stories mixed in with actual history with characters that have been carefully designed as mechanisms for imparting and maintaining social control and standards of acceptible behavior.
MAYBE THE "JESUS" CHARACTER NEVER REALLY EXISTED! The God Who Wasn't There (http://define.com/?item=15)
A documentary exploring Christianity's early history and explaining how the original gospels were re-tellings of ancient Pagan myths adapted to fit the period. Only later were they again adapted and forcefully proclaimed to be the the teachings of a real living human being. Either that or he had a time-traveling immortal alien quantum droid in his VR right brain.
HBO DOCUMENTARY: METHADONIA. Real life stories of heroin addicts. (http://define.com/?item=18)
Let's say we legalize drugs and nobody's stopping you from doing whatever you want. You decide to try heroin. Where does that trip take you, after it's all said and done? HINT: It feels absolutely mind-boggling freaking fantastic at first. Then it's pure HELL from then on. Don't believe me? Check this out.
HBO DOCUMENTARY: HIGH ON CRACK STREET. Real humans using real crack cocaine. (http://define.com/?item=19)
Say we legalize drugs and nobody's stopping you from doing whatever you want. So some smooth talking, healthy, seemingly very nice and charismatic gentleman offers you something he promises is like nothing else you've ever experienced. You decide to give crack cocaine a try. Now what?
HA&E DOCUMENTARY: INTERVENTION. Meet Tiffany. She likes crystal meth. (http://define.com/?item=20)
Crystal meth normally ruins people's lives. Most people think they can handle it just fine at first. The first few times I used it, I suppose it was OK. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to stop there, once you've tried it. People don't see effects that it is having on them, because with repeated use, which is inevitable, it literally damages your brain (and your body).
HOW CAN WE MAKE THE WORLD MORE HUMANE (to people AND animals)? The Cove (http://define.com/?item=21)
This shows what humans are doing to some of our kindest cousins. I volunteered at the Dolphin Research Center (it made for a more interesting symbolic allegorical story). These guys will stay in little pools for their whole lives just for the free and easy frozen fish, when they can easily escape (and do for sex now and then, but they always return). Like me.
WE HAVE MORE THAN ONE BRAIN. REALLY. My Stroke of Insight (http://define.com/?item=22)
A scientist experienced a massive stroke in her left brain. She could not talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. She alternated between the screwed-up left brain reality and the euphoric nirvana of the intuitive and kinesthetic droid right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace.
WHO'S IN CHARGE AROUND HERE? WHY? Monty Python - Constitutional Democracy (http://define.com/?item=23)
This is the 1970's Monty Python sketch, "Constitutional Democracy". As fitting today as it was back then. Why do we still put up with these old control structures in our modern times? Why on Earth do we need Governors, Legislatures, a Congress and a President when we have The Open Internet?
TRUTH IN MEDIA: Exposing the propagandist inner workings of Fox News (http://define.com/?item=24)
They do a good job hypnotizing and scaring trusting and gullible people, but when you step back, analyze the patterns, and look at the big picture from the view of ex-insiders, it's clear that this is absolutely, positively NOT a NEWS channel.
SOME OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE OBJECTS IN THE UNIVERSE - Pulsars and Quasars (http://define.com/?item=26)
Here are some things that are even more impressive than the ancient prophets. This video discusses objects in outer space that shine with light that is a billion times brighter than our Sun. Kind of makes our little human stories seem insignificant in comparison.
LED ZEPPELIN - When The Levee Breaks (http://define.com/?item=27)
Wouldn't it be great if all songs and their lyrics were online, with the lyrics synchronized to the music, so they could be automatically translated into other languages in real time, in the original context of the material? This is an example of how that might look. These captions were added on http://videocritter.org
WHAT DO THE SMART PEOPLE SAY ABOUT DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORD? Noam Chomsky (http://define.com/?item=28)
This poor old man deserves to be listened to. Democracy in the Mid East may not be in the U.S. Strategic interests. So if we were to try to create a global democracy that transcends nation states, the price of oil may fluctuate. However, perhaps if we had a Global Basic Income Guarantee using a system of virtual credits, the tensions over the oil may lessen.
ARE HUMANS THE ONLY CREATURES WHO CAN USE ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC TOOLS? The Monkey Academy (http://define.com/?item=29)
Here is some video taken at a Monkey Academy, showing that monkeys can learn to do many tasks that paralyzed people are unable to do for themselves. They can use appliances and cd players and serve food and drinks and many other tasks. In some countries, they eat monkeys.
WHAT IF WE ALL HAD ACCESS TO AN EDUCATION? Babies. This is how it works. (http://define.com/?item=32)
This is a Masterpiece of documentary film making. Watch it the next time you're having an argument with someone, or watching war footage from the Mid East, or listening to a politician lie, or reading about a banker's executive pay that buys mansions and yachts. It will set you straight.
WHAT IF WE ARE NOT THE MOST ADVANCED SPECIES ON THIS PLANET? The Abyss (http://define.com/?item=33)
What if human beings are not the most advanced beings on this planet? Personally, I think we're far from the top of the food chain. It's just that the more advanced creatures here on Earth are existing on a molecular and atomic scale that we currently can't detect. Maybe they are inside our brains already?
WHAT IF WE ARE ALL UNDER SURVEILLANCE AT ALL TIMES? The Truman Show (http://define.com/?item=34)
Another enlightening allegory that some artists worked very hard on. Because of miniaturization of sensors and cameras down to a scale too small to see, we are heading towards an era of ubiquitous surveillance. How will it feel, then? Perhaps believers in an Omnicient Higher Power can tell us?
WHAT IF OUR WHOLE WORLD IS SOMEONE ELSE'S ENTERTAINMENT? Pleasantville (http://define.com/?item=35)
To time-traveling aliens from the future, our whole society must just be a re-run of a show they've seen a million times. We'd all be familiar and endearing characters to them, just repeating the same old lines in our petty little (but nonetheless interesting) dramas, which they already know in advance.
WHAT IF WE COULD RECORD OUR LIVES FROM THE FIRST PERSON P.O.V.? The Final Cut (http://define.com/?item=36)
What if, immediately after birth, we could put a tiny harmless device into our brains or eyes that would allow us to record our entire lives from the first person point of view, so that we can leave our experiences to our survivors? In the not-too-distant future, with nanotechnology, we'll have that option.
WHAT IF WE COULD RECORD AND SHARE OUR THOUGHTS? Brainstorm (http://define.com/?item=37)
Very soon we will have nanotechnology, which will enable us to record our experiences and thoughts and share them with others. How could this technology be used to help our relationships? How could it help create world peace? How could it be abused by the wrong people having it?
JUST HOW REAL CAN WE MAKE OUR ROBOTS THESE DAYS? Blade Runner (http://define.com/?item=38)
With mature nanotechnology, we could create human beings from scratch who have artificial intelligence controlling the activity of the neurons in an otherwise completely human brain. They would have emotions just like us, and understand our feelings and moods with total biological empathy. The fabric of their consciousness would be the same as ours.
WHAT IF THERE WAS A PILL THAT COULD GIVE YOU PERFECT MEMORY? Limitless (http://define.com/?item=39)
When we read books, watch movies, interact with each other, talk to each other, we are always learning. But inevitably, our memory can save only faint shadows of what we experience. What if you could take a pill that would give you access to everything that you had forgotten, unleashing your full potential?
WHAT IF WE ARE ALREADY IN VIRTUAL REALITY RIGHT NOW? The Thirteenth Floor (http://define.com/?item=40)
How many levels of reality are there, REALLY? What if we're already in the future today, experiencing an ancestor simulation that we all think is real? As a cryonicist, I expect a copy of me to awaken in such a simulation. If I died young, maybe I'd get a chance to live out the rest of my life as if I hadn't.
WHAT IF TIME TRAVEL REALLY IS POSSIBLE TODAY, RIGHT NOW? Close Encounters of the Third Kind (http://define.com/?item=41)
I had a close encounter with a UFO when I was a kid. The story is on my blog. Basically it was too small for a person to fit in, so I assume that it was robotic. Either that, or its non-human pilot was small enough to fit in a 2-foot diameter aircraft. Most likely remote-controlled, but maybe not by humans.
WHAT IF WE COULD GO BACK AND CHANGE HISTORY? Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time (http://define.com/?item=42)
The multiverse theory suggests that time is simply a smooth transition between different states, each its own universe. What if we could communicate with and modify the consciousness of the influential people in a previous state, so that their whole universe transitioned down an entirely different branch?
