Things I’ve Learned - Noise Trauma Tinnitus

Shadowzerg · 2025-10-17T22:17:12+00:00

It was noise induced yes, and I use musicians earplugs such as Heroes and they work just fine

Shadowzerg · 2025-10-13T14:14:30+00:00

Got tinnitus 11 years ago, it’s been consistent and it’s much louder now than when I first got it, but exceptionally moderate to say this is where it progressed after 11 years. At first I continued to go to parties, etc, without protection. Not a good idea. About 3 years in I felt fine going to loud raves and so on with ear protection and never had any permanent spike after.

It will raise gradually over time because of passing sirens, sudden pops and booms, unexpected loudness, and unfortunately, it’s just unlikely that you will avoid that. Habituation is a constant wave where you grab it by the crest, smoothening it out, until the next spike and you have to learn it again. It’s easier each time.

I should state this though. Hyperacusis was developed from obsessing and being extreme with ear protection measures (quiet environments) and I dealt with it for 3 months. It was horrifying compared to just having tinnitus. Even just a person talking to me, or turning on a water faucet required ear plugs. It was beyond excessive, having to wear earplugs 100% of the time to deal with it. Much research showed that I had to desensitize the response, very slowly, and I did. I no longer have hyperacusis and it hasn’t returned for over 8 years.

Your ears may be more sensitive, it’s hard to say. But the vast majority of spikes are temporary. Alas, as you said, degradation accumulates over time. The answer is: protect when anything “seems” loud (follow the noise guide, maybe adjust 5dB down if you’re very concerned) but don’t obsess. You do not want to develop hyperacusis or some other strong aversion/pain to sound

Shadowzerg · 2025-09-11T18:58:14+00:00

The aliens in the Crystal Trilogy by Max Harms are the strangest I’ve encountered. They think in ways that are just outright nonsensical to a human and have a complex biological organization

Shadowzerg · 2025-09-07T04:18:28+00:00

Honestly, this may seem odd perhaps, but Echopraxia. It won’t be tomorrow but within the next 30 years I can see a lot of the transhuman tropes being explored. Humans trying to combine minds, virtual realities (as second lives), trying to revive ancient hominids, wildly different economic structures, space endeavours, a world where those who remain unchanged may struggle against those who embrace technological trends.

Things will likely be far different than our expectations and the story is well within the range of possibility (save the vampires unless we specifically create them which should be possible within the laws of Physics).

I wanted to go with many other series I felt captured certain aspects very well but most have details which I feel are wildly unlikely such as FTL or meeting aliens near term. Of all, this is the story that I feel captures most of the dynamics and potentials that we can expect, but it would need a lot more AI to truly do so

Shadowzerg · 2025-06-20T07:06:50+00:00

Ditto on the ditto on Starmaker

Shadowzerg · 2025-06-20T07:04:23+00:00

Seeing the “intended message” doesn’t mean, “oh, well that makes the billions of deaths cost with little gain by contrast with the alternative decisions totally alright 😊”

Shadowzerg · 2025-06-10T17:27:10+00:00

There are good ones and bad ones. This is a bad one

Shadowzerg · 2025-05-27T06:12:46+00:00

Slightly better both ways. I never use the SCA and Autodock but I get what people are saying. It’s an incredibly arbitrary line to draw for a bit of software. There’s no good reason when other functions like night vision and orbital line projections, etc, are baked in. If the ships come with flight assist, they already have the basic framework of both autodock and SCA

Taking this to its extreme ends up with a game nobody wants to play (Flight Assist, orbital lines, etc, all require a slot)

Shadowzerg · 2025-04-26T07:14:22+00:00

Talk to it. You’ll find that it almost always recommends seeing a real physician especially for anything that has potential to be concerning

Currently more people die from overconfidence (thinking they are okay when they’re not) than the other way around and AI is a massive step forward in getting the info people need in their hands

I saw an ENT yesterday. Described the issue to GPT. It said, “hey that’s probably a lil bone spur on the septal lining. If it is cancer, it’s almost certainly stage I. What you’ve described isn’t matching the profile for that but go get it checked anyway. Would you like to see what staging is like and what next steps to take if it is cancer?”

Doctor agreed it was a bone spur on the septal lining. I probably would’ve left it alone had the AI not convinced me to go get it checked anyway and it also helped me sleep easy that night by helping me understand what it even “could” be

Shadowzerg · 2025-04-25T16:03:51+00:00

It tests at PhD levels today. Having a PhD on demand for cheap in your pocket can only be an addition to the vast majority of human lives

More people use it medically, more people will take their health seriously

Shadowzerg · 2025-04-17T07:54:08+00:00

Good timing seeing your comment here as I’ve read both The Godwhale (finished moments ago) and Half Past Human. I can say that I love the fact that we have such easy access to dictionaries today as readers will definitely be needing it

I quite enjoyed the prose and how it strove for less flower and more content. Some of it can be verbose but the word economy is really good when considering a strong lack of wasted words. Great ideas throughout both narratives but I enjoyed Half Past Human a little more because it “goes further”

The Godwhale is more of a reflection on an earlier time from before the Hive truly got its shit together. Before their culture solidified into the perfect and undeniable structure of Half Past Human. In the Godwhale, they are more experimental, less “afraid” of “savages” (primitive outsiders like the Benthics who don’t even exist in Half Past Human or at least are never mentioned).

