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Expanding my Mind


fastortoise

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:lol: you can't kicka caffeine addiction?
I've never tried because there's no reason for me to stop. I know my mum tried cutting back on coffee, but picked up smoking instead. It's all about stress levels or something I guess.

 

I think it's great that you read scientific papers. My advice would be to keep doing that, but perhaps browse a good science news site like sciencedaily.com as a starting point. There's all kinds of topics covered on that site.
Nice site, bookmark'D! thanks

 

I suppose this is a good chance to namedrop Rick Roderick. He was a philosophy lecturer at a few universities, and is reasonably well known for making complex material accessible to just about anyone. You can download a few series of lectures in audio format here. He's interesting, funny and highly informative. Philosophy with a West Texas kick.
His name sounds familiar. I've bookmarked the page since I do not want to venture into his lectures with a hangover.

 

 

 

 

I am now doing some research on recombinant DNA technology for environmental cleanup, after wondering if a factory of GM bacteria could potentially convert all the free inorganic carbon (CO2) in the atmosphere into organic carbon.

 

That GM bacteria would essentially have to outdo 2.8 billion years of syanobacteria evolution. Also, there is something like a bit under a teratonne of carbon in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere so you would be making a lot of organic material.

 

Well, it wouldn't have to extract ALL inorganic carbon from the atmosphere. Just the increased amount factories and cars have been churning out for the past century. Also, with recombinant technology, you can make bacteria do all sorts of bio magic.

 

Try quantum physics, the dancing wi li masters is a good read and takes some re-reading and concentration to wrap your head around some of it.
All I can get from quantum physics is that all particles behave as a wave, and you can predict it's position on the wave based on probabilities. I already know all that relativity and special relativity stuff, I don't find it expanded my brain as much as biology topics since I simply cannot apply quantum physics to everyday life.

 

Try becoming ambidextrous! I hear being able to use both arms makes you able to think better (I intend to do it sometime), that and it's convenient for when you break an arm and want to keep doing things you normally do with your dominant hand.

 

 

 

I can't think of anything else, most of the good ones have been taken.

Hahaha, very interesting concept. I tried this for an hour before posting, and it's more annoying than mind-opening.

 

 

 

EDIT: I have no idea what happened here :lol: ^^

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  • 2 weeks later...

I recall a post on here, could have been quite awhile back, I don't rightly remember. Anyways, the point was that in the topic was a link to a site with a ton of somewhat complex math problems for you to solve. I think it might have statistics to how many people had solved the problems to date? I mention it because this seems like the perfect opportunity to ask someone if they have the link as it could benefit you and I both :P

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First of all, hats off to you for doing this. You might be bored at times but having the time to catch up on learning and doing things is a great thing.

 

 

 

I can second the Richard Dawkins forums. I've posted quite a bit there in the past but not much recently (lack of time more than anything) but there are lots of intelligent and lively debates going on. I'd also recommend reading this post at a blog I frequent. It seems right up your alley, it's all about learning using the internet.

 

 

 

To highlight some of their recommendations. iTunes U is great for this sort of thing, so many lectures to choose from on all sorts of topics. Walter Lewin is great for basic physics, and Leonard Susskind does more advanced physics topics with an interesting twist. I've also started listening to the Daniel Kaufman lectures on philosophy, and my friend recommended me the 7.012 Introduction to Biology lectures from MIT which he used when preparing for his Cambridge interview. You don't get much better than http://www.physicsforums.com/ for physics, covers every level really and it's got some maths stuff as well.

 

 

 

A couple of book recommendations. A Concise Introduction to Pure Mathematics by Lieback is a really good primer on more advanced maths. You don't need much prior knowledge beyond what you have (I think, but might be wrong) and a lot of universities recommend it. This reading list from Cambridge also contains a wealth of book recommendations for anyone interested in maths at all levels. And this is a preliminary reading list for Natural Sciences there and has a lot of good book recommendations. If you're interested in logic Godel, Escher, Bach would definitely appeal.

