Spanking children may get your point across – but does it come with other, unwanted, messages? Read more →
Author: Kurt Robinson
Bitcoin vs Dash – Which is the currency of the future?
There are problems with Bitcoin scalability and governance – can Dash provide solutions? Read more →
Tendencies of a chaotic universe: Andrarchy – Episode 152
The Story: Is the universe becoming more complex or chaotic?
In our short lifetimes, it’s difficult to see what the long-term trends of the universe are. Physicists guess that the universe is slowly dying, as energy gets used up or is transmuted into more and more stable forms. If that’s the case, where do we fit into the mix? Are our lives just a part of this move towards an equilibrium state, or is the growing complexity of the human race and its machines just a freak occurrence, an anomaly?
Kurt’s conversation with Andrew Levine (a.k.a. Andrarchy) continues as we discuss the concepts of his crowdsourced book, the general trends of the universe, artificial intelligence and whether the Big Bang theory is a reality, a fairy story cooked up by bored scientists, or just an awful TV show.
Join us on the next complexity-driven episode of … The Paradise Paradox!
The Eps:
Everything is information: Andrarchy – Episode 145
Mental illness outsiders – The Andrarchy Show Episode 5
Talking to horses, ghosts and demons – The Andrarchy Show Episode 4
A psychotic break or shamanic awakening – The Andrarchy Show Episode 2
Mental Illness and shamanic experiences – The Andrarchy Show Episode 1
The Links:
The morality of artificial intelligence by Luke Stokes
Why information grows – Cesar Hidalgo
The Cash:
If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.
We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.
The Episode:
To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.
Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.
Without government, wouldn’t warlords take over?
If you believe government is needed, and someone suggests that it isn’t, you might be rather distressed. You might start to picture bands of rogues roving the land without cease, raping and stealing. In the minds of many statists, this fear is so real that it seems certain. But of course, little is certain in life, and we can no more say for sure that warlords will take over than we can say that they won’t. However, we can at least begin to estimate the likelihood.
If you’re like most people, it’s almost certain that you are threatened by group of people which claims to help you, a group which takes your money without asking first. Just as we can’t be sure that warlords won’t take over in a stateless society, it’s not certain that this violent group won’t grow larger, to expand to a level of control where many are fearful and even people with friends in high places can be destroyed without anyone being punished. In fact, such a case is much more likely to be found in a society with a state, than a society without a state, as the power structures are already there. In a stateless society, if these structures form, they’re likely to be smaller. It’s easier to go from 8 to 10 than it is to go from 0 to 10.
In the end, the reason cling onto these ideas is because of a deep-seated fear. People want to feel like everything is under control, even if it’s by a someone who, in their hearts, they know is a devil. Their fear leads them to fearmonger, spilling endless “what if” cases, none of which can be allayed by logic alone. As I said, nothing in life is certain. Yet, by embracing our uncertainty, and our fears, we can learn to overcome them. It’s scary to stand at the edge of darkness, not knowing what lies within. It takes heart to put your foot over that threshold, yet, that is the only way that humans grow – by putting ourselves in realms where nothing is sure, but everything is possible. Screw your courage to the sticking place, and feel just for a moment, what it would mean to be free.
Future-proofing your career – Episode 151
The Story: How to prepare for an uncertain work future
Futurism is a field which is fascinating to those who study it – presenting a puzzle in the form of the question: how are all the current trends going to interact in ways which are going to affect the entire world? However, most people don’t care so much to think about the future, and that’s a problem, because we are quickly entering an age in which the people who can’t see a few years into the future, will quickly be left struggling to deal with the present.
Many people believe that being an employee, as opposed to operating a business, is a secure proposition, as having a fixed income with a dependable employer enables some certainty. That can be true in the short term, but it’s not necessarily true in the long term. Large economic crises typically happen every 7 years – just long enough for many to be over-comfortable, and subsequently desperate. True survivors and hustlers have multiple sources of income, doing short-term contracts, gig-based work like on Fiverr or Freelancer, and investments.
