Would you say the same thing about the covid vaccination campaigns during the Biden administration? Because billions of dollars were poured into those as well, with record profits for big pharma.
If you're going to make the comparison with vaccines, and if history is any indication, the more realistic worry would be the other way around (since that's where the money is): that genetic modifications will be mandated, and that those who object will be discriminated against.
[And no, I am not anti-vax, nor anti-gene-editing.]
I don't know anything about gene editing, but my grandmother was a carrier of the BRCA mutation. It would have saved a lot of heartbreak in my family if that could have been detected and repaired. My aunt, mom, and brother (age 4) all died of cancer. I'm just glad that my mom didn't know she had the mutation and passed it on to her child.
It wouldn’t be crazy if I teleported 50 years in the future and heard someone tell me that not doing this is akin to child abuse. Obviously all suffering is relative, etc. etc., but it’s just interesting to imagine a world where the societal pressure to make a perfect child is high.
Those astronauts maintain normal CO2 levels, and divers can experience increased CO2 buildup if they don't exhale properly, which is the opposite.
It's not made up. Plenty of people here who tried breathwork can attest to its power to bring you in strong trance-like states.
Try it yourself. Ideally in group setting, because doing this on your own (with a YouTube video or whatever) won't give you the same experience at all, and could be dangerous if you take it too far.
Surveying people is pretty important in a study like this, and valid science.
Regardless, if you read the paper, you'd learn that they did do objective measurements, namely etCO2 levels and bio-markers from saliva.
Of note: "when etCO2 fell below approx. 20 mmHg, it was virtually guaranteed to trigger at least some (and often a strong) departure from ordinary waking consciousness. This effect is particularly intriguing because in non-breathwork-related circumstances, an etCO2 of 20 mmHg or less would be considered a sign of severe physiological malfunctions, e.g. of the heart or lungs"
But anyone who tried breathwork, especially in group settings with accompanying music, knows such practices can lead to intense trance-like states.
Do I read this right? Is the author really saying "parapsychology is false" simply because of the possibility of fraud or negligence in the replicated studies?
You are right that he is making some heavy-handed generalizations, but then again, he is replying to the OP making a very populist generalization about people with wealth as well, as if he has figured everything out - and OP isn't getting any flack for that. It may be the difference between American culture / "the new rich" vs. European culture, but my experience with people with great material wealth is very different and not easily generalizable.
> If your bar to helping others is ending all suffering within yourself, then I'm afraid we're all going to be living a very lonely existence if we followed your lead.
Logically that does not make any sense. If everyone is able to relieve themselves of their own suffering (no one else can anyway, in an ultimate sense), which includes loneliness, then there would be no more suffering. This is a Buddhist mindset that seems kind of harsh at first, but it's a reality people benefit from once they accept it: you must become your own savior. And once you are in good place, even just mentally, it becomes very natural and easy to help out others.
Problems only start when people reject this idea, and think they have all the answers to all the problems, and start enforcing their beliefs on others using violence - which is a trend we're seeing more & more these days.
> but my experience with people with great material wealth is very different and not easily generalizable.
Same here, just FYI. There's a reason that I couched it in terms of "I have seen..."
I know multimillionaire high-school dropouts, and dirt-poor people with multiple advanced degrees from Ivy-league universities.
But the community of which I'm a member, stresses the importance of getting our own house in order, before looking to others, so people with means can do a lot of good (or harm).
Ah yes the Jordan Peterson movement. A very individualistic take on life. It's also hypercritical in that an opinion doesn't matter unless you are already in order. Who defines order and out of order though? Well he does.. or really only one thing could. Wealth. People forget that you can be part of a community and find yourself without it being a cult.
Who? Not familiar with that... looks it up ... Oh. No. Not that. Actually, about as far from that, as you can get.
Cult, schmult. Been called worse. Whatever creams your Twinkie. Our Fellowship basically has nothing to do with wealth, personal philosophy, or social standing. It's about helping each other out of some bad situations, and it's fairly common to have people from all walks of life, rubbing shoulders.
You'd see a lot more from both sides if the motivations were there. The motivation in safety critical stuff is not killing people. It won't matter if I get a boring CRUD app feature to near perfection, I make the same regardless, and that's true in private companies and government.
I think the safety critical developers maybe have some deep itch to scratch and compensation is way less important to them (otherwise they should be making millions in salary given the stakes), but we don't need to use that bar for every developer or product.
But maybe AI will commoditize all of the old boring CRUD apps and those kinds developers are only worth $20-30/hr.
> and compensation is way less important to them (otherwise they should be making millions in salary given the stakes)
I think I disagree. Doing safety critical does not mean you work 1000x more. Just that you put more care into what you do (you focus on safety vs productivity), have audits and actual processes to ensure quality.
If they actually have resources, the government is capable of good work. But when it is done on the cheap you don’t get the best work. Whether it’s from underfunding the particular agency, or when they have to outsource to private contractors (often by law the lowest bidder). Don’t know how that fits into the capitalist/state-funded matrix.
Because it is funded by a capitalist government does not mean it's not living in a capitalist world... didn't you mix it up with the difference between private and public projects?
The comment they are replying to suggests taking down all the major social media networks by government force ("Just get rid of all of them").
Arguably, even if you are not prohibiting the content itself, if you take away the means for your content to spread far & wide, that's the same as censorship.
I'm not from the US but I looked up the presidents from that era and found that there's a period from 1969 to 1993, starting with Nixon, where the only Democratic term was Jimmy Carter. Twenty years of Republicanism and 4 years of Democraticism! The best us Brits could muster is 18 years of Conservatism between 1979 and 1997. Don't get me wrong though, we've managed to destroy our economy just as badly.
Wow, and Democrats controlled both houses for the entirety of Nixon's term. He must have been quite a diplomat for all his shortcomings. Makes sense why a lot of his key acts were actually quite progressive for the environment and workers' rights. I had it in my head that the US system allowed for more executive power than the UK's, but I guess it really depends on the outcomes of lots of different elections.
Why? I mean, nobody forces you to use tech tools for lucid dreaming.
This is like saying science and technology should stay out of the area of... whatever, say, running. Nobody forces you to wear high-tech gadgets while running.
Would you say the same thing about the covid vaccination campaigns during the Biden administration? Because billions of dollars were poured into those as well, with record profits for big pharma.
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