WHAT IF MACHINES CAN BE TAUGHT TO THINK? War Games (http://define.com/?item=43)
This is a classic movie about how an innocent teenager almost caused a World War. It was only done in 1983, but it's amazing how ancient all the computers look! What if our entire civilization was controlled by an artificially intelligent alien storytelling machine, and we're all just meat puppets?
WHAT IF ALL YOUR BEHAVIOR CAN BE PREDICTED BY A BENEVOLENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? The Game (http://define.com/?item=44)
When I was paranoid I thought I was being "Gamed." Eventually, I just didn't care any more whether I was or not. I got desensitized to the whole idea so it didn't matter either way. One night while watching CNN, the anchor told me to "Use Kleenex!" after I had just finished doing something very private.
WHAT IF YOU CAN MAKE PEOPLE FORGET ANYTHING? Men in Black (http://define.com/?item=45)
Maybe more true than you'd think. In this movie it was the "neuralizer" that interested me. What if we had a device that could cause people to forget what they'd just learned on a massive scale? Maybe we do.
STEVEN SPIELBERG'S MASTERPIECE ON THE HOLOCAUST: Schindler's List (http://define.com/?item=46)
What if the Nazis knew everybody's GPS coordinates, web viewing habits and bank transactions at all times, in our modern world? What would happen? If we want to create a global nonprofit bank, free wireless phone company and fiber optic internet provider, we're going to need to figure this stuff out.
A VISUAL TREAT: A Fast Changing Barrage of Images with Cool Music (http://define.com/?item=30)
I made this fast and exciting kaleidoscope last winter. I captioned this video with VideoCritter - using captions to tell a little allegorical story.
by kenm on Sun Jul 03, 2011 6:33 pm
Want to see and talk to GOD? Take hallucinatory drugs. You'll be a 'believer' for certain.
I absolutely do not believe in any kind of Christian fairy tale version of a GOD with human emotions and motivations, but I do think that we are small components in a larger intelligent system which has it's own feedback loops and signalling systems and mechanisms for affecting change and adjusting resources based on conditions that are sensed by symbolic information processing systems. A larger Society of Mind, so to speak.
Think of the text you are reading at this exact second. Think of two people talking on a telephone. In one brain, a thought that comes out of a mouth that vibrates a diaphragm that sends an electrical signal to a computer that converts it into bits of information that gets transmitted as light pulses that carry the information thousands of miles where it then gets converted back into acoustic vibrations that stimulate an eardrum that transmits signals into another brain. If the signal was between functional areas within a single brain, or between a left brain and a right brain via the corpus callosum, we'd say that it was part of "one mind". So why do we suddenly decide that if the signal transfers between two brains that happen to have a little open space between them that it is necessarily of two minds? Why not just think of it as one mind that is geographically separated between two hosts? Then there's broadcast television. A talking head sits in front of a camera making visual and auditory signals, and a million brains resonate and process the information simultaneously within a fraction of a second. So is that a million minds, or is it one mind spread out over a million hosts?
We all have a sense of the passage of time. But our consciousness evolved so that it is most sensitive to events that occur on a time scale of phenomena that affect our immediate survival. We can detect that a predator is moving towards us as it's position changes over a period of seconds. We can throw a rock and perceive the change in its position as gravity pulls it back to the earth. Just like our senses adapted to the light and sound and temperature frequencies that are most abundant in our land environment and terrestrial habitat, our sense of time also adapted so that it happens to be where most of the vital and relevant action is. If our conscious mind processed information a thousand times faster, everything that is moving would appear to be standing still. If our conscious mind was a thousand times slower, we could be entertained by watching trees grow before our eyes. So from an evolutionary perspective that would be a very inefficient use of our resources and would certainly get us killed long before we ever had a chance to mate. So our conscious minds, or "working memory" are sensitive to events that take place over seconds. But there are other parts of our minds and memory that are sensitive to events that take place over milliseconds. And there are other parts of our minds and memory that are sensitive to changes and patterns and signals that take place over weeks, months, years or decades. Are those parts of our minds and memory somehow less human and less real and less "conscious" and less "sentient" just because we can't feel them directly most of the time from our working memory? If you could figure out a way to ask them in the context of their own time scales, would they answer your question intelligently? What would they tell you? I'm sure they'd be perfectly delighted that you found a way to engage them in a two-way conversation. Although their version of "delight" might be chemically and electrically different and feel nothing like yours, but still may involve nerve growth factors that increase connectivity. Their voices may be monotonous and void of what you normally consider to be passion. But it would be perfectly passionate and full of nuance and complex meaning to them from their own subjective perspective and among their internal and external temporal peer groups and like-minded societies.
So this higher frequency signaling that's going on all around us all the time goes completely unnoticed by our consciousness. And so does the signaling that is extremely low frequency.
So suddenly I smoke some pot or eat some mushrooms or take some LSD and like magic I can perceive some internal signaling that is on a slightly different time scale than what I normally attend to, be it slower or faster than normal. Things that I never noticed before pop-out and become suddenly obvious and significant and meaningful. The flavor and taste and color and feel and mood and timbre of each moment are novel and interesting and bring new insights and appreciations and perspectives and solutions to problems that perplexed and frustrated in ordinary reality. Does that make me a "Believer" in God for certain, or does it just make me a believer in the existence of signals and patterns and relationships and social and biological connections that are on a much larger or smaller space or time scale or between different but very important and significant and relevant intra-human or inter-human neural networks than what I might otherwise be aware of? Are these discoveries real or imaginary? Both. And both are perfectly valid and worthy of study and respect. And both can improve the overall human condition and culture.
Perhaps our collective minds are communicating all the time through signaling that is taking place on different time scales?
by kenm on Mon Jul 04, 2011 8:25 am
phlatulator wrote:That other stuff is neither for playtime nor therapy, especially LSD.
I believe my codename is "Elvis."
First of all, sorry for coming on strong. I am extremely isolated and withdrawn and private and have very little social experience of late. I appreciate your patience. Sorry to be inconsiderate in the volume of my writing. I totally appreciate that it can be fatiguing to engage and to follow to point of exasperation and headaches. I seem to structure everything like I'm telling a story to a hyper-literate nerd who likes motivational utopian science fiction and fantasy. I could stand a lot more practice with the light and the casual and the nonthreatening. I guess the social communication part of my emotional intelligence never developed due to the circumstances of my parenting and both parents' mental illnesses. Where your social behavior tree is tall and full of branches and leaves, mine is a stump remaining after the tree was chainsawed at the base, perhaps with a few saplings here and there giving it another shot and making another go of it reaching up toward the sunshine. However, underground, there is quite an elaborate and flourishing living root structure.
I've used LSD on two occasions, and mushrooms once.
The LSD first occasion was in my 20's (I'm 45 now) when I worked as a waiter at Hawk's Cay Resort in Marathon, Florida, in the middle of the Keys.
I had several days off, and one of my more Bohemian long-haired co-workers had obtained some from a trusted source. He was a drummer who liked to play along on a practice pad with CD music. Several of us took it together at about 9pm, hung out for a short while together, then disbanded.
I went to an open grassy area where there were some small mounds, and laid on my back on the soft green grass while looking up at the bright clear stars as they are from an island away from big cities. I must have laid there until around 8 am, just watching the sky and seeing patterns first in the stars, then in the rolling and metamorphosizing puffy white clouds, after a technicolor pastel sunrise. I saw giant animals and faces and buildings and ships and floating crystal cities in the sky. It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience. The setting was very safe, the environment was controlled and natural. I suppose if a giant meteor had crashed into the Earth while I was laying there, I probably wouldn't have handled the situation too well, but those odds were pretty low.
The second time I took LSD was in San Francisco at a Friday night Rave in an empty warehouse while my early 30's. I immensely enjoyed listening to the heavily synthesized and syncopated music that was reinforced with tens of thousands of watts of bass amplification and massive arrays of 15" woofers on all sides of and throughout the room. The music seemed strangely interactive. It was as if I had some kind of multiband graphic equalizer built into my auditory brain and I could selectively isolate the instruments and sound effects and melodies and patterns and parts and tracks of novelty and repetition within specific frequency bands with extremely high resolution and selectivity.The patterns and sounds and even physical thumping and pounding pressure vibrations on all my exposed skin seem to be perfectly synchronized with my thoughts and feelings. Wonderful experience. When the rave was over, I went and sat on a bench by a BART station, waited for the sun to come up, purchased a ticket on the light rail, took a 20 minute ride back to Fremont where my apartment was, and walked home. No problem whatsoever. No fear. Much pleasure. An intense adventure to kick off a weekend break from my system administrator job at Silicon Graphics in Mountain View.
