I know what you mean - and the relief side of it is OK, but the downside is that people then think that this is a real thing, and 5G really is the issue, and they're right to do this, etc...
When I try to think about it in terms of the effect on people, it's much more complex than my initial "you muppets deserve to be relieved of £300 for believing total rubbish" reaction. You then think 'well, these people just need to be educated about this and then they'll see what's actually happening', but those kinds of strategies don't have the success rate you'd hope for in a rational world.
> [...] promises to protect your family from 5G, using ground-breaking quantum technology
My intuitive guess would be that for the target audience "ground-breaking quantum technology" would cause even more problems for their family than 5G. Interesting.
Don't think so. Quantum is often used as a convenient explanation for why things work in those circles (at least from what i've seen). How does it protect me from evil radiation? It's quantum, you wouldn't understand.
Hm, I was always under the impression that not understanding a physical system is the root cause for such technological fears. Clearly quantum mechanics are in the same realm.
But maybe this can be used as a cure for many fears? I mean multiple studies have shown that the root cause for fear of flying comes from not knowing or understanding how a plane flies. I mean sure, it clearly does not flap its wings, so it might crash any second? But some quantum-stirred and fossil-entangled jet fuel might help.
Ironically, they fear the logical explanations they don't understand. But with "quantum" they can wave off everything as if its magic.
These people distrust sciency explanations because they think its harmful manmade stuff. They only trust things that sound like they're part of the "natural order" of things.
If they're messing about with quantum, they really need to be licensed quantum mechanics. Not just anyone should be allowed to touch this stuff, you know... ask to see their certification! ;-)
This item is based on no science and horribly overpriced, but cosmetically attractive and sneakily marketed. Shocking. They should diversify into premium Hifi.
Why is this product even a USB stick? The advertisement says it works fine just placing it near your cell phone. Do people have some sort of trust in USB sticks?
>> Surely at least some people would know electronics need electricity.
I think the Venn diagram of people who know this and people who think they can protect themselves from 5G with a crystal stick has absolutely no overlap.
"The stick comes loaded with a 25 page PDF version of the material from 5GbioShield ‘s website. It included a Q&A of distances for the “bubble” and how to know if it is working. It’s an “always on” system apparently, is always working, powered or not, so no visual checks needed.
A review of the stick’s properties revealed nothing more that what you’d expect from a regular 128MB USB key. We weren’t even sure that 128s are still in production!"
If the cost of progress is having the opponents of progress waste their money to allay their fictional fears, I could come to terms with the ethics of that.
Absolutely. Now realize the entire economy is a sliding scale of quackery from completely quack-a-scamtastic to fairly sober. It's just a question of the weighting of that spectrum.
If you see "quantum" in a general public health product, you know it's going to be a scam, but probably a successful one.
My mother loves those kind of things and no amount of discussion with her will create any doubt in her mind.
I can't blame people falling for this though. They have been disrespected by the traditional health institutions for so long any escape seems good to them.
You can see the same effect in politics. To an extend, the current authorities have a lot of responsability in people listening to crooks.
If you think this is just bunk, and you'd like a laugh, read the FAQs on the website [1]...
My favourite:
>Does the device remove the EMF from the environment? If so can I use a meter to measure EMF?
>>The 'electro magnetic meter' can only measure the intensity of radiation which is not changed by our technology nor does it change the quality of connection and speed of data transfer.
Well, that's convenient, isn't it?
>>Our device harmonises all harmful frequencies into life affirming frequencies - it doesn't block - it transmutes.
I note there is no mention of which frequencies are 'harmful' and which are 'life affirming' - which would be even more useful given the frequency range of a WiFi or Cellular device, so you'd know which is which...
>> The only methods that we know can measure the difference between imbalanced radiation (without protection) and balanced radiation (with protection) These positive test results can be found on our website - please look for 'Case Study ' under Science and Research tab.
The Case Study starts with this paragraph:
>>In our civilization is emerging new science based on knowledge, whereas the official (old) science is based on information. We get information through our senses which are dual and deliver us an inverted picture of the truth and consequently, information is the opposite of knowledge so that all the old scientific concepts are therefore the upside down of the true concepts.
Do people actually believe this nonsense? It sounds like the kind of thing that Russell Brand was wittering about a couple of years ago - that your senses are the only way to interface with reality, and if you can't sense it it's not there, etc... Which can be disproved in seconds, even by a 10-year old child. I find it profoundly depressing when this kind of bamboozlement of the gullible is done in the form of sciency language. And it always seems to be done with a big price tag at the end of it.
