Billie M Jones

I remember reading Sam Harris’s atrocious book on free will. In the first half he dismisses free will. In the second half he talks about how we “should” look at the world in a different way. And then advice about how to best live your life. He still stands by it. One half of his book talks about how we have no choice but to do what we do, and then…[Read more]

There is a common concern that without free will there’s no accountability. Nonsense. We will go on holding people to account because we have to, in the sense that this is how we respond to acts that displease or enrage us. We respond in this way because we have to. Literally. We have no real choice but respond that way.

That’s such a cop out. B…[Read more]

@Unseen What difference does it make, whether or not Free Will actually exists? Recently I’m thinking that all that matters in terms of how we think and behave is whether or not we believe in it. (And yes, I’m good with saying that what we believe in is also determined… just as are the external, environmental effects on our internal state. While…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
[…] We will go on holding people to account because we have to, in the sense that this is how we respond to acts that displease or enrage us. We respond in this way because we have to. Literally. We have no real choice but respond that way.

Increasingly often, I’m wondering how important it is to answer this question with…[Read more]

Yeah, it seems like we have “agency”; but is it real? Probably not, but the best answer is that we simply don’t know yet.

Agency is as real and meaningful as: decision, responsibility, culpability, power structures, invention, reward, retribution, entitlement, ownership, merit etc. Dismiss one…you should dismiss them all. If one is meani…[Read more]

NEWS FLASH!! Person A DESTROYS Person B. The REAL TRUTH about Blah Blah. These days, those are headlines I skip over. But when it comes to tons of new reactions to The Warning still coming out from people who haven’t heard of them, Pope Beanie finds new favorites. In this case, four guys happened to pick a great song/official video for their first…[Read more]

I’ve liked Don Music for a while, he’s above others in the experience and reporting department. Thanks for the reminder, I’ll watch these later.

Nah not going to watch a bullshit video with a bullshit title. Civilisation is not being destroyed. At worst, some things we consider important are being chipped away at. We are far from “destroyed”. The very language of the title of this video screams “watching this will rot your brain”.

The left nor the right is not destroying anything. A lack…[Read more]

(Relatively) new eyes on classic rock. This reactor says she was an actor, once. I think she enjoys putting people on,  reminding me a bit of Philomena Cunk. (She is smarter than she acts.)

Rob, the person who does whatever the hell he wants when it suits his needs, still reverts to his own set of values when the following happens:

When someone insults him

When he reads about someone being the victim of a miscarriage of justice

When he agrees/disagrees with his scheduled surgery being postponed because someone more urgent has been…[Read more]

Simon, I do have to say that you’ve certainly gained a much stronger understanding of common moral systems and the development of moral thought, but I think you still need to spend some time working out some of the concepts of your system, and thinking through a little more on what sets it apart from others. I would focus less on “competing” with…[Read more]

Sorry Jake, it was a big mistake to reengage on the topic. You have a truly extreme and radical position on the topic, are incapable of conceding a single point and are unwilling to recognise your extreme bias and double standards on a very complex issue. There is, simply, absolutely no point in engaging.

In fact, the only time I have discussed…[Read more]

This old man reactor first struck me as a blowhard, but he soon showed me how good he is at correctly predicting what this video was about. He also pointed out a couple things in it I hadn’t noticed before. XXI Century Blood is one of my favorite produced videos from any band. It still boggles my mind that teens came up with this, and I wonder who…[Read more]