Welcome to Weeklies, where I recap my favorite links I’ve shared on the homepage over the past week! Check back daily for new ones, and hopefully meet back here next Friday for another roundup (unexpected temporal anomalies permitting)!
Past Life Memories
University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has announced the beginning of a $750,000 research initiative looking into the past-life memories of children, or what they call “Cases of the Reincarnation Type (CORT).” The study will begin this year and run through early 2027, and intends to understand the various factors that may lead to the formation of past-life memories.
“Led by DOPS researchers Dr. Marieta Pehlivanova and Dr. Philip Cozzolino, this innovative program will employ state-of-the-art neuroimaging and contemporary research methodologies to explore why certain children report memories of past lives.”
Are past-life memories real? Numerous books and collections of anecdotes point to ‘maybe’ (including a Reddit community with over 60,000 members), but legitimate paranormal studies may reveal how the mind operates while experiencing them, regardless. The Division of Perceptual Studies was founded in 1967, and is devoted to researching “empirical evidence for extraordinary human experiences and capacities.”
Social Somethings
Speaking of Reddit, I like to include a few links from various communities from time to time, particularly r/Paranormal and r/HighStrangeness. That’s just where the stories are! One person recorded themselves while sleeping, and found they not only screamed, they recited poetry they’d never heard before. There are a lot of curious theories regarding why this happened, as well as other shared experiences. Worth a look!
Meanwhile, another Redditor inquires about forest warnings leading to a number of strange tales from those who feel they’ve been cautioned by the trees themselves. You may also find this photo of a ghost from 2013 a bit odd. People seem to have a bad reaction to its “uncanny vibes.”
Finally, The Slow Mo Guys shared a video of a microscopic view of the inside of a watch, right down to some dust (or something) clinging to one of the gear teeth, and tiny vibrations that you’d never know were actually happening.
AI Nightmare Corner
Oh, AI. While we haven’t conjured up anything you might call intelligence just yet, generative AI is having a profound impact on many industries. I’ve come across several YouTube videos now from creators – a graphic designer and a freelance writer, at least – who have lost their jobs to generative AI. Things are only just getting started, though.
The most unusual news this month is Meta’s announcement that they plan to begin adding AI users to Facebook and Instagram. Apparently, existing users will be able to create their own public AI characters, who will have their owns bios, pictures, and share their own content. This follows a chatbot tool they introduced last July, along with the plethora of fake influencers who already exist on Instagram.
Outside of social media, you may have already met Aria, a humanoid robot by Realbotix who also uses generative AI to respond to questions. Here, CNET shares a quick interview.
Me? I’m not a robot. Yet.
The thing is, I like generative AI. I like the weird images it can create, and the uncanny videos. There’s a value in mixing AI and actual human creativity, I think, and it’s allowing people who couldn’t otherwise create certain things to do so. At the same time, you have the issues of copyright infringement and just the often soulless nature of it all. Spotify, for example, has introduced AI-generated music onto their service, and recently I was listening to a playlist on YouTube that I thought sounded mostly enjoyable. However, the moment I discovered it was created by AI, I lost a lot of interest. Something that sounds good is fine, but without that human element, the knowledge that someone sat down and created something cool, it feels meaningless to me.
Beyond that, we’re entering an exciting and troubling time, where issues of AI, consciousness, and I’d say the perception of self will collide to create some intriguing implications. Where have we been, and where are we going? And what will it mean for how we see ourselves in the future?
Links Of Interest
A UFO whistleblower shares his experiences viewing “off world technology” at an underground facility in Indiana.
A psychic may have predicted the LA fire.
A ‘ghost’ was caught on camera at the Clevedon Cricket Club in Clevedon, England.
Nvidia Cosmos ‘multiverse simulation’ trains AI with many simulated realities.
Wrapping Up
Another week, another bunch of strange stories. Personally, I’ve had generative AI on the mind lately, so next week I plan to dive deeper into a couple new topics inspired by the video of Aria up there. What existential horrors await us? Stay tuned, I guess.
In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite AI-generated images my robot has conjured up this month so far.
