There are Linux distributions where you never need to touch the command line unless you’re doing advanced stuff.

But if you’re a Windows person who wants to be able to use the command line, and you think hacking is cool…

https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/

SSH into a server and find the password to get to the next level. Linux hacking for babies, and you can do it from a Windows computer.

In philosophy, the word “nature” is usually used to mean “the universe”, or “all of existence”. Within a mainstream western framework, “the supernatural doesn’t exist” is thus circular reasoning; a tautology. We can translate it as “Things from beyond existence don’t exist”. Yeah, duh! It’s an unfalsifiable claim, and Karl Popper would be ashamed of it.

Magic isn’t supernatural, because magic is part of nature. It exists. Nobody will ever be able to prove that the supernatural exists, because it’s oxymoronic. But proving that magic exists? Easy, with a robust and falsifiable definition of magic.

S: But… you’re a girl!

P: What gave you that idea? (Visibly having boobs)

S: Then you’re still… [a guy]?

P: Nah, guys are stupid. I’m not one of them anymore. [My transition isn’t about dysphoria or a desire for femininity, it’s about politics (namely, disdain for men).]

S: [Oh, you’re agender/gender-apathetic.] But then why do you have BOOBS now?

P: …I just thought they’d be neat!

Panthera is implying that fae doesn’t care about gender norms, identity, or expression, and has only adopted this body and language for reasons of ideology and values: Men and women are both gross and stupid, but boobs are neat. By the end of the comic, Susie is beginning to understand Panthera’s irreverant response to gender as a cultural construct and wants to experiment with doing the same. Gender can be a playground if you’re brave enough, and Panthera has never wanted for courage or obstinance.

Panthera is a nonbinary gender anarchist who doesn’t believe in gendering body parts. Boobs aren’t just for girls, they’re for anyone who likes boobs.

Yeah! Magic is plenty easy to scientifically study. It’s just a category of technology that’s made out of ideas instead of physical things. You’ve got your mechanical engineers, your electrical engineers, and your magical engineers. Nothing special about it, except how our current culture mystifies it so much.

I blame Christianity for trying to stunt progress on magical science. You know, they failed to keep Galileo from overturning their belief system, but they succeeded in putting down any mages not sanctioned by them. You know they try to monopolise magic so you have to go to them for magical assistance. It’s fucked up.

Okay, let’s talk about magic.

Magic is the technology we use to change our minds and perceptions with our thoughts. For example, the placebo effect. The mere thought that you’ve taken medicine can cause a psychosomatic healing effect. I’m a chaos magician, which means I believe in using psychology to take magic a step further than mere placebos.

Magic is powered by belief. Your classic medical placebos are powered by your belief in medicine. Studies show that placebos work even if you know they’re placebos. I call that faith. You know, choosing to believe, and the belief having an observable effect. Faith is a form of belief powered by will. And you can will yourself into all kinds of things, which is pretty cool. You don’t even need the placebo effect if you’re strong enough to will yourself to get better.

But that’s exhausting, and not everyone has that much faith in themself. We can actually multiply the effect of faith to get a bigger result, using belief structures. You know, like medicine. We choose to believe in medicine, take a sugar pill, and believe the medicine will heal us. It’s more efficient, takes less will to get more healing.

And religions are useful because they can provide large scale systems of belief to multiply the power of our faith. I mean, there’s also the way they can influence society through memes, but let’s focus on magic. Religions make magic stronger.

I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen mortals pray to gods, and the idea of their god gives them strength, multiples the effect of their faith. Because human beings are a social species, and aren’t really designed to do anything alone, including magic. With a coven or a laborator or an atelier or a cult or a relationship with a god, magic gets stronger. Minds get stronger and can do more.

Critical thinking helps you with truth, and truth is great. But truth isn’t everything. Knowing the solution to a problem and doing it are too different things. Religious magic can help people do what critical thinking says is the right solution to their problems. That’s religion and critical thinking working together.

What if you worship the god of critical thinking and pray by thinking critically?

In Judaism, Satan is basically a lawyer guy that Elohim hires to question him and call him on his bullshit. That may explain why Jewish people place a lot of importance on having a nice argument.

The ancient Greek philosphers were also very fond of critical thinking and they were religious. The Athenians revered Athena especially, the goddess of wisdom. So it was considered virtuous to spend your days in thought and debate.

Like, I get that your experience is with Christianity, which is not a very thought-heavy religion. But I find it difficult to believe that you’ve studied a representative sample of the world’s religions. I think you’re just repeating a trope you read online, that religious people are stupid, without thinking critically about it.

Yeah, because of negative stereotypes about people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. NPD is a disability, and I don’t really agree with using the names of disabilities as insults either. I don’t think there are any unproblematic ways to use the word “narcissistic” to describe controlling people.

That’s why I coined the term “theseistic”. Theseus abandoned the woman who helped him kill the minotaur alone on an island so he could go kidnap 12 year old Helen of Troy and marry her. Theseus deserves the hate, and his name isn’t associated with any disabilities. So it’s a completely unproblematic word that fulfills the same function people use the ableist word for. I think everyone should switch over to the new one.

I agree that the Epstein class are stupid, religious, racist, and hateful. I’ll also add that they’re cruel, pedophilic, egotistal, and manipulative. But I don’t see them being narcissistic. Narcissus just wanted to be left alone.

Nah, he’s right, the boomers didn’t complain. That’s why the unions are so powerless. Nice things take complaining to maintain.

(@Mechoselachia@multiverse.soulism.net look at this)

You mean theseistic. Narcissus didn’t want to supervise anyone, he wanted to be left alone.

It’s not like they’re paying minimum wage cooks to microwave frozen foods. They’ve got a staff of magic slaves cooking away in the basement!

Wait, koolaid is cordial??

You’re comparing figuring shit yourself to ai vibing it for you?

Yes, those are the two options. We’re comparing the two options against each other. One is better, one is worse. That’s a comparison.

This week I got into Bitburner and spent hours writing and debugging Typescript code in a video game for fun.

Vibe coders are boring people on the inside who don’t take joy in their field.

Yes, obviously.

He was drugged, so even though the drugs made him tell the truth, he can claim they made him spout nonsense.

Hopefully being court martialled helps M’benga with his space madness

Yaaay, a badmiral!

How the SOS signal can get through if comms are going to be blocked is a question I leave for the interested viewer.

Maybe they went to the surface, sent it up through the atmosphere, and then went back inside. If the ship’s records say the SOS was last received from the mouth of this cave, it’s a pretty easy assumption. You could even send along,

SOS, SOS! We have wounded in a cave on [insert planet]! The casualties are too injured to move, and I need to go back inside to tend to them. Please help us!