Is ATS ALIVE??? Honestly? Are YOU out there???

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

Just out of curiosity, whom did you ask? And how exactly did you ask this?

Is this like a mirror discussion, or what? I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm truly interested.

And, I guess I also have to ask; in what form do answers (if any) come in?

I just lurk now, as a Devil's Advocate. That's all.

I was going to post a whole bunch of new theories for my 17th anniversary on the Moon Landing, How the Pyramids were constructed, Diana's Death, Tunnels under our Firmament, etc etc etc, but my energies are better spent elsewhere surviving this Out Of Control Ball Of Dirt.

Good luck peeps.

a reply to: nerbot

I often wonder, is the ball of dirt out of control, or is it just some of the people forming the dirt into a ball who are out of control? My own personal opinion is that it's the latter and not the former.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: nerbot

I often wonder, is the ball of dirt out of control, or is it just some of the people forming the dirt into a ball who are out of control? My own personal opinion is that it's the latter and not the former.

I noticed a change in ATS when it aligned with Twitter and Facebook. Perhaps it gained a lot of new members but a percentage of those might have been of a slightly different mindset.
I don't believe aliens are flying around but do believe that there is an advanced tech that is allowing itself to be seen, why that is who can say?
I agree, those in 'control' are out of control.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Hi FCD, you probably don't remember me, most probably don't, but it's ok im pretty quiet, but I remember you and all your great threads and posts. Really good to see you back.


Peace

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Hey FCD! I've been here...where ya been?

70 years ago in 1953 just when the budget was going to be cut drastically to the military the lights appeared above Washington DC , as I asked Sranton Friedman in a ama the only answers were , ours ,foreign government, or there really are aliens so why the long drawn out debate , He never answered which was telling .

Good to see you again FCD

I've always been of the opinion...."if it ain't broke, don't fix it"


They fixed it.....

a reply to: ArMaP

You hit on a number of really good points which are not only ATS related things, but in the larger picture, signs of the times. I'd like to comment on a couple of those. ...

I almost want to re-order some of the items you pointed out because I think there is a direct cause and effect flow to them. In fact, if you don't mind I will do just that, and you can tell me if you agree with the relationships. ...

Cellular Phones - Several years ago I saw a program on TDC, or THC (can't remember which) wherein the subject was...The Top 100 Inventions of the 20th Century. I think my wife and I tuned in around the #75 or so, and immediately upon tuning in I laughed and said..."I'll bet you $100 bucks the #1 thing is the Cellular Phone!" Well, it probably didn't take a rocket scientist to guess that was the correct answer, but I found it tragically ironic for numerous reasons. First, the cellular phone isn't anywhere near the #1 invention of the 20th / 21st century, but because of people perceptions of this cursed device it is. In fact, I would almost categorize the cellular phone as the #1 Worst invention in the history of mankind! It is almost singularly responsible for destroying manners and responsible behavior in civilized society (i.e. interrupting discussions, texting, and on and on). And, I'll come back to this theme later, the cellphone also drives things like the 280 character limit on Twitter and countless other social media oriented behaviors. I've always said that a "tool" should work for YOU, and you shouldn't work for IT. The exact opposite is the case with the cellular phone; the cellular phone and all it's trappings forces society to adapt to its limitations, not the other way around. Your citing of convenience in participating on ATS is just another example of this same thing.

Social Media (i.e. FB, Twitter, Insta, etc. ... not so much forum / BBS type media) - I could write a book about social media and the damage it has done to our society, but I'll try not to do it here. Social media has almost single-handedly driven a series of fatal wedges in our society, and it's popularity has spread like the virus that it is. It exposes children to age groups they historically have never been exposed to, it breaks down the boundaries of responsible behavior and it does all of this under the cloak of anonymity. Couple this with cellular phones, and now you've just created the Borg (from Startrek), which is exactly what we have today. Mindless, unthinking, robots stumbling around, faces glued to their cell phones, texting on social media, and being programmed by people whom they will likely never meet or interact with (other than virtually). Never before in history has a plague such as this spread across the world community and society. It's a globalist's wet dream. Before people can even mature enough to understand the world they physically live in, they are being programmed about cultures, people and things they can't possibly understand, and will likely never experience personally. Yet, these become their values and morals...all courtesy of social media. Social media is the plague!

Continuing on the social media front, the other big issue with social media is the whole "like" / "follow" culture it has created. Practically not a day goes by now where we don't hear a story about some stupid stunt some person did to be "liked" on social media. Looking at this through a little different lens, what it translates to is people acting / behaving in a fashion they wouldn't otherwise do. In other words, people are not living in reality while they try to create a reality TV show about their fake life.

Lastly (on the social media front) is the algorithms. You hit the nail on the head when you spoke of videos and long intros, but it's not 2 minutes vs. 30 seconds (unfortunately). On Youtube, for example, the metric for monetization is 10 minutes (+/-), so what this leads to is 9 minutes and 30 seconds of BS, and 30 seconds of content. And now, we couple algorithms of social media, to likes/follows, to social media in general and add in cellular phones...Wow! It's layers upon layers of disaster all piled on top of each other! But sadly, the hits just keep on coming. ...

Politics - Ah yes, the most divisive topic of all! I can remember my parents telling me as a kid that good decorum meant avoiding discussions in large groups about two things...politics and religion. So, in this reply we pulled the pin out of the hand grenade at 'Cellular phones', and released the lever with 'Social Media', and hung onto it as the fuse burned down through 'Likes/Follows' and 'Social media algorithms'. Now it's time to throw that grenade, and where else would we do this but under the topic of 'Politics", right?

