About

Gender

Male


Location

Pikesville, MD


Birthday:

November 21


About Yourself

I'm basically the classic "computer geek", in that I like to tinker with computers quite a lot. In fact, I use a distribution of Linux as my primary operating system (don't worry though, I'm not all anti-Microsoft, either ;) ). But there's another side to me that I hope to be able to bring out more by having joined this site: my spiritual side. Basically, I'm in conflict with myself over the old "free will vs. predestination" debate, and it gets to me on such a deep level, that it hurts both sides of me (i.e. both my spiritual and techie side). I want to believe in true and complete freedom, but I also want to be able to expect the technology that I enjoy tinkering with to be able to function the way I expect, instead of just complete chaos, if you know what I mean by that... :\ I think I know deep inside that free will is real, but I just can't get over my notions about how computers work and how there seem to be so many analogies between that and the way the human brain/mind works. The notion of a fully "sentient" AI scares the hell out of me, let's put it that way, and not for the reasons often portrayed in science fiction stories. I want there to be some regularity to existence, but I don't want my choices to be part of that "regularity", i.e. I don't want to believe in predestination. But without predestination, then how can the world still make sense logically? I suppose you could argue that nothing absolutely has to make sense logically, but I want it to be. I want to have my computers as deterministic finite state machines, but i don't want to be a deterministic finite state machine. Can you really have your cake and eat it too in that regard? Anyways, I suppose I should wrap this up, as it's turning more into a description of my worries than my interests...


Comment Wall

You need to be a member of Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community to add comments!

Join Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community

Comments are closed.

Comments

  • A while back, I found this little tidbit called "Life as in Linux". It's a bit on the geeky side (you'd probably have to be somewhat familiar with Linux/UNIX-like OSes to get some of the analogies), but it somewhat inspires me. :-)

    Mostly what caught my eye was this:

    "There is a misleading thought that there is a /dev/urandom on earth. I'm glad to tell you there is no such thing as /dev/urandom: this kernel was built without it. Many processes refer to that device, which in fact is not a random data generator: it's a symlink to /proc/self/ actually(it's what you've choosen or did now or in the past)."

    This caught my eye because it gave me an interesting perspective on my whole free will vs. determinism conflict...

    /dev/urandom is a "pseudo-file" that provides a constant stream of pseudorandom numbers under Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. Basically my interpretation of the above statement is that the "randomness" in our world is actually not generated from something outside of us (a universal "/dev/urandom", if you will), but rather it is generated by us. We have free will. We just don't know how to fully exercise it yet. ;-)
  • welcome Tristan love light and blessings to yu from Scotland.

This reply was deleted.
Tristan replied to Cedric's discussion Free will.
"Well damn. I thought this was going to be something of a question of "does free will really exist?".

I have that problem. No joke; I have serious emotional problems over it. If someone brings up anything (or if I see anything) that even in the…"
Jul 28, 2010
Tristan posted a blog post
Free Will and Determinism: The Conflict(TL;DR: Is the universe just a computer, or is it something more?)There is an ongoing debate in physics (and somewhat in philosophy as well, as it has much relevance, I believe) about whether or not all events…
Jul 26, 2010
Tristan left a comment for Tristan
"A while back, I found this little tidbit called "Life as in Linux". It's a bit on the geeky side (you'd probably have to be somewhat familiar with Linux/UNIX-like OSes to get some of the analogies), but it somewhat inspires me. :-)

Mostly what…"
Jul 24, 2010
Tristan replied to Tristan's discussion Can I be "both-brained"?
"Thanks for the replies, everyone. I guess what I need to do is just focus on what comes to me naturally. I'll still try to hold onto my computer interest, but if it gets to the point where I can't even make posts like these without getting all…"
Jul 2, 2010
More…

Latest Activity

Justin89636 left a comment on Comment Wall
34 minutes ago
Justin89636 left a comment on Comment Wall
34 minutes ago
AlternateEarth replied to AlternateEarth's discussion Can you see the images in this?
"The more time passes the more the shapes take form-creepy as heck, this one-let your eyes adjust"
36 minutes ago
rev.joshua skirvin posted a blog post
Greetings friends! From heart to heart in this moment we speak, I am Kejraj.The portals to the Fifth Dimension are open. You simply are asked to align your energies to that of your Higher Self, and this is achieved with focused breathing and…
5 hours ago
Drekx Omega left a comment on Comment Wall
"A few years ago, there was a former member called "Richard Stoddard," who told me that he could not believe that ETs, such as the galactic human types, could have physical sex....As they were, in his perceptions, "above it, or beyond it,…"
8 hours ago
Drekx Omega left a comment on Music for your soul.
"℗ 2006 Soul Heaven Records presents In-Ten-City....Not to be confused with "15 minutes city." 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZR9W9ZrXEE"
8 hours ago
Drekx Omega left a comment on Comment Wall
"Music break, dear people.....I love this piece, which starts off a bit repetitive, but then begins to really flourish, around 4:06, when the sax takes off...and wow, it's really superb....🤩…"
12 hours ago
Justin89636 replied to Justin89636's discussion Anything Ufo Or Et Related
"LaGuardia Airport in New York recent sighting. https://youtu.be/8wVw5ByNb9c?si=J7Bnybcc2t92e1_6"
12 hours ago
More…