MadScience

[phoenixtkd]

Im tired of the pro life side of the abortion debate. It always just boils down to, fetuses are alive and women who get abortions are murderers.

No one says that about IVF doctors. What do people think happens to the extra fertilized eggs?

No one says that to skinny sexy women who get pregnant, or fat women who get pregnant. Its well know that to low or high bmi correlates to miscarriage rates.

No one says that to the woman who keeps trying to get pregnant and miscarries over and over again.

No one holds funerals for the 10-80% of pregnancies that end in miscarriges.

No, the truth is pro life people just want to force people to have babies. Its good for the economy.

[phoenixtkd]

Fun Factoid

Human bones are largely comprised of Calcium. Calcium is a metal.

Humans have metal skeletons. :)

[phoenixtkd]

Random Thoughts on Faith and Science

I am a PhD student in Physical/Material Chemistry. I am putting that at the beginning to let you know that I am a scientist, but by no means an expert, in any field. But my thoughts and opinions are not coming from a facebook forum either. I have cultivated these opinions over the years that I have been in my field.

What I see is that in life, the average person experiences very little difference between faith and science. Most people don't go on to get an advanced degree in any of the STEM fields. Which is ok, its not for everyone. But a byproduct that I see that comes out of that is that the average person has to take on faith what the scientist are telling them. The comprehension that they have of how the world works doesn't include geosynchronous orbit, toxicity of chemicals, spreadability of pathogens, weather patterns, basics physics of gravity on a sphere and more. So when scientist talk to them about these topics and many more, they just have to nod their heads, hope that someone knows what's going on, and go about trying to make ends meet, so they don't starve to death. 

I think that this is a big part of why things are going so crazy now in the pandemic. As an example people are eating deworming paste for horses instead of getting vaccinated, because to them, it really does make more sense. They have some idea of how the deworming paste works, but no comprehension of how mRNA vaccines work. So from their perspective, the scientist that they do not know, is saying “have faith in my vaccine that appeared out of the blue”, vs their local friend that they have known their whole life, and has always been there for them says “this deworming paste cleared up my covid no problem,” It would be ridiculous to put their faith in the scientist. These people are just trying to make the smartest decision that they can with the skills and experiences that they have. 

People think that the world is flat, because a flat world makes more sense to them, than to have faith in the scientist telling them the world is round. 

Science is not supposed to be based on faith, but if we do not acknowledge the faith that people have to rely on when they go about their day to day, then we have done everyone a great disservice. 

Ultimately, I think that the world needs to do a better job educating the masses. So that we don't have to take as much of our lives on faith every day. But the world seems to be structured in a way to leave as many people behind as possible. I suspect it makes it easier to make a profit off of people. After all, if someone is bad at math, its easier to cheat them out of their hard earned money. 

In the short term though, I think that scientist should try to talk to the public in a formal and informal manner. Basically give the hard science facts and data, then at the end of their speech, give real life stories and appeals to emotions. Talk like a human and not a calculator basically. 

[phoenixtkd]

Random Thoughts

Hot tubs are just human soup...

[phoenixtkd]

Thoughts on "Toughing it Out"

I find that the people who tell you to "tough it out", are usually the people that are the least capable of "toughing it out".

[phoenixtkd]

[phoenixtkd]

Best argument i ever came across for proving the harm of the christian god.

I am spiritual but not religious, for fun I will often listen to religious debates. I often listen to atheist debating christians in particular.

The main problem that I come across in these debates is how circular they become. Oftentimes the religious person has created a logical loop as the foundation of their belief. Usually its something along the lines of "I believe god created everything including the bible, the bible and the universe exist, so the christiangod exists".

You cant really debate logic loops like that. But I came across an argument against christianity that bypassed this problem, and in my opinion was the best argument against the christian god that I have ever heard.

There is this youtuber called Theramintrees, he is a therapist and an atheist. What he did was he psychoanalyzed the christian god. His diagnosis was beautiful and I really cant do it much justice. But the gist of it was that the god character was a malignant childlike narsisst.

When you look at what this character demands from his followers, that is exactly what a narsisst demands. Perfect obediance, never questioning, or challenging, perfect worship, double binds where no matter what you do you are wrong, perfect submission, the surrendering of your resources, and so on. The god character always makes you feel bad, even for the act of existing, and seeks to make you feel bad for everything you do, and destroys your sense of agency. Among many many other things.

If you were in a relationship with someone like that, all of society would say that was an abusive relationship that you should leave. So why is it ok to have a relationship like that with a god? If you say its because god made you, well you would not view that kind of relationship with parents as being healthy, would you?

