youtube – An Autonomous Agent

From Virus to Cosmology – Fred Hoyle

anautonomousagent — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 07:34:08 +0000

This lecture provides a decent glance at Fred Hoyle’s understanding of the universe. One can certainly say that he held a view quite different than most.

Fred Hoyle’s IFS Lecture December 1982

Massive Crater and Younger Dryas

anautonomousagent — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 03:58:52 +0000

Bright Insight did a concise summary of this news and its potential implications. Worth the watch. Staggering, can you even imagine what an object ten billion tons traveling at 12 miles per second… does to an ice sheet two miles thick. Also consider this article on meteorite strew fields in order to understand that this event could have had multiple impact sites which could be related to the formation of the Carolina Bays.

The 12,000 Year old Comet that Landed on TEDTalks…and Erased Ancient Civilization – Greenland Crater

Microfossils and Biomolecules in Meteorites – Dr. Richard B. Hoover

anautonomousagent — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 19:01:23 +0000

Microfossils and Biomolecules in Meteorites – Dr. Richard B. Hoover

This video by Dr. Richard B. Hoover points at why I am so interested in meteorites. Imagine if Dr. Hoover is correct and that life pervades the universe, or even lets say a large galaxy and/or group of galaxies. This is a viable outcome of nature and follows from simple exponential growth given a time span on a scale of billions of years. As long as life has evolved to be able to travel the vast distances between stars this is a simple and interesting hypothesis. But we are of course mostly interested in complex life — we are scanning right now for complex information signals in all numbers of frequencies when all we have to do is study the meteorites already in our possession. If the universe is filled with single cell life forms, it would suggest that the potential of life to manifest itself in form/energy/matter such as humans or dinosaurs, etc.. exists as a latent potential throughout the region of the universe inhabited by these life forms. And complex life arises almost immediately when a new planet or moon with suitable conditions arises. This would basically be the answer to the Drake Equation. It is highly likely that there are other complex lifeforms. We now would feel confident to search for complex life signatures because we know now that the universe is filled with simple life and primitive multicelluar life like trilobites, dinosaurs, mammals, etc… So now the ultimate question would seem to be where did the first evolution of these organisms arise? In our galaxy? the Andromeda galaxy? Where exactly are Earth’s lifeforms on this larger tree of life? Reality is starting to seem like something out of a science fiction book. Of course this is just one possible speculative scenario. I can imagine others.

Note, I have been photographing meteorites in cross polarized light for the past few years; including CO type meteorites. You can see my work at Solar Anamnesis.

Also consider reading these articles:

Claims of Indigenous Life Forms in Meteorites: A Short Review

Chandra Wickramasinghe Testimony

Casual Randall Carlson

anautonomousagent — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 04:41:03 +0000

Randall Carlson does a nice job explaining subjects which would otherwise be incredibly dense. I especially enjoyed this entire series: Cosmography 101. In this series he points out that ancient humans around the time of the last ice age appear to have been cosmographists. With this in mind he explores various scenarios of what might have occurred based on geological evidence. Once you finish hearing what Carlson presents I am certain you will know more than you wanted about the Younger Dryas. You will also encounter many comprehensive descriptions of comets and asteroids. Unfortunately for Carlson, his ideas on the events of the last ice age are an anathema to some of the worlds popular ideologies: those who hold a religious based on the Bible’s account of a supernatural guiding force and those who hold a scientific view based on gradualism. If you maintain a religious understanding, then the proof that these historical events occurred through purely physical interactions between material things following mathematical laws, then you will most likely close your attention to the evidence immediately. The same refusal will occur by those scientifically oriented who think their already correct view of this time era is true and scientifically valid. Dare to be challenged?

Randall Carlson YouTube Lectures

Daniel Sheehan

anautonomousagent — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 18:44:52 +0000

Daniel Sheehan is a brilliant thinker who has written a fascinating book on his memories as a top lawyer in the United States entitled The People’s Advocate. Additionally, he gives amazing public lectures on both his experiences and world history. All of his YouTube videos are worth watching. Here are some that I started with:

Iran-Contra Scandal

Covert and Lesser Known U.S. Actions in and after WWII

Daniel Sheehan on 9/11

Hidden Forces – Interview Series

anautonomousagent — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 22:13:13 +0000

Hidden Forces, hosted by Demetri Kofinas is an nice set of interviews with various people on topics including: finance, complexity, mathematics, and cryptocurrencies. I struggled listening to some of the interviewees because I did not agree with their ideas or conclusions; but I guess it is good to have conflicting opinions in order to encourage debate in the comments and to help review one’s own opinions and understandings. Regardless, Kofinas provides a highly accessible medium through which advanced ideas can be grasped.

I first ran across Hidden Forces while listening to the interview with Ray Monk about philosophical mathematics. Monk’s narration on the work of Frege, Russell, Whitehead, Wittgenstein, and Gödel is excellent – by far one of the clearest and easiest to grasp. It was learning about these paradigms and paradoxes of mathematics via Hofstadter’s famous book which led me to start this website.

Endocannabinoid System

anautonomousagent — Sat, 02 Dec 2017 02:07:04 +0000

Posted here are three great lectures on cannabinoids and the Endocannabinoid System in the human body. The first lecture, by Dr. Robert Melamede is my favorite. Melamede frequently references Ilya Prigogine’s work and provides an understanding of the Endocannabinoid system based on a “far from equilibrium” perspective. For the more physics and math inclined readers, this is a wonderful connection.

Dr. Robert Melamede – Endocannabinoid System

The Endocannabinoid System in Health and Disease – Dr. Ethan Russo

Quick summary:

Endocannabinoid System composed of three components: 1) endocannabinoids, 2) CB₁, CB₂ and TRPV₁ receptors, and 3) regulatory enzymes
CB₁ is the most abundant G-protein-coupled receptor in the brain
Cannabinoids modulate how fast things move through the gut!
CB₁ is the “psychoactive receptor” and CB₂ is the immunomodulatory receptor
CBs 10-fold more potent than morphine in WDR neurons mediating pain
All humans have a baseline Endocannabinoid System, influenced by genetics or some life event; in some people the system becomes deficient – disease and other issues arise in the body
Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency (CED)
THC notoriously increases appetite, why aren’t users more often obese? THC alters the microfloral balance in gut, prevents weight gain
Cannabis very effective in Fibromyalgia
Migraine info at 41 min
Migraine related to CED

Cannabis and Cannabinoids – Dr. Jeffrey Hergenrather

Quick summary:

Compared to the flower: oils, edibles and other extracts lose many of the cannabinoids and terpenes
Cannabis is an adaptogen – can give you whatever your body needs to regain its homeostasis
CBDs with THC works optimally, together it gives a greater than additive effect, i.e. better than consuming each individually; plant flower and all it contains is overall better than the extracts
At 1 hour and 2 min in the lecture, entire list of cancers which exhibit cannabinoid sensitivity and in many cases the tumor goes away with cannabinoid treatment

Free Software Foundation

anautonomousagent — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 20:41:54 +0000

Informative videos on free (Free as in Freedom) software and open source software. Richard Stallman is a great leader for software freedom and seems to be the source of the stereotype for computer programmer “looks”.

The difference between free and open-source software was not clear to me until after watching these videos and doing further research. See the Wikipedia article on the naming of GNU/Linux.

I personally encourage readers to consider switching to a GNU/Linux operating system or a distribution like Debian if they have not already. If you prefer having a hard copy of the OS or do not have the technical know-how to perform the image download-transfer-install process, OSDisc.com is a great site to order many different distributions.

Also, be sure to become a supporter of GNU by joining the Free Software Foundation.

If you prefer to support individual programmers or projects, check out some of these on Patreon:

And come on… we need to severely lower the percentage of desktops running Windows.

A Glorious Accident – Wim Kayzer (1993)

anautonomousagent — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 02:20:13 +0000

A Glorious Accident is a set of interviews and discussions with Stephen J. Gould, Freeman Dyson, Stephen Toulmin, Oliver Sacks, Rupert Sheldrake, and Daniel Dennett. The final video is a round table with all of them answering questions about philosophy, evolution, life and the cosmos.

These videos are perfect for the curious and intellectual mind. Get comfortable, grab your popcorn and enjoy!

A Glorious Accident YouTube Playlist

New Theories on the Origin of Life with Dr. Eric Smith

anautonomousagent — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 15:09:31 +0000

Dr. Eric Smith’s lecture on the origin of life really challenged everything I thought I understood regarding how life functions and possibly originated on Earth. Make sure to watch the question and answer at the end for some good points regarding panspermia and Miller’s experiments.