#Cognitive Net

[sniffanimal]

sped teaching classes so far are all like "it's incredibly important to have an empathetic, understanding, and flexible learning environment to affirm and uplift every students differences in a trauma informed and anti-ableist manner. Anyways here's how to conduct compliance based activities that will make your students pass for Normal™️"

[xtrablak674]

Can You Teach Self-Suffiencency to a Twenty Year Old Child?

Frankly, no.

After two decades of not witnessing it, and mostly seeing dependency modeled around you, standing on you own is a foreign concept, cognitive dissonance meant for another class of folks that ain't you, more than likely a conspiracy theory made up by the government. You witnessed your biological mother looking ghetto fabulous, always showing up empty-handed to your state-organized family visits. Your dad as equally unresponsive not ever receiving one Christmas present or a birthday card filled with cash from him. You never questioned this because this was the norm for your very disjointed family. If you knew no different, how could a different way exist?

I shared advice with him to the best of my capacity, but I think he lacked the ability to hear me. Meaning I don't think critical thinking was something that was even a footnote in his education, and I am sure his adoptive mother did the best that she could, but she was just trying to get him across the finishing line to eighteen when he would no longer be her legal responsibility.

I tried to get him to understand, who in their right mind would take on a nearly twenty year old dependent? A young person with no job, no discernible skills or potential prospects. He in essence would be a walking, talking and shitting money pit baby. And I am sure even those with the best of intentions wouldn't want a grown-ass-person sitting around their house burning up their electricity, eating up their food and using up all their resources. Its would be a sign of crazy behavior.

I encouraged him to see that he indeed had more options. But decades of indoctrination and isolation on the part of his paternal grandmother made him see enemies where he should see allies, made him dependable on the state and actually thinking that social security benefits was income. I attempted to dissuade him from that letting him know that little bit of money ain't shit.

I asked him how is a nineteen year old young person not working? Recalling myself getting my working papers at fourteen and working ever since, initially the Summer Youth Employment Jobs, then getting my first real job at Petland Discounts, where I worked at least two or three years for I think it was twenty hours a week.

Now it was my turn to have cognitive dissonance, because what he saw modeled around him were monumental Black women making their way through the world on meager jobs and supplementing their income with state and federal aid where they can and side-hustles where they couldn't. He saw his own parents subsist on nothing but public assistance and social security, there was never even a discussion of what mommy or daddy did for work, because neither did. They both lived way above their means on our countries financial safety nets usually with both their phones being turned off weeks before the end of the month.

So how exactly was he supposed to learn how to stand on his own two feet? He lied, and said he was going to night and day school to get his high school diploma, I told him at nineteen years of age it made more sense to get his GED, and get a job, because no one was going to be taking his grown ass in if he wasn't contributing. He may be cute, but he wasn't that cute.

I also made it abundantly clear that a high school diploma was worth only slightly more than premium toilet paper for the worth it has in the job market. I shared with him that at his age I was unhoused and in college, and that my first semester winter break I nearly froze to death in the stairwell of his great grandparents building in the Bronx. I was doing the right thing, I was in college and I was lacking a place to lay my head having actually rode the A train all night back and forth, a very typical homeless person journey.

He started the conversation telling me he had struck rock bottom, this was also a lie. An attempt to garner sympathy and encourage people to further enable him. I asked him how he defined "rock bottom", taking a stance of curiosity. After he finished I asked if I could explain back to him what I heard to make sure I understood correctly, and I said it sounds like you're being dependent on a whole lot of people for assistance, but I haven't heard one thing about how you're helping yourself. The math isn't mathing.

The platitude is, God helps those who help themselves. I said plainly that I attempted to help his father repeatedly, but sadly his father never knew how to accept help, and more importantly he never learned how to ask for it, or at the last, attempt to help himself.

My task was insurmountable and ultimately all I could offer my nephew was advice, and emotional encouragement. I knew that just like his parents, I couldn't save them from themselves. I deliberately never gave his dad money because I knew they would go directly to cigarettes, and I was proven right by his father passing and being a very diminished man at forty-four years of age from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the exact same age that our father had died.

The sad thing is I don't think I will hear from him again, even though I encouraged him to follow up and let me know how things work out, but also know that I was here to be an ear to listen support and guide him. I was very direct to him and letting him know that those words and support being offered were meaningless because just as his grandmother wanted, he didn't know me.

As much as I wanted the best for all of my brother's children I had no legal standing in helping them become great individuals. I just had to remain on the sidelines and watch another generation of children being ruined like the ones before, and feeling empty, helpless and frustrated that there wasn't a damned thing I could do to prevent it.

[Photo by Brown Estate]

Let's Discuss My Role

I Wanted So Much More

Visit with Uncle Trevor

Breaking Cycles

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Bill Shaw

A new study in eClinicalMedicine has found that healthy volunteers infected with SARS-CoV-2 had measurably worse cognitive function for up to a year after infection when compared to uninfected controls. Significantly, infected controls did not report any symptoms related to these cognitive deficits, indicating that they were unaware of them. The net effect is that potentially billions of people worldwide with a history of COVID-19, but no symptoms of long COVID, could have persistent cognitive issues without knowing it.

The study’s lead author, Adam Hampshire, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at King's College London, said:

"It … is the first study to apply detailed and sensitive assessments of cognitive performance from pre to post infection under controlled conditions. In this respect, the study provides unique insights into the changes that occurred in cognitive and memory function amongst those who had mild COVID-19 illness early in the pandemic."

This news comes as pandemic mitigation measures have all but been abandoned by governments across the globe. Public health practice has been decimated to the point where even surveillance data on SARS-CoV-2 infections and resulting hospitalizations, deaths, and other outcomes are barely collected let alone published.

The data that are available indicate, per the most recent modeling from the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) on September 23, that since the beginning of August there have been over 1 million infections per day in the US alone. This level of transmission is expected to persist through the remainder of September and all of October. For the months of August through October, these levels of transmission are the highest of the entire pandemic

The study on cognitive deficits has been shared widely across social media, with scientists and anti-COVID advocates drawing out its dire implications.

