the GAINS thread

[d3r14k]

Good luck to the brave souls putting down cigarettes. Been on the path myself for about a year now since I started swimming again. I had zero yesterday but bought a pack this morning on the way to work. If I can get down to 2x cigs a day and really enjoy them when I smoke them instead of it just being a habit, then I'll be where I want to be. One in the morning and one in the evening seems harmless when compared to a pack a day that I see other people sucking down.

My brother vapes and swears by it, but I also see him smoking cigarretes too, which seems counter productive. I've tried vaping, but it doesn't give the same sensation and I'm left feeling like I smoked a thing but didn't fill the urge. I also agree with J that it is way too convenient. Having to get up, going outside 2x times a day, and consciously having to think about it is better (for me) than having an alternative that I can do anywhere.

In any case, good luck, JD!

[bigjeff100]

Originally Posted by d3r14k [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Good luck to the brave souls putting down cigarettes. Been on the path myself for about a year now since I started swimming again. I had zero yesterday but bought a pack this morning on the way to work. If I can get down to 2x cigs a day and really enjoy them when I smoke them instead of it just being a habit, then I'll be where I want to be. One in the morning and one in the evening seems harmless when compared to a pack a day that I see other people sucking down.

My brother vapes and swears by it, but I also see him smoking cigarretes too, which seems counter productive. I've tried vaping, but it doesn't give the same sensation and I'm left feeling like I smoked a thing but didn't fill the urge. I also agree with J that it is way too convenient. Having to get up, going outside 2x times a day, and consciously having to think about it is better (for me) than having an alternative that I can do anywhere.

In any case, good luck, JD!

The convenience thing is where vapes get dangerous.. I know many people that haven't gone all in on the vapes, and still dabble with smokes.. Part of it is finding the right combo.. A device that provides the power you want, and a juice that hits the spot. I was able to attach immediately to vaping once i tried it.. I was lucky enough to have a setup i enjoyed from the beginning..

My issue is i need the vape/juice to have a hit on my throat. And that can be trial and error with brands. If a juice is too smooth, then it does nothing for me. I'm still left with a craving after each puff. But once you find a device that works for you, paired with a juice that has the hit/flavor you want. Is very, very enjoyable.

Nothing will ever match the first smoke of the morning with a cup of coffee.. But if you stick with vaping, you'll realize gagging and dry heaving to have a cigerette is not very pleasing haha.

[America]

JD, good job recognizing the example and advertisement you set by smoking. Creating a context of apparent consensus for dark things is bad. This motivates a lot of my puritanism.

I strongly advise the gum to all y'all having trouble. It's the mechanism of delivery of nicotine that makes it such an obsessive sort of addiction. Nicotine itself is not particularly hard to withdraw from; it's the pavlovian mechanism of addiction to an instant high linked to an action that is really terrible. It's comparable to addiction to IV heroin; the instant results reprogram your brain powerfully.

I've switched to gum from a 4ish-month habit of constant vaping and smoking in this last week. Now that the impulse to reach down, pick up an item, put it in my mouth and intake drugs (reminds me of my nailbiting habit) is semi-extinguished, I am naturally doing less and less gum already. My nic intake is down by like 2/3. I'm planning a week off of work to withdraw from several of my nerve drugs and bootcamp hiking; I'll probably cease nic in that time too.

Btw, the gum is actually pretty good recreationally. It's like a super-special cup of coffee and it isn't that much more addictive.

[bigjeff100]

yeah im gonna need jerry seinfeld to pick this up.

"Hi, I'm Jerry Seinfeld. And this is, comedians, in cars, smoking cigarettes, on our way to get coffee"!

[Thorondor]

He wants us to funnel money into "trans-humanism". These dumbfucks believe that its possible to transport their consciousness into a digital signature lol.

Even if you're an athiest materialist/humanist, you have to concede "consciousness" is an emergent property of being an organic meatbag. So, even at the most godless fringe of science, consciousness is not transferable.

It's a complete and utter waste of money and a fantasy of pure techno-retards. "Step into my suicide booth, err, i mean, consciousness uploader!" So lost.

[America]

Originally Posted by Thorondor [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

He wants us to funnel money into "trans-humanism". These dumbfucks believe that its possible to transport their consciousness into a digital signature lol.

This isn't the full extent of "transhumanism". Another aspect is the use of medical science to augment and improve humans. For instance, the HRT which segued me from an aggressively sociopathic nihilist to a very nice and calm and far more economically productive human.

I do, actually, think making such therapies available to young people (youngens stand to benefit the most / experience the best results) is a fantastic investment. It is at least as sound as state investment into mental health services. It gets people interested in their own bodies and their presentation. In a good candidate, it kickstarts an aesthetic renaissance in the individual away from being a fat shit who smokes and toward a lifelong pursuit of fitness and pursuit of one's dream aesthetic. It grants people an agency over their own bodies and destinies which invites success. And it puts more pretty girls who enjoy traditional gender roles into the world.

