birth is one of the only constants that stretches back to the first people. of course, in modern times, all of these constants have an inverted element.

we can model most people's pregnancies and birth experiences as a process of gradually knowing: of gaining information.

... you learn that you or your wife are pregnant via a physical test - basically, a small "machine". then, you get to see the baby via an ultrasound. you see its feet, its face, they also let you hear its heartbeat. these are all sensory experiences, that impress firmly upon you.

[modernity, spirit, internet dating discourse]

you have attributes: your job, your hometown, your hobbies, your accomplishments, your past, and so on

i generally break up any view of "the self" along an axis. on one end, all that stuff: thats you - or, thats really part of you on the other end, it's the opposite. all that stuff is obscuring the real you

yeah, you have a job, stuff you did, stuff you like, where you're from, your family, but that's not really you, maan. your real self is underneath all that. you have go under that, to the real self

a brief recap of the entirety of human history through the lens of:

whats your vibe on being stuck in a jar?

1. post-modern: i would like to get out of the jar

our most recent cultural touchstone for being stuck in a jar is 'the matrix'. here, everyone is in a jar.

[...] neo gets out of the jar. the jar was a good time, if you're in it, but he was born into the jar. he didn't choose to be in a jar

you can see baudrillards book 'simulacra and simulation' in the film. likewise, for baudrillard, the jar was society's interlocking fake symbols, man

[postmodern themes and christian scenes]

jean lyotard, who presumably had an issue with modernity due to sharing his name with a piece of modern sportswear, gave a great and succinct definition for "postmodernism":

postmodernism is incredulity towards metanarratives.

[...]

https://twitter.com/owenbroadcast/status/1825885558641475694

thats it. i like this definition because its brief, and cuts right to the heart of one of the most broadly and confusingly used terms online these days. it really pins down the vibe of "postmodernism is just ... like... taking things apart, sort of, i guess", that you get online

this was one of “the” topics on here yesterday. i have no opinions or knowledge about this guy.

the function of propaganda isnt to convince people of something. thats what propaganda is like in movies.

in reality, one main function of propaganda is “perceptual narrowing”.

…

https://twitter.com/marlene4719/status/1824476348129185814

you watch a movie or read a comic book, and they show you “propaganda” in that universe. its usually something like “this war is good”, and narratively, that convinces people that the war is good.

real propaganda generally isnt like that. people are generally already convinced.

its a common trope that children are more in touch with something like "the spiritual realm". many marian apparitions are to children, you hear people say children can see things we cant

children can also be the subject of prophecy: the observed, rather than the observer

[...] in some tellings of 'sleeping beauty', the princess is given a curse by an evil witch: a prophecy, that on her sixteenth birthday she'll prick her finger and die. this can be altered, by another fairy, who makes it so she'll sleep instead of die, but it can't just be erased.

[george constanza and soviet mind control]

in the seinfeld episode 'the blood', george is surprised that his girlfriend lights a stick of vanilla incense before lovemaking. this sweet food scent has such a powerful effect on him that he leaves early, ravenously hungry.

[...] he assumes that she will light the incense again the next time he's at her apartment. he's correct - but this time he is prepared. he's brought food, so he doesn't have to leave early. in fact, they somewhat unexpectedly end up eating together during the lovemaking process.

a few months ago i found out that my great grandmother once got caught, by her husband, having sex at a factory she worked at with some guy, and she had a kid, who they gave away, so theres a secret lost line of my family out there somewhere

i thought that was interesting

... apparently when she started looking super pregnant, they sent her away somewhere. she had the kid, someone adopted him, and that was it.

decades later he found my grandmother, but she basically didn't want anything to do with him.

brutal. of course, i have no idea who he is.

theres two civilizations living alongside each other today. in one, risk is a part of life, it “just happens”. in the other, risk is something “you do”: you choose to take it on.

this is a complete epistemic divide. they dont understand each other. totally oppositional realities

https://twitter.com/inlandcaguy/status/1823063244636086341

children are one of the flashpoints for this because they cant really consent to anything or control their life. thats why theyre useful in ethical thought experiments

the guy above lives in the world where risk is a part of life. the onlooker sees him “doing” risk “to” his kids

theres a PC game from the 90s called ‘nightmare ned’. its a disney game that is, functionally, a kids game - i would say, except for the concept: you play as a child who has been left alone in their home at night, who experiences their home as a nightmarish horror phantasm.

[…]





the concept and implementation is, objectively, pretty scary for kids - especially the way its presented. the home is inhabited by various shadow creatures. theyre ostensibly real - they talk, taunt you, move things, theyre like the “bosses” of the game, who inhabit your home:

theres a 4chan post about how super intelligent characters on TV shows often make no sense, because its usually a normal writer imagining what its like to be super intelligent, which is impossible

likewise this type of comedy is normal people imagining what its like to be weird

https://twitter.com/ericandre/status/1821607312127385918

"being weird" is characterized by being unintelligible or off-putting to the average normal person. so when a normal person tries to be weird, they naturally just become unintelligible and off-putting - because from their point of view (outside of it), thats what being weird is.

