Posts tagged with “society”
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The Dead Internet Theory

FakeGamerGirl - The Internet is DEAD

In her video post she talks about more than I had thought or known. Particularly about job searches now. I did know businesses use AI, or other software, to scan applications for keywords rather than bothering to actually read any resumes or applications. This turns finding employees into who uses the right keywords most often rather than finding someone actually competent and capable of doing whatever the job is. So, what kind of people are being employed? How many engineers does it take to build a bridge or building that doesn't fall down if none of them really know what they are doing - but they are just great at keywords.

Think about self driving cars. People feel they can't trust an AI or software to drive a car. How do you feel about having a human driver if they were hired without knowing whether or not they have a valid diver's license or have been charged as a drunk driver, or worse. That's just one career/ job. There are so many more!

Dead Internet Theory - Wikipedia • The dead Internet theory is a conspiracy theory that asserts that, since around 2016, the Internet has consisted primarily of bot activity and automated content manipulated by algorithmic curation. This alleged coordinated effort aims to control the population and reduce genuine human interaction.

I haven't heard of this theory by name. But, I've been online since 1996 and this is something I have thought for many years and it is just getting worse. I do not use a mobile phone and I find more and more Internet things are trying to force people to use a mobile phone and take their information. Its all about marketing, marketing is a predator. It is very much NOT human friendly.

Does it matter any more if the marketing even makes any money when they just want to collect information to sell to some other company? Who cares if the data is correct, as long as there is a lot of it. Phony built on top of phony.

Why does so much need to be online now? Really, it wasn't that long ago that the Internet hardly existed outside of science/ technology. I know many young people now don't know life without the Internet, but its just another tool, a means of communication. It's really weird how people have become so obsessed, addicted and reliant on it. Do you ever wonder who decided everything had to be online?

Why is it so hard now to manage without having/ using a mobile phone? I don't use one and I struggle to deal with things like banking, verification of your personal information. Passwords were abandoned because they don't provide information which can be collected and sold.

So much is pushed online and why? Really? Why are people being led so easily and so stupidly. People do not seem to really think for themselves any more. What does Google say.... Turn up the music Alexa... Cashiers can't even count change to the point of 5 - 2 is 3. (Don't bother to say I'm mean to cashiers or some other politically correct cancel culture nonsense - I was a cashier for a long time myself. I could do basic math without a calculator, or phone).

AI is taking over the jobs people would like to have and leaving you to wash your own dishes, cut your own grass, shovel your own you know what. It already has gone too far. But, its still going.

I wonder where the money is going to keep coming from if most people are unemployed and can't keep buying stuff/junk. Or pay bills. Who will keep the lights on, literally?

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Bad Canadians Podcast

Understanding Canada's contrarians. Hosted by Jared Michael.

"...understanding can be greater than agreement. "

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A Biological Woman in a Trans/Man's Sims World

Today I was fired from writing for the Sims Community site. Fired is not the right word because it wasn't so much employment as getting paid a little for writing posts for the website, more like contract work (there's probably another word for it). Anyway, that's not so important.

Here is the note I was left on discord:

Hope you're doing well. I was emailed last night by one of our readers about your Twitter profile containing several negative and harmful remarks about the trans community. While I fully support the free exchange of viewpoints and opinions, I can't in good concience continue to work with someone who actively talks negative about the marginalized community that makes up our reader base, and our team of authors who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

This decision is effective immediately. Any finished content that you've completed for Sims Community that hasn't been paid for yet will be paid when / if you provide the filled spreadsheets.

Wishing you well in your future endeavours, Jovan

Cancel culture strikes again. I was fired for personal posts on a different social media account (I only posted about The Sims 4 on the bluesky social media account I used for my writer profile) by someone anonymous. They must have put in time to dig into my social media accounts. I haven't posted often or lately about women's rights. I guess the anonymous reader felt it was worth their time. Of course, I had no say in the firing. No information about what I actually posted that was so upsetting. But, who am I? Just one of the people who used to "make up the reader base" and thought I would enjoy contributing to the site.

Funny, because I only made 5 posts to the site. How many people actually read or knew about me there, not many I'm sure.