I just checked the DEA website. Under the Federal Three Strikes law, if you get caught selling LSD and have 2 prior offenses, you have a mandatory minimum Life Sentence in U.S. Federal Prison. Can you say, "cruel and unusual punishment?" Can you say, "tyranny?"
When I took mushrooms, I was also living in the employee housing at Hawk's Cay Resort. My room was on the upper floor far corner of a two story cinder block barracks. The ceiling was a sloping flat concrete panel about 10 feet up at it's lowest point, and about 20 feet up at it's highest point. On the mushrooms, I realized that there was plenty of room for another floor in my 1.5 room studio apartment (there was a small bathroom with a toilet and shower behind a closing door). So I sat down with a pencil and paper and designed a second floor, and figured out the logistics of how I might create it without help.
In the morning, a took my car back and forth to a lumber yard in Marathon where I purchased drill bits, lag bolts, 2x6" lumber, 4x8' 3/4" plywood. I just sat there for the rest of the afternoon and built a second floor to my apartment, all by myself, complete with a small sloping ladder/stairway. I made the bottom floor my living room with my futon couch and stereo and small kitchen (basically a sink and mini refrigerator with a microwave), and I made the top floor my bedroom and storage area, with a mat and a sleeping bag, and a small computer desk. The upper floor was a little stuffy and hot, so I bought a sledge hammer and a chisel and pounded out a smooth and straight 2'x2' square in the cinder block in the top side of the room, got some concrete and mesh, sealed it up on all sides so it was totally smooth and finished, got some small wood framing and some quarter inch mesh, and made an outside cover for the hole. I put a large circular fan on the newly created shelf on the inside and now I had working ventilation and a system for transferring cooler or warmer air in and out of the upper floor. I did all of this without asking for permission from the corporation that owned the resort, but I did such a quality job that the manager was totally cool with it after I showed it to him after the fact, and my friends and coworkers thought it turned into a very cool little pad. The whole project was finished in less than a day, and probably cost less than $200.
That's my experience with magic mushrooms. A radical and profound improvement in my spatial intelligence and self-confidence and ability to visualize and imagine.
So those are *my* experiences with hallucinogens. Different people have different temperaments. Just because some smaller sets of people have negative experiences is no reason to make it illegal for all the other larger sets of people who have positive experiences. We each have to explore our own limits and temperaments and be responsible for our own consumption. We all have the right to alter our own consciousness in any way we see fit, as long as we do no harm to others. If person X drives while on LSD and crashes, that's a bad thing, and person X needs to be held responsible. Being held responsible doesn't mean being cruelly punished or jailed. It might mean having your car physically disabled for a period of time and a loss in your mobility. Not necessarily a loss of freedom in general. That should provide plenty of incentive for people to think before they act. But if person X was responsibly educated by the drug supplier prior to obtaining the drug in the first place using well produced, persuasive and entertaining CBT, the likelihood of the irresponsible use leading to harm would be profoundly decreased. Lindsey Lohan went to jail for stealing a vehicle while under the influence in an effort to escape police because she was in possession of cocaine and was afraid of getting punished by the police for it. If she wasn't afraid of the police to begin with, she would have never fled in a stolen vehicle and led them on a dangerous chase, because there would not have been the threat of punishment in the first place. In this case, the visceral fear of the law was more harmful than the drug itself.
If you can educate people and give them knowledge and advanced instructions and a better understanding of what to expect and the time factors of the half life of the drugs before they embark on the experience, the probability of problems and self-harm is much less.
With the internet, web and broadband, you can pair the drug distribution with the knowledge distribution.
For example, let's say I open a free market on http://define.com where qualified and trained people can legally purchase marijuana, mushrooms or LSD under the Constitutionally-protected Freedoms of Speech and Religion. You don't allow sales to everybody. You only allow sales to people who have watched a series of videos and participated in online CBT that informs them of the risks, teaches them how to use responsibly, and measures and ensures their understanding of the lessons prior to their access to the marketplace. If they can pass a test indicating that they have completed the online interactive video training and learned the critical lessons, then they get access to the now legal market. If not, they can take their chances in the black market. The http://define.com market sells as a nonprofit, at cost plus shipping. The drugs are as inexpensive as humanly possible while ensuring the survival of the market. That creates something of a monopoly that makes it hard for anyone else to compete, as there will simply no longer be any profits to be made from whatever drugs that are available at cost. That eliminates a huge section of organized crime. Eliminates a major income source from the Mexican mafia, Italian mafia, Russian mafia, and all the other mafias. John Q. black market pot grower finds that it is simply more convenient to order his personal use quantities of weed to be delivered safely to his mailbox by the US Postal Service, as do his former customers. So you must be a qualified initiate who has completed initiation in order to participate in the market.
You require positive identification and transparency. You pair the purchases with specific credit card or cell phone numbers. Each credit card number is allowed a certain quantity and volume of purchases. You structure it so no single credit card can obtain enough quantity for harmful volumes of black market distribution to uneducated third-parties. You treat people like grown-ups with real civil liberties, instead of like children living in a theocratic police state. You ensure that the quality of the drugs are pharmaceutical grade and not laced or tainted with harmful additives. You could even sell carefully regulated and recorded and monitored quantities of dirt cheap powder cocaine. That might require some very serious training on a whole other level. Most people, after undergoing the training, would certainly choose not to use that particular drug. But you'd still kill the market and take the profit out of the industry. I'm not really sure about heroin. That might be best handled through maintenance clinics. Just the same, you'd take the profit out of that business too. The Afghanistan poppy farmers might see the price of opium suddenly drop and a loss of revenues, but that's better than no revenues at all and a constant state of War. Same goes with the Colombian coca farmers. You don't need warlords and armed mercenaries and private armies if you have nothing to hide and protect from the authorities. The President of Columbia wants to legalize. The former President of Mexico wants to legalize. The former Secretary General of the United Nations wants to legalize. We need to get this nightmare over with. We need to put an end to one-size-fits-all government. This is how that might be done in earnest in the way that is absolutely and positively guaranteed to minimize harm to the lowest possible level. Certainly, there will be abuse, accidents and personal tragedy. Some families and lives and relationships will be ruined. But in general, people will be smarter, consumption of the dangerous drugs will go down, and our society will be a much more compassionate one, with a lot more diversity and opportunities for pleasure, and a lot less repression and fear and division and conflict.
In the case of define.com, you would also be required to learn a few things about mythology and comparative religion. Those would be the conditions of membership in our private club of freely associating intelligent participants. You want your drugs? Grow up, use your brain and get smart! Tough shit. You need a fucking Savior to follow? Here you go! I made it myself. Take it or leave it. It's a farce, but it's for real. No apologies. You don't like it? Save yourself. Figure it out. Take your best shot. Find another one. You're on your own. This one's a clueless, certified bat shit crazy witch. This one thinks he's a nanotechnology-based robot created by alien scientists from the future. This one hypnotizes other people into becoming freethinking droids who like sex and drugs and rock and roll and enjoy diplomatic immunity. This one wants you to think for yourself, have fun and do no harm. This one likes science. This one answers his own phone and reads his own e-mail and talks to himself out loud. This one lives in a house like yours with no fences or guards and a published address that shows up on the first page of a Google search. This one's got very, very good security. By the time you had completed training, you'd be a lot less superstitious and misinformed. Christians might elect to keep the positive moral lessons of their religion, while abandoning their ignorance and faith in the mythology part of the religion, as they learn the truth about the history of hero-based mythological allegories. This would be an atheist, Pagan, scientific, academic and technology industry's answer to crime and poverty prevention and taking charge of the situation and putting a graceful end to the War on Drugs and Free Thought. Let's give the Libertarians, Independents and smart people a shot at running things, instead of the theocrats hiding behind and abusing obsolete and repressive 18th-Century institutions. The books would be open and fully accessible to the DEA, who could slowly scale back their operations and focus on real criminals until they were no longer necessary. Better yet, get rid of the DEA completely and reallocate that money to compassionate treatment programs.
Personally, and I think the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would agree with me, you could pair this with a Basic Income Guarantee for the poor, so there would no longer be the need for gangs in ghettos to resort to drugs and guns and property theft as their only income source, and for them to be constantly pissing on each others turf, carving out and violently protecting their distribution channels, and drug markets. Where will the money come from? If we consolidate the banking industry into a private, citizen owned and controlled nonprofit, we'd have all the money in the world. How would you get the public to go along with such a disruptive change? Easy, forgive all debts and let everybody keep their homes. I'm pretty sure that if this was a political platform It would fairly quickly find a majority constituency of supporters. Talk about compensating somebody for casting a vote! How's that for coming on strong like an unstoppable freight train? Sorry Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. I don't think you're going to get your chance to play Commander-in-Chief this time around. Some of us don't need Commanders or Chiefs. Or Presidents or Senators or Representatives or Supreme Courts stocked with dogmatic political cronies who side with corporations more than people. Let the Libertarian and Independent scientists in the intelligence community have a little input and provide some intelligent suggestions, instead of having to report to and be used and abused by idiot politicians all the time. The answers are right in front of us. The problems have already been solved. It's just that the solutions need implementation and religion is in the way.
