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Check me out if you like,  http://www.planetrfx.com is the place to go, links to the stream are down the left side.  I'm playing from 6 PM to midnight eastern time.  (meaning I start about ten minutes from posting this and go for 6 hours.

I've only watched the Lady Gaga one so far (Ever Burn) But it was, honestly, the funniest thing I have seen online in over a year.  I am working on downloading all of these so I can play them on my radio show.  It looks like the  are all copylefted (as far as I can tell)

hxxp://www.signmovies.com/videos/music/index.html

(For anyone who doesn't know Westboro Baptist are the complete wingnut Christians at godhatesfags.com who go out and protest soldier's funerals and stuff)

http://www.physorg.com/news198817988.html

It doesn't look like it really does anything yet, but it is a neat concept.  And you have to love the idea of a robot that poops.

This is spawned from a couple of 000's comments on the google thread in the tech section. 

Ok there we have it. I was staying out of this thread because it simply makes my blood boil, some of the issues are so dear to me.

Anyway, yes you're right. You hit the nail on the head.

This privacy thing is holding our species back from evolving to some sort of next level. And I like it that way. This is my species, and not that next level. I can smell what it's going to be like, and I don;t like it one bit.

Loss of privacy is one thing, but complete loss of all individuality is what we are going to get down this road. And sure, our species will have ascended to some next level, but there won't be any "me" or "you" to enjoy it.

And I will tell you now, it's not even going to be all bliss hippie "all is one, I am you and you are me and we are all together" enlightened bullshit, we should be so lucky!

No, it's going to be just the same thing as every other time it has happened in the evolution of life on this planet:

The smaller organisms (humans) will be absorbed in an endosymbiotic relationship with some larger-scale organisms (probably corporations) where individuality is a liability for the larger organism.

It happened to mitochondria, it happened to intestinal bacteria.

Every time you take a shit, you dump millions of living and dead intestinal bacteria down the sewer, we even call it "cleansing", and we don't even care or think about. That's what corporations are going to do to humans if we let them. That is your precious next level. That is indeed what I would like to hold my species back from.

"Individual" means the same thing as "single cellular organism". And in certain multi-cellular cases, "Individual" even means "dangerous cancer that must be annihilated for the greater good of the larger organism".

Sure enough those intestinal bacteria never had the consciousness to say "hey do we actually like where we are heading now?", and we are probably the first conscious species that are standing on the brink of endosymbiosis and we can ask ourselves this question.

Do you want to be an ass-polyp?

and

I dunno that the mitochondria or intestinal bacteria had much option either.  In both cases they were eaten by the larger organism.

yes that is my point. they didn't have much choice. we are conscious, and can at least give it a shot, resisting.

I'm also not sure that privacy is particularly related to individuality, aside from tangentially.

They are very related. Privacy is what keeps individuals individual. Once your data is on the street, and is shared with everyone, this everyone, this sharing will become something, a structure in which the individual is irrelevant.

And when Dok Vitriol is talking about taking our species to the next level, then that is what I fear we will become. And it is already happening. Big faceless corporations are fighting battles about abstract things we do not understand, over abstract territories, and in which humans are mere organelles, insignificant and replaceable.

One thing for such a complex organisational structure to become more powerful, is to increase communication and information transfer between its parts. That is exactly the thing that is happening right now, with the erosion of our privacy rights. I see a terrible analogy between this and the evolution of nerve cells, which did not have axons at first but could only communicate with neighbours. The power of the network grew exponentially when it did. In a similar fashion, any suprahuman organism will grow more powerful the more "transparent" the network of humans that is part of it becomes. This goes for corporations, nations, and anything. That is why it's happening. Well, one of the whys, on some level.

The point is, erosion of privacy makes the suprahuman organism more efficient, which is good for it. BUT it is not necessarily good for the individual humans. In fact, the more powerful the suprahuman organism becomes, the less important the wellbeing of the individual human becomes.

And when you're talking about where we are going, as a species, most signs that I can read, point in this direction, and not in the direction of Awesome Technology Stuff and Knowledge for All [individuals], we might get a littlebit of that, but we will be getting a lot more of the other.