Originally Posted by Thorondor [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Even if you're an athiest materialist you have to concede "consciousness" is an emergent property of being an organic meatbag. So, even at the most godless fringe of science, consciousness is not transferable.

Pretty retarded. There is nothing fundamentally organic about consciousness. It is an emergent electromagnetic system. An equivalent electromagnetic field can be generated by silicon.

Obviously, your personal experience would cease the moment your particular field-instance was terminated. But a perfect copy, be it conjured from silicon or organic matter or a thousand voices singing the right notes at a Tesla coil, of the emergent EM field your meat generates, equally sentient and equally human, would experience a continuous existence. It would experience your past, but you would not experience your future. It's the Star Trek transporter conundrum and I personally wouldn't get into one either. But you are an utter mongo for stating that consciousness can only exist in the medium of Earth-meat my dude.

[Patriam1066]

My point was you can’t steer resources towards a goal in an entirely command economy because there will be no excess resources. People buying useless shit like 100,000 cars assembled in BMW plants in South Carolina allow us to have surplus Dollars American to fund research

Hope this helps. Please don’t make decisions without first consulting your friendly neighborhood persian or Armenian

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by Patriam1066 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My point was you can’t steer resources towards a goal in an entirely command economy because there will be no excess resources. People buying useless shit like 100,000 cars assembled in BMW plants in South Carolina allow us to have surplus Dollars American to fund research

Hope this helps. Please don’t make decisions without first consulting your friendly neighborhood persian or Armenian

It was everybody buying a Ford that built that developed America. Not a handful buying multiple Europeon sports cars.

We actively take money from the private economy -- right now -- and spend it on research. It's that research tends to be bombs, planes and ships we don't need.

We don't have to go all the way to command economy to redirect resources into more productive areas.

BTW not all rich are equal on a macro-scale. Some are just complete speculative leeches that should probably be taxed out of their line of work. Which was my point on the trail-lawyer quip.

The beautiful thing about truly talented wealth-seeking workaholics is they simply do whatever yields the most for them within the parameters you give them to function. If Wallstreet speculation paid less, less would do it.

[Thorondor]

Originally Posted by America [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This isn't the full extent of "transhumanism". Another aspect is the use of medical science to augment and improve humans. For instance, the HRT which segued me from an aggressively sociopathic nihilist to a very nice and calm and far more economically productive human.

I do, actually, think making such therapies available to young people (youngens stand to benefit the most / experience the best results) is a fantastic investment. It is at least as sound as state investment into mental health services. It gets people interested in their own bodies and their presentation. In a good candidate, it kickstarts an aesthetic renaissance in the individual away from being a fat shit who smokes and toward a lifelong pursuit of fitness and pursuit of one's dream aesthetic. It grants people an agency over their own bodies and destinies which invites success. And it puts more pretty girls who enjoy traditional gender roles into the world.


Pretty retarded. There is nothing fundamentally organic about consciousness. It is an emergent electromagnetic system. An equivalent electromagnetic field can be generated by silicon.

Obviously, your personal experience would cease the moment your particular field-instance was terminated. But a perfect copy, be it conjured from silicon or organic matter or a thousand voices singing the right notes at a Tesla coil, of the emergent EM field your meat generates, equally sentient and equally human, would experience a continuous existence. It would experience your past, but you would not experience your future. It's the Star Trek transporter conundrum and I personally wouldn't get into one either.

How many angels fit on the head of a pin? Even if a digital emulation were possible, that is not "consciousness". "Consciousness" is the experiencer that is rooted at the base of the electochemical reactions it is not the pathways the electrochemical signals follow and it is intrinsically rooted in the organic being. Any attempt to trabsplant experiences would merely be an echo, if it were even that.

[America]

Originally Posted by Thorondor [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

How many angels fit on the head of a pin? Even if a digital emulation were possible, that is not "consciousness". "Consciousness" is the experiencer that is rooted at the base of the electochemical reactions it is not the pathways the electrochemical signals follow and it is intrinsically rooted in the organic being. Any attempt to trabsplant experiences would merely be an echo, if it were even that.

Dogshit gibberish soul talk. A perfect "echo" of a human consciousness embedded into a machine and provided equivalent inputs/outputs is clearly a sentient being. Imagine a silicon brain emulator strapped in to a farm-grown meat-suit which has all the same nerve outputs and inputs as a regular human body, but passed through a translation mechanism so that the appropriate field equivalent can be generated inside of the silicon. That entity has an experience indistinguishable from that of a normal human being.

Dissociating those inputs/outputs does not disable the sentience of the being. Therefore that emulated echo of a meat-consciousness trapped in a silicon prison, though it would have a bizarre experience, is a sentient and living being for so long as the electromagnetic transformations that occur in time in real space by biological means are properly emulated. Regardless of whether that being was endowed its existence by your God or by technology.