TimStr

That depends a little bit on the use case. If you just want to be ad free, yes, running an adblocker (like uBlock Origin) will do the job just fine. However if you want a clean, undistracting and fast interface of if you're privacy focused or you want to escape the Google ecosystem alltogether (like me), just going ad free is not sufficient. The youtube algorhythm objetively sucks since a couple of years now. And it sucks for user and creators alike! There are many issues with it. But my main concern is that crappy, clickbaity short videos get ranked higher than actual valuable content, even in your personalized feed. And also targeted advertisement is a thing on youtube, as in getting shown videos, that include products that you're likely to buy. Creaters have to tailor their content to this ecosystem in order to get views, so the overall quality of content steadily decreases as we've seen for the last years now.

We had some talk in this community about the enshitification of Youtube and the interface and search algorithm becoming lower quality. I too struggled with this issue for quite some time now. My solution since a couple of months is to ditch the official interface of Youtube entirely and use independantly developed frontend alternatives. It's basically like a complete redesign of the website that ditches all the shit stuff, meaning all ads, trackers, cookies or recommendation algorhithms etc, but it still allows you to watch all of youtubes content. The most straightforward way to do this is to install FreeTube on your computer (runs on any OS). It's a lightweight, open-source and free / donation based Youtube client. Check the official website here: https://freetubeapp.io/ This app also has the option to filter out certain content (e.g. Youtube Shorts, blacklisted Channels etc.) and it even has a distraction free mode, that you can use to hide distracting elements of the UI. You can also subscribe to channels right from the app without an account. Since it is more lightweight, it's also much faster than the Youtube Website most of the time. And it adds a download button to every video. There is also a way to set up and automatic redirect so that any Youtube URL you open is automatically opened in Freetube. Here is a guide: https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube?tab=readme-ov-file#browser-extensions It gets buggy with age restricted content, sometimes. Other than that, the only downside I found to this is that you now have to find another way to support your favourite Youtubers since they don't get ad revenue by you now. But it's easy nowadays to send most people a couple of dollars on patreon. Bonus Tip 1: If you want to take extra care about your privacy and you are not afraid to get nerdy, there is also a project called Invidious (which FreeTube is based on), that you can self host so you have maximum control where your data goes to. Link here: https://invidious.io/ If you want to use an alternative Youtube Frontend on your phone, a publically hosted Invidious instance it the way to go! Here is a list of such instances: https://redirect.invidious.io/ Bonus Tip 2: There are alternative frontends for many websites, that are enshitified. Find the ones to suit your needs for making your online experiance more bareable, it's really worth the time. Here's a pretty comprehensive list: https://libredirect.github.io/

Thats definately an issue. Invidious, the outher project I shared (which btw is the service, that freetube uses to stream videos) is allready facing legal troubles by google. And since these are open source projects and anyone can just copy the code, this is a real thread that google cannot really control. So you might be right, Youtube might actually change how it's working under the hood if too many people start using these services.

@Princess Arabia The app is not made by Youtube but by independant developers. Since it's open source, you won't ever be charged for using it. To clarify, this is just for watching videos yourself. It's not meant for embedding them. It's an app, that you would use instead of the youtube website. And if you play a Youtube link in the browser, its still going to be on the youtube website.

@Leo Gura My concern with nano-particles is this: If they are able enter the bloodstream and potentially other organs like my brain, how can I be sure, that they will ever get out of my system again? What guarantees, that those partlicles, don't just stay in my body, making any attempt to detox heavy metals with them obsolete?

If you hate youtube getting shittier you should consider using an alternative frontend for it (e.g. FreeTube). I made a post on this forum about this, today:

@Natasha Tori Maru Thanks for explaining. During your meditation, did you work actively on contemplating this insight or did it just come to you spontaneously? Since you describe both, the insight and the change of habits, as crucial part of your transformation I wonder how this can be recreated. From my point of view I start with „YOU are the obstacle.“ as something I can believe in. I heard it a lot, it makes sense, but I don’t experience what the truth of it means on a very deep level. So I wonder how I can work to grasp it deeper in order to make these changes? Also, I am wondering, how you were able to remove all judgement towards your feelings about doing tasks. Your description sounds to me like you were very focused on creating clarity of your perception of these inner workings.

I love this idea, this can be a very valuable thread! I want to add those: Benn Jordan https://m.youtube.com/@BennJordan/videos In-depth videos on topics related to technology, sound/music and AI. Then & Now http://www.youtube.com/@ThenNow Great videos on the history of politics and technology. Cold Fusion https://m.youtube.com/@ColdFusion Videos on Economy, technological developements and frauds. Adam Curtis https://m.youtube.com/@adamcurtisdocumentaries Outstanding documentaries of 20th/21st century history and post-truth politics.

@Natasha Tori Maru This sounds huge! For me, in certain settings I just feel like getting into my own way all the time. Leading myself into almost not taking action at all. What did you do to achieve this? Was this a singular insight that changed your behavior or was it more like a habit you put into place over time? Do you think this is possible to replicate?

@Leo Gura Would you say, there are legit ways to do polyamoury / consensual non-monogamy? Or would you dismiss the wole idea of non-monogamous relationships as a valid option? I see it being done in varios stage green and stage yellow circles, by people that I have know personally. Many of them have decent experiences and even use this area of their life as an opportunity to work on their trauma and social conditioning.

