Tag: analysis

Does the Universe think? (with Bernardo Kastrup)

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UPDATE: I’ve watched 45 minutes of this and, so far, it is a beautiful model of how to talk. These guys are both trained philosophers and act like it. They listen charitably (means use the best possible interpretation of what they hear) to each other, delight in rebuttals, and quickly and easily clear up misunderstandings with evident pleasure as they move almost seamlessly together deeper and deeper into their topic without losing sight of where they want to go. Maybe at minute 46 they are going to kill each other in a fit of anger, who knows? Up to minute 45, they provide an exquisite example of how to talk about philosophy. And what FIML can teach partners about how to talk to each other.

The field of FIML is not philosophy per se. It is the idiosyncratic intermeshed fields of the FIML partners themselves. I have often said FIML has no content save what partners bring to it. FIML is a technique which reveals what our content is, what we are bringing to our relationship. Once both partners see clearly through the eyes and ears of each other what both of you are bringing, you will also delight in the fun of being able to talk as well as Kastrup and Hawkins (but about much more than just philosophy). I doubt either one of them does FIML and both of them might find it difficult since so much of their psycholinguistic constellations are defined by academic philosophy, but I know they could do it if they tried. ABN

Dear Elon:

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This is very good and well-worth the time. Pretty much what your basic American thinks or feels put very well. The parts on Indians ring true. It’s the same story for Jews but with different scenery. Simplicity that actually cuts to the core is always good. But you have to take it for that and not spin off into ‘fuck your own face’ or whatever Musk said. I hope Elon turns this episode around. People will hate you for what you do but will forgive you for what you did if your really reform. That happens to be basic (based?) Buddhism. It’s all transient. Or to say it better, all bullshit is transient but ethical, moral, generous, compassionate deeds and intentions are not. ABN

‘The Black Swan Election’: Trump’s Campaign Chiefs Tell Their Inside Story

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…Let’s talk about Trump as a cultural phenomenon because I think of two things. The McDonald’s drive-through and the garbage truck, both things that broke into the pop culture conversation, even beyond our world. Could any other candidate do that?

Fabrizio: MMA fights. Joe Rogan. We think of them as very specific things, but the symbolism — It says something about him that she couldn’t capture.

Where she’s doing the big speech or having the big debate, the conventional warfare, traditional campaign tactics. Donald Trump goes to the McDonald’s drive-through. But in the year 2024, when we’re all living on our phones, a big speech at the Ellipse vs. Trump at the drive-through, which is going to break through?

LaCivita: Donald Trump is a man who has made a large part of his living in a visual medium: TV. He understands that politics is a visual medium. And so he looks at everything through the prism of that. And your average candidate for public office doesn’t look at the world that way.

He’s also a celebrity.

LaCivita: Defined outside the realm of politics. He has his own persona and definition outside of politics.

And because of that, some of the stuff he says …

LaCivita: He gets away with, he does.

He’s not graded as a politician. He’s graded as a celebrity.

Fabrizio: I know this is going to sound counterintuitive, but when he says stuff that makes people go — (grimaces) — it only reinforces that …

LaCivita: … He’s not a politician, exactly!

…Is there one big thing that you think we’re missing in this campaign that was enormously consequential or at least significant?

LaCivita: You guys have written about the impact of the assassination attempt. But I don’t think people give enough credit to the fact that the world has a visual. It’s an iconic visual. But I don’t think people have given enough credit to that visual.

Him holding up his fist.

LaCivita: And what that visual means. And what the visual conveys. Not only about him, but the country as a whole. Americans get knocked down, but they always fight back. And that visual is as quintessential America as the fucking flag is.

