I have been to some interesting places in my own brain with the help of psychedelics. While I have experienced different levels of self-awareness, the possibility of that “filling up my brain” is likely not possible.

There is a part of the brain that psychedelics specifically affect that functions as kind of a traffic regulator. It typically only directs signals from one part of the brain to another part. Psychedelics open these pathways up and allow for information to flow to in all kinds of directions. (Synesthesia, sensory confusion, is an example: Feeling colors and seeing sounds.)

What the experience does for me, is that I seem to gain more awareness into how my brain works. It’s like I can stand back and watch how my brain processes things. My subconscious is pulled into full view and I can almost tinker with it, in a way. Some theories suggest that the colors and geometric patterns people tend to see is our actual brain operations being leaked into the visual cortex and/or the fractal patterns are the result of actual “data loops” caused by psychedelics allowing information to pass around freely. (Not my theories, btw.)

Now, you may read this and think: That dude is just tripping! (And you would be very much correct.) The thing is, every experience I have and anything that I feel is already in my brain. The data is already there, but how that data is processed is vastly different. Even if I am perceiving parts of my brain that I couldn’t before, it’s still just the same neurons that were always there.

So, what I am basically saying is, is that my self-awareness temporarily becomes self-aware. It’s a shitty description, but it’s the closest I could get to matching the situation you were asking about.

I still develop memories, almost as normal. Some memories stick and some fade. All that really happened is that a few neuron weights got shaken up and it all becomes a few new pathways with a similar number of neurons as before. (Neurogenesis and dendritic growth as a result of psychedelics is a different subject and I wouldn’t think it would be part of the recursion-type situation you are asking about.)

Memories become integrated with existing ones, basically. While vastly different in many ways, our current AI tech has a set number of “neurons” it can work with in any given model. You can train those same bunches of neurons with millions of different patterns, but the actual size of the neural network doesn’t change, no matter how much data you cram into it. With slight changes to when neurons fire, you are using specific pathways of neurons to save data, not necessarily using the neurons themselves.

Really? I thought they would be sitting back drinking mojitos while watching the show.

It’s easier to target a specific area or person, regardless of the provider and legalities can be ignored. Its best feature is that it’s portable and likely hard to detect because it doesn’t need to be turned on all the time. The second best feature is that training people to use it is probably really easy.

If backdoors exist or not, the setup and use would be significantly more complex. More people would be aware, there is more risk in getting caught, there will always be system logs somewhere, etc.

I wouldn’t even consider most psychedelics bad and I even consider mushrooms instrumental to my alcoholism recovery over the last few years. (There are caveats, and I’ll explain.)

The issue is some people simply cannot handle psychedelics and bad trips can do more harm than good. If someone is in a risky spot or around shitty people, that can amplify bad experiences 100x. I have had several bad trips, and it’s easy to understand why full-blown psychosis is sometimes a thing.

Heavy dosages with inexperienced users that already have issues is a recipe for disaster. Period. Having seen reality completely dissolve a few times myself, it could be a seriously traumatic experience for some people.

However, when used and dosed properly in healthy environment around people who truly care about your well-being, the benefits outweigh the risks in many cases. A person can quite literally rewire their brain and start to heal from depression, anxiety, PTSD or other types of mental health issues. I ain’t gonna lie: I thought this was absolute bullshit until I started to actively work to sort out my own issues.

The best part is that psychedelics are mostly self-regulating and a tolerance is formed lightning fast. If you are crazy enough to want to trip several days in a row, it can get super inefficient, super quick.

For the first few months of alcohol sobriety, I was going on some universe hopping adventures, having multiple breakthrough experiences and having a grand ol’ time. Then, it just slowed down. I don’t know how to say it accurately, but I found what I was looking for and was able to resolve some deep inner conflict.

I still trip on occasion, but at fractions of my previous dosages. I don’t need those deep experiences any more and I can continue my recovery at the speed of reality.

Psychedelics aren’t inherently dangerous, but they are extremely powerful and demands serious respect. Alcohol is just straight-up dangerous. There are people in my life still that are still killing themselves slowly with the stuff and it sucks to watch.

It was on old 3.5" drives a long time ago, before anything fancy was ever built into the drives. It was in a seriously rough working environment anyway, so we saw a lot of failed drives. If strange experiments didn’t work to get the things working, mainly for lulz, the next option was to see if a sledge hammer would fix the problem. Funny thing… that never worked either.

I used to take failed drives while they were powered on and kinda snap them really with a fast twisting motion in an attempt to get the arm to move or get the platters spinning.

It never worked.

Did you get bad sectors? Weird things can absolutely happen but having sectors marked as bad is on the exceptional side of weird.

Maybe? Bad cables are a thing, so it’s something to be aware of. USB latency, in rare cases, can cause problems but not so much in this application.

I haven’t looked into the exact ways that bad sectors are detected, but it probably hasn’t changed too much over the years. Needless to say, info here is just approximate.

However, marking a sector as bad generally happens at the firmware/controller level. I am guessing that a write is quickly followed by a verification, and if the controller sees an error, it will just remap that particular sector. If HDDs use any kind of parity checks per sector, a write test may not be needed.

Tools like CHKDSK likely step through each sector manually and perform read tests, or just tells the controller to perform whatever test it does on each sector.

OS level interference or bad cables are unlikely to cause the controller to mark a sector as bad, is my point. Now, if bad data gets written to disk because of a bad cable, the controller shouldn’t care. It just sees data and writes data. (That would be rare as well, but possible.)

