Posts by ironrider11

Besides just using your imagination, is there any other way to go back in time?

I’ve never actually been run over by a car. Obviously, that doesn't mean they don't exist out there. If I were, I’d probably experience some brand-new emotion that could actually be useful for something. Potential is always there... unless it isn't. Maybe a useful emotion would provide that tactile, emotional confirmation of reality—the one where cars occasionally try to kill you. It’s a weird mental loop, but if you're looking to develop top-tier qualities, you might end up with high-quality panic, specifically a fear of driving. Amaxophobia is just one way to look at it. It’s a handicapping phobia, sure, but as much as it sucks, it has its uses. It's about developing something peak. You gotta strive for excellence...

Harold Anderson3 said:You need to pick a direction for your life immediately. If you can't find that path on your own, please seek out professional help. That's basically the universal rule for any life crisis, including your addiction. Just because you finished college doesn't mean you've solved anything; it certainly isn't a guarantee that you won't completely crash and burn one day if you keep going down this road. Hang in there, and good luck. 🙂

Whatever. Nothing he says—not even this whole "change your life's direction right now" thing—guarantees that you won't completely crash and burn tomorrow, or in fifteen minutes, or five minutes from now, if you just keep going regardless of how you do it. There's a difference between the idea of being "constructive"—steering your life on a planned path toward death—and the actual reality of how hard it is to actually achieve or maintain that kind of success while you're trying...

Andrew Doyle said:Look, ironrider11, this is a matter of principle. I realize I might sound like I’m lecturing someone on how to resist a candy bar, but fundamentally, there isn't some arbitrary number of years where your greenery habit suddenly hits a "red alert" zone. I won't even get into the alcohol debate, but we're talking about a lifestyle here. It's that ingrained ritual—lighting up your first one with your morning coffee, having a session when a buddy drops by in the afternoon, or winding down while you're watching something on Netflix at night. Sure, if you're heavy on the weed for the long haul, you might end up with some mental fog or memory gaps, but honestly, that's all fixable. That's why, to the author, there's always hope—Nancy, that lovely lady who's always the last one standing. You wouldn't believe it, but people eventually just get bored of it. They reach a point where they realize "it just isn't what it used to be," and they simply say no the first time, the second time, the third...

Obviously, weed isn't heroin, so it's not like it's physically impossible to break free from its possessive little embrace. It's a choice. In the same category as alcohol, IMO. The "what happens to my sober self, who views the world totally differently—maybe even pretty depressingly—during the day or night" kind of addiction is probably the real issue. I've smoked tons of weed, downed gallons of booze, inhaled countless powders, and honestly, I wouldn't recommend any of those high-and-low roller coaster combos to anyone... I can't even remember the last time I lit up, had a beer, or inhaled anything unless it was nasal spray. It's not even about being worried about health; it's exactly what you said—it's about saturation. Any pattern of behavior, if you abuse it, eventually gets old and boring. Well, not for everyone, apparently...

Some people drink themselves into an early grave (seeing spots, liver cirrhosis...), some people blow their whole lives away gambling and still try to commit suicide using a loan shark's tools, and some guys who've trashed half the planet and plan to trash the rest are still riding with South Line... For some, "self-destruction" is the only thing that feels real. Everything else, the "normal" stuff, has no flavor, no color, no soul... It's hard to quit the only reality you actually feel.

Let's ask the OP what his life is actually made of. Why choose to retreat into "bad company," and why choose to stay stuck in that "vicious cycle"? If this is an experiment in quitting, and he's not just quitting the booze and weed, but the entire version of himself that relies on them, what's left? Is there anything left? If not, then the prognosis for "fixing him" (apathy, anhedonia...) looks pretty grim. He might spend his whole life just drifting, looking for a spark. Maybe it's just a phase. We all went through that post-adolescent stage around age 23, or that "addicted to booze and weed in our youth" thing...

Andrew Doyle said:You’ll definitely find some useful advice over in the Alcoholism - General Discussion thread.
If you want, I can merge your topic into the existing one, unless you specifically feel the need to focus this discussion on broader societal issues, various types of addiction, and things of that nature.

Marijuana is destructive when it turns into a lifestyle, though it doesn't create a physical dependency in the same way other substances do. It dulls your edge, and if you're already dealing with mental health struggles, it’s a terrible idea because it usually just deepens the hole you're digging. Ultimately, though, it comes down to a personal choice—whether you light up or stay sober.
Alcohol is an entirely different beast—much more dangerous and significantly harder to deal with. Take a look through the thread I linked above; there are plenty of people there who have already opened up about their own struggles, and you might find that someone else's perspective provides the clarity you need.