What I've thought about since, after being surprised and disappointed in society in general, is that most people who play The Sims 4 are women. Real, biological women. Also, most of the readers at the site are likely real, biological women. Like myself.

I'm not going to get into posting about the issue of women's rights now. I'm just making note of the facts. Cancel culture is very strong, determined and does not care about facts, understanding, or discussion. (In spite of what they claim).

I don't really care who made a point of digging into my social media and sending it to the site owner at Sims Community. It could have been one of the other writers who strongly supports trans people over biological women. The writing was on the wall really, when I attempted to write about the DEI mod and was denied because I did not write strongly against it and turn the post into a strongly worded advocate for trans political beliefs, bashing all those who disagree, or feel otherwise and don't say much.

Sims Community is just one site, about a game. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter a lot. I won't miss writing for it. I'd begun to lose heart in it after the DEI thing. If you want, you can read the very strong trans positive post they did post instead of mine. I'm not going to link it. (Comments were not allowed with the post).

I think its rubbish really, very slanted and biased. Its not what journalism should be and, I guess, its fair enough for them to post as they like. Its not a site with journalism standards. I'm not intending to backlash or put the site down. There are plenty of sites out to make money by getting people to click on ads, more of them are running AI instead of having people write any more. AI is cheaper and can spew out posts much faster with all the right keywords. I don't think a website, or a game, can have integrity if they push their own agenda so belligerently.

Back to the point about The Sims players mainly being women, biological women. What do we think about the game these days? I'm a player myself. I've bought far too many of the packs, etc. I've spent more money than I even want to admit. It bothers me, as a player, that the game is focused on gender issues far more than I am. If some players want it that way okay. But, there is no option to turn it off, to run the game your way. Why not? The Sims is a virtual dollhouse, run by one person, one player. Why can't I have the dollhouse my way?

Are we being brainwashed by EA, or whoever has recently bought out the franchise now?

What will the new owners bring? I'm curious. If they are of the Middle East culture they may not go with the trans culture and beliefs currently pushed in the game. I've read some people posting about this already, concerned about it, one way or another. I'm not so much concerned as I am interested. I'd feel better about spending more money on more packs and such for the game if the gender politics were removed, or became optional at least. I'm tired of feeling like a biological woman in a trans/man's world.

The most recent pack about imaginary friends for children, I am not buying. It gave me a sick, icky feeling in a game with so much focus on gender control and stereotypes. Of course, its being heavily plugged on the Sims Community site. I won't miss that part of writing there.

This is what I posted to the site owner. It may not have gone through because I deleted his account and the site from my discord account. No point in keeping them around, "effective immediately".

OK. But, I will post that I was fired for posting for women's rights on social media. I have nothing against you or the site, but it makes me angry that people are not allowed to discuss or disagree at all regarding trans issues. Anyway, no point in talking about it, as per usual. You can remove my author profile (if you haven't already) and show my posts as written by an unknown author or whatever you like. I won't send in for payment, that wasn't so important for me.

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What if Criminals and Murderers Pay in Money Instead of Time?

What if people paid in $ for crimes instead of jail time? Like paying a traffic fine, as an example.

Jail time seems unbalanced for the crime committed and jails are crowded. A murderer gets a few years, insurance fraud gets more than murder, all depending on the randomness of Courts, judges, and expensive lawyers. Eating a person you've just killed on a bus... it happened in Canada and he was out in a few years. I've yet to see anyone murdered come back to life but it seems murder is not all that costly in time. Maybe... it could be counted on a different scale. Cash value instead of time served. It's a start.

I think the old idea of work houses could be brought back. Prisoners work in order to buy their freedom, eventually. I don't see that ever happening these days. Like capital punishment, it isn't likely to come back. (Capital punishment and the death penalty are not the same thing. Young people don't know and assume a lot).

So, just fine them and let the credit agencies nag at them for payment. If its good enough for people who haven't committed a crime, other than getting in debt, why not? A little stress and endless calls from credit agencies always tracking them down, isn't too tough a punishment.

