I guess I shouldn't reply to such a blatant troll, but may I suggest that although discussion is free on the net and that this is a good thing, it is also important that courts determine criminality. I think most reasonable people would agree on this.
Wow. I guess I keep forgetting that Bush's psychopathic nature is not always commonly recognized. This seems amazing to me, but then I forget sometimes what it is like to be caught within the fog of manufactured reality. That's the nature of the psychopath, after all, but it takes two to tango.
I would strongly encourage you to do some reading and research into the matter. After all, you are the only one there is who can be depended upon to grow your knowledge structure. It would be a good idea to explore beyond old boundaries, especially now when the information is there for the taking. This may soon not be the case!
On the one hand, what I see is a 'cool' new trend in virus writing; "Wow! Cool! Like, I can re-script a code which will secure me lots of slave machines! Excellllllent. I want to play, too!"
On the other hand, it also strikes me as very convenient that the web should be pummeled right now when there is such a push to massively control EVERYTHING and EVERYONE on the planet. --How easy would it be for the fine people in black-ops-secret-shmecret-government to release a few hundred viruses into the wild?
Pretty damned easy, I'd say. But to what end?
Simple. Everybody is getting fed up. "Oh, please install new laws which allow us to punish spammers. Oh, please, mighty government, do SOMETHING to control the web so that I can get my email!"
The internet, at the moment, is THE prime source of real information and world-wide communication. You can say here, out in the open, "BUSH IS A LIAR AND A CRIMINAL" And link to a hundred sites which explain -with detailed evidence- exactly why this is so.
Fascist governments don't appreciate this. Machiavelli recommended the swift destruction of dissidents who speak such things, in order to control a kingdom.
230 new script kiddies a month releasing malignant code into the wild, or a handful of unimaginative agents bent on pissing everybody off so much that they start begging for leashes?
I don't know. But it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find out that the assholes -once again- are in charge.
When American researchers announce they have a viable hydrogen-based solution for powering communities, American corporations will suddenly have a product millions of people will want. An industry will be created, along with thousands of jobs. Will some of them be outsourced? Eventually, yes. But other industries will pop up to replace it. It's happened before. It will happen again.
Indeed, I recently ran across this item. It seems alternative energy and streamlined solutions are definitely being allowed out of the toolshed, (finally).
I did find it interesting, however, that in this particular case, the device was created in Japan. I wonder how much lobbying it will take to enforce American hydrogen fuel cells into the dominant position.
I guess the other thing I ought to keep in mind is that the power of 'belief' is staggeringly strong. If people believe that they ought to live in big houses with two cars, etc., then that goes a long way to perpetuating the reality. I have to keep reminding myself that the health of the economy, in the largest sense, is driven by the perception of how healthy it is. This kind of thinking is right up my ally and I feel somewhat obligated to do my part to dispel the overpowering myth of economic decline, the propagation of which I believe is a deliberate action on the part of Upper Management. Foolishly, I get so into the pattern of looking for the ugly that I miss those times when people like me broadcasting such a message is part of the problem, and possibly even part of the design.
There have been a lot of very loud and pervasive, "The Economy is Dying!" stories circulating over the last few years, sinking deep into every demographic group.
Unless I am mistaken, all of this can be reduced to an imbalance between living standards and consumption in the East and the West. Because the West has higher living standards, (ie, more expensive), it will always be less expensive to hire labor in countries like India and China.
Only when everybody has approximately the same cost of living and consumption standards, will labor cost the same across the globe.
The problem is that there isn't physical space or resource for the few BILLION people in India and China to industrialize out of their mud huts up to the same standards Americans have grown to expect. And guess what? The result will not be one of everybody being pulled up by the bootstraps in cheaper, overpopulated nations, but rather a natural decline in the American standard of living.
This (of course!) is unacceptable. And so you suggest that we here in the West stay ahead of the game through "Hard Work and American Industry" (Who wants to live in a mud hut, after all?)
The only problem is. ..
This isn't going to happen. Unless somebody invents a really kick-ass widget which nobody can produce off-shore, the American dream is in for a rude awakening. Heck, we reached peak oil production a few years back. What do you think will happen when every Indian decides to buy an air conditioner and a refrigerator? The petri dish is getting tight and we're nearly out of nutrient agar. And THAT is one of the big aspects of what this latest world war is all about; consolidating resources.
Conservative economic dogma is fine for a planet with infinite growth curves and resources, but this ain't SIMS, my friend. Unless you're in with Bush and the other Bunker Boys, you're going to hurt along with everybody else.
The Nixon/Bush presidency both seeded, orchestrated and allowed the 'terrorist' attacks to happen so that they could justify their fascist over-reaction, (which you are now living in the middle of.)
People who 'insightfully' suggest that our lives may need to be further controlled by the Fatherland Security, are simply playing their roles exactly as planned.
We don't need more secure systems. We just need to get rid of governments, (and shadow governments), which deliberately attack their own people.
If Upper Management wanted to tag homeless people, they'd be tagged already, and the only reason it might be done would be to soften the rest of the public up. Though, truthfully, I'd see it starting with prisoners, then parolees, then addicts who get free needles, then people receiving unemployment benefits. Then Islamics.
But even all of that would only be a psychological form of control; something purely to make you know that you're the dog and break down your spirit of rebellion. In truth, the 'real' threats, (regular people with jobs and pseudo-power), are already tagged. You carry one or two of them around with you in your wallet and you produce them for regular scanning. And beyond that, you'll probably be wearing a tag or two in your fancy GAP pants by the end of this year without even realizing it.
Anyway, all these April Fool's stories are giving me a stomach ache. Not a single one of them so far would be terribly out of place on a regular news day. That'll give anybody with a soul gastric problems.
I'd have taken this at face value. I'm the sort of guy who would have gotten a huge kick out of working on that kind of project when I was a kid with lots of spare time.
