ThinkTank posted:

Wrong thread

ThinkTank posted:

The capital cities of the largest civilizations in the known universe each have one bar, one medical centre, a tall building and two gun shops. They each have a population of 45.

Zefiel posted:

This is the space colonization republicans want

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

It also ties back into the old "fearsome critters" folklore that lumberjacks used to invent such as hoop snakes, snallygasters, glawuckas, goofus birds, agropelters, etc etc.. Bored dudes have been making up tall tales about weird critters hiding in the American woods for centuries, and some of them turned into jokey folkore that gets sold as tourist souvenirs (jackalopes, etc) and some turn into bizarre national obsessions (bigfoot, dogmen, aliens, etc)

The hodag was an interesting case, it started out as a pretty obvious tall tale and featured in several Paul Bunyan stories but it briefly crossed over into cryptozoology territory in the 1890s until those spoilsport nerds at The Smithsonian rained on everyone's parade:

Dr. Heart Collapse posted:

i had a dream the other day

there was a bouncing UFO that took me in after it scanned me

there was a super chill spot with some super chill people welcoming me

then there was this book reading area where a bunch of people were reading books

then i had some italian pizza with my brother and cousin.

quote:

is there any kind of thing in modern times that has the same kind of reach and culture surrounding it? If so, can you give an example?

Absolutely, there are quite a few phenomena in modern times that have similar reach and cultural significance, albeit in different domains. Take cryptocurrency, for example. Just like the UFO community, the world of cryptocurrency has a fervent, almost cult-like following. There are evangelists, skeptics, and everything in between. People pour over "sacred texts" (white papers, Twitter threads from crypto gurus), attend "mass gatherings" (conferences, webinars), and engage in "ritualistic practices" (mining, trading, HODLing).

Cryptocurrency also straddles that fine line between credible and speculative. You've got legitimate use-cases, serious investors, and mainstream financial institutions taking it seriously. But then you've also got scams, incredible volatility, and a lot of hand-wavy speculation about what "could be."

Like UAP discussions, the crypto world has its share of government attention and regulation, which lends it some degree of legitimacy while also fueling a myriad of conspiracy theories.

The significant difference is the nature of the subject. Crypto is financial and somewhat grounded in computer science and economics, while UFOs tap into cosmic wonder and existential questions about human life. Yet both have a sort of "quasi-religious" culture, with believers looking for a form of "salvation" — whether that's in the form of disrupting traditional finance or finally understanding what lies beyond our pale blue dot.

So yes, while the topic may be different, the intensity and cultural fervor surrounding cryptocurrency could be seen as a modern parallel to the fascination with UAPs or aliens. Both inspire deep devotion, endless debate, and they draw people into a larger, almost transcendent, narrative.

naem posted:

I’d like to apologize to all believers/skeptics by pointing out that I am also a moron

and that people seem drawn to opposite ends of the argument spectrum instead of having some kind of dialogue in-between like, ever?

we can all agree that this is all very interesting and fun but the fact that people are dumb is also interesting and fun to point out

Tarkus posted:

I was loving around in GPT4 and I asked it about the UFO/UAP thing and when I asked it about things that are similar to the UAP stuff it mentioned cryptocurrency as something similar. I thought that seemed pretty apt actually.

No. 6 posted:

Because there are tons of movies, books, TV shows, and videogames centrally focused around crypto for decades?

Thinking AI does any analysis is foolhardy. It's a gibberish engine which can spit out sentences (which pass only the faintest levels of scrutiny). There is no knowledge gained.

Vakal posted:

No one cares about dreams. They are pointless and stupid.

Now if this had all come to you under hypnosis conducted by a "expert" then now we're talking memory regression, baby!

Dr. Heart Collapse posted:

i have spirits that i talk to that love watching my dreams

in person they may be more entertaining than when described

my dream was intensely magical

DandyLion posted:

This place is a dream... and part of a system of dreams... pay attention to it!

Watching this dream was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

This dream is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed was fantasized here... nothing valued is here.

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about dreams.

Stocky Manhood posted:

Hey guys I saw a UFO

*Pie plates on string in front of a scratched up lens*

naem posted:

I’d like to apologize to all believers/skeptics by pointing out that I am also a moron

and that people seem drawn to opposite ends of the argument spectrum instead of having some kind of dialogue in-between like, ever?

we can all agree that this is all very interesting and fun but the fact that people are dumb is also interesting and fun to point out

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

There's an excellent book called "Round In Circles" by Jim Schnabel which goes into the history of the crop circles phenomenon and the scientists who spent years and years studying it. They broke into two main camps: scientists who were absolutely adamant that the crop circles were a natural phenomenon caused by localized tornadoes and scientists who were absolutely adamant that they were being caused by alien visitors. They feuded for years and years over their pet theories, writing up papers and published regular "cerealogy' journals and holding seminars and flying in guest lecturers from overseas and doing media interviews and rushing around documenting new crop circles whenever they appeared and holding weeklong "field trips" where they monitored fields and tried to collect footage of crop circles being created.
Spoiler: the entire 'phenomenon' was just a hoax, and always had been. The author of the book should know, he was one of the main offenders and had created dozens and dozens of crop circles over the years which the scientists swore couldn't possibly have been made by humans.

Communist Thoughts posted:

It seems like a version of this is happening with the UAPs where people argue over whether the physics defying UAPs are aliens or new secret super drones, but we haven't seen any evidence at all of either.
Any evidence that's been shown is so far all easily explained as balloons, camera artifacts or birds.

Mumpy Puffinz posted:

How do you gently caress a 4 dimensional being? Put it in their time slot?

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

It turns out that what we assumed were "anal probes" were actually temporal anchors which opened your root chakra to the 4th dimension energy

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

It turns out that what we assumed were "anal probes" were actually temporal anchors which opened your root chakra to the 4th dimension energy

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

Vakal posted:

No one cares about dreams. They are pointless and stupid.

Snowglobe of Doom posted: