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Terrence Mckenna lecture on creativity
 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-07 14:43 [#02501561]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



quite a few times i've lit up a cigarette at a traffic light
and seen someone else spot me doing it; light one up
themselves. every now and then, though, i could see the
person clearly and i could tell it wasn't a conscious
decision. it was like that thing at the dinner table, in
which one person picks up their glass of water, and everyone
else promptly does the same. if the conversation is dull,
i'll entertain myself by trying to deliberately inducing it.
if i figure if i ever catch myself doing this with
cigarettes, it's time to quit. also, we're all totally
addicted to water.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-07 14:48 [#02501562]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



cigarettes are science. nicotine shuts up the chatter in my
brain for forty-five minutes or so. it helps me sit still
when my sock is on wrong. cigarettes are also shit. they
taste like crap and if i smoke more than a few in a day i
begin to feel weird in an unpleasant sort of way. pretty
much, they're too terrible for me to get in deep. even
still, i challenge you to find someone who will entertain
the idea that smoking a few a day is a constructive and
healthy thing for the right sort of mind. other than me,
anyways


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-07 14:57 [#02501563]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



tldr version of this whole thread ~ society is full of shit.
most everyone is on autopilot and rapidly flying towards
society's shit. first, pop open the access panel and
reprogram the autopilot to fly around the piles of shit
instead of directly into them. autopilot knows where the
shit is better than you; let it do its job. once you've
flown cleared the piles of shit, learn to fly the plane.
then go somewhere nice.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-07 20:24 [#02501574]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



just filling in some blanks to salve the irritation of
knowing that some blanks exist....

Drs. AA & Drew, LLC also have no mercy for the "i can
stop anytime i want" line. the reason is that a lot of
people who cannot stop go around saying that as a way to
politely say to other people: "i don't want to stop, fuck
off." what these painfully linear practitioners miss is that
people who actually can stop will sometimes say this as
well.

i devised a policy i later named data-driven
hedonism
. i'm rather proud of this name; it's one of my
better word contraptions. i want to get as much out of life
as i can. have the most fun, make the most mostest mosts.
this does not mean pulling a jimi hendrix. i don't want to
party so much i die at 40 or 50, because that would cut the
fun short. i also do not want to live to 90 if it means
spending all 90 years living like the world's most boring
boy scout, because that is not fun at all. i know a shitload
about algorithms, so clearly, all i have to do is sort out
an algorithm to optimize for the variables fun, owsum, rad,
and so on. then, most importantly, i have to stay flexible
and adjust the algorithm if the givens i'm working from
change somehow. i'll spare you the complexities of this;
that's all you need here, as i wrote over there that
there are moments where i'd love to include the full arc,
but only this slice will do. i also know that trying to
cover the full arc could get complicated.

suffice to say i thought i could stop any time i wanted,
because i had stopped multiple times before. on a three-week
business trip, i was too busy. other times, i felt like
crap, and data-driven hedonism dictated a rest instead of
more alcohol. then i was wrong about stopping, for once, and
this was an unacceptable bug in my algorithm i attacked
with... well, rage, almost. un. fucking. acceptable. then it
was fixed, and i stopped.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-07 20:37 [#02501575]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



i also cleaved out loads of detail for brevity. i'm going to
put a little back so you can get the flavor for it, then
leave the bulk of what was cleaved, cleaved.

when i moved away from the house of co-dependancy, i felt
like data-driven hedonism dictated i scale it down. things
there had gotten a bit out of hand, and i knew it. my former
amor once showed up with whiskey shots as i was working on a
track or something. i said something like, "what's the
occasion," and got a reply of, "it's thursday." well, so it
is! we got drunk. we had a great time. eventually, we broke
up, i moved, and data-driven hedonism dictated less
thursdays.

if i'd known how deep in i was, data-driven hedonism would
have computed that i stop entirely and let it clear out,
lest i begin to have trouble stopping. in retrospect,
drinking alone right after a breakup was something that
data-driven hedonism missed, because it was just after a
breakup and it sort of wanted to keep drinking anyways. it
can be a real moron sometimes....

anyways, i did scale it back. we had a liquor cabinet, and
this was the source of many thursdays. when you have a vast
selection of different types of alcohol, there is always
some sort of mixed drink or cocktail that allows you to say
"oh, yeah, it's been ages since we've had that! let's make
'em up now!" it is also very easy to spread massive amounts
of excess over a small forest of bottles, which is a good
way to tell yourself you're drinking, sure, but you're not
drinking that much, that bottle of bitters lasted six
months. six months and forty handles of clan macgregor,
which i referred to as utility whiskey. not really very
good, but sufficient for everyday use. like regular-grade
gasolene.

data-driven hedonism had me lose the liquor cabinet, and
keep at most a single jug of liquor around. no other
collections either. if i hadn't done that, god knows how bad
things could have gotten.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-07 20:42 [#02501576]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



the fact that i had no problem scaling down from drinking
superbly unhealthy amounts to merely way too much only
deepened the pool of data suggesting i could stop at any
time i wanted. as far as i knew, it was not bullshit.
neither was the notion that i did plan to stop at some point
-- the point when data-driven hedonism indicated that the
curve was about to take off in the wrong direction...
exponentially. well, as it turns out, that point was box
floyds. i mean pink wine. no, shit, i fucking hate
zinfandels. i went with chardonnay. you know what i mean


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-07 22:15 [#02501587]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



it depends on if you subscribe to the idea of free will, for
some reason i imagined you drunk those boxes of wine with
the little taps on


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-08 17:05 [#02501605]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



i wouldn't be what i am without innovative thought
structures from R. A. Wilson and Ted Nelson, but you know
what? neither of them were actually programmers. they both
had a solid understanding of programming; they really did
Get it. still, i feel like neither of them were set up to
fully rinse what they'd developed. i am a hell of a computer
programmer, and i feel like i'm really doing some damage
here... and it'll only get more intense, so long as i stay
on-point.


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 17:08 [#02501606]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



what sort of things do you program? do you ever reverse
engineers stuff,


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-08-08 20:15 [#02501609]
Points: 15890 Status: Regular



Listening.

His voice, and casual jokes are annoying. This better be
good, cornflakes.


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:16 [#02501610]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



yes his voice is very annoying i should have put that as a
caveat at the beginning


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-08-08 20:17 [#02501612]
Points: 15890 Status: Regular



Did you even listen to it the whole way through?


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-08-08 20:18 [#02501613]
Points: 15890 Status: Regular | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501610



You suck at warnings.

Very long intro. Still not really begun.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 20:18 [#02501614]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i played eleven minutes or something, can someone sum it up?


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:18 [#02501615]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



yes i did, skip the intro, the one i picked isnt probably
the best one, i like what he says about the medieval mind
though


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-08-08 20:19 [#02501618]
Points: 15890 Status: Regular



Same speed of speech as David Lynch.


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-08-08 20:20 [#02501620]
Points: 15890 Status: Regular | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501615



Medieval mind?

Wanna sum it up for me, briefly, as if I was a child?


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-08 20:21 [#02501621]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



summary: rave hive.


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:23 [#02501623]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular | Followup to RussellDust: #02501620



i could be wrong but how i envisage what he is saying is
that all creative pursuits are equivalent of attenuated
shamanistic experience.


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:24 [#02501625]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



in other words tapping into a hidden resource activated by
abstract non linear thinking


 

offline RussellDust on 2016-08-08 20:28 [#02501628]
Points: 15890 Status: Regular | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501625



I get you, up to "abstract non linear thinking". Because
that's one hell of a statement.


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:28 [#02501629]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



he is saying medieval people seemed to be well aware of this
before the dawn of rationalism,


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 20:29 [#02501631]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i cant understand, what do you mean by 'attenuated
shamanistic experience'


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:29 [#02501632]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular | Followup to RussellDust: #02501628



yeah i was probably putting words into his mouth there, but
thats the gist of it i think


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:30 [#02501634]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular | Followup to mohamed: #02501631



like when you make music and day dream its like a low level
drug experience, probably your mind is releasing little
doses of dmt or something


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 20:34 [#02501637]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501634 | Show recordbag



are shamanistic experiences all that way, like the brain
releasing random chemical substances?


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:38 [#02501639]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



i honestly dont know, but its really fascinating

was watching this today

LAZY_TITLE


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:41 [#02501641]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular | Followup to mohamed: #02501637



i think they turn the mind filters off


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 20:46 [#02501642]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501641 | Show recordbag



so making music is turning the mind filters off? interesting


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 20:48 [#02501643]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



well potentially yes if you want to make good music that
isnt contrived, i havent got the hang of it but i reckon its
the key


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-08 21:59 [#02501655]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501634



like when you make music and day dream its like a low
level drug experience, probably your mind is releasing
littledoses of dmt or something


that's your head going up your butt. far enough and you turn
into squarepusher.


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 22:01 [#02501656]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



^ im not that far gone


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 22:01 [#02501657]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



i do know it sounds pretentious and twatty,


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 22:49 [#02501661]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



making music is a great way to send your message out there
in the world. i swear to god im always gonna enable
downloads, ever. even with unfinished tracks. a download,
think about that. what an awesome thing is. plus if you dont
buy software.