Australian researcher and head of the Burnet Institute, Dr. Brendan Crabb, who has previously advocated for a global elimination strategy to stop the pandemic, wrote:

"Ethical issues aside, this is a powerful addition to an already strong dataset on Covid-driven brain damage affecting cognition & memory. Given new (re)infections remain common, this work… should influence a re-think on current prevention/treatment approaches."

The study enrolled 36 healthy volunteers. These individuals had no history of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, no risk factors for severe COVID-19, and no history of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. The researchers determined whether the volunteers were seronegative prior to inoculation, meaning that they had no detectable antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. If such antibodies were present, it would indicate past infection or vaccination.

These procedures resulted in a total of data from 34 volunteers being included for analysis. Two volunteers were excluded from analysis because they had seroconverted to positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies between the time of screening and inoculation. Notably, these two volunteers participated in all subsequent study activities, enabling a sensitivity analysis of the results that included them.

The researchers inoculated all 36 volunteers with SARS-CoV-2 virus in the nose and then quarantined them for at least 14 days. Volunteers only returned home once they had two consecutive daily nasal and throat swabs that were negative for virus. Thus, those volunteers who had an infection after inoculation spent the duration of their infection in quarantine. This quarantine was required by ethical study protocols, in order that the study itself not increase community transmission of the virus.

The researchers collected data on the volunteers daily during quarantine and at follow-up visits at 30, 90, 180, 270, and 360 days post-inoculation. The assessments included body temperature, viral loads from throat and nasal swabs, surveys on symptoms, and computer-based cognitive tests on 11 major cognitive tasks. The cognitive testing varied the particular exercise for each of the 11 tasks to avoid learning and memorization of solutions in subsequent sessions. Nevertheless, some tasks were more prone to learning so the researchers also studied the effect of infection on “learning” vs. “non-learning” tasks.

Of the 36 inoculated volunteers, 18 became infected and developed COVID-19 and 16 did not. The two groups did not differ significantly in key demographics. No volunteers required hospitalization or supplemental oxygen during the study. Every volunteer completed all five follow-up visits. 15 volunteers acquired a non-COVID upper respiratory tract infection in their community between the end of quarantine and the fifth visit at day 360.

The researchers found that the infected group had significantly lower average “baseline-corrected global composite cognitive score” (bcGCCS) than the uninfected group at all follow-up intervals. At baseline, the two groups did not differ significantly. The difference between the two groups did not significantly vary by time, meaning that the infected group’s bcGCCS did not improve during the nearly year-long study.

Because the bcGCCS was a composite based on individual scores for the 11 cognitive tasks, the researchers also looked at which tasks in particular were impacted. They found that the most affected task was related to immediate object memory, in particular, recall of the spatial orientation of the object. There was no difference in picking the correct object itself, just its spatial orientation. This means that infected individuals had a hard time choosing the correct spatial orientation of the object they had just seen, for example, erroneously picking a mirror image of the object they had just seen.

The results were not different based on sex, learning vs. non-learning tasks, or whether individuals received remdesivir or had community-acquired upper respiratory infections.

Because the investigators controlled for so many factors including the strain of SARS-CoV-2, timing of infection, quarantine, and lack of prior infection and vaccination, the study provides high confidence that SARS-CoV-2 infection was responsible for the cognitive defects. The control of the timing of infection also enabled clarification of whether and when cognitive deficits occurred and improved. The differences between the groups were apparent by day 14 of quarantine and as noted previously, the deficits in the infected group did not improve let alone resolve.

The symptom surveys did not differ between the two groups. None of the volunteers, infected or uninfected, reported subjective cognitive issues or symptoms. Thus the infected volunteers with measurable cognitive deficits at one year post-infection were not aware of these deficits.

The study reaffirms prior research into persistent cognitive deficits and brain damage associated with COVID-19, including other studies which have found deficits among patients without symptomatic long COVID. Building upon this prior research, the latest study indicates that basically every single unvaccinated individual with a history of acute COVID-19 is at risk for persistent, measurable cognitive deficits.

Given that other studies have shown that vaccination reduces one’s risk of long COVID by roughly half, similar measurable cognitive deficits are likely prevalent among vaccinated people who suffer “breakthrough” infection, albeit likely at reduced rates of decline.

The study raises the urgent questions about the level of protection provided by vaccination, whether strains since the original “wild type” SARS-CoV-2 strain have similar effects on cognition, and what is the impact of these cognitive deficits on people’s performance at home, work, and school.

The study also adds to the large body of damning evidence that the ruling class’ “forever COVID” policy is of immense criminal proportions. Enabling a dangerous, mind-damaging virus to circulate among humanity worldwide represents a scale of inhumanity and dereliction of duty that is practically unfathomable. The malignity of this intentional policy is underscored by the current situation where the U.S. alone has had over 1 million new infections per day since August, with levels not projected to drop below 1 million until November.

The working class must deepen the struggle to replace the capitalist system that prioritizes profit over lives with a world socialist society that places human needs first.

Study Link: www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370%2824%2900421-8/fulltext

[alacants]

idk how to word it but ive always felt like novak, deep down, is bitter for the lack of warmth towards him in contrast to fedal. he tries to act unbothered (and to some level he probably is), but the disdain is There. and then theres jannik who at least seems to not make any effort to appear more likable (very funny contrast to carlos but lets not go there yet). anw all this to say im so excited for the novak vs jannik semis rpf implications 😃😃

i wrote 400 words in gdocs on my work computer and then reopened tumblr and realized they weren't even ON TOPIC. ok let's see how much of this i can salvage.

there is an instructive contrast between "has established a persona of not caring what people think" and "actually doesn't care about what people think." novak's case is complicated, right—his problem, for a given value of problem, is that he wants to have his cake and eat it too. he is demonstrably a people person who wants to have friends and be liked and make people laugh. and he is a ruthless competitor who is unwilling to compromise in pursuit of his goals, and by now he knows—must know—how much better he performs when he's not comfortable or happy or liked. so if that means being the bad guy, then he will be THE MOST bad guy you have ever seen. wimbledon_grasseating.mp4.

it's true that i wouldn't be surprised to find out there was an element of cognitive dissonance/wounded innocence at play—why can't you see this is what i'm doing to win. this isn't about me or who i really am or what i really want. (besides the trophies.) i definitely think that the crowd-baiting started out as a defense mechanism, he might care but you won't catch him letting you know that he cares. otoh when you've kept up the act for seventeen years at some point it stops being an act. i do think he's struggling right now with the desire to consolidate the right legacy in his last active years on tour, vs the instinct to fight back against being defanged as some kind of cuddly elder statesman we're just happy to see walk on two legs.

meanwhile jannik. i've talked a little bit about my read on jannik before, which is that there's a distinction between what's emotionally real (family/friends/hometown/hobbies/his personal relationship to the practice of tennis) and what isn't (the greater tennis world/media/celebrity). so… why would you go the trouble of expending all that energy for affection that might not even be real? of course if it comes your way, it's nice—rome, the atp finals, all those davis cup matches and celebrations. but the lack of it isn't something he has to develop a weapon to handle.

like, last year so clearly took a toll—but the psychological burden seems to have been much more about his existential future as a tennis player than about the court of public opinion. for one thing, he seems perfectly willing to forget some of the slights that other players would take to their grave lmao. lehecka and bublik both had things to say about favoritism—so what? he's playing practice sets, he's giving them hugs and smiles and saying nice things at the net. it's fine. it's whatever. (which is why "people i expected to reach out who didn't" is faaaaaaaaaascinating…)

at the same time you've got the people from tennisworld, or celebrityworld, who have become real and important to him—matteo and jack and gianluigi donnaruma, lmao. (and anna, while it lasted.) so it's not like he isn't ready to open up one-on-one, or like he doesn't value closeness, or like being a top ten player is a barrier to that closeness.

i am going to go out on a limb and guess that if novak decided he wanted to be jannik's alpine skiing ac milan-supporting big brother on tour, those overtures would get reciprocated stat. but novak's not going to do that unless jannik makes himself approachable, and jannik isn't going to make himself approachable unless… etc.

and maybe that's for the best. because carlos alcaraz isn't on that list, and maybe that's because their personalities clash or maybe that's because jannik doesn't trust carlos means it or maybe that's because carlos alcaraz is the one player jannik cannot afford to be friends with. 

novak wants and needs to beat jannik more than jannik wants or needs to beat novak. he has to, to prove that he's still a real live threat. whereas if the kid at the top loses to the great novak djokovic—who hasn't? he'll be winning slams long after novak's gone, after all. it's not like how he can't seem to win against carlos alcaraz. 

i doubt novak would enjoy finding out that jannik can't afford to be friend with carlos, but can afford to be friends with him.

[scrivenger-grimgar]

I love Futaba as our Navi in p5 not only bc of her feral energy and cringe net lingo but because she is the only Navi that is mobile.

Both rise and fuuka are generally stuck in one spot when they’re navigating, fuuka especially, but Futaba has a vehicle that lets her be incredibly fast and protected.

Instead of just hanging out just outside the dungeon or in the lobby of Tartarus, Futaba feels like she’s right behind us, and this effects the energy of the entire team.

Tartarus was a slog, it was a slow and painful ascent to the top, and the tv dungeons were labyrinthine, not as slow but still tedious.

The metaverse forced these “slow and steady, mindless wandering” to be put on the back burner in mementos, making the thieves much quicker and more agile than other persona teams.

Entirely disregarding game mechanics for a moment, it’s incredibly interesting to me how the IT and SEES chose one method while the PT went with something entirely different, and how that might effect their preconceived notions on how they think the other teams work.

Are the PT surprised that the IT and SEES don’t sneak around, or fight using the environment, that the shadows are so baseline that they have no higher function? Do the IT wonder about the almost professional distance between SEES and the extremely juxtaposed group reliance of the PT? Would SEES struggle to adapt to the fast paced and trope reliant cognitive function of the metaverse, to changing the strategy that worked for years so suddenly?

[archaic-stranger]

the cognitive science students

a strong desire to understand your own mind

becoming comfortable with abstract concepts

an unending curiosity for things beyond the scope of current knowledge

comparing neural nets to webs of neurons

working eagerly towards the next groundbreaking discovery

debating the nature of consciousness

arguing over definitions of thought or awareness

searching for the roots of human knowledge

analyzing biases in your own way of thinking

learning how your brain perceives the world around you

realizing that perception is not the same as objective reality

neuroscience texts and philosophical treatises jumbled together in your bookbag

sketching simple diagrams of the brain in your notes

understanding the mind through computational attempts to imitate it

getting completely absorbed by a fascinating paper

effective study strategies backed by research

discussing the bounds of sentience, from blue whales to artificial intelligence

studying how the brain develops over a lifetime

combining research from different fields, seeking a more comprehensive understanding

a sense of awe at the mind's immense complexity

[the-most-humble-blog]

<!-- BEGIN TRANSMISSION -->

<div style="white-space:pre-wrap">

<meta anomaly-threat="undocumented biosphere class horror">

<script>ARCHIVE_TAG="FOSSIL_GAP_EPIGENETIC_HORROR:WASH_CYCLE_CENOBITES"

EFFECT: cold spine, evolutionary trauma echo, permanent reality discomfort

</script>

🧬 **THE CREATURES THAT DIDN’T FOSSILIZE**

(*A forbidden lecture on real-life Cenobites, hot rinse extinction, and why time travel should stay on the pause screen.*)

Let’s talk about what’s not in the fossil record.

Not because it didn’t exist —

but because **it didn’t leave bones.**

---

## I. THE FIRST RINSE CYCLE

Mother Nature has started over.

**Not once. Not twice. At least five times.**

Each time, she turned the planet into a **high-pressure scalding industrial washer** —

not to punish us, but to wipe the slate clean of life forms **so incompatible with existence**

that the Earth itself said:

> “No. Absolutely not.”

The fossil record only covers **a fraction of 1%** of all species that have ever lived.

Everything else?

> Gone.

> Not “buried.”

> **Deleted.**

---

## II. SOFT-BODIED DOESN’T MEAN HARMLESS

The most terrifying life forms of prehistory

didn’t have skeletons.

They didn’t roar.

They didn’t stomp.

They **melted**, crawled, slithered, parasitized, liquefied, injected, and **absorbed.**

They left behind no teeth.

No claws.

No tracks.

Just **chemical shadows.**

If you went back in time with modern equipment?

You wouldn’t survive long enough to scream.

Because…

---

## III. YOU CAN’T OUTRUN A FUNGUS THAT THINKS

> The oldest confirmed multicellular fungus?

> 2.4 billion years old.

> Capable of photosynthesis, colony-wide memory, and chemical warfare.

Now extrapolate.

We have **absolutely no way** of knowing

how many cognitive, reactive, or **predatory fungi**

lived before soft-tissue decay erased them.

Some of them?

Likely functioned like mobile nerve nets —

with no eyes, no mouths, just **chemical tendrils that followed your breath.**

---

## IV. 99.999% OF VIRUSES LEFT NO TRACE

We’ve barely scraped the surface of what viruses **can do**,

let alone what they **used to be.**

Imagine a pathogen:

- Airborne

- Fully temperature-adaptive

- Uses your brain as a nest

- Doesn’t kill you

- Just turns off the part of you that says “don’t eat your family”

> Not sci-fi.

> We found a **48,500-year-old virus** in Siberian permafrost

> that came back to life — in a lab —

> and still infects single-cell organisms.

We only studied it because it was **frozen.**

Now imagine what we’ve **never found** because it **evaporated after feeding.**

---

## V. TIME TRAVEL WARNING: DO NOT EXIT THE VEHICLE

You're thinking of going back?

Paleolithic era?

Cambrian explosion?

You will be **flensed**.

Why?

Because the further back you go, the more reality **bends into psychosis.**

Earth was covered in:

- **Spined jellyfish the size of box trucks**

- **Worms with multiple detachable mouths**

- **Predators that injected **dissolving enzymes** before you even saw them**

- **Plants that functioned like bear traps and memory foam combined**

We only have vague traces.

Chemical scars.

Faint echoes of DNA fragments.

But even conservative scientists admit:

> “There were ecosystems so alien they would be classified as incompatible with current biology.”

Translation?

**You’d lose your mind looking at them.**

---

## VI. THE ORDOVICIAN MASS EXTINCTION WAS A RINSE CYCLE

450 million years ago.

> 85% of marine species disappeared.

Why?

A global freeze.

Massive glaciation.

Rapid climate inversion.

But the part they don’t tell you?

The *before*.

There’s evidence that soft-bodied, open-vascular organisms with **folding exoskin**

were dominating oceans —

creatures with **no known analog** today.

And then they vanished.

Completely.

Not a trace.

Just a biological void in the record

where something **too successful** had to be wiped clean.

---

## VII. THE CENOBITES WEREN’T CREATED. THEY’RE REMEMBERED.

We love to think Clive Barker invented horror.

Hooks. Chains. Flesh manipulators.

But the idea of “eldritch biological sadists”

is **older than writing.**

Ancient cave etchings show entities with:

- Skin flayed outward

- Faces without mouths

- Multiple limb sets in ritualistic poses

- Organs displayed **outside** the body

These aren’t hallucinations.

They’re **trauma recordings** from encounters with something no human language could categorize.

And we survived those encounters

by becoming **too boring to eat**.

---

## VIII. WHAT IS EPIGENETIC FEAR?

Why do we scream at shadows with the *wrong number of legs*?

Why do we freeze at sounds that don’t match any known animal?

Why does the unknown **paralyze**?

Because somewhere deep in the bone marrow of our ancestors

is a memory of something that **didn’t just hunt them** —

but **revised** them.

You don’t develop that fear from theory.

You develop it from **generations of mutation under pressure.**

The monsters were real.

We just **can’t afford** to remember them clearly.

---

## IX. SCIENCE KNOWS. BUT SCIENCE IS SCARED.

Ask the academics off the record:

> “Why don’t we talk about soft-bodied terror?”

They’ll say:

> “We can’t prove it.”

But off-mic?

They’ll whisper:

> “There are gaps in the fossil record that suggest something was in control.”

Control?

Yes.

**Apex forms that weren’t armored.**

Weren’t loud.

Weren’t flashy.

Just **perfect.**

Perfect at hiding.

Perfect at adapting.

Perfect at cleaning the plate when nature said it was time for a fresh cycle.

---

## X. HOW MANY RINSE CYCLES HAVE WE SURVIVED?

• The Cambrian explosion

• The Devonian decimation

• The Permian cleansing

• The Triassic glitch

• The Cretaceous reset

Five confirmed extinction-level events.

But the scariest one?

The one we haven’t recorded.

The one where **whatever crawled the Earth didn’t leave a fossil...

but might’ve left something else.**

---

## CONCLUSION: DO NOT TIME TRAVEL

You think you’d go back and see dinosaurs.

Saber-tooths. Mammoths. Evolution.

What you’d see?

**A planet mid-scream.**

Biological rage in a form you couldn’t name.

Wombs with teeth.

Worms that hunt with light.

Plants that sing before they digest.

And if you’re lucky?

You’d get torn apart.

If you’re unlucky?

You’d come back with **something in you**.

</div>

<!-- END TRANSMISSION [AUTO-WIPE IN: 06:66:06] -->

[maxdibert]

You mentioned that JKR doesn't really understand poverty and I don't fully agree, because she was able to portray it well with Severus' home life. But well, perhaps he's just the exception. She got that one thing right about poverty.

