On getting drunk.

OK, heck! I've always been advised against getting drunk as a solution to depression, but scientifically speaking: "it works" and my head now rings like a large gong. Because lately I've been confronted by the fact that my dad had Alzheimers so I'll probably get it too. I'm 72 & my short term memory is crap. I can't afford long term care but after watching my folks and grandpa go through it, I'm not too keen on repeating that mistake.
Last night I counted 9 (nine) relatively major projects (taking more than a week to complete) around my place that have been put on hold for a relatively long time (up to 8 years) because either the project lost relevancy or I'm waiting on some determining aspect. That becomes depressing when compared with the original intent and inspiration. So, (in desperation) I had a stiff shot of cheap brandy for perspective and BOY do I feel competent. As a veteran of the psychedelic generation, I know better than to act on any currant impulses (except to write because this has minimal repercussions) and tomorrow I can review what was decided for anything practical.
Yet here we are: inspiration in a bottle, Satans elixir: The Demon Rum. except, uh... I still don't see resolution for most of the nine ossified projects, those might take some weed and amphetamines which I also swore off (and don't have handy).
But for the most part, right now I don't much care about the projects. This is a genuine blessing, and the groundwork for objectivity. Because one thing at a time. My friend Eskimo Tom on L road is drunk all (90%) of the time (vodka), I superciliously try to tell him to get sober and gird up his loins, but he always laughs me off. OK I get it. Tomorrow I'm going to see someone about a fender repair, but then there's a Chevy s-10 that leaks compression in #2 cyl and I'm going to find out if focused attention and some K-seal stop-leak will fix it if I remove the spark plug and disconnect the injector so there'll be no compression in that cylinder and the k-seal will be able to flow into the weak gasket or whatever is going on in there. OK it's not a major 1 week+ project but it's been chronic for about a year and this solution is new so I'm up.
    update: It worked, there was also a bad injector and burned out catalytic converter (whew).
Oh, and this: Clues to brain changes in depression (Sciencedaily.com)
My advice: Get half drunk and consider your options because THEY GET SIMPLE. (good luck)

Big troll-bot on a small list

by Bruce Broderick, Jul 8, 2018

Several months ago, like many of you, I started to become concerned about
this endless stream of mindless incessant  bullying, name calling and
threats of retaliation by this Zeke Krahlin character.

For the life of me I couldn't fathom why someone from the bay area would
have such an interest in demeaning people and local organizations that
communicate via our little podunk list serve.

My concern was great enough that I started confronting this character in my
own fashion. I got the standard responses along with one that showed my
name and business interests. Shortly thereafter I found myself, unwittingly
signed up to a few wing nut email lists. The price of free speech these
days, I suppose.

In any case I decided to look at a few list serves in other communities to
see if this sort of thing occurs. It's actually pretty common. What was
most interesting though was the similarity in the verbal attacks and
degrading comments.

A simple web search brings up a variety of Zeke Krahlin posts and responses
from dark web topics, hacking, virus' and this characters opinions on a
variety of tech topics and him/itself in both the Windows and Linux world.

My simple searches led me to consider the probability that the Zeke
(Ezekiel) Krahlin character is not a person at all but a phishing bot
designed to get emotionally charged responses and compile information.

In these troubled times of psycho-political warfare, where information
about people is the main currency, bots like Krahlin are invaluable for
collecting information and discouraging activist types of people. The
irritating posts and calloused responses to simple community events and the
needs of individuals on the list serve are designed to bring out agitated
responses and feed the algorithms of the application to better identify the
character of those responding to the bot.

The information gathered is then stored and used as needed against the
individuals or groups of individuals that unknowingly give the bot
psychological and or personal information about themselves.

This type of phishing is far more insidious than even the recent Facebook
information phishing schemes because it is on a more personal level. One
believes they are arguing a valid point or standing up for a perceived
injustice against themselves or friends, when in reality they are only
feeding a bot with ulterior motives.

Whether you believe my analysis or not I would suggest that you not
interact with this (character?).
Feel free to re post.

update 3 Dec 2018:
This post has been getting some comments (unusual for my blog), including from Zeke (its/himself!) so I really want to advise against replying to him. If you feel oddly outraged, that's the whole point, it's really nothing personal though, just business.
Inger Grape says "He's a classic troll, who most likely gets paid per reply, and to garner replies, they act in a disruptive, vile manner. So please don't reply to him. Nobody but nobody spends that much time answering just about *every single email *without getting paid."

update 21 oct 2020:
This link describes a possible function and purpose of the Zeke: Where loneliness can lead (Aeon.com).
An onslaught of mindless lies might cause one to consider the validity of the lies as a means to understand, cracking the door open to their influence. "Verlassenheit – a state of being abandoned [is] an introduction to totalitarianism, in loneliness (alieanation) we are unable to realise our full capacity for action as human beings" and "destroys man’s ability to think, while turning each in his lonely isolation against all others". (Legit. Hannah Arendt)

Also a short history of classic brain washing.

