I am originally from Romania but never considered myself a “romanian”, but a human. More so now when I moved to Spain and my best friends are from all around the world.
I went to Romania a few years ago, and I was always stressed about going back even for a few weeks, because I know too well the toxic environment there. The competition, corruption, pollution and garbage that you can see everywhere. The stupid people and dangerous drivers. The fact that most of them are religious and superstitious. Everyone is for themself, there is no feeling of “community” there. Everyone talks about money, cars, and houses. Stuff, that’s all they know. At least that’s my experience of Romania, in the little town where I grew up.
Of course there are many wonderful people and organizations in Romania, like everywhere, but I am talking here about most of these people. And most are like I described them, from my own experience.
But now, a few years later, things are even worse. And quite scary.
My parents worked in Spain since 2007 and retired this year. They moved back to Romania, a move that I think is terribly bad. Lack of money and integration made them unable to stay in Spain. They bought a car in Spain and had a lot of stuff to transport to Romania so I and Sasha agreed to drive 2.500 Km from Spain to Romania to deliver their car and stuff. We drove no more than 5 hours each a day and stopped for a few nights along the way. First thing I noticed is the infinite line of trucks. Absolute insanity of trucks after trucks on any highway in any tribe. A huge line of them almost like a train. Hm…trains…I wonder if people forgot about trains…is all about cars and trucks today, but if people and goods would be transported by trains, it would be far more efficient and safe.
But this train of trucks is a sign of an overconsumerist society. The trade society. And it is increasing at alarming rates.
Another thing I noticed straight away was when we arrived in Slovenia. I went to a gas station. I put gas in the car and went inside to pay. I asked in English if I can pay there. A young girl looked odd at me, she said something in Slovenian to another guy there. He came to me and said, with a very angry tone: “You put, you pay!”. Sure dude….I “put” but where do I pay? What the hell!? In Spain people are usually quite nice and relaxed but the more you get into the Eastern Europe the less friendly people are.
You put, you pay! became the slogan for what we would experience form there on.
Late that day we went to a restaurant in the same Slovenian tribe, in their capital. We almost never eat out but it was late, we were tired….we just wanted to eat something. We were surprised that they had no menu in English, the most international language on Earth. Also no one spoke English there. I really felt like a stranger on another planet in the way they kinda treated us. At least that’s how I felt…maybe I am wrong, but maybe something else is happening here and I am right after all.
Listen.
For me this is sad and predictable. Knowing an international language is a big advantage for a species that dominates a whole planet. We have common issues and common needs. But in the Language book I wrote a few years ago I realized that tribes are getting more and more tribal. They copy the american shows and make them in their own language. From news organizations to youtube videos, they are creating their own culture based on their own language, but again based on the american culture, the dominant one, in the end. Same retardation.
So now less and less people know English as a result. They do not have to watch the idiot Joe Rogan talking nonsense, every tribe has a few of their own idiot podcasters and influencers.
But now I suspect the enforcement of this disease called nationalism is mostly a result of politicians using it as a bait to get more votes and so more power. Since Trump, a simple minded billionaire TV personality, became the chief tribe of USA by promoting this nonsense “America First” with Tshirts and Hats made in China, everyone is copying the moron.
Politicians are screaming with a loud and angry voice that the “outsiders” are the problem and how we, the locals, the tribe members of this tribe, need to be put first. Our nation, language, customs. The evil comes from outside! They are killing our culture and nation!
They are doing it on TikTok, Facebook, or Youtube, platforms created and owned by other people from other tribes of course. Doing so while wearing clothes made in China, phones made in Taiwan, and eating imported food. Their cars, houses, their stuff, is made somewhere else or at least the materials are. And this will never change because even these “nationalists” understand that they must go for the lower price, regardless how much they “love” their tribe. Not to mention how all of these are complete hypocrites who steal from the same “country” they love, and will only give a shit about their own personal wealth.
In Slovenia I felt this “nationalism” somehow. Maybe a kind of distaste for the “outsiders”. Maybe it was just in my head, but that’s how I felt. Tho considering that this disease of nationalism is quite wide spread in Europe too, I won’t be surprised if I was right.
A tribe later and we arrived in Romania. We had to drive a few hundreds of km there too before reaching my town. I knew that the traffic in Romania is terrible. The roads, awful. Everyone knows that!
But I was wrong! Before getting my driving license in Spain (just last year), I only experienced the Romanian traffic as a passenger. But now that I got to drive in Romania I realized that are not the roads that are awful and dangerous, it is people!
The roads themselves were not too bad, but people driving there are absolute idiots. They drive as if they are jerking off watching Fast and Furious. If the speed limit is 50, for a reason since there’s a village you are crossing, then god forbid you go 60 or 70. That’s too slow!! And everyone behind you is peeking left and right to overtake you. They get so close to you and constantly searching for a spot to overtake.
This is just an example (not filmed by me) of what I mean. And this is very common in Romania:
As a driver this is a lot of stress to constantly watch your side mirrors for these idiots. At one point a huge truck was trying to overtake me on road with incoming traffic, a 70 Km speed limit, and I going with around 80. Since it was unable to accelerate that fast to overtake me, being a fucking small train, it was ending up in my left side on the opposite lane. If a car would come from the opposite direction it would have been a disaster. And what if the moron truck would have tried to go on my lane too soon, bumping into our car since trucks have many dead angles?
I also could not slow down since cars were coming fast from behind me trying to also overtake me. I had to speed up and not let the moron play deadly games with everyone.
Here’s another video from Romania speaking about trucks:
It is astonishing how everyone is so eager to overtake in Romania. They do not respect the speed limit at all. And not wear seatbelts. They don’t give a flying fuck.
I remember being a passenger in Romania how scary it was. I could not relax. Like a rollercoaster with cars coming from the opposite direction. Narrow curves? No biggie, the driver would overtake hoping that the Virgin Marry icon he had in the windshield will protect us all. No wonder everyone was of the opinion that driving in Romania is dangerous….since they all drove very dangerously. Romania ranked the highest in Europe in terms of car accidents and fatalities for many years. Only this year was overtaken by a single point by Bulgaria. (source) Therefore, this is not my impression that the traffic here is dangerous, it is a fact. What made me terribly depressed is to see how people in Romania react when I tell them about this. They have this attitude of like “Dude you are a pussy for driving so slooooow….”. When I ask them why the rush, their excuse is that “Well, you arrive 5-10 minutes earlier to the destination”. “But you also put yourself in danger no? Is that really worth it?”. “C’mon man you are a pussy.”. That’s kinda how it goes.
Someone even told me that it is me driving dangerously because I drive too slow. “But I drive 10 or more Km above the speed limit.”. “You drive too slow man!! And because of you there are many people behind trying to overtake, so you put everyone in danger.”
Imagine that. I’ve heard this argument several times. This is so fucked up I have no words…. I drive legally, even a bit over the speed limit, and it is MY fault that the morons behind me want to go super fast and I stay in their way….Unbelievable.
But anyway, we managed to arrive without getting into a car crash. Actually the drive in Romania was 938 times better and safer than anything I have experienced driving in Romania. And that’s because we both drove NORMALLY. LEGALLY. And not like idiots. So those curvy roads that everyone thinks are deadly and so dangerous, were actually beautiful and fine when driving with 30 when it says fucking 30, and not 80! Of course the stress of driving with so many idiots on the road makes driving in Romania really terrible.
Why this situation?
I think it is because Romania is a poor country where everyone is for themselves. You see a building that is fucked up, but 10 luxury apartments in it. Because those people are rich, not the rest. Who cares how the building is, you only care about your own flat. You see luxury restaurants but in front of them terrible roads and half built buildings. No proper infrastructure, no proper services, but who cares?!
And so the happiness in Romania comes a lot, if not only from STUFF. Since everything else is a mess. If you got a new TV, you show off with it. Brag about it. A new car, phone, whatever…everyone here is obsessed to tell you what stuff they have and how much they paid for it.
And so the car for a Romanian is not a vehicle to transport them from A to B, it is a HORSE. THEIR HORSE. Beautiful horse!!!
People here pay money to change their license plates to something that resembles them. Alex wants ALX, the guy owning the company Neci wants NCI, and the mafioso guy who sells drugs and tries to hook up with high-school girls wants CIA. And this is not a joke, people here may not know these other ones, but they know their cars by the car plates and car type. They put money into buying fancy headlights, cool steering-wheels, led lights and big displays, but never changed their distribution belt or tires, unless they buy cool tires.
Anyway we arrived.
Our apartment in Romania is very nice and cozy. Nothing fancy, just cozy. Warm, quite big, last floor so no neighbors basically. My mother waited for us with presents like she always does, and some nice food.
First days we went to visit some natural parks near by. Very nice nature in Romania. Still some left. Here is a big cave where only Sasha and Georgi adventured in. Romania is full of bears and I decided that I want to live longer so I didn’t go inside.
But we also saw the exploitation of these forests and mountains… And we did find a cool toy: Of course Sasha had to climb it: Saha had to leave. She was going to Russia to visit her family for a month. We drove her to the bus station, 40 minutes away. Left her. Said goodbye. Me and my parents should drive back now. I decided to let my father drive their car back. He struggles for the past year or so with this driving thing. Very insecure, rushed, he is not paying attention. We were always scared when driving with him.
But hey, it is their car, the way back I thought he will know the way. I was also hungry eating something in the back. They also wanted to stop nearby to see some of the holiday lights. Ok, do it.
The moment we left the parking lot, he went straight on the opposite side of the road. I was unsure then, but later I realized that. Then he drove very badly and I thought the moment we stop for that lights show thing that should be 5 minutes away, I will drive back.
Too late, we crashed. Less than a week after we drove thousands of km to bring to Romania…
It was of course his fault. He went left on an intersection and someone went straight into the back right side. I was in the back right side….I saw that car coming with a lot of speed, the romanian way. That woman did not press the break pedal. I was lucky. A bit earlier or speedier and would have crushed exactly into the right back door where I was. In that situation the seatbelt is useless, and the airbags are there to hopefully help you not die. But if she went straight into the door I would have at least broken some bones, if not my neck or maybe die?!
Was a very fucked up situation.
Of course the woman who hit us screamed at us, and all that. I stayed calm and managed the situation. We agreed not to call the police and the insurance for my parents’ car covered hers. I drove back with the car like that…
I came back home and said I will not go out anymore. Especially with the car. One month inside. It is warm, cozy, and safe.
There are 2 “events” or things that made me realize how much of a dystopia this place is.
1. The Pretenders
It is a big deal in Romania now with the recycling of plastic bottles. In short they put these recycling boxes and give people money if they bring there plastic bottles. At least some kind of them. It says “The future is being made today!” or something like that. Encouraging? Not so when in the right side you already see trash.
