🌟🌟 Social 🌟🌟 PD Social Thread 2022-2025 v. Year of the Phenethylamine

[Xorkoth]

But applying Occam's razor, the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions is: we're all alone in the universe, and if not, alien life is perhaps too far away to matter during our lifetimes.

Sure, I'm not disagreeing that it is very, very probably a pointless argument... I'm arguing for its likelihood to exist somewhere... not its likelihood that we will ever find it or be able to interact, or even know for sure whether each other exists.

Also, wanting to see evidence is at the core of both science and law. I don't see how that's strange. Before you buy something from someone on, say, Craigslist or similar, don't you want to see the thing you're buying first, make sure it works, &c.?

You're right, it's not strange, that was a bit much, I'm sorry

We've been looking for 60 years without finding anything and you wonder why I would think intelligent life might not exist beyond our planet? If it does, it's not at the same time as us, or at distances too great to cover. Seems plausible to me. Am I crazy?

Not crazy, no. But you're absolutely right, and I even included it in my proposal, that space and even time divides us from any potential intelligent life.

Also, do you feel the same way about life, in general? Like plants, maybe insects, or some equivalent? If life exists beyond Earth, it would be overwhelmingly likely for any given planet to have not developed intelligent life. But to me that's still life.

And yeah, definitely the massive stretches of time separating everything makes it even vastly more unlikely we'll ever see them, but it doesn't invalidate my argument, because it wasn't about whether we will ever be able to encounter them.

Well that's what I was saying. If intelligent aliens exist, the technology to bridge the enormous distance gap between us is a technological undertaking probably not possible in our lifetime and for who knows how many generations after us?

That said, I also don't mind if people want to keep looking, even if it is risky in the sense of: who knows what we'll discover if we do discover intelligent alien life? Either way, it's fun to think about.

It is a fun thing to think about, for sure. It's something I use to help myself view my problems objectively and know that I'm just some speck in a universe dotted with matter like us that has crystallized into such an intricate form that it is aware of itself.

A materialist view of the world can be pretty sad and boring, I like to spice it up with beliefs, whether there’s any basis for them or not.

Basically, this. I have come to some things I believe are true, but I realize that it might all be totally untrue. But that's okay because it makes my life feel more meaningful to believe it. The human spirit requires spirituality, which is really a feeling of wonder and connection to something greater. It is like sustenance for us. Or at least that's how it is for me. I'm fully prepared to be wrong, but this belief is a positive one for me, and I feel as though I have seen and felt it very clearly. Am I crazy? Was I just high on drugs and formed a spiritual belief system out of it? Perhaps. But it isn't hurting anyone and it's a positive thing for me. So I'm good with it.

You still working from home doing coding? How often do you get up to stretch through the day? Humans shouldn't stay seated for more than an hour at a time. Works out for the young but catches up to us eventually.

Yes I am.

Today I felt the Spring energy for the first time and I really feel kicked out of a rut right now. I really want to start getting up early before work and going to the gym. One day my garage/basement will be my gym, but for now, I have a gym membership I haven't used in like a year. I need to just do it and go on Monday, without thinking about it. Once I get working out going, I generally want to keep going back. The only thing I'm worried about is... I have a lot of joint aches and a recurring elbow strain of some sort. I'm kinda worried about doing weights. But the elliptical alone will be well worth going to the gym.

 

[pharmakos]

A rolling stone gathers no moss

 

[pharmakos]

Song I've been working on lately. The chords and melody just kind of came out of me, and I had to work backwards to figure out what was going on with it music theory wise. Chords go back and forth between F# major and F major, which gives it a real mysterious sort of "Egyptian" Phrygian Dominant feel over it. But for the melodic soloing over it, instead of sticking to F Phrygian Dominant, I play F# Lydian over the F# major chord. Idk why it works but it does. I think, music theory wise, it's my favorite thing I've ever written. Need to figure out some more parts for it tho! Hope you guys enjoy. Don't mind my terrible vocals over the middle.

 

[pharmakos]

Hey, speaking of solipsism, anyone stay in touch with @Solipsis ?