[mormon creationism and parenting]

in Christian theology, God creates the universe from nothing. its called ‘creation ex nihilo’: God makes the universe ‘from scratch’ - literally from “no thing”. its basically the ultimate God like ability. its one of his defining features.

… here, you can see a great visual representation of this. theres nothing (black circle, i think thats what this is anyway), and God pokes in there and makes the universe out it. most people intuitively think of God this way. it just makes sense, what would the alternative be?

semiotics is the study of signification, unpopular due to being too abstract

heres why it matters: you make a tech device, called ‘friend’. it provides companionship. but to wear this wouldnt signal “i have companionship”. it signals the opposite: it communicates your alone-ness

https://twitter.com/avischiffmann/status/1818284595902922884

products and social gear generally signal “the need” rather than “the aim”. this isnt intuitive, so unless you’re dealing with something already socially stigmatized, like smoking, you can just miss this entirely. smoking is a good example, a nicotine patch signals “addiction”.

[hyper low american church aesthetics]

the strip mall church. often presented online as the ultimate symbol of american christians dropping the ball somewhere along the historical timeline. plastic signs and conference room vibes. post it next to a cathedral. just do it.

... it writes itself. look at this, then look at this medieval basilica. you can draw whatever conclusion you want. these people don't care about aesthetics, relationship of beauty to the divine, maybe they mean well but their tradition has failed them. its a great box to stand on.

recently i was stuck somewhere and read through over 20 years straight of a single newspaper comic. newspaper comics are an interesting medium because theres simultaneously zero continuity (its 9000 isolated incidents) while also being one single line: one massive narrative

...

https://twitter.com/robertlasagna1/status/1816088362786144518

this particular comic started in the 90s. this means you're about... 80% of the way in, the world and characters are established, and then tech world kicks in - suddenly they have phones, social media exists, it just opens up into their world. just like it did in real life.

i didnt read all this or watch the video. you can just look at the first paragraph.

the next big front, one of the next big things - at least online as a hot topic, will be the nexus of medicine, therapy, parenthood, and the state.

here is why its an extremely difficult topic:

https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1813611464617492722

my prediction is that most people will engage with this upon typical culture war lines, as you see above. perhaps this is correct or incorrect, its irrelevant to what i have to say - because, maybe uniquely, this confluence of issues really defies that sort of analysis, at all.

heres some genuine esoteric psychology advice (for entertainment purposes only):

you have a job. we say “have” so, you think its “just there”. its something you got, and now you possess it. thats wrong. if you “have” something like a job, you are creating that job.

…

https://twitter.com/karasmarsh/status/1797687625589133711

things dont just exist eternally in a static state in this sphere: so, every day, you are creating that job. you don’t realize it, but you are. if you weren’t, it would just decay or go away or be destroyed. so, youre creating your job every day without realizing it.

next:

van dusen (psychologist who worked with schizophrenics and read swedenborg) eventually adopted an energy vampire model of the voices his patients were hearing, he claimed explaining this to the patients consistently resulted in the voices telling patients to physically attack him

https://twitter.com/tomchivers/status/1792948364759236926

he basically claimed that he could sit (at least a significant percent of his) patients down in a room and go through a script, like “i am going to start explaining something to you - here’s what the voices are going to tell you to do”: first they would tell patients to leave.

answers to questions like “what do we actually literally do in heaven” is a legitimate issue.

western religion has historically focused way more on outrooting heresies than how to explain things to a normal person. there are good reasons for this, but it does create problems.

https://twitter.com/reddit_lies/status/1783441271815610609

in general for a lot of hands on “ok, how does this actually work though” questions, its way easier to find out what youre not supposed to think than it is to get a clear pinned down few sentence answer. the ramifications of this model have really only just recently started (imo)

tech interfaces used to be much more actively customizable. you could just poke in and make everything green, pink, anything. this is much less of a thing today. this probably stems from a kind of allergy to sincerity - someone might see your interface and see how much you cared

https://twitter.com/RetroTechDreams/status/1782100995788455954

jordan peterson really got his whole thing locked into a single meme: "clean up your room". whats lesser known is what the second step was: make it beautiful. the idea was that by trying to make something look nice, you would then be forced to be open to harsh personal criticism

'medical mundi' is a term i started to use, internally, at a time in my life when i was often in and out of hospitals.

the 'medical world' really is 'a world'. it is a realm. it has its own way of being, its own paradigm, and its self-contained.

thats medical mundi.

... you dont really notice when you enter medical mundi. something happens, and you go to the hospital. thats just what you do. you're just there.

but, you notice when you leave. you're back in the parking lot - hours, days, weeks later. like a stone, you hit the earth. you're back