So I wonder about legality of it - devices that interfere with wireless communications are illegal....so what about a device that says that it does, but in fact it does not? I guess the description is crafted in such a way that it doesn't actually say it interferes, just that it "harmonizes" the fields, whatever that means.
It may potentially be illegal, given that "deliberate interference" is a criminal offence contrary to section 68 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006. [0]
~~~
(1) A person commits an offence if he uses apparatus for the purpose of interfering with wireless telegraphy.
(2) This section applies—
(a) whether or not the apparatus in question is wireless telegraphy apparatus;
...
~~~
Obviously, the "purpose" of the person using the anti-5G USB stick would need to be established. Given the law doesn't mention anything about having any effect on wireless telegraphy, presumably as long as mens rea is established the offence is made out.
There are also other potential offences around consumer misselling, false advertising, etc.
> Do people actually believe this nonsense? It sounds like the kind of thing that Russell Brand was wittering about a couple of years ago
Probably.
My mum was a New-Age type, so I grew up with homeopathic pills explicitly labelled as “sodium chloride”, “silicon dioxide”, and “titanium dioxide”, while being told my brother and I were “typical” for our astrological star signs. She was big on dowsing with wands and pendulums and thought crystals had personalities and could jump out of your hand. When I was young she expressed sadness that my older brother no longer believed in chakras, and the last time she met my (now ex) girlfriend, she expressed sadness to her that I didn’t believe in Orgone energy. She was also taking Bach flower remedies for memory right up until she got Alzheimer’s.
But it's often not in dangerous quantities, because homeopathy believes that the less of something is present somewhere it works better, and it's called "dynamization" or "potentization" by the producers, diluting the material sometimes to the point that in thousands of sold pills, counted together, there can't be more than one single molecule! The process then practically guarantees that there aren't dangerous substances in the pill or "solution". Heh.
The "less potent" pills or solutions can actually have some amounts of the stuff named on them, beware of those.
"24X 12C 10−24 Has a 60% probability of containing one molecule of original material if one mole of the original substance was used."
"26X 13C 10−26 If pure water were used as the diluent, no molecules of the original solution remain in the water."
Edit: regarding the 5G issue, an article where about Glastonbury Town Council report, where the 5G USB "solution" was mentioned by "Non-Councillor Advisory Committee Member" (I have no idea what that means):
> the 5G USB "solution" was mentioned by "Non-Councillor Advisory Committee Member" (I have no idea what that means)
I understand that the Council set up a 5G Advisory Committee, and the person mentioning these anti-5G USB sticks is a member of the advisory committee but isn't an elected councillor.
> homeopathy believes that the less of something is present somewhere it works better, and it's called "dynamization" or "potentization" by the producers, diluting the material
Did you hear about the homeopath that died of an overdose? He forgot to take his pills.
Sorry to hear about your mum getting Alzheimer's and not getting proper treatment.
While everything else (crystals etc) is bull I'd like to point out to readers that chakras have some utility. When meditating they are good positions to focus on and can make it easier to drop your thoughts. Also if you pay attention to your emotions in your body they often occur at these points. I assume they were derived from this internal observation of emotions and then people expanded them to include all sorts of higher unsubstantiated theories.
Ohh sorry, glad to hear she is getting proper treatment.
I understand what you were getting at just thought I'd give my 2c about chakras because I thought some people would bundle them in with healing crystals when they can be separated out as tools for meditation.
Yes. I have moved past thinking we need to protect people from this kind of thing. If they believe it, let them buy it. The only harm their ignorance is doing is to themselves. They might even get some kind of placebo reassurance from it.
I'm not advocating for eradicating stupid ideas to protect fools; but sometimes fools do very stupid things, and they don't just hurt themselves. See: the 5G arsons in the UK.
> The only harm their ignorance is doing is to themselves.
Is it? People might hurt their kids etc by not vaccinating them.
And if enough people believe this nonsense, they are very prone to voting for other idiots, which should have an effect on all of us.
The problem is this came up because this device was recommended at a town council meeting. The representative even argued for the town getting a device to protect the whole area, so this is far beyond just a private issue. Also there have been several cases of these people damaging or destroying 5G equipment, which is infrastructure the public rely on and ultimately pay for (through fees, regulatory costs, etc).
In fairness, there are reasons [1] to be skeptical of 5G other than "it's a witch" or whatever the new theory is.
I think these people have a vague anxiety that new technologies do not further their interests, because every time a new one comes out it is used to depress wages or surveil people. They don't know enough about technology to formulate a sane objection, so they latch on to "5G is evil black magic."
Remember, for a lot of people in the world most technologies are magic.
The claim is not supported by the article you cite. The article uses a lot of words about "security" but the truth is 5G has no worse security compared to 2G 3G etc.
The claims about 5G in China "used for surveillance" from the article are also false, as China started installing 5G equipment just very recently, like a few months ago, and the number of 5G-capable phones in China is minimal. Whatever they needed for "surveillance" they could have used the older technologies just as well.
Edit: To answer "Is your point..." question below: neither nor, to both of your constructs. The article simply doesn't support its major claim, because all the "problems" they cite (security, surveillance) are completely not specific to 5G, and their claims of existing relation to 5G technology are obviously false, just as I wrote.
Is your point that the New Yorker missed risks you do find meaningful, or that everything they pointed out is not meaningful to you and therefore 5G must be loved by all?
I don’t think that stands up. If they are distrustful of technology in general, how come they are ok with quantum nano time dilation beneficial frequency mumbo jumbo?
Some people have always been susceptible to quackery, there seems to be something seductive about the idea that you’ve found a wonderful solution the mainstream have rejected or don’t understand. I don’t think fringe claptrap is somewhere faulty logic leads them to, I think it’s the destination they are attracted to and the pretext they latch on to doesn’t matter that much.
In 2013 someone was jamming GPS signals near the London Stock Exchange's data center [1]. The Economist's expert believes it was a truck driver evading employer tracking.
My best guess is it was high frequency traders being shady.
Of course a 5G jammer would do so by emitting even more powerful 5G frequency signals, but I don't suppose that would occur to anyone believing this rubbish.
>your senses are the only way to interface with reality
This is technically true.
>and if you can't sense it it's not there
This is where it gets crazy.
What I find interesting about this is that you never actually have direct access to your senses. For example things in the corners of your vision are fabricated by your mind based on assumptions. See optical illusions. So anyone suggesting that things outside of your senses are not real should first accept that your senses as presented to your conscious mind are not even necessarily 'real'.
In fact your entire reality is fabricated by your mind which is making an internal model of the external world at all times (except when you are sleeping). You only ever see the model never the material world directly.
This is why science is so important. By observing things in controlled environments over and over from many perspectives we can build a more accurate picture of the material world than our senses would normally allow. In addition through the process of replication we can find a model of reality that we can all agree on.
Your senses in the most raw form your body will allow are usually only useful for tasks you evolved to do. Things like reading social cues, catching moving objects and sensing immediate danger.
When people take these senses and intuitions and apply them to complicated things derived from science like electromagnetic radiation (e.g 5G) they break down. But people keep doing it because it feels right, it feels natural. And it is natural just not useful.
For sure these people are quacks, but if you're curious to take the next turn down the rabbit hole, let me seed you.
Even the concept of senses and reality are concepts in your mind and consequences of the model you have accepted as reality. So the problem recurses on itself, too. Can you directly experience your mind? Is the feeling of your mind delivered to you through a sense you haven't realized is a sense yet? Can you trust that sense? Total radical skepticism lies below that. But it's only logical. You can't escape that tarpit at the bottom. Or maybe it's the screen isn't there for anything to be projected onto?
So we have to rebuild from what we can sense, sure. What is repeatable. We must develop an axiom that what is repeatable is real. That what we can understand, the system, the model, the prediction, is real. We believe the planets and stars are real because we can draw maps and pass them between us and furthermore make predictions about where the stars and planets will go based on our mathematical models. But even our models tell us that the world is too huge of a system to compute even the slightest more than the tiniest fraction of a smidgen of it all. We don't even have computers big enough to fold proteins. Yet they do. And what we don't have models for--we can't predict. Is it unreal, then? Where did our axiom go? What is real and isn't? I'm not so sure it's logic that decides that, after all. Because you gotta have faith that them there proteins are getting folded right, because you can't. fucking. check it!
You are over-complicating this. People are not infinitely deep; they have strange loops which make one level of depth look like many levels. Consciousness is a hallucination.
So, take a second. We don't understand fully how the brain's memory system works. There are some people who have an extreme ability to recall autobiographical details about literally every single day they ever lived. What the weather was like, what clothes they wore, who they talked to, things that happened. That's far beyond most people. But that establishes that clearly the brain has both the capacity and wiring to this at some level, and it can actually be turned on. We only need to be open to the idea that perhaps all brains do this at some level, recording our whole experience at some level of fidelity, below our conscious mind. I say, "at some level of fidelity" because we don't really know how detailed our memories really are. If it was just a heartbeat counter, it would only take 33 bits (!); if it was a transcript of the words we spoke, it would fit in less than 100mb. Of course it is probably not a full dump of any kind, but a patchwork of cross-referenced, reinforced, compressed, maybe slightly damaged things. Sometimes just emotions. It really doesn't matter what format it is, because the following will always be true.
At some point in your life, there will come a "midpoint" where more you have already experienced more before that point than you will afterwards.
Before the midpoint, there are still more events in your future than in your past, so you are fundamentally not capable of imagining all the future events--not only their nature, but the weight of their existence. The fidelity of your memories really doesn't matter here; you cannot fully appreciate 20 years of experience when you have lived only 10.
After the midpoint, one of two things is true:
Either,
1. We cannot remember all of the details about our lives. We have a radically simplified and compressed form which pales in comparison to the real moment-to-moment experience (i.e. low resolution).
2. We can remember all of the details about our lives (i.e. high resolution), but we don't have enough time left to replay them all in full quality.
Either way, our past life, in its full glory, is beyond our capacity to imagine.
So that means before the midpoint and after the midpoint it is subjectively infinite; there is always more, even in our own experiences, than we can experience or re-experience.
And that's just our own minds! If we aren't completely solipistic and believe all the rest of this vastly complicated world really does exist, then its doubly infinite, because every time we learn something new about how it works, we have to reimagine and reinterpret the complexities of the past with the new information. Like learning about people. Sometimes you seem them do things that make no sense; only when you get to know them later do you understand why they might have done that, and what they might have been thinking. Or looking at an old photograph you see someone you didn't know then but know now, and the past is even more detailed and rich than what you knew.
So I don't know who told you that consciousness is a hallucination, and that it must be meaningless and trite. Maybe they just lived a boring life, because TBH you're missing a hell of a good show as this whole thing unfolds.
> It sounds like the kind of thing that Russell Brand was wittering about a couple of years ago - that your senses are the only way to interface with reality, and if you can't sense it it's not there,
Can you post a source for this? I listened to a few bits of Brand over the years, and on this subject he'd say that there's a lot more reality out there, but humans are simply unaware of it due to our limited human senses. Nothing non obvious or controversial.
> Investigations by the BBC and other organisations found that the device is little more than a "glorified dowsing rod" with no detecting ability. In January 2010, export of the device was banned by the British government and the managing director of ATSC was arrested on suspicion of fraud;[3] in June 2010, several other companies were raided by British police.[4] ATSC was dissolved on 5 March 2013.[5] On 23 April 2013, the founder of ATSC, James "Jim" McCormick, was convicted of three counts of fraud[6] and subsequently sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.[7]
Selling tin foil as specialist EMF limiting wallpaper would be more honest than this device and yet, there will be people out there who will buy this and what's more, some of those will believe it works whatever you tell or show them.
«È un’invenzione supersegreta di un mio amico, ex direttore della NASA. Intercetta le vibracole moleizzate dell’atmosfera catafrastica protocollo Trider G7 tu del cosmo imbattibile eroe.»
I'm literally^Wfiguratively rolling on the floor laughing!
If they do, they'll be accused of bias as part of the MSM, and being a front for the 5G industry that's trying to enslave us all with their deep-state motives and digital vaccine master plan.
Glastonbury is a town with a long history, some ancient myths concerning its historic monuments and a very famous music festival which make it attractive to various types of New Age spiritualists and retired hippies.
The UK has plenty of councillors with very unusual views, but Glastonbury is where most satirists would locate a councillor who believed in magic anti-5G fields [just like they'd locate the retired major colonel who's disgruntled about parking issues or lack of respect for royalty in Tunbridge Wells]
Reminds me of the fuel "savers," "no-soap ionic" laundry balls, sonic insect "repellers," solar freakin roadways, Kailo, and free energy "inventions."
Many people want so desperately to believe that magical-thinking shortcut "solutions" will work that they'll spend good money to try to make it happen that they will suspend logic and critical thinking.
The most worrying thing I found about this article is the seriousness of the review - as if the pseudoscience is real and the review is checking if the fake device works against the fake science.
-I read it more like the BBC trying to keep the reporting neutral to a tee while still leaving no doubt (to anyone but the most ardent believer in quackery) that this device is a scam.