Wanna see how the trash disposal situation looks for the apartment building we live in? Wanna see how the hills (nature) nearby (20 minutes walk) look like? I got so depressed after that walk I didn’t want to know that this place exists.
And look how the main bridge in this town looks like, a bridge that is being crossed by many trucks every single day: BUT you can recycle your plastic bottles for a little cash!
And this is a sign of dystopia for me. The combination of fancy useless shit (you can order exotic foods in this town or have access to fancy services) and this pretend to do something (recycle, bioshit, whatever), combined with the reality that is in compete and utter mess. So it is a pretend game. We pretend to do something and care, while in reality we fuck everything up. All because of companies who push for these non-solutions to get away with producing more useless shit.
Romania is an extreme example of this, but the entire world does the same. They likely take that “recycled” trash and dump it in a filed somewhere. Plus instead of putting resources into making people recycle (like give them money if they recycle plastic bottles and such), why not make sure they have access to good drinkable water in their homes and make them get used to drink from there ha? At the same time ban the sell of plastic bottled water! Easy!
These are solutions, not to recycle those plastic bottles that are made in abundance. And I bet they don’t even recycle them anyway.
This is the world we live in, the play pretend. And this had muted the conversations about real solutions. This is indeed catastrophic.
2. The Truth has Died
I came across a high-school friend while I was out of my bunker to go buy some stuff. We exchanged phone numbers. He called me one day to meet up. I said sure, it was in the beginning of my Romanian experience for this winter. I was still a bit naive. I went. We met with yet another high school friend there and her cousin.
To keep it short, it is like I came across antimatter for the first time. Or imagine you end up in the Big Foot club and people talk seriously about seeing Big Foot, and how the government is covering up this big monkey story and all that.
A shock to the system.
Politics, war, astrology, conspiracies….I was truly overwhelmed and terribly depressed. So much bullshit I found no reason to try and push that much against it.
You know Russia had to defend against Ukraine and it is NATO’s fault for the war, Putin is a great leader, Trump is a tough and smart guy, the 7/11 attacks were a false flag, COVID was not real, God exists of course, and astrology (the stars) dictate your faith.
I know most people on this planet are crazy, but now I feel they have become very vocal. Like everywhere, politics in Romania is a tsunami of vomit. Again to keep it short it is this “new guy” who wants to become the president of Romania and most people voted for him.
He thinks the same crazy things that all of the crazies believe. Or vice versa?! hm…
Several media articles criticized Georgescu for his pro-Russian statements, describing him as a Russophile and demonstrating how he used his social media platforms to spread information sourced to Russian state media. He has also praised Russian president Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country” Georgescu does not believe in the human Moon landing.[37] In a podcast, he also mentioned that carbonated juices contain nanochips, which “enter you like into a laptop”, and considers climate change “a global scam”, which “has nothing to do with reality”.
If you don’t believe Wikipedia for some reason, here with English subtitles, the guy saying these stupid things:
This guy makes Trump look sane. Millions voted for him. Including these “friends” I met apparently.
My friend took me back home with his very expensive car while leaning in one side to not trigger the beeping sound the car was making since he was not wearing the seat-belt. Quite a struggle to avoid driving safe…. Don’t be a pussy!!!
Anyway.
Now the elections in Romania have been canceled because the previous leaders said Russia pushed this guy’s face and voice in the online world, illegally. Anyway, point is, there are millions who have voted for someone who thinks carbonated drinks contain chips to control you.
He pedals the same nationalism bullshit that so many have started to do for the past years. Maybe Trump inspired them all.
It is true this situation comes from the fact that people are sick of the “normal” politicians who lie, are fake, are corrupted. Couple with the fact that normal people have shitty lives, especially in Romania, and then you start to understand why they want to shake the politics with this “new guy” who says weird and new things, and brags about how he wants to put Romanians FIRST and take care of ROMANIANS, and all about ROMANIA ROMANIA ROMANIA. Just like Trump and his Make America Great Again bullshit.
But it is working….not for the people, but for these leaders. They become popular, rich, powerful. The people remain poor, confused and misinformed.
The problem is that this turmoil has degraded people’s relation with the truth. The aftermath is a big layer of humans who have no tools, time, and willingness to check what is true and what is not. Even worse, this layer thinks that they know what is true and what is not, despite all of that. And that’s the catastrophe.
And so, this society is going downhill at speeds I for one did not anticipate, even with my extremely pessimistic views.
Dystopia
Romania seems to me like a cartoonish version of reality in the sense that it showcases better the message, in a more simple to understand manner. It is like a drawing of our solar system:
You get the idea of how our solar system is without having to dig too deep to “get it”.
That’s what Romania is. A cartoon drawing of our global society. Romania shows you very clearly how and why the truth has died, and it shows you very clearly how we play pretend in this world about fixing our problems.
This is why I recorded this video some 2-3 years ago, and published last month…
In this video I explain why this entire situation is also a result of our trade-based society. And how, in theory, we could fix this, despite the fact that in reality it would be nearly impossible for such a big change to happen.
What now?
Life is short and we are very small.
In Romania we have this big balcony that I can access from my room’s window:
I made it nice there. Put a monitor, some candles, and Christmas lights. I would go there and watch documentaries. The ones made by real journalists and vetted by other independent journalistic organizations. Like, you know, how documentaries and information should be.
I would make some food, buy some sweets, and watch. Learn. Understand. Be angry or amazed. But be so due to real information. If I get angry, I want to get angry because of real things, not illusory nonsense some weirdos vomit online. That felt very cozy and I enjoyed it a lot. I had many interesting conversations with Georgi, my sister, the only sane human I know around here :)).
I want to keep myself sane in this insane world, and I want to enjoy doing that so to not feel like I “have” to do it.
Tomorrow I leave Romania. I go back to Spain. I cannot wait to meet with Sasha again. I am so lucky I have to share my life with her because it seems so rare to find sane humans in this world. Humans who understand what science is and how important it is, how journalism works, how to find what is true and what is not, but also curious about how this world works in general, or why this society is fucked up.
From there on we will start our adventures with our motorhome. I miss our motorhome! But I have started to make a lot of videos so follow us via – tromhome.com.
In February we go meet more of these sane humans in the South of Spain. I cannot believe these sort of people still exist in this boiling soup of crazies that this world has become.
I will continue to create saner projects, promote science, write articles/books, and do good things. All, despite the fact that hope for a better world, for me, is just a faint scent that I almost cannot detect anymore.
But it is fine, we are small, the world is big, and life is fast.
Sure "democracy"....a way for the "majority" to decide ha?!
Yet we live in a world where the ones with a lot of financial power always decide. They own the messengers, social platforms, streaming platforms, newspapers, TV stations, they give money to politicians, bribe, abuse, and so forth....
It may be hard to accept, but there is no democracy. And never was. No one voted to go to war in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Afghanistan. No one voted for the use of fossil fuels instead of renewable energies. No one votes for the prices of medicine, if we should do space missions, build a park, or basically anything else.
People vote to elect a handful of tribe leaders, after a fierce battle of influence over these voters, to then have these leaders do as they please once they are elected. And some of these leaders can't even do shit since the rich control the world anyway.
... show more
Sure "democracy"....a way for the "majority" to decide ha?!
Yet we live in a world where the ones with a lot of financial power always decide. They own the messengers, social platforms, streaming platforms, newspapers, TV stations, they give money to politicians, bribe, abuse, and so forth....
It may be hard to accept, but there is no democracy. And never was. No one voted to go to war in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Afghanistan. No one voted for the use of fossil fuels instead of renewable energies. No one votes for the prices of medicine, if we should do space missions, build a park, or basically anything else.
People vote to elect a handful of tribe leaders, after a fierce battle of influence over these voters, to then have these leaders do as they please once they are elected. And some of these leaders can't even do shit since the rich control the world anyway.
And now that we talk about democracy, in principle it is a bad idea for most decisions that need to be taken by the experts in the field. Of course we should not have a vote about how to deal with cancer screenings, surgeries, building bridges, or most of these things.
Instead of floating these fantasy ideas around we should keep it simple and reasonable: all people need access to a basic life without any strings attached. Then they can have some autonomy and get involved into all sorts of things. Become engineers, doctors, write for Wikipedia, do open source software, volunteer and so forth. Free people from this primitive trade society, and let them grow. Like creating a fertile soil to be able to grow flowers.
That's what we need. Therefore basic and good services, regardless of the party or leaders. Good healthcare, housing for all, access to education and food, access to free transport, and our basic needs. The rest will emerge out of this good environment.
You saying, "That's what we need. [...] basic and good services, >>regardless of the party or leaders<<," combined with your rejection of capitalist democracy without suggesting an alternative version of democracy makes you sound very fascistic. I don't know what the question "how do you sound" is supposed to mean. I sound fine.
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement,[1][2][3] characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy
I support a society in which every single human individual is being taken care of without any strings attached. So no: you get housing, food, whatever you need, ONLY if you do this or that. That's what I support and talk about since 2011 via tromsite.com/
Regardless if I know or not how this can be achieve
... show more
You mean my posts sounds as if I support this?
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement,[1][2][3] characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy
I support a society in which every single human individual is being taken care of without any strings attached. So no: you get housing, food, whatever you need, ONLY if you do this or that. That's what I support and talk about since 2011 via tromsite.com/
Regardless if I know or not how this can be achieved, I think it is a humane way of organizing our society.
We have more houses, more food, stuff, and resources than anyone needs. We could create a paradise on this planet if it weren't for this trade-based society (call it capitalism if you want) which restricts the access to these resources, and makes people into hoarders, competitive, and overall terrible beings.
As for how do you sound, you sound angry to me "You're sounding like a fucking fascist right now". Not a good way to start a conversation.
This is a recording I did after we finished filming for the TROM 2 documentary. I wanted to compress all of my thoughts in one go, one recording. And this rant is more than relevant today when it seems this world is fast slipping into idiocracy. If you did not see our TROM 2 documentary I recommend you better watch that instead of this video - tromsite.com/documentaries/tro…
In essence I think that the human society has dug its own grave so deep, it is likely we cannot save it from a total failure. However, if you have the patience to watch the entire rant, you will see that despite this negativity I am still positively active with sane and nice projects and I will continue to do so.
If the world is fucked, it does not mean I, or you, have to be fucked and complete idiots, or to not care about the world.
This is a recording I did after we finished filming for the TROM 2 documentary. I wanted to compress all of my thoughts in one go, one recording. And this rant is more than relevant today when it s...
