Richard Robertson

tom sarbeck wrote:
I find April 18th important, for that date I don’t drink JWBL

Thank you for saying that, for I wouldn’t have figured out JWBL was a drink, and not Jehovah’s Witness something something. 🙂 (Even in my 60’s I haven’t yet attended any conversations in someone’s study. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a smoking jacket.)

So @toms,…[Read more]

Emma Leigh wrote:
a really annoying conspiracy theorist Ive named Bill

I like that! I’ve had a lot of therapy which has helped a great deal, and I think I have only one real issue left that I’d like to take care of. Being a veteran has helped immensely in getting that help, even though it wasn’t the military service that caused any of my…[Read more]

Not too long a story at all, Anth. Welcome!

Shaming and intolerance is even worse in autocracies, theocracies, and in cultures clinging to strong tradition for its own, intolerant-mindedness. I don’t mean to bad-mouth anyone but the leaders claiming authority. As in your case, the cultural peer-pressure overwhelms free thinking and choice. I…[Read more]

Hi Anth, welcome to Atheist Zone!  Thanks for posting your thoughtful story. I’m delighted you are now in such a happy space though.

tom sarbeck wrote:
Or, a large-by-networking telescope to gather data interpreted as an event horizon

These days I never see you contribute any alternate explanations for recently explored phenomena such as this, even when I ask for it. Humanity has a dire need for individuals to find credible sources of information, as well-known…[Read more]

A. Not sure which discoveries of the black hole you’re asking about, but it’s been long known that stars in M87 are orbiting something with obviously huge gravity. As for the recent data in the news, scientists around the world are excited about it. This, from Luciano Rezolla (a minute into the first video on the…[Read more]

Reg. There aren’t enough apologies in this world….

Unseen wrote:
Pardon me, but that doesn’t prove anything. Behavior doesn’t prove that the one behaving is having experiences behind the behavior. Again, I refer you to a Turing Human who is simply responding in believable ways to inputs.

I can only speculate on that thought experiment, which may never even produce a satisfactory answer. I’ve just…[Read more]

Just now talking about my mom’s decline during dementia makes me doubly certain that consciousness exists, as medical workers know, at various and varying levels of lucidity… which can be roughly (and routinely) measured (albeit not thoroughly empirically), respecting more than one kind or channel of conscious awareness, and the patient’s sel…[Read more]

My mom died a year ago this month. It was a relief after a couple years of my brother suffering through her dementia while caring for her. As for her suffering, it was often only temporary and she wouldn’t remember it the next day, like it never even happened. When I saw one of her brain scans, I was shocked, and knew right then and there it could…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
I think octopus are conscious. Octopuses solve complex problems. There are so many documented examples of their problem solving that it is a leap to assume that they are unaware and lacking in the subjective feelings of their experiences.

Assuming (as I do) that consciousness must exist on a somewhat arbitrary scale from zero to…[Read more]

The thing that helped with mine, Asianne, was the realization that, tragedy notwithstanding, pretty much everybody suffers the loss of their parents at some stage, so when I looked around and saw that people carried on, it kind of helped – sort of like graduating to a new strata of life.

Funnily enough, I have a friend who is around 50ish and who…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
All of this ends up being what we “term” consciousness. Other animals that appear to be at least “self aware” also have communication abilities.

I agree, and speaking of animal communication, body language is one of the most primal ways to communicate, usually originating internally/unconsciously, yet experienced and within…[Read more]