I think the article makes a lot of fun about the product and is obviously described as a funny and expensive scam between the lines :
"So what's different between it and a virtually identical 'crystal' USB key available from various suppliers in Shenzhen, China, for around £5 per key?" asks Ken Munro, whose company, Pen Test Partners, specialises in taking apart consumer electronic products to spot security vulnerabilities.
And the answer appears to be a circular sticker.
"Now, we're not 5G quantum experts but said sticker looks remarkably like one available in sheets from stationery suppliers for less than a penny each," he says.
"Mr Hall said his remarks in Glastonbury Town Council's 5G Advisory Committee report should not be seen as a recommendation to buy the product. But he had no regrets about buying it and since plugging it in had felt beneficial effects, including being able to sleep through the night and having more dreams." "I also felt a 'calmer' feel to the home," he told BBC News.
It's reassuring to know that your taxes are well spent on ensuring town council members can get a full night's sleep by buying a sticker.
I've always wondered how people manage to seperate the 'bad electrons coming from nuclear power plants' from the 'good electrons coming from good old safe coal power plants' :)
> Surveillance, IOT- Internet of Things, and 5G.
Crowd control, mind control, ‘voice to skull’, and the ability to manipulate individuals or groups of people emotionally, even to self-harm are achieved via RFR programming. This patented technology is being used worldwide. 5G is the vehicle for total control and the ‘surveillance state’, this is pernicious and dangerous.
> Medical/Health damage.
RFR damage can be slow and accumulative. With higher levels it can be lethal and dramatic. Such as flocks of birds falling out of the sky dead when 5G is turned on. People get nose bleeds and suicide rates increase.
If it makes people feel better, and gets people to stop being unreasonably unhappy about something harmless, who are we to ruin that for them?
I guess we could be opening ourselves up to a slippery slide, or some danger that people make unsafe decisions because of this, but I think this is relatively innocuous.
109 comments
[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 200 ms ] threadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
When I try to think about it in terms of the effect on people, it's much more complex than my initial "you muppets deserve to be relieved of £300 for believing total rubbish" reaction. You then think 'well, these people just need to be educated about this and then they'll see what's actually happening', but those kinds of strategies don't have the success rate you'd hope for in a rational world.
I wonder how many they've sold?
The problem with this is that it validates the 5G hate.
My intuitive guess would be that for the target audience "ground-breaking quantum technology" would cause even more problems for their family than 5G. Interesting.
But maybe this can be used as a cure for many fears? I mean multiple studies have shown that the root cause for fear of flying comes from not knowing or understanding how a plane flies. I mean sure, it clearly does not flap its wings, so it might crash any second? But some quantum-stirred and fossil-entangled jet fuel might help.
These people distrust sciency explanations because they think its harmful manmade stuff. They only trust things that sound like they're part of the "natural order" of things.
I see the radius of the bubble is large enough to protect my entire house.
Edit.
[1] - https://5gbioshield.com/
All they need to do is make that plug golden, and sell it for $1K.
If you buy into the conspiracy, then electricity is probably some kind of dark magic to you.
EDIT: They actually have you plug it in to charge it periodically or expand the protective field.
I think the Venn diagram of people who know this and people who think they can protect themselves from 5G with a crystal stick has absolutely no overlap.
"The stick comes loaded with a 25 page PDF version of the material from 5GbioShield ‘s website. It included a Q&A of distances for the “bubble” and how to know if it is working. It’s an “always on” system apparently, is always working, powered or not, so no visual checks needed.
A review of the stick’s properties revealed nothing more that what you’d expect from a regular 128MB USB key. We weren’t even sure that 128s are still in production!"
https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/reverse-engine...
I hear they're especially efficient on non 5G capable phones :)
My mother loves those kind of things and no amount of discussion with her will create any doubt in her mind.
I can't blame people falling for this though. They have been disrespected by the traditional health institutions for so long any escape seems good to them.
You can see the same effect in politics. To an extend, the current authorities have a lot of responsability in people listening to crooks.
My favourite:
>Does the device remove the EMF from the environment? If so can I use a meter to measure EMF?
>>The 'electro magnetic meter' can only measure the intensity of radiation which is not changed by our technology nor does it change the quality of connection and speed of data transfer.
Well, that's convenient, isn't it?
>>Our device harmonises all harmful frequencies into life affirming frequencies - it doesn't block - it transmutes.
I note there is no mention of which frequencies are 'harmful' and which are 'life affirming' - which would be even more useful given the frequency range of a WiFi or Cellular device, so you'd know which is which...