[phoenixtkd]

Random Thoughts

I don't think that people appreciate what Gordon Ramsey was able to pull off with his show “Kitchen Nightmares”. 

What I see is that people point out that only 40% of the businesses succeed after he left. What they don’t realize is that 80% of restaurants fail in the first place. Gordon Ramsey in 1-2 days at these businesses was able to help save 40% of them. Remember that these were restaurants that were failing in the first place. 

That is insanely impressive! Also on top of that, the main reason that 60% of these businesses fail after he left was due to personal issues. Infighting and such, or the owner would buck the new menu that Gordon Ramsey designed for them. The businesses that listened to him, almost always succeeded. 

I’m not saying he’s perfect or anything, but he knows his stuff!

[phoenixtkd]

Thoughts on needing others

I have been listening to a lot of discourse online with respects to men and women. The one I wish to address today is “Do men need women to survive?” and vice versa. 

Short answer, yes. 

Long answer. There are a plethora of reasons why we need each other for survival. Lets look at ability to survive in the wild as a starting point.

I have been hearing weird stuff where men are saying that if the world ended, men would be just fine and completely capable of surviving in the wild on their own. Like men have some innate biological survival ability or something. Survival is taught. This is true for humans and other species, that's why reintroducing animals from captivity into the wild is so difficult. Because if the animal (irrespective of its gender) has not learned to survive, it will die. This is true for humans too. Men are often taught basic survival skills as a standard for their education (its happening less and less though), so more men tend to have those skills. But women have shown time and again that they are also capable of learning these skills. Check out the tv shown “Alone” sometime. Its great.

Survival skills are taught, and if the world ended, those who have survival skills will do better than those without, no matter the gender. 

I wont even bother addressing reproduction, because both genders are needed for that to happen. Especially if all technology disappeared. (also sex is a very important part of survival from a mental health perspective)

Lets look at division of labor in a society. Because that is what this often comes down to. Gender roles. But lets take it one step further, because gender roles are actually the abridged version of what societies did and do. Its about aptitude for tasks. Society tries to divide labor in a way that those who have the aptitude for those tasks get those tasks (its not perfect, but that's the idea). Gender roles are an attempt to simplify and streamline the process. And in my opinion created weird ideas in peoples head about what people are capable of. 

Sorry I went off on a little bit of a tangent. People have different aptitudes in society. And by bringing these people together we all survive better. Very few people have all the aptitudes and education necessary to survive on their own. People need people. Gender really is not that important until you get to sex. People just need people. (And once again, one gender has to have the other for reproduction and due to the majority of the population being sexual and straight, both genders need the other for sex).

People needing other people is a biological fact (there are always exceptions, but they tend to be hermits living alone in the woods). There is a reason that solitary confinement is considered to be a type of torture. Humans go insane if we do not interact with other humans. 

I think the whole, “Men go their own way”, and “I don't need no man” mentality has been cropping up so much is due to how our societal setup has been very abusive to both men and women. I also think that mentality has always been there, its just more in our faces now. But going into that is a long post all on its own. 

At the end of the day, we need other people. Men need women, women need men, men need men, women need women. People need people. But just because you need people, doesn't mean you have no agency in choosing the people you are around. Its just like choosing what you eat. You need to eat food, but you pick what the food is. Same with people. :)

[phoenixtkd]

Clarification on Quantum Mechanics

So there is a common misconception that I come across. Many people misunderstand Schrodinger's cat and the idea behind superposition. 

For starters, Schrodinger's cat is to my understanding, a critique of the principle of superposition. Schrodinger was attempting to point out how ridiculous he thought the idea was. But everyone took him to seriously. 

But the main point is that people hear that thought experiment and fixate on the word “observe”. They take that to mean that there must be an observer to cause the wavefunction to collapse one way or the other. That is not true. 

The point is that the superposition is an extremely delicate state. Something as simple as observing it, can cause it to collapse, but superposition states collapse all the time, from anything disturbing them. An observer is not necessary. 

So just wanted to clear that up. 

[phoenixtkd]

Thoughts on Jordan Peterson and his Speech Tactics

This might seem a little out of left field, but its something that I have been thinking about for a while. 

So as a disclaimer, I am not a JP hater. I think that the man gives good advice to men who wish to live in a traditional fashion, and even to women that wish to live in a traditional fashion. Also some of his general responsibility based advice is just good all round advice that not enough people are getting growing up. 