 

[Xorkoth]

He popped in a little while ago, said hi, said he was doing well. But he didn't stick around to chat much.

I recorded some jamming with me and my loop pedal, other than in the middle section, there is some classical-style stuff with just the piano (that part is a few chord progresssions I wrote that I like to improvise with on my own. Occasionally the band will get in on it but rarely.

Anyway my point with most of it was to set a good loop with many layers, and I used the built in rhythm to help me, and then turned it off once I felt the loop was really established, and then I am improvising over the top of it.

I recorded it at my friend's studio, and then we mixed it a bit, so the recording quality is very high. It would be good music to get high to.

There are two files, the first one is the mp3 and I would recommend that, because the other one is a wav that is 1.3 GB It's an hour and 20 minutes long. There are some stops and starts along the way, too.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-H9BMyBDccuN3ZWMS95X9S8y6O-Gto3o

I don't usually share music publicly but this isn't my band at all so free to share.

 

[unodelacosa]

Song I've been working on lately. The chords and melody just kind of came out of me, and I had to work backwards to figure out what was going on with it music theory wise. Chords go back and forth between F# major and F major, which gives it a real mysterious sort of "Egyptian" Phrygian Dominant feel over it.

So one thing you could do with this is, every eight bars maybe drop your bass note from the tonic F to the subdominant B♭. Changes the texture into a deeper, rounder tonality Stay there for eight bars then bring it back home to the tonic

But for the melodic soloing over it, instead of sticking to F Phrygian Dominant, I play F# Lydian over the F# major chord. Idk why it works but it does.

There are overlapping notes, and those that don't overlap are used as passing tones. It's works in jazz solos, too. Well played, sir.

I think, music theory wise, it's my favorite thing I've ever written. Need to figure out some more parts for it tho! Hope you guys enjoy. Don't mind my terrible vocals over the middle.

Nonsense. I think your voice has a bit of a David Bowie sound to it. Keep up the singing. It's what humanizes electronic music and that element is oftentimes critical, in my humble opinion.

This popped up on my Facebook feed. Seems relevant to the conversation going on here. This astronomer believes other like in the universe is likely, while intelligent life is less probable though still possible

Thanks for sharing the link. I like this part (bold mine):

> "Why are these odds lower? Kipping thinks that as humans appeared rather late in Earth’s habitable history, it’s clear their existence was not a foregone conclusion. ‘If we played Earth’s history again, the emergence of intelligence is actually somewhat unlikely,’ he pointed out.”​

​

@Xorkoth – the above quote conveys how I feel on the subject, too. Even with all the conditions in place, it still might be exceedingly rare that intelligence is able to breakthrough, as it were.

If the dinosaurs had not been wiped out, would they be intelligent by this point similar to us, or would they still just be giant dumbass lizards, relatively speaking? (No offense to any dinosaurs).

 

[Xorkoth]

Song I've been working on lately. The chords and melody just kind of came out of me, and I had to work backwards to figure out what was going on with it music theory wise. Chords go back and forth between F# major and F major, which gives it a real mysterious sort of "Egyptian" Phrygian Dominant feel over it. But for the melodic soloing over it, instead of sticking to F Phrygian Dominant, I play F# Lydian over the F# major chord. Idk why it works but it does. I think, music theory wise, it's my favorite thing I've ever written. Need to figure out some more parts for it tho! Hope you guys enjoy. Don't mind my terrible vocals over the middle.

I love that chord progression. We did that in my previous band, with E major to F# phrygian. Very much like this but modulated down a half step. We just called the song India. Partway through it changes to A major - G major, and then D C and A major to C major in a triumphant sort of flood with a ton of guitar noise and soloing. And then back to E maj F# phrygian to end it softly.

I'm taking your word for it being phrygian... I don't usually think about which mode it's in... I just know what it's going to sound like.

I like it.

 

[Xorkoth]

@Xorkoth – the above quote conveys how I feel on the subject, too. Even with all the conditions in place, it still might be exceedingly rare that intelligence is able to breakthrough, as it were.

If the dinosaurs had not been wiped out, would they be intelligent by this point similar to us, or would they still just be giant dumbass lizards, relatively speaking? (No offense to any dinosaurs).

