azspot:
As Cashmore explains, the human brain acts at both the conscious level as well as the unconscious. It’s our consciousness that makes us aware of our actions, giving us the sense that we control them, as well. But even without this awareness, our brains can still induce our bodies to act, and studies have indicated that consciousness is something that follows unconscious neural activity. Just because we are often aware of multiple paths to take, that doesn’t mean we actually get to choose one of them based on our own free will. As the ancient Greeks asked, by what mechanism would we be choosing? The physical world is made of causes and effects - “nothing comes from nothing” - but free will, by its very definition, has no physical cause. The Roman philosopher and poet Lucretius, in reference to this problem of free will, noted that the Greek philosophers concluded that atoms “randomly swerve” - the likely source of this movement being the numerous Greek gods.
“Conditional Free Will” is likely a better way to put it. We do have to power to choose, but usually the options that are socially condoned whether we want to believe it or not.
The FederalJack Free Ebooks Archive.
Declassified Federal Docs, FOIA Requests, Fiction and Non-Fiction Books, Survival Manuals and more.
Stock up, 2010 is going to be a bumpy ride.
Oh yes indeedy my friends. I bring to you this gem I recently found. I had actually come across another scan copy of this about a week ago, but it had separate versions for the German and English translation, and all color pictures were separate jpeg files… that was no fun. This is one PDF, with with the first half the full color scanned German original w/ pics, and the second half English translation text w/o pics.
This is a must for anyone interested in psychology and the occult. More info on it on Wikipedia.
Download | 146.73 MB
HUGE Thanks to Justin - who has been featuring some pretty nice book downloads. The sheer size of the file nearly killed my computer though, ha.
The 7 Somewhat United States of Facebook – GigaOM
Peter Warden, a former Apple engineer, likes to analyze data — so much so that he started scraping public profiles and photos from hundreds of millions of Facebook accounts about a year ago, and now has data collected from more than 200 million around the world. [Above is the US Infographic] He wrote a fascinating post recently on his personal blog about what that data shows about how interconnected (or disconnected) users in the various American states are.
In a nutshell, Warden’s data analysis showed that Facebook users in the U.S. can be roughly segmented into seven regions, which he named facetiously:
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Stayathomia: This belt’s defining feature is how near most people are to their friends, implying they don’t move far.
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Dixie: Like Stayathomia, Dixie towns tend to have links mostly to other nearby cities rather than spanning the country.
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Greater Texas: Unlike Stayathomia, there’s a definite central city to this cluster, otherwise most towns just connect to their immediate neighbors.
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Mormonia: The only region that’s completely surrounded by another cluster, Mormonia mostly consists of Utah towns that are highly connected to each other, with an offshoot in Eastern Idaho.
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Nomadic West: The defining feature of this area is how likely even small towns are to be strongly connected to distant cities; it looks like the inhabitants have done a lot of moving around the county.
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Socalistan: LA is definitely the center of gravity for this cluster. Almost everywhere in California and Nevada has links to both LA and SF, but LA is usually first.
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Pacifica: Tightly connected to each other, it doesn’t look like Washingtonians are big travelers compared to the rest of the West, even though a lot of them claim to need a vacation.
Aiwazz Saying Blogspot - RIP
well, it’s gone now, but thanks for all the consciousness-raising books and helping others probe the depths.
I just re-watched “The Mindscape of Alan Moore” yesterday!Funny too is that I am working on a print zine with a friend - more details soon.
- Alan Moore, the influential comics visionary who wrote Watchmen and V for Vendetta, has taken up a new mission for our age of global depression: Bringing back the underground fanzine.
- The first issue of Moore’s print zine Dodgem Logic, released last month in the United Kingdom, is an engaging, educational and often hilarious read. The new publication is stuffed with subcultural snark as well as post-civilization how-tos on guerrilla gardening, Dumpster diving and surviving the econopocalypse.
- Perhaps most promising, Dodgem Logic’s spirit of triumphant creative individualism celebrates Moore’s individualist philosophy, delivering a perfectly timed message for a world filled with failing states and superpowers.