--The really impressive bit would have been actually linking it to the Quake engine in a workable manner. It'd be much easier to start from the ground up and just use one of the IF authoring systems available. Talk about bloat!
The main problem would be in making the game interesting to play. Not too many IF challenges in your average Quake scenario! --Though, I bet if you flattened everything by removing the up-down co-ordinates, and then provided a bird's eye view via keyboard characters, you could make the game fairly engaging. Rather like a kind of supercharged 'Nethack'.
Anyway, this is a cool April fool's gag!
--The site owners should put up a 'donations' button though, quick, quick to off-set the Slashdot effect!
The amazing thing about this book is that even though it talks about the art of persuasion, and that most people think they are above it, is that many smart people who come away will still not grasp just how deep the persuasion efforts in society go.
There is programming all over the place. It affects people on levels which are not even associated with advertising.
"Turn the other cheek"
"Forgive and Forget"
"The weak will inherit the Earth"
Sound familiar? These are nodules of effective societal control which were deliberately included in the standard hotel room Gideon which affect even those who claim to not be religious. It's one of the ways psychopathic CEO's are able to climb the ladder so effectively. Heck, Christ dying on the cross in his oh-so-dramatic "I'm so good I let the bad guys kill me" is a primo example of social control. Another is how fiercely your average Christian will defend both the reality of this event and its validity as a message. Propaganda doesn't have to come fresh from your television to still be an effective control measure!
Conversely, the whole 'Skeptical' Science-as-Religion trend over the past century has been another massive control measure. Stops people from looking at these kinds of stories without the accompanying automatic doubt/ridicule/I-feel-clever response. --At least until Upper Management is ready for the release of such technologies and 'realities'. And that's primo mind-control, baby!
Seen a chemtrail recently? Most people are reluctant to look up. Talked about Psychopaths in business and politics to your workmates recently? No? That ugly feeling which makes you want to change the subject is another little nugget of social engineering telling you to look away from one of the most prevailent problems in society; one which can only be solved through open discussion.
Books like the one reviewed are fine to a point, but they need to take the next step to be truly useful. Until then, they are almost part of the problem in that one can come away thinking they know how to defend themselves. Newsflash: Which brand of Cola you buy isn't the issue. There are thoughts of much greater importance to certain groups that you be thinking which have nothing to do with your preference in running shoe.
There is already NO choice. If you know who you are and what you want, then all you do is go and inhabit the reality closest to your ideal. It's just a matter of putting your back into the task. Choice is not even on the board; its simply an exercise in being able to divine your true path.
Of course, you're going to make the 'wrong choices' now and again, and you will slip off the path and get hurt and dinged up a bit. This is how we learn. So you get back on and keep moving. Choice is simply the result of not having enough knowledge about yourself and the world around you. If you know everything about yourself and the world, then out of a thousand options, one will always stand brighter than the others.
As for those who want easy lives where they don't have to think too much; who would rather have IT tell them what to do with their bodies and minds. . . Oh, well now how very captivating and vital and alluring an attitude is that! Puh-lease! Such people are basically saying they'd be happier not existing.
Until you provide a minimum level of facts, I will not believe you. I have heard such claims numerous times, but when it is time for the implementation, more of the same is the output.
Facts? I'm not sure how one measures something subjective like "Entertainment" in a factual way. What would you accept by way of a 'Fact'?
Or are you just doubting that some people have interesting ideas while you do not?
Hm. Can't help you there. All I know is that there are a number of games I'd enjoy playing which do not exist. Games are like stories; every conceivable scenario has been examined, and yet originality continues unfettered; the human mind is infinite after all, able to be fascinated in an endless number of directions
I think perhaps a more reasonable request would be that you provide evidence that creativity is finite and that we have reached its end, seeing as that is the far more unlikely scenario!
--Having a cable connection is like having a meth pusher on speed dial. If you've used it once, you'll want more. If you have easy access to it, you'll access it frequently, and spend many hours staring glassy-eyed across your living room, happy as a potted plant, losing your mind synapse by synapse.
We truly live in a nation of living dead.
I can't believe they're legislating this nonsense. "We the people legally demand the correct dosage and we want it affordable!" (Twitch.)
I've spent a lot of time pondering this, and it's an incredibly fascinating problem!
I've come up with several ideas for games which I would LOVE to play. They, of course, contain derivations at the lowest level, (for any computer game designer there are only two choices in only two categories; 3d/2d, (Doom vs Pac Man) and realist/iconic. (GTA vs Tic Tac Toe). You can jump/slide between degrees within both categories, and mix and match as you please. In the truest sense, of course, there is only 2d and iconic, as the screen is flat and points of light can only be representational. --I've yet to see a game where pixels are actually thought of as pixels. Sound is also a layer I consider to be largely under-exploited as a challenge/reward mechanism.
In any case, I certainly have game concepts which could be enormously enjoyable.
And guess what? I'm not the only guy with good ideas. Not by a long shot. I know a couple of game designers who cry, "There ARE cool new game concepts! Lots of them! It's just that they don't get any production and promotion money because financiers are too conservative!"
Money people would rather invest in a tried and proven concept than gamble on a new idea. New ideas come from weird people who don't fit in and who it is hard for people to overcome their self-protective herd mentality in order to listen to. This is self-evident. Financiers don't care about advancing the medium; they care about making their money back! If they cared about advancing the medium, they'd be Art and Design people. Not Money people.
Anyway, I don't really care. Computer games are a flimsy distraction from the much more vital and rewarding game of Life.
Expecting voting to change anything is like expecting the jail guards to be significantly affected by popular decsions among the prisoners.
Think of the internet more as a tool of escape.
My knowledge structure and learning has never moved along so quickly as it has in the last few years with instant access to information. Libraries and the telephone are still useful, but the net moves much closer to the speed of thought.
As for uprisings against political tyrany. . ?
