#maybe this is obvious so the science education world doesn't think it needs to be explicitly said

[gillianthecat]

Why does science keep trying to gaslight me??? The cathode is NOT the negative electrode in an electrolytic cell, the electrons are still flowing towards it! It's, by definition, still reduction, so electrons have to move towards it and it is therefore a positive electrode. It's attached to the negative terminal of the power source, yes, but that doesn't make the cathode electrode itself negative! I felt like I was losing my mind.

I guess they call the whole section between power source terminal and electrode the "cathode"? And name it based on the battery side? Which is fine, whatever, I'm sure there are valid historical reasons for those naming conventions, but you've got to explain that that's what's happening! Because just saying "negative electrode (cathode)" contradicts everything taught before and makes students (me) feel like we don't understand any of it.

[voiider]

Okay alright I'm tired of giving more children to Bruce Wayne I think we need to start taking some away 

Tim getting kidnapped (but in a way they don't announce Tim Drake-Wayne as missing??) and is given Something that induces amnesia but he escapes or maybe just literally wanders away but like he's in the middle of Ohio and he's walking down the road unsure of his own name or where he is and a weird looking camper pills over and a large man leans out the window and says “you doing alright there, sonny?” 

And he doesn't really know so he sorta shrugs so they pick him up and the man introduces himself as Jack and this is his wife Maddie and their two kids Danny and Jazz and they're just heading back from a camping trip and they can take him into town (Amity?) and take him down to the station and help him get things figured out 

The police take his picture and upload it to a “found” database or smth but there's no active or recent cases in Ohio for missing persons (or teenagers) matching his description 

(But also, Amity is pretty disconnected from the rest of the world digitally. They mind their business. Sure they run this boy's face in the newspaper and let the neighboring precincts about him but there's not much more they can do until this kid gets some memories back)

So he goes to stay with Jack and Maddie (idk how i don’t care about LAWS) while they wait to see if they get any hits or until he gets some memories back and they register him under Alvin (“hmm maybe... Tom? No, definitely not. Caroline? Alvin? That sounds the best I guess”) Fenton at the local high school so he can keep getting an education (and Alvin isn’t sure why, but this sort of feels like a waste of time, he already knows all this math stuff and why would he want to read Of Mice and Men he’s pretty sure someone told him John Steinbeck was a hack. Or maybe not. He can’t remember) but it’s simple enough and he likes the Fentons even if they keep trying to convince him ghosts are real 

And maybe they are. Actually. Real that is. He saw one the other day and had to double check if knowing ghosts were real is a common knowledge thing that he forgot of if he never knew in the first place. Jazz tells him that ghosts are pretty much an Amity specific thing but that they appear other places and then Jack and Maddie set him down and give him the entire history of ghosts that night and then show him their lab which is pretty cool

And maybe he accidentally suplexed someone who startled him in the halls on his first day and also fell asleep in science,but give him a break! he’s going through a lot right now

But his new brother roommate friend? Is helping him adjust at school by telling him who to avoid and what not to eat from the cafeteria and Jazz is in most of his classes but also he’s not sure why they’re trying to act all sneaky about this Inviso-Bill/vigilante situation because like. That’s clearly just Danny with white hair? He looks the exact same? Also he literally saw Danny walk through the bathroom door last week if it wasn’t obvious enough.

So Tim really isn’t expecting Danny to be surprised that he picked up a thermos that Phantom dropped when he and his friends ran off to fight another ghost

[hypokeimena]

it makes me so so crazy when people are like the existence of magic means that you need to do science to the world harder. this is common in portal power fantasies and also i'm back to reading dogshit hp fic for the fascism essay and it's so common there too. but.

if magic is real i don't know why you'd double down on science (a worldview which doesn't account for magic being real) instead of trying to come up with something interesting to say

scientific rationalism is an incredibly modern worldview and while it's challenging to take yourself out of it bc it's how the vast majority of us were. raised and educated and acculturated. it does feel genuinely disrespectful to the. humanity of people who lived in the past, to me.

like there's plenty of things where historical people were incorrect about the causes or effects of things. but an attempt to make sense of the world that accounts for "things we don't fully understand" is maybe a reasonable approach to bring to things we don't understand yet. including things that are obvious metaphors with some component of truth to them. so like.

do i have ptsd bc of biological changes to my brain. do i have ptsd bc spirits are attacking me. is there a difference.

and it's not like people don't still engage in magical thinking all the time but they pretend it's based on science. like the way people (general people, popular science, not subject matter specialists) talk about chemicals in the brain is absolutely not supported by the actual science, which is a lot better at admitting when it doesn't know something than the popular imagination would like to believe. humans rely on metaphors and stories and things that Feel true in order to make sense of the world and we always have and we always will.

tl:dr you are not better than a peasant from the 1600s because you are lucky enough to have been required to attend a school that taught you the scientific method.

[allforafro]

ok, I hope that whoever reads this still remembers more or less what happened in each episode, if not, it may not make sense to you

opinions about individual episodes of heroes season 3 begin

3.1

I don't know anything about medicine, but the Nathan rescue scene was weird/badly done

peter looks good as usual

got hit by a teenager lol

Sylar started working in horror films during his break

I understand you maya I don't understand science either

hiro is cute and childish

You have to save the world, so I will speak in riddles

what happened, what are you doing, future peter

nathan I almost died but I'm alive and I'm more religious em ok dude

Mohinder, what's wrong with you?

sylar what the hell are you talking about?

this scene was quite disgusting

oh mother mohinder go to therapy because with your obsession with sylar you can't live a normal life

why everyone is coming back from the dead this season

Matt, get up, there's a scorpion on your face, it's scary

did mohinder die because that would be funny

Angela is great as usual

what the hell is this narrator text?

no, he's still alive

3.2

Claire was traumatized and now feels no pain

nice vision Angela

maya is beautiful mohinder you should focus on flirting with her and not bullshit

but you could slow down a bit

maybe because you didn't raise her, you asshole

is this another niki personality?

Millbrook stole some good stuff

life dilemmas (not sarcasm)

is Linderman just an illusion?

poor elle

kill him noah, too bad sylar is immortal

the best thing is that the others don't know that the screaming guy is Peter

or you misunderstood future hiro

you can't tell anyone the truth except nathan, you haven't changed anything peter

ok tracy is definitely not Niki

no hiro don't turn your back on ando

Is there something wrong, Dr. Suresh? it was obvious, idiot

disgusting!!!

talking turtle lol

Africa? Interesting

why isn't claire so surprised that her father is alive, didn't they think he was dead

Yes! nathan is crazy, let's go!!!

I don't know if the company is bad or good anymore

That scene with Meredith showing up was weird (I mean their faces)

I wonder what Jessie can do?

angela is creepy

3.3

Angela is Sylar's mother, did I miss something? no, she's definitely winding him up

duet noah and sylar I didn't know I needed this in my life

lyle is right

claire lol

sandra is right claire, education is important

XD angela plays sylar as she wants

Daphne is funny

this guy knows matt's life, interesting

Lol sylar you watched too many movies

you don't know peter

Sylar probably won't listen to Noah and it will be a mess

Is Tracy Niki's twin sister?

this lecturer is hopeless, Zimmerman's name is read with a "C"

it wasn't her fault, it was yours hiro

mother-daughter bond

their partnership is great

is this the series where noah becomes a cosmic godfather to everyone with special abilities

what does matt have in common with this african guy?

Claire doesn't go to school but she goes to cheerleading practice, that's just an excuse

This Zimmerman is interesting

music puts them into a trance?

yes noah kill him

Why did I develop the desire to kill Sylar? This guy didn't do anything to me

shrugs - whatever

3.4

I become death, how dramatic (yes, I know what the title refers to)

Rash? allergy? This is disgusting

Triplets? Interesting

they gave them powers

Hey, wait, didn't Niki have a sister, Jessica?

this time four, not five in the future

It's funny but both present peter and future peter are right

yes peter sylar will help you lol

don't manipulate her feelings mohinder

I don't know why but I laughed at the scenes between peter and future mohinder

I made the same face as peter

uuu gabriel is adorable

it's funny that everyone says peter is a villain

If you want my power, fix this watch

not poor little noah, poor gabriel

stop acting like children hiro and ando

web yuck

Was Nathan going to have an affair with another of the triplets, I knew

I wonder if when we meet the third one, Nathan will also have an affair with her

army of super soldiers

don't hurt nathan peter

No!!!

