Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Discussion of the nature of Ultimate Reality and the path to Enlightenment.
geniuine
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by geniuine »

Karl Pilkington (satisfied fool) reminds me of myself. Why were his videos posted?
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Iolaus
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Iolaus »

Kevin,
I say there "could be" in the same sense that I say there "could be" an alien-God who created our world, even though I've never see any evidence that would suggest that this is the case.
What is this phrase 'alien-God that you and David are using? Are you referring to actual extraterrestrials? I have come across quite a lot of evidence that this has indeed happened, and I think it is the most plausible scenario. But why call them gods?
If there was a five-year-old child, who, all of a sudden, started speaking in a dialect of the high-German of a century ago, perfectly fluently, even though the child had had no contact whatsoever with any German speaker, then I would regard that as possible evidence in favour of the hypothesis.
There have been quite a few cases more or less of this sort, involving small children. I think even ones including language, although I cannot remember for sure.

Memory has not been shown to reside in the brain. No such storage area has been found.
Sub-conscious tendencies, tastes, or predilections.
This is probably what reincarnates, imo, and not all the extraneous and irrelevant facts. Memory is really the main reason we keep our identity from moment to moment. If it followed us into the next lifetime, it would be too distracting and defeat the purpose of a partially clean slate. Perhaps the process is like a filter, in which the lighter elements don't get through, but the heavier ones - the deeper character and predilections, do. Yet it isn't always exact...
It's true that there could be reincarnation, in the sense that the contents of our brains are somehow channeled into the brain of another body at death . . . minus all the memories (!!!!!!).
Kevin, the reason memories are lost is that the soul is dipped in the River Styx. Don't you know anything?
Truth is a pathless land.
Kevin Solway
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kevin Solway »

geniuine wrote:Karl Pilkington (satisfied fool) reminds me of myself. Why were his videos posted?
I think those videos are highly educational.

Also they're concrete proof that many people really do want to be like animals, and given the choice between thinking or not, they choose not.
geniuine
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by geniuine »

Kevin Solway wrote:Also they're concrete proof that many people really do want to be like animals, and given the choice between thinking or not, they choose not.
Maybe they just don't understand that they're not thinking in the first place? I'm sure that if they were given a choice between the two categories: animal and human, they'd most likely go with human. Plus, they'd probably be stunned that such choices were even put in front of them.
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Kevin Solway
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kevin Solway »

geniuine wrote:Maybe they just don't understand that they're not thinking in the first place?
Yes, that's right. They don't really know what it is to be a thinking human being in the first place, so they're not really making a "choice", as such. Like Pilkington, they might be intelligent enough to recognize in some vague way that they are living like an animal, but they don't know any alternative.
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brad walker
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by brad walker »

Kevin Solway wrote:
geniuine wrote:Karl Pilkington (satisfied fool) reminds me of myself. Why were his videos posted?
I think those videos are highly educational.

Also they're concrete proof that many people really do want to be like animals, and given the choice between thinking or not, they choose not.
Not nearly as educational as the youtube comments.
sozialprodukt wrote:what are they trying to say when they show in the end his iq-score? these tests are rather useless and karl is anyway a genius - he comes up with funny answers and thinks about all sorts of life's aspects - a philosophical guy!
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Carl G
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Carl G »

Kevin Solway wrote:
geniuine wrote:Karl Pilkington (satisfied fool) reminds me of myself. Why were his videos posted?
I think those videos are highly educational.

Also they're concrete proof that many people really do want to be like animals, and given the choice between thinking or not, they choose not.
Concrete proof? How so? Do you think Karl has much of a choice about who he is? Do you think he really does "want to be like an animal"? Or were you referring to some of those professorial fools with whom he visited? Most of them came off as more foolish than Karl. Karl at least was asking some intelligent questions, and making some intelligent observations about himself, and was making an effort to improve himself by conducting an intelligent investigation for himself.
Good Citizen Carl
Kevin Solway
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kevin Solway »

Carl G wrote:Karl at least was asking some intelligent questions, and making some intelligent observations about himself, and was making an effort to improve himself by conducting an intelligent investigation for himself.
Simple-minded folk often seem more at ease and in-tune with reality than more intelligent folks, in the same way that children seem more at ease than adults, and sometimes see obvious things that adults cannot.

Germaine Greer was right when she said that "the happiest people on earth are idiots."

The thing with Karl is that he has learned a certain behaviour that earns him the respect of others - mostly by baffling them - and he's sticking to it. This behaviour would have evolved as a compensatory mechanism for his lacking in other areas.

I've been following his "career" for some time now.
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Carl G
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Carl G »

Kevin Solway wrote:
Carl G wrote:Karl at least was asking some intelligent questions, and making some intelligent observations about himself, and was making an effort to improve himself by conducting an intelligent investigation for himself.
Simple-minded folk often seem more at ease and in-tune with reality than more intelligent folks, in the same way that children seem more at ease than adults, and sometimes see obvious things that adults cannot.

