Null Simplex

Everyone knows about circular portals. Here's a generalization of that idea using knot portals. In the first video a trefoil knot, the second simplest knot after a circle, is used to connect six different universes depending on which angle you view the knot from. Here's a lecture on knot portals from the mathematician who created the concept.

Beautiful video demonstrating a simple editing technique which isolates motion in footage. It demonstrates how a shift in perspective can drastically change the context of something while adding another layer of depth to it. This technique seems both practical and fun. Here’s a second video demonstrating how similar techniques have medical and industrial applications.

Usually when people think of noneuclidean geometry, they think of hyperbolic space or sometimes spherical. But for 3 dimensional spaces, their are 8 different types of geometries which are possible (if I understand the theorem correctly). This first video is a tour through these 8 geometries using balls to demonstrate how space and light curves in these different geometries. In at least one of these geometries, shapes which in our flat, Euclidean space are deemed paradoxical or merely optical illusions created by playing with perspective on a 2D image are in fact viable objects in these realities. Here is one such shape, the Penrose Triangle. Clearly this shape cannot work in our world. However, in Nil Geometry, the shape is perfectly valid due to the twisty nature of the space. Here is another such example of an impossible shape which is possible in Nil Geometry, the Penrose stairs. These stairs have you either constantly ascending or descending depending on which direction you circle them, and were featured prominently in the film Inception. This video shows what it would be like to walk up a set of Penrose stairs in Nil geometry where it is possible to constantly ascend or descend. When your grandparents talk about walking up hill both ways to and from school, they actually lived in a Nil reality.

A physical simulation of half of a hyperbola and waves originating and propagating from the focii of the hyperbola. The hyperbola reflects the waves, but due to the properties of a hyperbola, it appears that the waves go straight through the hyperbola, creating perfect circles centered at the focii despite the circles being reflected. This video is a similar concept but for the sister of the hyperbola, the ellipse. Visually this simulation is boring, but mathematically I find it interesting. Another interesting video on the reflective properties of an ellipse. This one is more visually stimulating than the previous ellipse video.

A video on a very strange sequence of numbers with large implications on various branches of mathematics, some of which are very abstract and completely counter intuitive. For example, if one could compute the 27th term of this sequence, than we would automatically know whether or not the Goldbach conjecture is true or false. Similarly, the Reimann Hypothesis can be proven to be true or false if the 744th term of this sequence can be computed. There are terms of this sequence whose value can NEVER be proven to be true or false (true but unprovable), meaning the term has a definite value, but there is no way to tell what that value is given the type of mathematics we use today. It's not a matter of using more advanced mathematical techniques within our current mathematical axioms, you would have to use different mathematical axioms to begin with. Here is a follow up video that I had not watched yet when I shared the first video. This video basically goes into more detail of some of the strange properties of the Busy Beaver's Sequence mentioned in the original video. This video is more interesting than the original video, since it demonstrates that when a finite system like mathematics goes meta, it runs into strange issues involving the nature of infinity. Here, this sequence looks at all computable algorithms with n states which halt when given an infinite string of all 0's. However, the sequence itself is not computable after a certain point. Very counter intuitive. In addition, it links the Busy Beaver's Sequence to the famous Collatz Conjecture.

Not sure if this has been posted before. Didn’t want to search all 100 pages.

This question feels self-referential to me. Though I prefer UnbornTao's answer.