You're here, brother

A spiritual journey

Cemetery?

Adam!!! Yay!!!

3.5

I wonder who has this formula

Everyone prefers clear answers nathan

Linderman from Nathan's head is weird

Ok mohinder I'm not going to comment on this

better kill your mother peter it will be good for everyone

Angela's weakness on peter is great

Sandra is a good mother

Wow Claire is turning into Noah

Lol adam is funny

Interesting thing about this Linderman from other people's heads

It turns out that not all of these Level 5 people are bad

If a guy keeps silent about something, there's something wrong

Okay, this is getting scary, run away, maya!

I wonder if it's really God?

No

He killed me once and now he saved me

I don't know if I trust you on this, noah

Nathan has artificial abilities?!

He lives!

Just like in horror

Well, whatever you say, no one would think of it

Kill him, maya, it will be better for him

Suresh is harmless, lol I guess not anymore

oh hiro, ando

What? Hiro no!

Why is ando always unlucky

Lol that Sylar in the back of the car

Sometimes you're stupid noah

Who is this disgusting guy?

I wonder what this pinehearst is?

Is this Arthur Petrelli?

That's him, interesting

3.6

Fortunately, it's a trick

She goes with her wow

I wonder what ability Arthur has

I wouldn't like to ask mohinder for help but they don't know that he has become weird

Matt this is weird

Trust him, Daphne

So now you're killing people mohinder wow

How is he supposed to know that, he's not his future self

So he's the puppet master

What did you expect, hiro

Listen to her mohinder she is right

The shooting scene was intense

Sylar just want to be loved by mommy

Let's drug each other, it's a real family thing

Take her hand, I told you so

Actually it may be true that you may not be able to help her matt

Invisible peter yes

Surprise!

he takes away their powers, not bad

I wonder how they are going to defeat arthur

that's all for now, the rest when I have time

[sagebodisattva]

Epistemological Solipsism

So much of the externalization conditioning, and any kind of conditioning really, is set in place by erroneous assumptions. We overlook this, as, early on in existence, in the more immature stages of our egoic development, without consciously knowing it, we establish dubious premises that quickly solidify into foundational beliefs that shape our entire view of reality. And if these types of shoe'd in assumptions manage to put down roots on firm grounds, which they almost always do, they will be almost impossible to undo. And so imagine the type of quandary this presents when the kinds of assumptions that one has accepted, hence becoming the potential bedrock of a belief system without any pensive review, are actually false or faulty! This is the beginning of mental slavery, as any false assumption about existence will necessarily have you assigning power to something you are imagining to be outside of yourself... or perhaps to something you are APART of, or are a byproduct of... as the case may be... but in each and every case, it is voluntary self disempowerment... and whether it was willful, innocuous, unconscious, or deceptively introduced, matters not. What matters now is that you are anchored to a false position, that becomes the trap to which you remain tethered, which will thereby direct assignments of power to illusions, based on the default designs of this organizational arrangement.

This is important to understand, as so much of mental illness, or spiritual sickness if you will, relies on sustaining ignorance of the truth. But it's totally up to you if you want to break free from the false programming. And this doesn't mean a conversion to an alternative programming. This means a liberation from all programmings, and standing in the light of the truth, which needs no support, needs no selling points, needs no shuck n' jive, nor song and dance. The truth always speaks for itself, while the lie requires contrived narrative. And this is exactly why false existential assumptions are deceptively introduced into your qualitative being; because despite what most of us would like to believe, there's no way to really force delusion on anyone. Yeah, maybe you think you could try to torture someone into accepting it, but any such acceptance wouldn't be authentic, as anyone would pretend to accept anything just to stop the torture. One does not hold what is not held in the heart. Or maybe you think you could force it into a mind through coercive re-education or brainwashing, but a truly strong mind can never be forced into delusion. If the mind relents, it's due to it's own immature strength and the natural tendency to compromise as an easy way out.

