Unseen

So, I ran into this performer who has one answer to the question, “How does a violinist prosper in the world of rock?” Meet Lindsey Stirling, who I assumed was British for some reason. Turns out, she’s as American as apple pie and cheeseburgers.

Another, slicker, pro…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
“John Wick”, however, oh yeah. I intentionally avoided it for years. And then it was on the box one day and I gotta say, it wasn’t all the killing he did, but all those botched attempts at killing him by the bad guys that was mildly amusing.  Because you know they can’t kill him else the movie is over, LOL.

It’s called “the wil…[Read more]

@ Robert

Nothing at that link I didn’t know or hadn’t heard before. I don’t think there’s anything sinister about wanting to make money doing what you love doing. I especially don’t mind hearing the thoughts of people whose education or practical experience have given them a degree of expertise, especially if they are interesting or entertaining…[Read more]

Recently, I watched a reaction video of a TW song by members of a band who love TW but one of them said something like “I’d like Dany to take more guitar solos.” I wrote a comment explaining something about TW and it went something like this:

I think you don’t yet understand The Warning’s project. They exist primarily to present their songs.…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
More i think about more convinced that those persuaded by notion we have free will are either ignorant in that they’ve never truly pondered the issues or have succumbed to that same narcissism driving belief in gods or superstition.

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

You and me both.

On one level, if we do not have free will, one can wonder what, then, is the difference between a person acting normally and someone acting under what we would call a compulsion or due to insanity? Surely, there must be a difference.

I think there is. We don’t think of someone as being compulsive or insane as long as their actions make sense to…[Read more]

@ PopeBeanie

Regarding the Irish girl, I just started it and am at thepoint where she gets up to take her dog for a walk and we get a glance at a part of her apartment. Clearly, she lives in modest digs. It looks like it might be little more than an efficiency or 1-bed unit.

Also, the normal American guy in me has to note that she’s got some…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
The whole “I’m a teacher gonna school you with my reaction” is just an attempt to avoid demonetization of their videos by the copyright owners. Many of the regular reactors have given up, but here is an education loophole of sorts. The best ones are the “stage presence coaches”, LOL.

Well, that’s a little cynical implying…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
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.

Some say he needs to be…[Read more]

@ Reg

I’m before your time, Reg. I’ve seen my share of rock royalty live as well. The Beatles and Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream (from side stage, BTW), among them.

Here’s one more. Elizabeth Zharoff again reacting to Mistreated:

BTW, if there’s any doubt about whether she actually…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Every system is influenced by random noise. If you have Parkinson’s, you probably have a great deal of experience with random nerve impulses, but everyone has twitches that may influence their behavior. As your teeth start chattering one can wonder how independent of noise our brain really is, or perhaps it is a key component in t…

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If determinism precludes free will, so does randomness. If someone has a biological random number generator (or bio-analog) generating his behavior, well that sure sounds like insanity to me. On the other hand, if our behavior is determined by our synapses and our personal histories, both beyond our control, I’m far more comfortable with that.

Aren’t you?

Davis wrote:
“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.

I think you mean “implies choice.” Close meanings, but different. Of course we have choices. That isn’t the question, and you s…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
If we don’t have free will, we are not responsible for our actions nor does it make sense, within the same argument, to then try to influence others.

If we DO have free will, then we are (at least to some extent) responsible for our actions and it makes sense, in the same argument to influence people’s choices.

“If God doesn’t exi…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
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…

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@ Davis

Cop out? Me? You still haven’t told me if my cat has free will. She obviously has the ability to conceive and carry out an act. Is she responsible for it? Accountable? At what level of evolutionary development does free will begin to creep in?

You’re stuck in medieval religion-based philosophy.

Free will is nonsense. Therefore, nothing…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
@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 i…

[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Volition and causality are not opposed to each other. When we say that someone chose to do something, we are saying that they are casual agents that acted to produce an effect.

Try to imagine what “volition” would even mean in a universe where causality was hit and miss. And what would an uncaused volitional act even be?…[Read more]