I wouldn't rule that one out. One of the best ways to lock down a nation under military rule is to invoke an uprising which 'validates' the use of military force.
Bell Canada. It was the only game in town. A MONOPOLY. But, it was under government control, and (at that time), the government wasn't (so much) the enemy of the people. In regard to the telecom game, they pretty much did a worthy job. That is, if Bell screwed you, a simple call to the CRTC would get their butts kicked into shape and your connection flowing nice and smooth.
In the Eighties, it cost $15 a month for basic service. There were no extra fees, and Bell couldn't refuse to hook you up. FIFTEEN BUCKS a month.
What did competition bring?
Well, first of all, there isn't actually any competition. There's STILL only one phone system; it's just that now third party companies are allowed to buy discount bandwidth on that one system and re-sell it at lower rates. --And they don't have to pay to help maintain the physical system. Hmm.
And how does the phone company react to all that dropping revenue and the increasing cost of maintenance and development in a growing market? Why, they raise the cost of basic local service! Something goes wrong with your land line? Well, now it costs $100 bucks just to get some contracted company out to look at your phone. (Unless you buy the 'insurance' package for a few extra dollars per month).
And now if somebody screws you, who do you call? That's right! Nobody. Now, if you're unhappy, you're supposed to switch over to a different carrier, because that's how competition works!
On paper, anyway. --And only if a couple of chapters and logical positions are deliberately missing from the Free Market handbook.
If there was 'real' competition, there'd be more than one company stringing lines up all across the country. And that's called, "redundant, wasteful stupidity". Because competition slims down bloated structures, right? Sure.
There is NOTHING wrong with the idea of socially controlled telecommunications. Communications shouldn't BE a profit-making venture. It's a vital resource to a healthy society. Do you want to talk to people who enjoy sharing ideas, or would you rather communication happen among a bunch of Lawyers who think in terms of "Billable Minutes"?
I think enough discussion and information has been presented over the years to quite put an end to the reign of 'Free Market' armchair philosophers who read a book on it once, and who vote for square-jawed right-wing criminals who promise to punish the 'lazy' unemployed, but who make policy to ensure that unemployment is nice and high so that Big Business will have permanent access to cheep labor.
My phone service and phone bills suck now thanks to 'free market' politics and the people who push for such things. Thanks guys. The worst part is that I saw it coming, bitched and complained, and the world patted me on the head and called me silly.
Ah well. At least most of the hobbits are using cell phones now. It's easier than ever to walk through the world unchallenged, now that most people have voluntarily radiated their brains. Just don't get caught playing by the house rules! Man! Hell hath no fury like a muggle trying to categorize you on a computerized form!
"I don't need one of those awkward and painful a brains. See? Instead, I have a set of instructions! Much easier! Amd Thou Shalt Not. .."
That's like saying Boeing made it possible for 9/11 because of the plane they built. It's true on the service but the causality is wrong.
IBM was deliberately breaking the law by selling equipment and support services to Hitler. So were many American companies, including the Bush family, for that matter. The people at the top knew what was going on, but they saw the dollar signs and shipped the goods anyway.
I'm surprised at the shock response this post is getting! Truth often hurts, but fighting it is futile and only makes one a champion of ignorance.
If I'm mistaken in my data, then certainly let me know! Otherwise people, quite griping.
IBM made it possible for the Nazis to trace Semitic bloodlines through the German population and 'cleanse' with pinpoint accuracy, thanks to IBM's punch card technology.
Of course, Germany has flipped to the 'Light' side in the current 'Force' war. Perhaps a megalithic corporation like IBM has as well.
Stranger things have happened. But I'm still wary. Sheesh. I'm always wary. I wonder if it's my brand of coffee. ..
>In any case, you should probably read this article on the Copernican principle of events. The overwhelming likelihood is that you're not special, friend. Sorry.
Hm. Neat! The Copernican principal is certainly a fascinating idea. --Though, I did notice that the author set out by qualifying his thoughts, saying that his formula only works, "If there is nothing special about your observation of something[...]".
That's not the case here. See, I take reincarnation as a given function of reality, and moreover, I consider it true that people deliberately place themselves in the oncoming flow of certain events in order to learn from them. I believe we came here to watch the fireworks! But I recognize that reincarnation is not exactly situated in falsifiable territory, so I'll let it go at that.
>Believing that you are one of "the last generation" is surely one of the most common fallacies of the credulous.
Just because there are many people who are idiots, does not mean that all people are idiots. We'd call that one a, "Logical Fallacy". Cyclical comet disasters happen regularly to this little blue marble.
>Also, you mean "Timewave", not "Time Cube".
I know what I mean, thank you. Look up "Time Cube", and then you will know what I mean as well. (But don't stare at that dude's web page too long; that'll give anybody a head ache!)
As for Carl Sagan and drugs. . . I don't actually know much about Carl Sagan. I prefer not to follow popular media figures as they so often tend to be either wittingly or unwittingly misleading.
Very simply, if Carl Sagan had real answers, he'd be dead or working for somebody who would kill him if he decided to share his insights.
We are all really, really broken in the head. Time, as we experience it, is a total illusion. --But it is an illusion which allows for the perception of physicality; --if you were aware of all possibilities existing at the same time, you would perceive of yourself as being something rather like an ever-evolving smear.
Every choice you make in your current brain-damaged, "single-frame advance" form is what takes you from one step to the next. In the fully aware version, physicality becomes variable, because you can focus on a reality and pull it into being by exercising choices across an entire 'life-time'. Existing in that form, I suspect, probably comes with it's own version of 'time', because that level is probably just a brain-damaged version of the next one above it.
Don't bend your mind trying to picture this stuff. You are mentally impaired and you can't do it. Things are changing though. All those little introns are wiggling around and beginning to come active in those who are struggling to wake up! Lots of perceptive abilities which haven't been expressed yet. ..