- “This might be the time in which big, centralized authorities prove that they are no longer capable of running the show, or even pretending to run the show,” the always eloquent Moore told Wired.com by phone from his home in Northampton, England. “Increasingly, it is going to be up to us if our culture gets through these next couple of decades in any shape at all.”
- It took me about 8/10 years to reach this point. I’ve been frugal, disciplined, and focused on this exact goal: dropping out from the rat race, and live in peace and quiet for the rest of my life. Hopefully, of course. It was gradual, planned, and full of trial and error.
- My yearly expenses rarely reach the $2,000 mark. That’s in a very bad year. Thanks to my savings, and the fact that I own my home, I can afford to work only when strictly “necessary”. (which is never, but I like to keep my stash intact.)
- I basically just have to buy stuff I cannot produce or procure by myself: soap, oil, some tools, sometimes soil.
- There’s no ideological reason behind what I am doing. I am not an anarchist, survivalist, hippie, or whatever label is usually associated with people aiming for self-sufficiency. If you met me, you would never suspect I was living like this. I keep a middle class facade. I am just a very, very low maintenance guy who grew up tired by the rat race. I find much easier and satisfying to live this way.
- I do have, of course, my views on the current state of society and world in general - like everyone else - and they of course influenced my decisions, but there’s no political-philosophical framework I would strictly identify with.
- It’s Hakuna Matata (almost) all the way!
- I produce my own food and even my own meat. I have chickens giving me eggs, and rabbits giving me meat. I cultivate my own vegetables. I dry both vegetables and meat. I would say that I am 90% self sufficient food-wise. Anyone could live like this, if s/he wanted. It’s mostly about state of mind first, and skills second.
- Ask me anything. I will answer any question that won’t reveal my exact location and background.
- EDIT: Lots of comments to reply to. If I don’t reply to yours, it’s either because it is low priority (ie. I already answered the question somewhere else) or because I am still replying to earlier comments. I am sure I missed some too. Don’t take it personally. :)
(some pretty interesting replies on this Reddit)
As the philosopher John Searle describes social facts, they rely on the formulation X counts as Y in C — in this case, Wikipedia comes to count as an acceptable source of answers for a particular group. There’s a spectrum of authority from “Good enough to settle a bar bet” to “Evidence to include in a dissertation defense”, and most uses of algorithmic authority right now cluster around the inebriated end of that spectrum, but the important thing is that it is a spectrum, that algorithmic authority is on it, and that current forces seem set to push it further up the spectrum to an increasing number and variety of groups that regard these kinds of sources as authoritative. There are people horrified by this prospect, but the criticism that Wikipedia, say, is not an “authoritative source” is an attempt to end the debate by hiding the fact that authority is a social agreement, not a culturally independent fact. Authority is as a authority does.
![The 7 Somewhat United States of Facebook – GigaOM
Peter Warden, a former Apple engineer, likes to analyze data — so much so that he started scraping public profiles and photos from hundreds of millions of Facebook accounts about a year ago, and now has data collected from more than 200 million around the world. [Above is the US Infographic] He wrote a fascinating post recently on his personal blog about what that data shows about how interconnected (or disconnected) users in the various American states are.
In a nutshell, Warden’s data analysis showed that Facebook users in the U.S. can be roughly segmented into seven regions, which he named facetiously:
Stayathomia: This belt’s defining feature is how near most people are to their friends, implying they don’t move far.
Dixie: Like Stayathomia, Dixie towns tend to have links mostly to other nearby cities rather than spanning the country.
Greater Texas: Unlike Stayathomia, there’s a definite central city to this cluster, otherwise most towns just connect to their immediate neighbors.
Mormonia: The only region that’s completely surrounded by another cluster, Mormonia mostly consists of Utah towns that are highly connected to each other, with an offshoot in Eastern Idaho.
Nomadic West: The defining feature of this area is how likely even small towns are to be strongly connected to distant cities; it looks like the inhabitants have done a lot of moving around the county.
Socalistan: LA is definitely the center of gravity for this cluster. Almost everywhere in California and Nevada has links to both LA and SF, but LA is usually first.
Pacifica: Tightly connected to each other, it doesn’t look like Washingtonians are big travelers compared to the rest of the West, even though a lot of them claim to need a vacation.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxli1zvr1z1qz886qo1_500.png)
