domain:sotonye.substack.com
There's no reason there can't be life elsewhere, it's a big universe. Even intelligent life. Even intelligent life at, or above, our present level of technological advancement.
Where the big, improbable jump lies is from "aliens exist" to "aliens exist and visited/visit our planet".
I could imagine alien scientists examining specimens of humans; we do it with animals (see monitoringbirds) and with anthropologists turning up to bother the last 'undiscovered' tribes that won't immediately kill them. But that has to first get over the hurdle of "space is very big and there's no evidence they ever got here". I went through my Ancient Astronauts/von Daniken phase in my late teens/early twenties. All the 'look here is an Egyptian tomb painting of what can only be a circuit board with transistors!' is convincing - when transistors are cutting edge tech. Twenty years later, that's not convincing any more because now we've moved on and we'd expect aliens with spaceships to be even more advanced than we are, not using tech that's outdated within twenty to fifty years.
I don't believe in the advanced tech all the wishful thinking here engages in:
"We're talking about people that worked for the Pentagon, worked in a government program, where they worked in and around this technology. Whether it was through crash retrieval, or through reverse engineering, that's what we're pursuing right now."
What I'm starting to think is that UFO rumours were great propaganda during the Cold War. The USA is a global superpower but it's not the only one. Russia (and to a much lesser extent China) are there breathing down their necks. The USA had the atom bomb first, but they weren't able to remain sole possessors of the technology. Everyone is working to have the best, newest, most kaboomy big-kaboom! first.
What better way to muddy the waters than to let hints slip out about amazing new tech? Even better - Russia and China can console themselves "okay their scientists got there first but our guys are smart, too, and it's just a matter of some light spying and a lot of hard work to catch up or even pass them out", but how can they do that if the rumours about the tech are that it's not human, it comes from advanced alien civilisation that crash landed in the desert? How will you catch up then, unless you get an alien UFO of your own?
Yeah, they're not going to believe random "Joe Blow says he saw something in the sky" but if you have all the dedicated True Believers talking about secret bases? my cousin knows someone who knows someone who swears he saw bodies being carried away? here's a leaked report of a military pilot talking about the mysterious craft that shadowed them on this flight?
Now you've got them chasing shadows trying to catch something that doesn't exist in the first place. And again, if they do catch wind of anything advanced you really built using your own human scientists working hard, then that is just more bait for "and what about the stuff we're not seeing? what if they really have something even better under wraps?"
IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
7m ago
Any time anybody uses "the establishment" you are free to ask who they mean specifically. Most of the people using the word here actually have specific answers.
Mihow
Lipstick on a guitar
10m ago
Are you afraid of the long term side effects?
How long will you be on it?
I too am the king of giving out fantastic and true advice on health and wellness and not being able to handle it myself.
A personal failing.
sun_the_second
could survive a COD lobby and a gay furry discord server
11m ago
The entire HPMoR is Harry's first year, which is the first volume of the original septalogy.
Mihow
Lipstick on a guitar
13m ago
Must’ve been Weathering
Just watch Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bepop over and over again like I do
Maybe add Elfen Lied - or Gantz if you want something almost good
kky
13m ago
If you want something Americans would actually agree on, it would be the proposition: “Should everyone, except for children, the elderly, and the seriously infirm, work?” The answer there would be an overwhelming yes; those who disagree are a lunatic fringe.
Now, the real question is: “If someone who is able-bodied refuses to work, what should be done with them?” And I believe the answer there varies widely, but the most popular is “then neither shall he eat.” But this conflicts with another popular opinion, that people down on their luck should get some help or at least shouldn’t starve, and certainly Christ put his finger on the scale for this one. This, I think, is the source of most of our problems.
But permanent contracts? Come on, man, it’s already literal slavery. And although I’m sure you could confuse a few people on a poll, almost everyone understands it. In order for people to agree it would have to be more like: can people sign time-gated contracts where their broad behavior is dictated by their employer (with major and explicit caveats for human dignity) and failure to comply revokes the privileges and pay granted by the contract? And here people would say yes, because there are already contracts like this, especially for the military. But to have your liberty removed forever with no remedy? No way.