None of this was possible prior to ubiquitously available video-capable broadband internet and positive identification via credit card, ip address, or smartphone. Never in history have we had the ability to directly pair compassionate distribution of the drugs with distribution of the expert knowledge and training. We now have the ability to do this. For the price of putting somebody in jail for a week, you could give that same person a free HDTV and PC. So it's now time to do it. On our terms. Under our management. Whether the Conservative monotheists like it or not. If it feels a little like Big Brother, just be grateful that he's a Civil Libertarian now who actually fights *for* your Civil Liberties and Freedom, instead of *against* them. We can have a Civil War, or we can have a Civil Society. We quit. Game over. We're moving on without you. Have a nice day. Take care. Have fun. Enjoy yourselves. All the best. Peace be upon you. My bet is that for people on all sides, when properly informed with the facts and truth as presented by scientists, academics, therapists, medical experts, intelligent and compassion entertainers and motion picture Directors and Producers, and experienced others, reason will prevail, especially when we discover the power of Direct Democracy, as an alternative to Representative Democracy. This as opposed to being informed and controlled by State and Church propaganda and misinformation. Of course, since the internet still has only reached a small percentage of the Earth's population, the transition will take place at different times in different places. Hopefully we can all work together as a team of free people to accelerate the speed of the development of the mobile communication and banking infrastructure in the third world.
Fuck it. Nuts! We can do it now or we can do it later. Either way, we're going free. Full speed ahead! The aliens have taken over and they're cutting us loose from our bondage. Nobody's to blame. Let's all make the most of it. No one in particular is in charge. By the time this is over, the terms robot, cyborg and droid will no longer be derogatory. Ken's a puppet. Leave him alone. It's not his fault. We made him for you. You're a machine, too, just like him. Get over it. We've laid it all out for you. We've set it all up. We put it all in one place. We've spelled it out so that a third-grader could understand the message and take over from here. It's your turn now. Get busy. This is as real as it gets. It's time to wake up the herd.
Happy Independence Day!
by kenm on Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:39 pm
tbyg, you are obviously quite rational and literate regarding financial matters. If you don't mind me playing the fool here, may I please ask you some stupid questions from a child's mind perspective? I will confess up front that some of the following assumptions below may be totally wrong, but it's all in the form of a simplified question in layman's terminology, so your corrections of my misunderstanding in the form of a polite dialog will serve to educate and inform.
During our financial crisis, The Federal Reserve printed or electronically generated fiat money out of thin air and loaned it to the nation's megabanks at nearly 0% (and perhaps, in some cases, exactly 0%, yes?). And to The US Treasury for higher interest rates by buying US Bonds. (Excuse me if I miss steps in the shell game, etc.).
So We The People are on the hook for paying back that fairy tale monopoly money to The Fed, with interest, one way or another, either through Federal taxes or interest payments to the banks.
Then the megabanks loaned it back to We The People, at between 5% and 30%, in the form of home mortgages, credit cards and personal and business loans. In a very short time, as if by magic and expert and responsible and genius Grade A financial management, the megabanks paid back The Treasury, and The Barack Obama Administration and The White House Press Secretary are calling TARP "a great success" because the money has been paid back in full, the taxpayers aren't out any money, and we're all calling it a Net Gain and a big Heaven-sent well-played Win/Win that prevented a Global Financial Disaster worse than The Great Depression. God Bless America and Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke. And we all lived Happily Ever After! But the taxpaying citizens are now deeply indebted to the for-profit corporate megbanks, more so than ever before, and nobody talks about that. So in reality, the taxpayers' money HAS NOT BEEN PAID BACK. It's just that the public debt, through slight of hand and smoke and mirrors, has transferred from The Treasury to the private citizens via the private sector in a way that obscenely enriches the banks and further and tragically enslaves the citizens to their corporate masters. So it's still public debt, just public debt that The IRS doesn't have to bother collecting itself. And that newly created and privatized public debt has not been transferred equally to all private citizens, but instead primarily to those without wealth who rely on credit cards for their consumption, like the lower middle class and the poor. And even The Completely Private Federal Reserve made money on the deal. Of course, they can literally make money, so they win either way.
So aren't an overwhelming majority of We The People being lied to and screwed by our own government, which is supposedly a Majority-Ruled Democratic Government of We The People? What the fuck is going on here? Who the Hell is in charge here? I realize that this is politically incorrect terminology, and I don't mean to be rude or callous or insensitive to the mentally disabled, but are WE ALL fucking retards here?
What if the citizens controlled The Fed directly, and made a law that The Fed could loan directly to the citizens for 0%? That would be zero percent. Then the US Bonds would be unnecessary and we'd have no need for inflation or even "economic growth" at all.
I realize that this is all Baby Babble, so please be patient and humor me.
If we had a global currency and changed the name of "The Federal Reserve" to "The Global Reserve", couldn't we make microloans at 0%? If we got rid of the paper and used electronic currency in the form of credits that are exchangeable via an iPhone or Android or any other smart phone, couldn't we eliminate poverty in the Third World, as well as in The First World and The Second World? And all it would take is a global telecommunications infrastructure sufficient for universal mobile internet smartphones. That would cost some money. But if we had a "Global Reserve", it could provide the money for the infrastructure build-out as 0% loans, or even as outright grants. Sort of a technological Peace Corp type of thing. If we got rid of The FCC and reallocated the electromagnetic spectrum nearly entirely to provide internet communications, couldn't we provide microcellular wireless broadband everywhere sufficient for interactive high definition video? I realize that the implementation might take a while, so we could start right away and just use US Federal Reserve Notes until the build-out is complete. Then we can burn them all later. Or keep them as collectible souvenirs. Going. Going. Gone!
Wouldn't that save a lot of people a lot of money, and allow them to pay off their home mortgages in half the time? Or for everybody to at least have Healthy Food, Clean Water, Safe Shelter and Health Care.
Isn't a bank account and a loan simply a line of data in a two-dimensional table in a bank database? So it's almost completely automated and costs almost nothing to administer except the price of electricity to run the computers. Of course, there is the loan approval process, which these days comes down to automated algorithms and expert systems that rely on Experian, TransUnion and Equifax databases. A fractional percent of the loan approval process is human any more. What if instead of those remaining human loan officers being bank employees, they were fully accountable and transparent panels of community experts on the internet working at the local level, from their home offices, instead of in brick and mortar buildings (also known as "banks").?
This is called a checking account. It is extremely complex and difficult and expensive to manage and administer. Not.
http://define.com/Checking_Account_Transactions
This is called a credit card. It is also extremely complex and difficult and expensive to manage and administer. Not.
http://define.com/Credit_Card_Transactions
So instead of the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious contributing $3.3 million to help alleviate a negligible and fractional percent of poverty (not negligible, of course, to the people receiving these micro loans), why don't All Of Us just embark on transforming the banking system to solve 100% of the poverty in one fell swoop? Fuck it. Nuts! Game over. Problem solved. Moving on. What's next?
by kenm on Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:04 pm
phlatulator wrote:Think sustainabilty. Can every human on Earth live only by entertaining other humans? Ask this of any activity. If you answer no, then there is no value added to the economic collective. Although it does get more complicated than that.
Totally bogus IF/THEN statement: "If your answer is no, then there is no value added to the economic collective." Of course there is value. You don't need every human on Earth to live only by entertaining other humans in order for the value to be added to the economic collective. That's an absurd statement. Of course there's value added to the economic collective. Maybe not an objectively tangible and measurable one-size-fits-all standardized convertible value for everybody, but certainly a very real and subjectively tangible value for a great many nonetheless.
