Are We Being Turned Into Robots?

[hagar]

ha!

 

and aaaarrrrrrrrrghhhh!

 

 

Perfect!

 

We are not being turned into robots. We're trying damn hard to turn robots into us.

 

I find spiritual people to be the most nauseating creature of them all; mindfully practicing whatever their master told them, hoping they will get to the promised land.

 

h

[Apech]

This question does not compute ... my programming does not include diagnostics ... MessageEnd.

 

Bleeep.

[manitou]

That phenomena aside, there are fewer connects these days. We have to work to be connected. Damn look at what WE are doing right now. Connecting through a highly impersonal cold computer screen.

 

 

You're right, lol. The computer screen. But, I will say, as to this particular group and our computer screens - we ARE connecting in a very personal way - soul to soul. Where else in our daily lives do we have the ability to talk this deeply about things with others who are like-minded? Now, the interesting thing about talking soul to soul via computer is that it is a real clue as to the person doing the posting. If a person is hiding behind their screen name and flaming people, and arguing with a nasty tone - this tells us more about the person posting than anything else. We see his TRUE self, because he thinks he's hiding his real identity behind the screen name. But he's not. It's coming out through his fingers.

 

TV seems to me like living on the couch and living other people's lives through virtual reality.

 

If Ram Dass' Be Here Now concept holds any water at all (how much more immediate can awareness get?) then all the texting, calling, gaming is anything but. It's like we're not satisfied with our own lives, so we jump into other scenarios to find some stimulation.

 

Stimulation! Maybe that's why our general populus is bored, fat, and uncreative. Everything's done for us now! We've made it so darn convenient for ourselves through the decades that we don't have to chop wood, carry water any more.

 

A street musician told me the other day that I was the only 'alive' person he'd seen all day. On the other hand, maybe it's just because I threw a few bucks in his guitar case...but that would be the cynical answer.

[三江源]

We are not being turned into robots. We're trying damn hard to turn robots into us.

 

I find spiritual people to be the most nauseating creature of them all; mindfully practicing whatever their master told them, hoping they will get to the promised land.

 

h

 

I guess it would be robotic of me to reply :

 

ha!

 

and aaaarrrrrrrrrghhhh!

 

 

Perfect!

 

But seems appropriate.

 

Yes I really did way back think Mantak Chia's formulae meant I was sorted as I moved through the layers of them and I wouldnt ~phew! ~ have to be reborn again. Absurd = me.

 

Yes I get pukily bored and dismissive when some people tote out their beloved teachers teachings as their badge of identity and passport to specialness. It's only some people who spark this reactivity in me, and I dont like feeling "shut the f*ck up about your teachers", so I tend to go self critical and see myself as intolerant of their stage of development which is both so outward focused, and sickly sweet proud of any self made discovery. The irritation this sparks actually comes from a kind of righteousness at seeing the relinquishment of genuine autonomy.

 

Initiation out of robothood is a many tiered process. What's a robot anyway? Is it an archetype we had in our psyche that we externalised in mechanistic form. Or the other way round. Maybe a robot is a degraded version of our neural pathways. Loving well worn paths, prone to stalling..sometimes crashing.

[suninmyeyes]

You're right, lol. The computer screen. But, I will say, as to this particular group and our computer screens - we ARE connecting in a very personal way - soul to soul. Where else in our daily lives do we have the ability to talk this deeply about things with others who are like-minded?

 

True what you say here Manitou.

I would like to add that internet is incredible and very real sign that human beings are shifting perspective on life and are not being turned into robots.It is our collective blueprint and so very alive and full of potentials ,connecting people all around the world.

And this is just a beggining stage of internet,who knows what could it meatmorphosise into eventually given current speed of technology development?Maybe internet has potenitial to become linked to our body and sort of altered through the mind waves or something like this(this is me imagining now,but you never know..)

Here is an interesting bit I found reading the book called 'The return of the feminine and the World Soul' by L.Vaughan Lee:

'One of the limitations of our present understanding of he Interenet is that we have not fully realized the new dynamic created by the many new connections that are being made.We do not recognize that it is the connections themselves that are most impoertant,not information or goods themselves that are exchanged.When this connections come alive ,then interent will wake to its full potential.

Part of our problem is that the nurturing and meaning of relationships traditionaly belong to the feminine,and we have not included this understanding that is natural to a woman in our technological progress.We are still working primarily with masculine analytic paradgrim,rather then fully integrating the wisdom of the feminine.The feminine kind of knowing has a crucial role to play in development in this technology.

...Some connections will work easily,while others may require persistance.Some individuals who are too identified with a particular mindset will be resistant to certain connections.But through this connections the light of the soul of the world can flow into new places and awaken individuals to its work.As the pattern of connections grows ,it wil consellate new patterns for life,for eveolving consiessnes on the planet.'