I've thought about many times. Who knows, man? It's a tremendous confluence of factors.

We can certainly 100% agree that it is likely very improbably to develop the level of intelligence that humans have achieved. Although, I can't help but have a healthy dose of wondering if we're really not that special.

Nonsense. I think your voice has a bit of a David Bowie sound to it. Keep up the singing. It's what humanizes electronic music and that element is oftentimes critical, in my humble opinion.

Agreed, keep singing, and do it with confidence. Like any instrument, it can become more and more developed.

 

[pharmakos]

I've been singing for a long time and haven't gotten much better some songs I nail, other songs it's more like nails on a chalkboard.

@unodelacosa yeah gypsy jazz is an apt description. Usually I'm a guitar player (19 years) only started playing keyboard seriously maybe 4-5 years ago. Coincidentally, the Greek people known as the Lydians lived in Anatolia (modern day Turkey), and Phrygian Dominant is of course the most "Egyptian" sounding mode. So a piece of music that combines tonality from the two regions is very "gypsy" in a meta way haha. And yeah, then those passing chromatic notes. Was definitely channeling some gypsy.

Speaking of, I've been meaning to look up why the modes are all named after specific Greek tribes. Might help me finally remember which name goes to which mode without having to look up and remind myself haha. I have some of them memorized but not all.

@Xorkoth I just laid down in bed but I will listen to your jam either later tonight or tomorrow

 

[pharmakos]

Oh hey, typed this out earlier explaining to someone why I use the name Pharmakos and what the "progression goes from Pharmakeus to Pharmakon" meant in that song. Thought you guys would be interested too --

The word "pharmakos" in the ancient Greek language was a synonym of the word "scapegoat." An earlier form of ostracism, exiling the scapegoat from the city. Over time (the course of a few hundred years) tho, the word evolved, and new words using it as a root popped into existence. First was "pharmakeus," a general term for a sorcerer or potion makee. Then after that, "pharmakon," a word merchants would use as a general term for any medicine or cosmetic item. (Cosmetics were important because many also had medicinal properties -- for example Kohl, the heavy black eye makeup most traditionally identified with the Egyptians, helped protect the eyes against airborne bacteria.)

Scholars are unsure how the term evolved in such a way, but it seems clear to me. In ancient times, people feared leaving the city -- it was a big scary world out there. The pharmakos was cast into the unknown and forced to fend for himself, or go out and find a new city that would welcome him in. And so, the pharmakos would LEARN new things, since the pharmakos was one of the few going out and trying to integrate with different cultures. So when the pharmakos' period of exile was over and he returned home, he brought with him knowledge of all sorts of new things. Like potions, medicine, and cosmetics.

So over time, the very thing that we fear so much that we cast it away -- the pharmakos -- can become the very thing that a society needs in order to heal itself -- the pharmakeus and pharmakon.

 

[unodelacosa]

Also, do you feel the same way about life, in general? Like plants, maybe insects, or some equivalent? If life exists beyond Earth, it would be overwhelmingly likely for any given planet to have not developed intelligent life. But to me that's still life.

Yes, of course I believe in carbon-based, extraterrestrial life forms, just none with any notable intelligence. But there's already evidence of simpler life forms in several places in our solar system, plus a high likelihood of its existence far from Earth's solar system.

However, I'm talking about the specific event of intelligent life evolving from humble biological roots, similar to the rise of homo sapiens sapiens on this planet from single-celled organisms. Having the right conditions is only one part of it. There's this element of chance that's involved, and without more data, it's hard to know what those chances are. For example, if the dinosaurs had not been wiped out, would we still be here?

I'm taking your word for it being phrygian... I don't usually think about which mode it's in... I just know what it's going to sound like.

Yes, it's Phrygian dominant in Western music nomenclature. Elsewhere, it's known as the Klezmer scale – from Ashkenazi Jewish / Yiddish folk music (think: Hava Nagila), Maqqam Hijaz in the Arabic world, the Freygish scale, Spanish Flamenco, and other names. Essentially take a major diatonic scale and give it a ♭2, ♭6, and the 7 you're supposed to use ♭7 but you can play around with the leading tone here as well, even pushing it a little sharper than usual to exaggerate its effect.