Some of you will have already started experiencing brief bleed-throughs as the paradigm shift rushes ever-nearer. --Here are a three of the multiple reality 'encounters' I know of, (the last two of which I've directly experienced).
-Being able to see both behind you and in front of you at the same time.
-Being able to see both the front and back of stationary objects in an 'impossible' way.
-Seeing several versions of one person super-imposed in the same area.
Stuff like that. Yes, quite terrifying, but they only last a few hair-raising moments, and you can snap out of them at will, (for the time being anyway.) Watch for them and learn from them; you'll need to be able to stay calm if you make the transit. And yes, all of this while not on drugs. Drugs are for idiots; they'll just weaken your ability to deal when the shit hits! Gettin' closer real fast, kids!
When? Well, the shit is supposed to hit at the same time as the big cloud of comets wipes out everything on this planet. Be a nice time to be able to morph your reality, eh? Otherwise, it's apocalyptic fire storms for you! (But don't sweat it. You'll just reincarnate where you need to. It'd be cool to actually make the transition without dying, though! And certainly into a reality where there isn't an ice age in full swing and nothing left but smoking rubble and black glass.)
Final note: I don't care what you believe, no collection plate will be passed, there is no book to buy and no representative will come to your door. Deal with it. (And no, I have no relation to 'Time Cube' guy. He's just insane. Whereas I'm the guy who is going to haunt your thoughts every time you trip over something which jars your reality. --Unless, of course, you're already way ahead of me, in which case, 'Cheers!')
Yep. This old question has made many heads spin around and around, including mine. And some of us are fortunate enough to come up with a suitable mechanic which makes sense enough to allow us to 'continue' thinking. --I guess rather like any scientific theory; you come up with a stop-gap which sort of works, and you carry on as best you can, refining as you go. Here's mine. ..
First of all, the basics: There is the One, of which we are all a part.
My 'feeling' is that the One is probably a very lonely individual.
So the One turned inward, (like a lonely child), but with an imagination of limitless bounds! It split It's awareness countless times so that all perspectives, all thoughts, all experiences are percieved, thought and experienced. A wonderful distraction from the Lonliness and Boredom of being the One!
Thus, each tiny fragment of Itself gets to interact with the other pieces, each forgetting its origin so that the meetings can be vital and engaging and new! The sense of having, 'free will' is important to this illusion, otherwise, there would be no vitality; no sense of life and death importance to each, 'decision'.
And since each and every possible combination of interaction is out there being experienced, Free Will is probably important as it keeps each of the scenarios separate; (my feeling is that there are no duplications, that each experience is a one-of-a-kind, even if the differences between them are very small.) Thus, exercising Free Will, while it would not be 'important' in the ways many might think, is nonetheless an integral action within the giant ball of All required for the whole process to work.
My one concern is that We, once we all rise to the top and reunite with the One, (as the journey appears to be), that we will be done and alone once more. What then?
We will find out, I am sure. Indeed, if my model is anything close to correct, then we probably already know!
All in a day's work for the psychopathic personality.
Big smile, logically-impaired although somehow convincing rhetoric, (People can't grok the fact that the person in the nice tie could have such a poor grasp of logic and the English language, and so fall over backwards to fill in the gaps of the psychopath's thinking and speaking so as to form a pretty picture in their own minds of what they would like to hear. This is part of the psycho's power.) Psychos rise quickly to the tops of power structures. You've probably seen this in action during your own life.
The Psycho is about destruction. Period. They will happily mangle working structures for no other reason than it causes misery, pain and confusion. They probably don't realize that they're doing it; They have diseased brains, after all. Psychotic humans are like an advanced virus. They easily infect large systems, and explode them from the inside out. And the classic defense mechanisms do not seem to work.
Bush and his fellow psychos in industry, (think Enron et all), are doing everything in their power to bankrupt the U.S. The normal people are falling all over themselves to justify this activity; "If they're doing it so blatantly, then it MUST be good. No intelligent person would deliberately sink the ship. This must simply be something I cannot understand. Now if I can only think of a good argument to explain it. .."
--You can see this very thinking all over Slashdot right now! People are largely falling into one of two categories; 1) Confusion and hurt. 2) Attempting to rationally explain the insane behavior so that they feel comforted. As the ship goes down. The psycho doesn't care. He's just an infernal machine clicking along.
And the end result will invariably be ruined lives. Lots of them.
Bush needs to be put down. In fact, if we destroyed 80% of the CEOs and Politicos in the U.S., the insanity would probably stop cold and we could begin to heal.
They also say they can build their ship in 5 years. The key here is if they can get the funding.
So?
With enough funding, I could build a space program replete with cool toys, too. Heck, give me a bank account large enough and I could have a whole interplanetary space fleet up and running MOO II style in a decade or so!
Can you imagine? If the Earth was set up like one of those resource-strategy games, with one smart person at the helm, the trains would run on time, everybody would be well fed and we have stopped using fossil fuel about thirty years ago.
Ahhh. Sunday mornings. Time for hot coffee, snow gently falling beyond my window, and day dreams. ..
I've wandered through this same exchange many, many times before, and typically, the 'other end of the table' is painfully predictable, (especially in a forum like Slashdot), with the end results landing in the same general areas.
So I'm certainly guilty of cutting and pasting old thoughts just as much as I blamed you of doing, (though you were toying with me; cheeky monkey!), so you'll have to believe me when I say that there is no blood vessel pending rupture. I nearly didn't bother coming back here to check responses. Glad I did! Today is already ten times more interesting than it was half an hour ago!
Usually, the best I hope for with such opening volleys is that new perspectives are made available to unlikely people. The world is broken and punishing exactly because of the limited views most individuals carry around, and moreover, because those with knowledge are nearly always unwilling to discuss certain subjects in the open. I see no shame whatsoever in rocking the boat. People will always laugh, but in the end, the ideas flow and the world parts its ways for you. As I have found, life is an extremely enjoyable and rewarding ride when you have little fear of breaking convention and are able to smoothly and intelligently alter your views as new information makes itself available.
