Jodistrict

Humans have a survival instinct, but millions die in wars, and the world is on the brink of nuclear destruction. It’s not the rational calculating part of the brain that causes that. It’s the reptilian – domination, greed, hate, fear. Think about it and you will see that you can’t have the motiviation for “manipulation” and “deception” without emotions. We have enough left-brain intelligence to solve our problems and enough resources if they are used wisely. That isn’t where the problem lies.

The main benefit of the ceremony is the group healing. You are interacting with the energies of the other people. There are places you can go alone, and there are places you can go as a group.

Alcohol would probably be more effective. It loosens inhibitions.

Finally, someone addressing the real dangers.

Since there is no feeling brain, the computers would have no fear, and, in particular, no fear of death. They also would have no desire for dominance which is reptillian. Thus, they could just flip a coin. A decision that would require a few ergs of energy.

Now you are arguing my position. The morality comes from the feeling part of the brain. We evolved feelings of compassion, because it is important for the mother/child bond and for group success. We also evolved the feelings that lead to conflict and domination. The rational part is just a simple resource allocation problem.

The problem of resource allocation is not that complex. Computers can easily take in to consideration all relevant variables and make the calculations. Even if an optimal solution couldn’t be found, they would agree to a suboptimal solution. It is a problem of computer algorithms. Whoever is more qualified would be assigned the task. Being “better than others”, and “deserving more than” are feelings generated in the lower survival brain. It takes more than neocortex computations to have these feelings. The earth has enough resources and people have enough intelligence, that everyone should be living a satisfied life if everyone cooperated. Instead there are billions of people in poverty, global warming, and the imminent threat of nuclear war. Leaders are willing to destroy the earth rather than having the other guy win. This is not rational. Rational computations in the neocortex can’t explain this. The real problem is the lower brain that generates hate, suspicion, fear, jealousy, pride, and so forth.

Put 10 computers on an island, and assume there are enough resources for everyone. The computers will logically divide the resources between them, since it is known that this way everyone will survive. Put 10 people on the same island. They will become suspicious, jealous and fearful, and end up killing each other. Eventually one person will dominate. This is the effect of the reptilian and mammalian brains.

The feelings and emotions are the deep part where all the problems lie. Computers are just manipulating bits of energy and have no malice. They don't hate, are not jealous, have no fear. They also don't have the positive parts, like love and compassion.

One key point to remember about computers is that they still don’t have emotions and can’t feel. At the most basic level, they are just manipulating bits of electrical charge. The human brain evolved in three stages: the reptilian brain evolved off the brain stem, followed by the mammalian brain which has emotions, followed by the neo cortex which thinks. The computers at their most sophisticated level can only simulate computations done by the neo cortex. What causes humans problems are the lower parts of the brain which can feel and have emotions. The feeling of self survival comes from these parts of the brains, along with fight or flight which is reptilian. If human beings only had a neocortex, we would think like a computer and there would be no wars or other problems. At best, AI can only simulate what is given to it by its human programmer. Thus a robot can be programmed to kill, but the evil intent is in the human that programmed the robot. The robot still is only processing ones and zeros at an electrical level. If researchers ever figure out how to create versions of the reptilian and mammalian brains, then we will have an AI device which can form an evil intent. The most immediate impact of the current AI technology is that it is able to take advantage of big data. It makes possible a surveillance state and authoritarian rule over mass populations. It magnifies the power of those who have access to it. Will this increase inequality ? Will it create an elite class and everyone else?

I have tried Chatgpt for a while, and I have been impressed by how it seems to understand language. Even when I give it long complex sentences, it comes up with a good response. So, I was wondering whether they have solved the natural language understanding part of AI. It seems to pass the Turing test. Then I asked Chatgpt: Joe: Do you understand language? Chatgpt: As an AI language model, I can understand language to a certain extent. I am trained on a massive corpus of written text, which has allowed me to learn the patterns and relationships between words, phrases, and sentences. This means that I can recognize and process words and sentences based on the patterns and structures I've learned. However, it's important to note that I don't truly "understand" language in the way that humans do. I don't have consciousness, emotions, or subjective experiences, and I don't have a personal history or cultural background that influences my understanding of language. Instead, I rely on statistical patterns and relationships in language to generate responses. This means that my responses may sometimes seem out of context or illogical, especially when dealing with ambiguous or complex language. Overall, while I can understand language to a certain extent, my understanding is based on statistical patterns rather than true comprehension. So, according to Chatgpt, it doesn't have a model of understanding. This is still a very long way from a computer that can think. However, it is a genuine advance in computer applications.

The military AI will have to be programmed for survival to be able to function in a battlefield environment. And, of course, it will be programmed to kill.

“The Development of a Society Can Never Be Subject to Rational Human Control” Theodore John Kaczynski. Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (Kindle Locations 186-187). Fitch & Madison. Kindle Edition.

Here is an informative video on the ban. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/29/julia_angwin_tiktok_china_big_tech

A deity isn’t predictable. I recently went to a ceremony where I took 1 cup of San Pedro, which for me would be a light to moderate dose. Instead, it took me on a deep 16 hour journey where I experienced both heaven and hell. I was way over my head and went to the brink of insanity. And that was on a moderate dose. The reasoned, well-ordered mind raised in a safe middle class environment with a scientific rationalist point of view says “well it’s been positive so far, I have got this figured out”.

Read “Faust”. It takes your power. In the Amazon, they treat these plants as deities. You approach a deity with humility and offer it a sacrifice. There are strings attached.

The problem is that people believe that they are getting knowledge for free. Nothing is for free. You are always paying a price.

It's one of these things where you think you can get away with it. But you will pay for it. It's guaranteed.

Suffering is the doorway to liberation. That's the way of the Four Noble Truths.

I have done Bufo Alvarius right after a mushroom ceremony, and the mushrooms didn’t affect the journey. Another good combination is to do Kambo followed by Bufo Alvarius. I have also done Bufo with cannabis, which seem to work well together. The cannabis greatly magnifies the affect of the Bufo so you should start out with a small dose if you haven’t done it before. I waited until the peak of the cannabis trip had passed and I was coming down to do the Bufo.

@Pudgey @Pudgey Stop spreading misinformation. Ayahausca has been widely used to heal physical illnesses. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4773875/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/neknyx/drinking-ayahuasca-to-treat-pain-illness

An important part of life is developing a good Bullshit detector. Crash and Burn. But learn from each experience. You have a limited amount of time on earth.

The ceremonies in Latin America focus on healing: “sana, sana, sana, cura, cura, cura”. But, separating healing and spirituality into two categories is an artificial left brain construct.

The noise is a distraction in a group. That is true. But I wouldn’t recommend anyone go in a room with more than 15 people max. In an outdoor ceremony, you can have more people and the noise isn’t as much of a bother. The purpose of the group is to have a group healing. There is a group energy and you affect each other. The individualism in America isn’t good and we need each other. That’s why I do everything in Latin America, mostly Mexico, because they are still community oriented societies.

Actually, these practices are completely consistent with “set and setting” which has been widely accepted by psychedelic therapy. The context is important. The really futile thing to do is pop pills solo with no context and pretend you are a psychonaut. Westerners who free themselves from the mind prison of ethnocentrism are discovering that other cultures have developed sophisticated practices for using these substances over the course of hundreds of years of experience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_and_setting