Fabrizio: I am always amazed, I’ve learned not to be amazed, but he has this ability in most cases to put his finger on something. And you say to yourself: “Where did he come up with that?” But he just does. Then you test it and, holy shit, he’s right.

link

Excellent interview. Fun read. Well worth reading. ABN

People say ‘the Holocaust is one of the most well documented events in history’

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People say “the Holocaust is one of the most well documented events in history,”

…. But it’s really not documented at all. In fact when you actually dig into the documents you realize how the evidence points into the other direction. Evidence like

-Hitler never ordered the extermination of the Jews

-the allies never spotted any “killing camps” when doing reconnaissance missions

-the allies broke the German codes and were listening to their messages, and heard nothing about death camps.

-all the “death camps” were only on the Soviet side. How did the allies manage to not find any? Why do we believe the Soviet communist?

-there is no physical evidence that Jews were gassed to death

-the worldwide Jewish population numbers did not decrease.

– the entire holocaust narrative is based on ludicrous constantly changing eye witness testimony

link

Besides all the many reasons to not believe the official story, since it is illegal to doubt this bit of history, I believe we the plebs are morally obligated to doubt it and research those doubts to our own satisfaction. The linked article provides a few of the major areas of doubt, if not total contradiction. ABN

The Right has been proven right about every prediction it made — Ricardo Duchesne

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The Far Right has been proven right about every prediction it made:

a) Bringing millions of foreigners into the West would create a permanent climate of racial tensions, chaos, and sexual assaults.

b) Immigration costs Whites more than it benefits them, and invariably causes a reduction in per capita income, along with higher costs in health care, housing, education — as well as higher earnings for rootless and disloyal globalists.

c) Integration with blacks in the US will always be a failure requiring whites to continually give handouts to blacks along with levelling down of education and white culture to meet black inclinations.

d) Islam is not a religion of peace but a backward religion that should never be allowed in the West

e) Antisemitism is primarily a ruse to keep Whites from realizing that diversity is inherently Anti-White; and a cover up for groups like ADL to block any critical expression of European identity and nationalism.

f) It is natural for human beings to seek to belong in a group, and only societies based on a common culture and ethnic ancestry can satisfy this longing —— not deracinated values of “freedom and democracy”.

link

Bernardo Kastrup, Richard Watson, and Mike Levin — conversation 1

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UPDATE: This is a very accessible philosophical discussion during which Kastrup lays out a clear argument for Analytical Idealism. What Kastrup describes is a very good way to understand Buddhist philosophy, which is based on similar thinking but takes it further. I highly recommend this discussion and other videos and essays by Kastrup. He is a perfect advocate for understanding Buddhism since he seems to be entirely unaware of Buddhist thought and entirely devoid of normative Buddhist cliches. ABN

Kastrup responds to my criticisms of Analytic Idealism (part 1)

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UPDATE: This is a very good discussion which can be understood within a Buddhist ‘mind only’ framework (or not). I have posted it especially because it seems to conform very well with what the Buddha might have thought and/or how later Buddhists came to understand Buddhist enlightenment, the cessation of all suffering through fully understanding all of reality. This video is the first part of a planned two-part discussion. The second part has not yet been posted. The second part is going to start with the question why the universal mind itself does not experience metacognition. I have some idea how Kastrup will answer that question, but will wait for his take before commenting further. Kastrup’s work in general seems to me to be a good way to consider Buddhist practice and thought from a modern point of view, using vocabularies and concepts we are familiar with or which can be readily accessed. It is important to know that the captions for the above video rarely correctly render the term Markov Blanket. This is an important term for understanding Kastrup’s ideas. More information can be found here: Markov Blanket. ABN

UPDATE 2: Near the end of the discussion linked above, Kastrup says he is incapable of meditation. I hope he reads this because I want to point out to him and others that meditation, or samadhi in Buddhism, is the method for the ‘small self’, which resides inside its Markov Blanket, to commune with the One Mind (Kastrup’s term, which works well with Buddhist thought). Samadhi is a natural state. When you take your attention away from Kastrup’s ‘dashboard’ and open the windows (let’s ignore the wind in his metaphor), your ‘small self’ perceives and experiences One Mind. Like all experience, samadhi states become richer and richer the more we experience and appreciate them. I would like to also encourage Kastrup and others to read this description of the Five Skandhas. The ‘consciousness’ which arises out of the first four skandhas is the consciousness of the small self, the self ensconced in its Markov Blanket. Whether he knows it or not, Kastrup has done an excellent job of describing Buddhist thought and practice in modern terms. I particularly like his work because, as far as I know, he has never mentioned Buddhism. For this reason, he provides a very refreshing take on the Dharma very clearly explicated and coming from a different angle from all others. ABN

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Sexual jealousy is a major factor in all aspects of life. The jealous harass those whom they perceive as more attractive. Parasites revel in destruction of entire types, using their hatred to advance socially while simultaneously encouraging other parasitic groups to join their envy fray. This is a fundamental reason parasitic ideologies flourish and attract followers even as they clearly make little or no sense. Academia is an example of a large American subculture infested with parasites who enjoy ruining things. Pleasure in destruction is a parasitic trait, a cultural trait of parasitic groups. You can identify them by this trait alone. Since sexual jealousy is such a deep source of hatred, it fuels parasitic groups as much as does greed and lust for power. ABN

Assisted dying and covid mistakes with Clare Craig

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UPDATE: This is a worthy discussion, highly recommended. Doctor assisted dying, which is really doctors killing, is examined from many angles with the clear verdict that doctors killing is useful only in very rare circumstances. In all other cases, it’s a bad idea and once made into law presents a terrible slippery slope, as we have seen in Canada. A doctor’s office or medical facility is in itself a trance-inducing location, replete with numerous disturbing messages. To be offered an ‘easy’ death by a doctor is a hypnotic suggestion. Many who are not even psychologically vulnerable and with plenty of life left in them will agree to die under these conditions. Please share this video so more of us can appreciate the dangers of these new laws. ABN

Palantir CEO Alex Karp outlines future of AI race

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Palantir CEO Alex Karp appeared at the Reagan National Defense forum, and does a great job advocating for the U.S. to win the artificial intelligence race. Karp believes it is possible to insert “values” into the software at strategic places of connection, and thereby control the outputs. The question within the AI race then becomes, whose values? Ours or our enemies?

In a series of video segments placed onto a Twitter Thread, you get a good sense for what Palantir, Karp, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and newly appointed White House Czar of AI, David Sacks, are trying to do inside this global race toward artificial intelligence as applied to government systems.

link to video segments and more

The video segments at the above link provide a decent sense of what Karp thinks and where USA may be headed. Very much worth listening to what he has to say. It’s true we all fear the ominous possibilities AI tech and Palantir may hold for the world. But it is also true, those technologies may produce wonderful outcomes. Karp is very optimistic about the tech (which is his job) and also about USA. I tend to be optimistic in both of those areas myself (not my job) and also believe we would all do well to look favorably on our future and those most in charge of it today — Thiel, Karp, Musk, Trump, RFK, et al. ABN

Regarding Syria — Scott Ritter

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Stop looking for conspiracy centered on betrayal.

This was never supposed to be anything other than a localized attack in the vicinity of Aleppo.

But when the HTS fighters encountered no resistance, they pushed on.

Everything that unfolded from that point appears to be opportunistic exploitation of the unexplained, and unexplainable, collapse of the Syrian nation.

As Syria collapsed, those nations that had been conspiring against Syria have pounced on the rubble of that nation and declared victory.

Those nations that supported Syria are left to gaze in bewilderment at the evaporation of everything they had worked to achieve over the past decade.

But none of this was planned.

Everyone is reacting.

Which means there is no guaranteed outcome.

Things look good at the moment for Israel and Turkey.

And things certainly look bad for Russia and Iran.

But there are many unknowns lying in ambush for all parties involved.

Because none of this was predicted.

And nobody has a plan for what happens next.

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