First off, he's right about the privacy thing, I was wrong there, a lack of privacy makes communication on the part of the larger organism much easier.

To explore the general concept in a bit more detail though, starting with mitochondria, I believe the general consensus among biologists is that they were, originally, a free floating bacteria that was absorbed by another bacteria (eaten) but instead of being digested they were incorporated into it's body.  Some say this was what made eukaryotes possible.  In any case it looks like a pretty good deal all around.  Not for mitochondria in general, but for the specific mitochondria, instead of being digested they lived on, and are now much more widespread than they would otherwise be.

The other example is the formation of multicelled animals.  This is more confusing, since we don't see individual organs existing as separate beings and the way in which we evolved from one celled eukaryotes to multicelled beings is kind of confusing.  I can't say if our organs are really better off or not, however in the case of intestinal bacteria i think I can.  Yes, we shit them out indiscriminately, however that isn't really a negative for them, they can survive in our sewage and from there go on to enter new hosts, sometimes they do this in ways that are rather destructive to us (e-coli burgers) other times in more symbiotic ways, however in any case it doesn't look to me like the fact that some bacteria work with animals is really a negative either for them or for bacteria in general.  Of course they have not been absorbed into the corporate mass of the animal in the same way that liver cells or skin cells (skin cells get the shaft) have. 

I also really don't know that we have an option as far as some being absorbed.  Perhaps we can choose, as individuals, not be absorbed by the new supraorganism, but that doesn't mean they won't be absorbing many of those around us (often by those people's own choice) and we are left with the option of being fully absorbed (looks like a pretty shitty deal if skin cells are any example) working as independent contractors like the gut bugs, or trying to remain as wild bacteria, which may be a very difficult life.


Thank you 000 for bringing this up, it's something that had been in the back of my mind to a certain degree but you described it much more clearly than i had been in my mind and I'd love to see what other people think of the whole concept.

(I also think it is interestingly synchronicity that you posted this the same night I posted my plea for people to help me design an RPG set inside a body with the PC's as gut bugs.)

Sort of an open source paypal.  I checked out their forums and they appear the be full of Austrians and Paulites but I still think it is kind of a neat idea.

http://www.bitcoin.org/

If you install it be prepared to tinker a bit.  It gobbles CPU cycles.

So I am looking to play out a pen and paper campaign in which the PC's are bacteria and the setting is a body, haven't decided yet if it should be animal or human, but it doesn't really matter unless things get very wide in scope.  I want the PC's to be benign bacteria, so that they are not part of the body but they are also not being actively hunted by the immune system.

One thought I had was to link abilities to chromosomes, so they could be exchanged through bacterial sex.

I am thinking something closer to "A wind in the door" by Madelaine L'Engle than osmosis Jones.

(obviously this is not very fleshed out yet, any and all ideas appreciated)

This is a thought that was stirred by the reappearance of the drugs thread.  One of the main things I got from it was that Dok Howl and many others on the board don't see a problem with dong drugs, it's identifying yourself as a drug user that is fucking idiotic.

I agree, but I also wanted to say that, in it's essence, it's no different than identifying yourself by any other facet of consumption.  If you are a coke person (meaning you drink coca cola)  that's about as retarded as being a coke head.  If you identify yourself by the car you drive, that's just as bad as identifying yourself by the herb you smoke.  Brand identification is something that the brands have been pushing hard, it helps them to sell if their brand is identified with a certain lifestyle, a certain kind of person.  And it transforms each of us into easily categorized consumers, instead of simply people.  It's not a surprise to see this sort of thinking associated with illicit brands as well as the legal ones.

Sorry if this has been posted by someone in the past, it seems like something that would have been but I am fairly certain it has not.

http://dinosaursfuckingrobots.com/

Seems like they could be useful for image trolls when the more cerebral options have been exhausted, as well as for those of you who get your pineal fix from random collisions between sex, silliness, and intellectual quotes.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1936155

Apparently Fiat likes mindfucking

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126806429

Looks like the medical marijuana laws and stopping the raiding of clinics by the Obama administration has driven weed prices so low that many growers can no longer sell at any sort of profit at all.  Exactly the sort of thing that those pushing for drug legalization have said would happen.  The writer seems to be mourning the poor growers that are being pushed out of business.

http://cleaves.zapto.org/news/story-1967.html

According to this guy we are screwed.  And the only thing for Americans to do is get the fuck out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59OJ17raqWw&feature=player_embedded

This felt like it was saying all the things I've been hearing people on here say about TV.  The spiders, keeping people safe and warm feeling while they are rotting in a gray, hopeless world.

http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/11102

I thought this was great, an analysis of the icelandic volcano as an Anarchist activist. 