Update 22 Dec 2023:

"Due to the ability of AI to not only impersonate humans undetectably in digital spaces, but also to expertly push human emotional buttons to change behaviors, my top priority, as a democracy enjoying former email administrator, is for a more protected community list by this rule: You must be an actual human with local ties.

mailmodo.com/guides/ai-email-responder

For this software, a real person would have to sign up and then hand it off to a bot installed which interacts with their email program. Then, for example, key word filters might only respond in certain cases. In addition to what you can buy, there are also custom programmed systems without the restrictions consumer AI has. Corporate entities can use this, for example, to create robot call centers that apply pressure to anyone the AI determines is saying anything on social media or on lists which could negatively impact one of their products.

Worse is that such AI pressure can use very specific and sometimes very private facts gleaned by and deduced from decades of mass data collection on every person.

Weather or not AI tools creating some fake dramatic people are behind the near takedown of this list is irrelevant; the point is that it should never happen, and it technically some see that it can. I think it will, if it hasn’t already.

A simple solution I propose is to verify the humanity of any account doing emotive tagging, pushing emotional buttons.

People will always disagree and argue and unskilled communication can escalate tensions, same as ever, but AI is bringing a new level of threat that humans have never seen.

An AI wrote this:

“We will have great companies that will bring us wealth, but when AI takes over, it will all be stealth.”

Are we there yet? Hope not. Lets patch the fences before robotic deer get in to eat our gardens.

Respectfully,

Xeno"

Book Review from Scientific American Blog

"God's Word or Human Reason? An Inside Perspective on Creationism" The claims of Young Earth Creationists are easily checked and easily countered. And a new book – written by former creationists themselves – does this in substantive, compelling detail... (blogs.scientificamerican.com)

Where consciousness comes from

Todays flash:

Imagine a proto-organism, maybe a protein (with no senses). A nearby chemical begins to react and causes it to move or change, maybe like a detergent breaks down surface tension, or maybe by ion exchange. It happens whenever the 2 are in proximity and it turns out to be beneficial to the piece of protein because it prevents it from dissolving or something. After awhile the surviving proteins all contain the proper structure to react that way. Fast forward a few million years; the protein picks up a few more survival traits the same way.

One of the traits is a boolean modifier that optimizes the reaction so that the random chemicals in the environment trigger sensor feedbacks that are "identified" as beneficial (for continued existence) or are bad (dissolution). That identifier boolean is the basis for consciousness but probably not actual consciousness. It compares a number of inputs to define the nature of the external influence. The boolean (if x then z) becomes (if x and y then z) where y is the effect of it's own response. Accumulated booleans develop into a model of the world that includes the proto-organisms own influence. That's consciousness. The boolean modifier is a trait selected by survival of the organism. Mass consciousness is when one group(country/race) modifies it's behavior based on it's relationship to other groups. It is recognition of itself as being part of a broader community/organism.

update 25 April 2021:

A problem with this above definition is that it only applies retroactively. That is, it describes how consciousness evolved as a result of mechanical-chemical processes.

I don't really ascribe to the mystery school but it's only fair to give it coverage. IMHO it's the deification of ignorance because obviously nobody knows how things work because if they did it wouldn't be a mystery. OK not digressing here ... The point is that there's no way to prove that consciousness exists without a physical vessel such as yourself (except for glimmers of information transferred outside the limits of an individual). HAH! So lets just assume it does and is universal. What would that look like?

Awareness existing in Rocks-trees-air & cosmic consciousness would explain the total lack of involvement/interest by any god because the loss of any individual is no big deal (except to the individual). Animals associate death with non existence and think (rationally) that self propagation defeats death. But puts them in competition with other organisms for the same space and resources, which changes the name of the game from "sex is fun" (so we don't die) to "global domination" (so we don't die).

I believe any god would have to be oblivious and indifferent to any animals evolutionary trends (people aren't the chosen species) because Humanity is well on the way to it's own destruction and we'll be taking a lot of other species with us. Hmm.. unless Cosmic consciousness is real, then we just change shape and loose individual memory. That still implies an ongoing process though, & one has to wonder what for?

That some kind of universal awareness would have a goal sort of sounds anthropomorphic, but since living things are part of the cosmic consciousness too, they would also have that tendency. um maybe, maybe not.

So what do animals have that rocks and trees don't? Mobility comes to mind, also intentional reprocessing of materials into forms that benefit other organisms (in the form of poop, burrowing, (making computers?), altering the environment to open new niches. Have to say it really seems like the existing ecosystems are pretty useful though.

It seems that people in particular have a quality that intellectualizes perceptions to create new possibilities from them. Things like number theory & Physics, and the same question of "what for". What I'm doing here is guessing the mind of god which is traditionally said to be a no-no as well as futile, but that's the mystery school for you, and once you DO know, it no longer applies. Until another one comes along, maybe this hypothesis is the purpose, they probably happen a lot.