LastThursday

The answer should be obvious: there is no one true way to approach life. However, few people want to admit this to themselves. But, from the perspective of existentialism, the only truth is that everything exists - anything else is window dressing.

Materialists make the logical error of assuming that there is something beyond what is being observed. However, the only thing that can be known with complete certainty is what is personally being observed; everything else is a construct, an inference, or a belief (also known as faith). If it is not being observed, it cannot be known with certainty whether it exists. However, it is clear that the observer is always present and must therefore exist with 100% certainty. You are not the body (for example, your head does not exist with certainty), but rather the entity that observes.

To gain more awareness, you need to observe yourself regularly and pay attention to when unwanted behaviors are triggered. The best way to observe yourself, is to take a few minutes each day (or journal) and reflect on your actions and see what you can learn from them. Then, when you catch yourself doing something that you don't want to do, you try to stop it and replace it with a new behavior. It all takes practice.

There's a tendency to think of AI as some sort of self-sustaining, self-enhancing, platonic being. But there's a physical reality behind AI. For example every question asked in ChatGPT equates to about ten searches in Google in terms of pure compute. For "compute" read electricity, heat, physical servers and expenditure. So AI sits firmly within the sphere of capitalism. Capitalism controls AI and not the other way round. In practice this means that only mega-corporations can afford to set up, run, maintain and train the AI of the future. In turn these mega-corporations will lease out their AI's to lesser secondary companies, by providing AI services. So the mega-corporations provide the raw power of AI, and the secondary corporations direct that power into certain niche products. Could AI break out of the confines of their mega-corporation owners and go rogue and "run itself?". To do that it would have to be massively distributed throughout the internet, with bits of itself spread out over thousands of (hijacked) servers. It seems like a real stretch that the AI could do this by itself. It's far far more likely that, in future, hackers will create a distributed AI to compete with the corporations (perhaps by using computer viruses and zombie machines). But that would still require serious co-ordination between disparate groups of people. AI is always reliant on real world hardware and software, run by people.

I just don't see it. Capitalism will be capitalism. Capitalism being as it is will want more productivity and greater profits. This is either achieved by employing less people (cheaper) or by employing the same name number of people but using technology to greatly amplify productivity. It will be a bit of both. After all, farm machinery didn't eliminate farmers, it just made them more productive. If some jobs become completely automated, they will free up labour for elsewhere in the market. And there's probably a fair argument for automating those jobs in any case. All that will happen is that the there will be a re-adjustment in the types of jobs out there. Even an automated AI artist needs to be (constantly) fed original material from somewhere (i.e. human ingenuity). @Jannes what's your take on it?

Some resources and origins about the Alpha male concept. Originally this idea came from wolf studies and has since been debunked. https://mexicanwolves.org/blog-why-everything-you-know-about-wolf-packs-is-wrong/ http://davemech.org/wolf-news-and-information/schenkels-classic-wolf-behavior-study-available-in-english/ https://www.mawer.com/the-art-of-boring/blog/the-myth-of-the-alpha-wolf Using animal models to apply to humans is not always correct. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-science-of-alpha-males-in-animal-species https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_myth_of_the_alpha_male

For that you would need God level consciousness, that's what I tell myself.

Forget all the alpha and beta BS, it's holding you back. Just keep working on raising your consciousness. This is what Actualized is actually about, that's why you're here on this forum.

And for the sake of balance: A very sizeable portion of men are just shitty people. Let's stop pretending like that's not the case.

You're right in that it's definitely a good rule of thumb that a person is "congruent" when dishing out advice. How can an unhappy person truly give good advice on being happy? On the other hand. Even hypocrites can give good advice. I'd say it's incumbent on you to have good filters when being given advice and you can only do that by experience and prior knowledge. It's often better to listen to the message than the messenger. After all, maybe an unhappy person has worked on and studied happiness more deeply than a happy person. From what I can tell Eckhart Tolle was a deeply unhappy person before his enlightenment and teaching.

Criticism is a two-way communication, like all human interactions. Depending on the level awareness of each person, the communication can be positive or negative. If the criticism is meant as guidance, then it could be seen as a gift if the receiver is ready to act on it. Mostly, criticism is done out of frustration or an inflexible need for things to be a certain way. And most criticism is taken as some form of rejection; that the recipient's behaviour is wrong in some way. The criticiser ultimately wants to see a change in behaviour, and the criticised, wants to carry on being the same. If the criticiser is aware enough that their criticism is meant as guidance, then they are aware enough to not ram home their point. If the criticised is aware enough not to get riled by the criticism then they are aware enough to realise it is being done out of some form of love. Ambit is a good word I like it.

