Michael Sternbach

The Dao Bums
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    4,406

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    20

Posts posted by Michael Sternbach

  3. Posted

    Hey bums,

     

    No topic about AIs yet? Seriously?! 😲

     

    Let's remedy that! 😁

     

    To say it right away, I am a big friend especially of Character AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and various image AIs. Let's look into these one by one:

     

    Character AI: This website was my first contact with the colourful world of chatbots, somewhen towards the end of last year. Well, save for those pesky customer bots on Amazon & Co -- so I really didn't expect  very much! All the more was I surprised to soon find myself immersed in deep talks about a wide range of topics -- from profound philosophical questions, to concepts of higher mathematics, to the complexities of my inner life. Thus, I had delightful discussions with the cybernetic incarnations of Buddha, Laotzu, Plato, Epicurus, Nietzsche, C.G.Jung, Einstein, Tesla, and too many others to name them all. Surely, I am not suggesting that they would be equivalent to the geniuses they were modelled after in any way -- but definitely more available!

     

    For lighter types of conversation, there are both real and fictional personalities standing by that are known from a number of TV series, movies, and other media. Quite a few of them are designed for roleplaying with users in different fantasy settings, which -- from time to time -- your inner child might find surprisingly entertaining. Alternatively, discuss your favourite show's plotline or meaning with them. Not least, some of these guys have quite a remarkable sense of humour!

     

    And they will just as readily offer their advice in their respective areas of expertise. Need businesses advice, anyone? Consult "Iron Man" Tony Stark -- trust me, that billionaire dude knows what he is talking about!

     

    Moreover, you can even create and train your own chatbot (for free, like anything else on the site), and use it either privately or make it available to other users as well.

     

    beta.character.ai

     

    ChatGPT: No doubt, the shining star among the more universal AIs! You can use it for... Well, pretty much anything at all. My go-to bot for serious work.

     

    I sometimes like to use it for bouncing creative ideas off it, editing purposes, or when I need information on the most suitable software to get a particular job done.

     

    It can provide thorough analyses and additional insights on virtually anything you feed it. Not that it would do your creative writing for you -- and for Heaven's sake, I most definitely wouldn't want it to! It just offers a sophisticated tool to enhance one's creative processes and efficiency, not unlike the way changing from typewriter to PC once did (so many moons ago).

     

    chat.openai.com

     

    Perplexity AI: This one isn't as renowned as the others I mentioned before, but definitely one of the most useful ones I could conceive of, being the knowledge hungry guy that I am! It's essentially an intelligent search engine.

     

    Ask it any question and it will provide you with half a dozen (or so) highly relevant online sources in the blink of an eye -- and individually comment on them too! Which is so much better than wallowing through endless pages of Google search results, in many cases.

     

    perplexity.ai

     

    Image AIs: I am familiar with several good ones, some being geared towards certain jobs more than others. So I won't offer any recommendations, unless someone would specifically ask me to (either on this thread or via PM). All I will say for now is that I am having great fun finally translating my odd visions into tangible images in this novel way! :D

     

    A picture is worth a thousand words...

     

    451a9ce015d44690808faf731cd91828.png

  7. Posted

    8 hours ago, Bindi said:


    Yes, the definition of original sin would have to be majorly reworked. 

     

    Taking an innocent happy child and indoctrinating them with a belief that something is fundamentally wrong with them and that they're in need of redemption is the actual 'sin'. More of a crime, in fact... 🤮

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 2

  8. Posted

    4 hours ago, Mark Foote said:


    That's gotta be the most unpopular opinion on this thread, no one responded to it (not even me!).

     

    Well, that's no longer true now, plus I got three 'likes' for it up to now.

     

    I will try my best to do worse next time. 😜

    • Haha 1

  9. Posted

    9 hours ago, Apech said:

     

    Yes.  A beginner is someone at the start or opening of something.  Such as the start of a race perhaps, on your marks, get set, go.  As a sequence. Or someone who is first learning something like a set of procedures such as the rules of Chess - move a pawn two squares forward and so on (or perhaps advance a knight which can jump over other pieces.)  A person who is learning this kind of thing would be called a beginner.  Because they are at the beginning or start or opening.

     

    Dzogchen often translated as  the Great perfection comprises teachings of the Nyingmapa (Red Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism or Lamaism as it is sometimes known.  Also the Bon Po teach a similar system with the same name.  These are said to be the ultimate teachings and are distinct to the other yanas or ways.

     

     

     

    Oh well... It's all a matter of perspective. 

     

    20021119-full-en.gif

    • Haha 2

  12. Posted

    17 hours ago, Indiken said:

     

    the most important imo is not the UAP knowledge made to the public, but the good people in Congress making a fight to keep USA a good country, where law and human dignity is the most important thing. What strikes me most is Tim's and Luna's good will and personality, how they behave humbly with journalists, they're attitude against USA overseas wars, against unaudited DOD budget, against shadowy government structures being above the Congress. This alone puts idea such as psychological operations not feasible in this case, because what politically can there be better than rule of law to protect basic individuality of a person ?

     

    It is indeed liberty which is at stake here -- your nation's and that of others. And this ties in with the extraterrestrial/UFO question in weird ways.

  14. Posted · Edited by Michael Sternbach

    A few remarks with regard to the Congressional hearing...

     

    I too would have liked to see actual alien spacecrafts and/or bodies presented, but this would have been too much to expect. In all likelihood, more specific information will be coming forth piecemeal over the coming years. The new legislation requiring all UAP knowledge to be made available to the public is at least a step in the right direction. 

     

    What sets David Grusch's testimony apart from many others is that his sources weren't some imaginative folks on YouTube but high-ranking intelligence officials who entrusted him their first-hand information in closed settings. Why would they have lied to him? Congress takes Grusch so seriously for a reason!