 

 

 

And one final thing before I bore you to death, you mentioned going to the gym. Because I like what you're doing I'll give you this advice. Please please please please don't go anywhere near websites like bodybuilding.com looking for your first routines. Assuming you're wanting to maybe build some strength and muscle mass. Go here and learn about 5x5 strength training (not necessarily the starting strength program, although you can't go wrong with that). It's a program that works, not one designed for genetically lucky mesomorphs who want to do 20 sets per bodypart. Keep it simple and focus on the big lifts. Eat well and sleep well and you'll definitely grow.

"Da mihi castitatem et continentam, sed noli modo"

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And one final thing before I bore you to death, you mentioned going to the gym. Because I like what you're doing I'll give you this advice. Please please please please don't go anywhere near websites like bodybuilding.com looking for your first routines. Assuming you're wanting to maybe build some strength and muscle mass. Go here and learn about 5x5 strength training (not necessarily the starting strength program, although you can't go wrong with that). It's a program that works, not one designed for genetically lucky mesomorphs who want to do 20 sets per bodypart. Keep it simple and focus on the big lifts. Eat well and sleep well and you'll definitely grow.

 

I don't really have a specific goal when I go to the gym. It's just 1 or 2 hours of free training three times a week with two close friends. I'm not a weightlifter, I just want a cut body which I already have.. I was pretty slim to start off with. I find that the internet doesn't have much to offer when it comes to physical training - it's too specific for each person. If people are wondering, I'm mostly working on my legs this week 8-)

 

 

 

As for the rest of the post; pure gold! I bookmark'ed the blog post and I'll be reading it later (when I come back from the gym :P ). I lean more towards biology/genetics, so I doubt i'll be reading lots of mathematic littererature :( It's good to know I have a concise list of them, for future curiosity. To update, I'm still reading mostly scientific reports. I've JUST started printing them out and noting on it because it helps me retain the information, just reading them on a monitor is not sufficient.

 

 

 

Thanks again for the helpful suggestions, it's been going well so far.

 

 

 

EDIT: If anybody has read some interesting scientific papers (of any field of science) PLEASE share. Mindlessly browsing Google Scholar is taking it's toll on me.

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EDIT: If anybody has read some interesting scientific papers (of any field of science) PLEASE share. Mindlessly browsing Google Scholar is taking it's toll on me.

 

Any field, eh? Here are some pulled from my bookmarks...

 

 

 

[hide=]Illicit Drugs

 

Occasional and controlled heroin use: Not a problem?

 

The Effect of Drug Prohibition on Drug Prices: Evidence from the Markets for Cocaine and Heroin

 

MAPS

 

 

 

Prostitution

 

New directions in research on prostitution (Crime, Law & Social Change)

 

Flawed Theory and Method in Studies of Prostitution (Violence Against Women)

 

Rehashing Tired Claims About Prostitution (Weitzer responds to criticism)

 

 

 

Sexuality

 

Snippets from various scholarly articles regarding pedophilia:

 

viewtopic.php?p=6496582#p6496582

 

 

 

OBEs, NDEs and Parapsychology

 

Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands (The Lancet)

 

The Ketamine Model of the Near Death Experience: A Central Role for the NMDA Receptor (Journal of Near-Death Studies)

 

About the continuity of our consciousness (here is a more readable version)

 

Various publications on NDEs, OBEs and cases suggestive of reincarnation.'

 

Various PEAR publications

 

(Take these with a grain of salt...)

 

 

 

Miscellaneous scholarly and non-scholarly articles:

 

The Endless Universe: Introduction to the Cyclic Universe (Steinhardt-Turok model)

 

The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself

 

Parallel Universes: Are They More Than a Figment of Our Imagination?

 

Mature Coping Among Life-Sentenced Inmates: An Exploratory Study of Adjustment Dynamics

 

Capital Punishment and Homicide: Sociological Realities and Econometric Illusions[/hide]

 

 

 

In my opinion, "expanding your mind" is just a cliché for "experiencing new things." Some things that worked well for me: visiting different cultures; learning the arts (drawing, music, etc); learning to program/develop games; dabbling in altered states (i.e. drugs, meditation, or OBEs); learning to cook fine cuisine; going camping; listening to music I wouldn't usually; meeting new people; etc...

