Puer Aeternus

This is a journal for me to actively reflect on the interesting documentaries I've watched lately. All with the goal of practicing my writing and getting those slippery ideas out of my head and into words!

Ohhhh jeeezus not this AI shit again. Don't think you understand how complex so many jobs are, even ones that seem simple. Like there's been decades of baseless yap about oooh, driverless delivery trucks are coming. It's gonna put so many people out of a job! It is still so, so far away. Because reality is often beyond what we can model for, one little unpredictable factor can send things out of wack. Even if we can replace some things with AI, should we? Like no mate I'm not going to be like oop, let's open up AI Therapy by ChatGPT. Get my deep problems resolved, it's only going to be so supplemental. Or like this prompt art stuff. Sure it will take some of the market and has its applications, but most serious brick and mortar companies are going to have their own graphic designers. Also.. uh, humanoids? Lol. That techs even further behind AI and less certain. At the end of the day, you just don't know what's going to happen. It'll definitely have SOME impact, but to the extent you're imagining with current tech seems a little silly. Just do what you want to do! Stay flexible and adapt with whatever new things come up. The future can be uncertain and spooky, but you can work with it.

Sounds like you at least have some emotional blocks around this, that's making it stressful to the point of avoidance. You should sit with the issue and try to get to the bottom of it. I'm sure it would take some time and emotional labor to figure out properly though, so be ready.

I don't really have much to add, just wanted to say this is some dope, profound shit and am so glad you got to experience it! Good on you following through on it despite the setbacks and getting so much out of it. Makes me really want to give it ago. I can still be nervous sometimes, so perhaps throwing myself out of a plane is doctors orders.

Eh, yes. Chronically online for now. I often default to glass half empty and cynicism, I mean. There's plenty of legit reasons to fuel the doom. But wouldn't say this was intended to be a doomer thread. Just a discussion of some of the dark sides of humanity. Which.. you don't necessarily have to get down in the doomer to talk about. But it can inspire those reactions.

What a fun coincidence, it really is a revelation. Inside me, so many sensations and characters. And there's plenty more artifacts to be excavated! Thanks for leaving a comment.

A personal metaphor for what has emerged after lots of healing. A new stage. I am a museum. A labyrinth of artifacts with certain selected items open to viewing by the public. Many things though are tucked away in hidden, private rooms, which only I know the path to. These rooms contain priceless, invaluable gifts. Gifts that are locked in a thick, reinforced glass casing. Their secrecy maintained because the public would misunderstand them. It would be a great tragedy for them to damage these objects through ignorance or anger. Only with time and gained trust, may frequently visiting patrons with proven refined taste be guided down the secret pathways to admire these treasures through the glass. For even fewer, will I unlock the casing and let them in to hold my most valued gifts in their hand, to directly experience their beauty and power. These rooms are not sealed shut like a tomb, with an intention that they never be opened. There is always potential for them to be opened. Rather, they are protected by secrecy, locks, and my own selective discretion. Now, I am the sole caretaker for my museum. Caring for it with love, recognizing it's value, and protecting it is solely my responsibility. Willing and respectful volunteers may help with upkeep. However, the nature of these volunteers is transient. They have other responsibilities and are not tied as closely to it as me. Reliance on them will lead to the decay and disrepair of my museum. I must not be tempted by illusions, I will must maintain my responsibility.

Don't necessarily think this is of equal importance to all people. Clearly we are here because of it, but people can be very comfortable within their worldview just going through the motions and enjoying that daily life. Most hard nosed fundamentalists aren't separating religious studies and other reality. It is the bedrock of their epistemology for understanding everything. They could learn new things through Google, but ultimately it would be secondary knowledge and thrown out if it conflicted with their sect. Reminds me of the Christian nationalist character Leo posted about on his blog awhile ago. This guy read a small libraries worth of history books, only made him double down on his prior view. Well, I could crack open my holy book. Ask a religious minister.. maybe I will even Google religious answers to these questions. I am sure these folks have their doubts. But, leaving their belief bubble isn't required, nor inevitable.

@Ajay0 Ay dios mio. You are weirding me out dude. I am not some grand defender of the west, I am not sure why you keep deflecting to that. I am from the U.S. and I know damn well how fucked up our foreign policy, history, and domestic policy have been. I am just saying everywhere has problems, not sure why you can't admit this and need to keep playing some game where seems you're elevating India above this. I get the vibe this back and forth is going nowhere and I'm dropping it.

@Ajay0 I suppose I framed it too broadly with poor wording from me just throwing a bunch of things together. That is my bad. This seems to be more so focused on a community in Haryana. How far this sort extends beyond there, I'm not sure. I think the example and views expressed by people in the video are still quite shocking and depressing to be fair.. perhaps even a culture that would underreport rape cases. But yes, not EVERYWHERE in India, at least to my knowledge. I don't know, the country is massive and different states have different cultures. I'm guessing there's a good level of variability between all of them. Seems you're from India or know more on the subject. Feel free to correct me further if you have confidence in doing so. I don't doubt your country has produced impressive things and people. But yes, most countries produce some impressive people while having a dark underbelly. I never denied those ol war mongering western countries doing anything brutal. Not fostered any wars or invasions in faraway nations is some clever wording though, especially with recent events I stand on my stupidity, India is no land of widespread rapes lol, but we don't need to extend it too far the other way.