Germaine Greer was right when she said that "the happiest people on earth are idiots."
How did what I said prompt this?
The thing with Karl is that he has learned a certain behaviour that earns him the respect of others - mostly by baffling them - and he's sticking to it. This behaviour would have evolved as a compensatory mechanism for his lacking in other areas.
Not apparent by those three videos. In fact the opposite.
I've been following his "career" for some time now.
What is his "career"?
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Carl G
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Carl G »

Kevin Solway wrote:
Carl wrote:One school of thought (cause and effect) does not necessarily preclude the other (personal reincarnation). The statement that there is no evidence is false.
It's true that there could be reincarnation, in the sense that the contents of our brains are somehow channelled into the brain of another body at death . . . minus all the memories (!!!!!!).
Why so many assumptions as to how it would work? Are brains the only place in the body where memories reside? Why would one's experiences need to go directly into another body at death? Why do you assume it would in all cases be "minus all the memories (!!!!!!)":
But I've never seen any evidence that strikes me as even slightly suggestive that such reincarnation might take place.

Ah, it is because you personally have had no such memories. And probably have not met anyone who has had them, with whom you have conversed.
If there was a five-year-old child, who, all of a sudden, started speaking in a dialect of the high-German of a century ago, perfectly fluently, even though the child had had no contact whatsoever with any German speaker, then I would regard that as possible evidence in favour of the hypothesis.
I imagine it would take such such extreme evidence to raise your eyebrows, in lieu of your own recall of another life experience.

Mind you, I'm not saying I believe in reincarnation in the literal sense of which I'm speaking. It is only one of several plausible scenarios explaining such phenomena. I'm just saying there is evidence, whether or not you are aware of it.
Good Citizen Carl
geniuine
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by geniuine »

concrete proof that many people really do want to be like animals, and given the choice between thinking or not, they choose not.
They don't really know what it is to be a thinking human being in the first place, so they're not really making a "choice", as such. Like Pilkington, they might be intelligent enough to recognize in some vague way that they are living like an animal, but they don't know any alternative.
.
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Kelly Jones
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kelly Jones »

Kevin wrote:The thing with Karl is that he has learned a certain behaviour that earns him the respect of others - mostly by baffling them - and he's sticking to it. This behaviour would have evolved as a compensatory mechanism for his lacking in other areas.
Karl's podcasts (or rather, Ricky's) are fascinating. I didn't really get it either, at first.

- Karl is quiet and inexpressive, which looks thoughtful and patient. By contrast, Ricky is coarse and loud, which looks like pure egotism.
- Karl cops a huge amount of criticism for his statements, from Ricky who often uses simple negatives like "Doesn't!" or "It isn't!" or "We've done that!" or "Bollocks!", yet Karl rarely defends his statements, which looks like a long-suffering parent with an ADHD child.
- Karl frequently expresses his unusual ideas or solutions, in a musing quietly interested way. Ricky usually just screams with laughter.

It does look like Karl's just a normal guy patiently explaining his views of the world to an excitable, bored, malicious boar, who looks like he's going to drop from a liver disease any day.

But after watching lots of the videos, podtoons, and listening to the discussions, Karl's psychology starts to show:
- His blank face twitches with irritation when he's criticised, but he can't explain his reasoning. He often looks sulky and resentful.
- He slurs his words or mumbles when he's around Ricky and Stephen. He crosses his arms.
- He won't ever try to take the piss out of Ricky or Stephen. The closest he got to a real debate with Ricky (over the nature of infinity), he just repeated "it can't happen".
- His private podcasts tend to go on about authorities and people mocking him, and it starts to come clear that he has an inferiority complex.
- Around other people (not Ricky or Stephen), he is frequently uncertain about what he says, often wanting to know whether what he's said is reasonable. He even wants to visit 'superior people' to get help with thinking.
- He returns a lot to happiness as a fundamental value, but never offers any reasoning for this. E.g. in a long conversation with a crackpot who claimed to have found the secret to eternal life, he never once mounted a campaign of reason to test this guy's secret. He just assumed it was true, and spent the entire conversation discussing how the lunatic coped with other people's skepticism. He doesn't want to think about matters, he basically just wants to be left in his little safe world-view.

As Ricky says, he's got a good brain (he does come up with some good ideas), but he doesn't use it.

It's fascinating, because this is really what I'd call a feminine mind.
mikiel
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by mikiel »

Kevin Solway wrote:TheAbsolute TV:
http://www.theabsolute.net/tv/

If you have any requests, either email me, send me a personal message, or leave a comment at the site.
Viewed a few.
My fave was Black... but I was already a fan.
Least favorite: Your piece on "The Ultimate Truth"...
Aldous Huxley warmed over... like his *seeing* the table leg (on shrooms) in awe of its essential existence without labeling or personal inner dialogue about it. (Doors of Perception.) Old news.