So now, we've got 50 year olds, who live in a completely different country, telling 14 year olds, on Social media, who is evil and who is good. Telling them what they should believe in, what their values and political views should be...and even what their acceptable sexual preferences should be...heck, even what gender they should be! It's like dumping gasoline onto an atomic warhead and microwaving the whole thing on "Hi" for 30 minutes. What could possibly go wrong???

The other day I, half-jokingly, wondered aloud to my wife if I should go see a shrink, and she asked why. I said, because what I see in store for future generations is not good, but because of all the things I've mentioned here (and others) they have been completely blinded from understanding the past. So, they (current and future generations) have no benchmark to compare anything to. And, while it won't affect me one way or the other (being an old geezer), I still do care for the future of civilized society. And, even furthermore, that I can't seem to force myself NOT to care about that future.

My apologies for a very long reply, but this reply is in the spirit of the OP, because ATS might be one of the few last bastions of open minded thinkers left. Hence my original question..."Is ATS ALIVE?? Honesty? Are YOU (still) out there?"

There is almost a tear in my eye when I ask those questions.

10 whole years ago i went thru a period when i was very intellectually curious, well informed, and importantly, willing to share. when i look over those threads i am shocked! it seems like a completely different person.

it makes me a bit sad.

it comes from two sides at once: i have lost many of those abilities mainly due to disuse, and also, the environment here is largely discouraging.

back in May, with the ATS change of guard, i thought for certain that this is doomed. but i peek in still. ATS and myself may yet be redeemable.

originally posted by: tgidkp
10 whole years ago i went thru a period when i was very intellectually curious, well informed, and importantly, willing to share. when i look over those threads i am shocked! it seems like a completely different person.

...

I have done this exact same thing! LOL! In fact, I remember pulling up one old thread without being logged in, and reading through it, thinking to myself..."Wow, this is really good, I wonder who wrote it?"...only to look up and see I was the one who wrote it. I was like...Who is this guy??? LOL!!

At the time, I thought the exact same thing as you just stated...in as many words...'Gee, I must have gotten dumber somewhere along the line!'

a reply to: ArMaP

You want to know what the really scary part is from my perspective?

Just think about all of that once we throw AI into the equation!!

Oooh Boy! Reality???? What's that?? 😲

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I'm sure they already use AI to go through the "big data" they get from Facebook and the like, but, as things are now, it's mostly a statistical tool. In fact, things like the famous ChatGPT are mostly working on stats, not much intelligence in those.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a very loud and valid part of me wants to place blame on the system being wholly unsupportive of my natural talents, thus leading to decline.

and then the other quiet yet more valid part says that if i didn't somehow WANT this to happen, i absolutely had (have) the power to stop it.

they nip at each other's tails all day every day and i have a hunch that this strange loop is what drives each of us forward into divergent timelines that tend to resemble our own true inner-state.

thus making us all subject to, and at the same time in control of, our reality.


i am desperate for a better timeline, please!

a reply to: ArMaP

Yeah, but therein lies the sheep in wolve's clothing...whose stats are they working from?

Anymore, when I see a statistic, the first thing I do is try to go out and figure out why it's fraudulent. Statistics are one of the leading tools for spin-doctoring.

Probably the single greatest example of political douchebaggery in the history of the world using statistics can be found between years 2020 and 2022. And it doesn't even matter what side someone was on with respect to the subject of covid, I don't think there's any debate that statistics were used to drive agendas (on all sides) under completely false pretenses. This same time frame probably also represents the single largest statistical exercise ever undertaken by mankind, for any purpose. The amount of statistics which were compiled on a daily basis is almost unimaginable and certainly unprecedented.

Oh, and I guess just to be clear, I never meant to intimate that I believe AI is actually "Intelligent". LOL!! Far from it, hence my fears.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The problem with statistics is mostly the source of the data and what they try to do with it.

CoViD-19 was (and has been used) by many things presented as statistics that do not have statistical relevance because they don't have a large or varied enough data source.
That also happens with other subjects, and interpretation of the data is very important.

It's like that Portuguese joke about a man that decided to study fleas. He picked up one flea, put it on a table and hit the table with one hand and the flea jumped. Then he removed the flea's legs and hit the table again. The flea, obviously, didn't jump, so his conclusion was "fleas without legs cannot hear".

To me, the biggest problem with AI is the people that think that AI is really intelligent and look at it like a kind of saviour that has all the answers, without understanding that the answers it has are the same we have had all along.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The world back then was still a mystery. The narratives spun by powerful propagandist entities, born from the social media digital revolution hadn't poisoned the youth yet. We were still objective, making critical decisions before google and Wikipedia curtailed our thinking into a hive mind consensus. In the age before fact checkers and censorship, we had less agent provocateurs and trolls driving a machine with such global influence. When communication becomes instantaneous and unlimited, influenced and propagated by industry and politics, then originality becomes obsolete.

Sadly, i don't see any way back to such a collective freedom and collaborative spirit anywhere that hasn't been polluted by the system.

Good to see you around, always enjoyed your posts.

a reply to: ArMaP

Agreed! The answers have been there all along...BUT now no one has to work to get those answers, AI will do it for them...or so they think.