Make it so number one.

That consciousness arises from matter as some emergent phenomenon. Integrated information theory, micro-tubules, or whatever: no.

I believe consciousness is fundamental.

Humans as a power source was the dumbed-down plot point. The original concept was the human brains acting as parallel processors, but the writers thought the average movie-goer wouldn’t get it.

I hate this for them. I feel like the new store location has been a lot of trouble.

• No offense taken

• These are salient points

• I edited my post

• I hope it’s easier to digest now

• Thank you for the constructive criticism

“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago” - Alan Watts

This one is a bit hard-won for me. You see I used to be an asshole. It was my brand. I thought “it’s just in my nature”.

Fortunately, I was also a student of religion (mostly because I was a militant atheist. Know your enemy and all that). Studying Buddhism, I began to observe the nature of self. I found enough distance from it to see its transient nature.

I realized being an asshole was a choice and I could just as easily choose otherwise. Soon I began to discover this was true of most character traits.

I’m not saying you don’t have consistent patterns of behavior. I’ll hopefully always be curious and analytical. But for the most part, the way you conduct yourself and where you focus your attention is a choice.

So, if you’re not happy with who you are maybe don’t be so attached to the idea of 'who you are". And if that seems hard, observe what you pay your attention to and try to find the distance between observation and behavior. In that gap lies the choice you make, consciously or not, to be “you”.

Strength Before Weakness

Use a vacuum cleaner with a detached hose. While applying suction from the screen side, slide the nozzle up while dragging the card with it.

This one was actually quite entertaining. When the episode switched from the Live Action “previously on” recap to the animated Lower Decks crew, I was tickled. The second Jack Quaid came through the portal as Boimler, I was invested. He nails the live action portrayal. I also loved him as Hughie in The Boys.

“What is better: to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?” — Paarthurnax, Skyrim

For an example -NSFW strong language-, here’s an AI imitating/mocking the US presidential debate

Fire in the Sky Just no. I couldn’t even look at an image of a grey alien for years. Had to look away during the opening credits of X-files because they flashed an image of a grey. I got over it. I actually rewatched it during the pandemic lock-in. It holds up pretty well.

I named my truck Artax because I’m gonna cry like a little bitch when it finally dies.

Somebody’s passive perception is lower than 10.

I know. You’re right. It’s just an old habit.

I’m not certain, but perhaps some games are pre-cracked. For instance, some from that girl who’s fit.

I agree with you there. I usually just want to try out the game before I buy the real deal. I don’t do too much online stuff these days, but occasionally I want to jump into a game with a friend and thus need my Steam account.

So sandbox completely? That’s doable. I imagine to have a Steam account completely separate from your primary account, you’d need to never share libraries and avoid matching IPs. Do you think Steam looks at hardware MAC addresses?