I suppose it’s early days for neuroscience but many functions of the mind have been linked with areas of the brain, except the generation of the self. That self seems to come about as a result of time spent in the world and is shaped by it so why can’t we find it? Even if we do find a particular area of grey matter, it’s not as if we will find a self molecule and be able to measure it, that’s not how neural networks operate. The best we can say is the self is an organism with memory, a vehicle for genetic material that has become so complex that it’s unable to discern what it is made of.

If the average mortality continues to fall will we see a situation where the average home owner is a corpse? Half of Americans are already dead from neck upwards.

It’s a huge problem. Software engineers need to step up and say no to creating artificial barriers between the user and the device. Electronic and mechanical engineers should be making devices that are repairable.

In my workshop I have switched to buying old industrial tools that don’t have embedded software. These machines were built in a time when people expected to repair their own stuff and keep it working.

It’s difficult to imagine a corporation whose ethics are more toxic than Apple but everyone seems to be following their lead and jumping on this mendacious bandwagon.

Fill to the brim with turds

Right. It’s perfectly normal to have difficulty sleeping. We often don’t know why and that’s okay too. In time it will pass, as all things do.

I’ve heard people advance the argument that since the self cannot be shown to exist, ‘free will’ is also absent and we can absolve ourselves of responsibility for our actions. I don’t believe in the Judeo-Christian conception of free will but I still want to be involved in my decisions and choices, even if that is limited to an awareness.

• Sleep and wake at the same time every day.
• Wake early.
• Avoid caffeine after mid day.
• Cool temperature bedroom as you go to sleep.
• Avoid stimulation immediately prior to sleep e.g. screens, intense exercise, arguments.
• Make the bedroom a place of rest exclusively, no screens, noise, etc.
• If sleep is elusive don’t stay in bed, go do something and come back later to try again.
• Worrying about sleep only makes sleep more difficult.
• Don’t use alcohol or drugs to help sleep except very briefly to get over a hump. Of the benzodiazepine class, zopiclone is effective for short periods to re-establish a sleep pattern.

The self as an illusion is an interesting concept to play with. We think of ourselves as identities so that we can operate socially. However when one examines the moment to moment experience of consciousness the self is nowhere to be found.

Delusional

It’s interesting because the guy looks like a genius but he’s doing something really dumb.

He fought back by blocking the fists with his face, who is the bigger chad?

In America the corporate dictatorship was started when oil was discovered and the billionaire class created.

It’s a good test when working with people that you don’t know, contractors, etc. In the automotive industry we work with a lot of electronic system suppliers and they deliver embedded software in the form of ECU. Software in this form can hide a multitude of horrors so the only way to keep track of it is to make release declarations, implying testing has been carried out. If that’s not present, you can’t trust it.

Something we can thank the Russians for and hackers everywhere.

I have 99 problems

This is cultural appropriation

‘I can’t believe someone is trying to rip me off’

A good dose of psychedelic once in a while is a great way to get some insight and feel happy. We’ve been lied to by our governments for too long. These cretins sought to prohibit the ancient healing ceremonies that indigenous people have conducted for millennia.

As you point out, opioids numb the spirit, not the pain itself. We stop caring about pain from its many sources, emotional and physical. Viewed at the level of consciousness pain is conceptual and can be manipulated to be diminished or magnified by the context and expectations. I’ve never consciously used cannabis as pain relief but I can imagine it operates in a similar way, making it easier to interpret the sensation as something other than negative. I know from meditation that removing judgement from my thinking has a similar effect. Pain is bad but we are not obliged to judge every painful event and compound the situation.

It does depend what we’re talking about. The geology of Himalaya or computer technology? One of these things didn’t change much in the last forty years.