Then, on days like today, I'll be fortunate enough to make connections with interesting people who offer valuable and unexpected lessons. --Even if the lesson is as simple as just learning the extent of one's public reach.
As I have learned, if you don't talk, bounce ideas and suffer the inevitable wry winks, then growth happens altogether too slowly for my liking, if at all.
So, if you don't mind my asking, (now that the boring part is over!), who are you and where did we meet?
Slashdot Mirror
Wow. I guess I keep forgetting that Bush's psychopathic nature is not always commonly recognized. This seems amazing to me, but then I forget sometimes what it is like to be caught within the fog of manufactured reality. That's the nature of the psychopath, after all, but it takes two to tango.
I would strongly encourage you to do some reading and research into the matter. After all, you are the only one there is who can be depended upon to grow your knowledge structure. It would be a good idea to explore beyond old boundaries, especially now when the information is there for the taking. This may soon not be the case!
Good luck to you!
-FL
On the one hand, what I see is a 'cool' new trend in virus writing; "Wow! Cool! Like, I can re-script a code which will secure me lots of slave machines! Excellllllent. I want to play, too!"
On the other hand, it also strikes me as very convenient that the web should be pummeled right now when there is such a push to massively control EVERYTHING and EVERYONE on the planet. --How easy would it be for the fine people in black-ops-secret-shmecret-government to release a few hundred viruses into the wild?
Pretty damned easy, I'd say. But to what end?
Simple. Everybody is getting fed up. "Oh, please install new laws which allow us to punish spammers. Oh, please, mighty government, do SOMETHING to control the web so that I can get my email!"
The internet, at the moment, is THE prime source of real information and world-wide communication. You can say here, out in the open, "BUSH IS A LIAR AND A CRIMINAL" And link to a hundred sites which explain -with detailed evidence- exactly why this is so.
Fascist governments don't appreciate this. Machiavelli recommended the swift destruction of dissidents who speak such things, in order to control a kingdom.
230 new script kiddies a month releasing malignant code into the wild, or a handful of unimaginative agents bent on pissing everybody off so much that they start begging for leashes?
I don't know. But it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find out that the assholes -once again- are in charge.
-FL
Indeed, I recently ran across this item. It seems alternative energy and streamlined solutions are definitely being allowed out of the toolshed, (finally).
I did find it interesting, however, that in this particular case, the device was created in Japan. I wonder how much lobbying it will take to enforce American hydrogen fuel cells into the dominant position.
I guess the other thing I ought to keep in mind is that the power of 'belief' is staggeringly strong. If people believe that they ought to live in big houses with two cars, etc., then that goes a long way to perpetuating the reality. I have to keep reminding myself that the health of the economy, in the largest sense, is driven by the perception of how healthy it is. This kind of thinking is right up my ally and I feel somewhat obligated to do my part to dispel the overpowering myth of economic decline, the propagation of which I believe is a deliberate action on the part of Upper Management. Foolishly, I get so into the pattern of looking for the ugly that I miss those times when people like me broadcasting such a message is part of the problem, and possibly even part of the design.
There have been a lot of very loud and pervasive, "The Economy is Dying!" stories circulating over the last few years, sinking deep into every demographic group.
(Think happy thoughts. . . Think happy thoughts. .
-FL
Unless I am mistaken, all of this can be reduced to an imbalance between living standards and consumption in the East and the West. Because the West has higher living standards, (ie, more expensive), it will always be less expensive to hire labor in countries like India and China.
Only when everybody has approximately the same cost of living and consumption standards, will labor cost the same across the globe.
The problem is that there isn't physical space or resource for the few BILLION people in India and China to industrialize out of their mud huts up to the same standards Americans have grown to expect. And guess what? The result will not be one of everybody being pulled up by the bootstraps in cheaper, overpopulated nations, but rather a natural decline in the American standard of living.
This (of course!) is unacceptable. And so you suggest that we here in the West stay ahead of the game through "Hard Work and American Industry" (Who wants to live in a mud hut, after all?)
The only problem is. .
This isn't going to happen. Unless somebody invents a really kick-ass widget which nobody can produce off-shore, the American dream is in for a rude awakening. Heck, we reached peak oil production a few years back. What do you think will happen when every Indian decides to buy an air conditioner and a refrigerator? The petri dish is getting tight and we're nearly out of nutrient agar. And THAT is one of the big aspects of what this latest world war is all about; consolidating resources.
Conservative economic dogma is fine for a planet with infinite growth curves and resources, but this ain't SIMS, my friend. Unless you're in with Bush and the other Bunker Boys, you're going to hurt along with everybody else.
-FL
People who 'insightfully' suggest that our lives may need to be further controlled by the Fatherland Security, are simply playing their roles exactly as planned.
We don't need more secure systems. We just need to get rid of governments, (and shadow governments), which deliberately attack their own people.
(Do the research BEFORE modding.)
-FL
If Upper Management wanted to tag homeless people, they'd be tagged already, and the only reason it might be done would be to soften the rest of the public up. Though, truthfully, I'd see it starting with prisoners, then parolees, then addicts who get free needles, then people receiving unemployment benefits. Then Islamics.
But even all of that would only be a psychological form of control; something purely to make you know that you're the dog and break down your spirit of rebellion. In truth, the 'real' threats, (regular people with jobs and pseudo-power), are already tagged. You carry one or two of them around with you in your wallet and you produce them for regular scanning. And beyond that, you'll probably be wearing a tag or two in your fancy GAP pants by the end of this year without even realizing it.
Anyway, all these April Fool's stories are giving me a stomach ache. Not a single one of them so far would be terribly out of place on a regular news day. That'll give anybody with a soul gastric problems.
