OT WED 12 JUN 24 ~ Ghost in the Machine Day
"The mind is a powerful thing, capable of creating entire worlds within its vast expanse."
-- Arthur C. Clark The Ghost in the Machine
There are several interpretations on this holiday. One is coined by the Oxford
philosopher Gilbert Ryle to describe the Cartesian dualist account of the mind-body
relationship. Does the mind extend beyond the brain? I think so.
Another more recent meaning relates to the phantoms seemingly haunting our
digital and mechanical devices. Inanimate objects can behave as if they have a
mind of their own at times.
Also, as in Clark's sci-fi novel, the concept has expanded to describe AI and the
blurring of boundaries between human and machine intelligence. Does the digital
world influence our thoughts?
Others besides Descartes also believed there is a mind that is separate from the body,
and that it can live on after the body dies.
Share your favorite machine ghost stories below. Or just go with the flow ..
Comments
Buona giornata
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Is that a human in your machine?
~
~
ADIT 42 by Chris Millar
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/07/chris-millar-sculptures/
question everything
Good morning...
It is the last cool AM for awhile as a heat bubble moves our way. Currently 59F, and garden chores await.
The human body is a self regulating machine...too bad our society is not. Eat well to keep your machine in good tune and well oiled.
Hope everyone has a good day. Better get on with the chores while the weather is pleasant. Headed to high 90's by the end of the week.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning QMS. I'm not ready to delve into the
irony of the conjunction between Descartes and "Ghost in the Machine" quite yet this morning, so I'll provide instead some '70s era entertainment to brighten or sully one's day, as the case may be.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The Police album
"Ghost in The Machine" was largely recorded at George Martin's wonderful, but doomed, Air Studios Montserrat.
I remember getting to Montserrat a few years ago, getting access to the exclusion zone with a safety guide, and wandering the footpaths through the streets of the equally doomed former capital, Plymouth- buried 30+ feet deep under a heavy layer of volcanic ash from the Soufriere volcano. I wanted so badly to find the actual location of Air Studios, just to pay my respects. But it was not to be; the volcanic action, and a later hurricane, had pretty well erased it.
Soufriere still looms balefully over the ruins of the buried city, and it still rumbles daily and spits boulders, sulfur dioxide, and general malevolence over the terrain below.
It was indeed a soulful experience.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Interesting story
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Thanks for sharing it here!
question everything
It calls for a quote
from the Laurie Anderson tune "Blue Lagoon", the lyrics for which feature (among other things) a brilliant mashup of Shakespeare and Melville:
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
great lyrics
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can relate to:
But that suffers a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Thanks!
question everything
Color me Befuddled. It appears that
"The mind is a powerful thing, capable of creating entire worlds within its vast expanse." is a quote by Ghost in the Machine, which phrase comes from Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two. I suspect that said Ghost in a character in said book. The phrase is also a book title, but the book in question was written in 1967 by Arthur Koestler, whose Darkness at Noon is definitely worth a read. Koestler got it from Gilbert Ryle who used it to describe Cartesian Dualism, possibly in his 1949 work The Concept of Mind.
What I find of interest is the correspondence to the phrase "Deus ex Machina", GOD in/from the machine, descriptive of the classical Greek era practice of having a god miraculously appear on the stage to resolve (or complicate) things via some mechanism. The commonality here is Renee Descartes. Descartes is probably most widely known for his "cogito"; the phrase "Cogito erego Sum" (I think therefore I am) tossed out in his attempt at epistemology. Most of us, at some point have expanded it to cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - "I think I think therefore I think I am", if only in jest. In truth, Descartes' entire exercise is a case of intellectual Deus ex machina. He decides to doubt everything, even his own existence and momentarily finds support for his existence and the reality of the world in his cogito, but comes to wonder how he can be certain that he is not dreaming, or worse yet, fooled by some evil demon. At this point god bursts on the scene like the puppet in some hand cranked child's jack-in-the-box, totally without any preface or support. God would not let him be thus fooled, tricked, hallucinate or make silly mistakes, Q.E.D. This, of course renders the totality of his ruminations unsupported and irrational.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Thanks for the clarifications
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Sorry for my confusing text. Can blame some of it on starting this essay today
at 4 AM. Oops. Writing with a ghost for a mind.
question everything
Appeals court rules that the Rona jabs are not vaccines
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but treatment only. And therefore they can’t be mandated because we have the right to refuse medical treatment. Jacobson doesn’t apply…..read why.