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 22:53 [#02501662]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



^ you have totally the right ethos, when i uload again i
will do that


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 23:06 [#02501663]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



something you do today will sound awesome within 10 years,
sure thing


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 23:12 [#02501664]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



it would be nice to think that yeah!


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 23:13 [#02501665]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i mean to your ears


 

offline Hyperflake from Wirral (United Kingdom) on 2016-08-08 23:22 [#02501666]
Points: 30707 Status: Regular



yeah that would be nice too


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2016-08-08 23:23 [#02501668]
Points: 31139 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



pure blessing


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 02:15 [#02501671]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501656



oh, it's nothing to be ashamed of. i already am.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 02:20 [#02501672]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501606



anything except functional languages like lisp or scheme,
but hearing myself say that in this thread makes me pause
for a moment.

C++ and PHP are the money languages. also my favorites. i
wind up using python and ruby and shell scripqs and more. i
can do java, but it's like herman melville invented a
programming language; no thanks. oracle can keep it and use
it to slap google around with patents. on that note,
obviously javascript, HTML, and CSS are unescapable


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 02:33 [#02501673]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02501605



then the rambly disclaimer providing intense background
detail for the post no one wanted to read in the first
place.

i asked myself: how do i really, really rate as a C++
programmer? like, you know, quiet moment of honesty time.
the first thing to bubble up was that that carmack wrote
doom at 21; i fold. then i said: there have to be at least a
million C++ programmers in the world, and i'm certainly in
the top 100,000. probably the top 10,000.

RAWilson read up on computer programming and was clearly
inspired by it, but he wasn't a programmer. so i feel my
bragging rights more come from having real programming
skills along with real metaprogramming skills. the number
drops far below 10,000 then and this is about where i start
to feel justified feeling full of myself. it sounds absurd
to say i'm in the process of refactoring my muscle memory,
but that's really about accurate. but i am still not john
carmack. ouch


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 02:52 [#02501674]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



i guess if i had to sum myself up it's somewhere between
taking out my aggression towards "the system" with things
like throwing out the handwriting style my school had
programmed into me when i was 7 or 8, then starting on C
when i was 9 or 10. then applying material from my AI class
to the way i was eating pringles by the time i was a
sophmore in college. it was like a little echo of what RAW
had to teach, both the handwriting thing and the pringle
thing. then when i was far enough along i realized these
were little drips and drops of something i should turn the
firehose on. that's been underway for a while now. the
results are promising. i'm either bound for great things, or
the asylum.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 03:04 [#02501675]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict | Followup to Hyperflake: #02501641



you don't want to turn the mind filter off. it's like a levy
that protects you from downing in an ocean of garbage. yes,
there are probably some things of value in there, but you'll
be too busy knowing precisely how all your toenails feel and
all sorts of other stuff. stuff that's there if you want it,
gone if you don't. that's the mind filter. which is really
more like a radio. all the stations are there at once, but
you tune into one at a time. no filter is akin to every
radio station at once. can you handle that? i couldn't


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 03:08 [#02501676]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



some schizophrenics can pick up to four or five radio
stations at once, along with an unstoppable transponder
beacon from zog, planet of the migwuk.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 03:11 [#02501677]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



kekule had a famous dream with an ouroboros snake that led
him to discover the ring-of-eight molecular structure that
allows sock problems to permeate the cell walls that
imprisons consciousness.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 03:12 [#02501678]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



no, wait, that was benzene. easy mistake to make


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 05:56 [#02501694]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



what is creativity? derailing threads with wild
free-association. milftone.

no, i'd say it's finding things that haven't been put
together before, but fit. is there any reason to make it
more complicated than that? if not, ok, we're done. please
let me know

i wasn't creative enough to glue together consciousness and
programming on my own, but i did it by accident quite a few
times. then someone else did it for me, and i felt a bit
jealous thought of it and i hadn't. then i realized i still
had things to add. inventing the jet engine was quite a
thing, but to get it into planes all over the world took a
lot of thought and creativity as well. he built the
prototype and i'm working on a production model. my role is
more about gluing together the smaller sub-parts, and i see
it as mine simply have the right sort of background and i'm
not seeing anyone else stepping up. maybe that's just
because it's sheer lunacy.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2016-08-09 06:21 [#02501695]
Points: 23949 Status: Addict



i'll just grab the last one on the page and show myself out
for now, i think.

final question: is consciousness analog or quantum? if so,
does it like its eggs sunny-side up?


 


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