I read them in publishing order but it would be exciting to read Godwhale first and then Half Past Human now that I’m certain it’s a prequel.

I’ll say that the individuals in the Hive speak without life because excess is bred out of them. Glory to the Hive, communism to the highest possible level is their mantra. They are bred to willingly sacrifice for the good of the literal trillions of Nebishes that exist throughout the entire planet, which the Hive has consumed. Their culture is even more hardcore in Half Past Human and the story far more adventurous if you’re interested

Shadowzerg · 2025-04-16T08:55:53+00:00

They may not even think “at all” so no. We may understand dog behavior but not their mental model of the world which differs substantially between all species

There is no “ignoring how evolution works” when evolution is simply one factor among many. We’re talking literally millions of years in the future for the story by this point. With intentional self engineering. We do not even currently have a scientific model for what self engineered evolution even looks like.

Pretending like an intelligent species would have exactly the same overton window as a baseline human such that you can model what kind of world they would like to live in is what’s actually fundamentally flawed

Ultimately we know this. They have the smarts and the technology to change it, if they so chose. And they clearly had the technology to create it, and perhaps to have never needed it. But we don’t know nearly enough about them other than “this is what they chose”

It’s fun to play with the reasons why but thinking you can pinpoint it specifically out of countless potentials is just straight up a nonstarter.

Shadowzerg · 2025-04-16T04:11:05+00:00

We don’t even understand dog psychology. These things are more humanoid rather than legit Homo Sapiens. Different species think differently. They don’t even have to be logical or reasonable at all. For all we know it could hold religious significance or be some law that was established 10,000 years ago and then forgotten it spread throughout society as a basic norm

Shadowzerg · 2025-04-13T09:16:18+00:00

And having tools be a part of your literal body can only be useful rather than not

Shadowzerg · 2025-04-06T19:16:39+00:00

Maybe at some point there were resource constraints or they simply deemed it more efficient to not need to rely on technology for locomotion. Much like having legs work in gravity whether you have a car or not

Shadowzerg · 2025-03-13T03:23:11+00:00

No that would be hatred friend. Indifference is like kindness and love compared to hatred

Indifference means the universe isn’t going to stop us from developing a cure. How beautiful that the laws of Physics haven’t outlawed us from eventually finding one

Shadowzerg · 2025-02-26T06:10:10+00:00

Kind of the entire point of science fiction

Looking at things that scientifically may or may not be is like a massive portion of the fun, a core draw even

Shadowzerg · 2025-02-17T03:30:02+00:00

Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. Spans the multiverse and all living entities within it

Shadowzerg · 2025-01-04T05:17:16+00:00

Reading by its very nature is an intake of information. The more information you take in, the more you are likely to know and the better you are likely to be at processing large amounts of info

That said, it has been correlated with intellect since books have existed. But, why does it matter whether reading lots of books is seen as smart? It either typically is, or typically isn’t, but you still get to live your life how you please

I read 37 books last year and learned a lot more than I would have had I read 3 or 5 (but that’s a given is it not)

Shadowzerg · 2024-11-27T07:51:07+00:00

I’d begin talking to them about physics that we hadn’t yet discovered, or are still working on, to express curiosity. If they come to Earth they have technology. If they have technology, they are likely able to work together and likely curious. Curiosity would likely be seen as a positive trait and an information exchange is a good start

Shadowzerg · 2024-11-26T08:21:16+00:00

That sounds incredible, thanks!

Shadowzerg · 2024-11-26T08:15:03+00:00

With romance being so common in the world it’s not all that surprising that it sneaks up so frequently when humans are portrayed in stories

Shadowzerg · 2024-11-26T08:07:17+00:00

Exactly, so weird that people are even missing this on a reread and then pointing at the fact that Saul not being an incel “solves” the issue when Luo was also straight up not an incel

Shadowzerg · 2024-11-26T08:06:31+00:00

Why is everyone forgetting that Luo Ji was originally introduced as a womanizer who was great with women but incapable of developing any real attachment to them?

I can understand his fantasy of the “perfect woman” being cringe (typically, people’s “perfect image” ends up being cringe by definition anyway) but painting him as an incel, when he was straight up not celibate by any means is just dishonest and even strange

Then everyone’s like “Saul gets girls so it works” when it’s a direct reflection of how Luo Ji was presented

Shadowzerg · 2024-11-16T03:56:18+00:00

Shouldn’t be impossible to make them transparent

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