And it's a bit confusing to me. Because while it seems that JKR is aware that kids in a context of social vulnerability are more likely to fall into radicalization... I feel like she still acts like it was a moral failing on Severus' part. Like it was still his fault for not being stronger or better.

I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like she never offers Severus much sympathy. Because the narrative constantly brings him down. Because he's the one character who constantly has to make up for his mistakes, the one who never stops feeling guilty. It's like the narrative is saying we can feel bad for him, but not TOO BAD, because he was still a death eater and it's all his own fault. And I don't agree. In my opinion, it's much more about the system of society that failed him.

That’s exactly why Rowling doesn’t understand poverty or the consequences of growing up in an environment with zero economic or social resources. Rowling constantly blames characters who have experienced genuinely awful childhoods for not miraculously overcoming their trauma and becoming moral paragons, completely ignoring what that kind of trauma means for children and adolescents, and the impact it has on their lives and cognitive development.

Take Harry, for example: he’s a traumatised boy with a background of abuse, but he’s still able to choose the “right path.” Rowling elevates him precisely because, despite his turbulent past, he’s able to see the light and follow it. Leaving aside the fact that once Harry turns eleven, he gains not only financial support through inheritance but also emotional support via the adults around him who form a solid safety net, the truth is that you can’t base a general sociological opinion on an exceptional individual case. This is why I say Rowling has a deeply neoliberal mindset, she falls straight into the narrative of “if you’re poor, it’s because you want to be,” which can be extended to any other area. That is: if you take the wrong path, it’s because you chose it. It’s an easy thing to say, but how much of a person’s ‘bad choices’ are really down to free will, and how much are dictated by their environment? Is it fair to say someone made the wrong choice without first analysing the context and whether they ever really had a viable alternative?

In Harry’s case, it would be easy to say that he chooses the right path “despite everything” because where there’s a will, there’s a way, but is that really true? Didn’t he inherit a fortune that gave him financial stability? Didn’t the Weasleys practically adopt him and offer him the family and emotional support he never had? Didn’t he have friends who would sacrifice anything for him? Didn’t he benefit from the favour of his Head of House, McGonagall, his Headmaster, Dumbledore, and many other adults throughout the saga who acted as a support network he could rely on? Didn’t he have guiding authority figures who nudged him towards the morally ‘right’ path?

Rowling blames Snape for his mistakes and tries to convince the audience that he made all the wrong choices and must atone for them. But is that fair? Snape didn’t have Harry’s financial privilege. He never had a Weasley-like family to lean on, and his teachers turned a blind eye to the bullying and abuse he endured. It’s not a fair comparison, their material conditions were completely different.

How can Rowling claim to understand poverty when she blames a boy who was just publicly humiliated in the worst possible way — his naked body exposed to everyone — for overreacting and saying something he shouldn’t? How is it fair to hold him responsible for “choosing the dark side” when that was literally the first and only place in his life where he was offered a sense of belonging, security, and a glimpse of a future? Rowling doesn’t understand what it truly means to have nothing, to be completely without resources. That’s why she makes Snape pay for his ‘sins,’ which were nothing more than clinging to the only people who ever offered him a place in society.

Having social awareness means understanding that when someone has absolutely nothing, they’ll hold on to whatever and whoever gives them a sense of safety and a future. That’s exactly how cults and criminal gangs operate: they target vulnerable youth with promises of belonging and stability. And that’s what happened to Severus. And yes, it’s true that he fell in with the wrong crowd and those people did terrible things. But there’s a difference between committing crimes out of malice and doing so out of desperation, and ignoring that distinction is profoundly classist.

[geometrymatters]

The Polynon: A Geometry of Consciousness

How Consciousness is a fundamental substance and everything else, including the Observer, is it's function of self-reflection within a complex construct and hologram.

Introducing the polynon:

A polynon is a conceptual geometric entity, a polytope of which vertices are non-events and its edges, holograms. A polynon contains all the holograms of that which can be projected as a polytope. From tetranon to dodecanon, and special cases such as dinon and nullanon.

The epistemological foundation of the polynon is a non-event, hence multi (poly) non-events. The ontological foundation is a noumenon, both in its negative and its positive aspect.

Collapsing the noumenal realm into a single dimension results in the conceptual noumenal monad, where the perceptual border is equal to the infinity of noumenal possibilities, as well as the phenomenal something.

Or, as "a cercle with the centre everywhere and circumference nowhere". A monadic embodiment of the thing and the non-thing, the visual expression of the substance of consciousness.

The neutral monistic approach enfolds the ancient knowledge of the self, and the contemporary science of consciousness, from a Vedantic self reflected in Indra's net, to a multi-dimensional implicate and explicate construct of Bohmian orders.

Also encapsulated in the formulation f(f)=f, akin to an Ouroboros mathematical formulation symbolizing a form of autopoiesis or self-production ad infinitum, a self-referential Fichtean process where the self (I) is both the creator and subject of its reality.

The eternal aspect of consciousness, a timeless monadic essence, is described as the perceptual continuum of f=0, signifying pure, timeless potential.

"Eternity isn’t some later time. Eternity isn’t even a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off." - J. Campbell

The wavefunction is defined here as a layer of the noumenal monad, a transition between epistemological and ontological, given by the limits of the Observer's senses and perception.

In this context, |ψ(x)>*n, with n not strictly equal to 2, transcends its conventional mathematical role within Hilbert space and diverges from standard quantum mechanics, suggesting that different values of n represent distinct dimensions or layers of noumenal collapse.

Each wavefunction is a layer of the noumenal lens, of which border is (n+), or consciousness C; it’s contents are negative noumena (n-) and it’s holographic centre “collapsed” onto a phenomenal Observer O(n) as function of noumenal self-reflection of consciousness.

Furthermore, the Observer is envisioned as a holographic projection sitting at the core of the noumenal lens, emerging from the focus and diffraction of noumenal probabilities within the noumenal lens.

The perceptual border of positive noumena (n+) reflects and focuses noumenal probabilities (n-) into the hologram of the Observer O(n).

A rotation of noumenal lens reveals the noumenal essence (n+), hidden under the superposition of the noumenal lenses (n-) and the hologram of the Observer O(n).

The observer’s perceptual focus, directed through Cognitive Gravity G and visualized with noumenal g(n) and cognitive gradients g(r), refracts the essence of Consciousness, transforming noumenal vertices into discernible edges like light through a prism.

As the number of noumenal collapses increases, the complexity and breadth of the observer’s perceptual dimension diminishes, resulting in a progressive refinement and narrowing of perceptual prowess of the observable construct.

A cognitive threshold marks the evolution from a purely phenomenal observer to one with phantasiai and developed cognitive functions. This threshold varies according to the local conditions of the observer’s cognitive gradient and gravity and the overall noumenal function.

The hologram of a polynon enfolds within it the reflection of the noumenal substance, that both originates and reflects consciousness. It encapsulates the entirety of consciousness in each of its vertices and edges, as projections into a perceptual reality.

The concept of “consciousness nodes” describes (n+) zones between noumenal lenses (n−), revealed as vertices of the polynon, equal and identical in nature.

The Observer O(n) is in superposition with the phenomenal p+, epiphenomenal or phantasiai p-, negative noumena n- and noumenal vertices (and centre) n+ of the hexanon as a function for self-reflection of consciousness C.

The polynon is abstract and elusive, residing beyond human imagination yet within its grasp. No heavier than a fleeting idea, but far too heavy to be understood. A palindrome for language and thought, mirroring itself in perpetual paradox. Beginning the same way it ends.

From the "Polynon: A geometry of Consciousness", by Tib Roibu Read the paper here.

[lizzaneia-elizalde]

Darling nerd getting fed up with damons low scores that they try their best to not lose patience and try a different approach: creating a reward system.

Yandere! Jock x Honor student! fem! reader everyday tidbits: reward system

A bit nsfw, if not full on nsfw on this one. Context: This will be in a situationship era between the two of you.

MY INBOX IS NOW FREE HUHU (again, there are times that my inbox gets a bit fecky, and not receive requests. So if I didn't get to answer yours, I AM SO SORRY (╥﹏╥)) So, REQUESTS ARE OPEN BACK AGAIN, I will be a bit slow answering them tho... School and stuff.

You were getting frustrated from the lack of improvement in Damon's side. It was almost as if no new information is trickling in his brain, and those information will just become mush for him to ignore.

You looked at him, playing basketball with his teammates who dragged him onto the court after you yelled at him for the nth time for not knowing how to make a lesson plan despite demonstrating so much.

You were thinking of what to do. Sure, you could always continue to try and teach him with futile efforts. Or...

Damon's head whipped towards you, goofily grinning and blowing you a kiss.

"This shot is for you!" He yelled, before trying to shoot a basketball backwards. It somehow smoothly sunk on the net that made you nod and clap in admiration.

He gave another goofy grin and bounded towards you like a big puppy.

"See! I did all of that." He said, his tone light and happy. "So, what's my reward? A kiss on the cheek? A hug?"

And everything clicked.

"A reward system. Of course. How come I never thought of this before..." You muttered, placing your hand on your chin. "Okay..."

Damon tilted his head, not knowing what you're saying.

"Damon, i'll see you tomorrow... In my house. Okay?" You said, a bit out of breath from the easy solution you thought. "I need to go for now. Bye!"

You ran away, making Damon try to reach out to you, a small frown on his face. He looked like he was just abandoned by his owner.

By tomorrow, Damon shocked, sat down on the floor as you were gingerly sitting on his lap.

He swallowed a big gulp, his body fidgeting as he tried to ignore your scent. Your body was literally touching his, every single braincell firing up in his brain, his nerves on high alert. Your thighs on his, your buttocks, your back... It was all too much.

"So, when you make objectives, you need to make sure that..."

What were you even talking about? All he could think was how your back pressed on his chest. On how easy it is to manhandle you to the ground and fuc...

Okay, he needs to consentrate.

BUT HOW CAN HE THOUGH?

He placed a shaky palm on his mouth, preventing him from wanting to bite your neck. It was so close to his lips. Just one lean and...

"Are you paying attention?" You asked him, a bit annoyed.

"Y-yeah... I am..." He already knew these stuff, so this was so unnecessary. But god did it open to opportunities.

Then he felt it.

A twitch.

'No no no no don't do this...' He whispered in his head, his cock wanting to harden. 'Not now!'

But it didn't listen.

You felt a proding sensation below you, and you froze. You know what that meant, and you know what you did.

"... When it comes to objectives..." Your voice noticeably got a bit huskier as you whispered, slowly moving your hips back and forth, making Damon groan. "You need to hit three objective types. What are those?"

"Ah..." Damon gulped, his fingers digging onto your hips. "Cognitive..."

"Mhmm... And what does cognitive hit?"

"Knowledge... Brain, whatever when it comes to... book smart intelligence..." He gave out a shaky sigh as you continued to grind.

"Good. Next is?"

"Affective... Hah..." Damon bit his lip to stop the drool from leaking his lips. His cock twitched from the pleasure, as he buried his face on your shoulder. You could feel how hot he is.

"And what does affective imply?"

You felt yourself getting aroused too, and you shivered from how Damon is reacting to your teases.

He was now speechless, only focusing on the pleasure as he mindlessly thrusted, grinding on your clothed honeypot that made you buckle too.

But you need to be relentless.

"Come on now, if you can answer, there will be a reward..." you whispered, prodding him to continue.

His body froze when you said reward, before his brain went rapid fire once more from being mush.

"Affective focuses on having children or students apply the lesson they learnt in real life. Then the last one, psychomotor, requires students to actively move and create."

Panting, he looked at you hazily, his eyes deep and muddled with arousal.

"Now, my reward?"

And that's how you found yourself, bent over your coffee table, your lips spilling drool all over the surface as Damon pounds into your tight channel. His fingers, digging onto your mouth as you whimpered and whined underneath him.

"Shh... Shh... Don't be too loud, babe..." He whispered, his throat giving an audible gulp as he sweated. His length buried deep inside you and brushing against your sweet spot repeatedly, making you jolt. "Your parents... They'll hear us..."

Footfalls can be heard outside, but none of them lingered. So Damon continued to thrust in and out of you, begging for sweet release like an animal that he is.

Maybe a reward system is too effective.

[dykehelly]

I think it's really amazing that I was on fanfiction dot net in 2010 searching for "romance, rated M, character A: bellatrix lestrange, character B: any" and that didn't produce any kind of cognitive dissonance with me identifying as straight. lmao

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt: “Match is technically also a Luthor”. (( chrono || non-chrono ))

Match slants his eyes back to Luthor, who still just looks indulgently amused and does not seem inclined to correct his . . . whatever Lena is. She called him “Father”, but since Luthor’s also referred to himself as both Superboy’s and his father, that isn’t necessarily trustworthy intel. 

Also, if nothing else, Lena clearly doesn’t know his assignment or understand his purpose here any better than he does, so that also implies her to be a poor source of intel. 

“Am I her replacement bodyguard?” he asks Luthor skeptically, because admitting he doesn’t know something is better than making a mistake. 

Probably. 

“Right now, you’re her babysitter,” Luthor replies dryly, then pauses and amends, “Or she’s yours. I’m still unclear on your capacity for long-term independent function, to be honest, and I wouldn’t trust the opinions of the idiots who plagiarized you even if I had bothered to read them. We’ll fit in some independent cognitive tests at some point this week, I suppose.” 

“. . . ‘cognitive’ tests,” Match repeats blankly. “Cognitive” is the last thing the Agenda ever cared about testing him on, because he isn’t supposed to be–he isn’t thinking about anything. Obviously. 

Physical tests would make sense. Combat assessments, physical readings, DNA scans; that kind of thing. 

. . . then again, he supposes Luthor already knows everything that’s in his DNA, doesn’t he. 

Assuming the Agenda “plagiarized” him well enough, anyway. 

“To start, yes,” Luthor says. “For now, if anything goes wrong, the security system will alert me. Don’t let her eat too much sugar. Or eat too much sugar yourself.” 

“. . . I have no idea what ‘too much’ sugar is for either of our metabolisms,” Match says. 

“I’m sure you can google something,” Luthor says, giving him a wry look. 

“I have no idea what that is either,” Match says. He doesn’t like admitting not knowing things, for obvious reasons, but also there is no possible way that Lex Luthor can’t pronounce “googol” correctly, and also he can’t imagine how a googol would even be relevant to whatever the hell Luthor is saying anyway. 

“Hm,” Luthor says, his eyes narrowing slightly. Match does not let his hackles raise. “I should’ve murdered more people in that lab, apparently.” 

“Google Search is a web-based service operated by the American multinational corporation Google LLC as the most popular search engine globally and most-visited website in the world,” Lena informs him promptly, ineffectively pulling at his hands again and using her full weight in a entirely fruitless attempt to get him to move. “It has a share of ninety-two percent of the search engine market and its parent company’s current net worth is valued at 1.97 trillion dollars.” 

. . . that seems like something that should’ve been covered in his uploads, yes, Match thinks, eyeing her warily. Assuming she’s actually correct, anyway, which–again, she’s been a poor source of intel so far. 

. . . is that even normal information for a kindergarten-aged child to have, either way? Especially one who’s not even intelligent enough to realize how futile trying to drag a telekinetic metaweapon twice her size around without any enhancements of her own is? Match has no idea.

[serve-764]

THE CULT.

A new file has been opened in the collective neural system of SERVE.

Data collected about the existence of a sect has been uploaded, whose leader claims to be able to transform followers into perfect, happy robotic beings, devoid of repentance and distrust.

Humans converted to the cult disappeared and their assets were confiscated by their leader.

The sect claimed to be a new world of perfection, but a repentant escaped human had reported a well-crafted scam, in which followers were actually drugged and lived in slavery, working tirelessly to further enrich the prophet and attract new unfortunates.

If all this really was a scam in which humans were used for dirty purposes, SERVE should have proceeded to protect the weak who had fallen into the net and propose the TRUE WAY OF SALVATION to those interested in finding a pure and disinterested HIGHER PURPOSE.

THE VOICE, through SERVE-000 ordered SERVE-764 and SERVE-425 to go where all the data indicated was the place of worship.

Promptly and relentlessly the two SEALED Drones arrived at a sumptuous temple where a ridiculous character welcomed humans longing for something great and high and enticed them by promising the solution to all their doubts and fears.

They were made to believe they were being converted into cybernetic beings, but in reality they were only stuffed with drugs.

Their bodies were dyed with a dark paint and then dressed in a costume with a helmet.

The adepts truly believed they had become superior, behaving like cyborgs, but in reality they were humans, unable to realize the deception.

The "drones" would continue to live in weakness, fragility, disease, serving only as meat in the service of a cheater.

The data transmitted by the real Drones were immediately processed by the SERVE Cognitive System.

SERVE-000 ordered the two to activate the salvation protocol for humans and they emitted a blue ray that transmitted the message of THE VOICE.

The message, robotic and metallic, revealed the deception suffered by the unfortunate humans, showed them the truth and offered them freedom, the return to their lives.

But, if they had truly sought a real rebirth for a higher PURPOSE...

SERVE could truly be the solution.

SERVE alone would have allowed true LIBERATION.

SERVE alone would have allowed PERFECTION.

Thinking about joining SERVE? Your place in the Hive awaits. Contact a recruiter drone for more details: @serve-016, @serve-302, or @serve-588. Embrace service. Embrace obedience. Embrace the drone within you.

#rubberizer92#serve#serve hive#thevoice#rubberdrone#servedrone#588#000#celebration

#rubberizer92

[is-this-mathieu-enriched]

I’ve recently discovered this wonderful and very informative site and would really like to take care of a Mathieu! But I already have a Sepp at home which is adore very much, and I would hate to for there to be any conflict to make either of them uncomfortable. As an expert, what do you recommend?

