Billie M Jones

@Unseen – beating his own previous record, I imagine.

Thanks, Reg!!

Authoritarianism goes so well with the religious societies. A belief in a god or ‘superior’ entity and a belief in Dear Leader are really not all that far apart. If you’re already worshipping a god, it’s not a huge pivot to worshipping a leader.

With respect to the regime without any rights, I am hard pressed to see that as something different than that which the current administration aims for.

Unseen wrote:
Trump lies to see who’s loyal to him. Who’s in his cult.

L. Ron Hubbard, creator of Scientology was a science fiction author, who eventually made claims like he was a (nuclear?) physicist, Buddha in a past life, and he kept writing the most unbelievable origin stories and how people can nurture their superpowers, even learning to…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
Or, more than one dimension.  All the dimensions maybe.

In string theory they speak of 10 or 11 dimensions (I forget which). I’ll never understand the theories, but the most convincing argument to me is about how entanglement of two particles can be broken instantly, even when those particles are separated by a distance that…[Read more]

Enco, I’ve always found “unnatural” to suffice.

TheEncogitationer wrote:
However, I still have many questions: If we assume a single Natural Universe with nothing before it or beyond it, with all energy, all matter, all space, all time, wouldn’t this mean there can be no “balloon,” no “surface,” no “outside,” no force to expand space “inside” the “balloon?”

And if Relativity doesn’t ap…

[Read more]

Thanks Reg!

TheEncogitationer wrote:
And, of course, the part of Donald Trump’s brain that pauses between thought and speech and speech and action doesn’t work at all.

This is spot on, of course. But I’m worried, in spite of the obvious harm of Project 2025 (“P2025”) as it is executed, that perhaps irrepairable harm is the goal of wannabee oligarchs. Or, may…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
A psychiatrist explains why Trump wanting a third term (and by extenstion of his logic, to never leave office) was inevitable from the start.

He also says that the 12th and 22nd amendments together prohibit a president from becoming a president a third time, but I saw an explanation, I forget from who, saying Trump might be able to…[Read more]

Is this, or is it not outright corruption of our courts, legal establishment, and politicians in power? This explanation is from a Democratic senator.

14-1/2 minutes long

Yay, Rand Paul! I’d forgotten about him for a while.

1-1/4 minutes long

Ah Enco, you conceive of receiving music from AI that might disturb you going to sleep. That would be untamed music

How far are we from asking AI to match our sleep phases and introduce sounds to encourage conscious dreaming, or to assist us as biological individuals to reach optimum rest. Perhaps using a device similar to a smart watch. It…[Read more]

Playing with words here, but I feel there’s a kind of fundamentalish link between my consciousness and rules of the universe, or even the life around me. My consciousness is my brain operating, fine tuned to adapt to the world and life in it. I see that as a kind of “fundamental link”.

But that doesn’t automatically lead to the conclusion that…[Read more]

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…[Read more]

The video with Jason Stanley on Amanpour referred to a Guardian article on the topic of how the Trump admin wants to define university policies and practices. As Enco notes, they can do this when they have powers of the purse. (Yo MAGA, the left may have set the scene, but you made governmental interference inevitable.)

Excerpt from the…[Read more]

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…[Read more]