This is pretty neat. It reminds me of Richard O. Brown's UC lecture called The Neuroscience of Nothing. He uses artwork like this to explain representational neuroscience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUgb-V0bijA

Not because I told you so, but so that you know. Al-Qaeda released a statement almost verbatim what I said they would, stating that Osama's blood "is more precious to us and to every Muslim than to be wasted in vain."

("If you can manage to see a friend die and accept that it was entirely in vain then perhaps you are wise enough to judge them. But chances are you would claim your loss was not in vain and manifest some heroic reason for their death which would further fuel your conviction that you are right and they are wrong and action must be taken to correct the world." - Ryan S)

"It will remain, with permission from Allah the Almighty, a curse that hunts the Americans and their collaborators and chases them inside and outside their country."

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE7415H120110506?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

I made an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) once, using Joone, that was able to recognize 8x8 pixel images in black and white. I tried to expand it to include colour, but my computer crashed when I ran it.

So hey, I forgot, Ahabcaptn has a Henry David Thoreau video as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WATe4jC-zOA

I guess that would be most pertinent to the discussion. It describes Thoreau's philosophy.

So, someone who has "thick skin" what is that skin covering exactly?

It seems to me that when we make statements and are criticized we can feel embarrassed or insulted. So we grow a "skin" thick enough to keep those criticisms at a safe distance from our....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZXgxBlZHpw

Btw, Sorry if I have contributed to the difficulty of the job. Feel free to PM me or email me if you want me to behave differently. I will respect your guidelines on your website.

@Jeremy

Jake's Revelation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI1oSkX-Zag

@Jeremy

I didn't put it quite like that, but that is what Jesus calls us to do; "Deny yourself, pick-up your cross and imitate me."

See, the ego, and not just yours or mine, but all ego doesn't like the idea of superiority. If the ego reveres Jesus for example, it's going to have a hard time accepting that someone else is like Jesus or that they even intend to be like Jesus. The ego would rather call this person a heretic and crucify them.

And so, a lot of Christians think you shouldn't be like Jesus. You shouldn't deny yourself, adorn a crucifix and imitate Jesus (ie. sacrifice yourself for truth and humanity). But these people are just keeping themselves down through egotism, and exalting Jesus in the same way. Jesus himself did not ask us to worship him, he asked us to imitate him. Few are doing so because they don't they can or should and won't accept anyone else doing it either.

@steve

So, Steve, if you break down your statement. Is there anything in there that is supposed to enlighten me? Or is the statement just intended to be insulting? I'm examining it for something substantive, but I'm not seeing it. My mind wants to think that you are merely intending to attack my ego. If that is all, then I can safely ignore it. If your intention was to cause real damage to my ego, your best bet is to actually reveal some failure on my part. But even then, I might just agree with you that I was wrong on some point and grow out of it. That is my aim anyway, but I'm not a perfect man, I too have a tendency to react egotistically.

So my intention is always to love and I do find that difficult. It is harder to love someone who hates you or who insults you, but that is what I intend to do. Though, love, especially antagonistic/brotherly love is difficult. With brotherly love, we have to love each other while criticizing each other. That way we don't just support each other's egotistical delusions, but we aren't just attacking each other either.

At any rate, if you are looking at me to exemplify what I'm saying completely then I will probably appear hypocritical at times. But you know, I'm also a smoker and I think it is a terrible habit that no one should ever take-up. That makes me somewhat of a hypocrite too, but not wrong.

@Larfin

Ahabcptn has videos for other authors too. Mainly Walt Whitman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu80Ml9rGhI&feature=related) Herman Mellville and Mark Twain.

Check out these youtubers too:
Philosopherfresh (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4royOtvWU&feature=channel_video_title)
Soulfetcher (http://www.youtube.com/user/soulfetcher)
Menoftheinfinite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbWFjv31cgQ&feature=channel_video_title)
Therearenosides (http://www.youtube.com/user/ThereAreNoSides)

"In case you hadn't realized, it has somehow become uncool to like sound like you know what you're talking about...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9x5KhfWAis

@Nilch

Untrue, if I did that I would only be doing so to protect my ego from disdain.