Yanno what boss, ya ain't wrong on that. And you reminded me that I've got to do a lot better at that, I've been slacking off lately. It'd be better to have discussions in good faith, more open. Folks could actually come to an understanding of each other and sort things out, even if they didn't agree. Lots of shutting someone down and denying them even a single braincell of effort in understanding. It only causes agitation and mental doubling down of the problem. Then where do the men go? To manosphere and similar communities opposite the spectrum where they can actually discuss these things. Need more effort and understanding than dunking on/debating and labeling/banning. I could toss you the "correct" answers.. or what seems to be, to me. But they end up not doing jack, because they lack context to your actual situation. That being said, respectfully. I do think you may SOMETIMES put worse intentions on some of the forum members than they really have. Not saying you don't have your reasons though!

Learning about different cultures can be akin to time travel. Svaneti, Georgia and its people the Svans are like a window into the past. Retaining their way of life for millennia only experiencing a slow, gradual trickle of change over time. What forces maintain their cultural cohesion so strongly? In this reflection I want to demystify some answers to this question. The most obvious factors is geography. The rough terrain of the Caucasas Mountains and brutal, punishing winters are an natural force that has pushed them towards isolation. Before invention of the automobile, travel to Svaneti would've been at best treacherous and at worst deadly. Mountains are an incredible cause of remarkable isolated diversity. They are why countries like Papau New Guinea, roughly the size of California, speak over 800 unique and often unrelated languages. Beyond geography, communal interdependence for survival is another factor that has kept the Svans together. In the documentary, it is clear. Their customs hold thousands of years of wisdom tailored specifically towards surviving in their environment and with each other. The winters force them to be strict and practical, rules are tightly enforced and deviation is punished with a loss of status. Loss of status may even be a life or death problem leading to exclusion from community resources, no assistance in emergency, and maintaining their family home, etc. Following the rules and being a good community member is enforced in their minds from a young age. Tradition and survival this way is what the community members are most skilled at and comfortable in. In contrast to life in Svaneti, the world around them has been changing at a faster pace. More and more modern amenities are knocking at their doorstep, providing a tempting path away from their culture. The barrier of geography is falling. They've already adapted the Georgian language, automobiles, many community members leave to go attend college in cities. With this new access those more open minded may bring about change in or uproot from the community completely. It seems likely the area will modernize more as tourists pour in that demand infrastructure, electricity, modern internet, new jobs, and much more. What will happen? It's clear that the deeply entrenched culture and social contract of the Svans will resist this, for a time. But what will the consequences be when new generations are born, less rooted in the old ways, and begin to change things even more? It will pose a lot of questions to the people and a lot of conflict as new, incompatible ways of life emerge and clash with traditional Svan culture.

Recently came across this guy, Abdul Sattar Edhi. He was a humanitarian, modern saint, and ran an NGO in Pakistan, basically a failed state. He opened up more than a thousand medical facilities and ran ambulances throughout Pakistan, especially to rough/hard to access areas. It seems his level of integrity was incredible. He never stopped working on the front lines, even with threats against his life from political opponents and in sketchy areas. He took only for his bare bones survival, when he died he'd only owned two outfits and a pair of shoes for his last twenty years of life. He never discriminated with sect, religion, or race and his organization would even sometimes provide international aid as well. RIP, truly a legend and inspiration. Wish there was more English media on him. https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/07/08/485279862/abdul-sattar-edhi-known-as-pakistans-mother-teresa-dies-at-88

Posting some of those requested documentaries from the blog thread! More of a slow burn, but about the conflict between Azerbijani/Armenia, mostly from the Armenian side. Examines the aftereffects and blood bond of killing. A traumatized culture possessed for desire for revenge on those who killed their family and took "their land". In Krygystan there is a cultural custom where women can be kidnapped and forced into marriage. It can happen basically anytime and be done by anyone. This docu follows a kidnapping as it happens. This tradition is falling out of favor now, but it still happens in rural areas. 2 part testimony from Vietnamese soldiers about their own indoctrination and torture/rape of Vietnamese villagers. All done by the sort of guys you'd casually pass at the supermarket or be co-workers with. Under a layer of conditioning, immense potential for violence exists even in first world countries. Most things can become normal in a culture if it can find its footing. Widespread rape in India, if a woman is raped she is blamed for it completely and shamed rather than the rapist. This is what mental health facilities look like in many third world countries, if they exist at all.

@SwiftQuill That sounds really, REALLY interesting actually. Thanks for mentioning I'll have to look into that. I do now loathe the predictable, corny, inevitable happy endings of modern movies. So this should be a breath of fresh air. Loaded with like you said lots of history and spirituality. I don't mind some harshness. Do you have any plays in particular you'd recommend?

Sure! You want related to Afghanistan or just stuff showing off how deep the depraved, shadow side of humanity can go?