This seems like the kind of thing TGRR would have enjoyed doing.  May he rest in pieces.

http://www.theonion.com/video/scientists-successfully-teach-gorilla-it-will-die,17165/

ETA: and yes, I know it's not real.

I was watching a video linked from Global Guerrilas and the fellow in it mentioned this philosophy.  The basic concept is that we don't know enough to come to any conclusions, which is similar to Agnosticism, but he seems to take a more active approach.

His site about it is here.

http://www.possibilian.com/


Thought it might be the sort of thing people here would be into.

http://www.singinst.org/upload/CFAI/anthro.html

I thought the way this article examined our assumptions about AI was interesting, especcially the way he deconstructs the concept of self and instinctive reactions to hostility.

This was mentioned on Spagbook after I declared a pic posted by Yatto as the devil card (cause it looks a lot like the devil card in the Rider-Waite deck) looks like there was some interest in such a thing.  I wanted to start this thread to see what level of interest, and who might be interested in lending their wompy skills.  I can assist with Tarot theory, but my visual skills are pretty pathetic.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/quantum-photosynthesis/

This serves as an interesting counterpoint to the observer concept, although I suppose not if you assume that plants are conscious.

(I don't mean the actual quantum effect, I mean the OMGZ quantum = mahquijique observer concept)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-court-corporations22-2010jan22,0,4141508.story

In a 5-4 decision, the {supreme court of the USA}court's conservative bloc said corporations have the same 1st Amendment rights as individuals and, for that reason, the government may not stop corporations from spending freely to influence the outcome of federal elections.

Has it always been spelled that way?

Is it an honest mistake or some sort of odd mindfuck?

Damnit, I have been here too long, I am seeing conspiracies everywhere!  And doubting my own perceptions.

Hey, if you have never read the story "Season's greetings to our friends and family!!!" BY David Sedaris from the book barrel fever I heartily reccomend it.  Brilliant horrormirth featuring a lovely use of punnage.

Of course I could not violate copyright laws by copying it into this thread, but if someone were to PM me I might know someone who might do such a thing.

All of Sedaris' stuff is top shelf horrormirth, but that particular story stands out for the perfect placement of a pun.

Can't find the thread for it, not sure if there is one.  And I think the idea is brilliant, so i am making a new thread.  if I am just blind I apologize.

I only just discovered what an ARG is recently, so if I am describing it wrong do please correct. (stands for Augmented Reality Game)

Basically an ARG is like a roleplaying game, but you play it in your regular life.  You get e-mails, receive phone calls, and whatnot, and are instructed to do things.  The idea i saw being discussed (don't remember where) was to have an ARG in which the participants are part of a scret conspiracy.  They could elave one another coded messages, do strange things that seem pointless, but are actually part of elaborate mindfucks, etc.

If I got this wrong someone please correct me.  i think it is an awesome idea and would love to be involved in it in some way.  I have lotsa experience GMing tabletop, none as an ST for a LARP or a puppetmaster for an ARG, but I'd still love to be either a puppet master or a participant if it ends up getting up and rolling.  I am also not the worst coder in the world (just abut the third worst) so would be willing to help set up mailing lists and such for it.

There's my face, but this might be easier to womp

http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html

This suggests, pretty plausibly, that we are, in fact, living inside a simulation.

Might be more of an apple talk subject

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emmett-rensin/hipster-joins-marines-win_b_209923.html

I really don't get this guy.  Since when is doing something that you violently oppose the definition of Irony?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/30/oklahoma-republicans-read_n_223074.html

http://www.soundclick.com/babylonhoruv

last ride is a good one for mindfucking.