-FL
--The really impressive bit would have been actually linking it to the Quake engine in a workable manner. It'd be much easier to start from the ground up and just use one of the IF authoring systems available. Talk about bloat!
The main problem would be in making the game interesting to play. Not too many IF challenges in your average Quake scenario! --Though, I bet if you flattened everything by removing the up-down co-ordinates, and then provided a bird's eye view via keyboard characters, you could make the game fairly engaging. Rather like a kind of supercharged 'Nethack'.
Anyway, this is a cool April fool's gag!
--The site owners should put up a 'donations' button though, quick, quick to off-set the Slashdot effect!
-FL
There is programming all over the place. It affects people on levels which are not even associated with advertising.
"Turn the other cheek"
"Forgive and Forget"
"The weak will inherit the Earth"
Sound familiar? These are nodules of effective societal control which were deliberately included in the standard hotel room Gideon which affect even those who claim to not be religious. It's one of the ways psychopathic CEO's are able to climb the ladder so effectively. Heck, Christ dying on the cross in his oh-so-dramatic "I'm so good I let the bad guys kill me" is a primo example of social control. Another is how fiercely your average Christian will defend both the reality of this event and its validity as a message. Propaganda doesn't have to come fresh from your television to still be an effective control measure!
Conversely, the whole 'Skeptical' Science-as-Religion trend over the past century has been another massive control measure. Stops people from looking at these kinds of stories without the accompanying automatic doubt/ridicule/I-feel-clever response. --At least until Upper Management is ready for the release of such technologies and 'realities'. And that's primo mind-control, baby!
Seen a chemtrail recently? Most people are reluctant to look up. Talked about Psychopaths in business and politics to your workmates recently? No? That ugly feeling which makes you want to change the subject is another little nugget of social engineering telling you to look away from one of the most prevailent problems in society; one which can only be solved through open discussion.
Books like the one reviewed are fine to a point, but they need to take the next step to be truly useful. Until then, they are almost part of the problem in that one can come away thinking they know how to defend themselves. Newsflash: Which brand of Cola you buy isn't the issue. There are thoughts of much greater importance to certain groups that you be thinking which have nothing to do with your preference in running shoe.
-FL
Agreed. Though, as you pointed out with the canola example, I don't see any real effort to enforce responsible practices. There oughtabealaw!
-FL
-FL
What a load of cock and bull.
There is already NO choice. If you know who you are and what you want, then all you do is go and inhabit the reality closest to your ideal. It's just a matter of putting your back into the task. Choice is not even on the board; its simply an exercise in being able to divine your true path.
Of course, you're going to make the 'wrong choices' now and again, and you will slip off the path and get hurt and dinged up a bit. This is how we learn. So you get back on and keep moving. Choice is simply the result of not having enough knowledge about yourself and the world around you. If you know everything about yourself and the world, then out of a thousand options, one will always stand brighter than the others.
As for those who want easy lives where they don't have to think too much; who would rather have IT tell them what to do with their bodies and minds. . . Oh, well now how very captivating and vital and alluring an attitude is that! Puh-lease! Such people are basically saying they'd be happier not existing.
Sorry. I just don't find that appealing.
-FL
Facts? I'm not sure how one measures something subjective like "Entertainment" in a factual way. What would you accept by way of a 'Fact'?
Or are you just doubting that some people have interesting ideas while you do not?
Hm. Can't help you there. All I know is that there are a number of games I'd enjoy playing which do not exist. Games are like stories; every conceivable scenario has been examined, and yet originality continues unfettered; the human mind is infinite after all, able to be fascinated in an endless number of directions
I think perhaps a more reasonable request would be that you provide evidence that creativity is finite and that we have reached its end, seeing as that is the far more unlikely scenario!
-FL
--Having a cable connection is like having a meth pusher on speed dial. If you've used it once, you'll want more. If you have easy access to it, you'll access it frequently, and spend many hours staring glassy-eyed across your living room, happy as a potted plant, losing your mind synapse by synapse.
We truly live in a nation of living dead.
I can't believe they're legislating this nonsense. "We the people legally demand the correct dosage and we want it affordable!" (Twitch.)
Goebbels would be tearing up with pride.
-FL
I've come up with several ideas for games which I would LOVE to play. They, of course, contain derivations at the lowest level, (for any computer game designer there are only two choices in only two categories; 3d/2d, (Doom vs Pac Man) and realist/iconic. (GTA vs Tic Tac Toe). You can jump/slide between degrees within both categories, and mix and match as you please. In the truest sense, of course, there is only 2d and iconic, as the screen is flat and points of light can only be representational. --I've yet to see a game where pixels are actually thought of as pixels. Sound is also a layer I consider to be largely under-exploited as a challenge/reward mechanism.
In any case, I certainly have game concepts which could be enormously enjoyable.
And guess what? I'm not the only guy with good ideas. Not by a long shot. I know a couple of game designers who cry, "There ARE cool new game concepts! Lots of them! It's just that they don't get any production and promotion money because financiers are too conservative!"
Money people would rather invest in a tried and proven concept than gamble on a new idea. New ideas come from weird people who don't fit in and who it is hard for people to overcome their self-protective herd mentality in order to listen to. This is self-evident. Financiers don't care about advancing the medium; they care about making their money back! If they cared about advancing the medium, they'd be Art and Design people. Not Money people.
Anyway, I don't really care. Computer games are a flimsy distraction from the much more vital and rewarding game of Life.
-FL
Expecting voting to change anything is like expecting the jail guards to be significantly affected by popular decsions among the
prisoners.
Think of the internet more as a tool of escape.
My knowledge structure and learning has never moved along so quickly as it has in the last few years with instant access to information. Libraries and the telephone are still useful, but the net moves much closer to the speed of thought.
As for uprisings against political tyrany. . ?