Two things scare me the most, personally. First is death or health related issues. It is normal, if I die I'm fucked for eternity :). I think this is easy to understand for many people.
Second thing that scares me so much is to slip back into the fantasy world that humans created and forget about the amazing reality discovered for the past hundreds of years. To become too normal, even if that can mean to laugh, have fun, enjoy. I am scared of this. I battled this for all of my life trying to inject myself with reality bits and info (atoms, galaxies, evolution, stars and everything real) in the hope that my brain can understand the value of reality. It is hard. It is so hard and it is something I feel not many, if any, understand. It is also something that you can lose very fast, when you "get it".
I wanted to put a printed Hubble image of the Andromeda galaxy on the ceiling in my room when I was in college so that when I wake up it will remind me of how reality is mind blowing and the human invented one is a simplistic, myopic and colorless at best.
... show more
Two things scare me the most, personally. First is death or health related issues. It is normal, if I die I'm fucked for eternity :). I think this is easy to understand for many people.
Second thing that scares me so much is to slip back into the fantasy world that humans created and forget about the amazing reality discovered for the past hundreds of years. To become too normal, even if that can mean to laugh, have fun, enjoy. I am scared of this. I battled this for all of my life trying to inject myself with reality bits and info (atoms, galaxies, evolution, stars and everything real) in the hope that my brain can understand the value of reality. It is hard. It is so hard and it is something I feel not many, if any, understand. It is also something that you can lose very fast, when you "get it".
I wanted to put a printed Hubble image of the Andromeda galaxy on the ceiling in my room when I was in college so that when I wake up it will remind me of how reality is mind blowing and the human invented one is a simplistic, myopic and colorless at best.
Most humans are today as they were 400, 1.000 , or more years ago. Let's have a beer, a chat, get married, fuck, have kids, gossip, have fun or war. Not saying some of these are not good or reasonable, but isn't it mindblowing that not much has changed in the core of our global society and the day to day life of humans for the past 400 years considering in this time we discovered cells, atoms, galaxies, evolution, and everything in between?
To me, this is so odd it creates a turmoil in my head. I think I have an explanation why this is the case tho: an aggressive trade-based society where everyone is a working ant. No time to even know about reality, let alone absorb it.
Reality is shocking, mind-blowing, fabulous, scary, infinitely complex and amazing. Day to day life in this society is simplistic and almost parallel to reality.
If you don't fee like losing your mind when you think about this contrast, I don't think you understand.
I sometimes think of death as an external sleep and it makes it seem less frightening, except the pain of death and health issues ofc - those are still scary.
As for humans not changing in any fundamental ways over many centuries it doesn't feel that surprising to me - isn't this the case for most creatures on earth? 🤔 But yeah I do still wish for some things to change, things like wars and environmental destruction, or the fact that humans are still forced to be like working ants - that sucks because it takes away their precious time.
If you think about it the universe also feels stagnant sometimes, the moon rotates around the earth and the earth rotates around the sun - it has been like that for millions of years. I've heard that the Andromeda galaxy will one day collapse with the Milkyway to create a new galaxy, but the time it takes for that to happen is so long that my lifespan feels insignificant in comparison. Hell most of us don't even notice the
I sometimes think of death as an external sleep and it makes it seem less frightening, except the pain of death and health issues ofc - those are still scary.
As for humans not changing in any fundamental ways over many centuries it doesn't feel that surprising to me - isn't this the case for most creatures on earth? 🤔 But yeah I do still wish for some things to change, things like wars and environmental destruction, or the fact that humans are still forced to be like working ants - that sucks because it takes away their precious time.
If you think about it the universe also feels stagnant sometimes, the moon rotates around the earth and the earth rotates around the sun - it has been like that for millions of years. I've heard that the Andromeda galaxy will one day collapse with the Milkyway to create a new galaxy, but the time it takes for that to happen is so long that my lifespan feels insignificant in comparison. Hell most of us don't even notice the trees growing around us because it happens very slowly lol 😄 But the one thing that has had significant changes is our understanding of the universe, we sent humans to space, rovers to mars, etc so that we could study it. We made a giant foldable telescope and sent it into space just so we could see distant galaxies more clearly! 🤓 Hell we photographed a black hole! 😃 So in the end it is still about humanity, the leaps and bounces we make in trying to understand the universe 🙂
Well doesnt scare you the thought that you will never wake up or dream? :D - To me this realization that I will disappear forever is really frightening.
As for humans not changing in any fundamental ways over many centuries it doesn't feel that surprising to me - isn't this the case for most creatures on earth?
No because I am talking culturally/mentally change. No other creature can imagine like humans do. And to find out that you are made up of cells, or atoms, or are other solar systems out there, but not change in any fundamental way how you see your image, is weird to me.
Those missions are not just "humans exploring out of curiosity" - there are many people involved who just "do their job" as an engineer, scientist, etc.. I remember seeing videos from ISS with "scientists" wearing a cross, and being so "christians"....to me that's so weird. Also celebrating the SuperBall and I bet many watch Netflix in space.
My point is that if we were to discover that inside our skulls there is a green little man pushing buttons....and we have phot
... show more
Well doesnt scare you the thought that you will never wake up or dream? :D - To me this realization that I will disappear forever is really frightening.
As for humans not changing in any fundamental ways over many centuries it doesn't feel that surprising to me - isn't this the case for most creatures on earth?
No because I am talking culturally/mentally change. No other creature can imagine like humans do. And to find out that you are made up of cells, or atoms, or are other solar systems out there, but not change in any fundamental way how you see your image, is weird to me.
Those missions are not just "humans exploring out of curiosity" - there are many people involved who just "do their job" as an engineer, scientist, etc.. I remember seeing videos from ISS with "scientists" wearing a cross, and being so "christians"....to me that's so weird. Also celebrating the SuperBall and I bet many watch Netflix in space.
My point is that if we were to discover that inside our skulls there is a green little man pushing buttons....and we have photos of that, and so on, but you tell to people about it and they are like "hm, ok, yah" and move on with their life....this is WEIRD :D
Well doesnt scare you the thought that you will never wake up or dream? :D - To me this realization that I will disappear forever is really frightening.
Yeah it is kinda scary to think that you'll never be able to experience the world again, but once you're dead you're also not conscious anymore and without that you cannot miss what you had before. But yeah ofc it's normal to be scared of death, we all are to some extent.
No because I am talking culturally/mentally change. No other creature can imagine like humans do. And to find out that you are made up of cells, or atoms, or are other solar systems out there, but not change in any fundamental way how you see your image, is weird to me.
I think the discovery of these things actually did have an impact on our culture, but perhaps not as pronounced as it should've been. I remember the first time I learned about atoms as a kid, that was a mind blowing experi
Well doesnt scare you the thought that you will never wake up or dream? :D - To me this realization that I will disappear forever is really frightening.
Yeah it is kinda scary to think that you'll never be able to experience the world again, but once you're dead you're also not conscious anymore and without that you cannot miss what you had before. But yeah ofc it's normal to be scared of death, we all are to some extent.
No because I am talking culturally/mentally change. No other creature can imagine like humans do. And to find out that you are made up of cells, or atoms, or are other solar systems out there, but not change in any fundamental way how you see your image, is weird to me.
I think the discovery of these things actually did have an impact on our culture, but perhaps not as pronounced as it should've been. I remember the first time I learned about atoms as a kid, that was a mind blowing experience for me! And I remember discussing about these ideas with a friend who was also blown away by these things. The crazy thing is that it almost feels like science fiction, and I know people have theorized about this idea centuries ago that maybe all matter was made out of some fundamental particles - those were just theories back then, until we discovered through science that it was actually real! Over time I got used to the idea of atoms and it doesn't excite me anymore like when I was a kid first discovering it, but this is pretty normal - it keeps me wanting to learn new things so that I could feel like that kid again 🙂
Those missions are not just "humans exploring out of curiosity" - there are many people involved who just "do their job" as an engineer, scientist, etc.. I remember seeing videos from ISS with "scientists" wearing a cross, and being so "christians"....to me that's so weird. Also celebrating the SuperBall and I bet many watch Netflix in space.
Religion and science is a weird mix for sure, but I don't know maybe it works in this weird ant worker society we got going lol 😄 Stuff like SuperBall and Netflix could be argued as a waste of time (if someone's spending too much time on it), but at least these are not fundamental beliefs like religion and likewise not as harmful.
My point is that if we were to discover that inside our skulls there is a green little man pushing buttons....and we have photos of that, and so on, but you tell to people about it and they are like "hm, ok, yah" and move on with their life....this is WEIRD :D
Oh yeah I get what you mean, I don't understand people who don't have any curiosity man 😅 It is sad to see people being apathetic to these things. Sometimes when I learn about something really cool and wanna share it with others I have no one around me who could understand it or share that excitement with me, sometimes when there is someone they'll be too busy to have the time for it - experiences like that does make me feel alone sometimes.
but once you're dead you're also not conscious anymore and without that you cannot miss what you had before
The missing part is for the alive ones :P like us. So ofc it is frighting to think about it.
I think the discovery of these things actually did have an impact on our culture, but perhaps not as pronounced as it should've been.
I do not see that impact. People's lives are the same as they were hundreds or thousands of years ago: work, consume, get married, have kids, gossip, and all that. These discoveries didn't even make us feel like one species. We are still divided into tribes.
Sometimes when I learn about something really cool and wanna share it with others I have no one around me who could understand it or share that excitement with me, sometimes when there is someone they'll be too busy to have the time for it - experiences like that does make me feel alone sometimes.
Yeah exactly....as I was saying since people are so busy to trade mostly. It sucks and it destroys curiosity. It really sucks.
Mmm, depends what you mean by "core of our global society" I guess.
Most people are always going to want to concentrate on things of immediate relevance. I mean, yes, cells and galaxies are wonderful and all, but how does that change anything you can do in your day to day life ? For most people, unless you're a doctor or an astronomer, it doesn't.
On the other hand... a lot less people are involved in manual labour today than they were even 40 years ago, let alone 400. How many people even earned a living from website design 40 years ago ? In some ways the changes have been profound even at the practical level, let alone the subtler realm of world views (which have changed beyond recognition).
In Stephen Baxter's novels he refers to all the accessories needed for manned spaceflight collectively as plumbing : we need to bring along a hell of a lot of stuff just to keep us going. Likewise, what have we learned that prevents the need for sex, trade and beer (not necessarily in that order) ? Nothing, really. We still need to do all that stuff. It's
... show more
Mmm, depends what you mean by "core of our global society" I guess.
Most people are always going to want to concentrate on things of immediate relevance. I mean, yes, cells and galaxies are wonderful and all, but how does that change anything you can do in your day to day life ? For most people, unless you're a doctor or an astronomer, it doesn't.