As a matter of fact, I'm stating what I understand to be true and putting my neck out their like that precisely because it is the least gratifying to my ego. This is not an isolated incident.

There is always the possibility that someone will prove me wrong, insult me or even threaten my life. I've experienced it all before, and I persevere. If I let the fear of those reprocussions shut me up, then I would be acting egotistically.

Ego in this sense is more than the Freudian usage. Ego refers to Self in it's entirety. Jesus Christ's life represents the life of a person who was egoless, as too does the life of Socrates. They were both ridiculed and murdered. See, it is egotistical to have disdain for someone who speaks with conviction. It is popular in our society to be as dumb as possible to avoid any sense of superiority. Still, nobody asks a surgeon to fix their car. There is a such thing as real superiority and inferiority.

I have a good handle on Thoreau because I've studied his writings and the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In addition I also take a lot of interest in German idealism and I'm particularly fond of Kant. I have a book-shelf chalked full of books by these authors and spent the last 5+ years of my life reading them and not doing a lot else. To recognize that I understand better than the average person isn't an ego-based delusion, it's most likely reality. Though I can still be wrong, and there is no need for me to feel embarrassed or anything when I'm proven wrong, rather I just need to accept the reality. That is the critical point of egoism.

Their website says it uses Electroencephalography (EEG)

Plausible.

Al Gore? Really?

A good commentary on this sort of philosophy distilled is from the little-known author Jed McKenna (quoted above). AhabCaptn on YouTube has a series of narrative videos with stunning surreal artwork and excellent background music. Of course, Herman Mellville's Moby Dick, from which the channel gets its name, is another transcendentalist body of work, if you can see it, otherwise it's just a neat story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp_96Z7coew

@Hanaka "Oh Ryan, Thoreau used a pen to write. That's right, a tool much like a wrench. He used tools to build his cabin."

I think you are completely missing the point of Thoreau's philosophy. But that makes sense since you don't really want to understand him.

Psychological bias ensures that when we want to find fault with something we will, and when we don't care to understand something we won't. That is precisely the kind of thing the transcendentalists were aiming to overcome and the reason Thoreau did what he did.

Your brain processes an enormous amount of information and integrates all of it into a common perception (consciousness) which is pushed through the cortico-thalamic complex, phenomenal representations with a high Phi value, according to Integrated Information Theory are the most salient. Your conscious attention is typically fixated on the most salient features of your integrated consciousness. That means that all the subtle little distortions and inner narrative that are driving you, your thoughts and desires, are drowned out by the oberabundance of salient stimuli. Your world is chalked full of distractions, stimuli vieing for your attention. In fact, now-a-days our own minds interfere with our attention on average every 8 seconds. When you go to the woods or something and you let go of all your concerns for the world, those things no longer predominate in your consciousness and the lieing, manipulative bastard that you are arises into awareness. But you have to be completely open to such an experience. Then you will hopefully realize why most of these comments just sound like ego-based defenses of anothers lifestyle. But what I'm challenging you to do could take you 5 years, 15 years, or the rest of your life, depending on how much concern you actually have for it. If unbecoming false is not your main concern then, sadly, like most you'll probably remain false your whole life.

A Bugatti Veyron is just a tool, from going from A to B, but it is also excessive compared to a Horse and Buggy. A similar tool for going from A to B.

It’s ego – the false self – that exalts the guru and declares the teaching sacred, but nothing is exalted or sacred, only true or not true. - Jed McKenna

The universe isn’t vague and ignorant. I am vague and ignorant. Something is true, and it doesn’t matter what it is, I’m not going to be false any more. I have not even the slightest trace of the slightest reservation that I would rather suffer and die figuring out what is true than continue this life as a slave to lies and ignorance. - Jed McKenna