Are retirees moving to the new DTV visa - anybody done it?

[bannork]

On 3/28/2023 at 7:02 PM, Tippaporn said:

Tippaporn in action . . .

There's Laura Nyro with Duane Allman on the music thread.  The sort of thing you could contribute to. 

Please come back, at least now and again.

[save the frogs]

Question: write a 3 verse song about does God exist in the style of Bob Dylan

 

ChatGPT:

Some say God is just a tale that we tell When we're afraid and we need someone to quell our fears But others swear that they've felt His hand So tell me friend, do you believe in something grand? Chorus: Does God exist, or is He just a figment of our minds? Is there a heaven above or just a void we'll find? Some say yes, some say no, but in the end we'll all know. 

[Red Phoenix]

I used AseanNow's new ChatGPT asking the question we have been discussing here for 573 pages. 

In a sense it is somewhat of an intelligent answer, as the chat-bot is unable to answer it and does not spout its usual 'accepted narrative' parrot-talk...

[mauGR1]

7 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

I used AseanNow's new ChatGPT asking the question we have been discussing here for 573 pages. 

In a sense it is somewhat of an intelligent answer, as the chat-bot is unable to answer it and does not spout its usual 'accepted narrative' parrot-talk...

Ok, I'm not familiar with that thing, but the next question i would ask "that thing" is whether or not does (or doesn't) make sense to discuss it. The existence of all that is, i mean.????

[Red Phoenix]

2 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Ok, I'm not familiar with that thing, but the next question i would ask "that thing" is whether or not does (or doesn't) make sense to discuss it. The existence of all that is, i mean.????

In the black ribbon just below the AseanNow logo, you will see the option to click ChatGPT.  When doing so a page opens where AseanNow introduces that novelty service, and provides some tips on how it works.  

And you can go directly to the page where you can type any question/command and the chatbot will provide you with an answer in seconds. 

>  https://aseannow.com/thaivisa-chatgpt/

The tool is amazing when you ask a question on a specific subject which would take you quite some time to find out by yourself using a search-engine.  A sort of SuperGoogle... 

The down-side being that on controversial subjects ChatGPT only provides 'accepted narrative' answers (as its developers deliberately built such bias in, by only feeding the database with 'trusted' sources).

Give it a try, and type in your question/command, it's as simple as that...

[mauGR1]

1 minute ago, Red Phoenix said:

Give it a try, and type in your question/command, it's as simple as that...

Well, thanks, but for the moment I'll keep far away.

Yet I'm curious about hearing opinions about AI, especially the non-reassuring ones.

 

[Red Phoenix]

12 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Well, thanks, but for the moment I'll keep far away.

Yet I'm curious about hearing opinions about AI, especially the non-reassuring ones.

 

 

The A.I. Dilemma - Tristan Harris & Aza Raskin - Center for Humane Technology - March 9, 2023

This < 1 hour 7 minute > video is from a presentation at a private gathering in San Francisco on March 9th with leading technologists and decision-makers with the ability to influence the future of large-language model AIs.

This presentation was given before the launch of GPT-4.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

Some good points on Bill Maher's New Rules on Youtube for 31 March 2023 asking why there is no Atheist's day. A third of American's do not identify as believing in a god so how about all the believer's spend some time considering and respecting a different opinion on the issue. 

[mauGR1]

15 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

how about all the believer's spend some time considering and respecting a different opinion on the issue. 

I really hope that you are joking, but you are probably being serious ????

[Fat is a type of crazy]

37 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

I really hope that you are joking, but you are probably being serious ????

I think there's a lot of believers who see the world through christian or new age spirituality or whatever eyes and see atheists or agnostics as an anomoly, or, because they don't believe, that they are kind of a nothing. He made the point that if there is Easter and Christmas for all why not a day to celebrate or consider a life from the point of view of someone who doesn't believe there is this other thing - maybe a day to consider what life might be like if what you see is what you get.  Not probably needed in Australia as it is a bit like that now but the United States and Thailand may benefit. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Fat is a type of crazy

[Hummin]

4 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

I think there's a lot of believers who see the world through christian or new age spirituality or whatever eyes and see atheists or agnostics as an anomoly, or, because they don't believe, that they are kind of a nothing. He made the point that if there is Easter and Christmas for all why not a day to celebrate or consider a life from the point of view of someone who doesn't believe there is this other thing - maybe a day to consider what life might be like if what you see is what you get.  Not probably needed in Australia as it is a bit like that now but the United States and Thailand may benefit. 

