Fractal Guy

Finished my Christmas shopping. 100% of my gifts are from local shops. Jeff Bezos isn't making a single cent from my holiday shopping spree! I feel like Kurt Vonnegut buying an envelope. 😎

Phish bassist @mike-gordon.com loves the transcendent experience of his band syncing up in an improvised jam—so much that he’s funding research to better understand these moments. 🎶

Anyone else fed up with Zoom spam meeting invites? Why is this company letting their platform become the most aggressive form of SPAM my inbox has ever encountered? SPAM that also kicks off calendar reminders. I'm actually starting to like Teams thanks to this nonsense. FIX YOUR SHIT ZOOM!

Where's my fuckin' money Denny?

Reviewed the Declaration of Independence and found at least 2/3 of the grievances against Kimg George directly apply to the current administration. No kings 1776-2025.

Just had @allegiantair.bsky.social reschedule a 9pm flight to 3pm when I had already paid for a tour that afternoon. Apparently, they can just steal a whole day of your vacation with no recourse. Not cool at all.

The Japanese invented Seppuku for exactly this scenario @schumer.senate.gov. Restore honor to the Democrats. Step down, beg forgiveness for your failures, and thank the stars you don't live in feudal Japan.

Two of my favorite critics of Silicon Valley cultism together at last!

Applying the addiction model to make sense of the behavior of billionaires. If you see a rich person, take pity, for they probably have little control over their actions. They need treatment, and progressive taxation has been shown to be most effective.

Getting Shifty with Adam Curtis. It's like "We didn't start the fire" but the Very British Docuseries version.

In the latest Foundation, Cleon asks "do robots dream of wiping their own asses?" implying that tens of thousands of years in the future they have still not figured out the superiority of the bidet.

Given the alt-right's favorite faux philosopher Jordan Peterson defines "god" as "the top of your hierarchy," it would pay for progressives to find better ways to appeal to hierarchy, status, and the moral foundation of authority.

Political polarization isn't left vs right, it's politicians vs their constituents. Both parties consistently throw their voters under the bus in favor of their donors. Here are 109 examples of policies everyone wants but the donors.

AGI, Mars colonies, immortality, and consciousness transfers. Not every sci-fi premise is destined to become reality. The real world has limits on practicality and possibility. #agi #tescreal #marssucks

Just heard the Headhunters' version of Watermelon Man in an AirBnB commercial, a company owned by techno-fascists. When that song was made, no respectable artist would allow their work to be used in a commercial, due to the tainted associations like the one this song now has for me.

Too many people fail to understand the dynamics of the attention economy and repeatedly fall into traps set by Trump. SHARING 👏 AI 👏 RAGEBAIT 👏 ONLY 👏 HELPS 👏 TRUMP! #attention #ragebait #ai #popetrump #trumpsithlord

Watching Rockford Files reruns is about as cool as Ben Folds made it out to be. Why is there a whole channel for it now? #rockfordfiles #benfolds #fightingthebattleofwhocouldcareless

Remember Obama's "apology tour" where he went around the world trying to undo the damage of Bush's foreign policy? The next president will need to do a real, heartfelt, begging for forgiveness tour if we have any hope of restoring relations with the world. #imsorryworld #usapologytour #obama

I couldn't even get through Damage, Inc. yesterday without making my throat sore.

Anyone that thinks they can upload their consciousness to AI is delusional. AI can create a chat bot that will respond similarly to you 90% of the time. If the tech bros want to replace themselves with semi-accurate chat bots that don't experience qualia then we should let them. #ai #consciousness

Replayed the fantastic interview with @ksetiya.bsky.social on Gray Area, but then he used the neurologically impossible "experience machine" argument against happiness 🙄 Fighting injustice, helping others' suffering, taking in reality, all make us happy. The problem is happy has multiple meanings.

The movie "Born in East LA" is due for a comeback. More relevant today than ever! #cheech #immigration #deportation #oops

What do you get if you take the CIA brainwashing manual and do the opposite of everything it says?

"2090 called. You're dead and you wasted your whole life." -Kimmy Schmidt

Curtis Yarvin celebrated in San Francisco — and at 'Harvard.' With American democracy under attack, the NeoReactionary guru is basking in the glow of his own destructive ideology. How long will it last? www.thenerdreich.com/curtis-yarvi...

