UnbornTao

That Thinkpad would certainly take more than one bullet.

Yes, a definition can serve as a starting point. As for its depth, it isn't that we lack ideas about what it is; rather, we don't directly know what it itself is. Again, it is often taken for granted as a reflection of reality - based on the idea we live by: that our experience of the world reflects reality as it truly is. A particular language is different from the possibility of language. Rather than being a set of terms or sounds, it concerns the reality that allows those terms or sounds to emerge. When this possibility was first realized in human history, it brought the invention of any language along with it. Shouting is just shouting. Something extra must occur for the sound to be interpreted as conveying a distinction beyond the sound itself. Don't confuse producing a reaction in another with communication having taken place. For example, you could be hit by a rock I throw at you and subsequently express anger by shouting - this wouldn't, strictly speaking, be an instance of communication. An additional component must be present so that you can interpret the experience of another conscious being as conveying annoyance, hurt, jealousy, or something similar. Take away the context of language, and the shout is merely a sound. You may be able to react or respond in many different ways as a result of hearing it, but it wouldn't reference anything beyond itself. Language, as a context, is what enables communication in the first place.

I don't think you ever will. It happens behind the scenes, so to speak. Despite having moved to Brave, I still use Gmail and Drive, fyi. Do you want a tinfoil hat too?

Fair point. Some gaming laptops may be better value proposition in the long-term. Smaller, lighter laptops are probably much less resistant to drops, scratches, and general wear and tear. Did you hear about the Ukrainian soldier whose MacBook Air took a bullet and was still working? That laptop is thin but it did its job, it seems. https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/macbooks/ukrainian-soldiers-m1-macbook-air-takes-direct-shrapnel-hit-still-works-despite-battle-damage-screen-cracked-and-letter-k-missing-but-laptop-remains-functional

That's why openness is needed in the first place. It's unknown what you'll get. The point lies in the questioning itself.

As tricky as it is, let's remember that thinking about something is not the same as doing it. I did something similar today with apathy, and it helped me take it less seriously. Challenge those notions. They're not true. You just think they are. Sorry if you weren't asking for help or acknowledgement.

This is what I mean. You talk in platitudes. What is an experience? That could be looked into - as an example.

"NOT ME!"

Okay, we lost him. I seriously doubt this is your actual experience.

Have you switched to Brave yet? Come on, I'm getting paid by the numbers here.

At-home book printing? I want to be able to buy a book, get the file in a new format, and have some printer at home - maybe - that can produce a reasonably decent copy at an affordable price. Probably a pipe dream for now. And the company would likely go broke pretty quickly

The "disgusting" bit was a joke, actually favoring nudism over clothing. But yeah. The conformity topic is easy to make fun of - so I do.

@Jannes @Nemo28 Oh, absolutely. I wouldn't buy one myself, though.

What do you mean by installed? Steam? Cool, I've been researching about self-hosting and may actually do something similar in the future.

Can you drop that? I'm curious why you post these things. They can be pithy at times, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but suspect that you're stuck in a spiritual worldview that gets in the way of actual questioning.

Be open™. For real. Not as a pretension. The implicit arrogance behind this kind of spiritual talk is tiring and does not seem to help much - except, perhaps, in making oneself feel better. Can you let go of your attachment to this kind of talk and thinking? Question something. What about "What is surrendering?", for example?

What if you allowed yourself, in your mind, to exaggerate it a little - not to punish yourself but simply to experience it without resistance? Not to suppress it, nor to act it out - just to feel it wholesale. It's a possibility.

You just provided a two-word assertion. What question or communication could you make to promote inquiry?

Ironically enough, nudism can also be a form of conformity - like at nudist beaches. How much of a nonconformist do you have to be to go to a nudist beach wearing a swimsuit? Disgusting.

@kavaris Thanks for sharing. Some research is often required on the user's part but certain distros are quite stable and reliable nowadays - Mint, Bazzite, and so on - depending on the use case. It may be less accessible, since you have to flash it yourself onto a USB drive and deal with that process, whereas other major operating systems come preinstalled on store-bought hardware (among other things). Not sure. According to Claude, it might be "initiation" or "initial entry."

Time to make arepas.

I've never owned a gaming laptop but a handheld like the Steam Deck sounds like a better value proposition to me - provided that gaming is your priority.

I think you're fantasizing rather than actually examining either language or communication. What would it even mean to be in communication with the cosmos? I can understand the desire to feel connected and in unison with the cosmos, and this discussion doesn't necessarily invalidate that. But setting that aside, what is it to communicate? Consider that labels are just one manifestation of language; they're not the same as the space of language, to put it metaphorically. Labeling is just one of the many functions enabled by language, it seems to me. This brings us back to our earlier contention: the idea that communication is somehow stumbled upon by virtue of "stuff happening" in existence - like thinking that solar flares are "communicating" something, and, perhaps most importantly, that it is being communicated to you.

Nerd!