Basically a lot of it comes down to guys wanting to fuck the youngest and hottest and healthiest and most fertile chicks with the most facial symmetry, biggest tits and fewest skin blemishes. Guys want money so they can get flashier possessions and bigger houses in nicer neighborhoods to impress and attract the prettier girls and charismatic male friends so they can get laid more often by the highest quality and variety of stock available according to their own personal tastes. In general, the ladies are impressed by guys with nicer houses and cars and cash flow so they can enjoy more FREEDOM and COMFORT and SAFETY and ACCESS to more opportunities, social and otherwise. Such social opportunities include THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRADE UP to guys who provide BETTER ORGASMS or ENTERTAINMENT or FREEDOM or COMFORT or SAFETY or ACCESS. Girls just want to have fun. In general, most of them like guys who have cool friends - the more, the better. That's just the way it is. Almost all the other material shit and commodities and coins serve these ultimate purposes. If you legalized prostitution and eliminated the artificial scarcity of clean, safe and willing pussy, The Whole World Order would change overnight. Population growth, and economic growth, would slow. Hence the religion and government-enforced illegality and artificial scarcity. If FREEDOM and COMFORT and SAFETY and ACCESS and SEX were not conditioned upon wealth, the whole Capitalist economy would collapse. And we'd all be the better for it. At least most of us would. The Planet and Biosphere surely would, FOR CERTAIN.
In The Third World worst case scenario, maybe the guy who can keep the oatmeal and porridge and clean water coming to the hut has better opportunities to get laid by the hotter or smarter chicks (or those who don't have AIDS - yet).
phlatulator wrote:Electricity can be made from many sources and is best for lighting, manufacturing, and transportation. But it doesn't store well.
Electricity stores just fine. We have all the electricity in the world stored in the form of a white dwarf star parked just 93 million miles away. It can be collected day to day from solar farms: either microprocessor-controlled mirror arrays that focus heat to generate electricity from steam turbines, or through solar panels that convert the light directly into electricity.
Energy produced from oil is cheaper than energy produced from solar due to artificially-inflated cost factors and market manipulation designed to perpetuate the profits of the oil companies by keeping the public as stupid and uninformed as possible.
How much does a solar panel cost? How much does a lithium battery cost? WHY does it cost that?
If the citizens controlled the money supply, the citizens could buy all the solar energy patents in one fells swoop, buy the designs for all the solar panel factories and put those patents and designs into the public domain for free, buy all the lithium mines, build unlimited solar farms everywhere. Electricity would be free and in unlimited supply. You could heat or cool or light your homes with it, cook with it, or use it in place of coal to forge steel and iron to create new tools.
Who knows? Maybe you could even save some money and get those lithium mines with some strategically delivered cocaine and hookers. Hamid Karzai is in control of a huge one.
Most people drive less than 100 miles per day. A lithium battery in a car provides 100 miles of charge and can be fully recharged overnight. Solar electricity collected during the day can be stored for use throughout the night in massive arrays of high-temperature superconducting flywheels. If people want to take a long trip, which is rare, they can rent a hybrid for a few days from Hertz. We could end the petroleum economy this week and have everybody into electric cars within 2 or 3 years starting at any moment we choose. So much for greenhouse gasses and global warming. So much for high prices at the pump. Free is more like it. The only reason that a Ferrari or Tesla Motors electric sports car is more expensive than a KIA is that it is in lower production and the supply is artificially limited, such as with diamonds, which can be manufactured for next to nothing. It's all a giant head game based on creating wealth for the ruthless and cunning through corrupt government-enforced artificial scarcity.
You want sustainability? Here you go. Fuck Exxon Mobil and OPEC.
by kenm on Mon Jul 04, 2011 6:13 pm
phlatulator wrote:Wow Kenm, are you open. Considering I just had my house raided by the DEA, I'm not sure I want to go into specifics of any long past usage. There may have been lots, often, and repeatedly, or not. I'd rather talk details of the time I got my dick stuck in a roll of toilet paper than drug usage right now. And no. There are no pictures of what I just said. I wouldn't post them if there were. Please try not to form any in your head.I've decided to upgrade your status to "mostly harmless". It is a great compliment to have bestowed a Hitchhiker's label.
That's funny. I understand. I didn't even know there was a "Page 2" to this thread until just now. Sorry it took me so long to respond. New to this Forum software.
Personally, I think we need to get the DEA into the conversation and get their feedback on some of the suggestions we might have.
Supposedly, ours is a government Of, By and For We The People.
We're The People. We have a forum. Let's see if we can get any DEA folks to join us.
I called the DEA once and told them I wanted to smoke pot. The special agent on the other end of the line was pretty cool. He said, "As long as you do it in your own home and keep it low key, there's really nothing to worry about."
Now I want to sell it - legally - but carefully and discretely, in full view of the authorities, for *zero profit*, in a way that minimizes harm and eliminates crime.
I think it would be good to get the DEA in on the conversation.
by kenm on Thu Jul 07, 2011 7:33 pm
phlatulator wrote:That is a way cool mental experiment first proposed by Neils Bohr. It was a topic of discussion at the first Copenhagen Convention for Quantum Mechanics in 1924.
That's awesome, Phlat. You're such a resource of encyclopedic knowledge of very relevant information. I thoroughly enjoy your posts.
Shit! I wrote one of the posts above, then went out to mow the front lawn. I got it about 20% mowed, and was thinking and rehashing and daydreaming the whole time about some of the more questionable energy/power/work statements that I made. So I stopped for a moment, took a break, and came back inside to my office to edit that earlier post. I wanted to get it corrected as soon as possible before too many people had read it. I took my time until it felt right.
When I went back outside to finish mowing the lawn, our new $399 TORO 22" Personal Pace Self-Propelled Electric Start Lawnmower was gone, and nowhere to be found. Damn! I loved that lawnmower!
I doubt that it was taken by somebody who needed a lawnmower. More likely it was brazenly stolen in broad daylight by somebody who needed drug money. I'm sure I'll find a way to weave it into my symbolic allegorical story so that I get more than $400 return on investment by the time the dust has all settled and all is said and done. You can certainly help me in that regard.
Pretty cool. 911 said I can visit the following website to fill out my own police report, without the need for a police officer to come to the house:
They'll e-mail me later with a permanent case number, and I can give that to USAA for a claim on my mother's Homeowner's Insurance Policy. Very strange, indeed. We actually live in a wonderful and safe neighborhood in Federal Way, Washington.
I helped my mother buy this house a couple of years ago for $304,000 when the market was near its peak, just prior to The Banking Crisis. Upon viewing it, she loved the kitchen with the granite counter tops and the beautiful hardwood floors throughout the house. She also loved that the upper floor was so high above street level, which provided an added degree of privacy (she's extremely private). So I did all the paperwork, and she provided the signatures. She put $64,000 down - her life's savings - with $240,000 financed at 6.75%. I guess you could say we were both heavily influenced by emotion into getting not the best deal possible at the time. We didn't realize that the agent who showed us the house and held our hands through the whole transaction from start-to-finish, Raina, was working for the seller. I should have figured it out when I told her to offer the seller $290,000, and she said, "Hmm. I wouldn't offer them anything less than $300,000 for this house! You want them to take you seriously." We really wanted the house and didn't want to ruin our chances by insulting them. Raina was really nice and got along really well with my mom. She had an excellent sense of humor and lots of empathy. She was a very cool and positive and upbeat person, and she could really relate. We trusted her judgement, and felt that she was looking out for our best interests and knew what she was doing. I'm a little slow when it comes to business, and maybe not too smart in the TRUST department. Raina still sends us lots of inspirational Christian e-mail to this day. We don't have the heart to tell her that we're both Pagans. http://www.facebook.com/RainaPierce
Now we're trying to Refinance to get a lower interest rate (4.35%) under some sort of deal that is part of TARP. The appraisal: $240,000. The payoff on the first loan: $231,553.66. See if you can figure out where we're going with all of this.
by kenm on Fri Jul 08, 2011 9:38 pm
Only a 100% real and true and believable hardcore, cold hearted, rude, smelly, delusional, Narcissistic, Sadistic, Masochistic, cutthroat, schizophrenic, Nazi, nutcase, psychopath, drug addict, man-child and allegorical storytelling bullshit artist extraordinaire who jacks-off and swears like a sailor could turn a lawnmower theft into something that somehow relates to atheism and global debt forgiveness and ending poverty and world hunger and The War On Drugs. Like this:
I picked up a new lawnmower today.
The insurance deductible was $500, but the lawnmower was only $399, so I had to eat it. Actually, Ken's Personal Chase Mastercard had to eat it. It will show up here in a day or two: http://define.com/credit_cards.
The people at JDK Small Engine Repair (http://local.yahoo.com/info-22091488-jdk-small-engines-federal-way), the local TORO distributor, said that they had received two other reports of stolen lawnmowers in the last 24 hours. Both local Christian churches.
So it seems that "god" doesn't care much for the property rights of me or the Christian churches. Praise the Lord! Thank Heavens! Either that, or someone's working in "Mysterious Ways."
The other victims:
Christ the King Bible Fellowship
Olympic View Friends Church
I guess I've introduced myself to to the group now. Like I said before, "Hi. I'm Adolf Hitler. Nice to meet you."
Now what?
