Video Games Revisited

I'd like to write now about video games. I resurrected an earlier post I wrote on the subject, "Coming to my Senses", simply because it is relevant to this post, and I changed my mind on a few things I wrote back then. 

When Playing Video Games Moderation is the Key

I've previously written about my early addiction to video games, and how I gave it up because I considered it a waste of my time, better suited for more enriching activities like reading. 

I still feel that reading is a more intelligent use of time, but video games, when used in moderation, can be a relaxing way to unwind when you don't feel like doing anything else. I consider video games to be in the same category as watching a movie, or a television show, or reading a magazine, or a simple novel. It's definitely not the most productive use of your time, but is just a way to relax when you feel you need a break from more serious projects. 

Playing video games really only becomes a problem if you do it too often, or causes you to neglect more important projects. For instance, if you never read, and you neglect your health, and you fail to get outside and exercise, and aren't really learning new things, but instead you're spending all your free time playing video games and neglecting everything else, then that's a problem. Like even if you work full-time, but spend your days off playing video games all day, every single week, I would say that is not healthy either. I mean you have the right to do it, but if you want to actually grow as a human being and realize your full potential, then playing video games all the time really could interfere with that. 

So it's really important to find a balance between relaxation and productivity, and it's okay to play video games once in awhile, as long as you are also making time for activities that are more mentally enriching and contributing to your health and fitness and overall prosperity.

I don't really spend that much time playing games, because my time is limited, and there are only so many hours in the day, and maybe I only have four hours, and the choice is between reading a book, watching a movie, playing a musical instrument, or taking a walk, and any time spent playing video games means less time for doing anything else. So, really I only play videos games when I'm not in the mood to do anything else, or if I'm just feeling too mentally exhausted or physically drained to concentrate on anything more meaningful. 

My Favorite Games

Right now I am basically only alternating between two games: 

The Long Dark and This War of Mine. I'm also a fan of the Fallout series, especially Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout New Vegas, but I'm not playing those at the moment. I really enjoy survival games and post-apocalyptic RPGs. I also enjoy books and movies in that genre as well. 

Well, anyway, The Long Dark is an excellent survival game, and is probably one of my favorite games of all time. It takes place in the Canadian wilderness, and your character is the lone survivor in a plane crash, in a world where apparently most of the people were killed off by a cataclysmic event. And the whole point of the game is to survive as long as possible while exploring different regions of the game world. It's just you and roaming packs of wolves, and other wildlife, some non-hostile like deer and rabbits, and others like bear and moose that will try to kill you first chance they get. 

The main obstacle is staying warm, followed by finding food, water and shelter, and defending yourself against hostile wildlife. What I find most fun though is exploring different locations, and finding new gear.

It's a really fun game, but one of those really time consuming games. I tend to play it in bursts, a few days in a row for a few hours, and then won't play it again for a few weeks, sometimes a few months, and then come back to it, and it's always fun, has never gotten boring. 

The other game is called This War of Mine, which is sort of a survival strategy game, involving resource management, where you control 1 to 4 characters sheltering in a damaged house in the middle of a warzone, where half the time is spent fortifying the house against looters, making sure your characters are in good health, and the rest of the time is spent looting other buildings at night and defending yourself against attackers. 

This one is definitely the more casual game of the two, and I sometimes play this in between calls when I'm working, if I don't feel like reading. 

The Truth About Conspiracy Theories

In my pursuit of the truth I've been reading a lot of conspiracy theory literature. Actually, it's my go to for daily information, but I am not so naive as to believe it to be all true. Far from it. You've got to be a very cautious and discriminating reader. Never accept a statement as fact without checking the sources. And this goes for the experts too, who are definitely not above getting it wrong.

Depending on your source, particularly if you're looking at some reddit conspiracy forum, where anybody can post, or a place like rense.com, where the links are all over the place, you will find that conspiracy theories are often a mixture of truth and fiction. 

You've got blatant sensationalism, completely made up or misleading stories generated solely for their click bait shock value, aimed at maximizing ad revenue and very little else. In other words, it's all about the money. Some people make a good living off of it, they don't care if it's true, all they care about is if it sells. 

Then you've got the garden variety trolls, people who think it's funny to make up some completely crazy, outlandish story, and to get as many people as possible to believe it, so that they can have a good old hearty laugh at their expense. In other words, it's all about the Lulz. 

Then you've got legitimately mentally ill people, paranoid schizophrenics, who live in a world of angels and demons and feelings of persecution and internal delusion, who publish their conspiratorial fantasy as fact, as if their own personal horror story is mass projected onto the whole world, where they are no longer alone, but the whole world is now in on it. 

Then you've got pure speculation, creative people of sound mind brainstorming conspiratorial possibilities, as a sort of science fiction thought experiment, that is kind of fun to think about, and to talk about with others, and it may or may not be true, but nobody is claiming anything definitively.