I wouldn't rule that one out. One of the best ways to lock down a nation under military rule is to invoke an uprising which 'validates' the use of military force.
-FL
Bell Canada. It was the only game in town. A MONOPOLY. But, it was under government control, and (at that time), the government wasn't (so much) the enemy of the people. In regard to the telecom game, they pretty much did a worthy job. That is, if Bell screwed you, a simple call to the CRTC would get their butts kicked into shape and your connection flowing nice and smooth.
In the Eighties, it cost $15 a month for basic service. There were no extra fees, and Bell couldn't refuse to hook you up. FIFTEEN BUCKS a month.
What did competition bring?
Well, first of all, there isn't actually any competition. There's STILL only one phone system; it's just that now third party companies are allowed to buy discount bandwidth on that one system and re-sell it at lower rates. --And they don't have to pay to help maintain the physical system. Hmm.
And how does the phone company react to all that dropping revenue and the increasing cost of maintenance and development in a growing market? Why, they raise the cost of basic local service! Something goes wrong with your land line? Well, now it costs $100 bucks just to get some contracted company out to look at your phone. (Unless you buy the 'insurance' package for a few extra dollars per month).
And now if somebody screws you, who do you call? That's right! Nobody. Now, if you're unhappy, you're supposed to switch over to a different carrier, because that's how competition works!
On paper, anyway. --And only if a couple of chapters and logical positions are deliberately missing from the Free Market handbook.
If there was 'real' competition, there'd be more than one company stringing lines up all across the country. And that's called, "redundant, wasteful stupidity". Because competition slims down bloated structures, right? Sure.
There is NOTHING wrong with the idea of socially controlled telecommunications. Communications shouldn't BE a profit-making venture. It's a vital resource to a healthy society. Do you want to talk to people who enjoy sharing ideas, or would you rather communication happen among a bunch of Lawyers who think in terms of "Billable Minutes"?
I think enough discussion and information has been presented over the years to quite put an end to the reign of 'Free Market' armchair philosophers who read a book on it once, and who vote for square-jawed right-wing criminals who promise to punish the 'lazy' unemployed, but who make policy to ensure that unemployment is nice and high so that Big Business will have permanent access to cheep labor.
My phone service and phone bills suck now thanks to 'free market' politics and the people who push for such things. Thanks guys. The worst part is that I saw it coming, bitched and complained, and the world patted me on the head and called me silly.
Ah well. At least most of the hobbits are using cell phones now. It's easier than ever to walk through the world unchallenged, now that most people have voluntarily radiated their brains. Just don't get caught playing by the house rules! Man! Hell hath no fury like a muggle trying to categorize you on a computerized form!
"I don't need one of those awkward and painful a brains. See? Instead, I have a set of instructions! Much easier! Amd Thou Shalt Not. .
-FL
IBM was deliberately breaking the law by selling equipment and support services to Hitler. So were many American companies, including the Bush family, for that matter. The people at the top knew what was going on, but they saw the dollar signs and shipped the goods anyway.
I'm surprised at the shock response this post is getting! Truth often hurts, but fighting it is futile and only makes one a champion of ignorance.
If I'm mistaken in my data, then certainly let me know! Otherwise people, quite griping.
-FL
Novel gets $50 million from IBM.
Cheering and confetti and balloons!
Except. .
IBM made it possible for the Nazis to trace Semitic bloodlines through the German population and 'cleanse' with pinpoint accuracy, thanks to IBM's punch card technology.
Of course, Germany has flipped to the 'Light' side in the current 'Force' war. Perhaps a megalithic corporation like IBM has as well.
Stranger things have happened. But I'm still wary. Sheesh. I'm always wary. I wonder if it's my brand of coffee. .
-FL
Hm. Neat! The Copernican principal is certainly a fascinating idea. --Though, I did notice that the author set out by qualifying his thoughts, saying that his formula only works, "If there is nothing special about your observation of something[...]".
That's not the case here. See, I take reincarnation as a given function of reality, and moreover, I consider it true that people deliberately place themselves in the oncoming flow of certain events in order to learn from them. I believe we came here to watch the fireworks! But I recognize that reincarnation is not exactly situated in falsifiable territory, so I'll let it go at that.
>Believing that you are one of "the last generation" is surely one of the most common fallacies of the credulous.
Just because there are many people who are idiots, does not mean that all people are idiots. We'd call that one a, "Logical Fallacy". Cyclical comet disasters happen regularly to this little blue marble.
>Also, you mean "Timewave", not "Time Cube".
I know what I mean, thank you. Look up "Time Cube", and then you will know what I mean as well. (But don't stare at that dude's web page too long; that'll give anybody a head ache!)
As for Carl Sagan and drugs. . . I don't actually know much about Carl Sagan. I prefer not to follow popular media figures as they so often tend to be either wittingly or unwittingly misleading.
Very simply, if Carl Sagan had real answers, he'd be dead or working for somebody who would kill him if he decided to share his insights.
-FL
We are all really, really broken in the head. Time, as we experience it, is a total illusion. --But it is an illusion which allows for the perception of physicality; --if you were aware of all possibilities existing at the same time, you would perceive of yourself as being something rather like an ever-evolving smear.
Every choice you make in your current brain-damaged, "single-frame advance" form is what takes you from one step to the next. In the fully aware version, physicality becomes variable, because you can focus on a reality and pull it into being by exercising choices across an entire 'life-time'. Existing in that form, I suspect, probably comes with it's own version of 'time', because that level is probably just a brain-damaged version of the next one above it.
Don't bend your mind trying to picture this stuff. You are mentally impaired and you can't do it. Things are changing though. All those little introns are wiggling around and beginning to come active in those who are struggling to wake up! Lots of perceptive abilities which haven't been expressed yet. .
Some of you will have already started experiencing brief bleed-throughs as the paradigm shift rushes ever-nearer. --Here are a three of the multiple reality 'encounters' I know of, (the last two of which I've directly experienced).
