Tropical Thread

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

Consider donating to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, if you can.

We are logical, calculating beings, capable of planning, and great feats; but, I fear that precious mind, something we all have to varying degrees of competence, intelligence, feeling, and sensitivity, with all It's wild dreams, and hopes, continues to be used against us, by a vast array of interconnected machines, that do not feel, as we do, if they yet feel at all. And those with power, who are never contented with how much power they have, those with money, who are never content to have enough, will continue to use them, to subjugate and turn those precious dreams of ours, against us, by continuing to twist them into frightful nightmares and overblown angry resentments of past injury and insult. Phantoms of fears and worries, rarely ever to materialize beyond anything but the insane twistings of that precious commodity, given freely to all of us, imagination...

Think dam* it; while we still can.. Before IT starts thinking for you; before you consent to giving it all away, for mere distraction from the mess they've made for all of us, leaving us with only ourselves to blame, and an unhappy trail of, 'terms of service you agreed to.'

..And perhaps learn to unlearn, to quiet the mind, from time to time, and just observe, as well..

We are Brothers and Sisters, on this great Earth, reaching out, to love and be loved, and to enjoy what precious little time we are afforded. We need understanding and to be understood; we need to hear, and to be heard.

We were raised by our ancestors to dream of machines that could not only think for themselves, as we do, but to feel, as we do. Meanwhile, the reality, is that they are working to create digitally sentient machine slaves, while we think less and less, and feel, so much less and less.

Moment to moment, hour by hour, day to day... Happiness, joy, wonder, beauty, enjoyment... However small, where ever you can find it, if you can, even if it be only a hope, or a hope for hope. That's okay... Suffering is not a currency, or a competition. Oh how I forget this, as I scorn others who seem not to recognize it. Some of it (suffering) is necessary, a lot of it, is perhaps not..

I will now tend to another delicious cigarette and some delightful luke-warm coffee, that's still good enough, for the sipping...

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

In the following video, I just watched, I was pleasantly surprised to be informed of this recent work, being done.

I've always thought that hydrogen power is the way forward, as far as replacing fossil fuels go. It can be used in an internal combustion engine, if my understanding is correct. The main obstacles, that I'm aware of, have been, how to store it, and how to produce it in a way that allows you to get more energy out (in the form of hydrogen) than what you put in (to produce the hydrogen).

So, I was really happy to see that, with this design, it seems they really are going to figure out that production problem. There may still be work that needs to be done on how to store it properly; but, I believe that's been figured out to (though the work may be behind red-tape at the moment).

Battery powered electric cars, aren't the answer in my opinion (at least not the way they are doing things now). From the production of hydrogen to it's burning as a fuel, I think you have a much cleaner and saner loop, than the electric car industrial loop.

Anywho, it was exciting news to hear, to me.

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

I don't think the portion of this video, that covers, 'memory,' is accurate.

I think people can be very confident in memories that are nearly entirely false; while, other times, people might have extremely accurate memories, that they believe to be largely false.

Memory is a context dependent device (perhaps, 'function,' is a better word).

Think of it like a hard drive. We know hard drives store information in 0's and 1's.

Now imagine a hard drive that stores 0's and 1', but stores them in color. Some zero's and one's are red, some blue, some green, some of them are yellow, cyan, purple. And imagine the 0's and 1's lose their magnetism, slowly, over time, unless they are maintained (by recall, context, sleeping, etc..).

Now imagine your mind, is context dependent on your emotional state, whether you are hungry, and what type of situation you are in: comfortable, tense, threatening, inviting, etc..

So if you are a threatened state, for example, where you are arguing, and you remember a very happy memory, let's say, 'a happy memory recorded in primarily green zero's and one's,' but you remember that memory during your, 'red,' argument, angry state, you'll be mostly only reading the, 'red 0's and 1's,' from your primarily, happy, 'green 0's and 1's,' memory.' Essentially, because, in the moment, you are angry, you only remember 10% of the happy memory, and the happy memory becomes an angry memory.

And now, if you recall that same happy memory, over and over, in an angry state, it morphs, and changes, into more of a bad, hurtful memory, because it was retrieved, so many times, in an angry/fearful context.

So, I just have to put that right. I don't think that PBS Nova is accurate, in it's claims, in the above video. And, I think it rather a shame, a lot of people will just accept that, at face value. Convincing a lot of people that our memories are not accurate, I think, is, possibly quite dangerous. Yes, they aren't always accurate. They can shift change and morph, due to degradation, context, and damage, both within the individual and collectively; but, that is not always the case.

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

The Psychology of the Fool

Found some interesting bits in this one. *shrugs*

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

I found an old dusty post of mine... Little young TFish..

 

[TropicalStarfish]

Research: Using Brief Cognitive Restructuring and Cognitive Defusion Techniques to Cope With Negative Thoughts

Found that link from here (don't completely agree with the author's views, but found an interesting link.)

 

[TropicalStarfish]

Algorithmicly driven memetic amygdala hyper-activation...

 

[TropicalStarfish]

Gain Strength Without Size

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]

There's something about the Aussie vernacular, when used the right way, that both elucidates and confuses at the same time, hah! I dig it. Gets the point across without you even having to understand all of it. What are those Aussies saying, though.!?

 

[TropicalStarfish]

 

[TropicalStarfish]