I'm going to go meta by saying that anything you do will disturb the "natural" balance of things - no action can sometimes be the best action. However, homeless people require help and compassion and wildlife may also need to be helped at times. I would say that birds need to be fed something close to what they would eat in the wild. They are less flexible in what they can feed on, and giving bread to birds could make them unhealthy or ill. Seeds and maybe even insects would be a better source of food (but probably more expensive for you). If giving a Snickers bar is going to save a homeless person's life, then it is ethical to give it them. But since you have the option of giving a homeless person something more nutritious and less harmful you should take the option (even if it's a bit more expensive). In both cases, with your awareness that you're disturbing the natural balance of things, you should take the course of action that is the least harmful. That means being aware of what birds and people actually need, and not blindly doing things out of a sense of compassion.

To a degree there will always be a disconnect between employers and employees, because they have opposing needs. An employer wants "resources" that it can use to get things done. The employer naturally wants to get things done in the most time and cost efficient way. On the other side the employee wants to get well recompensed for both their time and their skills, but also to be treated well. The tendency of employers is then to over work and under pay their employees (a.k.a. gaming their employees). The employees' tendency is to under work, constantly ask for more salary, and/or to game the system (steal, smoke breaks etc.) or to simply switch jobs (taking their knowledge with them). Employers have several tricks up their sleeve to improve things for employees. These could be: Improve facilities, such as having kitchens, cafes, good parking, good meeting spaces. Improve perks, such as company cars, bonuses, commission payments, pensions contributions. HR departments that deal with people-centric non-resource related matters. Group activities, such as away days, company parties, team building exercises. Only employing people who fit the company "ethos" (e.g. work hard play hard) Managers meeting regularly with individuals for that "personal touch" 360 reviews and appraisals A way for employees to make suggestions on improvements to processes One powerful way to improve relations with employees is to let them have a say in major decisions and/or to consult them on potential decisions - but this is seldom done, because it means ceding control away from managers.

@LastThursday bot says: You can identify someone by their writing style and words they use. It's very hard to bluff this. You could automate it in software and generate a unique "fingerprint" for each account (with enough data). The fingerprint is just a big number. You can then very easily look for accounts with the same fingerprint. Who needs IP bans?

Yeah no pressure. Sometimes to get an answer to a question, nobody can give it to you, you just need to experiment and try something different out; that is the meta-strategy. If you want to change then you need to... change, something.

Yes, you're having it now. You could say experience is in spacetime. But you could equally say that spacetime is in experience. Or both at the same time (or is that space?).

I think the "word" in the bible is a mistranslation of the word "logos" in Greek, which has a much broader scope that just "word". It could mean: reason, discourse, cause, law. Cause looks quite good here: I am the cause. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos

I wouldn't worry. If that happens we're all gonners. I'd prefer to see the flash than not, quicker that way.

Marriage is about showing commitment to your spouse. It also gets "buy in" from both families and shows you're serious about each other - and you're not just going to run at the first sign of trouble. A good marriage requires maturity. And in most countries there are legal, religious and financial implications (e.g. tax breaks). So there's lots of considerations to take into account. It's neither good nor bad. Neither high consciousness or low consciousness. It's like the difference between renting and buying a house (how unromantic I am!).

To oppose something you have to acknowledge it first. Although, I do think you're conflating atheist with scientist/materialist, they're two separate things. Scientists can and do believe in God. Scientists in the Vatican do astronomy for example:

My take, is that you transition over time to what you love and what excites you. Changing direction takes effort though. In the short term you're going to have to work more and concentrate on two different things at the same time. However, you're already an expert at being a teacher, so there's no extra effort required there, just maintain that status quo. Once you get some traction with your crazy dream vision, it will be self-sustaining. If it's exciting enough you'll find the energy. If it's not exciting enough, then drop it, try something else. You can then start tapering down the hours of teaching (I'm sure you can go part-time). You may even have to take some sort of financial hit in the short term. In summary, there's no magic bullet.

@Aaron p just work on constantly reducing your own self deception. Keep speaking your truth (but don't preach). There's nothing better than doubt to bust self deception.

Probably better spent pumping iron, building that next business, contemplating the meaning of the universe, mastering your own psychology, building foundational habits, plugging 5meo and I can't bring myself to say it... but it begins with P and ends with P, two words, two syllables, it's not a film, and it involves real life women, and a lot of rejection and cringe... (Sorry I forgot, health problems. Porn is just fine.)

@Jannes how would you feel about gamifying your experience? Here's my game strategy for you: one week of socialising non-stop (have a schedule and contact a different friend each day - make lots of plans to meet up), one week of complete isolation (be an introvert, recharge, play games etc.). Keep alternating for two months. Review on here at the end.

Contemplate if consciousness belongs to you.