Stuff like that. Yes, quite terrifying, but they only last a few hair-raising moments, and you can snap out of them at will, (for the time being anyway.) Watch for them and learn from them; you'll need to be able to stay calm if you make the transit. And yes, all of this while not on drugs. Drugs are for idiots; they'll just weaken your ability to deal when the shit hits! Gettin' closer real fast, kids!
When? Well, the shit is supposed to hit at the same time as the big cloud of comets wipes out everything on this planet. Be a nice time to be able to morph your reality, eh? Otherwise, it's apocalyptic fire storms for you! (But don't sweat it. You'll just reincarnate where you need to. It'd be cool to actually make the transition without dying, though! And certainly into a reality where there isn't an ice age in full swing and nothing left but smoking rubble and black glass.)
Final note: I don't care what you believe, no collection plate will be passed, there is no book to buy and no representative will come to your door. Deal with it. (And no, I have no relation to 'Time Cube' guy. He's just insane. Whereas I'm the guy who is going to haunt your thoughts every time you trip over something which jars your reality. --Unless, of course, you're already way ahead of me, in which case, 'Cheers!')
-FL
First of all, the basics: There is the One, of which we are all a part.
My 'feeling' is that the One is probably a very lonely individual.
So the One turned inward, (like a lonely child), but with an imagination of limitless bounds! It split It's awareness countless times so that all perspectives, all thoughts, all experiences are percieved, thought and experienced. A wonderful distraction from the Lonliness and Boredom of being the One!
Thus, each tiny fragment of Itself gets to interact with the other pieces, each forgetting its origin so that the meetings can be vital and engaging and new! The sense of having, 'free will' is important to this illusion, otherwise, there would be no vitality; no sense of life and death importance to each, 'decision'.
And since each and every possible combination of interaction is out there being experienced, Free Will is probably important as it keeps each of the scenarios separate; (my feeling is that there are no duplications, that each experience is a one-of-a-kind, even if the differences between them are very small.) Thus, exercising Free Will, while it would not be 'important' in the ways many might think, is nonetheless an integral action within the giant ball of All required for the whole process to work.
My one concern is that We, once we all rise to the top and reunite with the One, (as the journey appears to be), that we will be done and alone once more. What then?
We will find out, I am sure. Indeed, if my model is anything close to correct, then we probably already know!
Cheers to you, my fellow fragment! Good journeys.
-FL
Big smile, logically-impaired although somehow convincing rhetoric, (People can't grok the fact that the person in the nice tie could have such a poor grasp of logic and the English language, and so fall over backwards to fill in the gaps of the psychopath's thinking and speaking so as to form a pretty picture in their own minds of what they would like to hear. This is part of the psycho's power.) Psychos rise quickly to the tops of power structures. You've probably seen this in action during your own life.
The Psycho is about destruction. Period. They will happily mangle working structures for no other reason than it causes misery, pain and confusion. They probably don't realize that they're doing it; They have diseased brains, after all. Psychotic humans are like an advanced virus. They easily infect large systems, and explode them from the inside out. And the classic defense mechanisms do not seem to work.
Bush and his fellow psychos in industry, (think Enron et all), are doing everything in their power to bankrupt the U.S. The normal people are falling all over themselves to justify this activity; "If they're doing it so blatantly, then it MUST be good. No intelligent person would deliberately sink the ship. This must simply be something I cannot understand. Now if I can only think of a good argument to explain it. .
--You can see this very thinking all over Slashdot right now! People are largely falling into one of two categories; 1) Confusion and hurt. 2) Attempting to rationally explain the insane behavior so that they feel comforted. As the ship goes down. The psycho doesn't care. He's just an infernal machine clicking along.
And the end result will invariably be ruined lives. Lots of them.
Bush needs to be put down. In fact, if we destroyed 80% of the CEOs and Politicos in the U.S., the insanity would probably stop cold and we could begin to heal.
-FL
a pair of those blinking Nikes while running away from the cops?
-FL
So?
With enough funding, I could build a space program replete with cool toys, too. Heck, give me a bank account large enough and I could have a whole interplanetary space fleet up and running MOO II style in a decade or so!
Can you imagine? If the Earth was set up like one of those resource-strategy games, with one smart person at the helm, the trains would run on time, everybody would be well fed and we have stopped using fossil fuel about thirty years ago.
Ahhh. Sunday mornings. Time for hot coffee, snow gently falling beyond my window, and day dreams. .
-FL
I've wandered through this same exchange many, many times before, and typically, the 'other end of the table' is painfully predictable, (especially in a forum like Slashdot), with the end results landing in the same general areas.
So I'm certainly guilty of cutting and pasting old thoughts just as much as I blamed you of doing, (though you were toying with me; cheeky monkey!), so you'll have to believe me when I say that there is no blood vessel pending rupture. I nearly didn't bother coming back here to check responses. Glad I did! Today is already ten times more interesting than it was half an hour ago!
Usually, the best I hope for with such opening volleys is that new perspectives are made available to unlikely people. The world is broken and punishing exactly because of the limited views most individuals carry around, and moreover, because those with knowledge are nearly always unwilling to discuss certain subjects in the open. I see no shame whatsoever in rocking the boat. People will always laugh, but in the end, the ideas flow and the world parts its ways for you. As I have found, life is an extremely enjoyable and rewarding ride when you have little fear of breaking convention and are able to smoothly and intelligently alter your views as new information makes itself available.
Then, on days like today, I'll be fortunate enough to make connections with interesting people who offer valuable and unexpected lessons. --Even if the lesson is as simple as just learning the extent of one's public reach.
As I have learned, if you don't talk, bounce ideas and suffer the inevitable wry winks, then growth happens altogether too slowly for my liking, if at all.
So, if you don't mind my asking, (now that the boring part is over!), who are you and where did we meet?
-FL