patrick.net

Cloaking technology aint' cheap.

I highly recommend John Vervaeke's Awakening From the Meaning Crisis series. Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist at the University of Toronto and has been working on a grammar for dealing with meaning making, wisdom and relevance realization. Many of these concepts have been part of the religious domain, and are not going away even as many religious traditions fade.

Life is suffering.
Suffering without meaning is just torture and unbearable.
A belief in a higher power and a transcendent purpose for life is what gives most people meaning, making the suffering of life bearable.

By this logic, we could surmise that the increased health, comfort, ease, and distractions of modern life make for less suffering and thus less need for meaning, thus less need for faith in the eternal.

But everyone gets there someday. To that point where suffering is everything and you wonder what the point of it all is. When you get there will you submit to the despair or look up to the Father?

WineHorror1 says

richwicks, where does morality come from? Right and wrong...where do they come from? How would "criminality" even be a thing without them?

The best explanation I think of how morality develops is through evolutionary psychology. Behaviors that a group engages in either helps or harms the group, and most behaviors and beliefs are passed down from the old to the young. If the group has thinking which harms the group as a whole, it works against the group's expansion and survival. IF the group has thinking which is beneficial to the group as a whole, it expands.

There's more than one group though of course. Eventually these groups come into conflict with one another and that's a war. Ideas and beliefs can combine when this happens while other ideas are extinguished.

Foot binding was done away with in China. Sati was done away in India and the Caste system lost a lot of its power. Cannibalism has been done away with in certain parts of Africa. 1000's of years ago though we adopted the Arabic numeric system doing away with Roman numerals.

What's interesting about this hypothesis is that morality doesn't only exist among people, but any social animal.

Slavery was a moral advancement. The practice came from turning conquered people into forced servants. Prior to that, they were just exterminated. People, properly, decry slavery - but it was a moral and social advancement. Had the United had different moral principles in the 1950's, it could have taken over the world, extinguished the Chinese, Russians, Indians, and Africans in time. Had we the same morals that were prevalent in 0 AD, we probably would have.

I like Jordan Peterson. He puts into words many of my own feelings. For Example, About Belief in God: (yes, it;s Twitter)

https://twitter.com/i/status/1521849619055091712?source=patrick.net

rocketjoe79 says

I like Jordan Peterson. He puts into words many of my own feelings. For Example, About Belief in God: (yes, it;s Twitter)

https://twitter.com/i/status/1521849619055091712?source=patrick.net

Peterson just had a run in with the grim reaper which he escaped.

It's a common feature of people to "find god" at their end of their life. I'm going through the same process, although I'm not nearly as close to the end of my life as he is.

richwicks says

rocketjoe79 says

I like Jordan Peterson. He puts into words many of my own feelings. For Example, About Belief in God: (yes, it;s Twitter)

https://twitter.com/i/status/1521849619055091712?source=patrick.net

Peterson just had a run in with the grim reaper which he escaped.

It's a common feature of people to "find god" at their end of their life. I'm going through the same process, although I'm not nearly as close to the end of my life as he is.

What run in did Peterson have?

It’s facilitated to see how people live with a nonexistent s* and lazy enough to know that they were brainwashed by parents.

mell says

Peterson just had a run in with the grim reaper which he escaped.

It's a common feature of people to "find god" at their end of their life. I'm going through the same process, although I'm not nearly as close to the end of my life as he is.

What run in did Peterson have?

I cannot say. He had some medical problem, the family elected to keep it private and I respect that privacy.

It happened about a year ago. I have no idea what it was, but I suspect stroke or something that effected him neurologically. I may be wrong about this, and it's wrong for me to poke and prod. He's basically recovered.

Peterson was a hard atheist at one point, to his credit, I don't think his medical condition was what changed his viewpoint - I think merely age did, but I would bet whatever he experienced further solidified it.

atheist will never take u turn. It’s non atheist appears like atheist are the ones take uturn to become none atheist, duh!

richwicks says

I cannot say. He had some medical problem, the family elected to keep it private and I respect that privacy.

He had a severe and life threatening addiction to valium congeners. Yes, valium can be addictive, and the withdrawal process is slow, but very distressing and long due to the slow clearance from the body. He had to go to Russia where they had a particular withdrawal and treatment protocol. Jordan and his daughter believe that it saved his life. They did an interview on it a while back when Jordan disappeared for a while and came back months later looking like a few miles of really bad road. It was bad enough that he nearly died. However, valium in and of itself has an extremely high lethal threshold, so one wonders if something else was involved as well, like suicide attempts.