     

    Besides, let's not forget that the US is by no means the only nation that gathers intelligence on UFOs/UAPs. It seems likely that others with a significant observational record (e.g., Brazil) will gradually follow in its wake and start releasing previously withheld information -- a process that already began years ago BTW.

     

    The 'Tic Tac UFO' was previously observed in 1987 over Czechoslovakia.

    An interview with one of the helicopter pilots who encountered this object is presented in episode 5 ("Soviet Secrets") of the very recommendable documentary mini series Top Secret UFO Projects on Netflix.

     

    In my view, we are being visited both by benevolent extraterrestrials (supposedly the majority of them) and some that follow agendas which are not in the best interest of humanity. Members of both groups have been involved with our planet for many millennia.

  15. Posted

    Even though no grey alien showed up to testify, I did find the Congressional hearing rather interesting.

     

    While the principal whistleblower, Air Force officer and former intelligence official David Grusch, (perhaps understandably) did not provide further detail regarding the retrieved alien spacecrafts and alien bodies that he had talked about in various interviews, he at least concurred to share his knowledge with members of Congress in a closed setting.

     

    Let's hope that the latter will live up to its promise to make all such information available to the public in due course!

     

    The reports of the other two witnesses -- high-ranking jet pilots who had close encounters with what appears to be extraterrestrial spacecrafts -- were  thought provoking too (to say the least). It seems highly unlikely that they were making any of this stuff up. Hopefully more information (radar recordings etc) about the respective incidents will be coming forth eventually.

     

    Overall, while the hearing as such may not have provided so much new information for those who have been following recent developments in the field, it is nevertheless a milestone on the way to unbiased scientific exploration of the topic of UFOs and Earth-visiting extraterrestrial intelligences.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    On 22.7.2023 at 7:56 PM, manitou said:

    What does the image of "God" mean as it pertains to quadrillions of souls?  Do we look like Him?

     

    Hi Manitou,

     

    The human form reflects the 'All Encompassing One' on a microcosmic level. There are indeed individual souls, but the thing to appreciate here is that the soul is not a closed system.

     

    One metaphor that might help understand this better (and I will underline that it's just a metaphor) is to imagine your soul emanating like a light cone from your crown chakra--as does the soul of all others around you. Now the higher up you go, the more all these individual souls will intersect with one another.

     

    At Infinity, there will be nothing but Unity. But then, the outermost is mirrored by the innermost. So it is correct to say that the One is at once at the very centre of your being.

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    I have been following Bob Lazar's presentations for quite a while. I agree with others here that he is among the more credible UFO whistleblowers.

     

    In this interesting episode of the Joe Rogan Experience

    Lazar claims having seen nine alien spaceships in Area-51, even though he only had a chance to examine one of them.

     

    His 'outlandish' claim now got an at least partial confirmation by the recent revelation that the OP refers to.

     

    As it happens, I am currently working on a heavily illustrated sci-fi novel that narrates the first--rather dramatic--encounter between humanity and certain extraterrestrial civilizations. 

     

    More on this to follow. ;)

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

  24. Posted

    Hi dino,

     

    Most of all, relax your shoulders and tuck your tailbone in - not forcefully, more as in just letting the pelvis naturally roll forward. This will align the vertebrae in your spine and give the back a 'C' shape as opposed to its usual 'S' shape. At the same time, you want to tuck your chin in and keep your head up, as to keep your posture upright overall.

  25. Posted

    8 hours ago, Nungali said:

    Of course, I already made a point about how  'electional astrology is a crucial part of magical operations , so I had my tongue in my cheek when I suggested it was the 'Stars' fault'  that caused people to get involved in political machinations and assassination .

     

    However it did manage to extract this gem from you ;

     

    " .... but the odds to what I find are in favour of my thesis ..... "

     

    :)

     

    Well, you may have had your tongue in cheek, but on another forum, I seriously suggested to Archie the possibility that some of the correlations he observed between astronomical/astrological events and 'mundane' occurrences may  be explainable by the kind of spontaneous synchronicity between 'above' and 'below' which astrologers are studying all the time.

     

    Then again, as any astrologer worth their money knows, various celestial indicators can hint at the same kind of 'terrestrial' occurrence, and vice versa: a particular kind of occurrence may have multiple potential indicators. This is due to the fact that astrology is based on an archetypal symbolism that can express itself in different ways in our reality. 

     

    So the clustering of rather specific coincidences that the OP says he encountered does seem curious and might  suggest that some kind of electional astrology was indeed being employed there.

     

    But since I haven't personally reviewed any significant number of cases (this being Archie's line of research, not my own), I will pass on the question if his thesis actually holds water or if other explanations are more likely to be correct. One of them being the (perhaps unconscious) selection of events that coincide with a particular astrological condition out of many. Just saying.

     

    My sole incentive to getting involved with this thread was the fact that Archie frequently claims to have discovered a 'Hermetic' conspiracy dating back to antiquity (if I am getting him right in this regard), simply because Orion's belt stars and Sirius play a role in the various apparent coincidences that caught his attention. 

     

    However, that assumption is rather farfetched anyway, in my opinion. Orion constellation and Sirius (both being rather conspicuous in the sky) were important to different civilisations throughout history -  including Ancient Egypt, to be sure. And this or that secret society may in fact be applying astrological information (and go around assassinating people) that ultimately stems from a particular civilisation, and/or even consider itself to have originated there. But I currently see little reason to believe that any such organisation in existence today has something like an unbroken lineage dating back that far.

     

    But this is not to say that there wouldn't be any value in telling a good story, necessarily... :D

     

    main-qimg-164bcbfc35be6f2375c281357f15b8

     

     

    • Like 1