The best recent, IMHO, not well thought out mental masturbation of that kind is the concept that hell is the state of absence of gods (concept that gains traction here and there, from what I see). Of course that makes sense only for those who need to reinforce themselves with the conviction in value of their beliefs.
The rest of us says - great, just what we want!;p
PS. Adding to what you say (last portion also not well thought out BTW...), early depictions of heaven in Abrahamic religions do involve, basically, loss of individuality. Wasn't very attractive, I guess...
Or simply mental states, expectations. You will agree after all that those do influence so called "subconcious" brain activity, dreams, and so on.
That migth be also part of an explenation why bad trips don't manifest themselves nearly as often on ketamine - when given it people are probably more likely to have positive approach, trying hard to convince themselves that everything's cool. Like during a planned surgery (if it's serious you can add "people try to be at peace with themsevles" here) or outright experiment. But in case of "natural" NDE they might have been terrified in a "wrong" way just before it.
This does explain the prevalence of concept though.
It's safe to assume people were experiencing various NDEs for a looong time, especially in more dangerous times - remember they didn't have to survive their injuries for long, just long enough to tell somebody. This even fits as one of the factors why people were so much more fixated on religion in brutal times.
Since blindess from birth might be caused by mutliple factors, optic nerve or eye abnormalities among them, it's rather safe to say that larger areas of the brain might still experience those effects, don't you think?
Anyway, describing such experiences as plain "seeing" by those people is probably a stretch. Especially considering that in many of them visual cortex does process some information, just not from the eyes; or that supposedly some might experience similar things to when you close and push your eyes (or you'll hit yourself in the head) - but is that really "seeing"?
I'm not saying those weren't fun times, with amazing new things possible.
But keep it in perspective - how good game of chess that machine could do? How advanced & usable word processor was? (really better than good typewriter?) Or most importantly, from another angle, look at the things common people regularly do on current PCs. HD video editing? Photo editing? Quite smooth access to huge number of info kept on other computers (somewhat possible in old times after all...but, in comparison, almost nonexistant), not to mention other people, with "always online" typical, in a way? 3D GFX that would make 80's filmmakers blush present in cheap personal entartainment? (those filmmakers would also love Blender...) Central and convenient library for all your music & movies?
A huge qualitative change really took place, not only quantitative one (simple raw speed, size, etc.)
...and don't forget potential for immunity of genetic chimeras (though certainly not when there's a sample of blood found on the crimescene, since that's what will also be teste)
Just one other company, Nokia, sells more media players annually than the number of iPods Apple has ever produced; I think you overestimate the influence of the latter (yes, it's highly visible in a few so called "key" markets...and that's it). Similarly with content production and sitribution.
Ypu almost said it at the point where you mentioned attention spans and complex situations with hard to predict ourcomes......rational (or "informed" as some people like to pui it) in self interest is rather hard to find.
Generally, the political or economic systems people like to talk about, their pure pet form, with nice & tidy label attached...don't work in real life; whayever it is. A mix seems workable though.
I don't see it yet (in case of mine). It functions and drives perfectly (that includes getting proper gas mileage and passing without saying emission level checks). I don't work on it at all - it's just a change of filters, oil or whatever is recommended at this point in car life, during scheduled maintainance checks (well, tbh it wasn't totally fault free, with dashboard essentially shutting down in intense sun (heat) at 1 year point...so whole dashboard was replaced and everything works fine ever since; not sure how modification to braking hydraulics (safety advisory, one line was determined to be prone to too easy damage so it was rerouted to "higher" position) counts...)
I don't expect it changing much until at least when it's 15 years old. Should last gracefully maybe even untill 20; either way almost certainly untill there will be a really good time to get a new car (with teething problems of all the new technology that now shows up worked out, and a clear image which one to choose). Heck, some time ago I realised I still mentally perceive this car to be "new"...
A small (hence light; btw, engine becomes less insignificant part of weight the smaller the car, and if the engine's bigger...) car with "normal" engine also delivers "excellent driving experience"
Plus overpowered cars seem to induce poor driving habits...