True as far as fresh perception of the manifest world goes... but that is only half of "The Ultimate Truth" and you are clueless about the other half. Together they make a Whole... Universal Consciousness *and* manifest creation in all its glory, unadulterated by human perception, filtered through mental programing.

On Dawkins: I agree that "non-theist" is more accurate/honest than atheist denial of God. But his stereotype of god is a straw man, the "personal god" of religion... no resemblence to Kosmos as the intelligent Being Whose manifest body is "creation"...cosmos.
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kevin Solway »

Moved recent posts to new topic: "Channeled stuff"
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Kelly Jones
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kelly Jones »

Continuing volume issues, Dan.

I've got DFX for WMP that cancels out these issues, but I paid for the software.


'Nature of Beliefs - Part1' - noticeably quiet at max volume.
'Ego, Attachment, Fame' - same volume level.

'Beliefs Part 2' - slightly louder but still not clear enough.
'Sanity' - ditto.
'Random Thoughts' - ditto.

'Spirituality v Religion' - loud and clear, but with metallic quality to voice and soft clipping
'Ultimate Truth' - ditto
'Existence Part 1' - ditto
'News - Beliefs aren't good for your health' -ditto

'Reincarnation' has best audio quality.

Does your recording software have a normalizing tool for post-recording volume adjustment? What software are you using?

Your microphone doesn't seem as good as Kevin's.
Kevin Solway
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kevin Solway »

"Audacity" is a freeware audio editor that can be used for boosting volume and removing some noise.
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Dan Rowden
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Dan Rowden »

Kelly Jones wrote:Continuing volume issues, Dan.
The only vid that had poor volume sufficient to be distracting - for me anyway - was the one about Sanity. I barely need to turn my speakers up for the others.
Does your recording software have a normalizing tool for post-recording volume adjustment? What software are you using?
I record directly into WMM then post edit with Cool Edit Pro - the same software that we used to post edit the Reasoning Show. If the volume is consistently low - which I can't test because it isn't on my system - I'll try increasing the amplitude in CEP. Better too loud than too soft, I suppose (so long as no distortion accrues).
Your microphone doesn't seem as good as Kevin's.
No, it probably isn't.
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Dan Rowden
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Dan Rowden »

Kevin Solway wrote:"Audacity" is a freeware audio editor that can be used for boosting volume and removing some noise.
Audacity is good for certain forms of editing, but doesn't have the power of Cool Edit Pro. It also cannot save or open .wma files like CEP. In my experience format conversions cause some measure of loss of quality.
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Kelly Jones
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kelly Jones »

How about recording in Audacity, which is excellent audio recording and editing software, while watching the clips as you normally do, then import the audio into WMM?
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Kelly Jones
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Kelly Jones »

The thing is that there are 2-3 clips which are very, very noticeably quieter, and some that are very, very noticeably louder - my volume levels on headphone and media player remaining unchanged. So it isn't my computer.
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Jason
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Jason »

Dan Rowden wrote:It also cannot save or open .wma files like CEP. In my experience format conversions cause some measure of loss of quality.
WMA format is probably not a good idea during the recording and editing stages. If you want the best quality you should be recording and editing everything in a lossless format like WAV. That way there will be no loss of quality along the editing chain. WAV also tends to be almost universally supported by audio apps. Only when making the very final online version should you(or possibly the website in the case of Youtube) convert to a lossy compressed format like MP3 or WMA.
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Dan Rowden
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Dan Rowden »

Jason wrote:
Dan Rowden wrote:It also cannot save or open .wma files like CEP. In my experience format conversions cause some measure of loss of quality.
WMA format is probably not a good idea during the recording and editing stages. If you want the best quality you should be recording and editing everything in a lossless format like WAV. That way there will be no loss of quality along the editing chain. WAV also tends to be almost universally supported by audio apps. Only when making the very final online version should you(or possibly the website in the case of Youtube) convert to a lossy compressed format like MP3 or WMA.
I'll experiment with that in my next vid by recording to .wav in Cool Edit Pro. If that works I'll do it that way in future. Do you have a suggestion for which .wav format is best?

A-mu Law Wave
ACM Waveform
DVI/IMA ADPCM
Microsoft ADPCM
Windows PCM

?
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Jason
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Jason »

Avoid everything in that list except Windows PCM, some of those others will destroy sound quality, and Windows PCM is also almost a universal standard. Stay at or above 16bit and 44.1khz quality at all times during recording and editing - and once you have chosen a rate stick with it. Use the "normalize" function in cool edit to maximize volume levels which will hopefully help to deal with low volume levels.
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Dan Rowden
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Re: Announcing "TheAbsolute TV"

Post by Dan Rowden »

Ok, I'll follow that procedure and see if makes a difference.
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Kelly Jones
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Re: Why people laugh at creationists

Post by Kelly Jones »

Thanks for posting the link to that series, Kevin. Francis Sedgemore seems like an excellent scientist, and not just a pretty face in philosophy either.

Short article on ethics
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