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[Awaclus]

I assume most people who deliberately seek out tanning don't know it.

I assume they do know, just like most smokers know it causes lung cancer. They just don't care.

[silverspawn]

It feels different to me because the point of smoking is that it feels good to do it,* whereas the point of tanning is, at least to an extent, presumably the tanned skin itself. But if the tan skin itself is a sign of skin damage, that's pretty yuck. It's like smoking so that you can show off your cough.

* or rather because they're addicted; afaik smoking stops feeling good after a while. But you get the point

[Awaclus]

It feels different to me because the point of smoking is that it feels good to do it,* whereas the point of tanning is, at least to an extent, presumably the tanned skin itself. But if the tan skin itself is a sign of skin damage, that's pretty yuck. It's like smoking so that you can show off your cough.

Well, as far as people are concerned, the tan skin is just a sign of spending a lot of time outdoors, and showing off that you've spent a lot of time outdoors is fine. I don't spend much time outdoors so I don't have a tan, but I do have a sign of skin damage in my hands from all the drumming and stringed instrument playing I do, namely an unusually thick skin, which you can't really see easily and I obviously don't go out my way to touch people to let them know about my skin damage but it is something I'm mildly proud of while shaking hands.

[faust]

It feels different to me because the point of smoking is that it feels good to do it,* whereas the point of tanning is, at least to an extent, presumably the tanned skin itself. But if the tan skin itself is a sign of skin damage, that's pretty yuck. It's like smoking so that you can show off your cough.

* or rather because they're addicted; afaik smoking stops feeling good after a while. But you get the point

I mean, the point of tanned skin is not the cancer, but rather some perceived beauty standard. In that sense maybe anorexia is a better comparison than smoking.

[Awaclus]

It feels different to me because the point of smoking is that it feels good to do it,* whereas the point of tanning is, at least to an extent, presumably the tanned skin itself. But if the tan skin itself is a sign of skin damage, that's pretty yuck. It's like smoking so that you can show off your cough.

* or rather because they're addicted; afaik smoking stops feeling good after a while. But you get the point

I mean, the point of tanned skin is not the cancer, but rather some perceived beauty standard. In that sense maybe anorexia is a better comparison than smoking.

I don't think anorexia is an appropriate comparison either. Anorexia is a disorder, anorexic people have a distorted image of their bodies and typically lose weight far beyond what is actually considered attractive. Meanwhile tanning is a choice and people generally make it because they have an accurate image of their skin tone.

[silverspawn]

I don't know if this is just because paint.net sucks here, but rescaling a card to 250 pixel width and then uploading it looks worse in the forum than uploading the high res version and then posting it with [img width=250.

[faust]

I don't know if this is just because paint.net sucks here, but rescaling a card to 250 pixel width and then uploading it looks worse in the forum than uploading the high res version and then posting it with [img width=250.

I don't know how BBCode works, but I am working on two screens, one with a much higher resolution, and an image appears bigger on the high-res screen, so it's definitely not using absolute pixel values.

[silverspawn]

I don't know if this is just because paint.net sucks here, but rescaling a card to 250 pixel width and then uploading it looks worse in the forum than uploading the high res version and then posting it with [img width=250.

I don't know how BBCode works, but I am working on two screens, one with a much higher resolution, and an image appears bigger on the high-res screen, so it's definitely not using absolute pixel values.

oh what

[silverspawn]

Told you guys that NFTs aren't a scam!

[silverspawn]

So given how much I work with GPT-4 on understanding neuroscience papers, I couldn't resist asking it to summarize my paper. I asked it to write an ELI12 version, and the result... I think adorable is an apt description. But also genuinely not a bad summary!

[silverspawn]

Beau is Afraid (2023)

So I have no idea what I'm talking about here, and all of this is likely wrong.

This movie has a 35 million dollar budget. According to Wikipedia, it made 11.2 million. That means it didn't make its budget back. It was never going to make its budget back. This is an surrealist-psychological-wtf thriller that's 3 hours long. No way it could make that kind of money.

