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| 9. The Update Mafia |
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| Do not fall for the industry
tricks, stay free. |
| Remember the good-ol' times when
you bought something and it was yours, forever?
When you owned things? Fast forward to today, and
realize that you only rent things, you do not own
anything like before. It is true for material possessions as well, but also true for services and virtual goods. Thanks to the invention of planned obsolescence, yield management, and now the subscription model, you are hard to find anything that you can really own with a peace of mind... So, long story short, here is the takeaway: focus on anything that you can still own, cherish them, hunt them down, and try to get out of the eternal treadmill. Here are some ideas. Try to live without gadgets, vehicles, fixed assets. It is hard, but possible. If you need to live with material possessions, ask yourself the following questions:
Some practical advice for the modern man:
If you need concrete advice for a specific case, contact me in private. |
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| 8.
Ignore "AI" and value "RI". |
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| Realize the ultimate futility of
outsourcing intelligence. |
| Think about AI (Artificial
Intelligence) for a moment. Stand back, and ask the
jolly joker question: "what is it?". Well, it is what
its name indicates: it is artificial
intelligence. You, reading these lines, on the
other hand, are RI (Real Intelligence), or sometimes
called HI (Human Intelligence). You can read heaps of
analyses about both, but instead of making the question
even more complicated than it is, let us find the
solution in the other direction. Let us use "reductio ad
absurdum", as a mathematical tool, to apply for this
philosophical question. Let us assume for a moment, that
having developed AI is actually beneficial for you, me,
anyone: mankind. Let us see if the inception, the nurturing, the development of AI and the ultimate dependence on it would make our lives better. AI could help us, just like automation helped us, to outsource our brainwork. Just like a chess computer can calculate a better strategy to win a chess game, just like a robotized factory can churn out more/better pieces in a given time-frame, AI is relieving us from the chores, leaving more time for fun. Is that really what we want from life? Let us assume for the moment, that yes is the answer, we want more fun, less chores. Thus, with the help of AI, we outsource the cumbersome, the boring, the tedious tasks and focus on the tasks that need higher intelligence. But hold on: isn't intelligence exactly the one feature we tried to outsource? How can be more left of it for us? Let us outsource that, too! Back to AI, and let us develop it to a level where it can also make those decisions instead of us. Alas, this line of thinking has no end in sight: where is the line where we say stop, after this step it is us who will make the final decision? This leads to an infinite line leading to zero thinking and decision-making left for us, the biological brain. In addition to the how question, there are others: who, why, when, where should be allowed to use AI? If it were all peace that is all cool and dandy, but alas, our species is anything BUT peace, it is at constant war with itself. If I am allowed to be helped by AI, is my enemy also allowed to use the same or better AI tools? Who should be allowed to use AI? Oops. Why should I use AI, instead of relying on my own human intelligence? To gain advantage? Okay, then we go into an escalating rabbit-hole that has no end in sight, only mutual destruction and final annihilation of ourselves. The answer to the when question if obviously: the sooner the better. It is a competition for time, if the goal is to compete, to gain an upper hand, to fight our fellow human brothers and sisters. Again, it will lead to a vortex out of which the only exit is Armageddon. Finally, where should it be allowed? It is linked to the who question: who will decide where it should be allowed? Even if we disregard the military use of AI (which would and will be the primary use of this technology, just like any of the others that came before it), even for our own peaceful use, it is detrimental to our own cerebral health and mental acuity. We are born biologically, we will die biologically (let's hope so, because "eternal life" is a curse in itself), and in between these two end-points, we should maximize the time we spend living biologically. So, every non-biological tool that steals time from your biological existence, is not helping, in fact, rather, leaving you less time to enjoy your biological existence. It is not about the quantity, rather the quality of time you have living. Looking at the questions in their entirety it should be clear that AI, together with genetic research, chemical and nuclear weapons, and similar tools which only serve to continue animosity, hatred, warmongering in our species homo sapiens sapiens, are the worst uses of our innate, biological, evolved intelligence. If you zoom out enough, you arrive back to the same teaching found in every philosophy and religion: do not think! This AI saga, along with all the other sagas, are part of our inability to understand that by thinking we get nowhere. Thinking is a paradox. You can arrive to the conclusion of the futility of thinking even by simply thinking: realize that the entire world is a paradox, and by thinking we only reveal only local, limited non-paradoxes, while the infinite rest remains paradox. You can also arrive to this conclusion simply by not thinking. AI is an ultimate thinking tool. Think about it for awhile. Pun intended! |
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2024-03-01 »»» next |
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| 7. Avoid
addiction to anything. |
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| Realize the addictive nature of
things and phenomena, and avoid them at all costs. |
| What is addiction?? Addiction is
the process when you lose control over your time, your
attention, your life. How to identify a process, an
action, a deed, a thought, anything, as an addition? Ask
yourself the following questions: when I engage with
this "thing", is there a built-in mechanism that makes
me either a) to continue it, or b) to re-visit
it again in the future? In other words: is
this thing programmed in a "positive feedback loop",
ie. to make me repeat my actions, tied to
