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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • It came to me today that I should play the devil’s advocate. Everyone who comments seems to like this, therefore there has to be someone to take the job of un-hypeing it. So this is just a different POV … because I can.

    It’s a kind of social experiment which could be fun for some. The idea is to try to make a drawing with very limited resources (a single pixel per message, perhaps a few hundred pixels over a couple of days), and concurrently with hundreds/thousands of participants.

    The outcome is less an artwork than it is a work of art that shows the (dire) state of collective creativity and imaginative capabilities of people who have been “rised” in dominance-hierarchic, competition-centric, societies: imagine one of these squatted houses where the walls quickly get filled with tags and political messages. While they in theory could have collectively put on an artwork that really speaks, they’d rather endulge in “us vs. them” group think, competing for the space and overdrawing each others messages.
    – Thus, in a “canvas” action, those who can captivate the minds of the masses, and those who have the proficiency to have armies of machines fight for them, will win the most space. People will say this is fun but it’s rather the same as in politics. The outcome is perhaps pretty or hilarious in some details but it’s mostly logos and flags and symbolism, flat colours and two-dimensional cartoon caracters. So rather boring; rarely one will see a detail where one would say, “wow, someone really did put some thought and skill into this”.

    Regarding me, I could imagine taking part in a project to create a bot that would facilitate collective decision making (about division of labour among drawing project participants and on-the-fly decisions about how to interact with neighbouring bits – stop at boundary, colour-mix, or overdraw – and drawing of colour-dithered, possibly three-dimensional, pre-planned graphic design (or algorithmic graphics), while at the same time automating the tedious sending of draw commands from many locations (it’s the most inefficient way one could do it but who cares in times of HD video streaming).
    … Another fun idea that just pops into my mind, would be programming a “game of life” automaton which respects pixels that are already occupied, or overdraws them then re-draws them in their original colour. It could be made to completely vanish until closure time. :-D



  • I started with medidating, deep relaxation. Laying flat works best for me. Discovered I can listen to the silence between the words. Then I was able to stretch out that silence until the words were so distant that they were mere reverberation. If there is a movie as well, that can be faded out. Later I learned a more daytime-compatible technique that is a bit hard to explain and could individually differently (opening the crown chakra).

    In case it really ets your energy, and if you have access to it, consider talking to a therapist. You might be suffering from sommething like PTSD, depresseion or burn-out (in connection with autism), and those are really disorders that can be treated.

    Wish you well!



  • While I already knew the channel, I didn’t see this particular one before.

    What gets me most is actually the comments, and all the replies to the comments. I strongly suggest everyone to read at least the top ones and part of the hundreds of replies. Top one shown to me is this; may I cite respectfully, by @lisedenmark:

    To me - autistic diagnosed 3 years ago at 54 - masking is not only about hiding my weaknesses; it’s also about hiding my strengths because they are not always well received. Deep critical thinking, eternal curiosity and precision are skills often respected in theory - but in practice: not so much. This really complicates matters even more…

    … And then, try to read the overall vibe in those conversations. What is apparent? – Well first and obviously, they are almost all written by people who have been labeled or consider themselves “autistic” or ND. Second, a large part of it is (heartbreakingly) empathetic!


    edit: I have this hypothesis that masking their authenticity in order to fit in with ther respective social group is the normal way also in NT people. The difference being, that to them it comes naturally and effortlessly to wear a mask (read: self-protecting persona), while for NDs it is exhausting and may lead to a sense of self-denial. Consider also the difficulty with the perceived need of constant dishonesty/lying which is a part of camouflaging.
    Any thoughts or questions?



  • Umm… I was not so very clear perhaps. The idea would still be that user accounts as well as forums all contain their domain name, as their site of origin rather than a location identifier. Just that the host could change to any other domain (after negociation with the new host, that is). So it’s not about domains being tied to specific hosts/IPs but entities being tied to domains. It would be up for design discussion if that identifier should change or not, iin the case of a migration. The idea would be to give entities the ability to roam or be resurrected from any federated copy in case they are dissatisfied with the policies of their hosts, or in the event a domain gets taken down by authoritrian actors. (That’s why this actually is off-topic here)

    From my glance into the ActivityPub doc, I concluded that it’s really only about the data exchange protocol, yet I might have overlooked something as I never had an in-depth talk with people who implement the thing. Yet, just because many do it in a certain way does not mean to me that this is written in stone somewhere. :-)