 

 

 

Good luck. :thumbup:

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  • 1 year later...

I feel like you find folks deserve an update on my progress. I dabbed in most of your suggestions but concentration only on a few. In no particular order:

 

- Learning to program: too logical and redundant at times. I stopped mainly because I didn't see it as a useful skill to have and still don't.

- Learning a new language: kinda too big of a task to work up to. I was looking for more of lifestyle changes that I can ease into.

- XKCD forums: this was huge for me. I had lots of interesting conversations about things that plagued my mind with geniuses. I also found many great scientific articles linked to me from there.

- Scientific articles: when I made my original post I didn't have access to much. But now I'm in university and have access to a VPN and thus have everything at my fingertips. I have a 2" binder of articles all highlighted and annotated, but over the year I've been reading less articles and more scientific books, and other books too like novels.

- Rick Roderick: I downloaded all his lectures to find out I couldn't stand sitting for an hour length listening to stuff I had no experience with. I have to read more philosophy before going back to him, which I will one day.

- Learning advanced Math/Physics: I'm not sure if I had chosen to go into Biology in Uni at the time I started the thread but now I am confident that I don't want to bother with math and physics anymore.

- Going to the gym: I'm a freaking monster now, I do pushups like they're nothiiiing. I'll update my "my progress" thread in the health forums once the summer is up.

- Venomai's post: let's just say I'm glad he's been inactive for a bit because I didn't read any of the stuff he linked. The last paragraph did influence me a bit but meh. Not really.

 

That's the recap of your suggestions. But I've also gone out of my way to start writing. Lately I've been jotting down ideas about my theory on how the human brain works and all the philosophy behind it ect. ect. and it's been really rewarding. Sometimes after I'd been sitting thinking for hours and come up with something really smart I get butterflies in my stomach, it's great. Writing is a great skill to have and I find that writing each night helps me compose myself sometimes.

 

As for reading, here are the books I've read since the end of my winter semester (in 3 months)

 

-Life Ascending

-Collapse

-Farenheit 451

-Consilience

-Slumdog Millionaire

-Isaac Newton

-Chaos

-And Another Thing...

-The Origin of Species (I read the first half last summer, 2nd half in a week in July)

-The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

-Sputnik Sweetheart

 

As you can see, the list is pretty much all scientific books with a sprinkle of novels to keep me sane. I'm not going to dive into experiences with girls/drugs because just looking back at my post I think there's enough here to make someone decide to do what I'm doing. The experiences I won't mention are in their own right enlightening but not necessary for the goal I'd set for myself, if that makes any sense. I guess I'd say they didn't make me smarter, but gave me a wider view on life, and made me appreciate things worth appreciating. I guess I should write more because I'm not too eloquent over here.

 

Anyways, no need to reply unless you have more suggestions. I don't care if this plummets back down to page 50, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm sticking to it :thumbup:

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I don't care if this plummets back down to page 50, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm sticking to it :thumbup:

 

I think it's cool that you updated. Often people post things and then disappear, so we never get to find out what happened. Keep it up! :)

For it is the greyness of dusk that reigns.

The time when the living and the dead exist as one.

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I wanna see a image of how far you've come with weights anyway, helps personally inspire me its possible for a skinny person like me that I can achieve it too. (and great work. :thumbup: )

Popoto.~<3

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Lately I've been jotting down ideas about my theory on how the human brain works and all the philosophy behind it ect. ect. and it's been really rewarding.

That is something that I would love to write about myself (in a few years, when I know more) and read about from others. Please continue, and then share it with us later :^_^:

99 Hunter - November 1st, 2008

99 Cooking -July 22nd, 2009

99 Firemaking - July 29th, 2010

99 Fletching - December 30th, 2010

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