Fleeting moments, Modern wonders, and Cow fairies

 “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” – Terry Pratchett

Totality buzz

What about those 4 minutes of eclipse totality is so special that people will plan for decades and travel the world to chase an encounter? More than words can say. Here is one attempt. “There is something about witnessing history with other people—a sort of existential affirmation that indeed, I am real and I am experiencing this event because all around me, other people are seeing or hearing or touching and tasting the same thing I am.” Continued: Scientific American.

AI, Robotics, and Consciousness

• Test drive Synthetic memories. According to this author, “This concept draws parallels to the movie “Blade Runner,” (based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick) where replicants were implanted with memories to provide emotional grounding.” Source.
• What is a synthetic memory? “A Synthetic Memory is a digitally reconstructed representation of a personal memory created with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GEN-AI) technologies. It recreates a past visual experience that might have faded, changed, or been forgotten over time.” Interesting Website: Link.
• The future is trending. Envision next level hiking. Hypershell is a One-horsepower AI exoskeleton. Definitely puts more oomph in the walk. Check out the nifty YouTube demo.
• Consciousness: American neurophysiologist “Christof Koch argued in Scientific American that if lumps of matter can form into human bodies and become conscious, there’s no reason that groups of elementary particles couldn’t either.” Source.
• Bots are evolving. “Figure recently demoed an update to its robot’s brain with a vision-language model (VLM), trained by OpenAI, which means it can now understand speech, execute verbal commands, and even explain why it is doing what it is doing.” Source.
• Magic bullet. Meta researchers believe AI needs a body to become intelligent. Read the hows and whys here: Link.
• I side with Consciousness Researcher Tom Butler who offers a counter to that theory: Consider the Avatar.
  
  “Presumably, all humans are an avatar for an immortal self. My objective is to suggest details about the avatar relationship and to show that the model does not preclude other species from being avatars.
  
  “Considering how we think transform Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) are formed, I will suggest the possibility that an electronic device might also serve as an avatar. I explore the implications of personage without human instincts.” Etheric Studies Link.

Updating the knowns

• Ancient Civilizations 1: Graham Hancock on Facebook: “You read it first here. Advance view of a major update concerning Gobekli Tepe that I will be adding to a new edition of my 2015 book Magicians of the Gods. Enjoy!” Gobekli Tepe: Gradual evolution? Or transfer of technology? Or both? Link.
• Ancient Civilizations 2: “The world the Maya made has been shrouded by jungle for centuries. Now, a tool called lidar is revealing its staggering scale and sophistication.” Source.
• Astronomy: World’s top cosmologists reflect. “We are, in cosmology, using a model that was first formulated in 1922,” he said. “We have great data, but the theoretical basis is past its sell-by date.” Source.
• Seeking Nessie: “As well as looking for budding monster hunters to be involved in the search, taking place Thursday 30th May to Sunday 2nd June, this year we are asking for experts to help. This includes scientists and universities, as well as pioneers of exploration NASA to provide equipment and expertise in the search.” Lochness.com

Kinship with all life

• New Tech for Smart Birds. Findings from a recent study provide a framework researchers can use to design bird-friendly tablets, Link. Researchers tracked birds who interacted with a touch screen for up to 30 minutes a day for three months. Source.
  
  
• Fish assist. Eco Brilliant! “An online underwater livestream lets worldwide volunteers ring a “fish doorbell” to help fish fulfill their reproductive missions.” Source.
  
  
• Life saver. Work continues on “the world’s largest wildlife crossing” in Los Angeles county. Completion in 2025. Source.
  
  
• “Could robotic dolphins help marine parks become more humane spaces where people can learn about and connect with nature?” View the video. An amazing project. Source.
  
  
• Psychic Parrot: Rupert Sheldrake offers this demonstration of an experiment conducted with a wonderfully verbal parrot who described what the person was looking at on a card in another room.

Dreaming up

Dreamed I was listening to my podcasts. I heard a cow in the background, birds in another, and was delighted because it gave the recording a unique spin. Authentic. Nature.

The thing I am left with is how very reassuring and natural it felt during the dream to hear that cow mooing in the background. Just once. Providing a special meaning for me that I can’t explain. Made perfect sense in the dream.

Later in the day I find a synchronicity in my blog feed. A post on Faery cattle. Magical. Known for their knack for appearing in times of need. British Fairies Blog.

So many ways to interpret this. It makes me smile. That’s enough.

One more thing – Telepathy

I interviewed Jes Kerzen, Author of ‘A Mind Beyond Words’, Amazon. Like nothing you’ve read or heard about autism.

She writes on Medium: “I’m discovering all I can about autistic spectrum perception, about psychic abilities, about spirituality and about the processes involved in publishing and publicising my first book about all the above."

Her blog includes an entry referencing Carlos Castaneda. Link.

[The story she has to tell about her connection with Asher and how she learned to connect with him telepathically deserves to be amplified to a wider audience. His abilities and what he is exploring beyond our physical world is extraordinary. Please check out her book and her writing.]

Our conversation is here: Wendy's Coffeehouse Link.

“There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are dreamers and those who are being dreamed.” – Alberto Villoldo, Dance of the Four Winds: Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel, Amazon link.