I like the sound of Phrygian (non-dominant) – it uses a minor i (tonic) chord while the Phrygian dom scale uses major I (tonic) instead. Both have ♭2 and that's what makes them sound so intriguing and exotic. Modes are really handy tools to help our brains figure out notes on the fly. Memorizing the best combinations to use over certain chord progressions is an invaluable skill to have when soloing in jazz, rock, whatever. What I especially like though are tuning systems outside of well temperament. For example, "Just" intonation sounds beautiful. Then there are artists, like Sevish, who composes in some very rare tuning systems involving more than 12 tones. For example, check out this piece he wrote in 53-tone:

Although, I can't help but have a healthy dose of wondering if we're really not that special.

I think you might be hung up on this concept. Pointing out human intellectual isolation isn't some vanity-laden victory lap, you know. If anything, it's humbling how utterly trapped we are on this planet with our population swelling and our resources under increasing strain. Meanwhile we're still waging wars… I think most people have a love-hate relationship with society. We're at once repulsed and drawn-in, and it's certainly not without flaws. But we get ahead because we help each other; maybe that's been our ticket to the evolutionary fast lane – we're from the group of proto-primates who took a chance on trusting one another instead of always fighting for dominance. And we constantly teach each other, which might be the point of life in fact.

Isaac Newton wrote "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Consider how this discussion is taking place – we're all in different locations across the globe, and we're using this amazing TCP/IP technology, and there's sophisticated HTML, CSS, and JavaScript going on just to deliver this web page… and now consider how we were all taught English at some point early on, most likely; in fact, it was probably forced on us. But because of this, we can (mostly) all converse, read, and write. More importantly, we could then all be taught an enormous plethora of information through schooling and our own self-teachings aided by one of the humankind's most impressive inventions: the internet… So each generation essentially passes along their knowledge base to the next generations after them and we keep passing the torch forward, ever reaching forward for something… And each generation will be smarter than the last, which is amazing.

I see it like this: humans are kinda like ants. Individually, and relatively speaking, both are weak, vulnerable, scattered, directionless, and not alive very long (in the grand picture and compared to, say, stars). Like when you see an individual ant on its own, it doesn't know WTF to do; they're frantic. But when you see ants working together, suddenly they're cohesive and much more effective. Every ant lines up neatly and each plays its role and they're capable of incredible things. Similarly, it's not the individual human that is but so impressive. On some level, all of us are whiny, self-absorbed, craven, gross, annoying, ignorant-yet-opinionated, and wasteful consumption-machine-sock-puppets. At the same time, we can also be someone's breath of relief, someone's safety valve to release pressure, someone's friend, someone's guardian angel, someone's moral support, someone's muse, someone willing to put aside our differences, help one another, and be grateful we have each other on this planet.

 

[pharmakos]

@unodelacosa do you have any music of your own to share?

Quick recording of another piece I've been working on lately. Just using the keyboard's crappy speakers for this one, not running it through my pedals like the previous video.

Modulates back and forth between B major for the chorus and B minor for the verse. Originally composed it on guitar and have a bit of a hard time playing it on keyboard. But it's great practice for my left hand. Took the time to work out chord inversions so that my left hand doesn't have to move too far, still hard to land on the right notes sometimes tho.

 

[pharmakos]

Well this is interesting timing. Perhaps this is what all the "UFO" nonsense in the news was meant to distract us from. Most people are going to hear this and think it's bullshit but it's the exact sort of thing that we built the James Webb Telescope to do, and it's the exact sort of finding we were looking for. This should be huge earth shattering news but it's probably going to fly under the radar since social media has us so distracted with buzz words.