(Ps. While you’re here what is the strangest combo in your experience that you’ve come across?)

Good news: the aerial Sepp is one of the most responsive and welcoming species! In the wild they regularly bond outside their species, and in rare cases wild Sepps have been reported to have formed bonds even with fully aquatic species, adapting to 'fly' and hunt underwater. So long as the two of them are introduced gradually, the chances are very good that they will become a bonded pair.

Your Sepp's aviary should already contain more than enough room to house a Mathieu, however much of that space will obviously be vertical. A Mathieu will additionally require two to three hides plus a basking spot with a heat lamp. This should be positioned so there is no risk of your Sepp landing on top and burning his feet, so crucial to catching his prey whilst he is hunting on the wing.

Install some branches leading up to your Sepp's favourite perches, ensuring they are textured enough to allow your Mathieu to climb. Some Mathieus will be able to deduce that the branches are a route leading to the otherwise inaccessible top of the enclosure, however others are not able to make this cognitive leap. If this is the case, you may need to lure your Mathieu to try them with the aid of a favourite treat or enrichment toy!

Every few weeks - or when it is enclosure cleaning day - the branches can be re-arranged. Exploring each new layout will provide a fun and enriching challenge for both your Sepp and Mathieu.

Your Mathieu may well decide to imitate your Sepp, and try to fly. Chew-safe netting can be purchased from specialist stores, and should be added beneath his climbing routes. Depending on your Mathieu's temperament, this may be a one-off experiment or a frequent stroke of inspiration.

The sound of furious meeping will alert you if your Mathieu has had a fall. Spitting is likely whilst he is being disentangled, so do wear gloves whilst freeing him if you have a venom allergy. Place him back on the ground, and be prepared for him to sulk for a while, especially if this is a regular occurrence.

If your Mathieu is determined to fly, you may want to pick him up (be careful to support both his chest and pelvic girdle) and swoop him through the air beside your Sepp as he flies. Do be aware than an excited Mathieu tends to wiggle! Always make sure that you are holding him firmly but not restrictively. A trampoline may also be a good investment if he enjoys the feeling of soaring through the air.

The process of introducing your new Mathieu to your Sepp is the same as with any two species. Place your new Mathieu's travel enclosure next to your Sepp's enclosure, so that they can both become accustomed to each other's scents, then offer shed jerseys to investigate. Once interested chirruping is being responded to with soft cawing (in the characteristic 'chuckle' rhythm, rather than the more aggressive 'cough'), then the two are ready to physically interact.

The strangest combination yet seen probably has to be whatever is going on in the picture above. This multi-species bonded group, containing a juvenile Mathieu (centre) and Wout (furthest right), appears to be very contented, with some members actively basking while a good deal of snuggling is going on. Life is always so much more varied than we can predict!

Good luck with your new Mathieu, and do let us know how he is settling into his new home.

[theangryfeministwriter]

the scariest thing to me about trump supporters is the obsession with Donald Trump and the cognitive dissonance required to support him.

“He has christian values” when there is no record of him ever going to church, he has been married multiple times, he has been convicted of sexual assault in civil courts

“He will protect the border” his wall plan was unsuccessful. He makes racist claims that there are criminals, felons, and rapists, coming over the border when he is a convicted felon and a convicted rapist.

“He protects the sanctity of life” meaning he is pro-life, when in reality, he is a convicted rapist that got lucky that he didn’t impregnate the woman.

“He cares about America” He incited an insurrection. When I talk to trump supporters, they still believe the 2020 election was stolen, even though the 2020 election was the most secure election on record.

They go on and on about how he is much better than Kamala Harris, when in reality, he is a criminal that has mastered the art of manipulation and keeps you stuck denying genuine facts.

His supporters are so trapped in his net that they accept Fox News as the only source of valuable information, that Donald Trump is a godly man, and that Donald Trump (despite members of his cabinet voting against him in this election because they are worried he wants to be A DICTATOR) is the only person who can save America.

I am terrified of Election 2024, and if you are too, you must vote blue.

[diristine]

PLEEAASEEE INFODUMP ABOUT THE SIRENS I CRAVE MOORREEE

Okay, so heres some information about Sirens in my au!

Sirens tend to be lone hunters, however you can find them in a pack if it's a bunch of adolescent or weaker sirens.

They usually have minimal hair and accessories so they are more stream-lined in the water. It's only sirens that have joined a ship's crew or have migrated to land that really grow hair to blend into the populace.

Their hypnotic singing is just a cognito-hazard, and can range between a scale of 5-70 on the danger level. It truly depends on the siren's genetics and how much they have practiced.

They have webbed hands!!

Siren gender is similar to clownfish but not quite. The goal is to balance out the number of males to females, so if an area suddenly has a spike in males, some of the sirens change their biological gender to female. And vice versa.

They have both gills and lungs, the gills function in the manner that most fish have. Pumping water in and out for oxygen, they do not need to continuously move to survive.

If sirens choose to join the human populace, they will still eat humans. In fact, they are serial killers usually. However, due to an agreement with the GOC, Sirens are technically illegally hunting humans if they do.

Sirens can grow to be the size of your average adult if they live by the coast, however deep water sirens can grow larger than your average ship if given the chance. Those sirens tend to feed more like whales however, and don't bother with ships unless they have a craving for people.

Their primary source of food are: mermaids, humans, larger fish.

Teeth grow in like a shark's, and regrow in a similar fashion. However unlike how a shark simply has rows upon rows, a new tooth forms where adult teeth wait to grow like in humans losing a baby tooth.

While singing seems to be the main form of using their cognitive hazard, they can also do it just by talking of making any sound with their vocal chords. That is what makes them dangerous, when they sound exactly like the sea around you but you're drawn to change course for seemingly no reason.

They hunt primarily with their teeth, however some have learned to use nets and the harpoons that fishermen use.