@BillySmith@social.coop cover
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

BillySmith

@BillySmith@social.coop

I'm an engineer/musician/artist/designer/bricoleur/womble. :D

Now blogging at https://write.as/billysmith/

Currently working on #OSHW for the primary industry sectors; #Agriculture, #Aquaculture, #Energy, #PowerGeneration, #PowerStorage, #Sustainability, #Regeneration, #Resilience, #TerraForming.

You can't solve a #SocialProblem via TechnicalMeans, so i've focused on creating solutions that people can choose to build themselves. :D

#ADHD #TeamADHD #Womble :D

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

gregggonsalves , to random
@gregggonsalves@med-mastodon.com avatar

Donald Moynihan at Georgetown has talked about how you bring down the administrative state--it is also a template for how to destroy public health in America. Delegitimize. Deconstruct. Control. 3 horsemen of our slow motion public health catastrophe in the US. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/undermining-public-health/

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@gregggonsalves

The UK's current PM, when he was Chancellor in Johnson's Cabinet, was meeting with exec's and C-suite staff of healthcare companies in the USA.

They were explicitly talking about the "opportunities" within the UK's NHS.

The pattern described has been used over here as well.

There's an excellent fictional description of the techniques to be found in "The Delirium Brief" by @cstross

KitMuse , to bookstodon group
@KitMuse@eponaauthor.social avatar

I need your help #bookstodon. One of the classes I'm taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that's not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I'd love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.

Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?

@bookstodon #sciencefiction #scifi #ReligiousStudies #academia

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon

In Richard Morgan's "Woken Furies", the third of the Takeshi Kovacs stories, there's a chapter-size vignette of Kovacs visiting a data-storage-facility for uploaded humans that is based on a Buddhist monastery run by a sect known as "The Renouncers".

And in the "Altered Carbon" book, there's the Roman Catholic Church's attitude towards uploading.

"Can you upload the soul?" :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon

Ghibli's "Spirited Away" is a really nice version of a shamanic initiation.

Look at the background characters in the crowd-scenes in the bath-house, and you'll see ancient and modern versions of the Tulpa's. :D

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@KitMuse @bookstodon

Neil Gaiman's "American Gods".

The book is great, but only Season 1 and 2 of the series, as season 3 was heavily interfered with, as in designed to crash'n'burn.

BillySmith ,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@punklawyer @mozz @bookstodon @KitMuse

The Golden Age of Sci-Fi is 11-14 years old. :D

vampiress , to random
@vampiress@eigenmagic.net avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @vampiress

    Aramex are listed on NASDAQ.

    Buy some stock and sue the C-suite.

    oceaniceternity , to bookstodon group
    @oceaniceternity@sakurajima.moe avatar

    @bookstodon I'm currently #reading Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche. I must admit I don't find his idea of a universal drive for power compelling.

    It relies first and foremost upon an invisible subconscious that we cannot reach or touch inside all of us that tells us to always seek more power. And that anything other than we do is just justification for our power grabs.

    My problem with this is how... When you start out looking for it it is easy to say that anything anyone does is a power grab. Getting out of bed is an excercise of our dominion over gravity etc etc..

    Does a child draw letters in the sand merely to signal that they have power over sand? Is wearing cool and shiny boots a way of signalling social power over others? Maybe. But in my mind it is unlikely to be the most compelling reason behind everything... Solely because most people do not behave like cartoon villains. Or even cartoon villains trying to camoflage themselves.

    I admit. I am only 70 pages in and a very novice philopher at best. But as it stands... I don't think a drive to power as envisioned by Nietzsche is a universal truth.

    #philosophy

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @bookstodon @oceaniceternity @Scienceisnotopinions

    The desire for control on an individual level is a desire for autonomy.

    For self-control, against being controlled by others.

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @Scienceisnotopinions @bookstodon @oceaniceternity

    Demonstrating their own will-to-power by conditioning other people to surrender their autonomy.

    Have you come across this Public-Service-Warning film?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvVHPVe525Q

    Knowledge of the techniques used, can act as a early warning signal, so you know when to GTFO.

    If you see the red flags, then leave.

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @bookstodon @Scienceisnotopinions @oceaniceternity

    Or the corporate cults like the ones from California.

    Similar training techniques used to constrain the range of acceptable questions.

    Another approach can be found here:

    https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/

    It's a longer set of articles, but the section on the Sociopaths is directly relevant to the original toot about Neitzsche, while the section on the Clueless fits with the members of the MLM systems. :D

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @CoranDeo @bookstodon @Scienceisnotopinions @oceaniceternity

    Forgot the pic :D

    sarahf , to random
    @sarahf@mastodon.social avatar

    "People say they want real justice... so we fob them off with a slightly less unjust system of justice. Workers howl that they're being flayed like donkeys... so we arrange for the flaying to be a little less severe and slash their howling entitlement, but the exploitation goes on. The workforce would rather not have fatal accidents in the factory... so we make it a teeny bit safer and increase compensation payments to widows.

    ... (1/2)

    BillySmith ,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @sarahf @bookstodon

    Half-face photo of Frank Zappa with his quote, "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."
    ALT
  • Reply
  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •