Program Notes
Guest speaker: Dr. Brian Hewlett
Watch a video of this talk
This podcast features the third in the series of the 2012 Palenque Norte Lectures at the Burning Man festival. The speaker is Dr. Brian Hewlett and he titled his talk “An Algorithm of Human Consciousness and Implications for Artificial Intelligence”. As you can see, I have re-titled the talk “Understanding the Default Process of Consciousness” to better fit with some of his closing remarks which included: “If you understand the default process of your consciousness, and you work with that default process and start to pay attention to that process, then you can actually start to manipulate the process, just like you can manipulate any process that you understand.”
“What you experience as reality IS reality, and it’s got consequences for you.” - Dr. Brian N. Hewlett
Dr. Brian Hewlett “Understanding the Default Process of Consciousness” - Burning Man 2012 from Palenque Norte on Vimeo.
The Psychedelic and Entheogenic Society of New York City
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Transcript
00:00:00 ►
Greetings from cyberdelic space.
00:00:19 ►
This is Lorenzo, and I’m your host here in the Psychedelic Salon.
00:00:24 ►
And I guess that you’ve probably been wondering where I’ve been.
00:00:28 ►
Well, I’ve been right here, and actually feeling guilty about living in a spot where the weather is just absolutely perfect.
00:00:36 ►
You know, however, having lived a good part of my life on the Gulf Coast, both in Texas and Florida,
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I’ve lived through my share of hurricanes, not to mention several typhoons that we went through in the Pacific on the Navy destroyer I was on.
00:00:50 ►
So whenever a big storm comes up and threatens places where I’ve been or where I have friends and family,
00:00:56 ►
well, I just can’t seem to do anything other than constantly watch the Weather Channel
00:01:01 ►
and news reports coming out of the hardest hit areas.
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constantly watched the Weather Channel and news reports coming out of the hardest hit areas.
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But this past week has really been exceptional because not only did the northeastern United States get hit by one of the biggest storms on record,
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at the same time there was also a big typhoon that hit China and Vietnam, where I have close friends that I think of as family.
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And on top of that, there was also a cyclone that hit India,
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where I also have friends. And in every one of those areas, you’re going to find some of our fellow salonners. So I guess I’ve just been kind of distracted.
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I have been in touch with a few people, however, like fellow salonner Ryan C., who told me that
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three large trees went down at his house, one even crashing
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onto the roof of the master bedroom. But he and his family are safe and well. And also I’ve been
00:01:51 ►
talking every day with Wild Bill, who you may remember from several podcasts, and who lives
00:01:57 ►
alone on the sixth floor of a building in lower Manhattan. And yet today he’s still without power,
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which I realize is the case of millions of others who lived through that storm.
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And in the case of each of these three gigantic storms that were hitting various parts of our little planet all at about the same time,
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well, there were hundreds of thousands of people who had to leave their homes and some of them will return to find nothing left.
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and some of them will return to find nothing left.
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It’s really a helpless feeling to be sitting in a place where the weather is fine and not be able to do anything to help our friends and families right now.
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About all that I can do right now, I guess, is to start podcasting once again
00:02:38 ►
so that at least they get a little brain candy coming their way
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to help take their minds off their situation for an hour
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or so. In fact, I’ll do my best to get another podcast out soon after this one, in just a few
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days, to make up for my hiatus during my storm watching period. So let’s get started on today’s
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program, in which we are going to hear the third in the series of the 2012 Planque Norte lectures
00:03:04 ►
at Burning Man.
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And for you physics and coding buffs, well, this will be right down your alley.
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In other words, this is a real geek fest.
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But just so that you don’t think that geeks today are the same as they were 50 years ago,
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why don’t you take a look at the photo of Dr. Hewlett giving this talk.
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And I posted that along with the program notes for this podcast, which you can get to via psychedelicsalon.us. Somehow, I can’t picture one of
00:03:31 ►
my own college professors giving such a lecture in the Burning Man environment. So, as you’re
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looking at that photo, think about the title that Brian gave this talk, An Algorithm of Human
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Consciousness and Implications for Artificial
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Intelligence. And see if that doesn’t give you a little psychedelic jolt. Of course, like I often
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do, I changed the title to Understanding the Default Process of Consciousness, which seems to
00:03:59 ►
me to fit better with his closing remarks. Now, I’m going to have to be honest with you here.
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Even with my engineering background,
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I had a little trouble following some of the equations
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that Brian was working on on his whiteboard as he spoke.
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Of course, the fact that I’d had a little medicine
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to relieve my back pain before listening to this talk
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most likely had something to do with my concentration.
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However, and again, I must apologize to Dr. Hewlett here,
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but in the state of mind I was in when I was editing this audio,
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I couldn’t help chuckling and imagining that there must have been a few young guys in the audience
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who were maybe tripping on something at the time and wandered into that big dome
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thinking that they were going to hear a lecture about psychedelics,
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but first got
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bombarded with a raft of equations, which in turn probably gave them an amazing psychedelic head
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trip. But now that I put that image into words, I guess it doesn’t seem as funny as it was in my
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mind at the time. So I’m going to have to listen again with you right now and see if I can follow Brian’s math a little closer and without my images of his audience in mind.
00:05:08 ►
And after hearing the last 10 minutes of his talk, where he summed up his remarks by saying,
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If you understand the default process of your consciousness, and you work with that default process and start to pay attention to that process,
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then you can actually start to pay attention to that process, then you can actually
00:05:25 ►
start to manipulate the process, just like you can manipulate any process that you understand.
00:05:31 ►
And after hearing that, I now understand what he was leading up to with his talk about set theory,
00:05:37 ►
which is a subject that I barely passed during my engineering studies in college.
00:05:42 ►
So don’t let his math turn you off, because what we are about to hear
00:05:46 ►
is a scientific explanation of William James’ famous quote,
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you can change your entire life by simply changing your attitude.
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Thank you all for joining us out here
00:06:00 ►
in now what is a very dusty afternoon at Burning Man.
00:06:05 ►
So for our third talk today, we’ve got Dr. Brian Hewlett here with us.
00:06:10 ►
He’s going to speak about his dissertation research and an algorithm for human consciousness that he’s developed.
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So yeah, without further ado, this is Dr. Love.
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Actually, Dr. Life.
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Oh, Dr. Life. Dr. yeah that’s my that’s my burner name
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no no not the kiss song um i’m gonna stick this up here so so
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sweet good so yeah the first part of this talk is pretty much discussion so that i can we can
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all get on the the same page because um this algorithm that I’m going to be talking about is
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quantum in nature. So just to go through, we’re going to have to do a quick quantum physics 101
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to kind of make sure everybody is up to speed on what we’re going to be talking about. And then
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I’ll talk about the actual algorithm itself. And the algorithm is basically an algorithm of how our default human consciousness works.
00:07:06 ►
And then basically from that, we’ll talk about some implications of this algorithm and your awareness of this algorithm or understanding this algorithm in creating intentional psychedelic experiences or intentional experiences, period.
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And that’s work that Rick Strassman and I have been talking about.
00:07:28 ►
And if you don’t know who Rick Strassman is, he is the spirit molecule DMT studies guy.
00:07:34 ►
And I’ll tell you a little bit about how we met in the beginning.
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And then after that, we’re going to talk about the implications of taking a algorithm of this nature
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that is based on human consciousness
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and then infecting it or injecting it
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into artificial intelligence and what that might mean.
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So just to give you a little bit of background,
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I am Dr. Brian Neil Hewlett and I received my PhD
00:08:03 ►
from the University of Arizona in social psychology in 2007.
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And I have been, of course, very interested in the psychedelic experience and the psychological aspects of the psychedelic experience.
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of the psychedelic experience. And to give you a little bit of scope
00:08:24 ►
on how my area of science runs things,
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there are certain questions in science
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that a lot of people talk about,
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or a lot of people, or scientists, are arguing about.
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And social psychology actually is great
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because we don’t fall on either sides of those those arguments the major two arguments is whether
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consciousness is a result of our organic or bodily or biological functions and
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the other side of the equation is whether or not it is actually an
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observer basically outside of the
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biological situation controlling the biological situation and those two
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things are great but we on we basically in social psychology don’t really give
00:09:19 ►
an answer to those questions we we believe those things are irrelevant
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because there is a clear understanding in social
00:09:27 ►
psychology that if men define situations as real, they are real in consequence, which means that’s
00:09:35 ►
from a quote by W.I. and D.S. Thomas. Anybody heard that quote before? It means that what you
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experience is reality and it’s got consequences for you so the idea of perception for social psychology is what’s what’s important
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it’s real so if somebody perceives it then that’s the issue that they’re
00:09:53 ►
behaving around that they’re feeling around and that they are thinking around
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right so before we start on the algorithm, what exactly is consciousness?
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And I’d like to have some people throw their idea of what they think consciousness is.
00:10:11 ►
Because when we’re talking about psychedelic experiences, we’re talking about consciousness experiences, right?
00:10:17 ►
So a couple of people, what is consciousness to you?
00:10:22 ►
Subconscious and conscious thought.
00:10:28 ►
Subconscious, okay. you subconscious and conscious thought subconscious okay i i i go by the rule of my mother that’s beatrice reads who said you could never define a word with the word so subconscious is still
00:10:34 ►
using the word conscious so you have to say what do you mean by that ah okay thought okay so using
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instinct and thoughts to create to involve yourself
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in some kind of
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yeah to interact
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with the world
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yeah
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alright anybody else
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want to
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throw out
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what their idea
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of consciousness
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might be
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a society of mind
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of competing
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elements
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that
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compete
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for
00:11:00 ►
sort of
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the processor
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okay
00:11:03 ►
so society of mind within one mind,
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or are you talking about society of minds,
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of different minds?
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Within one mind,
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but the avatars that are running your mind
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are talking to external experiences,
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and so it’s driven as a network.
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Okay, so kind of a Freudian type thing
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where you’re talking about you have like two different
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or three different types of minds talking to each other.
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And within the mind, you have like two different or three different types of minds talking to each other. And within the mind you have
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this almost voting
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system as to what.
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So a conversation with the
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individuals within yourself.
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And that interacting with
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others. Other people?
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How about
00:11:40 ►
an emergent self-narrative?
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Nice. Okay. An emergent self-narrative? Nice.
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Okay.
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An emergent self-narrative.
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That’s good.
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So you’re saying, let me push this up a little bit,
00:11:51 ►
that it’s a narrative of self that emerges out of your experiences
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and you then interact with that.
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Experiences weaving themselves together into a narrative.
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And then a further complexification would be an awareness of the narrative
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which then, but it’s still an
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awareness. Keep that word.
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Anybody else?
00:12:13 ►
I think it’s
00:12:14 ►
a genetic predisposition
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of electronic energy
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that individuals have.
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So it’s genetic code that each person has.
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So you’re basically saying it’s a genetic
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kind of experience of energetic But it’s based on kind of the electrons and code that each person has. Okay, so you’re basically saying it’s a genetic kind of experience of energetic…
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But it’s based on kind of the electrons and electricity that each individual…
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Okay.
00:12:30 ►
So you’re on the side of the biologic biology.
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No, I’m a scientist.
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Remember.
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I am.
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Science is the…
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By the way, science is the systematic application of methods to inquiry.
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So when people say they’re a scientist
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that all that means is that they’re using the scientific method to answer questions so don’t
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don’t don’t get confused by that all right anybody else with the the synergy of information and
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knowing within the moment okay so a momentary synergy of information and knowing there’s a
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person in the back by the crystals. I have to get
00:13:06 ►
her. She’s
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sitting by the crystals, yeah.
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Just simply an
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awareness of thought. An awareness
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of thought. Okay, nice.
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I will say that we’re going
00:13:18 ►
to come to
00:13:18 ►
a definition that I’m defining,
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obviously, because I have to, and mine is
00:13:23 ►
closest to the last, an awareness of thought.
00:13:27 ►
But before we do that, let’s talk about a couple that have come across the plate in a while.
00:13:32 ►
John Locke in 1690, everybody know that name?
00:13:36 ►
Said that consciousness is the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind, right?
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Which is close to what we just said, right?
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man’s own mind, right?
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Which is close to what we just said, right?
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D.R. Griffin in 1976 said,
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the presence of mental images and their use by an animal,
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which we would be animals,
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to regulate its behavior provides a pragmatic working definition of consciousness.
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Right?
00:14:02 ►
So just, you know, an animal to regulate its behavior through these mental images is consciousness.
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In terms of John Surley in 1997, consciousness refers to those states of sentience and awareness
00:14:13 ►
that typically begin when we awake from a dreamless sleep and continue until we go to sleep again
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or fall into a coma or die or otherwise become unconsciousness.
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Basically, John Surley is repeating what the Hindus said,
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life is a dream, right?
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Let’s see, some others.
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We’ll stay away from that one.
00:14:36 ►
Stuart Sutherland, consciousness,
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the having of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, awareness,
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the term is impossible to define except in terms
00:14:43 ►
that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means nothing worth reading has been written about
00:14:49 ►
it that’s what he said okay so he obviously doesn’t like some of what’s been out there
00:14:55 ►
um a portion of alvin goldman is what is standardly meant is ordinary usage by the word
00:15:02 ►
conscious one use of conscious is applied to a person’s total state.
00:15:06 ►
A person is conscious if this sense, if they’re aware of this aliveness.
00:15:12 ►
But there’s also other aspects of that total state of aliveness, if you want to call it,
00:15:19 ►
that involves being reflexive and being able to kind of examine that state of aliveness, right?
00:15:28 ►
Well, Brian Hewlett, which I don’t know who that is, in 2012 at Toward a Science of Consciousness
00:15:34 ►
used this definition, a state of awareness at a given moment that is indicated by an observer
00:15:39 ►
process of constructing phenomena. And phenomena are subjective experiences that involve actions,
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i.e. three actions that humans have, or any being has, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors,
00:15:54 ►
right? Relative to a representation of a referent or some intentional object. All right? Are we
00:16:01 ►
okay with that definition? So that’s the definition that we’re going with today. Okay. And notice the definition says it is a process. It is an awareness that is involved, a being that is aware using a process.
00:16:25 ►
because an algorithm is nothing more than a way to state a process, right?
00:16:26 ►
Okay.
00:16:27 ►
All right. So before we even, again, go further,
00:16:31 ►
we have to come to some kind of assumptions about this consciousness, right?
00:16:38 ►
We assume that in social psychology or in this facet of research
00:16:46 ►
that existence of human observers
00:16:48 ►
and their conscious perceptions
00:16:49 ►
are experientially synonymous.
00:16:52 ►
In other words, I cannot take you
00:16:54 ►
away
00:16:56 ►
or take you out of
00:16:58 ►
the experiences that you’re having
00:17:00 ►
and I can’t take the experiences
00:17:02 ►
that you’re having away from you
00:17:04 ►
having them.
00:17:11 ►
Does that make sense? So your experiences are synonymous with your being, with your existing,
00:17:16 ►
right? Okay. So as long as, if there’s any of these that you don’t understand, let me know. If you don’t agree with or don’t understand, let me know and we’ll make sure we get to that place
00:17:20 ►
that we all understand. Two, the known universe experienced by human observers is governed by various
00:17:26 ►
laws of physics.
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We all, in our perceptions,
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deal with these things called laws of physics.
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If I fall, I’m going to hit the ground.
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So we all deal with those.
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Whether it’s a part of my perception
00:17:38 ►
or not doesn’t make a difference. It’s happening.
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Human observers are agents of their own
00:17:44 ►
consciousness and associated experiences.
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That means that you have the ability to affect your own experiences.
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Is that real or not?
00:17:52 ►
You can make yourself happier or make yourself sadder.
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Is everybody clear with that one?
00:17:58 ►
Right?
00:17:59 ►
Regardless of what situations can affect, you still have the power to do that as well.
00:18:04 ►
All right?
00:18:03 ►
can affect, you still have the power to do that as well.
00:18:04 ►
All right?
00:18:12 ►
There’s something called a qualitative nature, meaning having characteristic properties to consciousness and associated experience that humans observe.
00:18:16 ►
So there’s qualities to your experience.
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Like it’s hot.
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It’s cold.
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There’s red.
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I’m awake.
00:18:25 ►
I’m asleep, right?
00:18:26 ►
Those are all qualities to your consciousness.
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Everybody good with me?
00:18:29 ►
You don’t want to throw the darts at me yet, right?
00:18:33 ►
Okay, cool.
00:18:34 ►
Human observers perceive experiences consecutively,
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meaning in some kind of linear context, right?
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We all experience this moment as before this moment right and this moment as after that
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moment right okay so linearity oh wow you guys got food human um uh where we human observers
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experience the same or duplicate qualities across experiences i’ll get some in a bit yeah thank you
00:19:02 ►
meaning that all of you are all human
00:19:05 ►
observers and you’re all experiencing me. So if you’re all experiencing me, then we must be sharing
00:19:09 ►
qualities in our experiences, right? And not only are we sharing qualities in our experiences,
00:19:15 ►
we’re also sharing qualities in moments of experiences. So this moment had the experience
00:19:21 ►
of me sitting in the chair, just like the last moment had the experience of me sitting in the chair just like the last moment had the experience of me sitting in the chair. So obviously
00:19:25 ►
qualities of experience are being
00:19:27 ►
shared across linear
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units, what we call, of
00:19:32 ►
experience. Alright? Good.
00:19:34 ►
Nice. And consecutive experience
00:19:36 ►
perceived by single human observers
00:19:38 ►
share common qualities, which is the last
00:19:40 ►
thing I just said, right? Alright.
00:19:42 ►
Moving right along.
00:19:44 ►
So when some definitions that
00:19:46 ►
are important that I’m using. Existence, right? When I say existence, I’m talking about all
00:19:53 ►
phenomena experienced by or perceived as real or not real, right, to a human observer. That would
00:19:58 ►
be like you. You’re a human observer. So all the experiences that you perceive as real or not real
00:20:02 ►
are your existence, all right? Experience refers perceive as real or not real are your existence. Alright? Experience
00:20:06 ►
refers to any phenomena or collection
00:20:07 ►
thereof that is perceived by a human observer
00:20:09 ►
who categorizes
00:20:11 ►
those experiences
00:20:13 ►
relationally based on some conceptualization.
00:20:17 ►
So you all
00:20:17 ►
categorize your experiences in relation to each
00:20:19 ►
other based on things like
00:20:21 ►
concept of family.
00:20:23 ►
You categorize family experiences as such,
00:20:27 ►
all right? Concepts are combinations of qualitative characteristics or properties that are perceived
00:20:31 ►
and experienced by human observers who assign them meaning. So you assign the meaning to the
00:20:36 ►
idea of family, right? You may get outside influences about what family is, but eventually
00:20:43 ►
you’re the one who says this is family to me, right?
00:20:45 ►
And these experiences are family categories.
00:20:48 ►
Qualitative characteristics or qualities or quanta,
00:20:52 ►
if we get into the consciousness studies field,
00:20:56 ►
is information attributes or units of perception
00:20:59 ►
that are combined by human observers
00:21:02 ►
to formulate meaning concepts, all right?
00:21:04 ►
So we all agree on certain things as certain things.
00:21:09 ►
Like we all agree that the thing I’m sitting in is a chair.
00:21:11 ►
Right?
00:21:11 ►
But the only reason it’s a chair is because we all agree it’s a chair.
00:21:14 ►
We could all agree it’s something else.
00:21:16 ►
Right?
00:21:17 ►
So qualitative characteristics or these quanta are things that we agree in terms of conceptually.
00:21:24 ►
Are we good to go so far?
00:21:26 ►
Okay.
00:21:27 ►
This algorithm
00:21:29 ►
is defined in terms of set
00:21:32 ►
theoretical relations.
00:21:33 ►
Does everybody know what set theoretical relations
00:21:35 ►
are? Okay. Set theory
00:21:38 ►
is just basically saying it’s kind of
00:21:40 ►
that
00:21:41 ►
quantity doesn’t matter.
00:21:44 ►
It’s the fact that there’s all of us, I’ll give you an example of what I’m saying. Quantity doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that there’s all of us,
00:21:47 ►
I’ll give you an example of what I’m saying.
00:21:49 ►
Quantity doesn’t matter.
00:21:50 ►
It’s the quality that matters.
00:21:51 ►
And any member that has a given quality
00:21:55 ►
is a part of that set.
00:21:57 ►
So we all have the given quality of being human.
00:22:01 ►
So we’re all a part of the set of humans.
00:22:03 ►
Does that make sense?
00:22:07 ►
We all are members at Burning Man 2012. So we all are a part of the set of members of Burning Man 2012.
00:22:15 ►
The set of Burning Man 2012 is a subset of… What was the first set? Humans’s right right so set theory is talking about subset and sets
00:22:27 ►
and superset humanity is a superset of the burning man subset of humans right and we talk about set
00:22:35 ►
theoretical relations is talking about the theory of relations between different sets of different
00:22:41 ►
qualitative groups does that make sense sweet And there are some things that we,
00:22:48 ►
symbols and things that we talk about, and I’ll explain them later as we look at this. All right?
00:22:54 ►
Okay. So we’re doing good. So in terms of the sets, what you’re going to see on the board here,
00:23:03 ►
and I’m sorry we don’t have a bigger board, but the set, when you define a set, you’re using the little brackets.
00:23:09 ►
Not the brackets.
00:23:10 ►
What are they called?
00:23:10 ►
The squiggly brackets?
00:23:13 ►
The squiggly brackets?
00:23:15 ►
You might not be able to hear me over this, but the squiggly brackets define any given set.
00:23:21 ►
So on the board, you will see the squiggly and exp and an end squiggly. That’s saying the set of experiences.
00:23:32 ►
So you’ll also see on the board a squiggly and q sub set n or sub n.
00:23:41 ►
Squiggly end. And that’s saying the set of all qualities of a given number yeah uh-huh it’s all
00:23:47 ►
qualities of a given number or if you see that set with a q and infinity it’s saying the set of all
00:23:52 ►
the infinite possible qualities does that make sense with okay cool nice uh so experience is
00:23:59 ►
another set obviously and that’s a subset of existence and then there’s qualitative sets that we’re going
00:24:05 ►
to talk about that we as we go through that are subsets of existence and experience all right
00:24:10 ►
all right um let’s move on i’m going to give you a little bit of a little exercise
00:24:17 ►
in and what i mean about how we are involved in creating sets in our experience.
00:24:26 ►
So if I give you a quality, and these are actually concepts,
00:24:30 ►
because qualities are even less.
00:24:32 ►
So when I say the concept hot, all of us knows what the concept of hot is.
00:24:36 ►
Is there anyone here who doesn’t?
00:24:37 ►
Okay.
00:24:38 ►
Does everybody know what the concept of fluffy is?
00:24:41 ►
Okay.
00:24:42 ►
Does everyone know what the concept of white is?
00:24:44 ►
All right. The concept of salty.
00:24:48 ►
Okay? The concept of film. And the concept of chewing. Now, those concepts are made up of
00:24:54 ►
qualities, and qualities are not really definable. But you know that if you broke down chewing into
00:24:59 ►
something, it would be qualities that we don’t have really meaning. It’s only putting them together that creates the meaning of chewing.
00:25:06 ►
But hot, fluffy, white, salty, film, chewy.
00:25:11 ►
Chewing, rather.
00:25:13 ►
What comes to your mind?
00:25:15 ►
Because you’re creating something based on those concepts.
00:25:18 ►
The first thing that came to mind was marshmallows, but they don’t fit all.
00:25:22 ►
Marshmallows, okay. What came to your mind?
00:25:24 ►
Marshmallows as well. Marshmallows. okay. What came to your mind? Marshmallows as well.
00:25:25 ►
Marshmallows.
00:25:26 ►
Did something else come to somebody else’s mind?
00:25:28 ►
Popcorn.
00:25:29 ►
Did anyone else?
00:25:32 ►
Okay, a large fluffy white monster eating something.
00:25:34 ►
Anybody else?
00:25:36 ►
Well, because all of us came to something, right?
00:25:39 ►
A movie theater.
00:25:40 ►
Okay, watching a movie in a movie theater.
00:25:42 ►
Okay.
00:25:42 ►
And that’s what mine was.
00:25:44 ►
It’s eating popcorn at a movie, right? But but the point is that’s what we’re talking about
00:25:49 ►
we’re talking about this algorithm is defining what what we just did it’s basically arguing
00:25:55 ►
that all human consciousness is is a process and it is a process of taking these smallest units of existence called quanta or qualities, right?
00:26:06 ►
And you, the observer, create a subset of those infinite, of the infinite set of those
00:26:15 ►
qualities.
00:26:15 ►
You pull out of that infinite set a subset.
00:26:20 ►
And that subset you pull together into a set of its own called an experience.
00:26:26 ►
And you actually are the observer.
00:26:29 ►
What we’re arguing with this theory or algorithm is you are the one that’s creating the actual experience that you have.
00:26:37 ►
Because you are the one who pulls the quality from the infinite field, which we call the perceptive field of qualities,
00:26:45 ►
and create a subset.
00:26:48 ►
And so your subset that you’ve created, obviously, now,
00:26:51 ►
it’s obviously a large amount of qualities,
00:26:54 ►
but you’re at Burning Man.
00:26:56 ►
You are at this Palenque Norte talk, right?
00:27:00 ►
You are a human.
00:27:02 ►
You are, like, all the things that the qualities that we can break, concepts that we can break down into qualities that create your experience at this moment are a subset of those infinite qualities that are possible.
00:27:25 ►
experience of being able to create something again in a momentary situation
00:27:29 ►
is to say, imagine yourself
00:27:31 ►
on the other side of the universe floating
00:27:35 ►
into a black hole as a piece of galactic dust.
00:27:38 ►
And every single person in here creates something
00:27:41 ►
in your mind. However, none of us
00:27:44 ►
have ever been a piece of galactic dust.
00:27:46 ►
None of us have ever been to the other side of the universe, right, according to your
00:27:50 ►
physical being.
00:27:51 ►
None of you have ever floated into a black hole, right?
00:27:54 ►
None of those things you have ever, ever done, but you obviously have a set of qualities
00:27:59 ►
that you’ve pulled together to create the experience that you just thought of.
00:28:05 ►
Right?
00:28:13 ►
So this algorithm is talking about that and explaining that process.
00:28:14 ►
Okay?
00:28:21 ►
There’s four pieces of quantum mechanics or tenets of quantum mechanics that we need to understand in order to talk about this theoretical
00:28:26 ►
algorithm. Okay? Who here is a quantum physicist? Anybody? Anybody familiar with quantum mechanics?
00:28:36 ►
So-so? Okay. So what is quantization? Does anybody know that? No?
00:28:42 ►
Quantization. Quantization is the first tenet of quantum physics.
00:28:47 ►
And quantization basically argues that we can change anything from an experience of a bunch of qualities
00:28:54 ►
into kind of a linear experience that we can make quantities.
00:28:59 ►
Right?
00:29:00 ►
So time is one of the things we do.
00:29:02 ►
We quantize.
00:29:03 ►
We create.
00:29:04 ►
We have an experience.
00:29:05 ►
And then we break that experience down into different units of time called hours, minutes, whatever, whatever have you.
00:29:13 ►
Right.
00:29:14 ►
Wave particle duality is another aspect of quantum physics.
00:29:18 ►
And wave particle duality is just saying that all energetic experiences or all energetic pieces or all energy is in both a state of
00:29:27 ►
wave and particle and
00:29:30 ►
Potentiality is wave where it is not a physical representation
00:29:34 ►
but it’s a
00:29:36 ►
Potential experience waiting to happen and
00:29:39 ►
Particle is when that experience actually happens and that particle happens when an observer collapses on that particle of experience.
00:29:47 ►
All right?
00:29:48 ►
With me?
00:29:50 ►
That part is hard to understand.
00:29:53 ►
All right.
00:29:53 ►
So you know what a representation of a wave looks like on a screen, right?
00:29:59 ►
Where you have, where lines look like this,
00:30:02 ►
and then they cross and they go, okay.
00:30:04 ►
So the wave, the wave part of wave duality is when the lines are going out,
00:30:10 ►
and then they come into like an arc, and then they come back together
00:30:13 ►
until they touch again.
00:30:14 ►
That’s called the wave duality.
00:30:17 ►
It means that if everything was at a line, it would be physical.
00:30:24 ►
But since it’s not at a line, it’s spread out,
00:30:26 ►
and it’s in a potential state.
00:30:28 ►
That spreading out, that represents the potentiality of anything existing.
00:30:34 ►
And then when it gets back to that place where they touch again on the line,
00:30:37 ►
that’s called a particle.
00:30:39 ►
That’s exactly where it would be physical.
00:30:41 ►
So anything that was potential would collapse into a physical space
00:30:45 ►
of being called the particle. That’s what wave-particle duality is about. Okay? So you,
00:30:52 ►
in essence, are a particle because you are physical and you’re here and you’re existing.
00:30:57 ►
Anything that’s existing and not potentially existing is a particle. All right? Does that
00:31:01 ►
make sense? Give you a better sense of it. All right? Closer.
00:31:06 ►
It’s a hard thing to understand. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is the third thing.
00:31:13 ►
And Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, it basically says that if energy is connected
00:31:19 ►
in any way and interacted in any way, and usually when they talk about electrons,
00:31:25 ►
if they’re interacting in any way,
00:31:27 ►
when they separate interaction,
00:31:29 ►
they have memory of their interactions.
00:31:32 ►
And when something happens
00:31:33 ►
to one piece of the energy that was interacting
00:31:35 ►
before, there will be a result
00:31:37 ►
that happens to the other piece,
00:31:40 ►
even though the
00:31:41 ►
action was happening to this piece.
00:31:44 ►
So once things are interacting, when they separate,
00:31:46 ►
you do something to this one,
00:31:48 ►
this one will experience the thing that’s being done to it.
00:31:52 ►
Does that make sense?
00:31:55 ►
That’s Heisenberg’s Insurgency.