HereAndGone
17m ago
Haven't seen the movie so can't comment, but the Aubreyiad is a great, fun series which apparently is catnip to a lot of non-cat girls as well (I'm seeing a ton of fanart for it on Tumblr even this long after the movie). O'Brien manages to pull off all the hearty naval stuff for the boys and introduce the main relationship, which is the friendship of Stephen and Jack, which draws in the girls as well. He had me laughing at bad 18th century jokes and while I remain as ignorant as Stephen about the workings of a ship, the rest of it all held my interest too.
IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
18m ago
I'll add it to my reading list, but perhaps you can be more specific?
The_Nybbler
In the game of roller derby, women aren't just the opposing team; they're the ball.
26m ago
But they definitely indicate a person who is bad news.
The_Nybbler
In the game of roller derby, women aren't just the opposing team; they're the ball.
28m ago
chinese lettering down the spine of a non-chinese-speaker
Which probably says "Translation server failed".
I don't see how that's not strictly better than not taking it.
I'm not making the argument against taking the drug, I'm making the argument against being stuck in a local maximum.
The hell is a "complex" drug?
One that relies on an international supply chain for its industrial production and the existence of a large enough empire to secure sea lanes. A type-2 technology.
Do people not know what that word means?
Apparently they don't anymore.
From The Oxford English Dictionary, Volume 1:
Addicted (adi-kted),///. a.
[f. ADDICTS. + -ED.]
3. Self-addicted (to a practice); given, devoted or inclined; attached, prone.
From The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:
addicted adjective /əˈdɪktɪd/ [not before noun]
unable to stop using or doing something as a habit, especially something harmful
Saying diabetics are addicted to insulin because they would die without it is a tautology.
So is saying men are slaves to biological necessity. These are realities well understood since antiquity.
Such addictions may well be natural, but they are cumbersome, and one of the common criticisms of modernity is that it has tricked people into novel addictions under the guise of liberating them from natural ones. I would have thought this line of reasoning to be popular enough as to not demand explanation. But here we are.
This is all such immensely confused thinking that I don't know how such beliefs can even arised. At the very least, it is factually incorrect.
I could throw it all back in your direction, but I'm afraid I know too well the source of your confusion, and it is that you think American Psychologists among other colleges of experts have dominion over the English language and its conceptual space. As if they can declare the valence of things by fiat.
It is an all too common sort of delusion that leads people to demand pronouncements from these priests as to whether certain lifestyles are or are not illnesses.
But as we are now in a place that is open to people who are not adherents of this religion, I therefore enjoin you to consider that such authority is not self-evident.
Iconochasm
2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.
49m ago
I'm not concerned that these Guatemalans coming across the border are going to out-compete whites because they have a "better" culture.
There are many grounds on which a person can compete. "I'm cheaper because I ignore all employment, construction and safety laws and regulations" is certainly a niche, but it's not a given that it's a niche we ought to tolerate.
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
50m ago
They do it for years at a time. It’s called WWOOFing. Lots of the scions of high human capital humans do it.
Perhaps you find it hard to believe because, like the person above, you can’t imagine that QoL and wages for farmwork will increase if the semi-slave laborers are deported. When conditions improve, more people will be willing to do it, and more places will look like WWOOFing.
Iconochasm
2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.
53m ago
So, does that mean the lack of broad, vocal denounciations of Newsome's take here means that the Democrats support illegal immigrant child slavery on drug farms?
Have any Democrats spoken up about the dozen antifa who organized that pathetic mass murder attempt on ICE agents?
How many of these questions could I throw at you before you reject the premise?
Mihow
Lipstick on a guitar
58m ago
Now tell us her thoughts on the gays and coloreds!
Time moves - values shift.
No need to go too far in either direction.
Mihow
Lipstick on a guitar
1hr ago
When my two buddies and I were doing a film podcast, I told them that when we get to 50 episodes I’ll get a tattoo of our pod. Well about near ep 70 I was like, well shucks, guess I should keep at my word.
Now I have a lovely film themed podcast tattoo on my right upper leg.
It’s fucking cool - reminds me of my hanging with my buds - and of the 200 or so hours of content I made (that maybe seven people - including us - ever listened to).
Most tattoos I shrug at. Some are really cool. Most are meaningless - but most often then not the meaningless ones are nicer, cooler, doper, neater than the meaningful ones.
Most people look like shit anyway - from their features to their clothes … I’m not sure how much effort into caring (or hating, from the thread vibes) I’m supposed to give.
Iconochasm
2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.
