Tag Archives: en

What is this woman thinking-feeling?..

Is this not a funny and confusing picture? How do you feel when you see this? It just feels wrong, doesn’t it? Why? What do we assume that contradicts the vision? What instincts tell us about the situation and how does that contradict what we are led to believe in seeing?

First, I thought to make a joke that she is scared to see in daylight what was inside her the night before. But then I thought better of it because, first, the thing is going to be much smaller at breakfast, and, second, why would she be scared instead of admiring it? Women are usually rather playful and cheerful, if a bit subdued, after a good night.

Then I thought, “ah, but maybe she is in love and she is looking up at her master.” But that doesn’t make sense either. She would be then making breakfast for him, not waiting for him to serve her. She would not be so nervous, would she? That look does not really work and the actions clearly contradict such possible conclusion.

Admit it, I concluded, there is no way this situation could play out between a man and a woman. Therefore, the second person must be a woman too. That explains everything. Female dominance and fear. Bloody feminists.… -->

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Another setback for space travel

The commercial space travel has experienced a second setback in a row. A few days ago Antares rocket that was carrying cargo to the International Space Station blew up. Now the Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo has exploded on a routine test flight, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another. Space odyssey may not be coming to our civilization any time soon. The society, mired in virtual reality of the Internet and fight for power, seems incapable of making progress it so boldly promised just thirty years ago.

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Slow and painful death? Called “life”, no doubt…

Somehow this statement feels so unconvincing. This is like if I am supposed to choose between slow and painful death from old age versus the slow and painful death from smoking. Makes me feel trapped without any choice whatsoever. This made me wonder if the authors of the label found a way to die quickly and painlessly while young and used this label to laugh at us, the remaining behind to suffer in the world.

Still, I think I will try to make the life, which is the dying process, as slow as I can. Even if it is painful, which it is, really. I have been living with pain since I was around fourteen and I am used to that now. Advertisements for quick death are probably not going to cut it with me. I would certainly stay away if the label said “can cause quick and painless death”. Would you not?… -->

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Radiation detector from AeroSplice

These cool folks at AeroSplice are making a project to create a portable and affordable radiation measurement tool. I am backing them on Kickstarter and I thought you might want to have a look and perhaps back them too. I think it is useful to be aware of the radiation level and know what it is. Radiation is one thing that kills us humans without us noticing it. So it is pretty cool to have a gadget that shows us how ill our environment is at times. The project is already well funded, so the device is likely coming out soon.

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Jed McKenna, “Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment”

The sequel to the “Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing” turned out to be quite entertaining but less well written. Frankly, at times it felt like one of those sequels written purely for the sake of money, knowing that the folks that bought the first one will likely buy the next one. There are some interesting stories but the book feels on one side very commercial while on the other rather undercooked. If the first book left no doubt that the person can be trusted, the second raises the question of whether we are in for some bullshit. That’s the feeling I get, anyway.

Still, towards the end the book things seem to clear up a lot and it gets interesting. Especially I liked the discussion of the essence of the fight for enlightenment:

Fear vs. Hate. Fear of No-Self vs. Hatred of False-Self.

That about sums it up for me. And the other quite interesting discussion was related to the attitude towards death:

That’s what death is, guaranteed absolution; freedom and forgiveness all in one. If you understand the fact of your own death, that it’s always here with you and that it’s a certainty, then you’re free. That’s liberation; knowing that nothing is yours or can be yours, knowing that you have nothing to lose.Other people push death away, deny it, but we don’t have that luxury. We have to pull death close, embrace it, carry it in our hearts and minds. I don’t mean like a college kid getting stoned and having a one-night stand with existentialism, I mean like something you carry in your pocket and always have one hand on.

This looks just like Castaneda’s definitions and discussions. Might be coming from there, might be just true. Anyhow, this state of taking in the death as your friend seems a pretty powerful weapon if you dare take it up.