00:31:57 ►
That’s related to Heisenberg’s Insurgency Principle.
00:31:59 ►
And he says that if you try to basically define
00:32:03 ►
what’s happening to one of those pieces of particle in one space,
00:32:07 ►
and from the other space, you will be less certain about all the other things about it.
00:32:14 ►
All right?
00:32:15 ►
And I’m trying to make this as less scientific as possible so you can understand what we’re saying.
00:32:20 ►
But basically, when these two pieces of energy are separated, if you do something to this
00:32:26 ►
one, something will happen to this one. And if you try to define this one based on what you know
00:32:32 ►
about this one, you will be less likely to understand what else is going on around or
00:32:37 ►
involved with this one because you’re focusing on just certain aspects of it. All right? That’s the
00:32:44 ►
uncertainty principle.
00:32:48 ►
Quantum entanglement is related to whatever we talked about as well,
00:32:49 ►
and that’s the entanglement.
00:32:52 ►
Sorry, I think I went into entanglement instead of talking about Heisenberg.
00:32:56 ►
But the first part where you affect one and the other one is affected,
00:32:57 ►
that’s called quantum entanglement.
00:32:58 ►
All right?
00:33:01 ►
So all energy is entangled, basically.
00:33:05 ►
And once they exist with each other in some way, shape, or form, then that memory of entanglement
00:33:07 ►
affects what happens with it.
00:33:10 ►
Okay?
00:33:12 ►
Alright. So that’s the basis
00:33:14 ►
for understanding this
00:33:16 ►
algorithm. So what you see on the
00:33:18 ►
board is…
00:33:20 ►
What we see on the board is…
00:33:25 ►
Alright. So experience one, if we… Let’s see. What we see on the board is… All right.
00:33:26 ►
So experience one, if we, like we said,
00:33:29 ►
all humans experience everything as linear.
00:33:31 ►
So based on that idea of linearity,
00:33:34 ►
all of us in some way, shape, or form
00:33:36 ►
experienced something called that first experience, right?
00:33:40 ►
Let’s assume, assume, but, you know,
00:33:43 ►
some people may believe or may not believe that because we’re a
00:33:46 ►
physical scientist that the first experience we’re talking about is the first moment of existing out
00:33:51 ►
of your mother’s womb can we all agree on that that that would be could say would be a first
00:33:57 ►
experience even though it may not be the first experience which i don’t believe it is but
00:34:02 ►
we have to go with one right so let’s say that is the first experience we which I don’t believe it is, but we have to go with one, right? So let’s say that
00:34:06 ►
is the first experience we’re talking about. And that first experience is equivalent to, remember
00:34:11 ►
we said that set of qualitative qualities that or yeah the absence of um whatever qualities um
00:34:30 ►
are created are not created whatever quality yeah the absence the absence of whatever qualities are
00:34:36 ►
created in that experience so when you’re born right you have a certain set of qualities like
00:34:40 ►
um saying again being cold um light that you haven’t seen before, you know,
00:34:46 ►
say, what else? What happened when you’re born? Wet? Because you experience, you’re just coming
00:34:52 ►
out of your mother’s womb, right? So those are a few qualities that you might experience. And those
00:34:56 ►
are actual part of the set of qualities that you are experiencing. So experience one includes the infinite minus the ones that you are not experiencing.
00:35:08 ►
That’s what that says.
00:35:09 ►
Right?
00:35:10 ►
In other words, the ones you are experiencing is what it is.
00:35:13 ►
Right?
00:35:13 ►
But you can’t define that in terms of the algorithm.
00:35:16 ►
You have to define it the opposite way.
00:35:18 ►
Right?
00:35:18 ►
So that’s what that one is.
00:35:20 ►
All right?
00:35:21 ►
Then experience one, we move to experience two.
00:35:24 ►
Because the next moment, we have another experience, right?
00:35:26 ►
And that experience is not the same as the first experience, right?
00:35:31 ►
If the experience two was the same as the first experience,
00:35:33 ►
what would be happening?
00:35:36 ►
If all experiences were exactly the same,
00:35:38 ►
what would we experience?
00:35:41 ►
If this moment was exactly like the next moment,
00:35:44 ►
and the next moment was exactly like the next moment, and the next moment was exactly like the next one,
00:35:47 ►
what would we experience?
00:35:50 ►
There would be what?
00:35:52 ►
A freeze.
00:35:53 ►
There would be a suspension.
00:35:54 ►
Like, time would be suspended.
00:35:55 ►
Well, linearity would be suspended.
00:35:57 ►
We would not experience any kind of movement in time.
00:35:59 ►
We would only experience suspended animation, right?
00:36:02 ►
So since we don’t experience suspended animation, right? So since we don’t experience suspended animation,
00:36:07 ►
obviously experience two is not equivalent to experience one, right?
00:36:12 ►
All right.
00:36:12 ►
Now you’re doing good.
00:36:13 ►
You’re doing with me.
00:36:14 ►
Right.
00:36:14 ►
So this says experience one is a subset.
00:36:18 ►
This little C thing means subset.
00:36:20 ►
It’s a subset of the infinite set of qualities
00:36:24 ►
that potentially can make up all experiences.
00:36:28 ►
That makes sense.
00:36:29 ►
We already said that, right?
00:36:30 ►
Okay.
00:36:31 ►
But we also see that experience two is a subset of experience one.
00:36:35 ►
Now, that’s the hard part to get to when people have to get to.
00:36:39 ►
Why is experience two a subset of experience one?
00:36:43 ►
Well, like I said, going back to what I said before, I’m sitting in this chair, right,
00:36:48 ►
and this is experience two now, say, and a moment ago was experience one.
00:36:52 ►
So if I’m sitting in this chair for both of the experiences, there’s something shared
00:36:57 ►
about both of those experiences, right?
00:37:00 ►
So if that’s the case, and they’re not exactly the same, there’s a certain part of experience one that’s a part of experience two.
00:37:09 ►
But there’s also parts of experience one that are not a part of experience two.
00:37:14 ►
Does that make sense?
00:37:16 ►
Everybody with me?
00:37:17 ►
Good.
00:37:18 ►
All right.
00:37:18 ►
Yeah?
00:37:21 ►
No.
00:37:22 ►
It’s not only a subset of experience one.
00:37:23 ►
It is also a subset of the infinite set of qualities, just like all experiences are, right?
00:37:28 ►
And it is a subset of, I’ll just stop there for now, right?
00:37:34 ►
All right?
00:37:35 ►
So then we move down to what experience two is, because that’s kind of where you’re going, right?
00:37:41 ►
Experience two is equal to experience one. Oop. Yes. Is equal you’re going, right? Experience two is equal to experience one.
00:37:45 ►
Oop.
00:37:46 ►
Yes.
00:37:47 ►
Is equal to experience one, right?
00:37:49 ►
But this should be, make sure that I, that’s minus.
00:37:53 ►
This should be minus, right?
00:37:55 ►
Yes.
00:37:55 ►
There we go.
00:37:56 ►
All right.
00:37:57 ►
Messed up.
00:37:58 ►
Minus.
00:37:59 ►
So if we say your first experience is a set of qualities with some number,
00:38:06 ►
because we don’t know the actual number, right?
00:38:07 ►
Quantity doesn’t make a difference.
00:38:09 ►
We do know that there is a number,
00:38:10 ►
just like we know there’s a number of pebbles of dirt on the earth, right?
00:38:15 ►
But we don’t know that number, right?
00:38:18 ►
So we know there’s a number of qualities associated with every experience,
00:38:21 ►
that experience one, and we’ll call that QN sub N1, right?