The thing is that the PTB that were in charge of the scamdemic knew damn well that the jabs were non sterilizing. How many people had their lives ruined because of the mandates?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
that would be one big class-action law suit
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with many targets ..
wrongful termination
based on pharma misinformation
government, corporations and media
could be held to account?
question everything
I bet ther are a lot of people who will try to bring
lawsuits. Especially against businesses and colleges that mandated them and some state are. But what’s even worse is hospitals are still mandating jabs for anyone on the organ transplant list. Just recently a 17 year old girl died because she wasn’t jabbed. The court upheld the decision even though it’s known that they don’t protect.
The hospital said that it’s not fair to put them employees at risk if she wasn’t jabbed. Stupidest timeline ever!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Lemmesee here, the jabs were authorized as an
emergency vaxx procedure because there was no extant treatment. Since they are a treatment, they cannot be authorized under an emergency process, and hence cannot be given at all, even voluntarily. I'll love telling my doc who just contacted me to point out that i am egregiouslu behind in my boosters. If they are a "treatment" they cannot even legally be a medication. Bwahahaha.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
As far as I can tell, the article doesn't give a cite
for the actual case it is describing. Any help?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Link to case is at the top of article
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Vax Mindset
I have two cousins (sisters) who’ve never kept in touch with our family much, not even with each other…one in WA State and the other in VA. They have no other living relatives. At least 18 months ago my VA cousin Sharon found one of my phone numbers in an online search and called. When we touched on COVID, she said “Let me tell you something about the vaccines.” She shared that after her second Pfizer shot she had severe neurological damage to arms and legs. She spent a year learning how to walk again. She said she’ll never get another COVID shot.
Our next conversation was last month. She called to tell me her 71-year-old sister Karen, who lived alone, had died. Sharon and what appears to be her common-law husband of many years were driving cross-country to take care of Karen’s affairs. I knew Karen’s house would be extremely difficult to clean up. When I last saw it in 2006, there were piles of junk covering every surface. I offered to go help, especially as it was a chance to see Sharon after many decades. I assumed that her “husband,” having seen first-hand a side effect, was wary of the vaccines.
Karen had worked for WA State most of her life, still did at time of death. With that state’s strict mandates she almost certainly was vaxxed. Sharon said her autopsy showed damage to several organs including the heart, also a blood infection of some sort. Sharon seemed puzzled about Karen’s heart as she’d never had a heart problem. I mentioned a couple issues I’d read about in scientific articles, dealing with strange fibrous blood clots as well as micro blood clots in vaxxed people. Either of those might’ve affected her heart and other organs.
The next day, “hubby” offered me a Bud Lite. As we chatted he gave me a stern lecture, said I should be careful about my sources of information. When I described Dr. Fauci as being corrupt, he told me what amazingly good work he’d done to help people, starting with the AIDS crisis. He was angry and passionate, so much so that I wouldn’t have said another word about the matter even if he’d given me a chance. When I had mentioned the media couldn’t be trusted, he said he never watched FOX. Then advised me that a good source to go to is NPR.
This conversation makes me think the MSM and PTB have permanently influenced the minds of pro-vaxxers, when not even close-up and personal experience will budge them.
Sharon has not fully recovered from her vax injury. She can’t stand very long and needs a walker on uneven ground.
Outside of this small glitch, we got along beautifully. They even handed me money to pay for motel/gas, etc. as I was leaving.
Anya
Sounds like one had Guillane Barre
A severe neurological reaction to many vaccines and blood infection could be septis a dangerous disorder for those with damaged immune systems.
Fauci and AIDS. Hundred of men died from his not authorizing Bactrim and hundreds of thousands more died from AZT and other toxic meds he decided they should take. I can write a book on what I think of him. Kennedy Jr. actually did if you haven’t read it.