Narrow band radio signals from a system like that are almost assuredly from technology rather than nature

 

[Xorkoth]

I think you might be hung up on this concept. Pointing out human intellectual isolation isn't some vanity-laden victory lap, you know. If anything, it's humbling how utterly trapped we are on this planet with our population swelling and our resources under increasing strain. Meanwhile we're still waging wars… I think most people have a love-hate relationship with society. We're at once repulsed and drawn-in, and it's certainly not without flaws. But we get ahead because we help each other; maybe that's been our ticket to the evolutionary fast lane – we're from the group of proto-primates who took a chance on trusting one another instead of always fighting for dominance. And we constantly teach each other, which might be the point of life in fact.

Isaac Newton wrote "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Consider how this discussion is taking place – we're all in different locations across the globe, and we're using this amazing TCP/IP technology, and there's sophisticated HTML, CSS, and JavaScript going on just to deliver this web page… and now consider how we were all taught English at some point early on, most likely; in fact, it was probably forced on us. But because of this, we can (mostly) all converse, read, and write. More importantly, we could then all be taught an enormous plethora of information through schooling and our own self-teachings aided by one of the humankind's most impressive inventions: the internet… So each generation essentially passes along their knowledge base to the next generations after them and we keep passing the torch forward, ever reaching forward for something… And each generation will be smarter than the last, which is amazing.

I see it like this: humans are kinda like ants. Individually, and relatively speaking, both are weak, vulnerable, scattered, directionless, and not alive very long (in the grand picture and compared to, say, stars). Like when you see an individual ant on its own, it doesn't know WTF to do; they're frantic. But when you see ants working together, suddenly they're cohesive and much more effective. Every ant lines up neatly and each plays its role and they're capable of incredible things. Similarly, it's not the individual human that is but so impressive. On some level, all of us are whiny, self-absorbed, craven, gross, annoying, ignorant-yet-opinionated, and wasteful consumption-machine-sock-puppets. At the same time, we can also be someone's breath of relief, someone's safety valve to release pressure, someone's friend, someone's guardian angel, someone's moral support, someone's muse, someone willing to put aside our differences, help one another, and be grateful we have each other on this planet.

Right on, man. I agree with all of this, and I get where you're coming from.

 

[unodelacosa]

@unodelacosa do you have any music of your own to share?

• I dabble → [Link redacted by author – just PM me if you want the link]
• And I DJ → [Link redacted by author – just PM me if you want the link]

 

[mal3volent]

I saw this on my YouTube homepage this morning

 

[Pfafffed]

Oh great

I saw this on my YouTube homepage this morning

Oh these times, they are a changing.

A sweet little fantasy by Don Paterson

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

• I dabble
• And I DJ

Gotta post the mixes on Soundcloud too man

Mixcloud is such a terrible experience, the app is so bad it's unreal. It just randomly cuts out, takes ages to find stuff again, and everything loads so slowly, the list is long but I've forgotten a lot of the specifics as I haven't used it in a long time. It was maddening, especially when tripping when I really needed it for this one artist that only posted on Mixcloud.... hours of my life were spent laughing and cursing at that app, it blows my mind that they're still up and running. Soundcloud is a near-perfect experience imo and just better in every way.

Pretty cool album though! Favorite track: Cool Air, I think.
All very non-European, cool

 

[Xorkoth]

Yeah, very cool man. A lot of the time I'm not into fully electronic music but I think it's only because the whole EDM thing doesn't really appeal to me (and I am slightly salty about how DJs get paid the same as a 4 piece band a lot of the time... I try but it's hard to get past). Anyway though, I really like what I'm hearing (I am listening to the first album listed on your soundcloud). I dig how organic it sounds. It reminds me of Shpongle in many ways.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Song I've been working on lately. The chords and melody just kind of came out of me, and I had to work backwards to figure out what was going on with it music theory wise. Chords go back and forth between F# major and F major, which gives it a real mysterious sort of "Egyptian" Phrygian Dominant feel over it. But for the melodic soloing over it, instead of sticking to F Phrygian Dominant, I play F# Lydian over the F# major chord. Idk why it works but it does. I think, music theory wise, it's my favorite thing I've ever written. Need to figure out some more parts for it tho! Hope you guys enjoy. Don't mind my terrible vocals over the middle.

really really nice. I've been trying to teach myself with the little i held on to from my 6yo lessons as a kid. Still cant coordinate two hands at the same time lol love it