On the other hand... a lot less people are involved in manual labour today than they were even 40 years ago, let alone 400. How many people even earned a living from website design 40 years ago ? In some ways the changes have been profound even at the practical level, let alone the subtler realm of world views (which have changed beyond recognition).
In Stephen Baxter's novels he refers to all the accessories needed for manned spaceflight collectively as plumbing : we need to bring along a hell of a lot of stuff just to keep us going. Likewise, what have we learned that prevents the need for sex, trade and beer (not necessarily in that order) ? Nothing, really. We still need to do all that stuff. It's just that now our conversations are about different things and proceed from different assumptions. The shift is subtler than changing our gross behaviours - except where technology or other developments make this unavoidable - but no less powerful for that. You don't find people worrying about miasma anymore, but actually disinfecting things properly.
The other factor is that frequent consideration of our place in the Universe on scales both large and small is likely a quick route to insanity. :)
Most people are always going to want to concentrate on things of immediate relevance. I mean, yes, cells and galaxies are wonderful and all, but how does that change anything you can do in your day to day life ? For most people, unless you're a doctor or an astronomer, it doesn't.
Probably "immediate relevance" means whatever they are made to focus on in this society: iphones, gadgets, stupid tv shows, events, consume, drama, etc.. Cells and galaxies and the rest are something one can use to change the way they see themselves and others. Like we are all humans, all connected, no need for artificial separations like borders, nationalities, color of the skin, etc.. These are also wonderful discussion topics and may make people buy a telescope/microscope rather than a new phone. There are many implications resulting from such a scientific mind set.
On the other hand... a lot less people are involved in manual labour today than they were even 40 years ago, let alone 400. How many people even earned a living from website design 40 years ago ? In s
... show more
Most people are always going to want to concentrate on things of immediate relevance. I mean, yes, cells and galaxies are wonderful and all, but how does that change anything you can do in your day to day life ? For most people, unless you're a doctor or an astronomer, it doesn't.
Probably "immediate relevance" means whatever they are made to focus on in this society: iphones, gadgets, stupid tv shows, events, consume, drama, etc.. Cells and galaxies and the rest are something one can use to change the way they see themselves and others. Like we are all humans, all connected, no need for artificial separations like borders, nationalities, color of the skin, etc.. These are also wonderful discussion topics and may make people buy a telescope/microscope rather than a new phone. There are many implications resulting from such a scientific mind set.
On the other hand... a lot less people are involved in manual labour today than they were even 40 years ago, let alone 400. How many people even earned a living from website design 40 years ago ? In some ways the changes have been profound even at the practical level, let alone the subtler realm of world views (which have changed beyond recognition).
This has nothing to do with the way people are. A webdesigner today and a house constructor from 600 years ago have a lot in common. Probably both want to get married, have kids, want to buy stuff, trade, not curious about the scientific world, etc..
Yes, but most scientists also want to buy stuff, get married, etc. We don't spend the whole time pontificating on the nature of reality because, as I said, it would drive us mad.
I think the general mindset of the modern world has changed, substantially, from where it was centuries ago. Social attitudes have changed radically from where they were even a few decades ago : compare the role of women in the workplace in the 1950s, or how homosexuals were treated in the 1980s. There isn't full equality yet, but good lord there's been a colossal shift in that direction (interestingly of course, if you go back further through history, you often find shifts in both positive as well as negative directions compared to the modern era, e.g. homosexuality in ancient Greece).
Yes, lots of people use gadgets and whatnot for watching stupid TV shows and the like. But they also use them for watching educational stuff.
I dunno, I just think there's no one right way to live one's life. I'm an astronomer, but I'd no more want to force astronomy on those unwilling to do it t
... show more
Yes, but most scientists also want to buy stuff, get married, etc. We don't spend the whole time pontificating on the nature of reality because, as I said, it would drive us mad.
I think the general mindset of the modern world has changed, substantially, from where it was centuries ago. Social attitudes have changed radically from where they were even a few decades ago : compare the role of women in the workplace in the 1950s, or how homosexuals were treated in the 1980s. There isn't full equality yet, but good lord there's been a colossal shift in that direction (interestingly of course, if you go back further through history, you often find shifts in both positive as well as negative directions compared to the modern era, e.g. homosexuality in ancient Greece).
Yes, lots of people use gadgets and whatnot for watching stupid TV shows and the like. But they also use them for watching educational stuff.
I dunno, I just think there's no one right way to live one's life. I'm an astronomer, but I'd no more want to force astronomy on those unwilling to do it than I'd appreciate being forced to, say, play basketball. I honestly haven't got a clue what people get out of playing sports but if that's what they like, so be it.
I do wish we could stop the utterly vacuous stuff though : Keeping Up With the Kardaashians, endless celebrity gossip and the like. But I'm not sure it's possible. We seem hard wired to be very interested in judging each other, and no amount of cosmic mystiwisdom seems able to change that.
It is not about "pontificating" about atoms, galaxies, and what-not, is about how these fundamental truths that were only discovered recently seem to have no impact on the vast majority of people. And that is very strange.
I am lucky to be around people who are excited about these real things so we often talk about these, we go with the telescope and watch some planets, or look at things through the microscope, etc.. I cannot even watch movies anymore, I watch documentaries. Reality is the most mindblowing and interesting and complex thing, so if you get it, you can't be excited by simplistic human-made stories I guess. And we are far from losing our minds :)
I agree some social attitudes have changed a lot, but many have not in my view. The attitude towards work, the notion of family, the view of us as one species (which is scientifically accurate) does not seem to be a thing in this society - I see a lot more division every day. We have the same core trade-based society where the purpose of pretty much everyone is that of trade. To trade themselves or the stuff they
... show more
It is not about "pontificating" about atoms, galaxies, and what-not, is about how these fundamental truths that were only discovered recently seem to have no impact on the vast majority of people. And that is very strange.
I am lucky to be around people who are excited about these real things so we often talk about these, we go with the telescope and watch some planets, or look at things through the microscope, etc.. I cannot even watch movies anymore, I watch documentaries. Reality is the most mindblowing and interesting and complex thing, so if you get it, you can't be excited by simplistic human-made stories I guess. And we are far from losing our minds :)
I agree some social attitudes have changed a lot, but many have not in my view. The attitude towards work, the notion of family, the view of us as one species (which is scientifically accurate) does not seem to be a thing in this society - I see a lot more division every day. We have the same core trade-based society where the purpose of pretty much everyone is that of trade. To trade themselves or the stuff they have, for something else. The attitude towards consumerism has become more insane, and so forth.
I also agree that anyone should live their lives as they wish to, I am just observing some facts: how for the past hundreds of years mindblowing things have been discovered about reality, and this had almost 0 impact on the day to day life of people. Imagine if we proved we live in a computer simulation and all scientists agree and we can verify. But yet most people would be like "Yeah, cool..." and move on with their simulated life. Wouldn't that be bizarre?
We seem hard wired to be very interested in judging each other, and no amount of cosmic mystiwisdom seems able to change that.
I disagree that we are hard wired for anything really. We become whatever the environment pushes us to be. Even the way we walk or talk is created by the environment we are raised into. And we can change, never forget that.
Well I do agree that we aren't hardwired for anything very much. In large part, I think, we are society; we are our own environment. Yet there are behaviours like family bonds which, if not truly constant, don't seem to vary nearly as strongly. Hence I interpret some attitudes and behaviours, at least, to be hard-wired, maybe not fully so but much more than others.
I'm fascinated by how other cultures have interpreted reality in very different ways. The modern scientific world view is really very recent indeed and nowhere near complete, or even wholly accurate. I would agree that this hasn't really changed any of the basics like the need for family, trade, socialising, but on the other hand, why would it ? The big ideas don't filter down to that level much except as nth-order effects. There is a deep-seated need to talk to other people, to have friends, to have material goods... whether reality is the atomic waste of stellar explosions or we're actually all living inside the eye of a giant duck wouldn't make any difference to that. In a way, all co
... show more
Well I do agree that we aren't hardwired for anything very much. In large part, I think, we are society; we are our own environment. Yet there are behaviours like family bonds which, if not truly constant, don't seem to vary nearly as strongly. Hence I interpret some attitudes and behaviours, at least, to be hard-wired, maybe not fully so but much more than others.
I'm fascinated by how other cultures have interpreted reality in very different ways. The modern scientific world view is really very recent indeed and nowhere near complete, or even wholly accurate. I would agree that this hasn't really changed any of the basics like the need for family, trade, socialising, but on the other hand, why would it ? The big ideas don't filter down to that level much except as nth-order effects. There is a deep-seated need to talk to other people, to have friends, to have material goods... whether reality is the atomic waste of stellar explosions or we're actually all living inside the eye of a giant duck wouldn't make any difference to that. In a way, all conceptions of reality are equally astonishing (Pratchett, as often, said it best).
On the other hand... nobody goes to the local Wise Woman for medicine anymore (well, with some unfortunate exceptions...), or sacrifices a bull to bring the rain. Some basics haven't varied much but differences of detail are huge. The things that don't vary, I think, are the fundamental "plumbing" and likely will never alter very much at all.
And the thing is, discoveries filter through slowly. We have time to adapt; there isn't much "shock value" in most findings. Even when there is, what seemed revolutionary yesterday becomes normal very quickly indeed. We are extremely flexible. Possibly there's a state of maximum excitation beyond which things are so radically different that they just can't be understood at all, but below which pretty nearly everything becomes normal.
I suppose it might be "scary" in the sense that maybe we aren't as humbled as we should be. On the other hand, being in a state of permanent astonishment and surprise would be debilitating. Flexibility has its advantages.
I looked a lot into this hard-wiring "theory" of behavior and I could never find anything of significance especially since humans can always change. So the outside pressures are always the ones capable of changing the behavior.
I would agree that this hasn't really changed any of the basics like the need for family, trade, socialising, but on the other hand, why would it ?
Well take climate change. It is a huge issue. All scientists agree about that basically. But not much is being done because something else overwrites it: the pressures in this trade based society to seek for profit.
In the same way people are more incentivized and made to watch some silly netflix series than say documentaries (due to ads for example), or find it easier to have chit-chats about nothing things than more interesting conversations because most people are tired due to work. And so on. The notion of a family is quite stagnant and promoted by the same media that everyone consumes.
Most boils down to this trade-based society where people are incentivized to prom
... show more
I looked a lot into this hard-wiring "theory" of behavior and I could never find anything of significance especially since humans can always change. So the outside pressures are always the ones capable of changing the behavior.
I would agree that this hasn't really changed any of the basics like the need for family, trade, socialising, but on the other hand, why would it ?