>> The only methods that we know can measure the difference between imbalanced radiation (without protection) and balanced radiation (with protection) These positive test results can be found on our website - please look for 'Case Study ' under Science and Research tab.
The Case Study starts with this paragraph:
>>In our civilization is emerging new science based on knowledge, whereas the official (old) science is based on information. We get information through our senses which are dual and deliver us an inverted picture of the truth and consequently, information is the opposite of knowledge so that all the old scientific concepts are therefore the upside down of the true concepts.
Do people actually believe this nonsense? It sounds like the kind of thing that Russell Brand was wittering about a couple of years ago - that your senses are the only way to interface with reality, and if you can't sense it it's not there, etc... Which can be disproved in seconds, even by a 10-year old child. I find it profoundly depressing when this kind of bamboozlement of the gullible is done in the form of sciency language. And it always seems to be done with a big price tag at the end of it.
[1] https://5gbioshield.com/frequently-asked-questions/
Laws against false advertising on the other hand...
Not very extensively, but such is life.
~~~
(1) A person commits an offence if he uses apparatus for the purpose of interfering with wireless telegraphy.
(2) This section applies—
(a) whether or not the apparatus in question is wireless telegraphy apparatus;
...
~~~
Obviously, the "purpose" of the person using the anti-5G USB stick would need to be established. Given the law doesn't mention anything about having any effect on wireless telegraphy, presumably as long as mens rea is established the offence is made out.
There are also other potential offences around consumer misselling, false advertising, etc.
---
[0] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/36/part/3/crosshead...
Probably.
My mum was a New-Age type, so I grew up with homeopathic pills explicitly labelled as “sodium chloride”, “silicon dioxide”, and “titanium dioxide”, while being told my brother and I were “typical” for our astrological star signs. She was big on dowsing with wands and pendulums and thought crystals had personalities and could jump out of your hand. When I was young she expressed sadness that my older brother no longer believed in chakras, and the last time she met my (now ex) girlfriend, she expressed sadness to her that I didn’t believe in Orgone energy. She was also taking Bach flower remedies for memory right up until she got Alzheimer’s.
Also: Sorry you went through that decline at the end. :'(
But it's often not in dangerous quantities, because homeopathy believes that the less of something is present somewhere it works better, and it's called "dynamization" or "potentization" by the producers, diluting the material sometimes to the point that in thousands of sold pills, counted together, there can't be more than one single molecule! The process then practically guarantees that there aren't dangerous substances in the pill or "solution". Heh.
The "less potent" pills or solutions can actually have some amounts of the stuff named on them, beware of those.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathic_dilutions
"24X 12C 10−24 Has a 60% probability of containing one molecule of original material if one mole of the original substance was used."
"26X 13C 10−26 If pure water were used as the diluent, no molecules of the original solution remain in the water."
Edit: regarding the 5G issue, an article where about Glastonbury Town Council report, where the 5G USB "solution" was mentioned by "Non-Councillor Advisory Committee Member" (I have no idea what that means):
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/health/5g-coronavirus-bi...
I understand that the Council set up a 5G Advisory Committee, and the person mentioning these anti-5G USB sticks is a member of the advisory committee but isn't an elected councillor.
Did you hear about the homeopath that died of an overdose? He forgot to take his pills.
While everything else (crystals etc) is bull I'd like to point out to readers that chakras have some utility. When meditating they are good positions to focus on and can make it easier to drop your thoughts. Also if you pay attention to your emotions in your body they often occur at these points. I assume they were derived from this internal observation of emotions and then people expanded them to include all sorts of higher unsubstantiated theories.
I was just trying to illustrate how convinced she was by her magic potions.
And sure, I’ll agree any focus for meditation is cool regardless of what it is, but she thought it was a bit more than that.
I understand what you were getting at just thought I'd give my 2c about chakras because I thought some people would bundle them in with healing crystals when they can be separated out as tools for meditation.
Yes. I have moved past thinking we need to protect people from this kind of thing. If they believe it, let them buy it. The only harm their ignorance is doing is to themselves. They might even get some kind of placebo reassurance from it.
Is it? People might hurt their kids etc by not vaccinating them. And if enough people believe this nonsense, they are very prone to voting for other idiots, which should have an effect on all of us.
I think these people have a vague anxiety that new technologies do not further their interests, because every time a new one comes out it is used to depress wages or surveil people. They don't know enough about technology to formulate a sane objection, so they latch on to "5G is evil black magic."
Remember, for a lot of people in the world most technologies are magic.