I personally found online resources such as Youtube, Khan Academy, Math Stack Exchange, etc., to be a far more effective learning tool than university (I got my bachelors in pure mathematics and am working on a mathematical research paper currently). I preferred online resources over university mainly because you are able to go at your own pace and really absorb the information, where as in university you are forced to go along with the speed of the class. The other issue is that professors rarely go into the intuition about the math concepts and instead skip straight to the method used to solve a problem with little to no understanding as to how the method works in the first place. Statistics classes are an especially egregious example of this. I would stick with Khan academy and Youtube personally, but I have ADD and learning disabilities (including reading and note taking speed), and so I have my own biases against university style education. If you get stuck, you can search around the internet. There’s a good chance your question or a similar question has been asked already on the math stack exchange, and if you are unable to find it you can post the question there. The main issue with this sight is that they can be a bit rude, blunt, and anal with your question, but they will still likely answer it (assuming the question isn’t asked too frequently and can be easily found on the site). Lately, I have also been asking math questions to chatgpt. Currently it feels like a friendlier version of a google search, and is easier to just ask it a question and see what insights it has rather than rummaging through a bunch of ad-infested links in order to find the answer to your question (though you should be doing this as well). You have to be very careful with chatgpt when using it as a source of information though, even more so than with Wikipedia. Often times the responses I get are just flat out wrong or self-contradictory, and I may not have been able to catch it if I hadn’t already known so much in the field. It is probably best to just ask it a question and then look up it’s response on the internet to verify whether or not what the AI was telling you is true. Lastly, what was the question you got stuck on? I’d be happy to explain it to you.

There’s a subreddit called r/RealTwitterAccounts full of examples like these. I’ll post one more after this then stop.

I love DS3 as well and there are many aspects of DS3 that are superior to Bloodborne, including (but not limited to) the openness and armour variation that is more than just cosmetic. As for weapons though, there are 93 weapons in DS3, but so many of them are just reskins of one another with some variation in how you level up your stats to maximize damage, or some other minor effects. The weapons feel pretty simple. By comparison, just about all 26 weapons in Bloodborne are unique, and most of the weapons have two forms, increasing the ways to approach combat. The weapons in Bloodborne just have more depth to them.

My current favorite all time game is Bloodborne. The atmosphere, artwork, and gameplay in that game are tops. I love how saturated the streets are with gothic architecture.

The conversation with the AI reminded me a bit of this scene from the film Ghost in the Shell. Skip to 2:13 for the relevant part.

I posted about my solopsistic experience a while back. After my realization of solopsism, I sort of just went back to pretending that there are others (hence why I'm writing this post in the first place I suppose). Most of the time when I'm talking to someone, I forget that they are me and get immersed in the illusion. Identical to when watching a good movie, reading a good book, or playing a good video game; I get so immersed in the content that I forget that the experience isn't real. I do occasionally remember that the person or people I'm talking to are me, but I'm pretty neautral about the whole situation. I realized that nothing actually changed about my day to day life during/after the realization, only the way I perceived it, so I found it convenient to just continue business as usual. That whole "Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water." line (I am not claiming to be enlightened, but the quote feels relevant). Ultimately I think you'll get used to it. And I suppose that one of the functions of this forum is to allow people talk about these peculiar topics with "others" who can better understand.

This article discusses the technology and processes that AI uses to turn text into a randomly generated image. I believe this is the same or similar technology that user Ahbapx shared in his post about AI randomly generating art, so I thought I’d share.

“I’m gonna go build my own spiritual forum… with blackjack and hookers!”

Here is a realization I had while studying geometry a decade ago, as well as a spiritual recontextualization of the realization that I’ve added recently. The realization is that depth perception is an illusion. For many of you this is obvious. For others though, I am willing to bet that some believe that the visual field is 3-Dimensional, the dimensions being left-right, up-down, and forward-back. The issue is that forward-back doesn’t exist on the visual level, but rather it is an elaborate illusion your brain creates in order to survive. The brain uses binocular vision (two eyes), objects overlapping one another, parallax, shading, and other things to create this elaborate illusion. To prove that depth perception is an illusion, I will create a scenario where your brain isn’t able to utilize any of the tools mentioned above. Next time you look up at the stars, choose one specific star to focus on. Notice that from where you are standing, you are able to tell which stars are above your star, below your star, to the right of your star, the left of your star, as well as any combination of those directions. However, without using complicated scientific equipment, you cannot tell which of those stars are closer to you than your chosen star, and you cannot tell which stars are further away from you than your chosen star. This is because the stars are too far away for binocular vision to be a factor, no stars are overlapping one another, parallax cannot be utilized over the course of an evening, and stars aren’t affected by shadows. This is why things like pictures, paintings, films, videogames, etc. are able to feel 3-dimensional despite the medium they are displayed on being flat surfaces. They are able to utilize many of the tools that your brain uses to create depth perception, with things such as VR even utilizing binocular vision to further cement the illusion of depth. I used to think this was just some cool realization about biological vision and geometry, but now I have a slightly different view on the subject. The reason that depth perception is an illusion is because everything is you. Everything that you thought you were separated from via “space” and “distance” is actually 0 centimeters away from you and there was never any separation, at least from the first-person perspective. In the same way that all of time (past, future, and present) is being imagined right now, the entirety of space is located right here in your visual field. When you look up at the stars, they aren’t lightyears away, they are located exactly where you are and exist as qualia in your visual field. Instead of thinking of things in your visual field as distinct objects which you are looking at, try to see the entirety of your visual field as a flat movie screen 0 centimeters away from your eyes. In a sense, this post could be retitled "The Illusion of Distance". Hopefully this made a modicum of sense.

