Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has issued its annual report.

Pew Research: Non-religious outnumber Christians in the UK.

Cases of freedom freckles continue to rise in Texas.

Paula White might want the Dept. of Jesus to prosecute “anti-Christian bias.”

The FDA, CDC and NIH are an entire alphabet soup of departments so let’s create the AHA says HHS leader RFK Jr. who will oversee Dr. Oz at the CMS and David Grier at WTF.

Do Christian Nationalists see the Taliban as role models?

World of Woo:  The Happiness-Survey Scam.

Environment:  Is the AI juice worth the carbon squeeze?

The simple trick to change other people’s minds.

‘Woolly mice’ were just a start. De-extinction still faces many hurdles.

Long Reads:

Protests hit Tesla dealerships across the world.

Does all intelligent life face a Great Filter?

Quantifying Privilege: What research on Social Mobility tells us about fairness in America.

Sunday Book Club: Abundance.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Podcast: What if Consciousness is Fundamental?

Coffee Break Videos:  The image that changed our view of the Universe forever. Does the West need a religious revival? Why did the Mars helicopter disappear?

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week!

Due to work getting in the way of life, today’s post is curtailed.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!!

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Since inflationary monetary policy of the 5-year COVID-19 era have skyrocketed the price of eggs and the crunchy fetish for free range chicken has made them at risk for avian flu and RFK JR’s anti-vaxism puts them more at risk, this is a very timely but timeless video…if we are to have The Chicken of Tommorow:

[unapologeticParticipant]

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is a waste of taxpayer’s money that needs to be DOGEd.

[_Robert_Participant]

I had chicken once. Tastes like possum.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unapologetic,

That and George W. Bush’s “Faith-Based Initiatives.” Religious bodies can run their own charities without taxdollars.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I am liking the new artistic upgrade to Chatgpt.

I asked it to generate a picture in the style of Ralph Steadman as per below;

[UnseenParticipant]

Trump is floating a third term. The thing is that that’s a practical impossibility without executing an illegal coup. Here’s the legal way of getting a third term by amending the Constitution:

An amendment can be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Alternatively, two-thirds of the state legislatures can call for a national convention to propose an amendment.
Ratification:
For the amendment to take effect, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures.

Alternatively, it can be ratified by conventions in three-fourths of the states.

[_Robert_Participant]

How exciting. During his third term we can parade our “Jesus missiles” across DC and round up all the pesky godless atheists and gays. We will shut down Ford and Chevy so we can all drive “Teslurs”.

Our brave spiritual leader:

Truely dumber than a box of hammers.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

The idea of a dynastic Presidency with sons and wives and other relatives also holding either the Oval Office or other powerful positions depressed me enough when the Presidents were Daddy Bush and the Little Bush boy, and in between with Slick Willy Clinton and “It’s Her Turn” Hillary, and Barry “The One” Obama and “Turnip For What” Michelle.

A three or four or indefinite term President, with the power Presidents have arrogated over the years, would make us not much different from Ancient China or numerous perished empires of history. And America as even nominally free society “the shining city on a hill” would not survive.

Yeah, this would be “the right side of history” that all the Anti-American Woke Lefties love to talk about aspirationally.

We already had one four term President that regimented our economy and social life for long enough. The real recovery from the Great Depression where the U.S. produced net greater wealth that involved no destruction of other wealth or lives was after FDR left office. (Yes, wars can be necessary and just, but one thing they never can do is create more than they destroy. Look up “The ‘Broken Window’ Fallacy” by Economist Henry Hazlitt)

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Is it just me or is AI art deliberately formulaic and creepy?

All the AI visual art that I’ve seen looks like art in The Watchtower or a H.R. Giger painting! That work above looks like a panel from Jack Chick if he did illusrated nursery stories like he did his religious tracts. YEEECH!

[_Robert_Participant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Reg, Is it just me or is AI art deliberately formulaic and creepy? All the AI visual art that I’ve seen looks like art in The Watchtower or a H.R. Giger painting! That work above looks like a panel from Jack Chick if he did illusrated nursery stories like he did his religious tracts. YEEECH!

Oh yeah…creepy as fuck because those who can create it might not know jack shit about it. AI music sucks as well…like some amalgam of low effort chord progressions Americans consume like Cheetos.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Is it just me or is AI art deliberately formulaic and creepy?

LLMs and AI algorithms are designed by humans, and source data gathered from the internet that humans created and maintain. I.e. that’s where any formulae and creepiness would be originally coming from, with a dose of whatever unexpected weirdness might come from massive amounts of computer calculations and simulations.

IMO, AI results might also produce “uncanny valley” discomfort in humans, which humans themselves have been able to accidentally produce before AI came along.

One might also learn to expect a kind of “AI pollution” of calculation results that can occur when AI uses data from other LLM and AI sources, recycling and amplifying some of the increasingly prevalent odd effects like creepiness, overused formulae, and proneness to hallucinations (weird and nonsensical conclusions).

So no, I wouldn’t say that the side-effects are deliberate. Deterministic, perhaps, in the sense of how computers calculate everything based on generalized algorithms.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

What if Consciousness is Fundamental?

Sean Carroll also has a recent podcast with Christof Koch on this topic. When I heard Koch expressing support for panpsychism, it sadly felt like a nod to woo-woo. Fortunately, Sean kindly dissented. As much as I respect Koch, IMO, his view struck me as simply “reasoning” that since science can’t measure how we feel, then it must be a fundamental aspect of our universe. Quite a blind jump, IMO.

Yuck! I can stand behind trying to understand why people feel that consciousness is somehow magical or has a divine origin. It feels magical to me sometimes, too. But I’ll double-down on need and potential enlightenment of scientific focus… it might even help explain why humans seem naturally prone to falling for woo.

I think a lot can be learned from understanding how consciousness starts, e.g. from when a baby is born, or even sooner in utero. Seems impossible to do this scientifically, but we should at least be able to speculate scientifically. One my strongest speculations (or beliefs) is that consciousness MUST begin at it’s lowest level in utero or birth when real life experience begins.

And then other essential aspects of every-day experiences of consciousness kick in, like connections with family, learning stuff outdoors and in classrooms, making friends (and possibly enemies), and otherwise experiencing maturing social interactions and self-discovery. Parts of the human brain (and even influential hormone systems) that continued to evolve from animal brains and bodies, at least to some extent, have measurable properties that can be graphed over time.

(Meanwhile, I still enjoyed Sam’s wife’s view on this, even with the panpsychism idea.)

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 2 days ago by  PopeBeanie. Reason: fixed "christopher" misspelling

[Author]

Posts