dedo

I think you mean "the best science" or "the most reliable science". Not all science is chemistry or physics. Safety science, & political science, and even military science (if that is a science) don't necessarily rely on double blind reproduction of experiments but can give a lot of weight to a single event since you can't design an experiment to measure the number of airline crashes with two different approaches & repeat it 5 times to be sure. Many lives depend on those sciences & their less than perfect methodology. Interestingly, the one with the lowest error rate is safety science, while the other two have very high error rates which is why having different disciplines of science learn from each other matters.

Funny, but never heard the term "jumping the shark" & don't understand it. Have had some experience with them though although for many years I did not consider them a statistically significant risk. Surfers often downplay risks, & sometimes pay the price. Getting double bumped in the back in cold water was what caught my attention & made me glad I said my usual "Hail Mary" before going out. This hard core Christian surfer dude I knew taught me to say a prayer before going out & I kept it up. That likely won't mean anything to someone else though. Another weird "coincidence" was when I was working a night shift & planned to drive to the OBX of NC the next AM. We got a shark victim that night from the exact place where we usually went, that we planned to go to the next day. We still went, but surfed somewhere else. At that time, the locals chummed for sharks off piers, right next to where people swam & surfed, unbeknownst to me. Someone got killed & someone hurt less than a mile from a pier down there. Those kinds of hazards are everywhere in life. I like being "warned" about them that I believe religion helps with, although I can't prove it in a reproducible experiment. Another "coincidence" was a premonition I had when a neighbor's kid was excited to tell me he was going with his parents to the West Coast of Maui. I knew an easy break there & was about to tell the kid about it. I had a creepy "premonition" & kept my mouth shut. Sure enough, a surfer got killed at the exact break on the West Coast of Maui while the kid was there, that I almost told the kid about. The kid might have been the most inexperienced surfer there & attracted the tiger shark had he been there. Instead he went somewhere else. I like not having my neighbors blame me for killing their kid. So that works for me. There may be a way to use science to test for God's existence for individuals, but not for one individual to convince another. A person can read the Bible & see if it works, in their own lives. For me it worked. For someone else, something different might get his / her attention. In fact, apart from religion, I have found it difficult if not nearly impossible to change a POV of someone in an uncontrolled, unvetted, environment like the internet. To me, that is an important problem that if solved would allow people to combine knowledge toward some goal. Perhaps the key is to forget about POV & opinions, & just try to solve a problem. So for this thread maybe the ? should be not: "Is ____ evidence for God's existence?" And instead: "What would you do to test for God's existence for either yourself, or other people?"

One positive for Musk, is recently Congresswoman AOC has been raising large crowds running against "oligarchs". It seems maybe she is starting her presidential campaign early. If she turns out to be good, then Musk may have gotten her elected.

As a believer, I don't see any evidence for the "existence of God" in what you posted, and that is okay. If it works for you, great. What convinced me, may not mean anything for you, and that is okay too. I know of no way to convince people of God's existence scientifically, meaning by a reproducible experiment that would convince a non-participating nonbeliever to change his/her mind. What I have seen work is personal encounters that have occurred for those that seek God that a nonbeliever would call "confirmation bias" but are often so profound from the POV of the believer at least, that a non-believer's argument has no weight. An example would be a near death experience (NDE) where someone observes & can recount his emergency care & meets Jesus prior to recovery. Another example is if someone sees a profound example of personal behavior that acts as an attractor. That seems to be the way Creation was designed. My own belief started close to Pascal's wager meaning there little downside to belief & massive upside. For me, belief in this life has had massive upside from personal experiences as well & I hope there is the same in the after life. For example, if you go to You Tube & watch NDEs & other posts about hell, a recurring statement is the majority of those in hell did not believe in hell's existence, confirming Pascal's Wager if those turn out to be true.

Uh, no, it is not. Unless you are a DT / Maga supporter because Dem ideology got him elected. People thought "civil interaction" in trade & travel were the key to survival. Those "civil interactions" were at an all time high in 1914, just before the most deadly period of carnage in history began. Equal treatment, trade & travel, are all great, but they won't prevent the next explosion that should kill ~ 2 billion. Ideology does not solve a problem that has defied the best scholars in international relations for centuries. The cause of human conflict has not been solved. It needs a major intellectual effort from a diverse group of scholars, keeping avenues of feedback open to the periphery in case there is an Alan Turing out there. Then we might solve it & you can be certain that ideology won't. Otherwise, the SHTF is on the way, regardless of what party is in office. Of course, a bad enough actor can move it up. Maybe so, but it is primarily dangerous at this point because it got the right wing elected that may be worse. The extreme right, and the extreme left were the ones that committed the worst genocides in history. Both sides do bad things & both sides delude themselves into thinking the ideology of their tribe is some kind of absolute truth, when it is not.

Nice thread. May check out the references & examples here myself. In case no one mentioned: "Space-time for Absolute Beginners" by Goldsmith is nice, short, & has notes in the back listing 40 other books on various related subjects you might also find interesting. Good luck.

Another show that deals with "digitized consciousness" other than "Altered Carbon" is the dystopian post-apocalyptic "The 100". Regarding EM & AI, although am just learning about it, the new Grok3 engages in conversations, can review documents and make suggestions, & help formulate a plan for goals etc. Another version, that I have not seen yet is supposed to converse via voice. That is more advanced than a major portion of the posters on X than can only spout their ideology.