Here’s a story that you made yourself, just now. I decided to write this down after Leo took his Solipsism video down. I did not see any bit of the video as I only learned about the video from the post saying that it had been taken down. For lack of better phrasing, this is an experience I had about a year and a half ago while visiting my grandmother’s place. My background in spirituality at the time composed of off-and-on daily meditation practices and mental masturbation over spiritual talks and videos over the internet. At the time this story happened, I had a daily meditation practice going for a few months and was meditating about 35 minutes daily. I also had one lack-luster LSD experience. I’m not entirely sure it was acid or not. I consider myself to be pretty underdeveloped when it comes to personal development work. It was in the early afternoon, and my grandmother wanted me to go somewhere with her. Where exactly and why, I don’t recall. I was and am currently addicted to THC, so before we set out, I took a few hits off of my marijuana vape pen. Note that I wasn’t particularly high as I was about to go out with my grandmother. Similar to how a nicotine addict smokes cigarettes throughout the day, it was just a medium-light high. I was in the living room just looking at the room, when it suddenly dawned on me. “This entire room is me.”. Everything that I was looking at was me. My visual field is what I currently looked like. Not the figure that I see in a mirror, but whatever I was looking at was me. To use more materialistic reasoning, it became clear to me that everything I looked at wasn’t in some world outside of myself, but rather everything I was looking at was an image that was happening inside my brain. Every sound, sight, taste, smell, thought, etc. was something that was happening inside my brain and therefore effectively me. I was everything I was experiencing right here, right now. Not only that, but I have always been everything right here, right now, and I always will be. Anything that I could possibly experience would have to be an experience happening inside my brain, and therefore everything I experienced in my life would effectively be me. It’s all something you are imagining in your brain right now. Now just realize that the idea of a brain is itself something being imagined by your consciousness to have a clearer understanding of what my experience was like. Essentially remove the middleman that is the brain. I also loss object permanence in the sense that anything I wasn’t experiencing right now wasn’t actually happening. To steal more ideas from scientific literature, the realization is reminiscent of Schrodinger’s Cat. Is the cat in the box alive or dead? The cat doesn’t exist, and it is only an assumption that there will be a cat in the box, alive or otherwise, once the box has been opened. All that is happening in the universe is what’s being experienced right here, right now. Having said this, the illusion of time is one I still struggle with. Logically I know that all time is happening now, and that memories and predictions are thoughts happening in the moment, but I still struggle with the illusion of the timeline and my life story. This experience wasn’t exactly one that I was seeking. While I do enjoy mentally masturbating over these philosophical and spiritual topics, I wasn’t putting much effort into discovering the nature of reality beyond 35 minutes of daily meditation and ADHD induced contemplations. The state I was in prior to the realization wasn’t particularly meditative, nor was I high out of my mind. I felt pretty much the same as I do right now while writing this post. The experience just sort of happened spontaneously without intent. While this was shocking, I was not panicked. I had realized this was what all those spiritual teachers meant when they said things like “You are the universe.” and “It’s all One”. I also realized that while this paradigm shift was intense, I was also told that the initial shock of these types of realizations would eventually wear off and I’ll be able to go back to baseline in time, so I was not worried about my current state of shock too much. I was just aware that this would be the new lens in which I would view reality through, and that I would have to remain calm while this realization settled in. The only issue with this plan is that I had to bond with my grandmother during this period of shock. It was sort of a silly problem to be in. On the one hand, I realized that the grandmother I had known all my life was just a figment of my imagination, akin to an imaginary friend a young child has. I could have just made some excuse and told her that I wasn’t feeling well, or that I didn’t want to go anymore, or something along those lines, especially knowing that she wasn’t even real. However, I decided to proceed through with the original plan since I didn’t want her to be worried or suspicious about why I suddenly changed my mind at the last moment. While in the car with her she made small talk with me, as one does when someone else is in the car. I have no recollection of what was discussed. What I do remember was thinking to myself “Shut the fuck up grandma. I really don’t care about anything you have to say to me at the moment. I’m having an existential crisis right now! You’re just a figment of my imagination anyways…”. I did respond to her as I normally would though as if nothing was wrong, as to not arouse her suspicions. I actually didn’t care if she knew something was wrong because I didn’t want her to worry or anything. She’s just a figment of my imagination anyways, so she can only worry as much as I imagine she’s worrying. I did it because I didn’t want to deal with the personal consequences of having her worry about me. I was able to keep my cool and act as if nothing was happening because I had learned about this experience in advanced and because I knew the shock of this new way of viewing reality would wear off in due time. As expected, the shock of the realization did subside over the course of the day, but the perspective on reality stayed. The realization to me feels antithetical to the spiritual idea of “No Self”. I had always assumed that I would lose my sense of identity through spirituality, but rather the exact opposite has happened. Rather than “No-self”, it feels much more akin to “All-Self”, as in “It’s all me.”. Rather than realizing that I never existed, it feels more like I’m all that could possibly exist, and all that could possibly exist is me. I am not saying that there is nothing behind the concept of “No self”, but I haven’t grasped it yet. This has been the only spiritual-type experience I’ve had in my life thus far. The experience did not change anything about how reality behaves. The rules of the universe are the same as they were before and the relationships I have with “others” feels the same as it did prior to the realization, but with the context that any conversation I have with someone else is really just a conversation I’m having with myself. Often when I’m talking to “someone else”, it’s sort of like autopilot to get lost in the illusion of talking to other people as if they were an entity separate from myself. I have to sort of remember “Oh ya, I’m just talking to myself right now.”. So far, this realization has been neither positive nor negative. I could see however some of the negative consequences of having such a realization, such as becoming more sociopathic since everyone around you is just imaginary anyways or having the comfort of having other people around you being suddenly ripped away. I could also see how this could be a positive insight since you realize that you were the one creating all of reality the entire time. It may also make letting go of things easier, since the things being held onto aren’t real to begin with. Admittedly, I am not yet conscious enough to appreciate these last two points and still have difficulties with clinging onto things.