Overall, less enjoyable than the first book, probably still worth a read.… -->

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The Huadu Chronicles – Blade of the Rose

A very strange experience indeed, this movie with the working title of “The Huadu Chronicles – Blade of the Rose” released also under the name of “The Twins Effect II”. The movie is really more of a theater play and is probably very Hong Kong.

I quite liked it once I got past the theatrical setup that is unusual for movies from other sources that we usually see. It is very touching, very entertaining and very beautiful with a stunning cast. The story is fairly simple and the plot is straightforward but that does not diminish the pleasure of watching the play. The movie is full of excellent martial arts demonstrations but, frankly, I was so involved with the romantic side of the things that I nearly forgot it was an action movie.

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Next riddle: a train is about to derail

Today’s discussion brought another interesting riddle that at first looked childishly simple:

“Assume that there is a train traveling at a very high speed. The train cannot be stopped. There is a fork in the road ahead and you are in control of the fork. If the train continues as it is, it will derail and kill 100 people. If you switch the tracks and train goes another way, the train will derail and kill 1 person. What do you do?”

I assume this riddle is to get someone into a discussion about why killing one person is better than killing 100. Which is of no interest to me, of course, so my first reaction is that I do not have to get involved and let the events take their place as they are scheduled.

However, I suddenly recognize that the riddle’s setup makes an assumption that is very important. The situation assumes that you were brought somehow, through an improbable chain of events, to control one single point of influence over the situation.

If we take it as true, that means I am brought into the control of the situation for some reason. Not taking action under the circumstances is equivalent to going against the flow of the world because in that case I did not have to be there at all, why bother? The only correct solution to the situation is to take the action that is not equivalent to me being there at all and seeing what happens next. In the case of the train riddle it means I will switch the tracks.

This also comes back to the earlier riddle of the big red button. Assuming that you are brought very specifically in front of that button and got all that explanation and things, you must not shy away from action. The only correct way would be to take the action, press the button and see what happens.… -->

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Quality of shit

Have you noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff? God! And you say, “Get that shit off of there and let me put my stuff down!” — George Carlin

Have you noticed how more and more of the stuff becomes shit? A super easy example. I left a bread cutting board in the kitchen sink overnight. No, it is not what you thought. The sink was empty. It was damp, all right, but there was not actually any water in it. Look what happened to the board.

That is something that would never happen to my grandma’s bread board. Ok, you might get it warped if you left it in water for the night, although I think that happened on more than one occasion and did not cause so much damage. This is just shit. A little bit of moisture and off it went. Nonsense.… -->

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Big Red Button that kills everyone in Switzerland

Here is a riddle from Jed McKenna’s “Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment”:

– Pretend there’s a big red button on the counter, okay?
– Okay.
– If you press it, you kill everyone in Switzerland.
– Okay.
– If you press it, no one will ever know. You’ll never be blamed or connected to the deaths of all those millions of nice Swiss people.
– Yeah? So?
– So why not press it?

Indeed, why not press the big red button that kills everyone in Switzerland?

I am trying to think for myself but I do not see any reason not to. Funny thing is, I do not see any reason to do it either. When there are no external influences and motivations, basically, I am becoming neutral to this action. Unless there would be an additional compelling reason to do or not to do, I am in the undecided point. The problem with that is that “undecided” is equivalent to “not do” and that is by itself a bias.

The problem is that my ego feels quite happy when I decide not to kill them all, not to push the button. It feels equally happy when I think to myself that I do not have any reason to push the button and I do not have any reason not to push the button, resulting effectively in me doing nothing, i.e. not pushing the button. The result for the ego feels exactly the same.

If my task is to nuke the ego, to bring it to an end, I probably must make the situation really uncomfortable for the ego, bring it to an untenable position. And the only way to do that in this particular simulation is to press the button. So, in the end, there may be a compelling reason to press that button, apparently. Interesting.… -->

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