[1] https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/the-...
Not there.
The claim is not supported by the article you cite. The article uses a lot of words about "security" but the truth is 5G has no worse security compared to 2G 3G etc.
The claims about 5G in China "used for surveillance" from the article are also false, as China started installing 5G equipment just very recently, like a few months ago, and the number of 5G-capable phones in China is minimal. Whatever they needed for "surveillance" they could have used the older technologies just as well.
Edit: To answer "Is your point..." question below: neither nor, to both of your constructs. The article simply doesn't support its major claim, because all the "problems" they cite (security, surveillance) are completely not specific to 5G, and their claims of existing relation to 5G technology are obviously false, just as I wrote.
Either way, it misses the point of my comment.
Some people have always been susceptible to quackery, there seems to be something seductive about the idea that you’ve found a wonderful solution the mainstream have rejected or don’t understand. I don’t think fringe claptrap is somewhere faulty logic leads them to, I think it’s the destination they are attracted to and the pretext they latch on to doesn’t matter that much.
In 2013 someone was jamming GPS signals near the London Stock Exchange's data center [1]. The Economist's expert believes it was a truck driver evading employer tracking.
My best guess is it was high frequency traders being shady.
[1] https://www.economist.com/international/2013/07/27/out-of-si...
people shove pebbles into their vaginas, of course they believe in 5G usb tr^^transmuter
This is technically true.
>and if you can't sense it it's not there
This is where it gets crazy.
What I find interesting about this is that you never actually have direct access to your senses. For example things in the corners of your vision are fabricated by your mind based on assumptions. See optical illusions. So anyone suggesting that things outside of your senses are not real should first accept that your senses as presented to your conscious mind are not even necessarily 'real'.
In fact your entire reality is fabricated by your mind which is making an internal model of the external world at all times (except when you are sleeping). You only ever see the model never the material world directly.
This is why science is so important. By observing things in controlled environments over and over from many perspectives we can build a more accurate picture of the material world than our senses would normally allow. In addition through the process of replication we can find a model of reality that we can all agree on.
Your senses in the most raw form your body will allow are usually only useful for tasks you evolved to do. Things like reading social cues, catching moving objects and sensing immediate danger.
When people take these senses and intuitions and apply them to complicated things derived from science like electromagnetic radiation (e.g 5G) they break down. But people keep doing it because it feels right, it feels natural. And it is natural just not useful.
Even the concept of senses and reality are concepts in your mind and consequences of the model you have accepted as reality. So the problem recurses on itself, too. Can you directly experience your mind? Is the feeling of your mind delivered to you through a sense you haven't realized is a sense yet? Can you trust that sense? Total radical skepticism lies below that. But it's only logical. You can't escape that tarpit at the bottom. Or maybe it's the screen isn't there for anything to be projected onto?
So we have to rebuild from what we can sense, sure. What is repeatable. We must develop an axiom that what is repeatable is real. That what we can understand, the system, the model, the prediction, is real. We believe the planets and stars are real because we can draw maps and pass them between us and furthermore make predictions about where the stars and planets will go based on our mathematical models. But even our models tell us that the world is too huge of a system to compute even the slightest more than the tiniest fraction of a smidgen of it all. We don't even have computers big enough to fold proteins. Yet they do. And what we don't have models for--we can't predict. Is it unreal, then? Where did our axiom go? What is real and isn't? I'm not so sure it's logic that decides that, after all. Because you gotta have faith that them there proteins are getting folded right, because you can't. fucking. check it!
So, take a second. We don't understand fully how the brain's memory system works. There are some people who have an extreme ability to recall autobiographical details about literally every single day they ever lived. What the weather was like, what clothes they wore, who they talked to, things that happened. That's far beyond most people. But that establishes that clearly the brain has both the capacity and wiring to this at some level, and it can actually be turned on. We only need to be open to the idea that perhaps all brains do this at some level, recording our whole experience at some level of fidelity, below our conscious mind. I say, "at some level of fidelity" because we don't really know how detailed our memories really are. If it was just a heartbeat counter, it would only take 33 bits (!); if it was a transcript of the words we spoke, it would fit in less than 100mb. Of course it is probably not a full dump of any kind, but a patchwork of cross-referenced, reinforced, compressed, maybe slightly damaged things. Sometimes just emotions. It really doesn't matter what format it is, because the following will always be true.
At some point in your life, there will come a "midpoint" where more you have already experienced more before that point than you will afterwards.