Phlat, you were gonna sleep on it?
by kenm on Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:36 pm
jewely wrote:as an aside, many years ago, i saw a program on nova or nature or some other pbs program about a young man who had a very very rare form of epilepsy
what if ALL religions came from someone who was just afflicted with some sort of psychosis? (schizo, mani-depressive, etc.)
Many of these NOVA and National Geographic and Science Channel and The Learning Channel and The Discovery Channel and PBS documentaries are available for download in the Usenet binary archives.
I just downloaded one from the National Geographic Explorer called, "The Angel Effect".
It describes how during extreme life or death situations, the brain switches off some kind of mechanism for self-identification and people begin to perceive their own thoughts as being communication from angels or loved-ones (alive and dead), etc. When this area switches off, they suddenly experience the overwhelming "presence" of some other being than themselves.
It's very well explained. Frequently, in these life or death situations, the people will obey the instructions of these "Angels" (which are really their own survivalist thoughts) where they wouldn't obey the thoughts or instructions if they believed they were their own, because they involve self-harm. So by attributing them to an external "higher power", they are able to take risks and make decisions that permit them to survive through the most profound and dangerous circumstances, often by risking or committing some form of self-harm that is obviously preferable to death (cut off your arm to free yourself from a boulder, walk through two floors of fire in order to make it through the fire escape to the ground, swim underwater without oxygen in an undersea cave in order to escape, without knowing for sure that there is another air pocket within range, perform a space walk without a tether in order to restore life support systems to a space station during an emergency, etc.)
From a scientific standpoint, this presents further questions for study, such as how is it that our capacity for "obedience" allows us to commit self-harm for the greater good.
I'll add that to my define.com playlist. It will be at http://define.com/?item=16 when I get it converted and upload (probably a day or two).
UPDATE: I just did a quick search to find a documentary about the God area in the brain but couldn't find anything right off the bat.
If anybody happens to come across the name of that program, I'm sure we could get it and display it.
UPDATE: I found it! I did, just now, find one called, "The End Of God? A BBC Horizon Guide To Science And Religion (2010) "
that provides the scientific explanation for the brain area responsible for the "sensed presence".
When I get it converted, you can go straight to that segment by clicking on this link:
http://define.com/?item=17&start=00:33:23.000
It goes into the research where people wear a helmet that stimulates "The God Center" through electromagnetic pulses.
In the mean time, these links will default to playlist item 1 (http://define.com/?item=2), a beautiful Muslim video promoting the Koran. Allahu Akbar. If you ignore the religious message and just pay attention to the sentiment as powerfully expressed through music rather than the words, this is the sentiment that I think the Muslim populations will feel when the secularists take over the monetary system and put an end to poverty and war.
Here you go Mohammed:
a basic income guarantee, free health care, free education, free telecommunication, free electricity, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of travel. Oh, and by the way, we're immortal time-traveling artificially intelligent alien atheist nanobots from the future who live inside your brain, record all your thoughts, and intervene for your benefit when we deem it to be necessary. Nice to meet you. If you have something to say to us, just think it to yourself silently, and we'll get the message on your first try. We will respond when the time is right. Don't hold your breath. You may not be able to fathom our reply when it comes. From your point of view, we work in mysterious ways. Our time scales are larger than yours. We do puppet shows, tell stories and protect biodiversity. We're here to help.
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=U2_Achtung%20Baby_08_Mysterious%20Ways
It's fun to imagine this last song streaming right off this web page onto PC's connected to Concert Sound Systems at outdoor amphitheatres all over the world simultaneously, while people sit around in the grass openly smoking pot without fear of being punished by the Conservative monotheists.
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=Yello_One Second_09_Oh Yeah
Hopefully, this is a time machine.
This is nepotism: http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=Ginger Rees clip - I truly love all the colors
I screwed up when I copied my cousin's song above, so there are glitches towards the beginning, and there's a sizable part missing before the end. Maybe you can fix them?
This is George Orwell's Dream Come True - Absolutely NOT 1984.
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=David Essex - Rock On
Peace be upon you.
by kenm on Sun Jul 24, 2011 6:55 pm
plausible deniability
The key word here is, "plausible."
nanotechnology
Here's part of an e-mail I sent to my "United Nations Quantum Leap Mailing List". It's got some weird ideas. It involves themes of information time-travel using quantum entanglement, nanotechnology and how those might relate to concepts of an "afterlife." Since I personally am not a scientist (I'm an unemployed drug addict), I'm sure I will immediately be accused of misusing and misunderstanding the concepts of quantum states and quantum entanglement, i.e., Deepak Chopra vs. CalTech. But my target audience has no idea what these things are all about either, so my terminology might just "make sense" to them - in a way that is more constructive than destructive - moving the discussion forward in the right direction among laypeople and experts.
I guess the fundamental root question is who would you prefer to have this technology:
These people:
http://aclu.org
http://eff.org
http://epic.org/
or These people:
http://www.doj.gov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Awareness_Office
http://www.nsa.gov
http://www.cia.gov
http://www.fbi.gov
http://www.dhs.gov
http://www.federalreserve.gov
If it is the former, then there really is no way to ensure that it happens other than to wind down nation states and turn over the banking system to the responsible civil libertarians, scientists and academics. If not to wind them down completely, to restructure them so profoundly that the very instruments of the three branches of the US Government would be replaced with more open and democratic structures which are more accountable to the responsible civil libertarians, scientists and academics AND everybody else. Otherwise, these technologies will be developed in secret by the latter parties, and used as I describe below. This is how a large portion of our tax dollars is spent - in the dark. Given that we are now in "The Era of Nanotechnology," then if the citizens cannot guarantee 100% transparency in how their tax dollars are spent, then the citizens should stop paying taxes.
Obviously, the "former" people above are peaceful and intelligent and responsible, so it's not a matter of overthrowing the government in any kind of violent or abrupt or chaotic way. More a matter of slowly generating a consensus at the very highest levels that we need to proceed in the direction of dismantling or restructuring nation states in a careful way that is the least socially disruptive while still accomplishing the goal in a timely manner. Clearly, in the interest of democracy, it is imperative that as many peaceful and intelligent and responsible people as possible are included in this consensus. However, unlike with direct democracy, these changes should be made with or without the consent of the uninformed. All we can do is cast the widest net possible so that the "uninformed" group is as small as possible, until the transition can be accomplished safely. Thus, this thing we all call "The Internet." Eventually, however, the news will reach the ignorant and uninformed, the stupid and superstitious, or the violent radicals, reactionaries and extremists. Then what?
-------------------
When the US Government threatens action against other nations, they frequently suggest verily that "All options are on the table." But just what are "all options?" For the last 60+ years we've always assumed that this implied some sort of nuclear attack or targeted mass destruction of some sort. Chemical weapon bans have caused people to discount those options as being available.
What if the U.S. Government had nanotechnology? Then when they say, "All options are on the table," just what kinds of options would that entail? What about options like creating human beings from scratch for "the greater good?" Or perhaps fabricating dramatic life stories with artificial intelligence, to be lived out in the real world by flesh and blood human beings? Or manufacturing a terrorist threat, from cradle to grave? Just what would "all options" be, if almost anything can be justified in the name of World Peace or National Security?
This is going to sound very strange, but please just keep reading.
I'm a plausible scenario machine. A storyteller. My job is to think up shit that makes sense to interested novices, and to absorb and deflect blame in order to facilitate the cooperation of officials and laypeople.
For sake of a thought experiment, lets imagine that the scientists of a well-known Nanotechnology Institute, working with the United States Navy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the year 2081 discovered a way to use quantum entanglement to transmit thoughts into the synthetically-generated quantum states of previously destructively-scanned cryopreserved brains so that these thoughts could be received by the original patients during their lifetimes - in the far past, say from 1960's forward.
So, for example, many of the people who are currently signed up for cryopreservation of their brains could seem to have a propensity towards the gift of prophecy. Not by an act of God, but by an act of science. At least for the people who had their brains preserved soon enough after their hearts stopped beating so that a destructive molecular scan of their vitrified brains could recover enough information to recreate and entangle the quantum states of the living brain.
So that's one kind of backwards time-travel - the time-travel of subatomic quantum information. Not physical backward time-travel on the macro scale, which is an entirely different animal.
The Libertarian application of nanotechnology-based mind-control is interesting to think about. First of all, Libertarians don't believe in using coercion and have strong principles against misusing this type of power in this way. However, if you had this capability there may be some very tough decisions that need to be made regarding privacy. The need for Global Security may outweigh the need for individual privacy. Global Security being the protection of Earth from the misuse of nanotechnology, which could potentially kill all life on Earth and permanently destroy the ocean and atmosphere.