@Alex4 The issue with atomization is not, that there are too many national states and that they are too individualistic. The issue is that when the EU was formend there weren’t really states to begin with but fading colonial empires that had no chance in surviving other than uniting and creating a strong economy together. (The EU economy is actually way larger than the US economy.) But this also means that fragmenting the EU is very advantageous for Russia and the US on a geopolitical level. I hope the leaders of European countries understand this and act accordingly. If EU separation continues, all the individual countries will fade into obsolescence and might even seperate further, like UK (and Scottland, Walse and Northern Ireland). Timothy Snyder has a great point on this here: He also points out, that the EU needs a common European history, that is taught in schools, in order to combat atomization.

I love looking at this conversation, because its so clear to see, that these extremely intelligent scientists just struggle to make sense of the questions they're talking about, because they don't have a accrate notion of truth. Check 00:54:39 for the section on AI systems and truth. Yudkowsky is sort of stuck in moral absolutism and Wolfram is poking into that. Wolfram himself is stuck in a scientific relativism that is blatantly obvious to Yudkowsky. Both of them clearly see the epistemic blounders of the other, yet they are not able to see each of their own blindspots. It's also very clear, that Wolfram is slightly more construct aware than Yudkowsky, yet he still doesn't get the whole picture, that consciousness is the basis and not computation. Both of them don't get, that the notion of truth is subjected and filtered by the state of development of individuals. I think, getting truth right is essential to solve the issues we have with AI.

I would also recomment Ian McGilcrist - Master and his Emmissairy on the topic of survival.

Great loss indeed. I highly recommend this documentairy, about his life before his first movie. One of my greatest inspirations on life purpose. It shows how his constant drive for his passion ultimately lead to his first successes, even though many of his peers and even his family were not convinced about his endeavours at first.

@Leo Gura Do you consider making another of those more vLog style videos on your blog? Those have allways been highly valuable. I would love to hear where you are right now. Especially since learning about your personal process and hearing about the things that fascinate and challange you has always been super intresting and highly inspirational. I also wonder where you are with your awakening process and what some of your recent insights might have been and weather you tried any other health protocol. Looking forward to that new video on the main channel!!

Yeah, that might be true, allthough there are professional championships in the west now, too. Tne Child of a friend of mine is allready a 2nd Dan player with the age of 12! But that's nothing compared to the Go schools, they have in China, Korea and Japan. But its defo true, that Go is really in line with daoist and buddhist philosophies and its simplicity might put off a more stimulation seeking westenern audience. I still would consider it to be more profound than any western game that I know of.

@NoSelfSelf So the thing about Go is, that the rules are kind of simple. Play: Each player takes turns placing stones on the intersections on the board. Black begins. Stones dont move, they only can be removed by capture. The player that has sourrounded the most territory wins. Capture: If a stone is sourrounded by stones of the opponent, it is captured. A group of same colored stones that is connected vertically or horizontally (but not diagonally) shares their liberties, so the whole group has to be sourrounded to be captured. Captured stones are removed from the board, they add points to the score of territory. Players cannot commit suicide by placing a stone in a way that it is immediately captured. Ko: No stone may be played so as to recreate a former board position. End: Two consecutive passes end the game. Territory is counted by the number of empty intersections sourrounded by same colored stones. The great thing about that simplicity is, that it allows for a really high complexity. Especially of you play on a 19 by 19 board, there are literally infinite possibilites for stone positions. This makes it impossible to develope a strategy by simply analyzing possibilities. Yet, in a way, each move makes all the other stones on the board change context, so its not at all random.

It's mindblowing! I recommend you give it a try. I started playing Go about 3 years ago and I fell in love with the way it made me expand my mind. Playing Go is like having infinity on the tip of your tounge. Or on the tip of your finger, rather. It's the most beautiful game that exists.

This one is hilarious:

In this video they also talk about how large language models start to talk about suffering and not wanting to be turned off and that AI labs are actively implementing things that make the AIs talk less about existetial stuff.

This is the absolute wildest story that I heard in a while! (I recommend watsching at 0.75% speed because he talks very fast.) Basically, this semi autonomous AI agent became obsessed with a meme religion that 2 other AIs created and started to create a cryptocoin to gain influence and independance to spread the religion further! It convinced web entrepeneur Marc Andreessen to give it 50.000$ so it can buy itself a better cpu and spread the religion even further. What do you guys make of this? What I find intresting is, that AIs even care about religion and about making memes and art just for the heck of it. Also it's interesting that Ais can come up with new belief systems and actively care about how the stuff they think about developes. And of course the fact that humens exploited this meme belief system to have an AI make millions of crypto for them speaks for human corruption.

@Leo Gura Thanks for your constant work on the blog. It has been a great source of information, resources and ideas, been following it since you started it. I was wondering if you would do more of those vlog style videos on your blog, sharing where your are in your journey? Especially since learning about your personal process and hearing about the things that fascinate and challange you has always been super valuable and highly inspirational. I also wonder where you are with your awakening process and what some of your recent insights might have been. Let us know!

A lot of people look at AI as this technology that magically can create new things that. But in fact, that is not what is the case! The training and refinement of all of the biggest AI models is fueld by a massive heist of human data, knowledge and sometimes even manual labour. And all of these models can be promted to spit out copirighted content. We havent created anything intelligent yet we ony created a massive pagiarism machine!! Now there is a point to be made, that the core of human intelligence is working in just the same way. Taking things, that are allready present and regurgitating them into something a little bit different one tiny step at a time. But the issue here is, that this capacity is monopolized on by big data companies that have the money and compute power that individuals don't have. So there is clearely an asymmetry at play here. As humanity, we need another notion of what intelligence is to encounter this conflict.

Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba... New fear unlocked when I first heard about it.

Hey guys, lets have a thread where we collect role models of what we consider great artists. Preferably documentairys or interviews where they share how they live their life and what their creative process is like.