I live in hope of someone designing a mid-sized car with ultralightweight materials and putting a slow-running non-turbo diesel in it with high gear ratios and the maximum possible low-rev torque setup - economy and long life without complications. And while I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony
So...you narrowly missed the chance of having (new) a car as close as possible to what you want, it seems; look at the list in first table (on the right), until quite recently this engine could be found in Golf/Jetta/Bora (and maybe still is, since Mk4 Jetta/Bora seems to be produced along the Mk5).
Though who knows if it was available at your place...
Finding ways to push more cars out, as a way to fight hypothetical downfall of the industry caused by people restraining from buying new cars, is pretty close to broken window fallacy...
I'm driving an 11 year old car. It's in great condition, comfortable, reliable, safe, gets good gas mileage...why should I replace it?
How convenient to forget that, with the arrival of Apple Appstore, the typical price of apps & games for mobile phones was lowered approximatelly by an order of magnitude.
Is it safe to talk about Stockholm Syndrome in such cases already?
Either way, since he was one of those who planted the seeds of the mess, while being constantly warned how it'll end up, I don't see how he can complain and expect to be treated seriously... (not that he won't be)
Yes, I've stumbled once, while under wiki effect, on the info that somebody still makes them; without the volume info though, nice to see they are not dead yet (with apologies to general Franco;) )
Still, no clear & big descendants, and in the meantime many new widely succesfull players in microcontroller market have shown up and are bound to show...
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The best recent, IMHO, not well thought out mental masturbation of that kind is the concept that hell is the state of absence of gods (concept that gains traction here and there, from what I see). Of course that makes sense only for those who need to reinforce themselves with the conviction in value of their beliefs.
The rest of us says - great, just what we want! ;p
PS. Adding to what you say (last portion also not well thought out BTW...), early depictions of heaven in Abrahamic religions do involve, basically, loss of individuality. Wasn't very attractive, I guess...
Or simply mental states, expectations. You will agree after all that those do influence so called "subconcious" brain activity, dreams, and so on.
That migth be also part of an explenation why bad trips don't manifest themselves nearly as often on ketamine - when given it people are probably more likely to have positive approach, trying hard to convince themselves that everything's cool. Like during a planned surgery (if it's serious you can add "people try to be at peace with themsevles" here) or outright experiment. But in case of "natural" NDE they might have been terrified in a "wrong" way just before it.
This does explain the prevalence of concept though.
It's safe to assume people were experiencing various NDEs for a looong time, especially in more dangerous times - remember they didn't have to survive their injuries for long, just long enough to tell somebody. This even fits as one of the factors why people were so much more fixated on religion in brutal times.
Bad trip is bad.
Since blindess from birth might be caused by mutliple factors, optic nerve or eye abnormalities among them, it's rather safe to say that larger areas of the brain might still experience those effects, don't you think?
Anyway, describing such experiences as plain "seeing" by those people is probably a stretch. Especially considering that in many of them visual cortex does process some information, just not from the eyes; or that supposedly some might experience similar things to when you close and push your eyes (or you'll hit yourself in the head) - but is that really "seeing"?
These images remind us all of our fragile mortality. ...and many people don't like that.
The US as a shining beacon of opportunity seems to be, for some time, a convenient lie that's fed to you...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility#Social_system
Despite this formal opportunity for social mobility, recent research suggests that Britain and particularly the United States have less social mobility than the Nordic countries and Canada.[6][7] These authors state that "the idea of the US as the land of opportunity persists; and clearly seems misplaced."
[6] http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/apr/25/socialexclusion.accesstouniversity
Though I guess the myth will persist..."nanny states" leading as the Land of Opportunity?! Can't be...
I'm not saying those weren't fun times, with amazing new things possible.
But keep it in perspective - how good game of chess that machine could do? How advanced & usable word processor was? (really better than good typewriter?)
Or most importantly, from another angle, look at the things common people regularly do on current PCs. HD video editing? Photo editing? Quite smooth access to huge number of info kept on other computers (somewhat possible in old times after all...but, in comparison, almost nonexistant), not to mention other people, with "always online" typical, in a way? 3D GFX that would make 80's filmmakers blush present in cheap personal entartainment? (those filmmakers would also love Blender...) Central and convenient library for all your music & movies?