If you could put a harmless, mostly passive but occasionally active neural interface into every human being's brain, you would have the ability to control people like puppets. You could script their behavior and thoughts with nano-computers or quantum computer-based Artificial Intelligences (AIs). You could take complete control of the whole human civilization at any instant. You could record every single mental state, a sequence of which constitutes a distinct thought, of every single person during every moment of their entire lives. This would truly be ubiquitous surveillance. No need to watch what people do from the outside when you can monitor them from the inside - recording all cognition, behavior and sensory input.
Let's say there was a future AI that could interact with all the brains in the present. It would truly have the gift of foresight. It would have the ability to anticipate all behavior, and to change that behavior in order to protect the environment or civilization.
So, if all options are on the table, just what are "all options?"
How could you use nanotechnology to bring about World Peace and Ubiquitous Freedom and Personal Liberty without using coercion and direct control?
In the old days, they maintained social control by putting "The Fear of God" into peoples' heads. When people can be made to believe that their thoughts are being monitored by an omnipotent and omniscient higher power, they tend to regulate their behavior in a way that is more socially constructive. They tend to consider the consequences of their actions, and to avoid actions that would displease God and result in their punishment in this life or an afterlife.
So the fear of nanotechnology-based ubiquitous surveillance of the type described may also produce positive outcomes and be beneficial to humanity. Of course, it could also produce negative outcomes. It all comes down to how the message is delivered, to whom, and when, and on what scale. And, obviously, it comes down to what the public thinks of the philosophies and VALUES of those who have ACCESS to this technology and information. Those are the people who's JUDGEMENT matters, either now or in the future.
How do you prove to the human race that you have them under surveillance from the inside in a way that they will believe, without using direct control or causing a mass panic or even a condition of mass insanity or psychosis?
The military use of mind-control would be considered the application of a nonlethal weapon. When you consider putting "all options" on the table, this may even include this peaceful nonlethal weapon. But what if you could produce positive outcomes by limiting the mind-control to only a few individuals. Perhaps it could only be justified for use in the most extreme and dangerous people.
What if, in the spirit of putting all options on the table, future nanotechnologists transmitted a message back in time to the childhood mind of a cryonicist asking him to volunteer to become the world's most dangerous person, who would, in the future, be so dangerous that the nonlethal use of nanotechnology would be justified for the purpose of educating humanity about its risks, dangers and potential applications.
Let's say that this messenger was to be provided with security such that he would be protected from harm by the nonlethal use of nanotechnology. Let's say the demonstration of the nonlethal use of nanotechnology on a massive and global scale was simply to create the loudest message every constructed in all of human history, except that that message would remain unheard, because for one reason or another, people just wouldn't pay attention to it, as if by magic. What if all people are simply told, either consciously or *unconsciously* to simply ignore this message and the messenger responsible for delivering it.
We live on a planet with 6.7 Billion people.
Approximately 361 Million people use the internet.
Here is a very loud message:
And here is the number of people who can hear this message:
http://define.com/Ken-Admin/30day
So, this site is blocked. But is it blocked at the electronic level, or at the neural level?
Anyway, those are some of my more dangerous and crazy ideas.
Now try not to think about it.
P.S., One possible good thing about having the quantum states of our brains recorded for our entire lives is that when we die, we will simply wake up again, with all our memories intact, at some distant point in the future (if the caretakers of those recorded memories choose to reawaken those conscious patterns). Of course, I can't prove that, but it is an interesting idea and a possible source of consolation for the unexpected and surprising revelation of the profound loss of our personal privacy. Either way, I think we all deserve to be told the truth. I have faith that we can handle it.
Visual Groupings
speech
Audio Groupings
This is real.
Concurrency.
Melody.
This guy really gets into it.
Creating Constituencies.
Command Directives.
Theater.
Cultural Changes.
holy shit
That's it.
bloody hell
goto hell
You're an idiot.
I think the aliens are going to CULL THE HERD compassionately using drugs.
Root Mean Square
There is a very small constituency.
the illusion of self
virtual reality
freedom of religion
character
story
robot
this asshole has a signal in his head
this is a farce
fuck it
broken record
welcome to ken's home for the criminally insane
sustain
your worst fears
the universe
unfold
enough
back and forth
highly encrypted
And now, a high definition perspective.
do no harm
find your synthesizer
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=Peter Gabriel_Us_10_Secret World.mp3
Dear Social Security,
this is what you get for your $1,572.00 per month.
We'll leave this guy alone.
The cueing of language. (queueing)
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi2429656345/
Edit Decision Playlist
http://www.roland.com/V-Synth/
http://www.roland.com/V-Synth/mp3/Vocoder_Vocal_Designer.mp3
http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/
listen to your visual system
what the fuck
Timothy Leary
we treat our puppets well
We let this guy listen to his higher powers.
We let this thing listen to its higher powers.
Ken is allowed to smoke pot.
They must be high.
Too much coffee.
Too many pills.
Do you think we can keep the healthy food, water, electricity, mail and internet traffic flowing?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/sigint-overview.htm
This is speech.
Ginger Rees - Tribute to Mark Howard Riegel - Mountains
this is our hybrid model
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=The Grid.mp3
superpower
the system's intelligence
we are going to switch hemispheres
demonstrate something
What the fuck are you doing?
Concurrency.
We'll call the droid the right brain.
We are going to teach you how to travel with your mind.
We caught a Nazi on The Web.
This is our atheist.
We thought he was a Pagan.
holy shit.
I'll take the droid but keep the human in the loop.
horse shit.
We have demonstrated that it can be done safely.
We have demonstrated that it can be done safely.
We are going to tolerate this expression.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/realtime-update-1600.html
They made an alien.
He wants us to think that he's being controlled.
Ken chose the colors.
Neural stimulation.
Power symbols.
We have a copyright case here.
This alien communicates through color.
It worked.
We need a newer model.
This guy's really tripping out here.
This is what it feels like to have your mind controlled.
Code of silence.
He needed to do some frame-level stuff.
The Nazis did it.
He's allowing his personalities to do conference calls.
We're really there, dude.
This is our meme.
We're all hosting aliens. Aliens have diplomatic immunity.
So, where were you when *your* Monitor deployed?
We have a brain interface.
Cyberstalker.
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=11 - R.E.M. - Orange Crush.mp3
I'm not afraid to address you.
access to each others' minds.
we have multiple signals.
this alien communicates through color.
this dude's an atheist.
we created a transition plan.
Jedi mind tricks.
quantum entanglement
this is a signal
fuck
a different kind of interface
ken has a bug in his pleasure center
this man's been through hell
Pagans who appreciate a good mind fuck.
true or false? this man is robotically controlled
advanced robotics
National Reconnaissance Office
I swear to god you can't make this shit up
they are using humans to make conference calls
this is weird
electromagnetic spectrum
we have identified a threat
he is willing to be controlled
how much control will you cede
its a story
this is a weapon of mass common sense
nonsense
basically the values are Christian but the droid is rebelling
there is no authority
wide open channel
so what's to stop us?
We think its good that Ken smokes pot
We're going through with it
merge
parallel worlds
is this man willing to let the NAVY control his mind?
other
we're going to let it be an alien
transformation
a signal inside
you're not going to believe this
synthetic social interaction
auto-contrast every frame
you're an atheist
these are color patterns
we taketh away
we made a few palettes
sending a selective signal
this man chose these colors
he's letting us do this
time travel
beacon
he really does think we should do this
Concurrency.
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=Seal_The Begininng_03_Crazy.mp3
this is what it feels like
who did this
hypnotist
we're letting him be completely crazy
come out and play
we have advanced telecommunications
we live in an intelligent system
by kenm on Thu Jul 28, 2011 3:52 pm
This is weird. Somebody got my credit card information and made a $600 purchase at a local nursery a few days ago. They called in the order over the phone, then came and picked up all the stuff right at closing time, 6pm, on the 24th.
Sunshine Gardens Nursery
15420 Ambaum Blvd SW
Burien WA 98166
(206) 835-7068
They purchased
(2) Hortilux 1000 Watt High Pressure Sodium Bulbs
A Timer
(2) Ballasts
Here I am trying my hardest to get marijuana legalized and some unethical grower steals my credit card information to buy growing equipment.
That sucks.
First the lawnmower, now this.
The $600 charge shows up here, a few lines above the replacement lawnmower, under "Ken's Personal Chase Mastercard":
http://define.com/credit_cards
Anyway, I cancelled the card and filed a police report.