Well take climate change. It is a huge issue. All scientists agree about that basically. But not much is being done because something else overwrites it: the pressures in this trade based society to seek for profit.
In the same way people are more incentivized and made to watch some silly netflix series than say documentaries (due to ads for example), or find it easier to have chit-chats about nothing things than more interesting conversations because most people are tired due to work. And so on. The notion of a family is quite stagnant and promoted by the same media that everyone consumes.
Most boils down to this trade-based society where people are incentivized to promote and consume whatever sells best, where most people are busy and consumers, where reality is not really sold/advertised in any way, and so on.
Why would notions like the family, or the idea of work, and so forth be changed by whatever we discovered so far? Because what we discovered shows us we are one species on one planet, and same as with the climate change we should change the way we do things on this planet because we are not doing so well. And where there is no issue that is uncovered by this reality, like climate change, then the view of yourself in this universe should change if you find something new about reality, no?
There is a deep-seated need to talk to other people, to have friends, to have material goods... whether reality is the atomic waste of stellar explosions or we're actually all living inside the eye of a giant duck wouldn't make any difference to that.
It is so strange to think this way. Are you saying that if tomorrow we discover that all is a computer simulation, and everyone agrees, wouldn't it be weird if people would have the same lives as before?
I do not think there is a "natural" excuse for this state of numbness about reality. Whenever I show others the Moon or other planets through my telescope they don't even have a clue what these are. And they are fascinated when I tell them. I think the information doesn't reach most people to begin with. You can't be curious if you don't even know.
We could be very different beings if we were to take reality more seriously.
Well, the notion that we live in a simulation is essentially Berkelian idealism, which has been floating around for at least a couple of centuries and arguably a lot longer (certainly everyone has wondered at some point, "what if it's all a dream ?"). We've already had plenty of time to get use to the idea, so if it was somehow thought to be actually true, nothing much would happen.
Same as discovering aliens. When we actually do detect an alien signal or some microfossils, or even actual living microbes, I predict the reaction will be... not much. We've been writing stories about it since basically forever - it isn't a revolutionary concept anymore. Shock value is extremely hard to maintain. Sure, discovery of aliens would cause a big press hoo-hah. But unless we actually get an alien spaceship landing on the proverbial White House lawn (or equivalent), it isn't going to change anything fundamental on the long term. Anything we can't actually interact with becomes an abstraction.
Climate change is also a good example. Here's the rub : what can any of us actua
... show more
Well, the notion that we live in a simulation is essentially Berkelian idealism, which has been floating around for at least a couple of centuries and arguably a lot longer (certainly everyone has wondered at some point, "what if it's all a dream ?"). We've already had plenty of time to get use to the idea, so if it was somehow thought to be actually true, nothing much would happen.
Same as discovering aliens. When we actually do detect an alien signal or some microfossils, or even actual living microbes, I predict the reaction will be... not much. We've been writing stories about it since basically forever - it isn't a revolutionary concept anymore. Shock value is extremely hard to maintain. Sure, discovery of aliens would cause a big press hoo-hah. But unless we actually get an alien spaceship landing on the proverbial White House lawn (or equivalent), it isn't going to change anything fundamental on the long term. Anything we can't actually interact with becomes an abstraction.
Climate change is also a good example. Here's the rub : what can any of us actually do about it ? In the case of aliens or simulations, nothing. I can't see why that would make me like or dislike my friends and family any more than I do already : what bearing would it have on anything ? I'm stuck with the reality I have before me. Knowledge of what it "really" is doesn't change anything at all for me : I still experience the same pleasures and pains, so I can't see what difference it would make practically (this is not at all the same as saying I wouldn't find it hugely interesting, however !).
(In the case of climate change, this is a bit tangential, but the answer is still "not much" individually - real differences require different power generation, farming techniques, societal structures, etc. none of which any individual has any real influence over)
It's not numbness, or even indifference. It's just that these things are orthogonal. I think you're taking it for granted that knowledge of reality should fundamentally change behaviour, but I cannot really see why this should be the case. Atomic theory hasn't altered family dynamics - I think it would be extremely strange if it did !
Culture changes enormously, as I said, and I agree that this is largely due to external factors : I'm not disagreeing with you on that one significantly. I further agree that the world would be a better place if more people were more concerned about the bigger issues than the humdrum superficial stuff. It's disappointing and, yes, even a little weird that they're not. But I can't see why any sort of discovery would, or even should, change something as fundamental as the nature of friendships and families. Material concerns could and should be mitigated, but I would think the chain of thought from "what is the nature of reality ?" to "how many eggs do I need to buy today ?" is so convoluted as to make these essentially unrelated questions. Likewise, why would knowing that you're made of atoms or dreams affect whether you fancy someone or enjoy playing tennis or having a beer ? I can't see why it would.
It is one thing for fictional ideas to be around for ages, another to prove one of them is real. The example was to show how a shocking discovery should shock people.
Shock value is extremely hard to maintain.
I am talking about the initial shock value that does not seem to happen to begin with in many cases in regards to the contrast between reality and society.
Anything we can't actually interact with becomes an abstraction.
I bet is not about interaction as it is about stimulation. There are many people in awe and shock about galaxies, or cells, or biology, or maths, or other parts of reality, as they are about celebrities, movies, fantasy stories and other things they cannot touch, interact with. It is all about what you stimulate people, culturally, to be interested in.
Like climate change, there are many who react to this bad piece of "news" and are active about trying to do something about it. Where is that motivation coming from since they seem to have no impact on the course of it anyway? It comes from what
... show more
It is one thing for fictional ideas to be around for ages, another to prove one of them is real. The example was to show how a shocking discovery should shock people.
Shock value is extremely hard to maintain.
I am talking about the initial shock value that does not seem to happen to begin with in many cases in regards to the contrast between reality and society.
Anything we can't actually interact with becomes an abstraction.
I bet is not about interaction as it is about stimulation. There are many people in awe and shock about galaxies, or cells, or biology, or maths, or other parts of reality, as they are about celebrities, movies, fantasy stories and other things they cannot touch, interact with. It is all about what you stimulate people, culturally, to be interested in.
Like climate change, there are many who react to this bad piece of "news" and are active about trying to do something about it. Where is that motivation coming from since they seem to have no impact on the course of it anyway? It comes from whatever these people have in their heads. That motivates them.
If you don't feel like doing anything about the climate issue then it is all because you may not realize the importance of it or whatever makes you think is not worth your energy. But in the end is all about what we have in our brains, and that comes form the environment (culture). And this culture/system is a lot, if not most, about consumption and stupid things, so that's what people have in their brains. Of course they cannot get too excited about galaxies or atoms, but they get a lot of excitement when Prince H marries with Princess A, or about some fictional TV show. These are advertised to them a lot.
Atomic theory hasn't altered family dynamics - I think it would be extremely strange if it did !
People used to get married with their cousins or even closer relatives not long ago. It was normal. I think even Darwin married his cousin. Now because of some cultural shits and knowing that it is a bad idea (genetically speaking) to mate with closer relatives, this notion seems disgusting for many. Discoveries, bits of reality, can change and should change the way we think about mundane things.
Knowing that we are all made out of atoms should make us rethink our culturally inherited values such as fictional borders, human behavior, man made laws, and so forth. Why? Because we are part of a greater story and we are all part of the same system. A planet, an ecosystem, dependent on nature, and so forth.
But I can't see why any sort of discovery would, or even should, change something as fundamental as the nature of friendships and families
Simply because there is no nature about these things.
Even today there are tribes where children are raised by the entire community and have no notions of parents. Or their relationships are vastly different from the rest of the "civilized" world.
Humans are like plasticine molded by their environment. It is simply that our culture/system is the same for thousands of years: trade, have jobs, mate, have kids, retire, die. Humans are busy at least 8h every day, and when they finish work/school they are so tired that at the best they can chew is simplistic and dumbed down media produced by the same system of trade (workers) trying to sell stuff. It is a self propelled idiocracy that makes people unable to know and digest the complexity of reality that science is discovering. I think that's a better explanation of this situation.
Imagine you take a fish from the sea and the fish could suddenly talk and understand you. You explain to him about the world, the planet, the water, the evolution. If they fish is not even curious, let alone shocked about what you enlighten him with, then I think we should probably consider the fish as non-intelligent, or incapable of understanding. No?
You put the fish back in the sea and he goes on about being a fish for the rest of his life. Why would anything change for him no?
To me this makes the fish look "stupid". Primitive. Incapable of grasping a greater reality.
With humans is different since we know they have the capacity to wonder about greater things that they cannot touch or even see. They are capable. So when they are not touched by mindblowing discoveries about reality, then it is a different explanation as of why that is, rather than "it is normal" or they are "incapable" of grasping. Again, looking at the system of trade, this society we live in, I think we can understand, as I explained, why they are not touched much about reality, but are very touched about all sort of things: fictional stories, movies, consumerism, etc..
Politics, a cringe show. And USA has the most popular of the shows.
Empty words, rich people, a cult of following. Nothing changes: most people have to trade their lives to survive (work), the rich are getting richer, inequality on the rise, the destruction of nature is flourishing. More idiots, more stupidity, shittier and fake lives.
Planet Trade. Welcome. Very predictable. Enjoy the show, slurp the fantasies.
This is so confusing. There are many free things where you are not "the product". We make many, see tromsite.com and trom.tf.
I wish people would stop saying this about google and the like. There is a simple and to the point way of describing these "free" services. They are TRADE-BASED. You have to trade something to them, in order to use their services.
In the same way that when you go to a supermarket you have to trade your currency for what you grab from it, you have to trade your attention (ads) or data to Google when you go on their platform. Currency, attention, data.
S I M P L E
We live in a TRADE-BASED society where pretty much everything is trade-based. Money is just a currency we invented, but trades go wi
... show more
NO.
This is so confusing. There are many free things where you are not "the product". We make many, see tromsite.com and trom.tf.
I wish people would stop saying this about google and the like. There is a simple and to the point way of describing these "free" services. They are TRADE-BASED. You have to trade something to them, in order to use their services.
In the same way that when you go to a supermarket you have to trade your currency for what you grab from it, you have to trade your attention (ads) or data to Google when you go on their platform. Currency, attention, data.
S I M P L E
We live in a TRADE-BASED society where pretty much everything is trade-based. Money is just a currency we invented, but trades go without currency as well.
We spent more than a decade trying to shed some light on this confusion.
I got your message but I think the last of goal of so much companies is sell to get money even if we mock the word money with trade at the end they need this trade to survive or don't sacrifice privileges.