A huge qualitative change really took place, not only quantitative one (simple raw speed, size, etc.)
The PC was the most affordable machine for somewhat serious computing.
http://obligement.free.fr/articles_traduction/amiganasa_en.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga#Notable_historic_uses
Or one more note, an identical twin could leave a sample of his blood and blame his brother.
Wouldn't that have to be, on top of identical, a secret evil twin?
...and don't forget potential for immunity of genetic chimeras (though certainly not when there's a sample of blood found on the crimescene, since that's what will also be teste)
Just one other company, Nokia, sells more media players annually than the number of iPods Apple has ever produced; I think you overestimate the influence of the latter (yes, it's highly visible in a few so called "key" markets...and that's it). Similarly with content production and sitribution.
Ypu almost said it at the point where you mentioned attention spans and complex situations with hard to predict ourcomes... ...rational (or "informed" as some people like to pui it) in self interest is rather hard to find.
Generally, the political or economic systems people like to talk about, their pure pet form, with nice & tidy label attached...don't work in real life; whayever it is. A mix seems workable though.
Question is, how big part of all those GDP numbers out there is composed out of imaginary money...
I don't see it yet (in case of mine). It functions and drives perfectly (that includes getting proper gas mileage and passing without saying emission level checks). I don't work on it at all - it's just a change of filters, oil or whatever is recommended at this point in car life, during scheduled maintainance checks (well, tbh it wasn't totally fault free, with dashboard essentially shutting down in intense sun (heat) at 1 year point...so whole dashboard was replaced and everything works fine ever since; not sure how modification to braking hydraulics (safety advisory, one line was determined to be prone to too easy damage so it was rerouted to "higher" position) counts...)
I don't expect it changing much until at least when it's 15 years old. Should last gracefully maybe even untill 20; either way almost certainly untill there will be a really good time to get a new car (with teething problems of all the new technology that now shows up worked out, and a clear image which one to choose). Heck, some time ago I realised I still mentally perceive this car to be "new"...
That's not really about fuel efficiency, but about minimizing the cost for manufacturer and improving cargo space.
A small (hence light; btw, engine becomes less insignificant part of weight the smaller the car, and if the engine's bigger...) car with "normal" engine also delivers "excellent driving experience"
Plus overpowered cars seem to induce poor driving habits...
So...the solution is to switch engine displacement unit in the US to, say a pint?
For many "nice sounding" ones, "miles ahead" fuel economy is really not at all a given... (plus consider their lower utility, passenger & cargo space)
I live in hope of someone designing a mid-sized car with ultralightweight materials and putting a slow-running non-turbo diesel in it with high gear ratios and the maximum possible low-rev torque setup - economy and long life without complications. And while I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony
So...you narrowly missed the chance of having (new) a car as close as possible to what you want, it seems; look at the list in first table (on the right), until quite recently this engine could be found in Golf/Jetta/Bora (and maybe still is, since Mk4 Jetta/Bora seems to be produced along the Mk5).
Though who knows if it was available at your place...
Finding ways to push more cars out, as a way to fight hypothetical downfall of the industry caused by people restraining from buying new cars, is pretty close to broken window fallacy...
I'm driving an 11 year old car. It's in great condition, comfortable, reliable, safe, gets good gas mileage...why should I replace it?
So why the chiropractors association went into campaign of removing advertising claiming they could cure...prety much everything?
Could it be because they perfectly knew it's bogus, and only now somebody is paying too much attention to their bullshit?
How convenient to forget that, with the arrival of Apple Appstore, the typical price of apps & games for mobile phones was lowered approximatelly by an order of magnitude.
Is it safe to talk about Stockholm Syndrome in such cases already?
Either way, since he was one of those who planted the seeds of the mess, while being constantly warned how it'll end up, I don't see how he can complain and expect to be treated seriously... (not that he won't be)
Yes, I've stumbled once, while under wiki effect, on the info that somebody still makes them; without the volume info though, nice to see they are not dead yet (with apologies to general Franco ;) )
Still, no clear & big descendants, and in the meantime many new widely succesfull players in microcontroller market have shown up and are bound to show...