What you will see is latency. USB can be magnitudes slower than SATA. Buffers and wait states are causing this because of the speed differences. This latency isn’t going to cause physical problems though.

My overall point is that there are several independent software and firmware layers that need to be completely broken for a SATA drive to erroneously mark a sector as bad due to a slow conversion cable. Sure, it could happen and that is why we have software that can attempt to repair bad sectors.

In addition, I can’t tell people enough that most "specialty’ tools are most likely common tools from other fields, but maybe include a fancy adapter or something. And yes, I don’t want to know how many times we have solved problems that were already solved. (A benefit is that we understand the true problem to its core and integrate those solutions much more efficiently into future projects.)

My “jack” is printed in PETG as it has a higher glass transition temperature (80°-85°C) than PLA. I have had PLA prints on my shelf start to sag due to age but most of that is likely negated by additives in new generations of PLA+. (or PLA Pro, or whatever buzzword is currently used.) PETG should be just fine for this. ABS would be another option, too.

I currently have a Prusa Mini that is my go to, but a large format Prusa XL with 5 separate hotends is squarely in my sights at the moment. (I have had several other printers that eventually got disassembled for parts.)

The threads on my print are super tight and no post processing was needed. It just screwed together after it was done. I did go to the trouble of designing a shoe looking adapter thing for more surface area against the card, but the weight of the card is enough to keep it from moving around. The thread angle is such that the downward pressure keeps enough friction on the threads so it’s not going anywhere through any jostling. (Rough threads are a feature, in this case.)

But yeah, printers these days are much more accurate and less prone to errors. Just 10 years ago, every other print I did was a failure. Now? Failures are quite rare and that is mostly because of the tech. Now that layers are consistent enough these days, most threads I print are with 0.2mm layers which is good enough if I keep the tolerances wide enough in CAD. (My go-to is 0.25mm tolerance for fitted parts or less depending on the application.)

Yeah! I remember those wrenches quite well. Print-in-place models are somewhat mainstream now. I randomly put one on Printables and it is far more popular than I ever expected. The success rate seems quite high given the number of random printers that are out there: https://www.printables.com/model/489431-print-in-place-hinge . I only bring this up as it’s a testament to how far the tech has come, and only recently.

I literally just got my first resin printer and have yet to have a failure. Getting consistent prints at 0.03mm has been a breeze and quality is limited by the model, not the printer. (Resin printer fanatics are likely to argue with me on that point.) Getting ABS plastic strength with hyper-detail is amazing! However, it’s messy and smelly, so that sucks. (I am going to setup some real precision testing this evening as I have had some projects on hold for a couple of years due to FDM limitations.)

Here ya go: https://www.printables.com/model/926491-anti-sag-gpu-stand-aka-machinists-jack

Thanks for the kind words!

And yes, I designed this in a vacuum, but it is actually a common machinists jack, it seems. Minus a few neat features I saw around the web (like a lock screw component) it’s a 1:1 match for functionality.

Like you, I have a love for projects and tools that are shared across different fields. Mostly due to my ADHD, I have a slew of hobbies that focus around mechanical engineering, chemistry and biology. It’s extremely cost effective to commingle different hobbies, actually. My 3D printing and CAD work is universal, my collection of chemistry glass is used for rando chemistry things as well as mycology. All of my fittings, connectors and electronic components are also universal… etc. etc.

As requested: https://www.printables.com/model/926491-anti-sag-gpu-stand-aka-machinists-jack

I’ll get it shared tomorrow. It’s designed after a bottle jack but is completely threaded to allow for adjustment and doesn’t have any of the handle components, obviously.

Yeah. I got one and it’s a beast. I had to design and print a support for its ass to keep it from sagging.

(I am just going into the basics, so ignore gross errors.)

It just fakes a cell tower. Because of the nature of how modern radios work, a phone will likely connect to the strongest signal it detects. The stingray acts as a “man in the middle” and relays the phone signal to an actual tower as if it was the original phone making the call. As it relays the call, the operator can listen in.

It’s akin to answering a call, making a call on another phone and then holding the two phones together.

(MITM attacks on HTTPS connections are similar, but there are some nuances with how the connection is decrypted and the re-encrypted.)

Size is relative and our perception of time (and the way we measure it) requires us to use numbers so large, most people can’t really visualize at the scales we are talking about.

Off the top of your head, can you visualize how much space 10 billion apples would take up? Sure, you could calculate it, but it’s likely not something you could instantly visualize in your head.

Honestly, I don’t know how to solve for that problem.

Most US Navy ships have had CIWS systems since the 70s and have had many upgrades to their tracking systems since then. The US Army adopted the LPWS (C-RAM) which is basically a portable CIWS for land use. (The Russian version of the CIWS is called a Kortik.)

It wouldn’t surprise me if there are already CIWS-type systems for commercial ships operating in hazardous zones.

I have had the pleasure of standing next to a few CIWS systems during live fire testing and it’s quite the experience.

I don’t remember them backing it publicly either. However, there are plenty of farmers in TX that absolutely love wind power and all the extra income.

Wut?

Tin the wire and the pin first and then touch the iron to them both quickly. They should stick fairly well without needing to add additional solder. Also, like someone else mentioned, flux can help quite a bit. (Maybe even a cupped soldering iron tip might be useful, depending on the situation.)

Learning how to solder SMD components will get you extremely familiar with how solder behaves at that scale. Let’s just say it’s significantly different than just doing basic wires and THT.

(Well, the solder doesn’t really act different, but at smaller scales it looks like it does.)

Well, that spider is in for a hell of a ride.