People try to paint JP in this really complicated and multifaceted light, himself included. But at the end of the day, hes just an Old School kind of guy. The stuff he says is almost identical to the kinds of things that you would hear if you talked to someone JPs age or older in the American South. They would just state their opinions in a more straightforward fashion. 

JP likes to overcomplicate everything that he says, but there is a reason behind this. You see, if you have to make someone work hard to understand what you are saying, then you have made them more invested in what you are saying. Its a proven phenomenon in psychology. The same principle can be seen in gambling, the more you bet, the harder it is to stop. JP probably developed his speech habits getting his license or doing one on one therapy. It forces the person who is listening to you value you more.

Now the second thing that he does is what I have more of an issue with. 

To give some background, I grew up with parents that were both therapists. So Im not just pulling stuff out of my ass. 

But the second thing that JP does, especially in interviews, is speak not just in a complicated fashion, but a vague one. You see speaking in a vague fashion can get the person that you are working with to fill in the blanks and come to some kind of self realization. It can encourage them to explore and come to an answer. But misused, this is a very manipulative speaking tactic. It gives you plausible deniability in everything that you say. Everything that you state could be interpreted in multiple fashions. The person who speaks like this will often give clues and hints that your subconscious will pick up on when they speak about what they truly think about a topic, but because they never explicitly give an opinion, you cant call them out on anything nasty they say. 

I guess I can understand why he has to speak that way in this day and age. People overreact to him. And we need to let people speak more freely now. I personally dislike traditional gender roles, but i understand that some people really want to live that way. So if they have someone who is a traditional gender role guru (JP) then they should be allowed to seek out the guru without being accosted, and the guru should be allowed to seek out cliental without being accosted too! But that isnt really the world we live in. 

But I dont know, it still bugs me. Just feels icky 

[phoenixtkd]

Thoughts about turning to a “deity” for strength

DISCLAIMRER- This is all opinion, but due to the number of thoughts that I have on the subject, I am simplifying how I am expressing my opinion. It may come across as stating facts, but it is not. It is opinion. 

I sometimes hear people say that they turn to god or to religion for strength. That they have come across situations in their life that they do not have the strength to overcome without outside help. 

There is truth to this. And I am not just talking about, “I need to convince a friend to come over to move my couch” sort of situation. I am talking about the situations where all of life is coming down on top of you, “-$600 in your bank account on a regular basis, $50,000 in debt, working 60+ hours a week, trying to go to school and maintain a good enough GPA that you don't get kicked out, unless you finish these last three semesters almost perfectly, then the last 4 years have been a waste, you are getting 2-4 hours of sleep a night, you have an abusive roommate, your health issues are building up, and now you are sick all the time”. This is the kind of situation where you will probably have to turn to something external for help, because if you don't, its likely that you will take your own life. 

The kind of person who can get through the above situation with no help has either an insane amount of internal strength, or is to delirious to be able to care. 

But excluding the superfreaks and the delirious, your average person will need help. Many people will probably turn to deity of some sort. This is all fine and good, as long as they keep it to themselves. The real issue arises when they start trying to proselytize.

For simplicities sake, lets call the object of strength Fred.  It can be a god, or a rock, or even your favorite tv show.

 Because what is needed in that kind of situation is internal strength, there are ways of enhancing it. It is well known that if you can get other people to join you in a difficult to maintain task, like a diet or a regular workout regiment, it makes the task easier. This extends to Fred too. If you can get other people to accept Fred too, then it makes Fred more powerful in your mind. Enhancing your internal strength. 

BUT, this is a double edged sword. What is given can be taken too. If the people you prostelize Fred to reject him, then it runs the risk of making Fred weaker in your mind. This can lower your internal strength and make it so that you cannot handle as much stress as you could before. It would be like having a friend that is bringing doughnuts every day to lunch while you are on a diet. And they are telling you that they think diets are a waste of time. It makes the diet harder. 

Now this is not as much of an issue if your entire sense of internal strength is not based off of Fred. It might cause some arguing, but at the end of the day, you will probably be ok.

Now lets take it one step further. Religion likes to teach people that they can only find strength through Fred, they will try to hide it, but it is innate in the doctrine. (the Abrahamic religions, anyway, I am not as familiar with the others). This doctrine creates people whos entire sense of strength comes from Fred, and others believing in Fred. 

Now the religiously devout are able to handle a lot, potentially more than the people who do not accept any sort of Fred. But it is a shaky foundation, because any sort of challenge to Fred will destroy their ability to handle the stresses of their life due to what I discussed earlier. If they ever loose Fred, then (in their mind) they lose the ability to survive. 

