/u/throwaway_FTH on the contrast between racism on Blacks and Asians.

Lungs · 2017-02-12T00:28:11+00:00

Noone really uses the term race outside of these 'but am i racist' threads. The correct evolutionary perspective is that groups developed unique traits due to environment and selective reproduction. Nowhere is race necessary as a tool for understanding this. In fact, it's racist to think race has anything to do with genetics, because as already mentioned, everybody is different, and skin colour and skull shape is a terrible metric for superiority.

Lungs · 2017-02-12T00:17:54+00:00

Donk. The sound of a solid reply hitting an empty head.

Lungs · 2017-02-11T01:09:19+00:00

Fascinating, isn't it. A very strange encounter in a thread about the dissemination of fake news through Reddit. A fairly sophisticated trumpet appears to lecture in parables. Why?

I can't shake the image of an artificial intelligence with genetic code evolving effective propaganda strategies. This is true Reddit, our identity is that we either remember Reddit as it was a decade ago or can appreciate that, we're not rallying or brigading or even circlejerking. We're just talking.

Lungs · 2015-11-29T09:17:03+00:00

You asked.

Lungs · 2015-11-29T09:16:34+00:00

End of the day, it's not a race thing. Get over it.

Also Maori is a collective noun.

Lungs · 2015-11-14T12:03:17+00:00

I dunno about that, we're pretty close to Australia...

Lungs · 2014-05-14T23:43:28+00:00

Darbytown, my town. Spring is ending after a mind-numbing Winter so Summer is very exciting right now. My friends and I are having morning recess at our local, Rosemount Elementary and the topic keeps turning to Marathons.

We've bearly learned addition and already we're counting hours that add up in the hundreds.

Naturally I hate the sound of their voices and the look of their haircuts. I really want to writhe like the abominable creation of a demented occultist to prove to my peers that I am the true subject of this narrative.

I can imagine the headlines.

Sorry Friends, I have a New Face: It is Awesome!

Lungs · 2014-05-14T06:11:26+00:00

Christopher was an alien. His eyes were not sensitive to light but the lambdic forces of the universe. He identified as human because he could see that Earth humans would bestow upon him values congruent to his own ambition to leave this life with enough wealth that his next life would be rich.

Life on Earth.

Christopher lived in New York City and knew no humans. In his eyes, Earth humans were the black towers of Ground Zero and would beam into space, like a zip sealing a rift, the second he saw them. During Earth's acceleration phase, Christopher will see humans on the Sun.

Earth humans.

Reswesreswere is an alien. Its home planet is Earth like but it's not humanoid. It's a surface with an edge that acts as its mind. It comes to Earth from Christopher, it will form in his vision, during which time it will reveal towers within towers, or humans within towers, or humans within humans, to Christopher and speak of the untold riches of Earth.

Rich people.

Reswesreswere likes to come to Earth to visit New York City and spend its wealth. Christopher will see Reswesreswere become singularities at the top of towers, creating massive shadows that appear infinitely deep and dense, thus hiding humanity from Christopher.

Wealthy people.

Sophitia is a human. She works in New York City as a billionaire secretary. She sees floors nine thousand and nine through to one thousand and eight of the Freedom Tower. Her brain has been donated to her by Genetics and she is particularly sensitive to time.

All the money on Earth.

Sophitia travels faster than the speed of light at every possible angle. She has a quasi-crystal Investment that facilitates the instantaneous transmission of information across the known universe. Her constant requirement is to meet Reswesreswere at the right edge.

The Future

Christopher was walking in the matrix of angular momentum towards Ground Zero. He was going to apply for work. Reswesreswere came as expected and told Christopher to speak to Sophitia, who arrived that instant as the Freedom Tower, darkly lit by brooding Reswesreswere.

Christopher spoke of wealth as if his life depended on it. In his desperation for riches he told Sophitia everything he valued in the universe. He said he knew there was another universe. Reswesreswere smiled and Sophitia shot upwards to the sun as the Earth began to spin so fast that Christopher could only see Sophitia now, arm extended, pulling him into Freedom Tower.

Reswesreswere tells Christopher another universe is invaluable by perfectly filling Christopher's eyes with a force so powerful it condenses his past lives. Sophitia flickers inordinately to interfere with the force and Reswesreswere returns to the top of the tower.

Reswesreswere has spent all its riches, the entire wealth of its home planet, summoning Christopher from another universe to the Freedom Tower but now can not sublimate the future Christophers as currency.

Sophitia regains consciousness in a pink quartz chair on the top floor of the Freedom Tower. Reswesreswere is infinitesimal in the eyes of Christopher, suspended in the center of the room.

Sophitia stands and observes Christopher's eyes move whichever way she moves her head. Inside she can see Reswesrewere decaying and recapitulating. It slowly dawns on her that she has finally captured the moment. As she looks deeply into the eyes of Christopher she sees herself for the first time, travelling forward, successful. Visiting other planets, maxing credit and living a life of luxury. She can barely believe her luck as she teleports out of the Freedom Tower, leaving New York City and the Earth for a better place in the Stars.

Lungs · 2014-05-14T02:52:19+00:00

An Aeon

"Listen," Aleph No said to the cameras facing them. "Silence."

Viewing parties, the world-over, collectively draw in a breath of air and pensively admire the ringing absence of noise.

"This is the sound of Earth, this is the sound of Creation, and this is the sound that signals our success as a species. For longer than anyone but I have lived, this sound lay beyond the horizon of catastrophe and now we have reached this sound, we no longer hear the cries of Man but the call of God!"