this thing? If the answer is "yes", then it is an addictive substance, program, or activity, and you should avoid it at the outset. Do not even play with it for a short period of time, thinking you will have the willpower to get out of the spiral, of the vortex, of the loop. Realize for what it is, and do not even start the process. Get out of it quickly if sucked in. Only deal with non-addictive things. Examples of addictive substances and programs: alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, any drugs in general; food (gluttony); gambling, dreaming about getting rich quick or without work, charging interest; getting sucked in the pointless "money, power, fame" devilish triangle of deception; all "forbidden" or "secret" things; reading the news; computer games; social media, vanity, pride; all competitive games (like chess, or Olympics, or team sports, etc), anything that has a positive feedback loop (thus either it rewards you or punishes you, making you go back for more rewards or to take revenge). Keep your mind always in the middle, independent, free and neutral. Do not listen to slander. Never take sides, do not bet on anything, or the future. Remain the observer, the eternal traveler, the one who has no stake in anything, except your clear mind. |
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| 6. Avoid five topics |
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| Avoid five
divisive/explosive topics: Politics, Religion, Race, Sex, Money. |
| There are five topics that are
divisive, and which never in human history have ever
resulted in peace, understanding, or agreement between
people. In other words: these are topics which are
absolutely futile to discuss, to debate, to argue pro or
con any side, idea, concept, etc. History has shown that
millions of people have debated these for millennia, and
never ever got anywhere while doing so. The only result
of these pointless, divisive debates was war,
destruction, mayhem, disorder, unhappiness. Be wise, and
when you realize that a conversation with someone(s) is
veering into the direction of these five topics,
respectfully resist the temptation to partake, stay away
from these topics, do not discuss them in public. Remember, there is definitely nothing positive resulting in discussing these topics with anyone, so you are not left out of anything good. In fact, you do a great service to yourself, and to mankind, by steering clear of these dangerous topics. I hope you will be a happier person by doing so. |
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| 5. VR/AR goggles |
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| They are fun,
but most likely not worth your time. |
| Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented
Reality (AR) goggles are a hype. People do not want to
wear goggles of any kind. If people have to strap
something to their heads, they find it uncomfortable
after a short period of time. Also, people care more
about how they look to oothers. Most people try one and
then either return it or put it on their shelves and
forget about it. There might be some special use cases
for professional use though, but for the general public
it is just a hype. |
| prev ««« 2024-02-18 »»» next |
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| 4. Social media alternatives |
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| Ditch social media. |
| Instead of wasting your time on
social media, make your own free website on a free IP
address (a cheap paid domain is a wise addition though),
get a free email address, and chat in real-time with
your friends on IRC, with Seamonkey. It has a Composer
module to edit and publish your own websites; a Browser
to browse the web; a superb Email module to check
your e-mail; and Address Book to manage your contact
list; and an IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
client, to chat with the whole world. It is free and it
does not collect information about you, it respects your
privacy. It is the only Internet Suite from Mozilla that
survived, it is one of the oldest browsers on the net. For voice- and
video-chat use some free and secure messengers (e.g. Simplex,
Session, Jami, Briar, Wire, etc), or use similarly
free browser-based alternatives such as Jitsi.
If safe-to-use privacy-respecting social media is still
needed, use Mastodon, a distributed and
federated network. Pick your instance, create a
free profile, and congregate with like-minded people
there, but be careful: all social media is, by design,
addictive. Contact me for the detailed instructions how to get started, if needed. |
| prev ««« 2024-02-17 »»» next |
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| 3. CGI/AI videos |
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| Watch old films with real humans in them. The older the better. |
| People are interested mostly in
other people. Thus, normal people would prefer to see a
film made, directed, acted and edited by people, that
tells a story about fellow people. So, with all that CGI
and AI assisted cinematography today, do not be
surprised if people will rather dust off a nice 1950's
or 1930's movie instead of watching the newest films
made by the cyborgs. |
| prev ««« 2024-02-16 »»» next |
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| 2. All-electric or self-driving cars? |
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| Use petrol, gas or diesel vehicles, avoid fully electric ones. Hybrids can be cautiously considered. |
| Practicality, common sense and less
individualism are important driving forces behind
people's decisions about transportation. Most people do not want less freedom: less range, longer recharge-times, more planned obsolescence. They find driving their own vehicles less tiring than supervising them. Thus, self-driving, all-electric vehicles are simply not attractive enough. Most of us will prefer the old freedoms we used to have. Look for older cars, preferably from the years before 1989. Do not jump on new bandwagons... |
| prev ««« 2024-02-15 »»» next |
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| 1. "The News" |
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| Stop checking the news. Learn languages. Travel. Make friends. Get a life. |
| "Journalism" is based on the French
word "jour", which means "day". Guess what: you do not
need to be informed about happenings in the world
daily. Also, you certainly do not need to
consume "news" prepared for you by well-known interest
groups whose agenda is to brainwash you to follow their
world-view and align your interests with theirs. Have you ever wondered how it is possible that in this beautiful big world with 8+ billion inhabitants, every single day exactly 5 minutes worth "newsworthy stories" occur, and magically, none of them are positive? Have you ever doubted that the world is really so bad that only negative things happen, and these negative things always happen in countries which are independent and/or do now want to subordinate their interests to your own? Hmm, is it a coincidence? Think harder... and while doing so stop checking the news regularly, start learning languages and traveling the world, meet and befriend people you meet. It is a better recipe to have a meaningful life than listening to all the war-, scare-, fear- and hate-mongering news media on a daily basis. Even in peace-times news media is bad, but in war-times you should absolutely stay away from "the news", as it is always lying, always brainwashing, and more importantly: always war-mongering. As a general rule do not hate, and do not let news media make you hate other people. |
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