Then you've got disinformation agents who for whatever reason infiltrate conspiracy theory channels (but also do the same for mainstream media as well in the form of press releases and Reuters news feeds) and drop false leads, maybe for reasons of national security, or for corporate espionage, such as attacking the competition, or downplaying negatives (such as cigarettes causing cancer or vaccines causing injuries), or for manufacturing consent (as in selling an unpopular war, product, service), who have a vested interest in misleading, misdirecting, and manipulating reality for reasons of power and profit at the highest levels of corporate and governmental interest.

Then at the bottom of the conspiracy theory hierarchy, you've got the true whistleblowers. Regular people who have identified a great verifiable evil being committed by a powerful entity, a great cover up of blatant greed, corruption and lies, who have absolutely nothing to gain from disclosing this information, neither in the sphere of power or profit, other than in that doing so benefits the greater good. For instance, if they have evidence that a product is killing people without their knowledge or consent, it may be in the public good to let everybody know about it. And maybe the mainstream media won't give them the time of day, because the mainstream media is funded by the entity they wish to expose, and the only place that will broadcast their message is the world of conspiracy theory.

So, that's pretty much the full range of information you can expect to encounter while perusing conspiracy theory literature. It's difficult to navigate, for sure, but it's important to look at, simply because sometimes there's nowhere else to look. You will find, at least in regards to certain subjects, that the world of conspiracy theory is the last bastion where underground knowledge has the freedom to circulate.

You've just got to know how to look, where to look, and if you look the right way, in the world of conspiracy theory, it is possible to find truth in a forum of lies, and only a fool would completely dismiss it without even looking at it and verifying the facts for themselves. 

Commercials no longer human?

I generally don't watch much television, haven't had cable for over six years now, but when I do, with the exception of Netflix (which I probably won't keep) I stream the majority of what I watch online for free, which is mostly YouTube, Tubi, and Freevee. 

Since I haven't watched cable TV for years, I'm not sure if the streaming TV commercials are different than what's shown on regular cable TV, but I've noticed something peculiar happening the last few months with the streaming commercials, particularly on the free apps Tubi and Freevee. 

I've noticed that many of the streaming commercials are clearly being narrated using Artificial Intelligence, and what's really bazaar is that not only is the voice not human, but the script is often improper English, suggesting the commercials are originating outside of the US, probably China, though not absolutely certain about that, and written by people not fluent in English. 

You probably have some exposure to what an AI voice sounds like if you've ever used a virtual assistant like Cortana or Siri. Well, I've had a little bit more exposure than that, because one of the freelance side gigs I've done in the past was listening to audio files and evaluating experimental AI voices for qualities such as naturalness, professionalism, situational appropriateness, emotional warmth, and overall likeability.

So, after listening to hundreds of audio files, I've got a good ear for what AI voices sound like, and not sure if other people have noticed this, so I'm putting this out there for the benefit of anyone who may not have been aware of this, that they are in fact using AI for voices on some TV commercials. 

This relates I think to a news story I heard not long ago about China experimenting with using holograms for TV presenters, which may or may not be AI based, and were testing if viewers could detect the difference between a hologram and a real person without telling them about the experiment. Apparently most people were fooled, or never suspected anything different about the news presenter. 

I've always suspected something off with the NBC news presenter, Lester Holt, who always seemed kind of robot like to me. Like I wondered could this guy really be an android right out of Westworld, or maybe he's a hologram, or maybe he's not even real. I mean I've never met the guy, how do you know if the people you see on TV are even real, they could be AI based simulations. Which is not to imply that they are all simulations, but that some of them could be, as the experiments in China have proven it's been done before.

On a somewhat related note, what's up with this guy's neck? Either he has some undisclosed medical problem, or he's not human. I showed this clip to my mother, who is not in the least bit conspiracy theory minded, and she said something like not only has she never seen anyone do that, but she said this guy looks like he doesn't like humans much. 

Humans are now hackable animals

Translation: "Evil Noah is Here"

So, I was up late last night, doing what I do, which is either reading my book, surfing the internet, or streaming programs, and taking notes. I'm not blogging too much lately, because I'm on a computer all day for work, and so by the end of the day, typing anything more than a couple of paragraphs can be somewhat difficult, due to issues with eyestrain. 

Anyway, last night I found the picture I posted above, along with the video presentation it was taken from, and I was really disturbed by it. Of course, I was drinking my India Pale Ale and smoking a tiny bit of cannabis, so perhaps I was looking at things from a perspective I normally wouldn't see. But I was looking at the name, "Yuval Noah Harari", playing around with creative word association analysis, and thinking that could read, "Evil Noah is here". Like a doomsday prophecy. I know, silly, right?

I actually have one of his books, Sapiens, which I've previewed but haven't read yet. It's possible I was put off by its atheistic tone. Now I realize this guy is a key player in the transhumanistic agenda. He's not just some obscure intellectual who writes books, he's become this major advisor to Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, who is another sinister character in the transhumanistic agenda. 

Then I thought to myself: How could this relate to another news story just released, like this: 

The Human Genome Project pieced together only 92% of the DNA – now scientists have finally filled in the remaining 8%

Then I thought: What other factor could have contributed to this completion of the sequencing of the human genome?