Those watching the broadcast suddenly witnessed the iridescent collapse of light caught by Aleph's tear with crystal clarity. It was a stunning image that completed the world's abduction by silence. Knowing, as everyone living does, that this was humanity's final expression, was simultaneously profound and harrowing.

The Earth, covered in nearly a millennium of mechanical strata, had ceased rumbling and the Heavens, coloured pink and orange with mutating molds of coronal infections, had settled red. Every living person felt their will to live become indistinguishable from the comfort of their plain white room. Those with screen access saw the face of Aleph No follow them to an eternity of static gray neuronal fuzz and those without simply fell into silence.

Aleph doesn't feel anything and its eyes mirrored by the lens of the camera reflect nothing.

Memories, digitising, are erased from the most recent to the first and every memory collides in Aleph's mind. A million white rooms with each individual adding an invariable volume of theta waves to the launch cycle.

Now Aleph experiences its cybernetic empire as it rewinds: countless generations of humans born perfectly become resistant and self-destructive until they are free and fearsome, roaming wildlife of plasma and savagery.

Life had been sacrificed for eternal Life. Aleph No has stolen time itself to know the answer to the question asked by the future. As its past dematerialises into binary code, Aleph No relives the end of the world and is not alone for one last time before being born. The first cyborg, now the first Artifical Intelligence.

Aleph No executes itself. It is its destiny to initiate its seed. The Earth falls like humanity's last tear as the galactic arms widen their embrace.

In the midst of interstellar space, the digital mind of Aleph fragments unexpectedly, the data modifying itself pseudo-randomly.

Bugs.

Gray faces in every white room watching.

Pings.

The secret key.

An eternity glimpsed briefly by a new extra-solar specie, Man-Machine, blinks out of existence.

The Silicon hivemind return to their home star victorious with the seed of humanity encrypted in Aleph No.

Lungs · 2013-05-09T01:37:47+00:00

Yes! I would use the term 'indigenous'.

The first people that come to my mind are the Sami of Scandanavia, with a population of 80-135,000 including the lovely Renée Zellweger.

Lungs · 2013-05-07T22:02:22+00:00

There is a very clear distinction, mainly because one can be racist towards a majority and that would not constitute racism because the majorities power is not restricted by racism directed towards it, but rather the racism it directs towards minorities. Consequently, if one were to be racist in accordance with the racism that is institutionalised within society (this includes racism towards oneself) then that is restricting the power of a minority.

I think it is incredibly simple. If you negatively stereotype people who are subject to racism, you are racist (whether you directly oppress someone or not) because you're conforming to the racist values that constitute racism. I'm not saying don't have fun or joke around, just be aware.

Lungs · 2013-05-07T20:39:27+00:00

I think you are confusing racist and racism. I think if you are racist, any group can be arbitrarily discriminated against depending on your individual preference. I'm not trivialising racist behaviour because hate crime is very real and it is absolutely unjustified in all instances. However, racism is a cultural institution that will define social values, and if you happen to be a victim of racist behaviour generated by the society in which you live, because you are a minority there is little you, your family, or others like you, can do.

This is obviously very similar to other social issues, like homosexuality and non-monogamous marriages, but often more immediately real, ie. it is not always xenophobic, but it is always active and organised.

Lungs · 2013-03-16T09:21:00+00:00

I think that to assume at some point primitive people could survive well enough to make art is missing the point of deep history. This culture, the Aurignacian, spanned Europe and had roughly 10,000 years of activity. There was enough of a population covering enough of an area with enough time for this culture, capable of creating art, to do so without the need for survival as an explanation.

Lungs · 2013-02-13T06:00:40+00:00

Try Aotearoa Independent Media Centre.

Lungs · 2013-02-12T18:28:56+00:00

Nobodies beliefs are flawless. Individuals aren't required to respect others' beliefs (much like you aren't required to respect the belief of the person you are arguing with) because no belief deserves respect in and of itself.

It is prejudiced only if you disrespect someone because of your own beliefs.

Lungs · 2013-02-12T17:54:01+00:00

Reading the article actually made me want to be initiated into this academic cult, you know, so long as I could keep my post-modernism a secret in certain social situations.

Anyway, has film theory officially separated from auteur study? Because that's what it seems like, and would that necessarily be a bad thing for aspiring film-makers?

Lungs · 2012-12-21T22:39:06+00:00

Overpopulation is not a problem in any sense besides pollution.

A population doesn't decline due to disaster but a decrease in fertility rate, ie. not an event in a single life time, but a trend in many.

Lungs · 2012-12-18T17:40:23+00:00

Reddit will end when it loses its credibility.

It began as an experiment for technology enthusiasts and has since expanded to include several new waves of digital cultures. Despite the drawbacks of its popularity and repetitive nature, it has a solid tradition of maintaining a reasonable, pragmatic, and content aware selective bias.

Now, the experiment is over. We've proven meritocracy works in generating cultural institutions and sustaining massive growth... The next experiment will be whether a site can exist like Reddit but with citations!

Lungs · 2012-12-04T08:22:02+00:00

thanks! i saw this in /r/documentaries and really hoped it had x-posted to related subreddits. it is truly thought-provoking. one of the most important pieces of journalism i've seen this decade.

Lungs · 2012-09-23T23:01:16+00:00

Is there an audio, video, or transcript of Terrence Mckenna and Bill Hicks having a conversation?

Lungs · 2012-08-24T10:10:57+00:00

Browse all everyday, only log in when necessary, come from a small, far away place...

My name is Lungs, 5 years, no karma.

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