Zelensky refuses US offer to evacuate, saying 'I need ammunition, not a ride'

@Vizual It's like I was watching a movie my entire life and just realized that the film I was watching wasn't real. Just because I'm aware that I'm watching a film doesn't mean I know how to change it at an egoic level. @Inliytened1 I knew "you'd" reply! Some of your recent posts seem similar to this one.

@ValiantSalvatore I experimented with being both genders on these dating apps, as well as being both heterosexual and homosexual. I found that my gender identity did not matter. Whether I was male or female, hardly any women would right swipe me. However, as soon as I went from "Show me women" to "Show me men", I basically got immediate results and started getting right swiped at an alarming rate. It didn't matter my gender identity either. Gay men and straight men alike could not resist my decadence. My cute smile helps too I'm sure.

Below are the pics I used for Tinder and Okcupid. I found that scarcely any women right swiped me, regardless of sexual orientation, with the exception being some women who lived in far away countries. Especially Filipina women. However, men seemed to be really drawn to me. It didn't matter the sexual orientation either. As a matter of fact, within an hour I had over 99 right swipes from men. This was months ago so the memory is a bit hazy, but I may have reached that number in around 20 minutes. I live in L.A. County so that helps with the volume of people. Perhaps this information will be of use to you.

Artist Steals $84,000 From Modern Art Museum, Calls It Conceptual Art