Thanks for the "heads up"! I should go buy a gasoline-powered generator, assuming they haven't been outlawed for sale in the state. It'll be especially fun knowing that the state's anti-pollution and anti-carbon stance is causing me to use something that is far more pollution and carbon producing than normal generation in normal states.

Electricity rates go up to 42¢ (off peak) in June, but I doubt this will be high enough to reduce demand.

DooDahMan says

No water, no power - what's next ?

Along with crime at its highest in over 2 decades, rampant homeless, and the highest state income tax in the nation!

California Democrat voters are literally braindead. True mouth breathers. Unthinking and uncaring imbecile drones.

I will not live in the pod. I will not eat the bugs.

Oh man this sounds awful and degrading.

I move to Anywhere, USA before I live in a pod.

For $800 you can listen to Austin, the Fentanyl ass whore get crammed in the ass by his John, in the stall above you, all night.

When Privacy doesn't matter!

When I did residential flooring way back in the day. I would go into occupied homes to put in carpet, tile or sheet goods. The one thing I noticed was the difference in the way the family cat would circumvent the work area, vs the family dog. A dog will just go prancing right through and step right on an exposed tack strip, not even just once, but coming and going. Where as a cat would walk up to a potential hazard and stop, sniff and step over any sharp pointy obstacles in his way. A cat will never go walking through freshly troweled glue or tile mud. I've seen countless dogs do it. You have to lock the dog up in a room in the back of the house. Not to protect the guest from a dog bite, but to protect the dog from himself.

Also when you observe a cat in a tree, they intrinsically know which limbs can and can't support their weight. I don't think dogs have that amount of visual analytical skills.

SunnyvaleCA says

Thanks for the "heads up"! I should go buy a gasoline-powered generator, assuming they haven't been outlawed for sale in the state. It'll be especially fun knowing that the state's anti-pollution and anti-carbon stance is causing me to use something that is far more pollution and carbon producing than normal generation in normal states.

Electricity rates go up to 42¢ (off peak) in June, but I doubt this will be high enough to reduce demand.

For which Utility provider, PG&E? Are you talking commercial off peak or residential off peak TOU? Residential off peak TOU rates right now hover in the high $.2x to low $.3x range in PG&E territory. There must have been something in the last GRC to CPUC that I missed…

SunnyvaleCA says

Thanks for the "heads up"! I should go buy a gasoline-powered generator, assuming they haven't been outlawed for sale in the state. It'll be especially fun knowing that the state's anti-pollution and anti-carbon stance is causing me to use something that is far more pollution and carbon producing than normal generation in normal states.

Electricity rates go up to 42¢ (off peak) in June, but I doubt this will be high enough to reduce demand.

Costco often has them but they go fast. I got the triple fuel whole house powering version for 899

ForcedTQ says

SunnyvaleCA says

Thanks for the "heads up"! I should go buy a gasoline-powered generator, assuming they haven't been outlawed for sale in the state. It'll be especially fun knowing that the state's anti-pollution and anti-carbon stance is causing me to use something that is far more pollution and carbon producing than normal generation in normal states.

Electricity rates go up to 42¢ (off peak) in June, but I doubt this will be high enough to reduce demand.

For which Utility provider, PG&E? Are you talking commercial off peak or residential off peak TOU? Residential off peak TOU rates right now hover in the high $.2x to low $.3x range in PG&E territory. There must have been something in the last GRC to CPUC that I missed…

Even SMUD here in Sacramento goes up to .32c kWh for summer rates, so PGE in the 40s sounds right

Not all cats are equal. I've had some really stupid ones on par with dogs. Its been my experience the less domesticated they are the smarter they are. Unfortunately all my smart ones die premature deaths while the stupid fat ones are still here sleeping on the couch.

The first fart gas explosion after somebody lights a match in the pod room will end this social experiment in flaming disaster.

Amodal completion is what trannies rely on. You fill in the blanks with horndog wishful thinking.

I can’t imagine the smell of this place with 14 people sharing air after the kitchen has been running from 4pm to 9pm

So 1978 Prop 13 closed the gap to 3rd world.

Are they forcing you to have battery backup now!
Many should eventually have rainwater harvesting to live with water shortage.

Blue says

atheist will never take u turn. It’s non atheist appears like atheist are the ones take uturn to become none atheist, duh!

That's not entirely true. There have been quite a few very outspoken atheists that have reconsidered their position and I'm not talking about myself.

I was a vicious atheist at one point. When I ran into a religious person my mission immediately turned to forcing them into doubt. If somebody talked about Jesus being the messiah, I would point out that if God was omnipotent and good, why would God Himself setup the conditions to ensure his own son was tortured to death - because it's God, God is supposedly good, He makes all the rules - why do this? Isn't this the most evil way to create redemption for mankind? Might not God Himself be the devil?

I am still effective at doing this, however, I realize the importance of religion as a counterbalance to immortality and an immoral government. I keep my mouth mostly shut now about this topic. My own personal belief? I'm trained as an electrical engineer, I have a very hard background in science and all my education was theory and derivation, I delved into it, I understand the hypothesis of how morality would need to develop in any social creature - however, we can't duplicate life. We're not even close.

An AI is not life, it's a machine that is able to process input and produce output, but it's not creative, it doesn't think, it doesn't ponder, it has no internal monologue, it doesn't feel, it's nothing like life. We thought we'd have made it by now 30 years ago, and perhaps it's not possible. Now ignorance doesn't prove anything, but there are many thousands of people who have gone after this problem, and I have to consider, it's possible that it's impossible but I don't know. I just entertain the possibility. I could be wrong about my earlier assessment.

I've seen friends die, family die, and I guess it's better to have hope - for them. I've seen people that have had terribly difficult lives die. I've even seen dogs with terribly difficult lives die - when I fostered for dogs I had a 6 year old dog, severely abused which I had as a foster, who then developed lung cancer, which I had to euthanize - seeing the unfairness of life is devastating at times, even for an animal. I'd like to have hope for some sort of ultimate justice - but when I engage in this, I immediately recoil back into the stark learning and education I undertook, it's reflex now. It's said the first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you. That's just the writing of another man though. We'll see. It's an eternal struggle to learn and to understand.

There's a madness with being an atheist. We can't stare into the void for long. Well, at least I can't, perhaps other people are stronger than I am. Seeing this all as a mechanism, it's terrifying.

We will witness public executions of snorers in front of these favela hotels.

Actually Jordan Peterson almost died from an addiction to benzodiazepine, a tranquilizer that was prescribed by a doctor to him. Turns out that this drug is extremely difficult to wean oneself off of, and has caused death in many people. This was a targeted hit on the notable philosopher by the medical cartel. He is fortunate that he survived this breathtaking medical malpractice.

Shaman says

Actually Jordan Peterson almost died from an addiction to benzodiazepine, a tranquilizer that was prescribed by a doctor to him. Turns out that this drug is extremely difficult to wean oneself off of, and has caused death in many people. This was a targeted hit on the notable philosopher by the medical cartel. He is fortunate that he survived this breathtaking medical malpractice.

I watched my grandmother go into dementia once her well meaning siblings convinced her to go on medication. When she broke her hip, her medication was terminated and she became lucid after 2 decades, then she died.

I'm never going on pharmaceutical maintenance drugs. It might end my life sooner, but my grandmother, she wasn't even alive for 20 years.

BayArea says

I can’t imagine the smell of this place

Baby oil and shit.

Ceffer says

He had a severe and life threatening addiction to valium congeners. Yes, valium can be addictive, and the withdrawal process is slow, but very distressing and long due to the slow clearance from the body. He had to go to Russia where they had a particular withdrawal and treatment protocol.

If this is correct, and I have no doubt it is, what kind of medical system do we have?

I'm extremely suspicious of the medical profession now. They are vampires more than they are allies.

It's a no arrest $900 limit ATM.

ForcedTQ says

For which Utility provider, PG&E? Are you talking commercial off peak or residential off peak TOU? Residential off peak TOU rates right now hover in the high $.2x to low $.3x range in PG&E territory. There must have been something in the last GRC to CPUC that I missed…

https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/rate-plans/how-rates-work/Residential-Rates-Plan-Pricing.pdf?source=patrick.net
Off peak. As usual, I miss-remembered. For time-off-use off peak it's 34¢ (and 43¢) for over baseload. Between the hours of 4 and 9 PM 7 days a week it is 42¢ and 51¢. I think I'll see about switching to the the non-timed "tiered Rate Plan (E-1)" system for the summer.

I'm not a huge fan of zoning laws, but this would be one situation where they might help "preserve the neighborhood." Neighbors hoping for a tranquil, residential living experience can cash in their chips so that another house can become a pod repository, thus exacerbating the experience.

Having 14 more bicycles on the streets wouldn't be so bad, but I suspect this house will have 5+ cars parked on the public street. Naturally, the 1 or 2 car garage will not be used for cars because it'll be (illegally) full of more pods! In some parts of Sunnyvale the streets have a small smattering of cars parked nightly. In the lower-priced parts of Sunnyvale, you can't find street parking starting about 6 PM every weekday.

richwicks says

WineHorror1 says

richwicks, where does morality come from? Right and wrong...where do they come from? How would "criminality" even be a thing without them?

The best explanation I think of how morality develops is through evolutionary psychology. Behaviors that a group engages in either helps or harms the group, and most behaviors and beliefs are passed down from the old to the young. If the group has thinking which harms the group as a whole, it works against the group's expansion and survival. IF the group has thinking which is beneficial to the group as a whole, it expands.

There's more than one group though of course. Eventually these groups come into conflict with one another and that's a war. Ideas and beliefs can combine when this happens while other ideas are extinguished.

Foot binding was done away with in China. Sati was done away in India...

To reach out to you @WineHorror1 - I bet I'm not the monster you were taught to fear as a child, and I would bet that is an atheist. I would bet you grew up with your religion and kept it. Although I abandoned my religion, and I think I (possibly) extended the morality a little more - at least for a little while. When I lived in Indiana in the mid 1990s, if somebody found out I was an atheist, they thought I thought I worshiped the devil - they couldn't conceive I believed in nothing.

Most atheists are fakes I think now, I'm the real deal. I have dug down so far deep that I can understand how a morality must develop for a social species to interact though a scientific hypothesis. I keep digging and digging finding more explanations which are very reasonable, logical, all of them make complete sense. I didn't skip free from my religion, I was clawed from it. It's kind of amazing to see it from a totally naturalistic view. It's an amazing work of art, but I can see it from a totally materialistic creation point, to a level. At that hole, I dig further down, and it's another explanation but I'll hit the floor at time, but that's just a level of ignorance. The study of natural science is really the search for God.

Whatever this is, this existence, pretty fucking amazing. I entertain the idea I'm a thing, however I feel consciousness - but all my knowledge indicates I'm a meat robot and none of my knowledge is contradictory in this regard.

richwicks says

I bet I'm not the monster you were taught to fear as a child, and I would bet that is an atheist.

I wasn't taught to fear atheists. I was taught to fear Hell and Love heaven. I'm not a Bible thumper but I do not believe nothing can become something. All matter originated from somewhere. I was taught some things that I do not believe now but, for the most part I no longer cling to a set denomination and I do believe that religion has been used for illegitimate reasons all throughout history.

WineHorror1 says

richwicks says

I bet I'm not the monster you were taught to fear as a child, and I would bet that is an atheist.

I wasn't taught to fear atheists. I was taught to fear Hell and Love heaven. I'm not a Bible thumper but I do not believe nothing can become something.

First, the "Big Bang Theory" may be wrong, there's lots of evidence it is incorrect. This may be some sort of eternal universe. It doesn't matter much, we can only describe either possibility in the abstract, we really cannot imagine either.

Second, I was taught the same fear of a terrible fate, but the concept is so awful, that I rejected a God that would create it. Nothing and nobody deserves that. I had this idea as a very young child and perhaps that began my interest in science. Hmm, that's interesting, I think that did and I just realized it now.

I would agree with nearly all your morality. I'm far more like you than different than you. I think any disagreement we have over moral issues, could probably be resolved.

That's something too, morality wherever it comes from, I think we all agree in it in time. I actually understand the naturalistic explanation of evolutionary psychology. It could be wrong, but I can't see the flaws in it yet. So interesting to understand ourselves.

RedStar says

Costco often has them but they go fast. I got the triple fuel whole house powering version for 899

Yup, I definitely recommend people get at least a dual fuel, but tri fuel is even better - being able to run gasoline, propane, and nat gas is so win. Storing gasoline for emergencies sucks since it doesn't last very long. Especially the CA special brew gas with all that ethanol that often makes the gas turn to gum and varnish within a year. Good ole propane stores forever.

CA is where we pay some of the highest rates in the nation for our green electricity. Despite the price, it's so unreliable such that every Californian has been rushing to buy fossil fuel generators the past few years. But at least we can be smug and feel morally superior about our "clean" electricity (shh, don't mention how much fossil fuel electricity we import from other states). Except others rightfully look at us like fools for this, as it seems all we really did is screw up our grid and codify laws that allow the green power industry the right to ass rape us.

This is one area where buying a house has helped. Mortgage is fixed. Tax increase Y-o-Y is less than CPI. The place I used to rent has gone up tremendously over the past 10 years; more than double what it was. Meanwhile my monthly obligation is virtually unchanged, and will drop again once the house is paid off.