Unseen

Simon says “You might be surprised to find that studying all this evolutionary philosophical stuff, helps a person to navigate life successfully.”

Maybe a little but not shocked if it is true. Meanwhile it is divorced from how life actually works when viewed from a distance. Definitely see the value in acknowledging the role of evolution. i have…[Read more]

Brain Droppings:

Filched it and am gonna guess two of you get the reference.

Yeah Pope that forever endeavor will linger longer. And it is quite apparent the LLM’s are rapidly improving. Interestingly i challenged Meta after it once again towed the party line in asserting it does not remember prior conversations with users. Not only did Meta…[Read more]

There is a difference between “cause and effect” and hard determinism. A cause can have many different effects, but there has to be at least one. The idea that the position, motion and energy of every single particle through space-time is predetermined at time = 0+ of the big bang is not compatible with quantum theory.

And of course, causality is…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
How do you account for free will in a way that rescues the “free” part of free will and attaches it to the “will” part of free will without violating the scientific laws of the universe?

Absolutely. Nothing new here, not sure, did I misuse the word emergence? Free will couldn’t emerge, except as a theoretical or philoso…[Read more]

Here it is:

(Verse 1)
Yo, it’s the tale of determinism, science in the rhythm,
Where every cause is linked, no room for schism.
The universe, a script, no freestyle decision,
Every action’s locked tight like a prison.

But wait, we flip the beat, science enters the scene,
It’s the methodical method, if you know what I mean.
Hypothesize, test,…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Where does responsibility and morality enter in? Beyond, of course, “You did it. You were not under duress. Therefore, you’re responsible for it.

Can one just think of morality as an emergent thought process, with societal ramifications? In particular, people stating moral beliefs can and do influence others, and one’s sel…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

_Robert_ wrote:
We can start with intelligence or hair color and work our way into musical preferences. Throw any of that data on a chart and you will have a bell curve.

What does that have to do with free choice and consciousness?

Everything. Everything about us including “free choice” is governed by a probability function.

Cows came back to attack the ones who drained their udders. Cows declared there and then, “hey my teats ain’t rudders!”

Woke is an obnoxious handle. Reminds me of the chosen people.
Make America Rip Van Winkle again.

I looked for more detail on the “breakthrough with desalinization article”. The source is https://news.mit.edu/2024/solar-powered-desalination-system-requires-no-extra-batteries-1008 .

The gist of it can be summarized as a much more efficient method of desalinization through “flexible batch electrodialysis”, with “flexible” meaning that the pro…[Read more]

Throw in the other religions too, every which one defining God, Allah, and so on in their own way, usually dictated by traditionally purported authorities. The sureness they have seems particularly dangerous to me, e.g. with upsurgence of Christian Nationalism. I don’t think I ever really knew what populism was until the past few years, much less…[Read more]

Yes, Belle Rose. So many Catholics….what could go wrong?? Why do they always close their eyes when they pray to the Creator of the Universe? It seems to put a strain on their faces too…..but that could be caused by the cognitive dissonance of it all.

Thanks, Reg!

Have a great week!!

The only thing consistent about your god in my life is his complete absence.

– Reg.

@unseen Nice!  Thanks!  Great analogy. I support your position.

Your consciousness is like your digestive system. Where does that go when you die?

Simon Paynton wrote:

_Robert_ wrote:
We do know that quantum mechanical systems are not deterministic but are instead probabilistic. That may give us the idea that we have free will when actually your decisions and choices have probabilities.

I don’t buy that. It’s too direct contact between different levels of reality: psychological and qua…

[Read more]

We don’t know. We do know that quantum mechanical systems are not deterministic but are instead probabilistic. That may give us the idea that we have free will when actually your decisions and choices have probabilities. For example, if you are a complete dumbass, you are more likely to vote for Trump, but for some reason you managed to vote for Harris.