It creates a psychological one. It’s not even that the substance "makes" it happen—the mental dependency just builds itself. And obviously, as a psychoactive drug, it shifts how you think, act, and perceive everything... You start with a morning ritual, then one at ten, another at noon, another at two... and if you're doing those little self-induced therapy sessions every two hours whenever you can get away with it, day after day, week after week, year after year... that constant abuse of the green stuff leads to a total breakdown of relationships or marriages. You end up with a completely different person on the other side. Just like any intense, volatile relationship. It eats away at so much—not just years, but the actual presence of the person who’s checked out from their own life...

Olivia Jackson64 said:It actually feels like these number synchronicity patterns—those weird clock coincidences—tend to pop up more often when I’m under a bit of stress. Interesting enough.

Anyone else noticed a similar trend?

Maybe stress just kicks you out of that autopilot mode where you stop noticing the noise, which might not even be real noise to begin with?

Olivia Jackson64 said:Statistically speaking, everything can be calculated—but if I’m being honest, I think I’ve pushed my luck a bit too far lately.

I suppose it’ll pass once I find a new hobby. 🙂

When things seem impossible—or just look that way until someone invents some high-tech gadget to calculate the exact statistical probability—you kind of have to write it off as pure noise just to stay sane. It's not even about whether noticing these irrational patterns actually matters, because let's face it, they don't. It's more about why these weird little glitches pop up in a conscious mind, vanish, then maybe loop back around later... It's exhausting. Trying to introspect and find some constant truth instead of just watching these cycles spin is a pretty useless hobby. It drives you crazy sometimes. You just want to quit, sit in your car, and not move an inch. Blank face, calm as Hindu cow.

Olivia Jackson64 said:That’s true enough, though I wouldn't say it applies to me. I remember reading about this years ago and thinking how ridiculous it sounded. I even saw entire threads and debates on forums about it back then, and honestly, I just thought people were wasting their time on nonsense.

Over the last year, though, I've been constantly hit by these clock synchronicity moments—even though I have zero interest in following them or dwelling on them.

You have to admit, it's fairly surreal to be doing something and then check your phone only to see 09:09—almost every single day. Or 17:17, or 14:14.

We look at our phones so often these days that it’s logical you'll occasionally "hit" one, but then again, I rarely see any other times except for these specific ones.

For a long time, I assumed "something would happen" or that it was some kind of sign. Honestly? It’s actually starting to get annoying.

Is there actually a statistical probability for that? Like, could someone even calculate how likely that is...

Arthur Campbell2 said:Look, those are all pretty deep questions—really—and honestly, I don't have satisfying answers for most of them. 🤷

But none of that was the point of this thread, at least not from my perspective (and hey, I could be wrong).
The goal here was explaining specific phenomena—so, basically, I offered some explanations. I laid out the logic behind them and left room for someone else to prove me wrong. I actually enjoy learning new things, so I'm all ears for alternative theories. Beyond that, though, I don't see any need to wander off—I'm just sticking to the topic (the "box," as you put it). 🙂

Quick tangent—12 Monkeys is a great movie. 😍

When we’re just bouncing ideas around—not even really competing, just trading thoughts—why does anyone feel the need to stick to some rigid "topic framework"? What kind of boundaries are we supposed to follow when we're talking about stuff like apophenia or synchronicity? And why does there have to be this pressure for an answer to be "satisfying" in some specific way? Satisfying for who, exactly?...

Ontopick:

How can this thread just stall out like this? It’s already given enough... it's fine, kid—nobody's actually gonna get all worked up about it... really... offtopic.

Was doing some deep cleaning yesterday, sorting through my files to see what was actual trash and what was worth keeping. Stumbled upon this documentary series I’ve never even touched, let alone watched. It’s called "Earth," eight episodes total. Decided right then that the whole thing was headed for the bin, but figured I’d toss a few clips into my editor first. Thought maybe I could grab some cool shots to use for an XYZ project before I nuked the folder completely... So there I am, slicing through episode after episode, scene by scene. After grinding through all eight, I ended up with a timeline covered in endless little cuts, totaling exactly 6:34 minutes. Honestly, I have no clue why I did it. Just spent all that time making some pointless little music video for absolutely nothing...

I'm trying to figure out which track or composition actually fits this visual vibe. Nothing is hitting right now. My mind is just blank. I started thinking back to that forum thread about "parallelism"—that whole debate over whether everything is random or if it’s all rigged from the start, where the only thing set in stone is that nothing is certain... I remembered the composer behind that one piece. I took three specific segments—Axis of Evil, tabula rasa, and Nebulizer—and mashed them together into a 6:34 minute cut. I laid it out on the timeline right below, following the sequence of Earth episodes through a bunch of rapid-fire cuts. You could probably count the individual selection properties if you really wanted to...

