Artificial Intelligence

We have a pond on the property. In it, lives a really old, really big snapping turtle. I watched it grab a blue heron by the leg as I was lounging on the beach with a dram of whisky. The bird would get free and then get pulled under again. Over and over. Finally, just a few feathers floating in the water. All because of Eve. The lion does not lay…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
However, I don’t think a lay person should accept a philosopher’s word that he has a solution to a philosophical problem if it’s one that only other philosophers or people who can intelligently read philosophy can understand.

“I have solved the free will problem and if you read my 400 page treatise and have a solid backgro…

[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
“Evil” is defined in different ways in different times, places, and communities. In Sparta, for example, it wasn’t evil to murder deformed or weak babies.

But they were doing it for unselfish reasons: for the greater good.  That’s not so different from our conception of good and evil.

_Robert_ wrote:
This is the logic of christian apologists.

I was wondering when we’d hit post #55555. I missed it by one!

Unseen wrote:
Now, a final word on introducing the quantum world into the discussion. There is no predeterminism because quantum level events can influence events in the world of everyday Newtonian/Einsteinian physics.

I agree, and I feel responsible for potentially confusing a free will discussion with a mostly separate discussion on potential,…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
@robert “Evil” is defined in different ways in different times, places, and communities. In Sparta, for example, it wasn’t evil to murder deformed or weak babies. Even today, is abortion evil? Depends who you ask, doesn’t it?

Evil in the context of a “loving, all powerful god” is all and any suffering that he could easily prevent…[Read more]

@Robert

“Evil” is defined in different ways in different times, places, and communities. In Sparta, for example, it wasn’t evil to murder deformed or weak babies. Even today, is abortion evil? Depends who you ask, doesn’t it?

Free will (as gifted by a loving god) as a way to explain away the problem of evil is such a provincial human excuse in stupidity. The idea that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world without “evil” is stupid. There could be no evil tempting serpent, LOL. The idea that a single act of disobedience (as defined by a dictator) by one person (Eve)…[Read more]

The first line of my above post should read “The notion of free will has many problems,…” (emphasis mine)

The notion of free has many problems, the first one being defining it. And, of course, one of the easiest and least honest of ways of “solving” a problem is to define it away.

One of the dishonest ways of giving us free will is to define it in a way such as this: “If you can do something you want to do and no external person or force is making…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:

PopeBeanie wrote:
You define determinism as natural law, which is consistent with its standard use in science and philosophy: every event or state of affairs results from prior states according to fixed laws.

I realize I frame determinism that way but to be more precise every state of affairs is the result of its antecedents.…

[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
We are endowed with an ability to predict (or at least speculate on) futures, even when the universe itself is, by nature, NOT endowed with that ability.

You could say the evolution as an unconscious process is making predictions as to what combinations of attributes will succeed in the future.

PopeBeanie wrote [while quoting ChatGPT]:
You could clarify what you mean by “external agent.” Predetermination does not require consciousness or an agent; it simply refers to outcomes being fully predictable given sufficient knowledge of a system’s initial conditions and laws. This applies even to purely physical processes.

I do want to clari…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
You define determinism as natural law, which is consistent with its standard use in science and philosophy: every event or state of affairs results from prior states according to fixed laws.

I realize I frame determinism that way but to be more precise every state of affairs is the result of its antecedents. Whatever happens is…[Read more]

LOL, IMO, you’re sounding more intelligent than the AI, in this case, as it looks like it’s just responding as basically as possible. Also, did you set it to respond to you more interactively, as it’s always asking for your opinion.

I’m still only at a basic level, and am interested in the wave collapse as if entangled particles must exist on a…[Read more]

@PopeBeanie  – Although I don’t see how discussion of quantum level dynamics can possibly shed light on classic level physics, a new question has come to my mind that I can ask ChatGPT about: What, if any theories propose what the nature of quantum entanglement could have been on a macro scale at the big bang?

That is very similar to a ‘c…[Read more]

PopeBeanie’s setup

I pay $20/mth, directly to openAI for ChatGPT. I like them because they keep improving their features, although once in a while their servers respond slowly, I assume caused by periodic growth spurts. They started out prioritizing an ethical business model and operational awareness of ethical uses of AI, e.g. don’t teach how to…[Read more]