The holidays we made holy, is celebrating the sun, the sky, the return of life as new growth and birth seasons starts and ends,  so, again, we celebrate The Nature Cycle once more ????

 

 

 

 

[mauGR1]

20 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

I think there's a lot of believers who see the world through christian or new age spirituality or whatever eyes and see atheists or agnostics as an anomoly, or, because they don't believe, that they are kind of a nothing. He made the point that if there is Easter and Christmas for all why not a day to celebrate or consider a life from the point of view of someone who doesn't believe there is this other thing - maybe a day to consider what life might be like if what you see is what you get.  Not probably needed in Australia as it is a bit like that now but the United States and Thailand may benefit. 

Everyone is already free to celebrate what they like, but i am starting to think that you'd be happier if religion, or belief in supernatural, was banned ???? 

Is that a recipe for a better society? I have serious doubts. 

[Fat is a type of crazy]

27 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Everyone is already free to celebrate what they like, but i am starting to think that you'd be happier if religion, or belief in supernatural, was banned ???? 

Is that a recipe for a better society? I have serious doubts. 

No. Happy for people to think their way. Funny though how over time people are becoming much more agnostic and atheist yet traditions continue for all. Some stage maybe let Christians celebrate Christmas and the rest of us can get a day off for some other reason e.g. call it Summer solstice in Australia. Fine if it stays how it is but who knows in the future. 

 

[mauGR1]

6 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

No. Happy for people to think their way. Funny though how over time people are becoming much more agnostic and atheist yet traditions continue for all. Some stage maybe let Christians celebrate Christmas and the rest of us can get a day off for some other reason e.g. call it Summer solstice in Australia. Fine if it stays how it is but who knows in the future. 

 

Lol, maybe you just need more holidays ! 

Yep, holidays are good, and i agree on the summer and winter solstice holidays ! 

Yes, giving the increasing numbers of agnostics, it may be that some holidays will change names, but i would not lose any sleep over it.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 4/1/2023 at 8:07 AM, save the frogs said:

Question: write a 3 verse song about does God exist in the style of Bob Dylan

 

ChatGPT:

Some say God is just a tale that we tell When we're afraid and we need someone to quell our fears But others swear that they've felt His hand So tell me friend, do you believe in something grand? Chorus: Does God exist, or is He just a figment of our minds? Is there a heaven above or just a void we'll find? Some say yes, some say no, but in the end we'll all know. 

Chat thing is wrong then. Heaven isn't above us. It's certainly not located in space, if it even is a "place", as such.

Edited April 2, 2023 by thaibeachlovers

[thaibeachlovers]

15 hours ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

No. Happy for people to think their way. Funny though how over time people are becoming much more agnostic and atheist yet traditions continue for all. Some stage maybe let Christians celebrate Christmas and the rest of us can get a day off for some other reason e.g. call it Summer solstice in Australia. Fine if it stays how it is but who knows in the future. 

 

I don't know anyone that celebrates the birth of the Christ, or mourns at his death, but everyone has a holiday.

No need to change the name, as Christmas is when kids get presents, and Easter is just 4 days off.

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

16 hours ago, mauGR1 said:

Everyone is already free to celebrate what they like, but i am starting to think that you'd be happier if religion, or belief in supernatural, was banned ???? 

Is that a recipe for a better society? I have serious doubts. 

Wouldn't make any difference to some believers, as we ain't necessarily religious.

[thaibeachlovers]

23 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

In the black ribbon just below the AseanNow logo, you will see the option to click ChatGPT.  When doing so a page opens where AseanNow introduces that novelty service, and provides some tips on how it works.  

And you can go directly to the page where you can type any question/command and the chatbot will provide you with an answer in seconds. 

>  https://aseannow.com/thaivisa-chatgpt/

The tool is amazing when you ask a question on a specific subject which would take you quite some time to find out by yourself using a search-engine.  A sort of SuperGoogle... 