Before the midpoint, there are still more events in your future than in your past, so you are fundamentally not capable of imagining all the future events--not only their nature, but the weight of their existence. The fidelity of your memories really doesn't matter here; you cannot fully appreciate 20 years of experience when you have lived only 10.
After the midpoint, one of two things is true:
Either,
1. We cannot remember all of the details about our lives. We have a radically simplified and compressed form which pales in comparison to the real moment-to-moment experience (i.e. low resolution). 2. We can remember all of the details about our lives (i.e. high resolution), but we don't have enough time left to replay them all in full quality.
Either way, our past life, in its full glory, is beyond our capacity to imagine.
So that means before the midpoint and after the midpoint it is subjectively infinite; there is always more, even in our own experiences, than we can experience or re-experience.
And that's just our own minds! If we aren't completely solipistic and believe all the rest of this vastly complicated world really does exist, then its doubly infinite, because every time we learn something new about how it works, we have to reimagine and reinterpret the complexities of the past with the new information. Like learning about people. Sometimes you seem them do things that make no sense; only when you get to know them later do you understand why they might have done that, and what they might have been thinking. Or looking at an old photograph you see someone you didn't know then but know now, and the past is even more detailed and rich than what you knew.
So I don't know who told you that consciousness is a hallucination, and that it must be meaningless and trite. Maybe they just lived a boring life, because TBH you're missing a hell of a good show as this whole thing unfolds.
Try LSD sometime.
Can you post a source for this? I listened to a few bits of Brand over the years, and on this subject he'd say that there's a lot more reality out there, but humans are simply unaware of it due to our limited human senses. Nothing non obvious or controversial.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651
Let's hope our false saviour meets the same fate.
- this is basically an ignorance tax
- sometimes I wish I had no conscience, I would be much richer
Also here is a hilarious recount of the same story in Italian, you might have success with automated translation: https://bagniproeliator.it/cerca-una-pallina-da-golf-trova-r...
I'm literally^Wfiguratively rolling on the floor laughing!
Or something fitting that closely.
Devastating.
I'm comparing this to the lowest common denominator style of news in the USA.
Not just proud of it - it must be impartial as per the terms of the Royal Charter and licence under which it is allowed to operate.
The UK has plenty of councillors with very unusual views, but Glastonbury is where most satirists would locate a councillor who believed in magic anti-5G fields [just like they'd locate the retired major colonel who's disgruntled about parking issues or lack of respect for royalty in Tunbridge Wells]
Many people want so desperately to believe that magical-thinking shortcut "solutions" will work that they'll spend good money to try to make it happen that they will suspend logic and critical thinking.
This is very worrying it made it into the BBC.
Decidedly British, I'd say.
"So what's different between it and a virtually identical 'crystal' USB key available from various suppliers in Shenzhen, China, for around £5 per key?" asks Ken Munro, whose company, Pen Test Partners, specialises in taking apart consumer electronic products to spot security vulnerabilities.
And the answer appears to be a circular sticker.
"Now, we're not 5G quantum experts but said sticker looks remarkably like one available in sheets from stationery suppliers for less than a penny each," he says.
"Mr Hall said his remarks in Glastonbury Town Council's 5G Advisory Committee report should not be seen as a recommendation to buy the product. But he had no regrets about buying it and since plugging it in had felt beneficial effects, including being able to sleep through the night and having more dreams." "I also felt a 'calmer' feel to the home," he told BBC News.
It's reassuring to know that your taxes are well spent on ensuring town council members can get a full night's sleep by buying a sticker.
https://normalforglastonbury.uk
Report and Recommendations from Glastonbury Town Council’s 5G Advisory Committee
PDF: https://stop5g.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/FinalReporta...
Toby Hall's comments are gold.
> Surveillance, IOT- Internet of Things, and 5G. Crowd control, mind control, ‘voice to skull’, and the ability to manipulate individuals or groups of people emotionally, even to self-harm are achieved via RFR programming. This patented technology is being used worldwide. 5G is the vehicle for total control and the ‘surveillance state’, this is pernicious and dangerous.
> Medical/Health damage. RFR damage can be slow and accumulative. With higher levels it can be lethal and dramatic. Such as flocks of birds falling out of the sky dead when 5G is turned on. People get nose bleeds and suicide rates increase.
https://teslastyle101.com
It's almost Time Cube level (he seems to prefer other polyhedrons).
I guess we could be opening ourselves up to a slippery slide, or some danger that people make unsafe decisions because of this, but I think this is relatively innocuous.
At over $400, it's a pretty hefty scam.