Tag: thought

Bernardo Kastrup: A Research Conversation in Consciousness

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2:14

I agree with a lot of what Kastrup says in this discussion. One important thing he seems to be missing or misunderstanding (or chose not to discuss) is the fundamental dramatic nature of consciousness, of conscious life, which as with everything else is fundamental to nature itself as he describes it. Nature is not just impersonal forces or impersonal thought or impersonal anything but also drama. The dramas are bigger than us, just as all of nature is. And there are more beings than just humans who participate in these dramas. And we are all touched at many levels and in many ways by drama. We are not just traveling on an impersonal road only able at best to feel contented, well situated, in tune. We are also actors in dramas, some of which are our own making, some not. I like the way he says motives or intentions flow through him but are not his; they are elements of impersonal nature. I think he is inkling the dramas when he senses that. ABN

Medical Hypothesis: Respiratory epidemics and pandemics without viral transmission — Denis Rancourt

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CORRELATION has published a new report entitled “Medical Hypothesis: Respiratory epidemics and pandemics without viral transmission” authored by Denis G. Rancourt.

The report advances that the likelihood of fatal transmissionless pneumonias in the elderly and persons with comorbidities increases significantly with environmental changes or assaults that cause biological stress, and that this is sufficient to cause epidemics, pandemics and seasonal mortality, always targeting the frail and sick. On this basis, Rancourt argues that transmissionless pneumonia caused by biological stress from imposed governmental and institutional “measures” is sufficient to explain the large excess mortality observed around the world during the Covid period.

Download a copy of the report below:

MEDICAL HYPOTHESISTANCOURTDownload

Anhedonia for the masses now? — insights from schizoid personalities

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I’ve been noticing something remarkable lately- everyone I interact with at work just is completely checked out. Used to be just me faking and masking, now it’s the most extroverted amongst us that I am clocking a seismic shift in.

Has the world finally caught up to my perpetual state of disconnection? Where I’ve long inhabited emotional neutrality, now everyone seems to drift—listless and anesthetized by invisible systemic pressures.

Is this mass schizoid experience a diagnostic canary in society’s collapsing coal mine? Economic precarity, technological alienation, and relentless performative expectations have seemingly drained collective vitality. What I’ve experienced as individual pathology now appears a widespread condition: a numbing adaptive response to late-stage capitalist entropy.

Are we all becoming involuntary ascetics with our affect flattened?….a synchronized emotional shutdown? And if so, what will remain special about how we see the world?

link

I found this post and replies to it interesting and related to Buddhist practice and thought. I personally learned in my childhood and youth, through unregulated experience, states like dissociation, depersonalization, or ‘checking out’. I do not believe that in moderation those are ‘disordered’ states. As a young adult, I did not ever think there was anything wrong with me for experiencing states like that. Augmented or probed deeply through meditation, dissociative-type states appear to me to be related to Buddhist samadhi states, probably even part of the same continuum. Western civilization is awesome in many ways, but generally lacks a deep appreciation of samadhi states as they are practiced and learned (and learned from) in Buddhism, Taoism, yoga, and similar traditions. Basically, the West lacks the vocabulary for the beauty and depth of samadhi states, which may appear to some, or be wrongly defined by some, as psychologically ‘disordered’, ‘depersonalized’, ‘dissociative’, ‘anhedonic’, or ‘checked out’. Taken too far samadhi could become an unwholesome trance state, but this is normally not a problem as proper Buddhist practice also includes rational thought, mindfulness, contemplations on others, compassionate activity. I believe I am not too far off in the gist of this comment simply because there is virtually no common vocabulary in the West known to many that describes deep meditative states or samadhi states; ergo, the West does not have a good understanding of them. The quoted post above and the comments under it at the link above comes from a subreddit on Schizoid Personality Disorder. I am not saying there is no such thing as SPD or anhedonia, but maybe some people who think those terms apply to them are only thinking that way because Western psychology does not have a deep enough vocabulary to couple with their experiences. I believe the insight that things have changed since covid is valid and maybe there is a lot of good in that. Taking no pleasure in a world of lies and bs can also be seen as awakening to the First Noble Truth of worldly suffering and delusion. ABN

A Key to Understanding the Next Four Years

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To understand the outcome of the next four years (and beyond), it is important to begin with the same information.  One key not discussed anywhere else is outlined below.

Consider this a baseline for future context in the world of the USA and President Trump politics.

♦ Summarized it looks like this: In late summer 2023 not only myself, but several insightful analysts in the world of high finance, had come to the conclusion that Musk’s financial effort with the purchase of Twitter was unsustainable, unless something changed.

Something did change.

In early August of 2023, understanding the dynamic at stake, and also having a strategy for his own interests, Oracle’s Larry Ellison said, ‘he would not let Elon Musk fail with Twitter’.

Billionaire Larry Ellison, a Tesla Board member, already had invested money in place, but that wasn’t the motive on this move. In hindsight, Ellison was brilliant and intensely strategic.  It is important to understand what exactly ‘board members’ are recruited for, and the stability/security reasons for why they are recruited.

Ellison pumped money into the problem, relieving Musk of the cash flow problem created by his inability to divest shares (Musk was max-limited by Board). Ellison also helped make the $1.5 billion loan made by SpaceX, (unknown at the time) go away.

Ellison essentially positioned Twitter for the same dynamic reason that Bezos bought and used WaPo.  This is the world of high finance, and these moves are all about influence, leverage and ultimately positioning.   Ellison wanted a vessel for influence, a friendship and common ideological alignment therein just made sense.

With financial breathing room and a nod in the direction he needed to follow, after a brief stint with Ron DeSantis, Musk using his platform, leaned forward into Trump. The rest of that relationship origin is history.

Oracle, specifically Larry Ellison, is now positioned as the biggest benefactor of a second Trump administration, with a very specific group of technocrats in close alignment. AWS Jeff Bezos has been trying to make up ground ever since.

♦ Now that’s the elevator speech part; that’s the encapsulated or summarized version.  But it’s in the details where things get interesting.

It should be emphasized up front that no one is a bad guy in the framework of what took place; however, neither is this altruism.

These are essentially self-interests in a common alignment.  As long as the alignment is for good purposes, then the network of billionaire allies is in a very cool place.

[This is an extremely good analysis — concise, clear as a bell, and deeply insightful. It provides a seasoned and wise overview of where we we are headed, and how it might turn out for the good or the bad. This essays illustrates the fundamental way people should think about politics, which is a rational, if cut-throat, human endeavor. Much of politics is out of our control, but we the plebs do have input into the system when we more or less agree and make our voices heard, which we have been doing for the past 8-10 months. US politics is as good as it gets right now. We the plebs must only keep the pressure on and strive to find and embrace our general agreement on major subjects, such as: freedom of speech, no mass immigration, no government spying, no totalitarianism, 2A, good economic policies, no war, solidarity with Europe and Russia, etc. ABN]

Continue reading “A Key to Understanding the Next Four Years” →

Master Exothermic Core-Mantle Decoupling – Dzhanibekov Oscillation (ECDO) Theory

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Within this summary, we outline a novel theory, the result of 25 years of research on the part of its author, comprising three primary novel hypotheses that link recent climate changes to specific alterations in the Earth’s core and mantle. These changes are proposed to lead to a decoupling of Earth’s core and mantle, which may result in a recurrence of the cataclysmic inundations mentioned in many cultural mythologies. The three hypotheses are summarized in the articles below.

The linked article is brief, succinct and very clearly written. I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the ideas presented. It’s a good read. ABN

Some differences between women and men

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This conclusion reaches into many other forms of work and endeavor. Academia is now filled with cucked women and the cucked men who can bear being around them. There is something like a 15% difference in several basic instincts between men and women. For example, women are more meticulous and capable with babies and this makes them also more neurotic. Apply the 15% on both sides to yield a ballpark 30% difference, which is deeply significant. For war and fighting, men are better at it physically, instinctually, mentally, and in how they bond in battle. Just these two basic instincts taken together reveal why men are better at taking care of their civilizations, their tribes, their nations. It also reveals why so much lefty politics is bonkers from a man’s point of view. I have heard that virtually all mental healthcare professionals are aware that 90% of their clients are lefties. This kind of reasoning is based on pattern recognition. It can be denied and/or fudged, but it is also obvious. It also obviously applies to races and ethnicities. The concomitant human instinctual susceptibility to brainwashing explains why so many fail to reckon with these obvious basic truths. Brainwashing is a weapon used in savage warfare to make you surrender your own assessment of reality for someone else’s and thereby accept total defeat. ABN

Is morality a fundamental part of nature?