It is true that most trades translate into "money" in today's society. But increasingly cryptocurrencies are getting more popular. However the focus should be on trade else we lose sight with whats happening online where data ant attention are traded without people realizing it.
The incentive is bad overall, from small to big companies, or individuals. Yes most have to trade to survive, and that is very bad and we should change this situation; it is also true that google and the like are not trading in order to survive, but to thrive in an unequal and ass backwards society.
Totally agree, Until the current situation that most of the companies use, for example, tracking methods to get your information only for improve the "sell experience for company". It's good saying "if it's free, you are the product" because if we don't keep alert or we pretend that they aren't the majority, we can't protect us of this kind of abuse
The entire premise of my original post is that it is not good saying "if it's free, you are the product" since for one it makes it seem like whatever is "free" is not to be trusted, and second it gives google and the like approval for using the word "free" for their trade-based services.
Google is trade-based. Facebook is trade-based. Nextcloud is trade-free. Friendica is trade-free.
I agree if it's free is not trusted, until the user figures out that is trust. I agree that not all the companies or products are evil or want to abuse to get money but the majority do it. Also there are thousands of user that don't know about the "trade" it's not a real trade if you don't know if it's a "trade"
Capitalism is a manifestation of trade, and ill defined for that matter.
As for "it's not trade if it's coerced" - we are mostly coerced to trade nowadays. Want food? Trade your time, energy, skills to someone else, get a currency, go trade it for food. Food is essential yet you have to trade for it, you have no other choice. And so it goes for pretty much anything.
You run a business selling food, you have little choice, you have to pay your rent. I need food. I work, make money, then buy food from you. We were both coerced into this game, now who is stealing from who in his situation?
We can have endless debates as to what we mean by trade, but I go with what is generally understood - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade
capitalism is global. there is no part of human society than capitalism doesn't touch.
no one forced anyone to hoard food for profit. that's a choice. no one forced anyone to exploit workers by paying them wages. that is also a choice. no one forced anyone to enclose the commons and demand rent. that was also a choice.
writing a book doesn't mean it isn't full of nonsense. Hitler wrote a book too, as did Ayn Rand, but neither of these people had any ideas worth considering nor do they make any sense.
The book that I wrote is digitally available for everyone and every claim is sourced where I claim it. Click and see.
That being said, these isms are a lot of mushy ideas. Also the theory of these ideas can be widely different from their implementation.
And by "no one forced anyone to do this or that", I do not know what you are saying. Of course so many people are forced by others or circumstances. All choices are influenced by external factors: needs, efficiency, fear, etc..
If not, then do yourself a favor and research. I was 100% sure that after billions of people made posts and videos, that people will believe that Google is a goddamn evil corporation. You can't trust it with your data unless you're insane and you want Google to know everything about you.
Don't take my word for it - do yourself a favor and research!
P.S. Hope that will cure from sickness a little thing in your brain, named "logic". And your brain itself too.
@Tio In your original post, you're justifying corporations violating users's privacy rights without their consent. You're acting like as if it was a rule you have to accept and is impossible to live without it.
Back in 1830s,everyone lived without big tech and guess what? They survived. Surprising, right???
Well now, has anything changed? Nope, it didn't.
In your original post, you were complaining about that it's confusing to see people ranting about Google whenever you're product or not, which caused you to write this big post.
My previous reply was expected for you to reduce that confusion a bit. Does it all makes sense now?
The way big tech (like Google, Meta) do their business today, like making money, is unlawful and consentless. Your post is written as if it was okay to play that way business while in real life its not okay.
Do yourself a favor and research, like I said previously.
You certainly misunderstood. I did not justify what they are doing, I said what they do is not free to begin with, it is trade-based. This cuts the confusion when people think google and the like are free, and when some say "you are the product". Better say google is trade-based.
I dedicated the past 10+ years showcasing how this is fucked up. How trade is the origin of most problems.
@Tio Dude. You've read my post partially, and while you did provided some good response, which I appreciate, hmm, I still gonna say that you did justified what big tech are doing.
Quote:
"*NO.
This is so confusing. There are many free things where you are not "the product".*"
If it doesn't has ads and trackers, then yes. Unless it doesn't violates user's privacy.
Quote:
"I wish people would stop saying this about google and the like. There is a simple and to the point way of describing these "free" services. They are TRADE-BASED. You have to trade something to them, in order to use their services."
Yes but it's consentless. Google and other big tech conpanies do not inform you about this.
Quote:
"*In the same way that when you go to a supermarket you have to trade your currency for what you grab from it, you have to trade your attention (ads) or data to Google when you go on their platform. Currency, attent
... show more
@Tio Dude. You've read my post partially, and while you did provided some good response, which I appreciate, hmm, I still gonna say that you did justified what big tech are doing.
Quote:
"*NO.
This is so confusing. There are many free things where you are not "the product".*"
If it doesn't has ads and trackers, then yes. Unless it doesn't violates user's privacy.
Quote:
"I wish people would stop saying this about google and the like. There is a simple and to the point way of describing these "free" services. They are TRADE-BASED. You have to trade something to them, in order to use their services."
Yes but it's consentless. Google and other big tech conpanies do not inform you about this.
Quote:
"*In the same way that when you go to a supermarket you have to trade your currency for what you grab from it, you have to trade your attention (ads) or data to Google when you go on their platform. Currency, attention, data.
S I M P L E
We live in a TRADE-BASED society where pretty much everything is trade-based. Money is just a currency we invented, but trades go without currency as well.*"
Like I said, it's consentless and informless.
See now? I quoted specific arguments of yours where you justified what big tech companies do.
This is so confusing. There are many free things where you are not "the product".*"
If it doesn't has ads and trackers, then yes. Unless it doesn't violates user's privacy.
Thats exactly what I argue there are many trade-free things out there, google aint one. Nor is any that forces you to trade your attention (ads) or data. They are trade-based. BAD
btw learn how to use quotes in friendica.....else it is very confusing....
@CyborgHT When there is no ads and no tracking, you arn't the product. Why not install #Yunohost at home or in a VPS? It's easy to install. Yunohost.org And there is many apps available by one click.
And, you can look at #Chatons where there a lot of services, sometimes free of charge. chatons.org
@LautreG OK, I agree with you, but disagree with original author. Yes Google isn't privacy-friendly. That has been proved in many cases, articles and videos. Yet people refuse to believe this.
The absorbingly cinematic Ascension explores the pursuit of the “Chinese Dream.” This observational documentary presents a contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all.
The absorbingly cinematic Ascension explores the pursuit of the "Chinese Dream." This observational documentary presents a contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all.
"They are as "capitalistic" as USA. Or, in other words, they have a trade-based society. As simple as that. Produce, trade, consume."
That is not what capitalism is. China is functionally capitalist to a degree, yes, but not because they have production and trade and consumption. It's because many of the means of production are held privately, and to a degree they have the capacity to buy and sell as they wish.
Well the truth is that capitalism, socialism, or other isms are vague ideals.
The means of production being privately owned means near to nothing since they are always under the weight of a gov. USA or China. You can't just own a business, meaning be able to trade as an individual under your own rules. You are always restrained and directed by gov, laws, rules, regions.
In essence what we have globally is a society of trade, where trade is the main activity and drive. China, USA, Europe, whatever hey call themselves as communist, free markets, socialist, capitalist, in the end is all about a trade-based society.
It makes a great deal of difference whether the means of production are privately owned or not. For one thing, private companies can and do fail; the government would hardly ever allow one of its departments to shutter based on bad performance in the market. For another, if the government owns the means of production, you have a monopoly; such a thing is barely possible under free market capitalism.
Private companies, if big enough, will be bailed out by the gov. See SpaceX, Tesla, and more. The gov will also intervene to stop monopolies from creating, at least in theory. They split apart the largest telecommunication company in the USA not long ago. So gov is intervening, from capping the prices of drugs, providing subsidies, tweaking taxes, etc..
China, USA, Europe or the rest. The gov is always intervening.
For another, if the government owns the means of production, you have a monopoly; such a thing is barely possible under free market capitalism.
A...sorry what? Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Google ?? We live in a world of monopolies. In another book I wrote I showcase that in detail tromsite.com/books/#flipbook-t…
Private companies, if big enough, are sometimes bailed out; I agree. They should not be. That is cronyism, not capitalism. They should be allowed to fail, and indeed sometimes are.
As to monopolies, nearly all of them are enabled by government action, not stopped by it.
Tell me; what does google have a monopoly in? Putting aside, of course, that we absolutely don't live under free market capitalism.
But they are....I am talking about the real world we live in not idealistic concepts. I compare USA with China and their self imposed labels, not the official and mushy definitions of capitalism vs communism since these do not exist.
As to monopolies, nearly all of them are enabled by government action, not stopped by it.
They are enabled by a system of trade that incentivizes companies to grow and individuals to seek profit.
Tell me; what does google have a monopoly in?
Too many things. Mobile operating systems, search engine, browser, online videos, online advertising, etc.. Again see here tromsite.com/books/#flipbook-t… - I spent a year on this book.
Yes, they are..sometimes. Which still leaves plenty of small companies and some large ones that are allowed to fail; that is a good thing.
LIFE incentivizes individuals to profit from their action. That's true under all economic systems.
Nope; there's iOs/sailfish/Ubuntu touch, duckduckgo/yahoo/ask/dogpile/plenty more, firefox/opera/safari/chrome, peertube and odyssey, plenty of other ad companies.
Those you mention are barely "competitors". Google owns the market of mobile operating systems (over 70%), search prob over 90%, video platform, browser, etc.. They even give Firefox a ton of money to keep google as the default search engine. Basically google has no competition in many areas.
LIFE incentivizes individuals to profit from their action.
The environment pushes people to become one way or another. Currently we live in a trade-based society that incentivizes people to profit, compete, be selfish. etc..
Those I mention are competitors. They exist, plenty of people can and do use them, and therefore google does not have a monopoly.
Yes, environments shape people. Please, provide literally any example of an environment where an individual is not incentivized to profit from their action.
Yah those are as much competitors as I am for Usain Bolt. I mean I can run...but have no chance to ever win a race with Usain. Same for Firefox and the like.
Please, provide literally any example of an environment where an individual is not incentivized to profit from their action.
Sure. We have a directory of such organizations where people volunteer without making any profits directory.trade-free.org/
Poor comparison. No one imagines you can run anywhere near as fast as him,. PLENTY of people use the products and services of other companies, me included.
If no one can compete with google in some domains, then google is a monopoly. And that is the case. Read the NPR article don't waste my time here please. npr.org/2024/05/02/1248152695/…
By the way "free market capitalism" sounds like a horror show. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_mar… And partially it is present since big companies control governments in many cases giving them a "free" hand at doing business.