And sometimes we hear about other such things, like harsh physical circumstances having the ability to break a spirit, but I think stoicism has pretty much demonstrated this to be a fallacy. Oh, am I saying this only because I haven't suffered to the proper degree? Or, did you just give up and are now cynically guising that failure beneath a sneering justification? No. The only way a conditioning can successfully infect a consciousness is by invitation, compromise or unchecked deceptive infiltration, all of which gain access through avenues of permission. The fact that that they are granted entry with permission is exactly why the programming is so grueling to unseat. A belief forced on someone will not long be held. A belief willingly embraced by someone, unconsciously or not, will be defended to often extreme limits. And it's not too hard to figure out why, as the conditioning has become a best friend. The conditioning provides security and comfort to a contrived identity that seeks normalcy, familiarity, predictability and routine; all of which combine to form a malaise of deprivation, lethargy, and boredom. A sitting duck, aptly primed to be stalked by death itself.

So this is why there is so much circumvention of solipsism, a so called philosophy that's implications could be called to be in accord with the truth; because if you ever figure your way out of the externalization conditioning, you will inevitably attain power of mind, and then less power will be assigned to the illusions, and if that happens, you will become difficult to control. Hence why "they" must do every thing they can to stop you.

So this brings us upon the subject of epistemological solipsism. What is epistemological solipsism? Epistemological solipsism is the variety of idealism according to which only the directly accessible mental contents of the solipsistic philosopher can be known. The existence of an external world is regarded as an unresolvable question rather than actually false.

And so, this is why I don't consider epistemological solipsism to be all that useful of an application. It's kinda like solipsism lite; with light being spelled "L I T E", clarified as such so as to invoke the correct tone of connotation. Of course, as usual, we note that epistemological solipsism is touted as a variety of idealism, which frames the entire consideration as unrealistic, ie: existing only in the imagination; desirable or perfect, but not likely to become a reality; which thereby downgrades the significance of the truth that only directly accessible mental contents of a solipsistic philosopher can be known. As if there was some other way for knowns to be accessed by a philosopher. Whether knowledge is acquired directly, indirectly, empirically, or dogmatically, matters not, as any possible synthesis or transference of knowledge is only going to be through a mental medium.

But then comes the funny part: The existence of an external world is regarded as an unresolvable question rather than actually false. Hmmmm. Might this position be more aptly called agnostic solipsism? I guess this position is one more interested in upholding the integrity of intellectual honesty rather then standing in the light of the existential truth. It's an interesting position to be sure, as it teeters on the fence of the truth, afraid to fully commit because it knows it can't prove the truth by the rules that the externalization conditioning demands, and yet, oddly, still seeks to placate and pander to it somewhat, by upholding it's standards. It's obvious from this, that the epistemological solipsist has a lot more work to be done nihilistically, and might prove to benefit from some psycho-nautical exploration, or deep meditation.

And so, by this epistemological standard, which is actually less solipsistic due to it's externalization mindset of an extrinsically existing universe who's qualities can only be known through a set of separated sense organs, epistemological solipsists claim that realism requires the question:

“Assuming that there is a universe independent of an agent's mind and knowable only through the agent's senses, how is the existence of this independent universe to be scientifically studied?"

Well, that's the thing. Sure it's a required question for realism, but it's also an equally required question for the epistemological solipsist, who probably never thought to answer it himself. What is the alternative to knowledge based on the interpretations of the five senses? As a solipsist, the answer should be clear, but let us not forget that what we are dealing with is, not so much a solipsist, but rather, an externalist who's merely conceded that anything known about the universe is confined to sensory data. Despite admitting the purely mental nature of existence, they are not yet ready to go as far as admitting the universe is completely imaginary and that reality is a production of the mind. And so, here we find it: the epistemological solipsist's willingness to take on the false existential assumption, while afraid to commit to implications of the truth of his own position, in order to satisfy the dictates of physical science, which is completely constructed upon the externalization conditioning. It seems the only thing epistemological solipsism wants to clarify is that objectivity requires an assumption; and as long as this point is understood, it's completely willing to concedes to the outlines of the physical model of existence. But why? If it's false then why take on such a assumption at all? Yeah, I know people don't wanna let go of their ideological attachments. People don't want to let go of old physical science, in the same way they don't want to let go of religion.