00:38:25 ►
Whatever that number is, it’s the first experience.
00:38:28 ►
But experience two then is that first experience,
00:38:31 ►
QN1 divided by two.
00:38:34 ►
It divides into two pieces, all right?
00:38:37 ►
And we’re gonna, don’t worry about the quantity
00:38:40 ►
of those two pieces at the moment.
00:38:41 ►
Just worry about the fact that the first experience
00:38:45 ►
is cut into two pieces, all right? Because that’s possible, right? So it’s a ratio now. We now have
00:38:51 ►
a ratio of one piece of experience one to the ratio of the second piece of experience one,
00:38:56 ►
right? And that is what we talk about here. So you end up with a piece of experience one called QN1A and QN1B, which are the two pieces of experience one.
00:39:11 ►
You with me?
00:39:13 ►
All right.
00:39:13 ►
And what happens here is that piece is the second piece is subtracted from experience one.
00:39:34 ►
from experience one, and another piece that is equivalent in terms of ratio is equivalent to the piece that you are now getting rid of, that you subtract, is being added, but it’s not the
00:39:40 ►
same qualities, right? So it’s qualitatively different, but it is ratio in terms of proportionately
00:39:47 ►
the same. Can you understand that? I mean, everybody okay with that? Can you understand
00:39:52 ►
how something can be, when I cut two pieces into two, I cut a piece into two, if I cut a, say, a
00:39:59 ►
fruit, what is it, a cantaloupe or watermelon into two, I have two pieces. And those two pieces
00:40:05 ►
are proportionate to each other, right? So I can take away one piece of that watermelon and cut
00:40:13 ►
another watermelon, right, that’s not the same watermelon, and have another piece, the second
00:40:18 ►
piece of the second watermelon, be the exact same proportion of the first piece to the first
00:40:23 ►
watermelon. Does that make sense? And I don’t need to know what the number is of the first piece to the first watermelon. Does that make sense?
00:40:26 ►
And I don’t need to know what the number is of the exact measurement of that piece, right? I can
00:40:31 ►
understand that it’s proportionately the same. But at the same time, that second watermelon may be
00:40:36 ►
green and not ripe, right? But the first watermelon was red and ripe. So proportionately it’s the same, but qualitatively it is not. Does that make
00:40:47 ►
sense? Right. So that’s what we’re saying here. We’re saying that that second piece, which you
00:40:52 ►
add QN2, 1, QN2, right, QN2, is going to be proportionately equal to QN1B, but not qualitatively
00:41:04 ►
equal.
00:41:06 ►
Why is it cut in two?
00:41:08 ►
Because as we’re talking about,
00:41:10 ►
this algorithm’s talking about the process of your momentary consciousness, right?
00:41:13 ►
So you have, at this moment, given moment,
00:41:15 ►
you have a set of qualities in your experience,
00:41:18 ►
but at the next moment,
00:41:19 ►
you don’t have those same exact qualities
00:41:21 ►
because remember, if we did,
00:41:23 ►
it would be suspended animation.
00:41:24 ►
We don’t. We have, we actually, what remember, if we did, it would be suspended animation. We don’t.
00:41:25 ►
We have, we actually,
00:41:26 ►
what’s happening is we’re actually
00:41:27 ►
taking pieces away from that experience
00:41:30 ►
and pulling other pieces,
00:41:32 ►
like we said, proportionally,
00:41:33 ►
and merging them together
00:41:34 ►
to create the next experience.
00:41:37 ►
You’re about experience one and experience,
00:41:38 ►
you’re just talking about experience one
00:41:39 ►
and experience two.
00:41:40 ►
Yes.
00:41:41 ►
When experience three happens,
00:41:43 ►
then it’s one third.
00:41:44 ►
No. No? Well, I’ll get to experience three. Okay. But we’re just, that’s experience two yes when experience three happens it then it’s one third no no well i’ll get to
00:41:46 ►
experience three okay but we’re just at experience two because i have to make sure that you follow
00:41:51 ►
the algorithm before we can get to experience three is that cool all right cool all right that’s
00:41:56 ►
that’s a good question so what we’re talking about you’re correct it is experience one and
00:42:01 ►
experience two that i’m talking about here and that that’s it right now. Right. Okay? All right.
00:42:05 ►
So what we’ve done is we’ve said that in order to create momentary experience two, we’ve split experience one into two proportions.
00:42:14 ►
One proportion we’ve called QN1B.
00:42:19 ►
We’ve thrown back into what we call the perceptive field, right? We get rid of those qualities and we take
00:42:25 ►
QN2 and we pull that in from that field of perceptive qualities and merge it with what we
00:42:31 ►
left, QN1A, right? And that becomes experience two. That is experience two, okay? So in terms
00:42:40 ►
of experience three, what happens is the exact same process.
00:42:45 ►
All right?
00:42:46 ►
It now takes, because once you’ve merged those two, you now have one set, one subset again, right?
00:42:53 ►
You now have one set.
00:42:54 ►
And you do exactly the same thing.
00:42:56 ►
So what this algorithm is arguing, yeah?
00:42:59 ►
Five minutes.
00:43:00 ►
Whoa.
00:43:00 ►
This algorithm is arguing is we basically do this momentarily, momentarily.
00:43:06 ►
We do the same process.
00:43:07 ►
We have an experience that we pull together.
00:43:09 ►
We chop that experience into two, throw a piece of that experience away, pull another piece, merge it together.
00:43:14 ►
We have another experience.
00:43:15 ►
Then we chop that, pull that, throw that, pull another piece in, merge it, chop that, throw that away, pull that.
00:43:21 ►
And that’s the default process of consciousness.
00:43:26 ►
Right? That’s what this algorithm is arguing. Yeah? No, no, go ahead. No, I’m… This is a good place.
00:43:31 ►
Audience Member 3
00:43:33 ►
What would be a subset of consciousness?
00:43:36 ►
Because subsets do not… There’s different types of subsets in set theory. There are
00:43:41 ►
subsets that include all qualities of a set prior, and then there are subsets
00:43:45 ►
that are defined as some qualities. So there’s
00:43:47 ►
like merge subsets, which would
00:43:49 ►
involve only the qualities that existed
00:43:51 ►
before. And I can’t get into total
00:43:53 ►
theory with you, but I’ll talk to you
00:43:55 ►
about that afterwards and talk to you about the different types
00:43:58 ►
of sets that can exist.
00:44:00 ►
So the type of subset we’re talking
00:44:01 ►
about is not a subset that
00:44:03 ►
does not involve any qualities that were not a part of the subset before.
00:44:09 ►
It involves some qualities that were.
00:44:10 ►
It involves a portion, right, a portion of the qualities from this.
00:44:16 ►
From where are we?
00:44:17 ►
From the ones that were not.
00:44:19 ►
It involves a portion of these, right.
00:44:21 ►
You’re right.
00:44:22 ►
Okay.
00:44:22 ►
So we’ve got about three more minutes, right?
00:44:25 ►
So let me try to give you the implications of what this is saying.
00:44:28 ►
So basically, if we understand this process and we become aware of this process and we follow this understanding,
00:44:35 ►
then we can understand that we can create, right, qualities in different ways.
00:44:41 ►
We can create experiences in different ways. We can create experiences in different ways. One, we can change the proportion
00:44:45 ►
of how we chop our experiential qualities
00:44:49 ►
or subset qualities, right?
00:44:50 ►
To make different proportions, right?
00:44:55 ►
Which would change the experience that we have.
00:44:57 ►
So we can also then not just change the proportions,
00:45:01 ►
but we can actually use what you’re talking about
00:45:05 ►
and either use more of what we have experienced before or less of what we have experienced before.
00:45:12 ►
Qualities that have been thrown back, which are entangled with what we’ve already done,
00:45:17 ►
or qualities that are totally new that we have never experienced before.
00:45:21 ►
So if this is the case, this is the implication of this kind of theoretical process.
00:45:27 ►
And not only is that an implication, but if we can do that, then we could actually, if we think
00:45:32 ►
about it theoretically, we could actually create an experience two that has no, zero, right? Zero
00:45:41 ►
qualities that are associated with experience one which would mean what what would
00:45:45 ►
happen if you were able to do that if you can bring yourself to do that if this experience
00:45:50 ►
momentary experience was experience one and had no qualities of the next experience what would
00:45:56 ►
happen to you you would shift into a different place or space and time so this has implications
00:46:04 ►
for actual time manipulation,
00:46:07 ►
which we’ve been talking about.
00:46:08 ►
And this is what Rick and I have been talking about
00:46:10 ►
in terms of DMT, because DMT does not,
00:46:13 ►
there’s two things that I argued
00:46:15 ►
when he and I started talking that DMT does.
00:46:18 ►
It strips all experiences of two qualities,
00:46:21 ►
of these two Q things, right?
00:46:23 ►
And that’s embodiment.
00:46:25 ►
You never have a DMT experience where you’re in your own body.
00:46:28 ►
And you never have a DMT experience where
00:46:29 ►
you experience that you’re
00:46:31 ►
within a given time frame.
00:46:34 ►
So time and
00:46:35 ►
embodiment are stripped qualitatively
00:46:38 ►
from the experience by DMT.
00:46:40 ►
So if you can actually do that, which
00:46:42 ►
we do practice in Tibet and
00:46:43 ►
meditation and other things, is actually actively doing that, you can actually do that, which we do practice in Tibet and meditation and other things, is actually actively doing that, you can actually free yourself from those experiences.
00:46:52 ►
And so that’s the kind of implications this is talking about.
00:46:54 ►
And the last implication was now what if we take this kind of algorithm and we place it into an artificial intelligence?
00:47:02 ►
Will that artificial intelligence be able to do those things?
00:47:06 ►
Because it has less limitations
00:47:08 ►
than the human consciousness
00:47:10 ►
because we have doubt
00:47:12 ►
that we’ve based on our experiences
00:47:14 ►
while an artificial intelligence
00:47:17 ►
does not have that database of doubt.
00:47:21 ►
So those are things
00:47:22 ►
that I wanted to get into
00:47:22 ►
but we just don’t have time to.
00:47:24 ►
So, all right. Thanks for listening to get into, but we just don’t have time to. So, all right.
00:47:26 ►
Thanks for listening to me, and I hope you understood everything.
00:47:29 ►
Oh, five minutes for questions.
00:47:33 ►
Okay, sweet.
00:47:35 ►
Hey, guys.
00:47:36 ►
So, we got five minutes for Q&A, if anybody has any questions. So when you’re commenting on DMT experiences
00:47:49 ►
not being embodied or contained within your own body,
00:47:53 ►
is that like a breakthrough experience?
00:47:55 ►
Because I feel like I’ve had small experiences,
00:47:59 ►
like with low dosages,
00:48:02 ►
where I still felt like I was an observer in the same body kind of watching
00:48:06 ►
things happen are you suggesting like once you break past that we’re talking well rick strassman
00:48:12 ►
and his research did like like serious doses like we’re talking yeah absolutely yeah like uh
00:48:18 ►
15 milligrams things like that you know so um when you are injected with uh uh enough subs enough substance
00:48:26 ►
to make you release because that’s what happens the substance makes you release dmt right to a
00:48:32 ►
point that it would be a death experience or um you know birth experience those that that kind of
00:48:38 ►
dose of um dmt and every time every person who experienced those doses in his research experienced experiences
00:48:48 ►
that did not have embodied, where they were not embodied and where they were not, there
00:48:55 ►
was no time.
00:48:56 ►
They experienced no time.
00:48:58 ►
Everything was endless.
00:48:59 ►
So I wouldn’t say it’s a breakthrough experience.
00:49:02 ►
I would say that it’s maybe dosage.
00:49:05 ►
Yeah.
00:49:06 ►
You know, yeah.
00:49:08 ►
You mentioned that there was a lot that you wanted to get to and you ran out of time.
00:49:13 ►
What would be the most significant point you wanted to make that we could go away with?
00:49:19 ►
The most significant point is that if you understand the default process of your consciousness
00:49:26 ►
and you work with that default process and start to pay attention to that process, then
00:49:32 ►
you can actually start to manipulate the process, just like you can manipulate any process that
00:49:38 ►
you understand the process to, right?
00:49:41 ►
That you understand the algorithm to that process. You can, for instance, before,
00:49:46 ►
if you were in a spaceship
00:49:48 ►
and woke up in a spaceship
00:49:50 ►
and you did not know how to operate it, right?
00:49:53 ►
When you figured out how to operate it,
00:49:55 ►
you could then what?
00:49:56 ►
Go to wherever the hell in the universe you wanted to, right?
00:49:59 ►
And so this is the point that I’m saying.
00:50:02 ►
That would be the most significant thing
00:50:04 ►
is for us to be able to understand the process,
00:50:07 ►
the default process of our consciousness, which, by the way,
00:50:10 ►
this mimics the Fibonacci and sequence, right, the golden ratio.
00:50:18 ►
So when we’re talking about the two pieces, it’s the ratio, right?
00:50:21 ►
And if we understand that process, then we can actually then start manipulating it
00:50:25 ►
and using it to change our experiences
00:50:28 ►
and create serendipity and all those other kinds.
00:50:31 ►
So they’re not serendipitous anymore.
00:50:33 ►
They’re actually intentional, right?
00:50:35 ►
And then the second thing I would want you to say
00:50:38 ►
is that if you do that with your psychedelic experiences,
00:50:41 ►
you will have much more meaningful usage for the medicine.
00:50:46 ►
This is exactly what the way
00:50:48 ►
the medicines were utilized by
00:50:50 ►
shaman thousands
00:50:51 ►
for thousands and still are for thousands
00:50:53 ►
and thousands of years.
00:50:54 ►
I obviously work with those kind of people.
00:50:58 ►
Right.
00:51:01 ►
Thank you.
00:51:02 ►
Thank you very much.
00:51:05 ►
You’re listening to The Psychedelic Salon,
00:51:08 ►
where people are changing their lives one thought at a time.
00:51:14 ►
And I’m sure that, like me, you would dearly love to have been able to follow up
00:51:19 ►
and get into more detail with Brian about consciousness and the psychedelic experience,
00:51:24 ►
which he touched
00:51:25 ►
on near the end of his talk. And I hope that you got all of that upfront math. You know, I guess
00:51:31 ►
I’m more of a visual person, and so without being able to follow Brian on his whiteboard, for me it
00:51:37 ►
was, well, it was kind of like listening to a lecture about art without being able to see the
00:51:41 ►
paintings being described. But in fairness to Brian, he did in fact illustrate his talk at Burning Man, as the photo of him shows on our
00:51:50 ►
Notes from the Psychedelic Salon webpage. Hopefully we’ll be able to have him back in the salon at
00:51:56 ►
some point, and maybe even being interviewed by somebody like Bruce Dahmer who can ask the
00:52:01 ►
questions that will help guys like me better understand these interesting ideas. And one of the things that I really like about this talk is that such
00:52:11 ►
a heavy math-based and intellectual lecture was actually given on the playa at Burning Man.
