Can anyone identify this.. hepta? rotor

Stormhammer · 22 days

But it's neither a quadrocopter nor an octocopter. It's a hexacopter!

OP, if you want to have some fun, the cheapest quadrocopter around is the Parrot AR Drone for ~$300.

itsamario · 1 month

Even counterfactuals must be based on some reality, otherwise you end up subtly implying things like "what if the laws of physics didn't apply?" or "what if... magic?"

When you say "what if x", you have to accept all the prerequisites for x or at the very least make clear that you are abolishing those prereqs arbitrarily, lest your audience come up with answers that they presume to be insightful or in any way relevant to their lives. A hypothetical is a thought experiment, and like any experiment, when you don't control the variables, it doesn't produce accurate results. Since we're dealing with things which are capable of altering who you are, accurate results are paramount.

PinkBullets · 1 month

Then stick around and combat said discussion with science! We're all aware of the placebo effect, though we are also aware of the situations in which it might not apply to the discussion. I imagine you're getting downvoted, because the effect is just that: an effect. It's not a description of a particular cognitive bias; it's a symptom of whatever bias is being exhibited. If you are to argue with an individual regarding their experiential medical claims, you cannot simply say to that person, "this is the effect you are experiencing, thus you are wrong". That person is going to recognize on an instinctual level that you're not providing them, personally, with enough evidence of causation. Without more evidence, the positive effects of a variety of the substances discussed here, backed by decades of studies, are much more persuasive.

That said, due to the minute (though certainly statistically significant) effects of current available nootropics (viz. ampakines), many of us realize that the anecdotes of nootropic users often suffer from confirmation bias and don't properly reflect the real effects, in either intensity or quality. That doesn't mean the effects aren't there. For instance, you don't feel great immediately after ingesting vitamin K, but it still helps your body function.

I try my best to smite pseudoscience/broscience to ashes wherever it arises, as do many others here. You are most welcome to join our ranks.

kurtgodelisdead · 1 month

As we connect more and more human brains more and more closely together, emergent properties will exceed our expectations.

If you randomly shuffled around every synaptic connection in your brain, what would be the result? Maybe it would be intelligent. Or maybe it would be as mobile and thoughtful as, well, the slab of meat that it would be.

We're continuously experimenting with increasing levels and new social patterns of human interconnectivity, but what evidence is there to suggest that we will—as an un-augmented collective—hit the right level and the right pattern for the pattern itself to exhibit super-human intelligence? What evidence is there that suggests that humans are capable of acting like individual neurons of a global brain?

Perhaps it's possible; perhaps not. Perhaps the structure which is most likely to lead to a collective human sentience is a totalitarian governmental structure in which the individuals "fire their synapses" out of raw amygdalic terror rather than abstract neocortical processes, one where we are subject to the whims of the whole in the way that our neurons are to us. Sure, the result would be a superintelligence, but as David Pearce often points out, the happiness of the cognitive units (us) need not exist in opposition to the happiness of the whole (humanity), and we should strive to maximize both.

De novo AI and direct cognitive augmentation (on the scale of the individual brain) are, I believe, more likely to bring about a singularity-type event. And if they aren't more likely, then we should work to make them more likely due to the cascading volatility and inherently uncontrollable nature of interpersonal power relations, even when juxtaposed onto an equal and open structure such as the internet. Just because the structure of the internet exists and appears to be close to indestructible certainly does not mean we should stop research into the medical, neuroscientific, and computational technologies which might bring about self-modifying intelligence in a manner which is more... preferable.

As Yudkowsky likes to mention, the thoughts of superintelligence are obviously inconceivable, but just like ourselves, a superintelligence would likely not seek to change whatever moral axioms were programmed into it. We may yet have the opportunity to set those morals to something which will not (to borrow an example of Yudkowsky's) turn the entire universe into paperclips.

poNzi_ · 1 month

99% a-gpc is extremely hydrophilic. If you live in a humid climate and purchase a large amount, it's going to be difficult to keep it from accumulating moisture. If you leave a teaspoon out overnight that had been used for 99% a-gpc, the dry powder will be dissolved in a thin layer of water by morning. So naturally, it's often sold with a filler which isn't very water-soluble, usually 1 : 1 :: a-gpc : filler. If you're capping it, then this is the way to go. Pureacetam's moktarino frequently expressed dismay at managing and capping large amounts of 99% alpha-gpc. If you plan on putting it in a beverage, then go with the 99% and get some moisture absorbers to keep in the container.

It shouldn't really matter whether or not it's 99% or 50% (or neither) that's in the Now caps. Just note the amount of actual alpha-gpc that's in each cap and that's how much you took, regardless of filler. If you buy 99%, take exactly that much. If you buy 50%, take twice that much.

For what it's worth, I've been satisfied with CH's 99%, though I can't speak for the prices of other suppliers.

plasticslug · 1 month

I think unsweetened almondmilk is pretty damn delicious. Not sure if Silk has an unsweetened version, but Almond Breeze does, and it's usually on the shelf next to the others. I'm not going to deceive you: if you're not used to unsweetened, it might be pretty weird at first. If so, there's an unsweetened + vanilla option that might be more palatable.

