outlandish

Found the hodler! This could easily turn into a long-winded debate because it's a topic I've dug very deeply into over the years, I'll try to be terse. I used to hold bitcoin since 2014, but sold it all in 2017 when I realized what an energy pig it really is. I can't ethically support bitcoin because of its extremely intensive use of energy. The energy that bitcoin alone uses is nearly 1% of the earths total energy usage, as of 2018. This isn't 1% of the financial sector's energy usage, it's 1% of the entire planet's usage. The problem is that as the adoption value of bitcoin goes up, its energy usage goes up in proportion, because of the way mining works. So right now, we're in a situation where BTC accounts for some tiny fragment of the world's financial transactions - but it's already using 1% of the total energy. If BTC continues to be supported and shilled, and climbs up to 20k, or 100k, it's footprint goes up with it at roughly that same ratio. This is a completely different scale from the energy usage of the bank employees driving around and eating meat. And banks won't go away because of bitcoin anyways. Bitcoin won't replace banks, for a bunch of reasons. The simplest is just that it's not up to the task of being a good currency because of transaction times (~10 minutes currently), and transaction fees (always up and down, anywhere from $2-$15). These don't improve as bitcoin scales; they get worse. The more transactions there are on the network, the slower they run and the higher the fees go. There's a whole host of other services that banks provide that bitcoin simply isn't up to the task for - mortgages, loans, investments, whatever else they do. Fintech will disrupt every last service that banks currently provide, but it bitcoin won't be the one tech that does this. The one thing bitcoin is very good at is being a portable store of value. There's probably no better way to move a billion dollars around. The crazy thing is that we can have our cake and eat it too. There are many cryptos out there that can do everything bitcoin does, but better - faster transaction times, lower fees, and more, and are much much more efficient, sometimes by orders of magnitude. Bitcoin was simply the first generation of the technology. tl;dr - bitcoin is an energy pig, put your money in something cleaner.

It's a couple of orders magnitude difference with bitcoin. We're not talking about the amount of energy to drive to the bank. Bitcoin is currently burning 77.33 TWh per year, as much as Chile's entire energy needs - and it's hardly processing a fraction of a percent of the total value transactions on the planet today. Check this out: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/ Imagine if this scales x10 or x100 like its enthusiasts hope? It's just not compatible with the planet.

To all who are eligible to vote in US elections today, please take the time to vote, and if you're at all on the fence still, vote against Donald Trump! Fuck that guy. Settle for Biden!

@Average Investor lol Model T is a good way to describe bitcoin! So many people think it's going to change the world and is the currency of the future, but there's just no way it can in its current incarnation, it doesn't scale the way many of its fans imagine. Yeah I really hope the lightning network takes off, for the sake of the earth and just having better tech. I do think it feels a bit kludgey, although I don't really know much details about it. Seems like it still has a ways to go even though it's been "nearly there" for a long time now. I also really hope that Proof-of-stake and other consensus methods prove to be secure and scalable. It should use vastly less energy than POW. I doubt bitcoin would ever switch to POS, but one can hope, and there are many others that might go that direction and take the lead. I think there are other consensus algorithms that are being explored on other cryptos, and even more sensible ways to do POW, but I'm pretty out of the loop on all that.

If mining/confirming was all conducted using cleaner energy, it would still be using clean energy that other more useful things could be using. But yeah, clean energy is always better. It's kind of like having a pig of a truck that only gets 0.01mile/gallon - is the solution to burn biodiesel, or find a way to build a more efficient truck?

Bitcoin (and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies) are horrendously inefficient. They consume a shocking amount of electrical energy, and consequently produce unacceptable levels of carbon emissions. For comparison, the bitcoin network is currently consuming more energy than Austria or Bangladesh: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/ If these kinds of cryptos catch on the way the fanboys are dreaming, it would be an environmental catastrophe. This information is not well known, because the people holding crypto are so focused on getting rich that they never want to look at the elephant in the room. But it's right there, and people need to know about it. For me, a technology that is that damaging and wasteful is just not worth investing in or supporting. Luckily there are alternatives.

@Moksha yeah that's a nice succinct way to put it. Except, maybe, Source is not different from the stuff it's occupying or playing through; they are one and the same. The idea of Source, or giving it any label really, can mislead (I believe) that it's a force, or external-but-intimate god, or some other kind of magic that's separate. Yet it really is the stuff itself, playing as itself. Maybe the idea of Source (etc) is a conceptual model that helps us grasp it.