[Birch]

You're right, lol. The computer screen. But, I will say, as to this particular group and our computer screens - we ARE connecting in a very personal way - soul to soul. Where else in our daily lives do we have the ability to talk this deeply about things with others who are like-minded? Now, the interesting thing about talking soul to soul via computer is that it is a real clue as to the person doing the posting. If a person is hiding behind their screen name and flaming people, and arguing with a nasty tone - this tells us more about the person posting than anything else. We see his TRUE self, because he thinks he's hiding his real identity behind the screen name. But he's not. It's coming out through his fingers.

 

TV seems to me like living on the couch and living other people's lives through virtual reality.

 

If Ram Dass' Be Here Now concept holds any water at all (how much more immediate can awareness get?) then all the texting, calling, gaming is anything but. It's like we're not satisfied with our own lives, so we jump into other scenarios to find some stimulation.

 

Stimulation! Maybe that's why our general populus is bored, fat, and uncreative. Everything's done for us now! We've made it so darn convenient for ourselves through the decades that we don't have to chop wood, carry water any more.

 

A street musician told me the other day that I was the only 'alive' person he'd seen all day. On the other hand, maybe it's just because I threw a few bucks in his guitar case...but that would be the cynical answer.

 

"Where else in our daily lives do we have the ability to talk this deeply about things with others who are like-minded?"

 

Well, while I was on my TTB's vacation I just kept running into them. All the time. Like the entire ff-ing world was filled with enlightened beings. Far too uncomfortable. So I made a point of logging back on to TTB's for comfort.

[manitou]

"Where else in our daily lives do we have the ability to talk this deeply about things with others who are like-minded?"

 

Well, while I was on my TTB's vacation I just kept running into them. All the time. Like the entire ff-ing world was filled with enlightened beings. Far too uncomfortable. So I made a point of logging back on to TTB's for comfort.

 

Yes, those periodic vacations are needed. Sometimes I think TTB's is all about leveling the ego between us. I think we are on an upward spiraling journey together, and fortunate to have each other. But it does get intense sometimes. I've taken several vacations, usually swearing I'll never return to the darn place.

 

But when I do return, I usually find that either I have changed, or the dynamnics on the board have changed. All things take their rise and fall, I guess.... I so fully agree with The Lerner when he said that the TTB's are our responsibility. If the subjects are not worthwhile, it's because we're not holding up our end.

 

And that's so true about seeing enlightened beings. It's like the more enlightened we become, the higher we are able to see. Like when the nazarene said 'those who have eyes, see. Those who have ears, hear.' He was probably an enlightened being. So much of our country seems so terribly unenlightened. But I do think that we, the more enlightened beings, are scattered around like leavening in the bread. We will be the ones to make the situation rise when the time is right.

[goldisheavy]

For quite awhile now, I've noticed some very disturbing conditions that seem to be affecting us individually and collectively.................In day to day situations, whether it's at the grocery store, the mall, anywhere there are groups of people,.....look at the faces of your fellow beings............It's like everybody is in some sort of shock.................A blank vacant stare from behind the eyes..............The "nobody's home" syndrome.............There seems to be an awareness or spiritual essence that is missing.................I know we have the affairs of day to day life and we're not going to go around smiling like a "Moonie" at everyone we encounter...............It just seems like we're all afraid of each other......................One of the things I think has contributed to this is the acceleration of personal technology..........mp3 players, the internet, cell phones........................especially cell phones!...................Why don't we have them permanently implanted on our ears like those Mr. Spock devices I see everywhere and we never have to miss that important call....................This could be something for another thread, but I think this "lost essence " is part of a greater plan to keep us separate and fearful and when we are collectively in this condition how could we ever unite if the global climate called for it?

 

Yes, but there is no greater plan. It's happening quasi-spontaneously. To borrow Terrence McKenna's phraseology a bit, this is the natural outcome of our flawed cultural operating system. It's not some plot of an evil genius. No one has that much control. It's all of us together that are doing it, making a giant turd out of our lives by erecting walls of pretense and bullshit all around us. We're all going to be alone if we continue on this path. The first step to break through is to learn to share fearlessly, not just the sugar, but the salt too. Ah, but that takes courage. It's not a safe path. Back into your mental closets now.

[manitou]

Yes, but there is no greater plan. It's happening quasi-spontaneously. To borrow Terrence McKenna's phraseology a bit, this is the natural outcome of our flawed cultural operating system. It's not some plot of an evil genius. No one has that much control. It's all of us together that are doing it, making a giant turd out of our lives by erecting walls of pretense and bullshit all around us. We're all going to be alone if we continue on this path. The first step to break through is to learn to share fearlessly, not just the sugar, but the salt too. Ah, but that takes courage. It's not a safe path. Back into your mental closets now.

 

Great metaphor on the giant turd thing,

 

Yes, the further we get from our original nature the more manure we pile on. Removing the manure becomes the challenge. The pony at the bottom of the pile is Love. Or the law of attraction. Or whatever you want to call it.

 

(Quietly closes the door and returns to mental closet.)

[imonous]

Yes, but there is no greater plan. It's happening quasi-spontaneously.

 

This is something ive found myself contemplating often. There have been so many developments going on in the world that seem to undercut humanity. Everything from our sedentary lifestyle, tv, religion, internet, monotonous jobs, culture, music, weather, etc. I can understand why people say that groups like the 'Illuminati' are real because it almost seems as if theres a conscious force conspiring to create our current world and its well beyond the point of being beyond our control. Our current world has been created "quasi" spontaneously, even our "flawed" operating system. Noone sat down in day and said hey this is how our country/culture will operate. What we see today is the result of generations upon generations of change, even things such as laws we create in good intention conspire against us. Its all too easy to blame ourselves, but being the ignorant beings we are, are we just conditioned to create failing cultures? I mean look at those of the past, they destroyed themselves same as we are doing now. I mean, how can we, in our current state as limited universal beings that don't know sh*t about the universe create something meaningful? All we can do is hide behind our science and keep pushing random buttons to see what they do while praying we don't blow ourselves up. It really is a miracle that we've survived so long in this state. And everyone being suddenly all loving sounds like a nice solution but is it a realistic one? We all have our own minds and in a group of 100 i can almost garauntee that at least 5 will have selfish intent that will spread like cancer to the rest of the population. Sound familiar to you guys?

[imonous]

I would even go on to say that a "successful" culture can ONLY come from one that didn't work. Without failure i don't think we "know" what a human culture should even begin to look like. Without failure all we can do is just walk, in whatever direction we just so happen to walk. At least this culture has given way to people like us who now know the conditionings and trappings of the mind, habits, pleasure. I would say that the minds of "most" have indeed been taken over and run in a "robotic" manner. From birth we are taught to see in a rational manner and create realities based on the truths and beliefs we are fed by various sources. The society we have created has created us.

[Jetsun]

I would even go on to say that a "successful" culture can ONLY come from one that didn't work. Without failure i don't think we "know" what a human culture should even begin to look like. Without failure all we can do is just walk, in whatever direction we just so happen to walk. At least this culture has given way to people like us who now know the conditionings and trappings of the mind, habits, pleasure. I would say that the minds of "most" have indeed been taken over and run in a "robotic" manner. From birth we are taught to see in a rational manner and create realities based on the truths and beliefs we are fed by various sources. The society we have created has created us.

 

Yes maybe the more robotic society becomes the more potential there is for awakening because the unreality of it all becomes too glaringly obvious for those a little bit aware not to notice

[goldisheavy]

It really is a miracle that we've survived so long in this state.

 

No kidding. The Middle East was already pushed to the breaking point (Arab Spring), and many people in fact did not survive. So the prospects of survival are not equally rosy for everyone. I'm guessing you're referring to the humanity as a whole, but then, when taken as a whole, we are an adaptable lot, like roaches. As a species we'll survive, but it may not be pleasant depending on how we decide to roll forward.

 

And everyone being suddenly all loving sounds like a nice solution but is it a realistic one? We all have our own minds and in a group of 100 i can almost garauntee that at least 5 will have selfish intent that will spread like cancer to the rest of the population. Sound familiar to you guys?

 

It's not realistic to expect instant change, imo. All genuine, stable, authentic change is slow. Even if on the surface the change sometimes appears quickly, it's only because internally people have been brooding over the prospects of change for decades prior.

 

I want to give an example what I was talking about.

 

Just yesterday there was a power outage in my city. As a result some shops were out of commission. I was out to get me some soup (I love soup), when the shop I intended to get soup from turned out to be inoperable thanks to an electricity outage. So I got to talk to the employee there. I told him they make great soup. He was happy to hear that. Then I told him I love soup. He said he too loved soup. So then I shared my expert knowledge of where to get good soup in the city.

 

Then as I was talking I said, closely paraphrased, "Well you make great soup and you do a great job here, so I hope they treat you well here. I hope they appreciate you." And here the guy began to stammer. He was saying, "Well.. errmm.. mmm.. uuhhh.. mmm.. rrr... aaa.. oo... errr.. it's OK. Yea, it's OK." It's almost like he stopped talking to me and was trying to convince himself or something. I could tell he was bullshitting me. He couldn't tell the truth straight up. He didn't want to bad mouth his employer, even though his employer was most likely a terrible person. Well, you know what? As sad as it is, if this is how we feel and operate, we kind of deserve to be where we are at, don't we?

 

People are happy to share all the sugary stuff, of course. Not so much problems though. Political correctness and formality often interfere.