And, as others have pointed out, don't worry about the yolks. They taste fantastic and contain most of the egg's nutrition. Compare: yolk, white. Since you're cutting carbs, you need to make up for it with fat, or you're going to have no energy throughout the day. Don't like the flavor of the yolk? Put some vegetables and chopped up bacon (or the like) in the omelette, and eat some avocado on the side.

While we're on the topic of omelettes, this is required viewing. Two months and almost 500 eggs after first watching that clip: I can make that classic french omelette. Trust me, you want to do be able to do that. The versatility of eggs in flavor, texture, look, and nutritional value is kind of unbelievable.

tankerbell87 · 1 month

I think we should call the cities subfests, since apparently no one in this place seems to mind how ugly Aralaskafest is. So we have Aranchoragesubfest, Arjuneausubfest, Arfairbankssubfest, and Ardillinghamsubfest,

bill · 1 month

I'll make sure to find lookalikes of you, Kaylyn, and Jaron to come early for the awkward hour.

bill · 1 month

See header image. If anything major changes, it'll be reflected in the image.

timschwartz · 1 month

This one is the ultimate challenge.

bill · 1 month

It's a group texting service—hasn't been around very long. All texts go through their number 23559 ("CELLY"), and get routed depending on what "cell" you currently have set as your default or what you preface your text with:

@cellname to join a cell, in this case @ralaska.
Once you're going, if you're in multiple cells, and you don't preface your text with an @cellname, it'll send a confirmation message asking you which cell you intended to send to. But you'd only be in @ralaska, so don't worry about that; you can just type your text normally, and it'll go straight to everyone.
To send a private message, same thing: preface your text with @username. I find this to be a nicest feature. I was in a bunch of Portland cells (celly is a Portland-based startup), and I've since left them, but I still use it to text a variety of people whose numbers I never bothered to get.
There are other commands, such as MUTE (does what it sounds like) and CMD (shows list of commands).
You can also join and interact using the web interface, which is really fugly right now but pretty easy to figure out.

sw33tn3ss · 1 month

I heard however that 'suntheanine' is the only way to go (racemic does not work?).

We've had a bunch of conversations on this matter, and it doesn't seem to be totally settled. But the following is definitely true:

D-theanine does not have the effects of L-theanine, though so far as I know there is nothing to show that it actually messes with L-theanine action.
If most products which are clearly labeled L-theanine, are in fact racemic theanine, then that's a really big deal. You're getting half the value, and it's serious false advertising.
There is an article floating around which makes vague statements regarding Suntheanine's purported increased efficacy. It's hard to tell what truth there is in this article, or who it was published by.

Anecdotally, I will also offer that having used Suntheanine, Source Naturals, and Cerebral Health theanine, I noticed no difference in effect. I would suggest buying bulk no matter if you cannot find Suntheanine uncapped.

donniejones18 · 1 month

Code by Charles Petzold covers the basics and history of mechanical computers and would probably serve as a nice primer for anyone (with minimal computation theory experience) hoping to get the most out of this book.

winterknight · 1 month

Maybe for the Alaska fest thing?

Yes.

bill · 1 month

Arpacificnorthwestfest, weewoo. Make it happen.

bill · 1 month

No stop that! You non-Anchoragites need to get on top of your game. I can't organize anything hundreds of miles from my actual location, so you have to do it yourself. You can do it. I have faith in you. Case in point.

[edit] See also.

[edit] See also also.

itsamario · 1 month

This is the same kind of non-argument that people use when trying to hypothesize the behavior and morals of artificial superintelligences. Saying "what would you do if you had this knowledge, where such knowledge irrevocably and substantially changes your personality beyond all bounds of current imagination (in hitherto unknown directions, to boot)" is half a step away from making a Dunning–Kruger error of far greater inferential distance than the standard interpersonal Dunning–Kruger effect.

On Limitless: the idea of NZT (or rather, NZT-48), I believe, was that it was not a single substance—it was a 48-substance stack. The premise, we can all agree, is flawed, and bears no resemblance to the reality of effective cognitive enhancement, which, necessarily has the following characteristics:

intelligence is not a mood

It cannot be enhanced linearly in the way that pleasure and pain and hunger can be enhanced to obscene levels. It is an insanely complex milieu of mechanisms which we cannot as yet model on a pharmacological level. So when you try to describe the effects of a substance at our totally abstracted level (the behavioral level) directly, without a semi-modern understanding of developments such as:

machine learning,

brain structure layout (and very basic inter-structure connectivity),

the workings of the neocortex...

Well, you turn into an ad hoc behaviorist, and that is not something you want to be in this day and age.

Note that mood (more generally, one's hedonic set-point) affects intelligence, and vise versa, but this inter-causality does not imply any sort of mood–intelligence isomorphism.

"Cognitive enhancement" could be described as greater optimization of your brain for whatever purpose. I think it could be pretty strongly definitionally posited that to enhance a brain is simply to increase its efficiency.