I think this is why there are so many (Abrahamic) Religiously based wars. You have people whos entire sense of survival is tied up in others believing in their Fred. And this is why they cant accept other peoples religion, because “that's not Fred, that Tim!” They cant get the enhanced sense of inner strength from Tim, and in fact knowing that people have a Tim leads to a lower sense of inner strength for the Fred people. It would be like having a hedonism restaurant right next to an extreme diet restaurant. 

What's the solution?

Don't rely on Fred to the point that you cripple yourself. Whatever your Fred is, make sure that you can live your day to day without it. Fred is supposed to be a pick me up to get you through rough patches. Not your entire sense of inner strength. This applies if Fred is your family or significant other too. You have to understand and accept that there may come a day where you no longer have this Fred in your life. And that is ok. You can be ok. You can still live a good life, and it will be different with Fred gone, but it doesn't have to be any less wonderful. Just different, and don't be afraid to find a new Fred. :)

I recommend a pet rock. If you lose it, its really easy to get another one. 

[phoenixtkd]

Thoughts on New Godzilla movie

I think that the movie will have Kong beat Godzilla. While I think that is a completely ridiculous outcome, I have little doubt that is the direction that the filmmakers will go. The trailer made it abundantly clear that Kong is the underdog protagonist. The trailer was basically screaming that Kong will win. But lets face it, in any realistic(for whatever that means in a giant monster film) scenario, Godzilla would decimate Kong. 

After all, what is a King to a God?

[phoenixtkd]

I find it interesting that when you look up lists of smartest animals on the planet. Humans are never at the top...

Either people dont think humans are animals, or the people making those lists think very little of humans. 😀

[phoenixtkd]

A common problem that I see in science, is a dismissal of a thing or phenomenon, due to the scientist in question not agreeing with the common conclusion of the masses. To give an example, that would be like saying " lightning doesnt exist because I dont beleive in Zeus". In current times we see this with how scientist approach the paranormal, spiritual, and religiously credited phenomina. "Poltergeist are not real, so nothing threw a glass at your head, you just imagined it..."

I do not agree with the conclusion that many people come to about what caused phenomina, but i have come across plenty of strangness in my life. Enough to know that something pushed that damn glass off a table as i watched...

[phoenixtkd]

Controversial Thought

One of the main differences between a Schizophrenic and a Prophet, is how many people they are able to convince.

[phoenixtkd]

Why does power corrupt?

I don’t think that the corrupted ruler necessarily thinks that they are doing bad things. 

I think that as one is in power, the person will slowly begin to alter the world to suit them. I think this is a subconscious action, coming from a desire to take care of oneself. I also think that even the most empathetic person who will try to keep everyone's needs in mind will do this too, for a few reasons beyond what was previously stated. See, we are really only aware of our self, everyone beyond our self we can only create loose approximations of in our own minds. Basically we have a bias when analyzing what others need that comes from our limited ability to experience the world around us. 

What comes from this is that we are the only ones capable of knowing what we want out of life. And we are the only ones that can change the world around us into being fulfilling for ourselves. 

Now lets add a time aspect to this. As time passes, and the person makes the world around them to suit themselves, it becomes easier and easier to do so. It gets to a point where it is easier to change the world than it is to change oneself. Due to our desire for energy conservation (which is a survival strategy that all living things seem to posses) we will slowly take the easier route. And we can be aware of this tendency and fight it. We can push ourselves to not take the easy route. To be the best person that we can. And by doing this we can keep the worst of the corruption away (if we have a strong will). But it will still slowly steep in. We cannot be mindful of everything. Mistakes will happen. We are only human afterall. 

So what do i think is the answer? Well to start, those in charge need to stop and think if what they are doing is truly best for their people, or if they are just taking the easy route, and in reality making life more difficult for those who they are meant to govern. As for the people? We need to recognize that perceived injustices are not necessarily coming from a bad place. It could be confusion on the part of the person in charge. Also we need to recognize that we don’t know everything either, and that the person who is governing us may have a good reason for doing things, but we should never be afraid of double checking. 

Both sides need to not be afraid of questioning themselves. And both sides will need to talk to each other and listen. We can only truly know what we need, and life is about making compromises. If we tell each other the things that we want and need, and work together to make our wants a reality, we wont get everything that we want. But we can get a lot. 

Also we must recognize that the person in charge will change things to suit them self to some degree, and we must determine how much of that we are willing to accept. We must accept it somewhat. Because it is human nature. But we don’t have to let it get ridiculous.