Edited May 24, 2011 by goldisheavy

[goldisheavy]

I would even go on to say that a "successful" culture can ONLY come from one that didn't work. Without failure i don't think we "know" what a human culture should even begin to look like.

 

This assumes:

 

1. People remember the failure well and don't forget it in 5 years.

 

2. People's thought processes are not derailed by dogma. If your failure is a result of dogma, and you absolutely refuse to challenge the dogma, then guess what? You will experience a constant stream of failure. Dogma is death. (I mean a hypothetical "you" here, as usual)

Edited May 24, 2011 by goldisheavy

[imonous]

This assumes:

 

1. People remember the failure well and don't forget it in 5 years.

 

2. People's thought processes are not derailed by dogma. If your failure is a result of dogma, and you absolutely refuse to challenge the dogma, then guess what? You will experience a constant stream of failure. Dogma is death. (I mean a hypothetical "you" here, as usual)

 

No ive included dogma in this assumption. Your statement itself is an example of what im talking about. Dogma is something that has historically & currently led people astray. Especially in the political, scientific, and religious arena. People like you are starting to "see" dogma in its various forms on a larger and larger scale. At least now humanity has an anti-dogma consciousness to it constantly seeking to expose lies. There is a small portion of humanity that is successfully evolving to see past these corrupted illusions. The only question is whether this "new conciousness" will spread to the masses and grow to apply "change" to what is "broken".

[goldisheavy]

No ive included dogma in this assumption. Your statement itself is an example of what im talking about. Dogma is something that has historically & currently led people astray. Especially in the political, scientific, and religious arena. People like you are starting to "see" dogma in its various forms on a larger and larger scale. At least now humanity has an anti-dogma consciousness to it constantly seeking to expose lies. There is a small portion of humanity that is successfully evolving to see past these corrupted illusions. The only question is whether this "new conciousness" will spread to the masses and grow to apply "change" to what is "broken".

 

I think it will spread, but although I think I am ultimately an optimist in this regard, I just can't see the change being rapid. I also think there will be a lot more bad before good.

[manitou]

And I think it's important to remember that the news only reports the dark underbelly of what's happening in the world. There is an equally golden radiance at the top of the cloud, we just can't see it.

 

But there are many of us who can feel it, and know that we are somehow going to be the leavening in the bread that helps folks through all this change. Love will win out in the end. Love is the greatest weapon.

[DalTheJigsaw123]

Yes and no is as simple as I can put it.

[hagar]

I guess it would be robotic of me to reply :

 

ha!

 

and aaaarrrrrrrrrghhhh!

 

 

Perfect!

 

But seems appropriate.

 

Yes I really did way back think Mantak Chia's formulae meant I was sorted as I moved through the layers of them and I wouldnt ~phew! ~ have to be reborn again. Absurd = me.

 

Yes I get pukily bored and dismissive when some people tote out their beloved teachers teachings as their badge of identity and passport to specialness. It's only some people who spark this reactivity in me, and I dont like feeling "shut the f*ck up about your teachers", so I tend to go self critical and see myself as intolerant of their stage of development which is both so outward focused, and sickly sweet proud of any self made discovery. The irritation this sparks actually comes from a kind of righteousness at seeing the relinquishment of genuine autonomy.

 

Initiation out of robothood is a many tiered process. What's a robot anyway? Is it an archetype we had in our psyche that we externalised in mechanistic form. Or the other way round. Maybe a robot is a degraded version of our neural pathways. Loving well worn paths, prone to stalling..sometimes crashing.

'

Agreed! But what is genuine autonomy, really...? To be autonomous is to be one with the great community, isn't it? I think Meister Eckhart spoke about it.

 

I wrote a thesis in the philosophy of technology about how the way we percieve the world is constituted by our mode of perception, and how our way of creating technology changes this mode of perception and is constituted by it.

 

Funny thing, but I forgot all about what it was about.

 

h

[三江源]

ah, Forgetting! That's a whole topic in itself. Do you find big chunks of stuff break away from your awareness land mass and melt? I do.

 

The pleasure of forgetting is very great, the more I forget the lighter I feel.

[Apech]

ah, Forgetting! That's a whole topic in itself. Do you find big chunks of stuff break away from your awareness land mass and melt? I do.

 

The pleasure of forgetting is very great, the more I forget the lighter I feel.

 

As in:

- "I came out here to forget."

 

- "Forget what?"

 

- "I can't remember ...."

 

PS. I wish I could forget more sometimes .....

[C T]

 

The pleasure of forgetting is very great, the more I forget the lighter I feel.

Hah! I have forgotten so much that i no longer remember what 'being light' feels like.

[goldisheavy]

Hah! I have forgotten so much that i no longer remember what 'being light' feels like.