False perspectives, sure. That is a possibility. False or not, that reasoning forms memories which must be stored somewhere. Those memories are what you might consider “new data” that comes from “new connections”.

Understanding something is based off what you already know or just learned, which is memory. Logic and reasoning is partially instinctual and mostly memory. Decision making is likely not strictly based in memory, but more based on memories.

I think where you might be getting something mixed up is undersanding vs. memorizing and how the brain stores information. If I am understanding you correctly, you are thinking of data like a computer handles data: A zero or a one is a bit. Eight bits are in a byte. PC memory can hold X bytes until it gets full, and then game over.

Our brains simply don’t work like a PC and we naturally store patterns, not specific raw data.

So, if a neuron has 3 inputs and 3 outputs, it has 6 connections to other neurons. With a computer, you need to lay out a few arrays and map each connection to each other. If we had a mess of neurons on a table in front of us to stick together, we would just need to remember to connect outputs to inputs and follow any other simple conditions we are given without strictly needing to memorize a 1:1 connection map.

Pattern matching is core functionality for our brains. So much so, we actively seek out patterns whenever we can. (Reference: apophenia and pareidolia)

For things like simple number memorization and even speech, our brains are able to do those things based on a series of different patterns that we stick together automatically. By doing so, we can use and reuse groups of the same neurons for seemingly different tasks. Its essentially built-in data compression, for lack of a better term.

If we were to ignore real constraints like the time it would take to map out all of the connections in our brain, we would naturally start to store patterns of neuron connections, patterns of how those neuron clumps interact and other key features of operation.

My reasoning is that we would start to get extraordinary “compression rates” for this data. If we memorized a complex pattern of 100 neurons, we could likely reuse that “data” a million times over for other major components of the brain.

By the very nature of how we store information, data loss will happen and it’s unavoidable. We would need a new form of brain that was capable of storing blocks of data 1:1.

Also, your question is also a paradox. if we were to say we a brain would need to be double the size to store itself, then you would need a brain four times the size to store both of those brains. A brain storing itself is still a single brain so this turns into a recursion nightmare fairly quick.

If we doubled the size of our brains, we could probably do some amazing things and our memories might become phenomenal. However, the way we learn and store information is basically the same and probably still wouldn’t allow us to exactly store a million prime numbers in order.

The summary of all of this is that you aren’t accounting for memory patterns and natural data loss and there are very simple reasons that a brain doesn’t “fill up”.

Edit: Psychedelics are not inherently dangerous. Neither is THC or many other compounds. Mixing drugs and/or improper dosages is what is actually dangerous. There are probably more legal drugs that are riskier than illegal ones, actually. I would consider alcohol to be a substance that carries more risks, mainly because it is legal almost everywhere.

I don’t get it. The key still gets declared, but it’s value is null. “name” in an empty object would return undefined, not null, correct?

(Yes, this joke whooshed, but I am curious now.)

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 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.

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.

Wut?

If I remember correctly from the good ol’ days, promoted sites/ads kinda stopped after the first few pages and it skipped past most of the SEO crap.

But yeah, I forgot how aggressive Google is with ads and AI now, those bastards.

It’s actually a good change, IMHO. You can just click directly on page 10 for anything that might be related to your original search.

Oops. I read the title as “menthol”, not methanol, so this article really confused me at first.

Still, I found a paper on death by menthol that was an interesting read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830155/ (Who knew there were hidden dangers in peppermint factories?)

General purpose printing will just be a filler, of sorts, and I can basically do that in my sleep. The only goal of that is to utilize equipment that would otherwise be idle.

The 3D scanning and reverse engineering is going to be the main focus but decent paying jobs will likely be sporadic for a while. The main function of the printers will be to prototype as to allow clients to test fit designs before they are finalized with proper materials.

When it comes to mold making, that is probably going to be part of what I do. However, that is its own science and takes a ton of experience to make viable commercial molds. (Simple molds are probably the only thing I could do at this point.)

Still, those are some good ideas so thanks.

There is a large collection of poorly written articles/blogs on LinkedIn, actually. They are just bad enough to be good enough for Google.

Strangely enough, LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. If Microsoft actually let Google use it as a data source, it was to sabotage Google’s AI training.

For starters, I have a Prusa printer, Moose 3D scanner and a full license for Fusion 360, a small custom built CNC and a good selection of specialty tools.

If needed, I can revert to photogrammetry for capturing high detail on small parts. (Probably within 15um/.5 thou? I need to test the limits of what I can actually do before I say for certain…)

I can scale printing super fast and am lucky enough to have a Microcenter near me so I can buy more printers and filament in a hurry. (Now that I think about it, I’ll probably order a resin printer this evening. It’ll be useful for my own projects where I need to duplicate some injection molded parts.)

For now, I am going to let the jobs determine the scale of my operation and how I invest in additional equipment. Thankfully, I am decent enough at the mechanical aspects of this stuff to handle issues fairly quick.

But yeah, I already have a few thousand dollars in tools, assorted parts and filaments. It’s the odd tools I have that give me a good starting advantage, me thinks. (Nobody else I know has a full set of pin gauges, as an odd example. My electronic component and fastener selection is also fairly substantial.)

Honestly, it’s time to get an ROI from all of my own, personal projects that I have made substantial investments in over the years.

If there is a major pitfall for me, it’s the numbers bit. While proper accounting could resolve any tax issues before they happen, I’ll play it safe and probably also put back +20% extra for taxes, at least for the first few years. Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the recommendation and I just ordered a copy. (Used/$17 after tax from Amazon if anyone else was curious.)

Many instances have already adopted the lemming as a mascot, like my home instance:

Still though, you do you. I got no complaints about what people want to call things. ;)

*Lemmings. (I was going to use that as an answer to your post, but someone learning something new never gets me even the slightest bit miffed.)

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Most scam products like “power saver” plug-in modules for your home, fake ODB2 gas saver modules for cars or those little stickers for cell phones that are sold as “antenna boosters”. Also, anything that is marketed as a “detox” product will piss me off.

All of those products are actively being sold on Amazon, EBay and at some other major retailers or in malls. They are openly sold because people refuse to learn that magic does not exist.

Please. Stop buying these things.