The whole idea was to pitch this massive, all-encompassing concept. Not just some small-scale human attempt at "making something meaningful out of life"—that’s just the personal, Anthropocene way of looking at things. I'm talking about the fractal nature of existence itself. Water, rain, sand, blood, cities, tech, wealth, poverty... it's everything. It's the reality of being, the actual qualia of existing within this specific spacetime moment on Earth. Just trying to grasp the sheer totality of what it means to exist in this particular decade... drifting through an absolute ocean of time...

The way the audio and video suggestions work seems fine, but something feels off. From episode one to eight, the themes follow this totally predictable pattern. It’d be better if it were random—like, just hitting you with a bunch of shuffled cuts to mess with your head. Right now, you can basically predict the flow every single time. I actually have a script for this. Not to predict what's coming, but to just "shuffle the cuts." I just circle all the segments, hit shuffle, watch how the script rearranges them, and it works...

I hit shuffle again, still works. No matter how much I spam the button, it holds up. If we're living in a simulation, I gotta wonder—it's impossible to even wrap your head around the sheer amount of processing power needed for everything (even just calculating what a single fractal focuses on as an observer)—would it be easier for some massive supercomputer to create a deterministic world where nothing is random, or a world of organized chaos where everything is pure chance...

If you aren't just observing it but are actually part of it, how is it possible for an intelligent, curious, imaginative... being, dealing with their own "qualia," to miss the tiny details? Or the grotesque, beautiful scale of everything existing inside and outside themselves. Then I remember that not everyone is crazy, that people don't just live for mental aerobics or masturbating to the noise in their own heads... or whatever happens if those "qualia" aren't just in your mind, but are calculated by some material bioprocessor at a physical level for reasons we don't get...

I'm asking YouTube to just take the content, host the video, and call it a day without getting too hung up on copyright or fair use technicalities. It's a logical process—this sequence of ideas and willpower rising and falling from somewhere shouldn't be ignored. Wasting time producing stuff that might just end up being stumbled upon by someone, like me, while randomly scrolling through the endless digital ocean of AV content... it feels exactly like when I was smashing that shuffle button and wondering why randomness always seems to work...

Arthur Campbell2, you just can't or you just won't think outside the box? What even is consciousness—this subjective reality where matter shows up, what intelligence is actually for, and how we—as a species dreaming on the edge of our own timeline while being whispered at by these "forced thoughts and ideas" of progress—actually move forward and why.....?

Ah, ah, uhm, what we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.

Arthur Campbell2 said:Are you actually serious right now? Are we really going to split hairs over semantics and word games? What's the point?

Sure, great example. "Predict" the weather for me tomorrow and I might believe you. Go ahead, predict my Powerball numbers—now we're talking. 😁

I have no idea what you're getting at. 🤷

Dead serious. Totally serious.

Drew Perez15 said:Either everyone else is tripping and you're the only one seeing clearly, or they're all right and you're just wrong... usually, time tells you which one it is. 🙂

So is trying to judge things—just wasting precious CPU cycles for nothing?

Linda Young38 said:Nah.

Yeah.

casualcanyon3 said:You can't have wisdom without depth, and you definitely don't get depth without emotion.

Emotions hit hard when you actually dive into the deep end...

Charles Wood73 said:Every single piece of sufficiently advanced technology eventually hits that inevitable threshold where things start getting a little weird... blah, blah, blah. 🥱

https://tectales.com/bionics-robotic...-thoughts.html

Monkey see, monkey do.

Not being anyone at all is also an option, isn't it...?

Arthur Campbell2 said:I mean, sure, I believe they are—but just because something is written down somewhere doesn't make it the gospel truth, right?
And besides that—there’s a massive amount of so-called "research" coming out of these various Russian trolls, neo-Nazis, or whatever else you want to call them. Honestly, half of those people exist more in urban legends than they do in actual reality.
I honestly don't know where to find any serious literature on a topic like this—and if anyone actually has some decent recommendations, I’d be genuinely grateful for the lead.

I don't have any text to rewrite for you yet. Please provide the posts you want me to transform, and I'll get to work applying those specific persona guidelines and US-based replacements. kaže:
The world didn't start spinning and science didn't suddenly invent itself just because you showed up. 🙂

Look, that’s not what I said. I didn't mean it like that either—and I'm certainly not making any judgments here based on some... I don't care what anyone says—if you want results, you have to rely on your own damn work. Relying on handouts or someone else's effort is just a fast track to mediocrity. You build your own path, or you don't build one at all. Simple as that. Look, based on the actual research results—which, let's be honest, failed miserably to show even a shred of paranormal activity—it’s pretty clear what we're dealing with here.
Look, even if you set aside the fact that the mechanics behind this kind of nonsense pretty much fly in the face of everything we know about physics—which, let's be honest, they do—that doesn't exactly make these claims any more convincing.
Did you guys hear about that thing?Look, let's be real—extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It’s not just some catchy saying; it’s basic logic. You can't just drop a bombshell theory into a conversation and expect everyone to nod along without showing your work. If you're going to claim the sky is falling or that a major corporation is cooking the books, you better have the receipts to back it up. Otherwise, you're just making noise.?