1hr ago
I may agree, but every study has found tattoos correlate with an increased number of sexual partners in men, so clearly it isn't a widely shared belief.
It takes a deal of decisive confidence to permanently paint some cliched bullshit on your own body where everyone will see it. Also, violence is attractive in men, and as you said, the categories most likely to have personal experience with violence all have tattoos. In a way, the upper class Brooklyn hipster with a sleeve is almost doing Stolen Valor.
kky
1hr ago
I personally agree with you that arguments of the form “natural slave” have a central purpose of eliding the distinction between “many people need some guidance or curtailment of their behavior in order to avoid going wrong” and “some people deserve to own others like livestock.”
What I think the argument most supports, as a matter of fact, is societal laws forbidding many of the worst pitfalls of those who need guidance. Strong limits on drugs, gambling, and debt can really raise the floor for people, and in fact these are precisely the traditional strictures in most societies.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1hr ago
I have some life advice that will work wonders for you, perhaps phrased poorly by me, but its essence has been passed from father to adolescent son for generations, to excellent effect: Stop being lazy, and grab the goddam reins. Because no one else is going to.
I say that, but it actually seems to me that you do a lot, and are not one of the perpetually unmotivated. Your substack is active, and mine has only one lonely post, so you're way ahead of me there. You mod here. You're a friggin' doctor.
Gym time will ultimately make you feel good. I am sure there is a physiological reason and I am equally sure that you know what this reason is probably better than I do, but perhaps haven't reached that point of that good feeling, and you perhaps doubt that it is a point you will likely reach.
Have you read the studies suggesting there could be a relationship between macular degeneration and regular use of semaglutide? Admittedly there are many caveats by the authors (admirably so) regarding the design of the study and how it was not designed to establish causality. But still. How are the peepers?
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1hr ago
Glad to have somehow helped. I haven't seen that either, alas.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1hr ago
Interesting. I may have the least time of anyone on here, at least I feel that may be true when I read about the gaming that occurs and the books that are read. I feel like between work, trying to get in my gym time, taking care of daily household needs (cleaning, making sure my plants don't die, routine maintenance of our house, feeding our pets, spending time with my sons, having reasonably long daily conversations with my wife) and getting in enough sleep (typically six hours) I have no extra time. Yet I cook probably four nights a week (for the four of us) for dinner, and often sort out my next day's meal the night before.
As for anhedonia I have no answer. It's a term I learned on reddit, meaning at first I assumed it was just a pretend word meant to be a catchall excuse for not getting out of fucking bed. I'm not unwilling to believe it is a real thing, but I would suspect finding the root cause of this and sorting it out should be any one individual's main goal in life if he finds himself suffering from it for any length of time. Of course for the anhedonic there is always the convenient excuse: They simply don't have motivation to do anything. I cannot imagine a household where anyone would accept or tolerate this without taking some action to sort it. Of course these people may live alone--but then how are they paying rent?
Not enough time is a flimsy excuse. There is nearly always enough time for anything that matters. We carve out time for what is important to us. We do what we have to or need to do before we do what we want to do. That is one of the first rules of being a man (or adult.)
But as you say, you're offering a hypothetical.
gattsuru
1hr ago
What was your take on Kamela Harris cackling about the mere idea that the Second Amendment might not allow broad confiscation of lawfully owned guns?
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
1hr ago
Yeah, I think that's correct as well.
self_made_human
C'est la vie
2hr ago
I ate more than my fair share of bananas back home! They definitely didn't have the same pattern of spotting, just some discoloration. I did, however, eat them.
Looked both up as the links were a few years old:
Chloe Green does have a son with Jeremy Meeks, but they soon separated. She now has a second child with a successful businessman who is not as tall, is white, without tattoos and has a dad body. And Kate Rothschild has a baby with a (lot younger than her) soyboy environmental activist.
The hot criminal seems to do ok. He doesn’t have a superstar career, instead a bit of modeling and acting in cheap D-Movies, but a quick search doesn’t find any scandals or unhinged drug stories. I found a recent interview where he sounded normal and self-reflected.
The rapper Jay Electronica was for a time a mysterious wunderkind star, but he never delivered (people waited a decade for his first lackluster album). He made the news a few years ago for this banger verse:
"I bet you a Rothschild I get a bang for my dollar, the synogogue of Satan want me to hang by my collar"
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