Could it be the pandemic, or rather all those millions of nasal swabs collected from peoples Covid-19 tests, where they failed to properly inform people that they were also collecting their DNA?

CDC Says 10% Of COVID Swabs Sent to Genome Lab, Raising Privacy Questions

So now humans are hackable? What's the plan going forward? I guess I'll have to read Mr. Evil Noah's books to find out. But in the meantime this presentation may offer some clues. 

Will the Future Be Human? - Yuval Noah Harari

In case you don't have time to watch it I will highlight one phrase, which I've taken the time to transcribe: 

"In the coming generations we will learn how to engineer bodies and brains and minds. This will be the main products of the economy. Of the 21st century economy. Not textiles and vehicles and weapons, but bodies and brains and minds. Now how exactly will the future masters of the planet look like? This will be decided by the people who own the data. Those who control the data, control the future, not just of humanity, but the future of life itself."

And another gem:

Yuval Noah Harari: "And then the big political and economic question of the 21st century will be: what do we need humans for? Or at least. What do we need SO MANY humans for?"

And his answer: "At best guess we have to keep them happy with drugs and computer games." 

My question is: Just exactly who does he mean by "we"? I'm guessing it's not average Jane and Joe Shmoe on the street. He doesn't really say specifically, other than hinting at it's whoever owns the data.

He also said: "History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods."

My comment: So, basically the vast majority of humans will be placated with drugs and video games, harvested for their organs and used as batteries to power this massive 5G enabled supercomputer that you plan to upload your consciousness to so you get to pretend to be God? Am I right? You know this is going to backfire right? I mean you say it will be the end of history, I mean if by that you mean a mass extinction event, which probably will include both you and your supercomputers, then yeah could be. 

Okay, I haven't become some Bible thumping Born Again Christian, but I swear this sounds like the anti-Christ to me. Either way it can't be good. But I'll let you judge for yourself. 

Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon

I just finished reading the book Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream. I don't do book reviews. What I do instead is give the book a rating, on the scale of one to five, and then make a few comments about it. It's the lazy way, but it works for me. 

Anyway, I gave this book 2.5 stars. It wasn't a bad book, but it felt rushed and incomplete, like the author tried to fit in too much information, without really connecting the information in a meaningful way. It's like he took all his research notes and tried to squeeze them all into this book 'as is' without telling an engaging story. Ultimately this book raised more questions than it answered and left me with a feeling of complete information overload, but I did learn a few things. 

Basically, the idea is that 1) Laurel Canyon, and by extension Sunset Blvd, was the birthplace of the hippies. 2) That most of the countercultural rock stars that settled there in the 1960s had family connections to military intelligence. There's too many names to list, but a few examples include Jim Morrison, David Crosby,  and Frank Zappa. And 3) there was a classified military intelligence facility located in Laurel Canyon, with a fully operational movie studio, which was not made public until modern times. 4) With the hippies, and the birth of psychedelic rock, came the consumption and widespread promotion of psychedelic drugs. There was heavy drug use, promiscuity, and exploration of the occult. To cater to the drug fueled hippies, a drug trafficking industry was born, and with it came prostitution and pornography, and the emergence of hippie communes and satanic cults. 

The main theory of this book I think is that the whole drug fueled hippie countercultural phenomena was a PsyOp. It did not happen naturally, but was socially engineered. That there was an agenda, and the hippies were actors in a story they did not write. That possibly the whole thing was this massive mind control experiment. Give people drugs, encourage them to engage in behaviors that are unhealthy and immoral, and convince them that what is happening is good, and that there mind is being expanded and that they are being liberated.

Besides the hippies, the rock stars, the drugs, and the cults, there was also a huge amount of unexplained murders and suicides and all sorts of weird phenomena going on in 1960s Laurel Canyon. Most notable were the Manson murders. But there were many more that occurred long before the hippies even arrived on the scene. Maids and butlers that ended up floating dead in the pool or thrown out of windows. Numerous suicides and car accidents that seem a little fishy. There were huge multi-million dollar mansions from the 1920s that looked like something out of an old black and white horror movie, with peepholes in the eyes of paintings, secret levers with hidden passageways behind book cases, and subterranean tunnel systems all over the Canyon connecting different houses and parks, with evidence for occult activity having occurred.

Anyway, since I've never been to California, and prior to reading this book, didn't really know much about the history of Laurel Canyon, which is located in the Hollywood Hills outside Los Angeles, what I did while reading it was supplement my reading with looking up pictures from the era online, looking at archived photos of the people and houses and specific locations mentioned in the book. I also went on YouTube and looked up some of the bands and listened to a sampling of songs. I was already familiar with a lot of the music groups from the era, was a huge Doors fan back in my teenage years, but some of the music I wasn't too familiar with. Most notably Frank Zappa, which I had heard of, but didn't really listen to, and the band Love, which I don't think I ever listened to, or if I had heard it didn't know who it was. I don't know how I managed to not listen to Love before, because their really good. 

This is the best album of there's by far: Love - Forever Changes (1967). 

In closing, here's a sample from that album: