Bill Ryan Has Gone God

[Dumpster Diver]

...and one other thing. I will admit to being a daily lurker at Project Kool-aid Stand. Too many cool things get posted there. So I do see it as a valuable resource.

... given my proclivities, it’s probably a good thing I can’t post. :batman

[Shadowself]

Good morning!

Too many cool things get posted there. So I do see it as a valuable resource.

Indeed that is true. Over the years there has been a wealth of information posted there. Again I've always felt myself a friend of Bill's as well. No one is perfect that means Bill and of course myself is included in that. We are all just human having a human experience.

I have taken a break there for a short while and have much preferred posting here as the atmosphere there has become that of a political platform. Not my thing.

While many here know my political stance and leanings it doesn't really matter which side of the spectrum you lean on. We are all looking for a better way because what we are seeing is not the way. Taking a political platform as your mantra is also going to end up becoming a disappointing venture. You see no matter which end you lean they are all politicians. They may be voted in by the people but once in office they are subject to the very same lobbyists that control the machine anyhow. Until that changes through whatever means it's not going to help the people who are indeed suffering the machine and it's making.

So it's very hard for me to relate to much of what I see posted there now and it seems to consume the members there at this time...and I just won't comment no matter how I feel. It's a waste of time for me. It's also not going to change a thing except for them to feel better for a few moments between posts. It's not changing anything in the overall and as I said it may become quite disappointing for those that become consumed with it.

[Dreamtimer]

I used to go to PA regularly having been drawn to Gio's two threads, Up at the Ranch and Beyond, and The Cosmic Emporium. Over time I noticed members who regularly had interesting posts. The library is chock full o' books. I haven't been visiting as much recently but I still do.

[Fred Steeves]

I have taken a break there for a short while and have much preferred posting here as the atmosphere there has become that of a political platform. Not my thing.

It's interesting to observe the Q angle of that playing out over time. Q uite divisive and corrosive. It's also the first red hot alternative media meme I've seen with the ability to punch through the membrane of this comparative tiny little bubble, and find new life out in the mainstream of talk radio and such.

So it's very hard for me to relate to much of what I see posted there now and it seems to consume the members there at this time....

Consume is exactly right, sad to watch people who should know better falling under it's spell. But it's also another opportunity to watch first hand how these things are done, how they evolve, how they spread, how far they can be taken, their intended target audience, etc.


Just some observations from my little corner of the petri dish.

[Dreamtimer]

I've seen Jordan Peterson breaking into the mainstream.

And of course Alex Jones is becoming more well known.

Fox is now outright telling people to believe the opposite of what the "big media" says and to only believe them. I think Fox is talking about the Deep State as well.

[Elen]

I've seen Jordan Peterson breaking into the mainstream.

And of course Alex Jones is becoming more well known.

Fox is now outright telling people to believe the opposite of what the "big media" says and to only believe them. I think Fox is talking about the Deep State as well.

That is REALLY amazing to hear. Ny goodness it is!

[Emil El Zapato]

That is REALLY amazing to hear. Ny goodness it is!

I agree...let the people see them for what they are...

I heard a person on international news blame Rupert Murdoch for the sad state of not only American political reality but practically the entire world's. hmm, I've been saying that for about 30 years. The only thing Reagan needed to demolish all that was good in society was the False Prophet...a.k.a. Murdoch.

[Emil El Zapato]

Michelle P-feiffer.

I've been reading this morning about I.Q. and the very longstanding arguments about racial disparities....I haven't really thought about this recently but the thing is that virtually all people on the planet are genetically related to the 'Out of Africa' crowd. A timespan, I believe of about 20,000 years. How much true genetic drift can one get in 20,000 years? Quite a bit actually but what does that mean in terms of extant intelligence? Something to think about...

[Dreamtimer]

The origins of the IQ test had to do with determining who would be successful in school. It was very white and European and male in its leanings because that's who would have been getting an education.

To really get a good assessment of intelligence, it's necessary to do several different tests. And of course there are many kinds/aspects of intelligence.

[Fred Steeves]

I've seen Jordan Peterson breaking into the mainstream.

The Q phenomena is hardly comparable to Jordan Peterson. One originated as an updated version of the shadowy, nameless and faceless "top secret insider" as made typical in forum world, while the other as a professor who stood against the University of Toronto word police.

And of course Alex Jones is becoming more well known.

I reckon an argument could be made there, but it's quite a stretch IMO. Ole AJ didn't have that shadowy emergence, quite the contrary he began as himself, on the public airwaves.

Fox is now outright telling people to believe the opposite of what the "big media" says and to only believe them. I think Fox is talking about the Deep State as well.

Ah, a perfect example of Q's influence on mainstream media!

[Emil El Zapato]

ok, standing against word police is a worthy goal for a child..."Don't tell ME what to think or do or say or act out". Not so worthy for an ostensible educated, intelligent, properly socialized human being. My assessment is one of those necessary elements that propels one to be a positive, contributing, thoughtful member of society is lacking. But that's his problem, many will listen to him and consider him a hero of sorts. Just another example of how we fail as human beings.

[Aragorn]

Michelle P-feiffer.

I've been reading this morning about I.Q. and the very longstanding arguments about racial disparities....I haven't really thought about this recently but the thing is that virtually all people on the planet are genetically related to the 'Out of Africa' crowd. A timespan, I believe of about 20,000 years. How much true genetic drift can one get in 20,000 years? Quite a bit actually but what does that mean in terms of extant intelligence? Something to think about...

Intelligence and IQ scores in particular are not entirely driven by genetics. There is actually quite a lot more involved with that, including environmental factors, education and culture. In fact, it has been observed that IQ scores have been steadily declining around the world — and particularly so in the West — over the past 20 to 30 years. And if you think back in time, then that's about when the digital revolution started.