The down-side being that on controversial subjects ChatGPT only provides 'accepted narrative' answers (as its developers deliberately built such bias in, by only feeding the database with 'trusted' sources).

Give it a try, and type in your question/command, it's as simple as that...

Will it tell me where I can find a woman that won't stop having sex with me after a year? If not, of what use is it?

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

Some good points on Bill Maher's New Rules on Youtube for 31 March 2023 asking why there is no Atheist's day. A third of American's do not identify as believing in a god so how about all the believer's spend some time considering and respecting a different opinion on the issue. 

????????????????????

Since when did believers legislate public holidays? Talk to your politicians.

[save the frogs]

The birth of St John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24th -- around the time of the summer solstice.

The birth of Jesus is December 25th -- around the time of the winter solstice.

Is it a coincidence that 2 of the main characters in the Bible had their birthdays around the time of each solstice and we only celebrate these?

Why don't we celebrate Mother Mary's birthday?

Could it be that these characters in the Bible are symbolic representations of the solstices as opposed to real people?

 

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by save the frogs

[mauGR1]

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Wouldn't make any difference to some believers, as we ain't necessarily religious.

Perhaps it's just me, but i don't necessarily associate

" religion/religious " with something negative.

However, i am aware of the majority of western people thinking different, associating religion with ignorance, gullibility, and even pure evil. 

.. i don't see the world getting any better just because people don't believe religion. 

In other words, i see positive aspects in religion in general, not just the negative. 

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

7 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

The birth of St John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24th -- around the time of the summer solstice.

The birth of Jesus is December 25th -- around the time of the winter solstice.

Is it a coincidence that 2 of the main characters in the Bible had their birthdays around the time of each solstice and we only celebrate these?

Why don't we celebrate Mother Mary's birthday?

Could it be that these characters in the Bible are symbolic representations of the solstices as opposed to real people?

 

 

Actually, they were pagan festivals co opted by religion.

I doubt anyone actually knew their real birth date.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Perhaps it's just me, but i don't necessarily associate

" religion/religious " with something negative.

However, i am aware of the majority of western people thinking different, associating religion with ignorance, gullibility, and even pure evil. 

.. i don't see the world getting any better just because people don't believe religion. 

In other words, i see positive aspects in religion in general, not just the negative. 

 

 

I wasn't trying to say that religion is negative. I was just saying that if we ain't religious it doesn't make any difference.

[mauGR1]

7 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

Is it a coincidence that 2 of the main characters in the Bible had their birthdays around the time of each solstice and we only celebrate these?

Why don't we celebrate Mother Mary's birthday?

No, it's not a coincidence. 

Religious holidays are always associated with the cycle of the natural season. 

Easter in spring, Halloween in autumn etc.

In Thailand too, major holidays and festivals in fact are celebrations for the change of the seasons. 

[mauGR1]

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I wasn't trying to say that religion is negative. I was just saying that if we ain't religious it doesn't make any difference.

Sorry for missing your point completely. 

Of course i agree with your statement, it's just common sense. 

[mauGR1]

8 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I doubt anyone actually knew their real birth date.

Yep, at that time,  just a few priests and monks were able to read and write, and the horses were the fastest transportation, go figure ???? 

 

[Red Phoenix]

On 4/1/2023 at 8:10 AM, Red Phoenix said:

In the black ribbon just below the AseanNow logo, you will see the option to click ChatGPT.  When doing so a page opens where AseanNow introduces that novelty service, and provides some tips on how it works.  

And you can go directly to the page where you can type any question/command and the chatbot will provide you with an answer in seconds. 

>  https://aseannow.com/thaivisa-chatgpt/

The tool is amazing when you ask a question on a specific subject which would take you quite some time to find out by yourself using a search-engine.  A sort of SuperGoogle... 

The down-side being that on controversial subjects ChatGPT only provides 'accepted narrative' answers (as its developers deliberately built such bias in, by only feeding the database with 'trusted' sources).

Give it a try, and type in your question/command, it's as simple as that...

ChatGPT is a kind of SuperGoogle.