00:52:17 ►
In fact, I had to cut out some of the audio where questions were asked by the audience because
00:52:21 ►
they didn’t come through clearly enough. But from what I could make out, there were plenty of people in the audience who not only
00:52:29 ►
understood these ideas, but were also actively engaged in conversation with Brian during
00:52:34 ►
the course of his talk.
00:52:35 ►
It was a heady crowd indeed.
00:52:39 ►
So if you’ve been wanting to go to Burning Man, but maybe your parents wouldn’t give
00:52:42 ►
you permission, just have them listen to this lecture and then tell them that you’re only going for intellectual reasons
00:52:48 ►
and not because it also happens to be one of the best parties on the planet.
00:52:54 ►
Now, I’ve got just one or two more things to pass along to you right now.
00:52:59 ►
And for me, the most exciting thing is that, and please don’t count on this yet
00:53:04 ►
because it’s
00:53:05 ►
really only in the wishful thinking stage, but as a result of quite a few of our fellow
00:53:10 ►
salonners promoting the idea, we may be able to have Mickey Hart on as a guest one day.
00:53:16 ►
I’ve finally started working on that project and now it seems that it might actually be
00:53:21 ►
possible. So if you get a chance, check out the Psychedelic Salon page on Facebook,
00:53:27 ►
where I’ll make an announcement about it, and along with that, a request for questions from you.
00:53:32 ►
You see, to be honest, even though I own a lot of Grateful Dead CDs,
00:53:37 ►
I’m not really all that qualified to ask the right questions of Mickey.
00:53:40 ►
At least, I don’t think that I’d probably ask the questions that many of our fellow salonners are curious about. So if this comes about, it’s going to be a group effort.
00:53:50 ►
And by the way, that Psychedelic Salon Facebook page is actually the work of our good friend Eric,
00:53:57 ►
who also ran Guyon Botanicals. Although I mainly lurk on that Facebook page and only occasionally
00:54:03 ►
post a comment or two.
00:54:05 ►
The page actually belongs to the more than 1,000 fellow salonners who have done whatever it is that you have to do to get attached to the page.
00:54:14 ►
I guess that you can tell I don’t know a whole lot about Facebook.
00:54:18 ►
Actually, I just do the basics there, you know, like post a notice of new podcasts.
00:54:23 ►
And I do visit the home pages of
00:54:25 ►
any new Facebook friends that pop up during the week. And I approve each one myself and go out
00:54:31 ►
and look at the pages. And I do hope that none of my Facebook friends takes offense, but I never do
00:54:38 ►
any of those other things that keep popping up, like okaying a birthday app or signing a petition or liking a page and stuff like that.
00:54:46 ►
I just don’t use or enable any of the other features of Facebook, in case you’re wondering.
00:54:53 ►
Wondering why I haven’t responded to your requests, I guess.
00:54:56 ►
Like everything else on the net, I have to be very selective in what I get involved in,
00:55:00 ►
because, you know, if you aren’t careful, you’ll wind up spending way too much time in front of a computer.
00:55:07 ►
But talking about getting out away from the front of a computer, if you happen to live
00:55:12 ►
in the New York City area, well, originally I planned on passing along some exciting news
00:55:18 ►
about a meetup in the city, but with the current situation due to that monster storm, it may
00:55:23 ►
not be too appropriate right now.
00:55:26 ►
However, on the outside chance that you either need some help getting resettled or are in a position to give some help,
00:55:32 ►
you might want to know about the Psychedelic and Entheogenic Society of New York City.
00:55:37 ►
I actually learned about this through Jason Bennett, who formed the meetup group and who also happens to be one of the leading acting coaches in New York,
00:55:46 ►
and who you may remember has also been a donor to the salon on more than one occasion.
00:55:52 ►
Anyway, Jason started a meetup group a couple of years ago, and today there are around 800 members.
00:55:58 ►
Now, if you don’t know about meetups, I’ll be talking about this in a later podcast,
00:56:02 ►
once Jason and I are able to Skype about an idea that I had for a podcast from one of his get-togethers.
00:56:09 ►
But I did want to get this information out to our New York City salons right now in the event that you might be interested.
00:56:16 ►
And to find it online, just go to www.meetup.com. dot meetup, that’s M-E-E-T-U-P, all one word, meetup dot com slash entheogens, E-N-T-H-E-O-G-E-N-S.
00:56:30 ►
And so a huge thank you goes out to Jason Bennett, both for helping hundreds of people
00:56:35 ►
find the others and also for his long-term support of the salon.
00:56:40 ►
Now here’s another tidbit of information that comes from fellow salonner John, who writes,
00:56:46 ►
Among other activities, I’m a radio ham.
00:56:50 ►
One of the web forums I’m involved in uses a piece of free PC software called TeamSpeak.
00:56:57 ►
Using TeamSpeak, we meet live, and he has live in quotes,
00:57:02 ►
we meet live once a week to learn and discuss the kind of stuff hams are interested in. He says, I have not done the
00:57:26 ►
server part yet, and then he goes on to say, and the TeamSpeak software.
00:57:32 ►
One can assign a push-to-talk button on the PC keyboard, and operation is simple, fast,
00:57:37 ►
and transparent.
00:57:38 ►
I can hear the other participants in the group and can respond to them, and they to me.
00:57:43 ►
Usually there’s a team host who helps things to run smoothly, like an informal chairperson.
00:57:49 ►
I wondered if this might have any merit for the salon membership.
00:57:53 ►
It seems what is lacking is worldwide live interaction of the kind TeamSpeak could offer.
00:57:59 ►
See what you think, Lorenzo.
00:58:01 ►
Best, John.
00:58:03 ►
Well, John, I really like that idea, and I guess that I should
00:58:07 ►
go ahead and put up a WordPress blog up on that findtheothers.net website that we’ve been kicking
00:58:13 ►
around. That maybe will give some of these scattered discussions a better place to focus.
00:58:18 ►
And I think your idea is a great one. It’s something that I’d like to participate in myself.
00:58:23 ►
It is a great one. It’s something that I’d like to participate in myself.
00:58:32 ►
So, I guess that I’m going to have to put aside my reading for a while and do what I just recommended not doing.
00:58:36 ►
And that is spending a lot of time in front of a computer screen geeking out. Oh well, I guess I’m just like the politicians and I recommend that you do as I say and not as I do myself.
00:58:44 ►
and I recommend that you do as I say and not as I do myself.
00:58:50 ►
Actually, I’d normally use my age as a reason for slacking off on things like that,
00:58:54 ►
but I understand that John, who just came up with that interesting idea,
00:58:57 ►
is actually my age, give or take a few months.
00:59:03 ►
So I guess that what I said about parents not letting their kids go to Burning Man for our fellow salonners
00:59:05 ►
also goes for our fellow salonners whose kids won’t let their parents go, huh?
00:59:10 ►
My, what an eclectic audience we have here in the salon, huh?
00:59:14 ►
But then again, that shouldn’t be a surprise when you think about the hundreds of millions of people in this world
00:59:20 ►
who have either had a psychedelic experience or are maybe interested in the psychedelic
00:59:25 ►
experience or maybe smoked a little pot from time to time.
00:59:29 ►
And once you realize that our numbers are huge and therefore there should be a lot of
00:59:35 ►
diversity.
00:59:36 ►
As most of our young nomads already know, there isn’t a nook or cranny on earth in which
00:59:42 ►
you can’t scratch around a little and find one of the others.
00:59:45 ►
You know, we are the mycelium that will be holding civilization together during this century,
00:59:51 ►
so find a few of the others in your area and stay connected.
00:59:55 ►
We’re all in this together, you know.
00:59:58 ►
And for now, this is Lorenzo, signing off from Cyberdelic Space.
01:00:02 ►
Be well, my friends.