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Viewing nature as a signaling network shows its advantage with this question.

Instead of asking where our moral sense comes from, we ask instead what makes for a good signaling network?

The answer is “good organization.”

By “good,” I mean efficient, well-made, good use of resources, easy to maintain, rational, etc.

You are a signaling network.

A well-organized you will probably tend to be morally pretty good and wanting to get better at it, depending on your conditions.

Of course some people view “morality” as whatever is in their best interests. And that is a type of moral thinking. When it is found out, though, most other people, very reasonably, do not like it.

If we view nature as the evolution of signals and signaling networks rather than as the evolution of matter, we will see that changes in signal organization are fundamental to the evolutionary process.

In this sense, it is the most ordinary thing in the world that you, a complex signaling system that is conscious, would consciously seek good organization and/or want to adapt your organizing principles, both objective and subjective, to conditions that impact you.

Conditions that impact you are signals being perceived by the signaling network you think of as yourself.

Your adaptations, both small and large, will encompass many moral considerations and choices.

Morality can be viewed as a kind of organization. The networks that make up your being must organize their relations with the world around them and other sentient beings. We make many moral decisions when we do this. These decisions are an integral part of how we are organized.

Last night I heard a drunk swearing at his friend from the street. “You fucking bastard…” etc. Not well-organized, but still he was yelling a local version of morality and this was fundamental to his networks and behavior.

first posted MARCH 4, 2017

UPDATE 11/09/22: The above shows that what we scientifically think of today as evolution does not contradict what might be called spiritual evolution, or Buddhist evolution that happens in three ways combined: through 1) morality/ethics; 2) concentration/mindfulness; and 3) wisdom/understanding. Karma is the path of our mind as it wends through its various and numerous realities, sometimes tending toward goodness or the Tathagata, sometimes tending away. By consciously contemplating our signaling networks and describing them to ourselves and close friends we can make our signals clearer and more ethical and thus become wiser, have better understanding. The act of doing this is a kind of concentration or mindfulness. It really doesn’t matter what your religion is, including atheism or even oblivionism, honestly analyzing your signaling will change you probably for the better. ABN

Navigating the Fiscal Storm: A New Course for U.S. National Defense — Douglas Macgregor

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This paper argues for: leverage change to build new, better forces for the 21st century, allowing for deep spending cuts of \$400-500 billion. This approach enhances the U.S. military’s competitive advantage in future warfare and improves American national security by ending open-ended interventions without attainable political-military objectives. Assuming Congress acts wisely, the resulting annualized savings can both pay down the national debt and reorient U.S. military power to new forms of warfare.

Grand Strategy and New Thinking

Grand strategy, if it exists at all, consists of avoiding conflict, not starting wars. New thinking in defense and foreign policy prioritizes diplomacy and peaceful cooperation over military power. None of America’s potential opponents, except those with nuclear weapons, pose a direct threat to the American homeland. If international terrorism and criminality remain threats, then border security and tightly controlled immigration should be the top priority in national security.

Senior military leaders and their services cannot be expected to reform themselves and fundamentally change the military status quo—a World War II/Cold War structure that is expensive, single-service focused, and vulnerable to weapons of mass destruction. Peter Drucker, when asked how to change a large business enterprise, answered, “If you want something new, you must stop doing something old. People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete.”

In line with Drucker’s guidance, the incoming President must implement a new national military strategy that diverges sharply from the last 30 years. This strategy must scale back America’s forward presence, mandate adaptation to new forms of warfare, and address the requirement to retain and develop America’s best human capital in uniform.

link

‘Get rid of the system control agents who isolate the Office of the President’ — A message to President Trump

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I hope President Donald Trump uses the absolute power of his office to appoint key people who will carry his constitutional, plenary and absolute authority.

The National Security Advisor doesn’t need confirmation for a reason.  Use the NatSec Advisor to target the origin of the cancer.