My pet theory is that the director included all kinds of wacky shit into this with the goal of making it more successful. You know, give it comedic/shock value. The problem is that this made the movie itself worse. It should be shorter. And I don't mean 30 minutes shorter; I think it should be about half as long. Literally. There is a better 90 minute film here. If this cuts down the budget in half, you'll lose less money total (even if the film makes 0$).

Anyway, so the core of the movie is about this guy who is emotionally damaged by the relationship to his mother. I think that's about all you should know before going in. It's a pretty interesting concept, and the movie is quite entertaining. It's reasonably entertaining even in the 3 hour version, but I don't buy the thematic significance of some of the stuff they added; and the questionable stuff also tends to be the wackiest stuff. The main character will die if he orgasms bc his father and grandfather both did (hence becoming a parent was their final act), but then some woman pushes him toward having sex, he does orgasm and is fine, then she orgasms and dies. This scene is not necessary for the movie's themes (and also makes no sense). It's also the only erotic scene and quite unecessary. And I saw it coming. That scene should be cut entirely. Along with the character it was w/; she doesn't need to be in this movie. Unless I'm too dumb to get why it actually has the ultimate meaning^TM of the movie and it's really the most important scene here. Which I guess is possible. I mean I only saw it once.

So yeah. Very bizarre movie, and equally bizarre is the fact that it got financed. But not bad. It's either a 7 or a 6... let's say 7/10.

[Awaclus]

And I saw it coming.

Coming indeed.

[silverspawn]

So I'm reading yet another book about the brain, this time Resonant Brain by Stephen Grossberg.

As with Dennett, I can see through his ego signaling easily. But unlike Dennett, I think the book may actually have a lot of really good ideas; I'm not just reading it to refute it or get a better theory of mind for how others think.

Apparently Stephen edited his own Wikipedia page praising himself, which is very funny. It's also not surprising.

Anyway, Grossberg is no friend of Dennett. Here's him talking about Dennett's book:



Right after that he refers to the "excellent Dutch experimental neuroscientist, Victor Lamme", which makes it so obvious that he doesn't like Dennett, who is only influential but not actually any good.

I mean he's right so you can't get angry here

Wikipedia:

These results have been combined in a self-contained and non-technical exposition in a conversational style in Grossberg's 2021 Magnum Opus called Conscious Mind, Resonant Brain: How Each Brain Makes a Mind. This book won the 2022 PROSE book award in Neuroscience of the Association of American Publishers.

Male primate brains are so funny

Another thing he has in common with Dennett is that he's quite old, actually 83, which clearly doesn't diminish his ego.

[silverspawn]

[silverspawn]

[silverspawn]

[silverspawn]

I think I've won the evolutionary lottery in having a brain that thinks serious engagements with nonsense are inherently funny

[silverspawn]

^ very awesome flower because it's the source of black/green/white tea!

[Awaclus]

^ very awesome flowers because it's the source of happy/sad/bittersweet feelings!

[Awaclus]

Also camellia sinensis is the source of all tea, not just black, green and white.

[silverspawn]

Also camellia sinensis is the source of all tea, not just black, green and white.

I think I'm taking the side of colloquial usage here. I mean, I won't stop saying that I made tea if I put a bag of various herbs and spices in hot water with the goal of giving it flavor, even if it doesn't contain any of this particular plant.

[silverspawn]

I think this books is genuinely even more cringe than that of Dennett. Look at this:



Two pages later:



and the really bizarre thing here is that what follows is just a bunch of math involving differential equations over 6 pages and exactly 10 diagrams. There is no concise insight that you can get separate from the math that justifies the GEDANKENexperiment talk

[silverspawn]

Did you know that my entire argument about consciousness relies on a simple GEDANKENEXPERIMENT? The GEDANKENEXPERIMENT will be available in the form of a 700 page book that, despite its simplicity, I will release in only two years from now. Maybe. You can preorder it here.

[silverspawn]

Incredible video about spacetime (embeds still broken)

[Awaclus]

Also camellia sinensis is the source of all tea, not just black, green and white.

I think I'm taking the side of colloquial usage here. I mean, I won't stop saying that I made tea if I put a bag of various herbs and spices in hot water with the goal of giving it flavor, even if it doesn't contain any tea.

FTFY