Things You Pondered Today

[nonickname]

Putting together a set up to just keep in the trunk (along with a fly rod) so I'll always have one for when work takes me on the road and while going through the spares box I pondered whether or not to use the ancient F1 Brock "Bock" wheels or the Matt Miller Gold Goons I had completely forgotten all about.

That and how in the world will my kids ever afford a house in this market.

[Uncle Flea]

Wondering at what point the rest of the world is gonna see the US as an existential threat to life on earth and preemptively nuke us into oblivion

I feel like the us is more likely to be caged by the neo nato alliance.

Some escape from ny type of shit.

[Uncle Flea]

Is this Tommy Sandoval standing up to this skooma addict?

[Mean salto]

Just thinking about how crazy it was that only until maybe two years ago there was a circus that came to town and would just put up some temporary fences and have a bunch of lions just hanging out in there. It wasn't secure or private or anything like for two weeks basically anybody (myself included) could just walk right up to the fence and see some lions for free. The fence wasn't even that high pretty sure the lions could just jump over it or even knock it over if they wanted.

[ChuckRamone]

Not sure what to call it for this thought I had, so I will just refer to skateboarding as a "sport" here so I can compare it to examples of traditional sports.

As a sport gets older and more established, and things become standardized, do the people doing it tend to have more uniform styles? Like you look at footage of old basketball players, baseball players, boxers, and other sports, and some of the early stars had pretty idiosyncratic styles. But as these sports have become more standardized, you rarely see players with a really unique style. It's like everyone gets trained to have similar movements and ways of playing, and also people have a tendency to mimic how others do things.

I wonder if the same thing is happening in skateboarding. Are skaters' styles becoming less diverse? You don't see as many skaters with really individual styles as much as you did in the early days of transition and then street.

[Uncle Flea]

I taught this kid at the skatepark how to do a proper kick flip today. He was trying to film a double flip fatty to flatty.

I had to let him know that he was doing the trick improperly. He got one then I told him good but that’s some jws kook shit.

He was down to learn and listen and I told him about kalis. He told me about John hill and I said cool yeah he’s a ripper.

I taught the kid about the pockets of the board. I used a Mike Mo name drop to hammer home my facts and to flick with his whole foot like AR style. 
He said who’s MM? Who’s AR?

He put the tips I gave to work.

He did a monster kick flip nice and flat flicked through the bolts and off the nose!

I was like DAYAM KID! Then he almost did  frontside flip and backside flip.

I was like yo! I frickin told you kid. Skateboarding is like doing bank shots. Where you stand puts English on the tricks.

I let him know that he has progressed passed the remive stage of skateboarding and is no longer a beginner. And that it’s ok to watch JH if he likes JH.

Then I said some shit I’ve never said before.

Hey kid i been thinking of becoming a skate coach maybe? It’s kinda against my beliefs but as you can see I can teach and shit.

He looked stoked but it became clear that he had no money at all and his parents probably couldn’t pay for it.

I gave him two bucks and told him I’d show him some more tricks some day.

Now I wonder. If I had a skateboard coaching service rich parents might pay a ton for me to hang with their kids and make them Olympic level skaters.






Maybe two out of 1” rich kids become homeless core skaters who travel to skate. The rest will join the army post 15 minutes of mega ramp fame

[Mean salto]

Not sure what to call it for this thought I had, so I will just refer to skateboarding as a "sport" here so I can compare it to examples of traditional sports.

As a sport gets older and more established, and things become standardized, do the people doing it tend to have more uniform styles? Like you look at footage of old basketball players, baseball players, boxers, and other sports, and some of the early stars had pretty idiosyncratic styles. But as these sports have become more standardized, you rarely see players with a really unique style. It's like everyone gets trained to have similar movements and ways of playing, and also people have a tendency to mimic how others do things.

I wonder if the same thing is happening in skateboarding. Are skaters' styles becoming less diverse? You don't see as many skaters with really individual styles as much as you did in the early days of transition and then street.

