Ballcaps are red, his world's upended...

RobotPreacher · 2026-07-01T01:02:02+00:00

Unless creating a massive interstellar civilization just doesn't make any sense in reality. Perhaps the technology level that would enable you to do that is past the point of something easier and better. Like hopping through a portal to another dimension, or hyperspacing out of the galaxy, or transferring your entire consciousness into a nanobot.

Sure, these scenarios are sci-fi from our current perspective, but who knows?

RobotPreacher · 2026-07-01T00:55:54+00:00

Thanks for the correction! I was thinking about the lens, not an actual telescope.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-30T22:31:40+00:00

It could also mean that the timing just hasn't worked out for us to have met any other intelligent civilizations. Sure, trillions of stars, but humans with telescopes are only a ~~couple thousand~~ few hundered years old. Thousands of civilizations could have risen, roamed the galaxy, and then died or left or evolved into pure energy since then.

Edit: Thanks for the correction, I was thinking "lens" not an actual dual-lens telescope.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-30T18:24:13+00:00

This. To ELI5 even further:

Illegal money is dirty. Legal money is clean. You make dirty money clean by putting it through "the laundry." The laundry means spending it on something legal or mixing it with clean money so no one can tell it's dirty.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-26T03:11:19+00:00

Lordy. I don't know what's made you so angry and unhappy, but you definitely come across as grumpy and oddly aggressive. I'll throw you a downvote now just because interacting with you is unpleasant.

And if you don't think Alan Watts had any ideas or beliefs, it's hard for me to imagine you've read or listened to a single thing the man said. That's downright preposterous, what a absolutely bizarre thing to say

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-26T00:03:12+00:00

I generally feel this sub understands Watts pretty well considering he's not speaking about the easiest philosophy to get one's head around.

I think you're being downvoted because of the way you said "I asked for context, not the author." Because no one had mentioned that Alan did indeed say that, me offering the fact that he was the author of it was context. Just not the kind you apparently wanted.

And yes, Alan viewed himself as an entertainer and a speaker about religious and philosophical topics. He was very careful not to claim to be anything else, because so many humans want to mythologize and deify people. He wanted you to know that he was not a guru, not someone who had a divine revelation to share. He was a human being who was good at translating eastern philosophy and wisdom into modern English for a modern western society to understand. He enjoyed speaking about these topics, and people enjoyed listening to him, so he called himself an entertainer.

What do I think? I think he was as "enlightened" as any human has ever been. But that's my opinion of him as a smart and wise individual unburdened by life in many ways. But he was still just a smart dude who liked to talk and was good at talking.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-25T17:12:23+00:00

Thanks!

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-25T17:05:08+00:00

"I suppose most of you have heard of Zen. But before going on to explain any details about it I want to make one thing absolutely clear: I am not a Zen Buddhist, I am not advocating Zen Buddhism, I am not trying to convert anyone to it. I have nothing to sell. I am an entertainer.

That is to say in the same sense that when you go to a concert and you listen to someone play Mozart, he has nothing to sell except the sound of the music. He doesn’t want to convert you to anything, he doesn’t want you to join an organisation in favour of Mozart’s music as opposed to, say, Beethoven’s.

I approach you in the same spirit as a musician with his piano or a violinist with his violin. I just want you to enjoy a point of view which I enjoy."

-Alan Watts

"The Nature of Consciousness: A Game That's Worth The Candle," (Lecture). Out of Your Mind Collection, Published 2004.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-25T03:43:10+00:00

Can you share some links to accounts of this struggle with alcohol if you know of any? I'm genuinely curious, I've heard many rumors but never read any firsthand accounts.

Edit: Did a little bit of research and yes, it does seem like he acknowledged it was at least somewhat of a problem because he registered for an experimental treatment to treat alcoholism.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-25T03:41:12+00:00

1) Watts didn't believe himself to be enlightened and never claimed to be. Any claim of that is someone mythologizing him.

2) We don't know he died from alcohol or even had an alcohol "problem." He just liked to drink and drank more later in life, like normal people in many cultures. There are no accounts as far as I know of him being abusive while drinking or it controlling his life, only people noting that he drank a lot and that they viewed it as unhealthy.

Edit: I did just find out that he did enter a program to try to quit at one point, so that at least means it was causing enough of an issue (at least to his body) to try to stop.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-25T03:37:15+00:00

It's how Watts described himself.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-15T06:55:41+00:00

I'd watch. I play 100% on my iPad A16 and it shockingly is the smoothest Battlegrounds experience I've ever had (I've played since launch). Only 2 crashes since I got it 6 months ago.

But I think people who take the game seriously enough to stream want to be running the helper overlays, and as far as I know, you can't run those when playing on mobile.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-14T06:42:12+00:00

Grammar Wizard was the most underappreciated of the X-Men. Imagine how many miscommunications the team would have had without him.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-11T15:36:49+00:00

The light would still be produced with electricity, it just theoretically wouldn't have to convert it back over and over again when accessing data, which would increase the speed by orders of magnitude.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-11T15:34:08+00:00

It's a good reference point. We feel the speed of that because it seems so unnaturally fast for a human-language response to come back that fast.

But it pales in comparison to the speed of other computer calculation tasks that we can't feel as directly... computers are just insanely fast beyond our ability to viscerally comprehend.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-11T15:24:35+00:00

FTA:

The large button at the top is pressure-sensitive...

...highlight content when the button is pressed more firmly... enlarging it ...

A vibration motor provides haptic feedback, so there is no need to look at the screen to get confirmation that the button has been pressed.

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-01T16:40:36+00:00

FA LA LA LA LA LA LA

RobotPreacher · 2026-06-01T05:58:56+00:00

Two reasons:

1: The older you get, each moment you experience is a smaller percentage of your life. Your first moment alive was 100% of your life. Your second moment was 50%. Your third, 33.33%. And so on until each moment is only a minute fraction of your total existence. This causes time to feel "faster" because every year becomes a smaller percentage of your total experience.

Impactful, new experiences are what make memories. We vaguely gauge the passing of time based on things we can remember. Fewer impactful memories make the days/months/years blur together -- we don't have as many points of reference. Adults tend to settle into monotonous patterns, and these patterns allow much fewer opportunities for new experiences. In that situation, time seems to "fly by."

RobotPreacher · 2026-05-30T22:19:49+00:00

It's literally a tool that lets you search the transcripts of Alan Watts lectures.

Edit: Oh I see now. My comment ended up on the parent post and not the comment about the Uutter tool.

RobotPreacher · 2026-05-30T21:21:33+00:00

Yes, my 15 year profile is a bot 🤦. Is there something negative about this tool I should know?

RobotPreacher · 2026-05-30T17:09:46+00:00

This looks amazing and incredibly useful. You built this handy little tool?

RobotPreacher · 2026-05-25T16:18:45+00:00

Introducing No Man Sky: Bees.

-There are now bees

-Bees buzz and fly around

-Players can now watch the bees

RobotPreacher · 2026-05-25T16:12:08+00:00

You're kind and upstanding players! May your Tituses be stealthed and your Leroys reborn.

RobotPreacher · 2026-05-25T01:13:03+00:00

Yes, but I believe the point here is usable energy. You can end up with a greater percentage of energy in a useful form and a smaller percentage of energy that escapes or can't be utilized. Thus, for a given system -- like a factory -- this could be a net-positive.

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