  • [OT; tl/dr: the issues with forums and user accounts being under hegemony of server instances is by design but it’s not actually the way one would design a truely de-centralised network]

    It’s a feature but not the best practice if the idea would be forums (and users) being free of domains (and the dangers of domains being taken down, and host admins’ whims). The design approach of Lemmy however, speaks “hegemony” all over. It says a lot about the mindset of its creators.
    An alternative would be indeed distributed directory systems, employing concepts like DHT … well proven de-centralized resiliency for quite a while. Would it have been done in such a way, there would be no difficulty with migrating forums and users across instances, and even a domain getting lost would not necessarily lead to all forums/accounts there-on to be lost. Also the issues with link creation across instances were due to forums being bound to domain names instead of them having Universal IDs thus being agnostic of which node they are actually hosted on.

    ActivityPub, AFAIK only defines a protocol for communicating datasets between instances, not the structures in which federation should be done.


  • carbon_based@sh.itjust.workstoAutism@lemmy.worldAnt smell
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    25 days ago

    Yes, it’s known that humans have individually different sets of smell (and taste) receptors. So it wouldn’t surprise me that some people would be able to smell ant trail/nest pheromones and the like. I’d guess it has less to do with formic acid though, as they do not regularly release that (it’s used mainly for defense). Some people may be really triggered by the smell of certain flowers while most people would barely notice them. I my self recently developed a sensitivity to some certain chemical that appears to be in many cleaning agents, and it’s very disturbing to find that disgusting smell in so many public places, dishwashing detergents, hair shampoos.

    This phenomenon comes apparent a lot with foods and spices. My great example is coriander (cilantro): half of the people like the herb but for the rest it has a soapy taste so much that any food that contains coriander leaves is spoilt for them. Coriander seeds however, do not contain that specific compound. I’m one who can’t stand the herb but very much likes the seeds as a spice.

    Related and very interesting is also, is individually different bouquets of mating pheromones which are also present in humans (but perception is mostly subliminary). Those are connected to individual genetic sets of the immune system, a place where genetic variability and mixing is of great advantage. We choose our partners by (being able to) smell, more than we are aware of.

    Infodump? … Infodump.



  • Thanks for this statement. I read it as “diagnostic labels are a tool supposed to be used in professional communication but it may be harmful when used otherwise”.
    IMO, much of that harm could be avoided by just not pathologizing and labeling personal caracteristics as “disorders”, though, which are characteristics certain societies could greatly benefit from if such people would just be given the right respect and task.



  • carbon_based@sh.itjust.workstoAutism@lemmy.worldAdult Autism Reality
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    10 months ago

    You are correct that downvoting is kind of pointless.
    On the other hand, there has been a bunch of accounts attending this forum lately which appear to act in bad faith (e.g. pathologising and not being interested in the ND point of view, stirring up emotions, sealioning). Interacting with such people will likely lead to a fruitless discussion that just draws energy. These people could look up the non-pathologising resources which were posted already if they were interested.

    We probably should be aware that there are indeed people who are really scared of any changes to their pathologic-normative competitive model of society. Scared so much that they will get to aggressive efforts to counteract any healing efforts. It probably boils down to the question, “what to do with cognitive dissonance?”

    I’m now inclined to not argue/compete but just check someone’s sincerety by asking like, “what is your function in society and what would perhaps be your natural function according to your set of traits, and how can this serve a cure and sustainable future for human civilisation?” (thanks @BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world for originally posting this link)

    Re-posting and amending this with my other account, as this is supposed to be the more lucid one.
    … And yeah, i am aware that the OP account we are responding to has to date only made this single comment in this forum.



  • carbon_based@sh.itjust.workstoAutism@lemmy.world[Rant] Completely burned out
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    1 year ago

    This is decidedly not advice on how and what job to get (i’m unable myself) …

    If you are burned out you need to rest your brain! Seriously, take care of your mental health. Best would peobably be to change environment, into a quiet (natural) environment where it’s required that you physically exercise (walk). Don’t know if you have such a possibility, it’s just what i learned from my burn-out situations, that i needed to move, and especially to move my thoughts away from whatever clogged my brain, and forcing myself to physically move also helped (i’m in a mountaneous environment, though).
    You mentioned music making. Could that perhaps help sanitize? Do you play an instrument, or perhaps want to build one (thinking of rather simple things now, like i started to build drums)? Were you ever interested in crafting? Anyway, get plenty of sleep and water.

