tom sarbeck

Unseen wrote:
I’m curious if you read my discussion above of the difference between not having free will and being insane or having an obsessive-compulsive behavior. If we aren’t free, then what’s the difference between that and someone who truly has no control?

Yes, I read it before I commented. My answer’s the same: It doesn’t matte…[Read more]

Science and Philosophy have some overlap but are absolutely distinct. Even within Philosophy and Science there are so many different fields with different aims and methodologies.

Science deals with both the physical and the pure sciences, both practical and theoretical. Science heavily influences other STEM subjects (maths, engineering) as well…[Read more]

Hypothetically, if you were suddenly able to know if you actually had free will or discovered that you don’t have it, would that significantly change the way you live your life? Even if you knew what a “reasonable” definition of it is?

My conclusion is no, I don’t care any more, so I’ll just keep acting as if it’s really me choosing how to…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
I’d love to hear any definition of free will that makes sense.

It’s a mythical construct. But it feels like there’s more to it than that. Depending on who’s defining it, it can be a gift from God that usurps determinism. But according to me, believing in determinism, the illusion of free will is a gift, too, and I’m happy with f…[Read more]

Yeah, 23 gets me every time, too.

I like Don’s analyses, when I have time, like right now.

He happened to (unintentionally) stop the video in a spot that looked nice to me, so I took a partial screen shot:

Whoops, Don saw it too! See your post. After I clipped it to post here, I continued the video, and that’s when he clipped his thumbnail…[Read more]

They recorded Teatro over two sold out concerts, and spliced them into one video. They released each song singly, then a whole concert, over a year or so. Thanks, I’ll pay more attention to the picks now, and proximate edits. As you mentioned, they play so consistently, I’ll bet that splicing the best camera angles took the most work. I’m thinking…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Dany, as a matter of fact doesn’t take solos. Her guitar breaks are played as written. She is not inventing them on the fly. Compare several performances of the same song and you’ll realize her “solo” is the same every single time. This is why I call them “guitar breaks” and not “guitar solos.”

Watching always-epic performance rec…[Read more]

I have a youtube playlist now to save reactions where a reactor had a “conversion” moment, i.e. they suddenly changed their opinion about a musical artist. For TW reactors who have very skeptical personalities, it’s often the second or third song that converts them into lovers of TW. Some of them are so skeptical at first, I never see them smile,…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
She’s a favorite of mine.

I’m still enjoying her, too. She’s interesting partly because of the way she grew up, so unaware of so many popular artists. (I got tired of popular music easily, hearing it played over and over again.)

I finally learned that she IS an actor, although almost all of her work was in commercials. She wants t…[Read more]

I consider J6 to have been an insurrection, and Trump is complicit. But doesn’t it require a party with legal standing to bring the case to a court of law which tries the case? I don’t see how just one branch of state government can have sole power to decide how to enforce a US constitutional amendment.

Unseen wrote:
You still haven’t, despite about three requests now, given us the definition of free will or told me whether my cat has free will.

For me too, that’s the elephant in the kitchen. Or maybe the bathroom. Or homunculus. (jk, see?) One of the believed-in implications is that there is a soul or other supernatural force that magically e…[Read more]

“Influence” on how people decide to live their lives, infers “choice”. Is choice meaningful or not Pope? If it is not, then influencing someone’s choice is not meaningful either. This is not rocket science.

Davis wrote:
If one argues others have no choice to have done but what they have done, have no agency, it is absurd to then, in the same book, go on to try and influence their future choices/agency.

Free will or not, it’s a given that Harris’ readers can be influenced by his advice. Sapolski’s too, or anyone’s here.

I’m realizing that it doesn’t…[Read more]

There is no superficiality about it. If one argues others have no choice to have done but what they have done, have no agency, it is absurd to then, in the same book, go on to try and influence their future choices/agency. The only way around that is magical thinking or special pleading.

If we don’t have free will, we are not responsible for our…[Read more]

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]