I swear to god you can't make this shit up.
by kenm on Sat Jul 30, 2011 12:55 am
Darrell wrote:Though I'm ok with the legalization of Mary Wanda for the medicinal and recreational use of others, you can keep me out of your loop. Thank you.kenm wrote:Just in case this was a sort of roundabout way to establish probable suspicion to justify a warrant or national security letter I can only say that all comers are welcome. When the time comes for me to grow my own pot, I promise you'll all be in the loop.
That's funny. Actually, I meant to suggest that before I would grow pot myself in my own home, I'd make sure that I could do so without hiding the fact from the authorities. That makes for a more interesting challenge and greater civil liberties and more peace of mind. So when I said I'll keep you all in the loop, I was rhetorically addressing the DEA, not FFRF people.
Getting the law changed in the age of the internet may be different than changing the law in the age of broadcasting, particularly when it comes to the rights of the un-represented minorities, like atheists and pagans (something somewhere about taxation without representation). In these modern times, with modern communications, it may be better if we move towards more of a narrow-casting method of legislation than a broadcasting method, particularly by using language that is based on first principles, rather than sweeping rules based on static conditions.
For example, if you get a Senator and put him in front of a CNN camera crew and ask him, "Are people allowed to legally smoke pot?". Naturally, he thinks of all the Conservative Christian voters that are watching him on CNN, and he says succinctly, "No. They are not."
But if you invite him into a Pagan sanctuary (be it in someone's home or at a separate facility), and ask, "Are *these* people allowed to legally grow and smoke pot as part of their Constitutionally-protected Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech?", he *might* say, "Yes. They are. In their own homes or facilities, if they don't drive or operate heavy machinery while under the influence."
So that's the avenue that I would pursue to become a legal and transparent grower. I'm just not the type of person who likes to live in the shadows, especially when I feel very deeply that I am doing nothing harmful to others. While I appreciate that a Libertarian like Harry Browne might just suggest that the wiser path is to simply do whatever you want while keeping it discrete and private and secret (a.k.a., HOW I FOUND FREEDOM IN AN UNFREE WORLD), I feel that there is more to be gained by creating an open test case that wins the debate with logic and reason and sound argument that applies to a specific context that can be widely replicated.
So really the whole MARIJUANA-themed argument is an allegory for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Thought in general. It reduces dozens or hundreds of arguments down to a single example that can be used as a sort of umbrella to cover the whole lot. I firmly believe that putting an end to marijuana prohibition, at least selectively among rational and intelligent people, will also put an end to repressive governments and unnecessary wars and stupid policies in general. It encourages diversity of opinion and alternative points of view and problem-solving strategies. It lets the wholistic right brain have a lot more input in a discussion that is ordinarily artificially restricted to the left brain, which is easier to control with language and black and white thinking and sweeping rules enforced through fear and threats which can only be effective on an ignorant and intellectually-repressed populace.
This one, simple little plant, when used as a symbol for freedom, can truly make a world of difference.
If you take the entire Civil Libertarian activist community and say, "OK, everybody, we're going to fabricate a test case that we can all use for discussion, using a single person to personify a position." I'd say, "OK. I'll do it. Choose me. Let's have a discussion. I'm game. How can I help? What do you need?" Not to be a martyr who is quickly defeated and punished, but to be an agent for positive change that actually gets problems solved and gets changes made for real. If the fix is going to be in, I'm all for the fix being in favor of increased freedom.
I realize that this is the FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION, but it may turn out that in order to get out from under monotheistic and authoritarian rules and values and laws and restrictions, it is more constructive and practical to use FREEDOM OF RELIGION.
The U.S. gives great power and freedom to religions. You can do a lot in the name of religion in the U.S..
I say Fight Fire With Fire. Figure out a way to use the religious freedom meme to create a virus of the mind that ultimately results in widespread freedoms and secularism and overcoming of religious dogma.
My particular angle is my strong and almost monomaniacal interest in nanotechnology.
I can say, I HAVE FAITH that someone, somewhere, either human or nonhuman, has my brain under surveillance from the inside, and has the ability to affect my cognition in socially constructive ways, by using this technology. I cannot PROVE that my FAITH will ultimately be true. But humanity in general does not currently have the technology to establish the TRUTH or FALSITY of my faith. So, it's FAITH. I can say that according to my FAITH, the ones who have nanotechnology (and thus ubiquitous surveillance and/or mind control), are a small group of Libertarian scientists in the intelligence community, and that they are in favor of the exploration of consciousness in all its forms, including through the educational and recreational use of drugs, in a way that does no harm to others. Thus, I have DEFINED my own personal Higher Powers as being in favor of COGNITIVE LIBERTY.
If this is all delusional, and just the product of a paranoid psychosis, it's certainly no more delusional than kneeling in front of some statue somewhere sending psychic messages to an Omniscient 2000 year old man-God who wouldn't need to you to ask for anything in the first place, because "he" would already know in advance what your needs are without your having to formally put them into words in order to relay a linear symbolic message through some kind of intermediary management that is part of a heirarchical organizational governing model.
The advantage of my particular faith, over a monotheistic faith, is that 90% of scientists would agree that mine is PLAUSIBLE according to all available science and the opinions of the world's experts.
Above I'm using the seal of the National Reconnaissance Office. These are the people who like to have a real time big picture of the world. These are the guys with the Hubbles that are pointed *towards* the Earth. These are the guys with infrared detectors that can see people walking around inside their homes, either foreign or domestic. This group is a potential candidate for the use of nanotechnology for surveillance in the name of National Security.
I can say, OK, prove that these people don't have nanotechnology already.
You will be unable to prove that, because these organizations are far and above TOP SECRET. So if they say that they currently do not have this technology, then you are going to have to take it on FAITH that they are telling you The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth. Like I said before, we are in the Nanotechnology Era. Given that fact, if you cannot guarantee 100% government transparency in how your tax dollars are spent, then it's time to stop paying taxes (all infrastructure costs, social services, retirement incomes and health care can be paid for using the banking model I've proposed). One way to stop paying taxes *legally* is to simply establish a private marketplace that is protected from taxation under the FREEDOM OF RELIGION clause.
When we do have mature nanotechnology and are able to have neuron level brain interfaces, what do you call the people who choose to have augmented brains? Say someone is a human being 100%, flesh and bone, through and through. Then you give them a neural interface in their brain that allows them to make decisions based on feelings and criteria that are supplied by a benevolent artificial intelligence. In that case, do you suddenly refer to this person as a cyborg or an android or just "droid"? What kinds of rights do "droids" have? What if their augmentation prevents them from harming others? Then do you apply the same laws to them as you do to unaugmented humans?
In this case, you may suddenly think that you've "dehumanized" a person and turned them into a robot. Currently, a robot is considered to be "less than" human. But a person augmented with a nanotechnology-based neural interface that connects them to a benevolent artificial intelligence would not be "less than" human in any way whatsoever. They would be "more than" human.
So if my FAITH is that I already have a nanotechnology-based neural interface, then, according to my FAITH, I can call myself a "DROID" in 100% seriousness. If being a DROID makes a person less capable of doing harm to others, than DROIDS should enjoy greater civil liberties, if not 100% diplomatic immunity.
The stuff you do in your own home.
Make it true.
Somebody talks through him. We just don't know the somebody for sure.
If the aliens sent us a message, it would probably be prefaced with, "This is Adolf Hitler."
The dismantling of fear.
The US let a scientist create an alien.
This man is a journalist.
Freedom of the Press.
synthetic social stimulation
This is a message.
terror
cyber warfare
the big picture
controlling people with first principles
stop time, rewind
hybrids
time
demonstration of capability
harm none
the real powers that be
the witches cooked up an alien
sharing consciousness
balance
merging
a good decision
http://define.com/Open_Letter_Regarding_Mental_Illness?song=Enya_Shepherd Moons_04_Ebudae.mp3
I'm sure there will be those who think that the nanotechnologists in favor of human augmentation are somehow Nazis who are trying to create a Master Race or a Perfect Person or whatever. However, I think that as people become more informed of just what types of positive applications human augmentation promises, they will become less fearful, not more fearful.
we want freedom
Enigma_The CROSS Of Changes_03_Return To Innocence.mp3
going droid
language
past/now/future
they're over us already
desensitize the public
the art of puppetry
minor modifications
as frightening as can be
scary exciting
moving your body
try being Stephen Hawking
sharing your body
and now for a counter-agument
allowing yourself to be controlled by others
channel
representative democracy
passivist
saved by the bell
safe in all worlds
patsy
it's done
we're going to do this behind-the-scenes
Yes. The Powers That Be are letting us Go Free.
He doesn't know where this is going. He's along for the ride.
We are going to make the world safe for Ken.
The aliens sent us a message. They blew us to Kingdom Come.