To the contrary. If police is enforcing the law, but some people with power can buy the police officers, their guardian status is dissolved. Same with the gov. Big companies can buy off the gov rendering its guardian status as null. Thus creating a sort of free market for them. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government ;).
You claim that people pay the government to operate in their favor, thereby creating a free market, as define by...the government not intervening. Pure contradiction.
Please, drop me a line when you can reconcile the government getting involved and the government not getting involved. Until then...well, I can see why no one would pay for your "books". Have a nice day,
By the way "free market capitalism" sounds like a horror show. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_mar… And partially it is present since big companies control governments in many cases giving them a "free" hand at doing business.
There is no such thing as "free market". And it does not even matter it is still a system of trade that suffers from the same symptoms: greed, consumption, profit, corruption, etc..
No one "markets" "freely". There are regulations in place. Even for backpacks.
And mostly no I am not greedy but it depends on what situations I face. Look at what I've been doing for the past 15 years tiotrom.com/projects/ - all free. Never made a profit. So likely I am not greedy most of the time.
Of course you need to have a license for producing such a thing, patents, pay taxes, and a license to sell and where to. If you start to make backpacks now and sell them on the street you may be fined. You are also forced to pay taxes for your business and more.
Really? You're not greedy? It's rare to meet someone willing to make such a claim. What a saint you must be.
I said probably most of the time I am not. I released 2 huge documentaries, published over 30 books, made videos, articles, run trom.tf (free services for everyone), tromjaro.com linux distro, and more. All trade-free. Not a saint, but prob not greedy either.
Ok let's move on since you are slipping into nonsense. Please move on. You are starting to troll a little bit and I have a broken finger I barely can type.
Only accusing the "big companies" for doing all sort of "unethical" things, is like only accusing mass murderers for the killings that they do. Every crime is a crime. Big or small. Small companies do similar shady practices and abuse people or destroy the environment.
But best is to look at the system that creates these entities instead of accusing companies or people.
As long as the underlying practice on this planet is to TRADE or else you are fucked, then this is what we are going to do and prioritize. Thus the evolution of companies and billionaires, waste, pollution, you name it.
Crazy documentary. It looks like a dystopian SF movie. I have no idea why people still watch movies when reality is many times more than any movie. More scary, funny, complex, interesting, mindblowing.
China is perhaps how the future will look like for people on this planet. Total control.
A Storyville documentary that explores, in intimate detail, state surveillance and digital social control in China by following the experiences of two families and a journalist.
China is as much of a capitalist state as any. Billionaires, workers, slaves and owners, the capital of mass producing of stuff. Their social credits system is just another type of currency to extract more power for the very few.
No, they are socialists! They do not permit the private ownership of the means of production and distribution. They are not capitalists, learn what that word means!
Yeah I wrote a book about that tromsite.com/books/#flipbook-t… - the USA or other tribes also do not allow anyone to own stuff and have a private business. You have to do it under their rules. There are so many Chinese companies, same as US companies. In both cases they operate under the rules of the tribe. Their goal? Trade. Make more stuff, sell, make more money/credits/whatever, become rich, influence the politics, and so forth.
governments around the world are already, + have been, implementing surveillance measures similar to China's. Sometimes through the back door, other times more obvious - for those who see + listen. Orwell knew what he was writing about back then.
I finished reading @Sasha 's book after reading a rough draft some 2-3 years ago. I wrote a review when she released the book but now that I finished it and it all is fresh in my mind I want to briefly say some condensed atom-sized thoughts about it, without spoiling it for those who have not read it.
This book can be deceiving. You may think it is about a small cute girl traveling around the world with very little money. And that is part of it, but the unique aspect of this book is the overall mental growth for Sasha. This is what I LOVED about it. To see how a human grows to understand how the world works and how that makes her react. All of the crazy and wonderful (at times scary) adventures are not just that, are part of the ingredients that create the cake.
And she is a wonderful cake.
The places that Sasha saw and got to experience
... show more
I finished reading @Sasha 's book after reading a rough draft some 2-3 years ago. I wrote a review when she released the book but now that I finished it and it all is fresh in my mind I want to briefly say some condensed atom-sized thoughts about it, without spoiling it for those who have not read it.
This book can be deceiving. You may think it is about a small cute girl traveling around the world with very little money. And that is part of it, but the unique aspect of this book is the overall mental growth for Sasha. This is what I LOVED about it. To see how a human grows to understand how the world works and how that makes her react. All of the crazy and wonderful (at times scary) adventures are not just that, are part of the ingredients that create the cake.
And she is a wonderful cake.
The places that Sasha saw and got to experience make me feel like I lived in a cave my entire life. I bet many people will think that Sasha invented some of these stories because it is insane in a few years time to jump from tribe to tribe, meet locals, go live with them, have extraordinary experiences with them, have no money, then work a few months make a shit load of money, buy a car, live in the car; hitchhike the entire Europe, sleep in the middle of Australia, go and snowboard for free or little money on so many tall peaks from all around the world, become a divemaster, surf awesome waves in Hawaii, drive your car across the entire USA and swim with dolphins, sharks and manta rays.
Fucking shit! This human lived 55 lives in 15 years. You either get depressed at that, thinking like me that you have not experienced even 1% of what she experienced, or make you motivated to go see the world and free yourself from this trade based society (which also makes me want to do).
Sasha did a WONDERFUL job describing all of these places and experiences. No photos needed! And many of these adventures and places will forever live inside of my brain as if I was a close observer.
Best of all, in my view, is that now she signed a "contract" with me with this book, to join me in my battle! :) A battle of TROM vs Society! Her book is her contribution and there is more to follow!
With that she sandwiched her book perfectly - the beginning bun (prologue) that will give you a taste of what is about to come; in the middle are the many flavors of ingredients stacked neatly and chronologically on top of each other - some 300 pages of life; and lastly the top bun that perfectly brings it all together in a perfect taste, connecting the dots and making all of the ingredients and the bottom bun part of one big thing.
This is @[url=https://fosstodon.org/users/sasha]Alexander[/url] and her most valuable project to date:
A book. But a book is not simply a lot of words or a pile of paper. It is memories, emotions, worldviews, and a lot of work to put them all together. Her book is a story that spans over 15 years. But these years are hardly what most people experience on this planet.
She was born in Russia but at age 8 had to move to the United States and deal with a new world. New language, new culture, new people; her mom, her bother, and some pets. Her father went back to Russia, and that affected her a lot.
A mountain of changes to absorb as a kid which led her to a world of drugs and anger.
She details these struggles which at times feel like hard to believe stories – a 17 year old girl selling drugs in New York, crazy mushroom trips and adventurous thefts.
But she managed to pull herself together and change her life for the better. She was not impressed by the imaginary borders humans create and call countries, so she went on flying like a free bird :). From Canada to Mexico, Australia to Europe, Russia to Thailand. 15 years of adventures with almost no money. Because money won’t stop Small Sasha :).
A way to discover the world and yourself.
When you get to experience so many cultures and places, you can understand much better what humans are, and what makes them who the are.
The places she saw and the people she met are extraordinarily described in the book, in a way that you feel like you are there. No photos needed. You’ll laugh, wonder, or feel uncomfortable reading some of her uncensored experiences.
It is a galaxy of stories that she had to put together using notes from the past, photos, and her own memories stored in the mushy pile of cells we call the brain.
She managed to compile this massive story in a way that it is super fun to follow, but also to get a feeling of how she grew a mind in all of these years.
That mental growth and her experiences, made her realize how fucked up this society is and how much we are destroying this environment and the creatures in it.
She started to volunteer for some organizations over the years, eventually getting closer to the project I made, TROM. And so here we are, a book later, spending our lives together.
I cannot describe how wonderful this book is, how emotional and funny. So much fun, but also a lot of reality check for many people who are going to have their values challenged.
She crafted this book so much, that at times you feel like Carl Sagan, David Attenborough and George Carlin contributed to the book :).
A wonderful read! A massive CONGRATULATIONS to Sasha for the immense work she put into this. I know too well how for the past 4 years she worked so much on this book that it almost put our relationship under a big question mark. I never saw anyone putting so much effort into anything. It was too intense!
But now it is OVER. Finally! I thought I will never see this happen. Wow!
After so many years of work, and almost no money, she is putting the book for free on her website bigworldsmallsasha.com/ in digital format, despite us not having much money to make a life for ourselves on this planet. But of course, if you want to support her (us) you can buy the physical copy too. Or donate if you can.
I helped design the entire cover and I am quite proud of it :).
Go read it! I know I will read it again. This time the physical copy, in a hammock somewhere in nature.
Sasha you fucking did ti!
PS: The book was made with trade-free software. LibreOffice, Krita, Inkscape.
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022-2024 2007 Freed from slavery (finished high school). Drove across North America 3 times. Lived in Whistler, Canada. 2008 Lived in Canada and California.
Thank you so much Tio, that was such a nice review that I don't even know what to say 😊 I'm so happy that you enjoyed my book and that you found something important in it. I'm so happy that you could feel my growth as a human- that was something I hoped to achieve in this book, but was difficult because there are so many stories, people, and so many things happening. Thank you for all your kind words and for the huge amount of support you've given to me and this book over many many years.
Sorry if I made you feel like you lived in a cave 😬 But you were actually doing much more important things than me in that "cave". You were growing your brain and making the important and inspiring content that brought me to you 😊 And this in turn grew my brain and the brains of many others 🙂 Thank you for your contribution to this book- the design, the emotional support, and even the content. Without you, this book would not have been the same (and neither would I 😉) 🙂
I already feel like living in a cave, lol 😄 Maybe reading your book will inspire me to go out more often 😁
> But you were actually doing much more important things than me in that "cave". You were growing your brain and making the important and inspiring content that brought me to you 😊 And this in turn grew my brain and the brains of many others 🙂
This is so true, Tio might be physically in a cave but he travels around the whole damn universe with his mind, haha 😂
When @Georgi shared a video from our documentary on Facebook and wanted to tag @Be Brave To Act Facebook page, she had no option but had it appeared as if this was a "paid partnership" with @Dima 's page. haha. Because as I said before, Facebook is not a "social network" it is an ad platform, so they naturally see these "taggings" between pages as partnerships.
Finally Sasha got her residency approved here in Spain after 4-5 years of us trying, spending money, being stressed. After being rejected once because we did not have enough money as a family - imagine that! That was the actual reason.
But now that I had a "job" they made us wait 7 months from the moment we applied, and 2 complaints later from the lawyer about why they do not approve it, it finally got approved. And the reason was ONLY because I was a "trader" in this bullshit trade society.