And just like Google will provide you with links that fit the 'accepted narrative' and renders links that do not fit that bias at the end of the list (or don't show them at all), the same goes for ChatGPT. And it is NOT useful when quering about a controversial subject as you would only get a one-sided response from so-called 'trusted'  sources (a bit like consulting Wikipedia, which is also heavily biased on subjects outside the mainstream).

But ChatGPT can be quite useful for answering questions on neutral subjects.  Especially if a search-engine does not answer your specific query, and it would force you to visit several sites to get the pieces of information that combined provide the answer.

An example - if you typed the very specific question in a search-engine Which Thai royalty has burmese roots you would not get a clear-cut answer, but would have to open several of the links to find your answer.  ChatGPT does this for you and immediately provides you with the answer: One of the Thai royalty who has Burmese roots is Queen Sirikit, the wife of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Her maternal grandfather was a prince of Martaban, a town in southern Burma, which is now known as Myanmar.

NOTE: Lazy students that need to write a paper on a specific subject will find ChatGPT very useful as it will compose an almost perfect summary based on the sources it has access to. Needless to say that such paper will not contain any 'original' idea of the student.  And colleges/universities are increasingly worried about such recycling.  Some very lazy students that handed 'their' paper in without making any changes have been 'catched' already.  But if the student would use the ChatGPT composed paper as the back-ground for his own paper, it can help him not to overlook certain aspects and it would be possible to weave his original ideas in the paper co-authored by ChatGPT. 

These are certainly some interesting developments...

 

[Sunmaster]

Here is a very good video explaining what Kundalini is and how it works.
I'm still hoping for a more scientific explanation from our materialistic friends here, but they have all gone quiet.

PS: Dismissing it as a fantasy is not going to make you look smart.

 

 

[Sunmaster]

On 4/2/2023 at 8:16 AM, mauGR1 said:

Perhaps it's just me, but i don't necessarily associate

" religion/religious " with something negative.

However, i am aware of the majority of western people thinking different, associating religion with ignorance, gullibility, and even pure evil. 

.. i don't see the world getting any better just because people don't believe religion. 

In other words, i see positive aspects in religion in general, not just the negative. 

 

 

I think that religion, as it is structured today, is more detrimental than beneficial to people's development. It keeps people separated from their own divinity and potential. It was necessary in the past for many good and valid reasons, but it is now holding humanity back. Lots of people are not satisfied with the answers that the various religions provide and they become disillusioned. They either become atheists or seek a more personal, intimate way to connect to the Divine.

There is a clear trend here. Religions are like safety wheels on kid's bicycles. We are now starting to be more independent and confident in our abilities and don't need those wheels anymore. In fact, they prevent us from moving freely and to the fullest of our potential. It's time for us as a species to let them go and become responsible, mature and independent adults. 
We need to seek a truth that is fuller, truer and is all-inclusive. One that includes science and spirituality, and one that gives each one of us the most effective tools to know ourselves.

If this means that some religions will die out and disappear because they couldn't adapt to the current changes, then so be it.

Of course, developing societies (Spiral Dynamics stage from Red (Core Values: Egocentric, exploitative, impulsive) to Blue (Core values: Authoritarianism, Holy, meaningful) still need such institutions. They were born out of that stage, but they are not necessary in the more developed stages of Orange (Core Values: Autonomy, materialistic, result-driven) and Green (Core Values: Relativistic, socio-centric, equality.). 

I'm not saying we should completely get rid of them. We should however, help to remind them of their true purpose so that they can update their teachings accordingly. If they don't, they will sign their own death certificate.

 

[mauGR1]

1 hour ago, Sunmaster said:

I think that religion, as it is structured today, is more detrimental than beneficial to people's...

There's common sense in what you say, although there are dozens of hairs to split. 

I'd like to say clear though,  that when i say " religion", i mean the best part of it, which some call

" spirituality " , and in other words is the relentless search for what is truly good and true, for oneself and for all inhabitants of this planet.

( inhabitants of other planets, for the moment, will have to help themselves)

It's obvious though that " religion " has another meaning to you. Yes, some aspects of organized religion hopefully will soon disappear. 

Perhaps religion has a different meaning for every single person, even if now it's trendy to label it " rubbish " without a 2nd thought. 

So we can possibly agree that language is evolving, words change their meaning, and it's very easy to get confused.