You did not make Tom Homan DHS Secretary because you knew in that role, he would have been weaker on securing the border and carrying out deportations. Great call.  Now apply that same level of thinking to the National Security Advisor.

Have the NatSec Advisor secure the Intelligence Community with the same level of ferocity you expect Homan to carry out on the border. 

Have the NatSec Advisor carry the same deportation expectation inwardly, into every silo that makes up the 17 intelligence agencies, and purge them just like the criminal aliens.  The “Six Ways from Sunday” cartel are far more dangerous.

Destroy the lies.  Get rid of the liars.

Get rid of the system control agents who isolate the Office of the President.

Make the Office of the President Great Again.

link

Germ theory critical excess? My present discomfort with absolute denial of ‘germ theory’ — Denis Rancourt

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I am sympathetic to the view that human-contagious-disease-causing viruses have not been demonstrated to exist. So far, these demonstrations have not convinced me, despite my earnest study.

I tend to agree with the Drs Bailey who have laid out their views on this and many aspects of the Corona declared pandemic in their brilliant new (and amply referenced) small book “The Final Pandemic”. And I tend to agree with the most influential critical textbooks on the question, which I have listed here.

link

He has not reached a conclusion. I am interested in what he has to say. ABN

The ‘absolute truth’ on abortion

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I personally am not an absolutist on abortion. Ultimately it is the woman’s decision and we must have compassion for anyone making this decision. I do not believe abortion should be taken lightly or celebrated. Fathers should have a say, but, again, ultimately it is the woman who bears the child. As of today, I support IVF with full realization that many small embryos are killed with this procedure. I can also see a day when selective IVF coupled with gene manipulations and stem cell derived gametes will lead to a much healthier and more intelligent human race. When the many choices involved in IVF today and in future are left entirely in the hands of would-be parents, I see more benefit than harm. That said, I remain open on all facets of these questions and am willing to change my views if convinced otherwise. ABN

Identity and signaling

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Identity is constructed of memories, memories that have to be tended to, and this takes time and energy.

You have to remember who you are and often have to work pretty hard just to maintain that image within yourself, to say nothing of projecting it toward other people and getting them to accept it.

A big problem with this way of constructing a “self,” an identity, is it’s probably based on misinterpretations and a good deal of self-deceit.

Our identities, such that they are, are complex fictions. They are a central flaw in our internal signaling system.

If your identity is large and complex, it will use a good deal of energy. As you signal internally to yourself about your identity, you will also be receiving signals from other people, and these signals will necessarily be processed by your large and complex identity. And that, of course, will lead to serious misinterpretations, both internal and external.

If you belong to a group that defines, or helps you define, your identity, you can save some energy but will have as much fiction, maybe even worse fiction.

Consider the codes of group behavior (group signaling)  for Stalin’s NKVD officers who purged so many millions of innocents in the 1930s. All of those officers had identities that were largely determined by signals coming from the NKVD and Joseph Stalin.

There was a weird sort of ethical behavior among those officers in that they were trying to adhere to a group signaling system and not go their own way. This same problem in less serious form can be observed all over the world in every culture.

One problem with ethics and ethical signaling within groups is ethical questions can be difficult. There are few formulas that will always work, and formulas are what hold groups together.

Back to your identity. I hope it is clear that you have to be careful when you base your identity on group signaling systems. If you are a banker, you might do many bad things out of loyalty to your group. Same for all of us.

While ethics are hard to codify, the will to behave ethically is simpler. I want to do the right thing but I don’t always know what it is or how to do it. That is a good statement to make. If you can honestly say that to yourself, that is good because that means that your internal signaling system is seeking greater integrity, great clarity.

When we seek clarity and integrity within our signaling systems, we are seeking better ethics. We are changing our identities, or allowing our identities to be transformed by a higher desire for clarity, purity, integrity, goodness.

When we seek to improve our signaling systems, our ethics, we begin to abandon static identities and poorly constructed fictions about ourselves by subjecting them to a higher order of thought. If we can take a meta-position on ourselves, we will find the process of improving signaling is easier and more enjoyable than clinging to a static fictionalized identity that may have been constructed years before.

first posted July 24, 2013