Just so we’re clear—I am absolutely willing to change my mind if someone actually proves me wrong. I really am. And honestly, it’s not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be.
Just to give you an idea—this is basically an experiment in precognition or telepathy that we actually used to run back in our college days—you take a deck of cards... Zener cards.It’s basically just taking five different symbols and mashing them together to make it work. X It’s all about the draws—you have the subject try to guess (or "feel," if you want to get fancy about it) which card is coming up next without actually looking. From there, you just run the numbers to see if they’re actually statistically better than someone just guessing at random.
I agree. It couldn't be any more straightforward than this.
Look, this is just a random example—but it goes to show how easily things can be proven if they actually exist in the first place.

Look, I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea—I’m not looking at the world through some narrow, purely mechanistic lens. I have absolutely zero issue with opinions, personal stances, beliefs, philosophy, religion, or metaphysics, or pretty much anything else for that matter.onostranim".

But those claims regarding... of this world Look, everyone around us—these people who are made of the exact same molecules and atoms as the rest of us—are subject to the same laws of physics and chemistry that govern everything else in existence. It's just basic science. Nah. It’s almost metaphysical. If you follow that logic, then there has to be... It’s provable.Right?
Look, if someone tells me they can bench 225 pounds—fine, show me. Prove it. Until then, I’m not buying it. It’s the exact same thing when people claim they can move objects with their minds, predict the future, or sense some mystical energy. If you're making claims that supposedly impact the real, empirical world, then just prove it. Show me the results or stop talking.

Doesn't seem like an unreasonable position to me—and I don't think I'm asking for much. What do you guys think? 🤷

Move objects with your mind? You think about unlocking a door, your hand reaches into your pocket for your keys, finds them, puts them in the lock, turns them... door opens. Plenty of objects moved by thought. Tomorrow will be sunny or rainy, says a weatherman predicting the future. And sure enough, the weather matches what he said. Temperature is kinetic energy that you can actually feel, maybe even during a fever. The question without an answer is who or what is making these observations, and how atomic bodies within those fundamental forces exist inside the empirical ("qualia space") world...

Olivia Jackson64 said:Russia conducted extensive research on this during the Cold War, and there is plenty of literature on the subject. It isn't established as an eternal truth—nothing is—but they had significant statistical probabilities. Try reading up on it... the world and its sciences didn't start revolving around you the day you were born. 🙂

Well, in his own head, it did. Depends on his "God-given" personality or whatever programming his reality runs on—that whole info-transfer thing regarding "collective reality." Basically, how he uses tools like copy-pasting his own universe based on data from every other world out there (whether they actually exist or not, depending on what his brain's curiosity or imagination reaches for)... everything that exists in his hyper-individual bubble exists because of the information left behind by previous worlds... as long as he's around. Once he's gone, his world goes with him.

Even Egyptologists can't agree on how old the pyramids are. What they were for. How they were built... It's all just theories, guesses, and hypotheses... nothing that gives us actual certainty about the world we're living in, let alone any imaginative predictions about the future. Life on this little speck of Fire and mud has been... hang in there... going on for maybe 4.5 billion years, according to theory. Not that creationists would buy it. In that massive stretch of mutations and cycles, you had "advanced civilizations of intellectual primates" chasing the Holy Grail of absolute truth, messing around with sacred information without having any clue about the xyz of past versions...

Just trivializing the triviality here—the guy who's obsessed and traumatized by the idea of a potential nuclear war, or rising prices making his lifestyle uncomfortable... his life is a totally individual consumerist tragedy that isn't even worth living... he probably doesn't bother with apophenia, synchronicity... or any of that woo-woo crap. His reality is strictly empirical. Imagination is fine, but trying to use it is just "magical thinking." And for people who need that fake sense of security to stay sane, it can be pretty damn destructive...

Kevin Ruiz36 said:I’ve run into tens of thousands of synchronicities over the years. The number 11:11 hits me more often than most, along with plenty of others. Eventually, I figured out how to decode them—you can map numbers to letters to pull out actual words. For instance, 11:11 links directly to "Advancement in consciousness."
777=Genius
17:17=Life
666=Diced
616=Dragon

It seems pretty clear that this whole universe design is built on a mathematical language used by some higher intelligence to communicate.

That "design" is just a way to drill a tiny hole in your skull, using a designer drill bit...