Search results

Oh, I'm very sorry. Must be tough battling these clueless creationists. You are one of the lucky ones that survived, aren't you! Get off your high horse.

Yes , I do. Are you kidding me? So, if I want to inform lay persons about the broad picture I must write a 4 volume treatise on the subject? Are you kidding me?

I don't agree. There are no absolute proofs in mathematics, only proofs. I see what you mean, but my point here is to make broad guidelines for lay people. I have degrees in mathematics and physics, so I know a bit about theories, models, good and bad science stuff but I'm not very versed in...

I 'll boldly start, and hope knowledgable people will pitch in. On evidence, facts and proofs. Proof does not exist in science - only in mathematics. Science and reason is about logic and convincing evidence. Evidence is pieces of information/results that strengthens a claim/hypothesis. Good...

Sorry about that. It was not my intention an going poetic over your back side. Yes! That's the wording of it. Beautiful! Consciousness is like a GUI of some sort, it has little to do with the inner workings of a computer, it is just a way to represent what is happening inside right now...

That would be marvelous. I the setup with the chinese didn't work, we had learned nothing. But if we had a completely different result, not a negative one - flatline, but very different then (given that we had simulated a brain to perfection) somethng else is driving the brain. BUT that...

Yes, the China brain or the Chinese nation thought experiment . Heard of it but haven't read Ned Block's article myself. So assume you have enough chinese people to simulate all the things a human brain does, every neurotransmitter, electric and magnetic fields, oxygen levels, bloodsugar levels...

That one is great, but way too much information. None of these trolls will read it. What I was thinking of was 10 bulletpoints max, consentrated information, easy to understand and "mellow" wording . Not an easy task but doable.

I totally agree, and that was just what I did - pondering the question. Only my first thought was "unicorn". There are a finite number of semantically correct questions. Very few of these make any sense. Some of these make a little sense, some a lot. Where does one draw the line for what makes...

Well, I still think it is a unicorn question. First, the consciousness is not static - would be rather pointless if it was. My consciousness in ten years will differ from the one I have right now. Now, moving on to "forever"... Second, shave off the prefrontal cortex. Are you still conscious? If...

Isn't this question on the same level as: do unicorns lay eggs?

Hi LOR guys. I have a proposition for you ( but since I'm quite new here, it may have been up for discussion a gazillion times and rejected without me knowing): why don't some of you splendid guys make a Reason101 page along with the LOR rules. Ten bullet points where you explain what a proof...

Well, you have axioms in mathematics. They may be considered as laws.

LOL. I tried, but this is certainly not my field and I could not even convince myself of my first thought reading your "sentence". My first thought was the picture of early RNA, doing backstrokes in a sticky pond of biological material. Not able to produce proteins himself but using what he...

My fear is that too many people don't choose "not to broaden their horizon" but are simply not able to. It costs too much, maybe because they reside on the wrong side of the Bell curve or are too lazy. Most people I know are interested ( or more correctly - WANT to be interested) in science and...

You are really trying to sound like a pope, aren't you :)

You will have a hard time finding someone who will not share your basic ethics and morals. You can dig up the most backwards stone age tribe from the middle of nowhere and their basic ethics and moral will nicely map to your own. Good and evil are not arbitrary concepts dependent on culture or...

[ The human mind comes with certain bugs in the software. It is almost impossible for us to remove ourselves from the storyline after we assume ourselves dead. "What does it feel like when I'm dead.." and such. It's very "Zen", it's a mind trap, a contradiction. It's like asking what blind...

The Fallacy of Fine Tuning, ->Victor Stenger Thinking, Fast and Slow, ->Daniel Kahnemann The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum field... ->Frank Close Innumeracy: ..... -> John Allen Paulos Your Inner Fish: .... -> Neil Shubin The Beginning of Infinity: ... -> David Deutsch A Universe From Nothing ... ->...

I think this is a common defense mechanism for people who know that what they are doing is borderline X ( X being immoral, unethical, evil, irrational, insane,..). If you told a Nazi working dayshift in a concentration camp that he/she was murdering children, he/she would probably be offended...