“Oh Sage, they are not the same thing!”

Yeah Charlie. That isn't the point, and not what I was saying anyway. Science may have a bit more credibility then religion, as it does seek to build knowledge on observable phenomena, but it still falls short, as it is founded on a false premise about reality that simply isn't true. The false premise that calls itself, "realism". Isn't that some shit? Realism and idealism are both supposedly philosophical concepts equally up for debate, yet mind independent reality gets the title of realism, why mind dependent reality gets the title of idealism. Hmmmm. Doesn't it seem that someone wants to slant the favor towards realism? Doesn't it seem that by these types of classifications, one position is being assigned a handicap while the other is assigned a disadvantage? One should wonder why this is.

So it seems that epistemological solipsism doesn't want to posit anything about what so obviously exists firsthand, and instead only wants to concern itself with the claims of knowledge within the illusion. Like a persona in a dream who doesn't want to concern itself with lucidity, but instead wants to make sure that it's clarified with the other personas that any knowledge in the reality is only applicable to the context of the sense perceptions of a subject. That's nice, and while it does stick one toe into the waters of solipsism, it doesn't hardly go deep enough into the truth. And that's because, in the grand scheme, knowledge is irrelevant to the nature of reality, and to uncover and become intimate with the nature of reality, doesn't involve learning, study or the acquisition of knowledge, which I know for many of you, presents an impasse that cannot be breached. Hence, the reason for the advent of epistemological solipsism: for those willing to explore only so far as it relates to what can be argued in conjunction to claimed knowledge and the mind of a subject.

So the utility of epistemological solipsism seems to support the maintenance of a general non-committal skepticism that asserts that truth is only that which can be be known directly through the five senses. Other then shattering the usually unchallenged authoritative assumptions of contemporary philosophical realism, what epistemological solipsism achieves is questionable. It isn't conducive towards lucidity, so what function does it serve within delusion? Perhaps merely to make for a more interesting offering of skeptical doubt to an argument made in philosophical discourse? Perhaps.

For, isn't that always the MO of a skeptic? Not so much to present an argument, but rather to just throw wrenches in existing arguments, and perhaps ridicule them for the sake of entertainment? But I dig the rigors that this places on the externalist. It certainly narrows the borders of what a realist can argue as knowledge. Which brings us many intriguing novelty considerations, such as when the epistemological solipsist asserts a classic argument typical for the position, such as: if a person sets up a camera to photograph the moon when he is not looking at it, then at best he can determine that there is an image of the moon in the camera when he eventually looks at it. Logically, this does not assure that the moon itself (or even the camera) existed at the time the photograph is supposed to have been taken. To establish that it is an image of an independent moon requires many other assumptions that amount to begging the question, which means to assume the conclusion of an argument—a type of circular reasoning, which is an informal fallacy, in which an arguer includes the conclusion to be proven within a premise of the argument, often in an indirect way such that its presence within the premise is hidden or at least not easily apparent.

This really puts the realist in a tight spot, as it also puts the burden of proof on the realist to show how aspects of reality are ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes, perceptions, linguistic practices, and beliefs, of which, might not even be possible to demonstrate. Yet, when all is said and done, epistemological solipsism doesn't really go as far as it should, and suspends any assertions that awareness is the primary foundation. So, as it stands, it is merely a position that imposes a standard upon what can be accepted as truth within knowledge.

As for answering the question of, if a philosopher can only truly know the aspects of his own mind, then how should a philosopher go about studying the universe, it loses it way, for it would rather assume objectivity in the name of science with a stricter standard rather then follow the implications of the position and discover the accurate premise; which reveals that there really is no universe "out there" to assume exists objectively in the first place. Lucidity, or awareness of the dream, is revealed through focusing on the source of attention, not through the examination of dream details.