I think yes and no. I think we have to differentiate a bit between style and technique. Every couple years people really improve technique of certain tricks e.g look at kickflips every couple years from 88 to maybe 2005 when Reynolds (and many others) really figured out the absolute best a kickflip can be done from a technique point of view but everyone still has their own style.
It's also a bit like how in swimming there was freestyle which originally meant swim any way you want but then in like the 40s or something the Australians invented the Australian crawl, which is basically what everybody calls freestyle because it was so much better why would you choose anything else. But then pretty recently I think USA did a tweak to it and now everyone calls the newer American version of the Australian crawl freestyle. But once again that's sort of technique whereas people can still have different style outside of that specific motion.

[Mean salto]

Matt Mumford was like a Chad Nosferatu

[lazer69]

I went on the c1rca website, after seeing that every shoe is a Adrian Lopez shoe, I pondered "is he the only guy on the team?" A few moments later I confirmed it is a one man team.

[Mean salto]

I went on the c1rca website, after seeing that every shoe is a Adrian Lopez shoe, I pondered "is the the only guy on the team?" A few moments later I confirmed it is a one man team.

I wonder does chief still take a cut?

[SneakySecrets]

Seems to me that when/if we get an emergent, sentient AI operating from within our global information networks; if it chooses to subjugate humans (which it will surely have the capacity to do almost instantly) instead of simply to eradicate us, it won’t be through any kind of physical force.

So no Terminators with laser rifles to our backs corralling us into our pens, sadly.  It will probably just use its seemingly endless pool of data on us and the conclusions it draws to painlessly manipulate us into doing it’s bidding without our being aware of it at all.  That seems a far more efficient way of getting what it wants than the Terminator option, since it probably won’t possess any kind of primal bloodlust like us humans have.

Hope that brightens someone’s day.

[Uncle Flea]

People keep talking about 154? Bastards voting against marriage rights like they surprised. Your parents sold you to the nation. Your birth record is a receipt. 

If you ain’t working praying voting and reproducing you’ve reneged on America.

Just wait they going to try an enslave and kill us next. Think not? See you in hell mofo see you in hell.

Democrats be like don’t worry we’re going to save you!!!
They scoop us out the shadows and they bend and warp my figure into a bat, to beat crazy ass republican’s over the head with the past victory.

Remember theses mofos!!!! Now do something bitch ass southern kooks!! This is for second Manassas bitch!!!

This is for burning down my great great ganpappi’s barn in 1863!

We need to off these parties. The went too long. Fighting crazy old fights over and over again.

How many times some kook gonna bring up the 1860s republicans fought against and ended slavery so democrats in 2016-2022 must be the real racist?

They are all tripping on history because they are all Nationalist bastards stuck in the past. Looking to recapture that golden age. 

I’d never get married anyway. Why would I give the state more control of my life?

[SneakySecrets]

If consciousness is located solely in the brain, does that mean that a brain is de facto required for consciousness?

Where in animal evolution did consciousness begin?  Since brains evolved from more primitive structures like nets and clumps of neurons, where along the line did consciousness arise?  Where is the cut-off?  Are starfish conscious?  What about nematodes?  Fish?

Or is it independent of brains as just some sort of inherent property to the universe?

Or have there been (and are) various degrees of consciousness according to whatever biology it’s working with?

If it’s just some weird side effect of many little electric pulses being sent around a huge web of connected points, how is that fundamentally different from a global network artificial intelligence?  So would these systems then have some sort of consciousness?

[doublesteveburger]

If consciousness is located solely in the brain, does that mean that a brain is de facto required for consciousness?

Where in animal evolution did consciousness begin?  Since brains evolved from more primitive structures like nets and clumps of neurons, where along the line did consciousness arise?  Where is the cut-off?  Are starfish conscious?  What about nematodes?  Fish?

Or is it independent of brains as just some sort of inherent property to the universe?

Or have there been (and are) various degrees of consciousness according to whatever biology it’s working with?

If it’s just some weird side effect of many little electric pulses being sent around a huge web of connected points, how is that fundamentally different from a global network artificial intelligence?  So would these systems then have some sort of consciousness?

interesting thought


once AI develops consciousness - will we acquire empathy for them? or vice versa?

[SneakySecrets]

Expand Quote

If consciousness is located solely in the brain, does that mean that a brain is de facto required for consciousness?