Please do not attribute any judgment to my following words, but it used to be that computers were complex machines that were used and maintained by very smart people. Then, in the 1980s, computers were marketed onto the masses as household appliances. And as the demand for more powerful computers grew, they also had to become more "user-friendly" for Joe Sixpack, who didn't (and often still doesn't) understand first thing about computers.

Most people who possess a personal computer or a laptop aren't even doing 15% of the things their computers are capable of. Apart from listening to music, surfing and emailing, most people are only using it as a glorified typewriter. You'd be surprised of the number of people who don't even know how to set a different wallpaper for their desktop.

So anyway, we've started delegating the more complicated things — such as calculus, route-planning, et al — to computers, and we're no longer exercising the grey matter in our skulls. And now we've got that whole A.I. revolution happening, from intelligent home assistants like Alexa over self-driving cars and all the way up to just about anything you can think of — even warfare. Isaac Asimov, who devised the Three Laws of Robotics, is probably rolling in his grave.

Right now, you still need a driver's license to own a self-driving car, but ten years from now, people will be buying cars without that they themselves still have the knowledge to operate one. And then when the damn thing fails — because it depends on satellite navigation, which is still under military control here in the West — they'll all be stuck, because nobody will still know how to drive the car themselves. That is, if the vehicle in question actually still supports that, even, because some of the newer self-driving cars don't even offer one the ability to drive the thing manually anymore.

Lastly, one more thing, and this is probably going to piss off the US Americans among our members, but if you consider that the 100-meridian of the Gaussian curve representing the distribution of IQ scores among the population is always calibrated against the target population itself, then the IQ scores of those allegedly very intelligent US Americans who can skip high school and enter the university at age 15 — e.g. Sharon Stone — don't mean anything at all, because the average IQ score in the USA sits between 15 to 30 points below that of the rest of the world. So if you have an IQ score of, say, 150 in the USA, then that's high compared to the average US American, but at the same time, you would only be on par with the average European high school student, because on the same WAIS test here in Europe, you'd probably score somewhere between 120 and 135, which was the average score within my class group back when I myself was still in middle school.

We're all stuck in a consumerist society, while constantly being slapped in the face with brainless commercials and ads — even on the internet (unless you use an ad blocker) — and where one's job is either one's very demanding means of survival, or a booster for one's ego. Hitler's "Arbeit Macht Frei" — "labor liberates you" (from having to think).

It's no wonder we're getting dumber and dumber all the time. We're succumbing to intellectual laziness, and we're doing it out of our own volition. I mean, just look at this very alternative community: Holocaust denial, the Flat Earth meme, the Hollow Earth meme, the We-Never-Went-To-The-Moon meme, and so on. And don't make me direct you toward the threads started by some of our former members here.

[Emil El Zapato]

Intelligence and IQ scores in particular are not entirely driven by genetics.

Your middle school average score is a pretty remarkable stat. The ideal philosophical goal of increased automation is leisure time for advanced civilization. Philosophers for time untold have believed that this social condition leads to more thinking, not less. A flowering of art, literature, and science, of course. We are in a transitional state, I suppose, where social conscious is lagging very far behind scientific progress...but, of course, you know that.

[Aragorn]

The ideal philosophical goal of increased automation is leisure time for advanced civilization. Philosophers for time untold have believed that this social condition leads to more thinking, not less.

Ideally, yes, but you know what they say: in theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice they are not.

It's not the need for more leisure time that drives this automation, but rather the need for having a product that sells well, regardless of whether it's useful or not, as well as the need for increased productivity. Everything here in the West is driven by market economics — not by philosophical concerns.

Let me give you a simple analogy from the world of internal combustion engines. Turbochargers and superchargers can be used to increase the amount of horsepower and torque that an internal combustion engine produces. And right now, just about every auto maker is turning to turbochargers — and to a lesser degree superchargers — but it's not so as to get more power out of their engines. It's so as to be able to make a smaller-displacement engine that produces as much power as a larger but naturally aspirated engine.

And that's all because of carbon dioxide emission regulations, because of — <insert scary music here> — Climate Change™ (or The Artist Formerly Known as Global Warming™). And carbon dioxide only makes up for 0.04% of the atmosphere, while at the same time, there are much higher concentrations of other potential greenhouse gases, such as methane and even water vapor.

And if they're so concerned about the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, then why don't they put an immediate stop to the cutting down of the Brazilian rainforest? Plants absorb carbon dioxide and, as part of their photosynthesis, give us pure oxygen in return. But no, we have to cap the carbon dioxide emissions, and tax them, and in spite of the ever-growing population of this planet, we have to forbid people from building new houses because they would be cutting down trees, while at the same time, the cutting down of the rainforest is still going on unabated at over 6000 km² every year. They've already cut down 80% of the Brazilian rainforest by now.

Let's face it: the world is about as perverse as it could be, and it's finding new kinds of perversion on an almost daily basis. That's where our intellect is going: toward all the things we should not be doing. Not only is mankind headed for its own destruction, but it even seems to be in a hurry to get there, and its running just that little bit faster in that direction every day.

Color me a pessimist, but the only words that I can think of to describe mankind's current situation are those of the title of that old song, "Too much, too little, too late."



P.S.: We've come a long way from the topic of Aianawa getting pissed over Bill Ryan's statement over at Project Avalon that the Anastasia of the Ringing Cedars material was not a flesh-and-blood person.

[Wind]

Capitalist consumerist society isn't the problem per se, but it is a symptom of a far larger problem...