I don't think jail time was ever working as punishment anyway. It was supposed to reform people. How can you really ever reform or punish someone for a crime like murder? Other crimes like assault, robbery, etc. as long as no one was killed. There should be a line somewhere. It gets complicated when you decide if "left for dead" is the same as murder/ killing. I think so. Why should a killer benefit from the luck or determination of someone else to live.

So most criminal activity could be set as a dollar amount payable to the Canadian government (or whatever the local government is). Not as a punishment just a heavy fine. A better deterrent than jail. For one thing it will cost the government less than housing, feeding, entertaining them. Making use of credit agencies means the government won't have to hire extra staff, unless it goes through Canada Revenue, which I guess it must at some point. Of course, payments for crimes will not get any tax credits or refunds. That would be silly.

Maybe the government could collect enough to lower taxes. I just keep finding all kinds of good options for this idea.

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Magic and Science Through history, science and magic, like science and…

Magic and Science

Through history, science and magic, like science and religion, have at been at best strange bedfellows and at worst bitter enemies. The battle lines have been drawn with the twin swords of rationality and measurability. On one side of the line stand those things scientists claim we understand, like evolution and matter. On the other side lie the things that science does not want to or know how to explain, such as god and magic.

Somewhat ironically, while the majority of scientists do have religions beliefs, a large number of scientists (probably a majority, though we know of no studies on this) vehemently believe there is no such thing as magic. Some scientists (notably Carl Sagan) go so far as to castigate religion as well because of its ties to the mystical, magical, or supposedly inexplicable. This position seems in some ways more consistent, but neither one takes into account one important fact.

Science doesn't have all the answers. Almost every scientist will admit this, when you push them into the unexplored corners of their own specialty. Physicists don't know why they can't find a magnetic monopole. Biologists don't really know what happened in the evolution from apes to humans. Astrophysicists don't know whether the universe will expand forever or collapse back on itself. Psychologists haven't got a clue about how most of the things our brains do for us happen. We personally find it amazing, then, that so many scientists are happy to declare as a fact that there is no such thing as magic or god.

It's not just that everybody's a critic... suddenly everybody's an expert too, in a field that very few people have really spent any time studying. Fortunately, there are some exceptions, or we'd have nothing interesting to present on this page. Among people who consider themselves scientists (rather than philosophers, or theologists, for example), there are two particular groups who are delving into the real questions. And despite one coming from orthodox science and the other often disrespectfully being called "pseudoscience," they seem to be converging on some interesting common questions.

The two fields we're referring to here are cognitive science and parapsychology. An interesting third voice has recently come from the medical community, who often are forced to approach things from a perspective that is more pragmatic than scientific.

Cognitive science is generally interested in understanding how the human mind works, but seems to keep butting up against the question of consciousness. What makes us conscious? How does this perception of consciousness differ (or how is it similar to) our ordinary perceptive modes?

Parapsychology studies powers of the mind that seem to lie outside the normal sphere of physical influence. Telepathy, precognition, and telekinesis are the main areas of study. But lately parapsychologists have been asking questions about consciousness as well. How do states of consciousness affect parapsychological effects? How do consciousnesses interact when multiple individuals combine their efforts or oppose each other.

Medicine, in contrast, is largely interested in mechanisms for healing. Within this there is both a conventional and a mystical track. Conventional medicine accepts that the human mind has a capacity for enhancing the healing process, and even accepts that belief systems including religion and magic can offer a way to convince the mind to help heal the body. However, there is also a small group within the conventional medical community (and a much larger group outside conventional medicine) that believes that there can be direct magical effects by another individual on the healing process. Bill Moyers' book and PBS special Healing and the Mind provides a nice introduction to some of the issues. Dr. Larry Dossey has also written a number of books about the subject.

I'm not sure who originally posted this. The site it came from was among many submitted to the Wiccan Online Book of Shadows category at the Open Directory Project, now Curlie. I'm an editor there, the last standing editor in the Pagan category after all these years.

I really believe in the science of Pagan and Wiccan ideas more than the religion. I even think the religion itself is based on a science, a psychological science about people being part of a group and creating explanations for things and believing in something together. No doubt there are lots of resources for this idea, other than myself. I'm quoting the above post because I don't often find others having much to say about Wicca/ Magic and science. Thank you to whoever posted it.