Sunday, December 30, 2012

Throw the system... on the ground


The Ego Tunnel: the Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger

Thanks to Louis Ramsey for recommending this! Here's a small excerpt:

"In ordinary states of consciousness, there is always someone having the experience—someone consciously experiencing himself as directed toward the world, as a self in the act of attending, knowing, desiring, willing, and acting. There are two major reasons for this. First, we possess an integrated inner image of ourselves that is firmly anchored in our feelings and bodily sensations; the world-simulation created by our brains includes the experience of a  point of view. Second, we are unable to experience and introspectively recognize our self-models as models; much of the self-model is, as philosophers might say, transparent.

Transparency simply means that we are unaware of the medium through which information reaches us. We do not see the window but only the bird flying by. We do not see neurons firing away in our brain but only what they represent for us. A conscious world-model active in the brain is transparent if the brain has no chance of discovering that it is a model—we look right through it, directly onto the world, as it were. The central claim of this book—and the theory behind it, the self-model theory of subjectivity—is that the conscious experience of being a self emerges because a large part of the PSM in your brain is transparent.

The Ego, as noted, is simply the content of your PSM at this moment (your bodily sensations, your emotional state, your perceptions, memo-ries, acts of will, thoughts). But it can become the Ego only because you are constitutionally unable to realize that all this is just the content of a simulation in your brain. It is not reality itself but an image of reality—and a very special one indeed. The Ego is a transparent mental image: You—the physical person as a whole—look right through it. You do not see it. But you see with it.

The Ego is a tool for controlling and planning your behavior and for understanding the behavior of others. Whenever the organism needs this tool, the brain activates a PSM. If—as, for in-stance, in dreamless deep sleep—the tool is not needed anymore, it is turned off. "

Man if I could ask anything of technology it'd be that blogger's compose page isn't useless (the line breaks don't correspond to the actual post) and it doesn't but a br-tag after posting an image automatically, and copy pasting from a PDF doesn't take over every line break meaning you have to reformat the entire block of text you post. It's almost 2013 let's make it happen :p

Why Doesn't MTV Play Music Videos Anymore?



yikes! lol... I'm old :(

Phoenix - Love for Granted

This is so beautiful, one of my favorite songs
(if you find some lyrics a bit strange, they're French ;p I really like the quirkiness!)

Oh these days are gone
Loud enough to hold on
I think about the time we wasted
I think about the years to come
It's getting late and I can't call
It's getting late to face it all

I think about the time we wasted
My loneliness has slowly grown
I told you not to cross the line
And leave me with your love for granted
The letters from your broken heart
I think I might have lost them somewhere

Oooh don't tell me 'bout your lies
Oooh oooh don't tell me 'bout your secrets

Oh my love is easy
You are everything I need
Now your love is gone
I want it safe and guaranteed
Life is such a fine line
Looking at the bright line

I think about the time we wasted
For someday I'll be coming too
Tonight is dying on its own
And now I got your love for granted
It doesn't matter right or wrong
As long as you are hiding somewhere

Oooh don't tell me 'bout your lies
Oooh oooh don't tell me 'bout your secrets

Even though we've said it all
I would never let us fall, with you
Hang on to a little chance: you bet I'm in!
If it is for better...

Disillusion comes after... it's true
Hang on to a little chance: you bet I'm in!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Terence! Where's my singularity!



A friend was organizing an "end of the world" party but it got cancelled (too) :p

Language!

Damn, on the one hand I love language and always look up a new word asap, yet seem to be using 'very' quite often - on the other hand, I can't stand thesaurus-hipsters that go overboard :p

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Jingle Bells


First World probl- no that's not even a problem... wtf

I got my sis' ditched Iphone 3 this year and am very pleased with it! More importantly I had a wonderful time with my family this christmas! Same as last year! Yes I'm one of those guys that loves spending time with their family and can't wait for new year's day to do it again!

1 out of 2 women in Seoul have undergone plastic surgery

In this picture is a belgian pop singer Axelle Red on the left before her surgery, on the right is the freakish appearance she has now. It's fucking scary.

Just saw a piece on tv claiming how one in two women in Seoul have undergone surgery and how "doctors" are making a fortune of these misguided people whose views have been warped by the media. Personally I find asian women to be among the most beautiful on the planet and really don't understand the longing for bigger eyes and lower cheekbones. I really hope this trend stops in Asia as I can't even understand it. I also have a big nose myself and would never change it as it's an awesome help to keep superficial people out of my life! Finally, I find people who've undergone plastic surgery to usually be... let's face it... hideous. They often end up looking like freaks, and that's no understatement. Wether it's lips, noses, cheeks, whatever, I usually find you can recognize someone who's done it and my god I hope they have the common sense and eyesight to at least regret it. I really hope the bad kind of plastic surgery dies out really fast.

Friday, December 21, 2012

It ain't over till it's over

I went christmas shopping for the family today, and this is the first song I hear through the loud speakers in the street lol, oh universe... you kidder.


Nothing

Sunday, December 16, 2012

And now for the weather...


Another retard on medication goes on a shooting spree

My NLP blogpost was about a month old when another fucking retard on medication went on a shooting spree in a school in Connecticut. Congratulations to the mental health sector for giving drugs to halfwits that apparently take away all empathy and do even worse as what the fuck would compell anyone, no matter how retarded, to go kill a bunch of kids. Special congratulations go to the media for identifying the wrong person as the killer first and yay for the gun laws. Really, a nice slow clap for society. Let's all keep dishing out these wonderdrugs to retards because it makes companies and "doctors" easy money instead of helping people, and let's keep the gun laws as they are cause clearly nothing is needed to change, see you in a few weeks for another tragedy... (If my language offends you, go reorganize your priorities.)

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Jón Gnarr, mayor of Reykjavik, the force is strong with this one.

"We have neglected democracy. We can not vote out the professional politicians to get new professional politicians. That will not change anything. The "system" is advanced. It knows how to deal with troublemakers. If you are fighting the police, stop it. They are not the enemy. If you think politics are boring, make them fun!"

"Get involved in politics. Make up a party. Democracy is a game. 'the game's out there, and it's play or get played. That simple.'"

This man is rapidly becoming one of my heroes, getting more than 500 Icelandic visitors to my geek blog for posting it on his facebook helped too, but those quotes are just enlightning, they're from this monday!