Automation is also something that people are worried about. If you work in the manufacturing sector or transport, machines will probably come for your job sooner rather than later. Burger-making and selling machines will soon be common, displacing a lot of fast-food workers. How soon will the robots come for your job? And how quickly can you prepare?
With robots watering plants, tilling fields, running factories, delivering goods, there will be a much lower cost for mass production, which means cheaper goods and a lot more wealth for many. Perhaps they will choose to spend some of that wealth on things which they really like, which machines can’t make, or can’t make yet – things which are unique – handmade items, art, music, and fine food. In the past, a writer had to have millions of fans to make a decent living. With modern technology, Patreon and Amazon self-publishing, a writer might make a good living with just a few thousand dedicated supporters.
Join Kurt as he gazes into the future in this mini-episode of… The Paradise Paradox!
The Links:
The Cash:
If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.
We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.
The Episode:
To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.
Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.
A Crowdsourced Book: Andrarchy – Episode 150
The Story: Andrew Levine explains his collaborative book project
According to modern scientific understanding, the universe came into existence billions of years ago, with matter forming and slowly moving outwards from its centre. Matter stabilised, causing stars, then planets, giving birth to amino acids, simple life forms, and eventually, human consciousness. If we trace through this story, see where things came from and we’re they’re going, would we be able to predict what comes next – what comes after human consciousness?
In this episode, Kurt continues his conversation with Andrew Levine (a.k.a. Andrarchy) about his his plan to write a book collaboratively using social media, using the mental resources of the world to support or counter his arguments, about how the universe is a process of evolving information, and where that evolution might possibly be heading. We also talk about how many people have an anthropocentric view of artificial intelligence, and the value of ideas which seem to be crazy.
Join us on another big-banging, model-developing, consciousness-expanding episode of… The Paradise Paradox!
The Eps:
Everything is information: Andrarchy – Episode 145
Mental illness outsiders – The Andrarchy Show Episode 5
Talking to horses, ghosts and demons – The Andrarchy Show Episode 4
A psychotic break or shamanic awakening – The Andrarchy Show Episode 2
Mental Illness and shamanic experiences – The Andrarchy Show Episode 1
The Links:
The morality of artificial intelligence by Luke Stokes
The Cash:
If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.
We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.
The Episode:
To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.
Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.
Trump’s wall: A futile conversation
Maybe there are still some arguments about Trump’s border wall which I haven’t heard yet… But the ones that I have heard are rather pathetic. The wall conversation seems to go like this:
We need a wall to keep people out to stop them taking welfare.
Really? Do naturalised citizens actually take more welfare than natural born citizens on average? Do you have any statistics to back it up?
Hm I uh… I do have some statistics about how immigrants are more likely to vote Democrat.
Alright, that’s something – not exactly what I was looking for though. You don’t have statistics about why they vote Democrat. You know, even if people come to work in your country, they don’t need to have citizenship, voting rights or welfare. People can get residency or working visas.
Ohhh yeah… I’m sure all the socialist politicians will maintain that rule even if it costs them votes.
Okay… but if you’re going to play that card, there’s nothing you can do politically to solve this problem. A wall certainly won’t help. The socialist politicians will just fix things so people can walk right over.
Alright alright, we can go around like this forever. If we didn’t have welfare, we wouldn’t need a wall. But we have, so we do.
So building a wall that costs billions of dollars is a perfectly reasonable, rational and possible thing to expect, but attempting to curb welfare is impractical and impossible. I see.
Here’s an interesting article which talks about why such a wall would be pretty useless: 8 things you need to know about Trump’s wall
Thailand mystical space adventure: Aaron returns – Episode 149
The Story: Aaron goes to Thailand and doesn’t recognise himself
When you start a new job after a period of inactivity, maybe it will seem nothing more than a daily grind. If you’re lucky, you might get a few months of honeymoon period in which you’re still learning things and the job is exciting. If you’re really lucky, you might stay in a 5 star hotel in Thailand, and find yourself full of energy, amazed at the great work for which you’re preparing. That’s the position Mr. Battle found himself in.