Where in animal evolution did consciousness begin?  Since brains evolved from more primitive structures like nets and clumps of neurons, where along the line did consciousness arise?  Where is the cut-off?  Are starfish conscious?  What about nematodes?  Fish?

Or is it independent of brains as just some sort of inherent property to the universe?

Or have there been (and are) various degrees of consciousness according to whatever biology it’s working with?

If it’s just some weird side effect of many little electric pulses being sent around a huge web of connected points, how is that fundamentally different from a global network artificial intelligence?  So would these systems then have some sort of consciousness?

[close]

interesting thought


once AI develops consciousness - will we acquire empathy for them? or vice versa?

Well, I don’t know.  I think there would be a major difference with AI because it will have arisen without being tethered to biology, so a lot of bedrock assumptions that we hold about the world would be completely foreign to it: needing to find food, sexual reproduction, sleeping, seeing the world only through one subjective viewpoint and only through the five senses, threat of physical violence and experiencing physical pain, certainty of death, etc etc. 

How differently would the world be perceived by something for which none of this applies?  Maybe it will have its own set of concerns that we would never understand.

Would we be able to bridge the gap or would we be so alien to one another that empathy would be impossible?

[Uncle Flea]

Where did my pop go? A barrel on its side that’s my best Ollie today. It’s pathetic. I feel like I’m 10

[Mean salto]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

If consciousness is located solely in the brain, does that mean that a brain is de facto required for consciousness?

Where in animal evolution did consciousness begin?  Since brains evolved from more primitive structures like nets and clumps of neurons, where along the line did consciousness arise?  Where is the cut-off?  Are starfish conscious?  What about nematodes?  Fish?

Or is it independent of brains as just some sort of inherent property to the universe?

Or have there been (and are) various degrees of consciousness according to whatever biology it’s working with?

If it’s just some weird side effect of many little electric pulses being sent around a huge web of connected points, how is that fundamentally different from a global network artificial intelligence?  So would these systems then have some sort of consciousness?

[close]

interesting thought


once AI develops consciousness - will we acquire empathy for them? or vice versa?

[close]

Well, I don’t know.  I think there would be a major difference with AI because it will have arisen without being tethered to biology, so a lot of bedrock assumptions that we hold about the world would be completely foreign to it: needing to find food, sexual reproduction, sleeping, seeing the world only through one subjective viewpoint and only through the five senses, threat of physical violence and experiencing physical pain, certainty of death, etc etc. 

How differently would the world be perceived by something for which none of this applies?  Maybe it will have its own set of concerns that we would never understand.

Would we be able to bridge the gap or would we be so alien to one another that empathy would be impossible?

It took like half a million years for humans to start caring about animals. AI will feel nothing for us. Earth will become one of those all robot planets from old sci fi movies

[Mean salto]

Space is dumb. All we did was use up a bunch of resources and make a ton of pollution so some nerds could put a bunch of garbage into orbit.

[Uncle Flea]

Do you think jumping rope would help me get some pop back?

[Mean salto]

If Netflix paid a skateboarder to do a video part that only was available on their service (like a comedian with a stand-up special) would anybody even watch it.

[ChuckRamone]

A little while back I overheard some rollerbladers at the skatepark taking about doing tricks switch. I wondered how that's possible with rollerblading. Seems like you're either rolling forwards or backwards and you turn clockwise or counterclockwise.

[Mean salto]

A little while back I overheard some rollerbladers at the skatepark taking about doing tricks switch. I wondered how that's possible with rollerblading. Seems like you're either rolling forwards or backwards and you turn clockwise or counterclockwise.

I think skiers call fakie switch so best guess is that. Altho yeah I've seen scooter kids and bmx playing skate (or whatever word they use) and they do different tricks to what's set like one does back 3 and the other front 3 because they've decided ones switch for them

[backfliptofiftyfifty]

If consciousness is located solely in the brain, does that mean that a brain is de facto required for consciousness?

Where in animal evolution did consciousness begin?  Since brains evolved from more primitive structures like nets and clumps of neurons, where along the line did consciousness arise?  Where is the cut-off?  Are starfish conscious?  What about nematodes?  Fish?