That could be an important point re: "bringing people together". There is substantial evidence that global conflict is a major risk in the 21st Century. Personally, I think the highest risk period is now to 2050. How to combat that is an important topic to study. Some people think "trade & travel" prevent conflict. In "Psychology of War", LeShan notes that trade & travel were at an all time high in 1914, and people wrote articles claiming war was a "thing of the past", just before the onset of the greatest war in history up to that time. Maybe a key thing to explore is joint business efforts (or any effort) toward the same goal as opposed to just interaction whether that is in trade or travel.

This is an issue I have with EM's "vision" for space that he seems to rationalize as a way to colonize other worlds as a "backup" to Earth, if Earth fails. However, it seems to be more about personal attention for himself. Personally, I think space exploration is better leveraged as a means to save Earth, not as away to escape Earth. Other worlds, at least in this solar system, would not be pleasant places to live. Taking control of good places to live likely means something akin to colonialism in Earth during 15th - 18th Centuries, or genocidal conquest, not an advancement for mankind.

If you believe that consider having some discussions with people on X. For many, evidence & information are irrelevant, & they only can keep regurgitating what they heard from their favorite pundit. One person was trying argue with me about wresting submissions as part of a discussion regarding a citizen death by police. That was after I tried to explain the difference between a choke & asphyxia as a cause of death. It was obvious she had never seen a wrestling event, but that did not matter. There was no way I could tell anything about her intelligence which I don't think was an issue, just her indoctrination. Another guy on Reddit, a psychiatrist actually, tried to give an authoritative answer for what was wrong, or actually what was not wrong, with Hitler's psychopathology. His answer contradicted pretty much everything I read. Of course he did not explain his reasoning & left when I listed a few sources. It was obvious he had not studied the issue at all, but was obsessed with being some kind of authority figure. I assumed he was intelligent enough to advance in his profession. In this case it was not indoctrination, or lack of intelligence, just an obsession with being an "authority".

Agreed. I don't think setting up some kind of clinic for autocrats will gain traction. However, I thought I mentioned that if we understand more how the process works, markers for dangerous people, then they can be identified before they cause massive harm similar to the way addicts are spotted & removed. Personally would guess that wanting other countries' land is a marker. Reminded me of a character in the show, "Dexter". I posted on EM's timeline that it was appropriate he chose that as something to identify with because of the show. Maybe he will read it and reform his life never picking up a chainsaw again.

Pretty funny, except the assault rifle wound was not fatal which makes me think more about a political fatal wound as opposed to a physical fatal wound. How could a "false prophet" implying some kind of political actor heal a physical wound? Not likely. So personally it makes me uneasy as my preferred form of political protest is to propose solutions that move even administrations I didn't vote for and believe are harmful toward a better direction that could in theory become a political rescue that covers a political wound. However, agree that right now, DOGE is the political healing agent for this administration. Must remember that almost every political figure from every US president to the Pope is accused by someone of being the "anti-christ". Some theologians also say this part of Revelation refers to Nero & Rome. However, my view is that even if it does refer to Rome, foreshadowing is a known technique where something in the past points to the future. If you know of examples that refute that, feel free to point to it. If it is not prying, what martial art do you do? Would like to resume as a way to stay healthy in retirement.

The reason is that those diagnosis don't offer options for doing something about it as the etiology of most accepted psychiatric diagnosis is some combination of genetic predisposition and life experiences. On the other hand, if a behavior pathology is purely environmental, then there is the possibility of doing something or at least identifying people unfit for certain positions of high responsibility. For example, addictions can be combatted with various programs that target the addictive agent and addicts are routinely identified and removed from certain high risk positions. Furthermore, some pathologies are from cumulative processes and those kinds of processes usually end with sudden catastrophic failure if ignored, but can be successfully defeated if the accumulation is interrupted. A specific cumulative process has been identified for criminal violence. Group violence is much less understood but much more deadly. Most people here would agree there is "something wrong" with certain groups in society which they object to but don't identify with like Maga. Few here admit to any problems with groups they do identify with. Both views are not normal in my opinion. Something in society causes spread of twisted ideologies that brings violent actors to power. Since there is data that suggests that at least for twisted ideologies associated with group violence, the process may be cumulative. That means catastrophic failure is highly likely if the process is not understood and defused. It also means that the cumulative process, if understood, can be defeated. Institutions are of course important but if a cumulative process keeps progressing unabated, defenses can be overcome.

One more alarm bell. The diagnosis I think fits best to end stage violent autocrats is the one a psychologist suggested for Hitler, or DLD (dangerous leader disorder) noted for suppression of dissent, grandiosity, & violence. However, this only applies to autocrats in charge & does not describe markers for people with the same disorder, but not yet in total control. I think the key markers for the those on the way up may be: Support for moral abominations, directly or indirectly. Accusing others of what the afflicted does. Lying. Indirect support for Russian genocide, relentless undermining of Ukraine aid, endless accusations from DOGE without independent auditor verification, false statements as you noted, is not good.

This is maybe his most important negative, that he is destabilizing to society. In the last DT admin. seasoned veterans acted as guardrails to keep DT from making the worst possible decisions. Now those guardrails are mostly gone. I have not seen EM show any signs of being a guardrail but eggs on DT & Maga toward their worst instincts. Guardrails and feedback is a critical component of low error systems that this admin. now lacks. So the error potential is off the charts. If there is a positive, it could be in rooting out claimed waste but without independent verification of waste by a reputable auditor, I cannot accept anything EM says & must consider that DODGE is more a cover for the implementation of authoritarian rule than anything else.