In this episode, Aaron explains his journey to Thailand with a new company, telling us the vague details of their plan to create a new internet with security, privacy and community. Aaron also tells us about how he was so vitalised by the experience that, for the first week, he only needed three hours of sleep a night, and about an unusual dissociative episode, being unable to recognise himself in the mirror for a moment, thanking his body for being a vessel for his soul. Then Kurt recounts a recent occurrence in which he almost had an out-of-body experience, and recalls a story from Robert Monroe’s “Journeys Out of the Body”.
Join us in a new soul-travelling, identity-shattering, curry-eating episode of … The Paradise Paradox!
The Links:
Robert Monroe – Journeys Out of the Body
The Cash:
If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.
We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.
The Episode:
To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.
Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.
Shamanic golden matrix beings – Luis Fernando Mises
Luis tells us about a peculiar experience meeting unusual abstract beings during meditation, happening to him as a result of his shamanic path.
Watch the full episode here: Luis Fernando Mises: Shamanic Aliens – Episode 146
Transcript
I kept doing meditation and then at some point I was approached by some beings.
They were not in the form of humans or cows or whatever. If you remember the movie “The Matrix” – the code – imagine that, but like gold. They were like blobs of gold descending on me, and as they were descending it seemed like they lifted off my depression. Their vibration was so high that I was just buzzing. That night, I went to sleep so happily. Before that, I was scared to go to sleep at night because I thought “My consciousness is going to end…” That kind of thing.
So I received a download from these guys, and the idea was “You’ll be fine; there’s more to learn; that was just the beginning. The real stuff is on its way.” Just guiding me through the whole process and lifting me up out of that hole was super appreciative.
Four kinds of leaders – Luis Fernando Mises
Luis from Emancipated Human explains the four kinds of leaders that have existed throughout history, about his experience meeting business leaders, and how we can move into the future.
Transcript
There’s been four kinds of leaders throughout history.
First was the religious leaders. They had their religious entities which were able to tell people how to act. But now, those guys cannot necessarily agree with one another – two leaders of religious sects – because they either merge, discombobulate or whatever. So they can’t.
You move to the idea of the militant or military leader. The health of the state is through war or through coercion and all of that, so they can’t, or they will lose their space, their reason for being.
Then you move to the democratic leadership where, through politics, they’re not allowed to have a lot in common with other states – “I always have to be on top.” That’s not ideal, but you don’t see a lot of eye to eye contact. “I’ll help you and I’ll get a bunch of resources…” They just take advantage of each other.
So then we move to the fourth kind of leadership, which to me seems the most spiritually aware and I’ll tell you – it’s the business leader. The business leader is willing to do a deal with the devil if it’s good for all parties involved, because the business leader is not going to lose – but it’s willing to give as well. So it’s a voluntary exchange for mutual benefit.
But a lot of people say “the business leaders are greedy; they’re in it for themselves.” Well, yes and no, but that’s the hurdle that we have to jump. We have to let people see that the business leader is not just there to make a buck and go to the beach – I mean everybody loves the beach right – but the idea is that, when you’re working from purpose – like all these 201 CEOs that I was with, all those guys, they have enough money; they don’t need to work; they have enough resources and influence. They really don’t need to work any more. A lot of people say “They’re just greedy; they just want more.” Well, a lot of those guys stopped taking salaries. They’re just doing it because they love the work they do.
The idea is to help us see, and this just comes with maturity, how the business leader would be able to help eliminate the state, because if you think of international companies, somebody can be in the US, Mexico, Amsterdam, it doesn’t matter what country you’re in, we’re in the same company. Even if you’re Australian and I’m Mexican, and I’m in the states and you’re in Mexico, we’re connected through that link. Screw borders.
So the idea is to help us understand and find our own purpose. The one thing that can save humanity, in my perspective, is raising consciousness in humans. It’s not hating the state, it’s not creating wars. It’s just working on our own individual selves.