@SwiftQuill Yeah that's a fair criticism, I honestly just ignore it and sort out the good stuff. Interesting, Greek tragedy? You mean like theatre?

Great find! I've been meaning to review basic psych stuff anyways. I really like Robert Sapolsky's lecture series. From ages ago, but the audio quality is decent enough. He's very intelligent and his presentations are not only thought provoking but also entertaining (to me at least). Here's the first of the series (25 lectures):

@LoneWonderer Of course! I've got plenty more related ones if you'd ever like to dive into the dark and depraved side of humans.

@Someone here I think at the end of the day, people aren't like you. They are not so active in this process to understand things. Because it is difficult, and not everyone has the level of honesty and circumstances to go about this. It a lot of things, but I'll give you a few. You talk about all of this.. as if it is a choice. Just give up your silly beliefs and find the answers ya idiots! Mate. It's not that easy because these things tie into our emotions, our survival, our feelings grounded in understanding things. Like those religious people you talk about. Well, most religious people are born into religion. It's in their lives implicitly ever since they slip n slide their way into this world. How they find love, survive, feel safe, etc. all filtered through their religious worldview. Nah this doesn't matter, just toss it away and Google how it's all a lie bro is just. Hilariously ignorant. Literally years even decades of emotional reckoning and labor. Getting blowback from all their religious loved ones, god forbid. They have a family and children or something! Hmm would you like to lose all your survival techniques and grounding for you worldview, knowing nothing else besides this and not if you will come out the other side okay? Like, cmon. What do you think they're going to do? Social survival creates social thinking. Maybe they're already fulfilled in church life. It gives them what they feel they need and they're comfortable enough with it. Not like any of this information is necessarily better for their survival. I mean it could be, but you'd be surprised at the ways it may not be. Even if they left their church group, they're just going to re-organize some new bullshit to ground themselves in. Perhaps it will be more practical, but it's still not so dissimilar. Do you really think you wouldn't be like them, if this work didn't have appeal to you? All this yapping is just more bullshit. Congratulations, you made it. You're a slightly more enlightened pretty grain of sand on an infinite beach. You're still just a speck of dirt though. You may look and then and bemoan how dull they look, but you are made of the same substance. And don't think I'm exempt. I type this from my throne of lies on piles of trash. That being said, great things can be accomplished with enough humanity and patience. Even the most unexpected humans can change.

Can't speak for all the information given, but I've come across this stuff quite a bit. It really is a radical trip to realize how different human lives can be. I've got a few on the ground documentaries on this. All are very interesting, but get ready to be depressed if you're still a little naive to how dark humanity can get. Follows U.S. troops trying to train Afghani soldiers. Really reveals how it's a hopeless nightmare and absolute waste of resources. On the chai boys of Afghanistan.. basically children groomed, turned into sexualized entertainers, and ultimately raped by powerful men who basically own them. Follows a few through their work with a front row seat to all the corruption.

If you're looking to unlock new cultures, these are the big ones with lots of potential that come to mind: • Spanish/Portuguese would be easy and open up the most doors. You'd gain access to all of South/Central America. Knowing English, French, and now Italian would give you a big leg up in your learning. Once you know one of the two, the other will be very easy. • One of the harder Asian languages could be a fun challenge for you. I'm talking Mandrin/Korean/Japanese, all have very interesting cultures with lots of cultural depth. • Hindi is interesting in itself and is an excellent bridge language to learning other related and underrated languages with massive populations. Through direct relation, Bengali, Nepali, many other Indian languages like Gujarati/Punjabi. Through Urdu (Pakistan), which is HIGHLY similar to Hindi and super easy to learn, and with help from your Arabic, you'd be able to more easily learn Farsi, Dari, and Tajik. • Indonesia flies under peoples radars despite being the fourth most populated country. Due to it's geography basically just being a bunch of islands, producing an OBSCENE amount of cultural diversity. It would be fairly easy for you to learn. It's a fascinating and less known place, bonus points for being very similar to Malay if you'd like to learn that too. • Russian carries with it an incredible depth of interesting history. It's a harsh, interesting place in general. Plus many former USSR countries still speak Russian heavily, so you could gain lots of insight into those as well. It has a different alphabet but cyrillic honestly isn't hard at all.

@Majed For what reasons do you like to learn languages? Do you have any goals to visit countries that speak them? Are you interested in commonly spoken languages or would you be open to lesser spoken ones?

I think people would go in both directions honestly- it would be super mixed. The idea that everyone will just self-actualize if they had UBI is myth. People will still have their old habits from before, transitioning out of them isn't a given! Although this would be short term, hard to say long term. If people would become more active in time as new generations came about? Maybe, if AI and robots or some other thing cannot replace the productivity of the lost workforce. However, the people driving innovation are probably pretty ambitious and wouldn't be as tempted to go the lazy route. So I don't think they'd stop doing their thing. There might be even more ideas as UBI would give even more people time to think up big ideas and work without worrying on their survival.

Yep, you're right. I don't know and this isn't some common case. Me trying to guess more is just empty time. Whatever will happen will play out on its own in the end. Thank you for describing your experience though, it was interesting!