On the note of "purposes" or "goals": I advise a focus on long-term (and net-positive) benefits rather than short-term (and possibly net-negative, but in-the-moment-positive) benefits, but that's irrelevant to this conversation in the sense that it's referring to an extra level of optimization on top of (that is, abstracted from) the chemicals' direct manipulation.

your brain is not my brain

We're all human, but you have your genetics, a few decades of neuroplastically embedded experiences, and a myriad minute structural differences—which are totally unique to you. You are, as they say, your connectome. Hell, you even have some genetic mutations which are totally novel to humanity. Thus, dosages need to be tailored very precisely, as do dosage ratios. Put 48 chemicals in a pill, a chunk of which very likely haven't been vigorously tested safe in large trials, and it's going to do either or both of the following:

kill you;

not work.

The probability of neither of those being true is very slim. You're balancing 48 dosages for

their effect on the human brain,

their 1128 two-chemical interactions,

their 17296 three-chemical interactions,

and so on.

I mean, we have enough trouble just getting our pir/choline ratio right.

the characters of Limitless are not real...

and thus are not subject to the fundaments of human neuroscience. We, on the other hand, are.

Carefully measured dosages (and ratios and administration times and routes and such) are all well and good when we're talking about a regimen which is designed just for (and/or by) you, but we're talking about a guy just popping a pill. Then popping another one. And another one. Assuming he's human,

if the drug was tailored to work effectively for him, it should have, at the very least—probabilistically, given the above permutations—stopped working when he took a second one.

And in all likelihood the second or third pill would have just killed him. For any cocktail of drugs, or even a single drug, to have such a variety of extremely strong effects (nearly all of them positive!), it has to affect a hell of a lot of the brain—modulating the effects of just about every major neurotransmitter. Anything which acts on so many systems will have a very strict dosage, lest it drop off a cliff of neuromodulation, resulting in a cascade of simultaneous torment, orgasm, and totalisensory hallucinations of untold intensity... before you have a dozen aneurisms three seconds later.

He acted like he was on a stimulant that had the bonus of making him superintelligent.

Because superintelligent people on stimulants make for an entertaining movie.

But it is utterly and unabashedly fictional, and not only does discussion surrounding NZT not relate to current nootropics, it doesn't relate to any nootropics ever. It's like they took a mashup of effects from various common nootropics, multiplied those effects by 1000, and added the standard side effects and drawbacks (particularly of dopamine-, norepinephrine-, and serotonin-modulating drugs) to make it match the average viewer's outdated view of how drugs—all drugs—work.

Oh, and what kind of 48-chemical concoction makes for a clear pill? Most substances are apparently white, and the rest appear to be evenly distributed throughout the other colors, so wouldn't NZT be, like, a light grey?

Counterfactuals such as the OP's post are effective at mildly increasing the entertainment value of this subreddit (and utilizing that effectiveness to bring in new subscribers), but I maintain that that increase is at the direct expense of our community's usefulness, factuality, and level of discourse, via a skewing of new users' first glances at nootropics towards:

excessively raised short-term expectations;
greater assumptions of effectual commonality with the popular drugs of the 20th century.

[edits]

sw33tn3ss · 1 month

This is not true for any reasonable definition of "significant" (unless you, you know, want to argue my definition of "reasonable").

https://www.amanochocolate.com/articles/caffeineinchocolate.html
- 100% chocolate: 198mg/100g
http://www.thehersheycompany.com/nutrition-and-wellness/chocolate-101/caffeine.aspx
- various figures for popular cocoa candies
http://www.wisegeek.com/is-there-caffeine-in-chocolate.htm; in comments:
- Journal of Chromatographic Science, Vol. 46, pp 892-899 (2008) // Standard Reference Material 2384 Baking Chocolate from the National Institute of Standards & Technology (Gaithersburg, MD), 90 % cocoa solids, was determined to have 26 mg/g (2.6% by weight) theobromine and 2.4 mg/g caffeine.

There is certainly less caffeine than theobromine (it seems typically to be about 1:7 - 1:4 :: caffeine : theobromine) but that is still a significant amount for fairly pure chocolate and/or impure chocolate products in large servings.

coldbliss · 1 month

<0.13% accuracy. Not bad.

coldbliss · 1 month

Is that... Kinlien Circle? I feel like I've been in that house.

mattepps · 1 month

If you leave your phone on so that it frequently checks for email and do things online, you could rack up ridiculous charges (we're talking hundreds of dollars).

This could even be an underestimation. AT&T texts you when you enter Canada, alerting you to the special data prices. Last summer, it was over $15 per megabyte. Turn data off before even entering the country if you have anything substantial that automatically updates.

bill · 1 month

Hell yes you can.

bill · 1 month

Yes. That is the point. /r/alaska meetups have reached 25 people on multiple occasions, and each time it's been with a somewhat different group of people. I fully expect this to be massive in comparison.

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TROPHY CASE

intelligence is not a mood

your brain is not my brain

the characters of Limitless are not real...

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