    Then, i’m having the idea that you could write up a positive self-assessment. So, not “in what ways do i fail to assimilate” but rather “What sets me apart from most other people which is actually valueable?” – It may be more difficult at a young age, so take your time (think of it as an ongoing process in which you note any idea you have, perhaps over weeks – the thing could develop into a journal after all).

    Think of it like this: you have this certain ethical conscience, and that shall actually guide you to your duty you were naturally born to do. I do believe that ND people are here for a purpose in this time and age. … So, imagine there is a company of sorts, or a cooperative, which seeks not just employees but participants. Because that company is set to make this world a better place, and to prepare a better environment for future generations to thrive in. They are pioneers, and so are they pioneering in their way of selecting employees: they will ask you what special value you could bring in, and in which ways you will do stuff differently from most other people, which would help them reach their goal of doing things better. They want to know how you do things and how your mind and conscience works, not what scooling you have endured. They do not ask for your competitiveness, else they could ask anyone else.

    As an example, i learned that i am not slow at all, once i got a real friend who could tell me (damned be those class"mates" who bullied me with that shit). – It’s rather that my mind can not as quickly arrive at one single answer because it processes many more options and outcomes than what NT minds would do (well, many of them anyway ;-). That enables me to get a picture of processes that appear complex to others – variables, efficiency, sustainability, future consequences of decisions, and “what if everyone did it like this?” I tend to be hyperactive inside. … I’m sensitive to harmony and dissonance/inbalance, and i see similarities in patterns in action everywhere.

    That’s my idea. Don’t know if this could be helpful. Maybe you’ll find that organization to work for which asks for exactly such things in job applications (or they do not ask for applications as usual at all but you rather just pay them a visit). But at the moment, it seems you should take a break.


  • This is an old thread, so it would not really make sense to repeat all that i have posted later. In short, yes if you take the counting methods that throw out and re-arrange rankings just for the sake of getting a number above 50 “percent”, as in “automated run-off”. I didn’t even think that someone would do such a thing because of course that would skew the result. Until i saw some (US-american what else) how RCV is ostensibly bad, which were made in a very deceptive way. Ranked Choice is a voting method, not the method in which votes are counted!
    This comes from a country that elieves there are to be always only two candidates – which isn’t true in real-world situations. I suggested to count all the rankings, and to accept that there might be a minority-winner.



  • my interst will probrably change to something tommorow which is annoying.

    The last line triggered me to write some “feel with you”. Dreaming big, or thinking big, can actually be a gift. Big inventors, philosophers, people who build companies – they all are/were capable of thinking in bigger terms than what they could accomplish themselves or in a day.

    As others commented, a plan should be broken up into smaller “achievables”. It might be less simple than that, though. The problem comes with a lack of persistence, or even a perceived iniability thereof.
    This could be traits in the neurodivergent spectrum. Breaking a process up might be a no-brainer to you, but then there are perhaps a lot of things to get done before even starting with the project itself (like needing to acquire the hardware, or funding). If your (main) interest is constantly shifting, and you will have the next big idea tomorrow, then it’s hard to get anything started. Having to accomplish a lot of small goals, while being constantly rewarding to some people, can also be constantly distracting for others. The end goal is just so many little pieces away, and any small task can get your interest astray because that thing that brought the reward is now much closer than the big goal.

    As someone who suffers from the same problem, my understanding of what it would take is this: A constant motivator that can direct your interest back to the one big thing again and again. I think what would help is to not do it all on your own, but find other people who have the same kind of interest and keep close exchange with them. The primary goal is not to get the big idea manifested at all costs, but to keep motivated to pursue the path that leads there, while also allowing you to switch your attention to all those other things. Like-minded people who go the same path could be that constant motivator.
    (… Yes i’m aware there may be other issues as well, like the thing one has in mind being out of the ordinary, or being afraid of being amateurish)

    If this resonates with you, feel free to PM me, or come to the !neurodivergent@sh.itjust.works group that i started (and have yet to get going, sort posts by “new”!) specifically for such purposes.