How terrible that we treat people like tools. The value is in what and how much you can trade. Does not matter if you are a good human being. Smart? Doesn't matter. Calm and helpful? Nope. Scientifically minded? Nah.
I spent my life doing free things for others, never made a profit, but this has 0 value in this society.
Anyway, fuck you to those who support a world where we are divided into tribes and languages, and treating people like sole traders/marketers and not humans. We have global problems but so many still want to have their own "separate" tribe and care only
... show more
Finally Sasha got her residency approved here in Spain after 4-5 years of us trying, spending money, being stressed. After being rejected once because we did not have enough money as a family - imagine that! That was the actual reason.
But now that I had a "job" they made us wait 7 months from the moment we applied, and 2 complaints later from the lawyer about why they do not approve it, it finally got approved. And the reason was ONLY because I was a "trader" in this bullshit trade society.
How terrible that we treat people like tools. The value is in what and how much you can trade. Does not matter if you are a good human being. Smart? Doesn't matter. Calm and helpful? Nope. Scientifically minded? Nah.
I spent my life doing free things for others, never made a profit, but this has 0 value in this society.
Anyway, fuck you to those who support a world where we are divided into tribes and languages, and treating people like sole traders/marketers and not humans. We have global problems but so many still want to have their own "separate" tribe and care only about that. Fuck your flag, your language, your culture. Fuck nationalism. A primitive disease.
We are all humans with a 4 billion years long history, a mindblowing one. Single cells becoming what we are today. The way we are connected to each other, scientifically, dwarfs any bullshit man-made story about their own tribe. We have lego-brick-like structures we call the DNA that encode all of what we are. And all of what other creatures are, and how we are all connected.
We live on a giant sphere with a thin layer of atmosphere protecting us from the infinite universe out there.
So fuck you if you think your nationalism is so important, and your borders and stupid nonsensical laws.
I had to let this out because it is outrageous how primitive this society is.
Yea, it's fucking nonsense that they treated you both like that and I agree 100% about "nation" phenomena and I would even add how actually trade plays a major role in forming those tribes and nationalism in order to protect the historical, territorial and location advantages for milking the benefits and profits out of the things in possession and participating in global trading. If you think about it, even some of those entire tribes are nothing for the world, because from that perspective they have no "value", like we see by all what happens in Gaza nowadays. Imagine that. It's crazy how outdated and delusional our civilization's perspectives on what is Humanity real history and advantages..
In any way, as someone who has to pass through the same process every two years, even though I'm a way more "decent trader" from their perspective and it was way easier for me to get those papers, I congrats you both @Sasha @Tio. I hope it will really make your life at least a bit easier from now on 🙏
@Tio and @Roma you make such good points, I love you both and am so happy to know you guys, real humans- smart ones 🙂 It is unbelievable really, that you can't be together with your "wife" if you're just a good human and you do things to help others without asking for anything in return. Fucking insane. And true that borders and nationalism just benefit a few powerful players at the top, and the rest are their pawns without even knowing it..
Indeed @Sasha ! Agree about the power-players at the top and that no people should be treated like you were, especially such wondeful and caring Humans like you both are ☺️ Much love back! ❤️
Yes 100% @Roma ! Also politicians using this "nationalism" to et more votes, bcs that makes them more money if elected, and so forth.... ways important to understand where these issues arise from.
Oh, that's so true @Tio ! That's all politics are about - money.. Even the fact that you have no access to the election process and thus to the decision making without a huge amount of money, says it all about the systems we have.. it's a game for big daddies 😑
I love how you mention the actual scientific history of human beings! Countries and borders are man-made fiction/ideas that we choose to believe in, and they keep changing from time to time - there is a stark difference between that and the actual scientific reality of our world. Science is often a very humbling experience I feel like, think of the famous pale blue dot image and how carl sagan described it......
BTW, I'm glad to hear @bigworldsmallsasha is finally free to stay there in Spain, that must've been a huge relief after having to go through this much trouble.
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." C.S.
Welcome to planet Earth. A random rock in the Universe where the most "intelligent" species only cares about trade. Trade this for that. So that the members of its species spend all of their life trading. That's all it is.
It is not about creating smarter and relaxed humans, and a nice environment for everyone. Not about exploring and learning, or enjoying. It is about trading.
EDIT: Funny that this fits so well with the latest bit we shared from TROM II - You are a disposable tool videos.trom.tf/w/rEieFEBWghVcJ… .... weird coincidence.
TROM II: A Message to the Aliens Year: 2023 / Duration: 4 parts, 5 hours We live in a world where everyone is busy, everyone is consumed, everyone seems confused. Money, social credits, ads, data collection, prices and billionaires.
Funny that this fits so well with the latest bit we shared from TROM II - You are a disposable tool videos.trom.tf/w/rEieFEBWghVcJ… .... weird coincidence.
TROM II: A Message to the Aliens Year: 2023 / Duration: 4 parts, 5 hours We live in a world where everyone is busy, everyone is consumed, everyone seems confused. Money, social credits, ads, data collection, prices and billionaires.
This is @Sasha and her most valuable project to date:
A book. But a book is not simply a lot of words or a pile of paper. It is memories, emotions, worldviews, and a lot of work to put them all together. Her book is a story that spans over 15 years. But these years are hardly what most people experience on this planet.
She was born in Russia but at age 8 had to move to the United States and deal with a new world. New language, new culture, new people; her mom, her bother, and some pets. Her father went back to Russia, and that affected her a lot.
A mountain of changes to absorb as a kid which led her to a world of drugs and anger.
She details these struggles which at times feel like hard to believe stories - a 17 year old girl selling drugs in New York, crazy mushr
... show more
This is @Sasha and her most valuable project to date:
A book. But a book is not simply a lot of words or a pile of paper. It is memories, emotions, worldviews, and a lot of work to put them all together. Her book is a story that spans over 15 years. But these years are hardly what most people experience on this planet.
She was born in Russia but at age 8 had to move to the United States and deal with a new world. New language, new culture, new people; her mom, her bother, and some pets. Her father went back to Russia, and that affected her a lot.
A mountain of changes to absorb as a kid which led her to a world of drugs and anger.
She details these struggles which at times feel like hard to believe stories - a 17 year old girl selling drugs in New York, crazy mushroom trips and adventurous thefts.
But she managed to pull herself together and change her life for the better. She was not impressed by the imaginary borders humans create and call countries, so she went on flying like a free bird :). From Canada to Mexico, Australia to Europe, Russia to Thailand. 15 years of adventures with almost no money. Because money won't stop Small Sasha :).
A way to discover the world and yourself.
When you get to experience so many cultures and places, you can understand much better what humans are, and what makes them who they are.
The places she saw and the people she met are extraordinarily described in the book, in a way that you feel like you are there. No photos needed. You'll laugh, wonder, or feel uncomfortable reading some of her uncensored experiences.
It is a galaxy of stories that she had to put together using notes from the past, photos, and her own memories stored in the mushy pile of cells we call the brain.
She managed to compile this massive story in a way that it is super fun to follow, but also to get a feeling of how she grew a mind in all of these years.
That mental growth and her experiences, made her realize how fucked up this society is and how much we are destroying this environment and the creatures in it.
She started to volunteer for some organizations over the years, eventually getting closer to the project I made, TROM. And so here we are, a book later, spending our lives together.
I cannot describe how wonderful this book is, how emotional and funny. So much fun, but also a lot of reality check for many people who are going to have their values challenged.
She crafted this book so much, that at times you feel like Carl Sagan, David Attenborough and George Carlin contributed to the book :).
A wonderful read! A massive CONGRATULATIONS to Sasha for the immense work she put into this. I know too well how for the past 4 years she worked so much on this book that it almost put our relationship under a big question mark. I never saw anyone putting so much effort into anything. It was too intense!
But now it is OVER. Finally! I thought I will never see this happen. Wow!
After so many years of work, and almost no money, she is putting the book for free on her website bigworldsmallsasha.com/ in digital format, despite us not having much money to make a life for ourselves on this planet. But of course, if you want to support her (us) you can buy the physical copy too. Or donate if you can.
I helped design the entire cover and I am quite proud of it :).
Go read it! I know I will read it again. This time the physical copy, in a hammock somewhere in nature.
Sasha you fucking did ti!
PS: The book was made with trade-free software. LibreOffice, Krita, Inkscape.
Wow thank you @Tio This is too nice, I don't even know what to say :) Thank you again for putting up with everything. It was a lot, I know. And thank you for helping me so much, I couldn't have done it without you ❤️
You want to see how kids entertainment looks like in a trade-based society? Here: Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV videoneat.com/documentaries/26…
Kids being abused in many ways in order to make money - for themselves, for others (mostly), for advertisers, etc..
Part 5 will be released in a few days time and it will be available on VIdeoNeat.
Also, how hilarious is the notion "war crimes". As if war was not a crime in the first place. Israel killed so many innocent people... to still "wonder" if what they are doing is wrong, is wrong!
Also this:
Our place in the universe, galaxies and galaxies that we can see from our little rock. How shameful to create a society where humans are divided into little groups: nationalities, beliefs, patches of land, etc.. And to kill each other and destroy this planet....
But if we are to get ourselves out of this shit, we have to first understand why this situation was created in the first place. What forces pushed humans to end up in this disastrous situation.
☭ 𝗖 𝗔 𝗧 ☭
in reply to Tio • • •Tio
in reply to ☭ 𝗖 𝗔 𝗧 ☭ • •☭ 𝗖 𝗔 𝗧 ☭
in reply to Tio • • •Tio
in reply to ☭ 𝗖 𝗔 𝗧 ☭ • •You mean my posts sounds as if I support this?
.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
That's quite a rushed and radical view.
I support a society in which every single human individual is being taken care of without any strings attached. So no: you get housing, food, whatever you need, ONLY if you do this or that. That's what I support and talk about since 2011 via tromsite.com/
Regardless if I know or not how this can be achieve
... show moreYou mean my posts sounds as if I support this?
.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
That's quite a rushed and radical view.
I support a society in which every single human individual is being taken care of without any strings attached. So no: you get housing, food, whatever you need, ONLY if you do this or that. That's what I support and talk about since 2011 via tromsite.com/
Regardless if I know or not how this can be achieved, I think it is a humane way of organizing our society.
We have more houses, more food, stuff, and resources than anyone needs. We could create a paradise on this planet if it weren't for this trade-based society (call it capitalism if you want) which restricts the access to these resources, and makes people into hoarders, competitive, and overall terrible beings.
As for how do you sound, you sound angry to me "You're sounding like a fucking fascist right now". Not a good way to start a conversation.
Georgi likes this.
Tio
in reply to ☭ 𝗖 𝗔 𝗧 ☭ • •