The husband is who Caitlin has been writing about for years. He derides Fox, but thinks other corporate media sites tell him the truth. And seeing 2 vaccine injuries, but still closing his eyes to the facts is beyond sad. Some of the sites are now admitting that people have been injured by them and hopefully the whole story comes out soon. Even Brix has admitted that they don’t work and that many people have been injured by the,
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Fauci
I remember well your writings about your brother, Fauci, and AIDS. On the question of Fauci and my sources, I mentioned I’d read Kennedy’s book. That comment truly incensed him. He has special disdain for RFK. Started spouting about a “worm in his head.” This struck me as really weird. Until I later saw a comment in our local free weekly rag which has adopted the same Deep State outlook as MSM. The article mentioned that RFK admitted he once had a parasitic worm in his brain but assured us the worm is dead. Of course the author encouraged readers to take this into strong consideration when voting. I would’ve pointed out the many scholarly references in RFK’s Fauci book, but any further input along this line would’ve really sent him over the edge. It’s a shame we’ve been so expertly herded into partisan camps that it seems impossible to calmly debate these things.
Anya
Chuckle….
I can imagine it set him off. The media has been telling people to hate Kennedy for as long as I can remember. And he is not anti vax as he has explained so many times people should be able to quote him. He vaxxed his kids and all his has been asking for are true vaccines studies with a true placebo.
And why should someone who once had a parasite in his head be someone to laugh at? Shitlibs had a field day with that.
Bingo.
We absolutely should have open debates on this topic, but bad pharma doesn’t want to and they won’t allow anyone to make people question vaccine safety. And Fauci has been their hitman who ruined the careers of anyone who questioned them. The guy who started the autism witch hunts didn’t say that vaccines cause it, he just wanted to open debate on it and see if there’s any evidence to support it. Today 1/50 kids are diagnosed with it. It’s increasing and we should find out why.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
This, precisely.
When presented with a choice of obvious (and odious) outright propaganda, people will retreat into echo chambers that soothe and agree with their internal biases. They are easier to manage that way.
This is the beauty of the "divide and conquer" strategy: get everybody to self-sort into one of two separate and irreconcilably warring camps, so that the actual criminals need never worry abut a unified uprising of the people, aimed at themselves.
We'll happily do all the dirty work for them. Thus, the dumbing-down, censoring, and propaganization of the MSM. My belief is that they will never again present objective truth in my remaining lifetime: selling the approved spin is too profitable. That ship sailed with Walter Cronkite.
The war on objective truth has been won, and we've been gleefully cheering it on, as we blithely choose whether to be on the red team or the blue team. Rah!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Sadly
This effing method tore the site apart and neither side would listen to each other. I think of the Rona War often and I feel bad about it. As time has passed and more of the truth is finally coming out, it looks like one side was mostly right after all.
One side listened to the mainstream media and the other the alternative media and those who were being mocked and censored.
I agree:
Lots of money spent from the parasite class creating websites that said certain people and sites were untrustworthy and not to be taken seriously.
Prop or Not, The integrative initiative, ect. And lots of money sent to universities to do the same. Stanford and Harvard…plus the government’s own Ministry of Truth. Lots of money!
So far some alternative sites are still standing. Substack for one and Musk has lessened the Twit censorship. Not perfect, but better than it was when Jack owed it.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
IF the court case regarding the covid-19 VAXX is
Health Freedom Defence Fund v Carvalho, the court made no findings of fact but simply reinstated the case. The case had been dismissed and that dismissal was under appeal. There was no original "trier of fact" so the circuit court simply assumed arguendo that all of the plaintiff's allegations were true and found that, should that be the case, dismissal was improper, and returned it for a full trial on the facts and applicable law.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
No it’s not that one
I’m trying to find the link, but too many people who wrote about it don’t provide links. A pet peeve.
I just got back from the mountain and need time to unwind. Hopefully I’ll find it tonight.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
That might be it.
And it was basically a finding by the appeals court as you said.
What is profound is that the court had no quarrel with Plaintiff's assertions, and that is huge.
You, mister, take good care!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Did you read the link in the article?
And the essay I posted? This could be the decision that brings down all mandates vaccines.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I did read it.
What I have not had time to do is to ready the actual opinion from the court.
Maybe today.
It could very well be the game changer.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
In so far as the future is concerned
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with mind and machines, I regret to inform you I will not be available
next week to cover, let alone scribe the OT. If any of you want to take
up the chalice, be my guest. Will be out of range in Maine sailing my
worries away. Or so I think, ergo will contact admin formally to disengage.
So long and thanks for all the fish!
question everything