Or is it independent of brains as just some sort of inherent property to the universe?

Or have there been (and are) various degrees of consciousness according to whatever biology it’s working with?

If it’s just some weird side effect of many little electric pulses being sent around a huge web of connected points, how is that fundamentally different from a global network artificial intelligence?  So would these systems then have some sort of consciousness?

i think all consciousness really is is that its sort of an “level” of intelligence that animals and complex organisms eventually reach once a certain point of criteria is reached.

an animal must first understand basic feelings such as pain and pleasure so it knows what to seek out and what to avoid. then base emotions begin to form like fear, greed, and contentment which as symptoms from those base feelings. then more complex emotions soon follow. if an predator or scavenger wants to survive in its ecosystem it would need develop complex thinking such as object permanence, abstract thought and theory of mind. eventually, once this organism becomes sufficient in observing and interacting with its environment, at a certain point they would probably look at themselves in the reflection of water and realize “oh god, thats me, im alive, i exist”.

theres evidence that some animals like dolphins and orangutans have the intelligence of a small human child and can recognize themselves in the mirror and even understand themselves as a living being. in fact, orangutans probably fully understand why their habitat is being destroyed by humans. even elephants have been known to exhibit ritualistic and quasi-religious behaviour based on lunar cycles

[JANUS]

Are Alex Jones’ lawyers incompetent, or just really, really funny.

[SneakySecrets]

I’d love to be a fly on the wall while the US government people are trying to figure out what Russian prisoner(s) to offer up in exchange for Brittney Griner.

It’s like… how dangerous of an enemy to the United States does someone need to be for them to trade 9 years of her life for?  Where’s the line?

It’s just such a bizarre thing to quantify someone’s life in terms of potential national security threats.

[Blind Fisherman]

Why do Scarlett Johansson’s eyes look like that?

[Justis]

If we have a concept of nothing then what happens when you die ? Theoretically nothing is actually something since it’s been defined. The concept of zero exists but as a place holder for absence of anything. But if you can define it ,is it still nothing?

[SneakySecrets]

If we have a concept of nothing then what happens when you die ? Theoretically nothing is actually something since it’s been defined. The concept of zero exists but as a place holder for absence of anything. But if you can define it ,is it still nothing?

Well I think those are two different questions.  I think the “nothing” when we die is a lack of consciousness and we would experience it just like we experienced the time before we were born… that is, no experience whatsoever.

The next point that “nothing” being defined makes it “something” is either some semantic game or is genuinely too profound for me to understand.

[Uncle Flea]

A little while back I overheard some rollerbladers at the skatepark taking about doing tricks switch. I wondered how that's possible with rollerblading. Seems like you're either rolling forwards or backwards and you turn clockwise or counterclockwise.

I think the term in blader speak is “Unnatural”
And can be applied to
rotation direction or foot placement on an obstacle.

I like fakie fire cracker. Might be impossible to fire cracker forward on blade tho so it might be just fire cracker.

It’s pretty much the exact same tactic as skateboarding fire cracker.  You wanna clip the tip of the stairs and basically do a manual.

What do we call RB mannys? I can’t remember. I did like bombing hills on my toes tho. That’s probably my first RB trick.

Fakie manny hill bomb. Makes sense because my first skateboarding trick was hill bomb. Same with my little brothers’.

Anyway

During my few months of PT blading I liked to land tricks into stairs like it was a bumpy wedge ramp.

I was told by a friend was is a heavy trick back in the day.

Do like alley oop? 180 fakie top soul?
(Rail on the left, counter clockwise 80, Right foot locked over the bar left foot rear wheel on the rail and pow into to the stairs.

So much fun!!! I want go do it rn. Lol.

the big negative to rbs is escaping cops or violence. So difficult

Skateboarding is the best ride for art crimes and shit. 
Hop a fence in seconds and walk down the tracks till you are outside the city’ hop on a bus and be gone.

RBs are a pain and bikes are sometimes too heavy to whip over the barbwire.

[Sativa Lung]

I want to start a lemonade company called Milkmilk and sell it exclusively from stands on the same block as the local confectionary.