"Science describes accurately from outside, poetry describes accurately from inside. Science explicates, poetry implicates. Both celebrate what they describe." God, I love Ursula K. Le Guin www.themarginalian.org/2018/04/10/u...

My favorite Onion headline about my favorite pope. Are you supposed to treat religion like fandom? I don't worship but there are some that I'd cosplay or wait in a long line for a signed headshot.

Leftist subreddits are being spammed with anti-Bernie/AOC content that seems to only serve the interests of the oligarchs by undermining solidarity. I'd say this there but I'd get banned for liberal apologia.

Nathan Fielder is the Stanley Milgram of uncomfortable situations. "Even though I had the resources to potentially solve this life or death issue and save real humans from dying, I was given this money to create a comedy series. So far I was failing." Biggest TV comedy laugh I've had in months.

Complexity and nuance will never be simple and unified. This is why so much of my activism is focused on teaching people to identify scams and misinformation, and build new rituals and social norms to reinforce these skills and reject the normalization of white collar crime.

Had an actual conversation tonight with a conservative that told me they realized money doesn't really matter after last week's crash. I thought the memes about right-wing Buddhist enlightenment though rationalization were funny, but it's a real thing!

Ancestry revealed that I'm 16% zombie, which explains my obsession with brains.

Ambassador Spock modeling the proper “fuck you, make me” response to intimidation tactics. Our current-day institutions could learn a lot from him.

More prophecies being fulfilled every day. One of the most accurate predictions of the Trump playbook is also the most ancient. We've seen this shit before. Patterns repeat throughout history. #trump = #antichrist

After once again finding myself reading useless comments on an otherwise interesting YouTube video, I discovered Shut Up the Comment Blocker. Automatically removes the comments section from most pages. Free and life changing.

station to station #Fractal #Abstract #Intricate #Cosmic #Surreal #Patterns #Mathematical #Geometric #Celestial #Sci-fi #Gold #White #Blue #Futuristic #Img2img #AiArt #AiArtists #AiArtCommunity #StableDiffusion on actual stuff: aieris.art/featured/sta...

Fractal beauty in the garden-Romanesco #fractal #chartreuse #edibleflower #romanesco #gardening #plants #broccoli #cauliflower

Let's make dualism the new globalism! Black and white, good vs. evil, body vs. mind, us vs. them, are the wellspring of bad beliefs and lack of nuance. Is it possible to more effectively change minds by addressing dualism instead of ideology? #dualism #nondual #persuasion

The people using dark UX patterns, gamification, and propaganda to control you don't believe you have free will. You must come to the same realization if you ever hope to counteract them effectively.

I want to hear science explained by people like @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social, @brianklaas.bsky.social, @seanmcarroll.bsky.social, or even @adamconover.net, not Neil and Nye. I appreciate their efforts, but they're a bit cringe and there are many more eloquent voices we could amplify.

What is the probability of a stray bullet striking a clock? Based on what I learned from crime dramas I'd say it's about 75%

When are people going to wake up to the fact that spelling mistakes are intentional and help misinformation go viral? This is memetic War Games. The only way to win is not to share.

"If one is to become a mere phonograph, it is hardly worth the effort of complicating cerebral organization with study and reflection. Our neurons must be used for more substantial things. Not only to know but also to transform knowledge; not only to experience but also to construct." Beautiful.

A simple explanation of #consciousness in terms of input -> feedback loop -> output, and how different mental states like mindfulness, flow, and dreaming are achieved when we turn off one or more of these elements. Links to several great consciousness podcasts and videos.

Humanists are non-religious people who shape their own lives in the here and now because we believe it's the only life we have. A lot of people share humanist values without even knowing the term. Maybe you're a humanist! Find out by taking our quiz! humanists.uk/humanism/how...

Going to republish some of my favorite wiki pages on Substack. I started my Substack the same week that all the Nazi stuff blew up last year, so I quickly abandoned it. Now that everyone has forgotten about that, and remembered how it enables them to get paid to write, I guess it's back!

Poll Finds Most Americans Would Swap Democracy For $100 Best Buy Gift Card theonion.com/poll-fi...

Mandatory high school civics class that isn’t just like “how a bill becomes law” or whatever but also “how NOAA powers your phone’s weather app” and “NIH helped make your asthma inhaler”

"Manu Meel is the CEO of an organization called Bridge USA ... He says that if the question you're asking yourself is, why should I talk to someone who thinks a whole group of people shouldn't exist? then the better question is, what happens if you don't?" #polarization #persuasion