If the mind is outside, or separate from the body, it might be that the brain itself is an organ that's controlled through telekenisis by your mind. In this scheme, the brain in turn controls the rest of the body, which in turn affects a person's sphere of influence in the world. Perhaps our brains are these fine-tuned control structures with super-sensitive neurological levers that are able to be pushed by the weakest telekinetic force. This is a possibility that a few people have looked at around the fringes of science. Here's my take on it (sometimes): There is mind, and mind has these tiny, immeasurably tenuous connections to the physical world, everywhere, to every single atom. The force that mind is able to exert on matter is close to zero, maybe it's just the tiniest push that bubbles out of the quantum noise. When mind interacts with an organ like a brain with all of its exposed sensitive levers, it's able to play the puppet-master. And mind interacting with a body wired up to a brain is what it feels like to be this kind of being, with a sense of self, bound to the extent of the network of a body. Except there is no mind, per se.

@Corpus family man lol that's twisted.

@Nahm I know right?

lol what a clickbait title. Glad it's working out so well for you. Please note that *Your Mileage May Vary

Remember those walls I built Well, baby, they're tumbling down And they didn't even put up a fight They didn't even make a sound I found a way to let you win But I never really had a doubt Standing in the light of your halo I got my angel now It's like I've been awakened Every rule I had you breaking It's the risk that I'm taking I ain't never gonna shut you out Everywhere I'm looking now I'm surrounded by your embrace Baby, I can see your halo You know you're my saving grace You're everything I need and more It's written all over your face Baby, I can feel your halo Pray it won't fade away I can feel your halo ...

Darn, I was hoping this would be a wrestling-match!

I'm a big fan of running, and even bigger fan of running in the forest! It's such a great way to move and be in nature. Lately I've been running 5 times and 65km per week. I'd like to be running a bit more like 7 times and 100km/week. When you're new to running, make sure you're building up slowly. The rule of thumb is to increase your mileage by no more than 10-20% per week. Lots of easy running at the beginning is the way to go, and you can gradually introduce chunks of hard running or speed work as you progress, but always keep the majority of your running at a pretty easy pace. This is how you avoid injury and keep it enjoyable.

I'm sure you're not alone in that! Personally, I love all the little insights, the medium, and the big top-level ones, all scales. I also like taking psychedelics just for fun, without any intention of gaining insights or self-improvement (although they usually show up anyways).

Hard to say or measure. I don't think 5-MeO-DMT is the one to reach for if someone were looking to improve quality-of-life in a quotidian sense. 5-MeO-DMT is better for that very top sharp transcendent pointy bit on the Maslow pyramid. The more common psychedelics like mushrooms or LSD are better suited for improving quality of life IMO. They tend to give more down to earth, practical insights.

Reposting because this video that Leo posted on his blog is gold: Check it out

@Rolo such a great documentary. Shulgin is a hero.

A great talk from J Krishnamurti as featured on the Psychedelic Salon podcast. Highly recommended that you quiet your mind and give this a listen: http://psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-659-krishnamurti-revisited/ There's a huge repository of his teachings freely available at https://jkrishnamurti.org/

Wow can't believe we didn't have a thread for Ram Dass already. Nice one!

I really like what @Forestluv has to say on this matter. And I want to chime in and second what @Heart of Space has to say about living at home at 22 being relatively normal. It's tragic that we have the idea in our society that an adult living at home with their parents is some kind of bum. In almost all of the world (Asia, Europe, South + Central America, Africa, South Asia) it's normal and expected for young adults to be living at home with their parents, for cultural and economic reasons. It wasn't until pretty recently that in the USA and other wealthy western nations that the possibility of moving out as a single young adult even became possible, and this was only due to unprecedented economic prosperity in the post-war era. Now, times have changed and it's again unrealistic to expect young singles to live alone.

@4201 it seems safer to me than putting it in your lungs, but I imagine you could indeed damage your nose if you abused it via that ROA. Still, I'd rather damage my nose than my lungs if I was hypothetically to abuse a drug.

I've done a lot of meditation in groups, mostly in the context of soto zen, but a bit in vipassana tradition too. In Buddhism you often hear about taking refuge in the 3 jewels: The Buddha, The Dharma (the teachings), and The Sangha (the community). It can be helpful to be part of a community in a meditation practice.

@Breakingthewall please keep us posted with how this goes. People like you are rare, so it's really valuable information to share with the world.

Wow this is a remarkable story, and it must be such a challenge for you both. I don't know how much value or insight into your situation you will be able to receive from this forum, but it's always hard to know where the next breakthrough will come from. Sometimes the smallest thing can make the biggest difference. This situation is your life-koan, this is your mystical experience in the medium of life. Your love and determination is admirable. I've never been in this situation or anything like it, except perhaps raising children. I suppose there must be some things in common between raising children, and helping someone along the path of re-development as they recover from a brain injury. I don't know what I can offer of help, except to say just try to be the best conduit for love that you can be, and try make sure you're taking care of yourself as well. You know, put the oxygen mask on yourself first so you don't pass out before you can get his on.