Foghorn

This is a thread about whatever posters decide to discuss.

Ok, so Israel surrenders to Hamas, ends the state of Israel, and packs up and leaves the Middle East. What do you imagine happens next? What I imagine...

Show me your thread where you spew snarky venom at Assad for weeks, and then I'll happily join you in challenging Israel, which if you were paying att...

I am deeply offended that you would attempt to label me as the citizen of a former colonial power. How dare you!!! This means WAR!!! To answer your qu...

Let us please keep in mind that the UN is a community of all the nations on Earth, quite a few of whom are led by ruthless dictatorships. The UN is a ...

That is the problem which I am attempting to describe. :-) Seriously, the fact that science works so well is what presents the existential threat. Thi...

Well, political threads at least seem to have a pretty consistent pattern of rapidly devolving in to patterns of personal conflict. And most of us kno...

Hi there! Is it rational to seek to eliminate death in the absence of any proof that life is better than death? It seems nature has made a firm decisi...

Why do we engage in such rhetorical violence on forums? There can only be one answer. Because we enjoy it. I would surely agree it's far more complica...

So, maybe we could try to elevate the conversation a bit? Here's my try... When I first saw this thread I immediately decided to have none of it, as I...

The term "science clergy" is admittedly vague. It's really more of a trolling word designed to stimulate conversation. The fact that I have to explain...

Ok, but science is not a machine. It's run by human beings. And so declaring management "science based" does not automatically remove that management ...

Yes, and it's possible to use philosophical analysis to identify cases where philosophy may not be the most effective tool for the job.

This seemed to merit a re-run. Not that doing so will matter.

In actual real world fact, it is extremely common for Christians to refer to themselves as sinners. I get that some Christians can be pompously sancti...

Ok, no problem. I'm not objecting, and appreciate your knowledge of the broader context, which I largely lack. I'm vaguely aware of this much. Sometim...

:-) :-)

Yes, you are not allowed to handle plutonium. Nor am I. But the North Korean psychopaths are. Any power given to the good guys is also given to the ba...

Not stewing, reporting. It's relevant to the issue of our relationship with science, and scientist's relationship with reason. It doesn't actually, wh...

Um, sorry, but this is a ridiculously warped, hopelessly simplistic interpretation of Christian culture. It would be fair to state that such crimes ha...

One is dead, and the other isn't? Did I win anything?? :-)

Before we go reaching for immortality it would be good if someone would first provide the proof that life is better than death. My own personal supers...

Yes, I hear you, and that seems an accurate description of how Catholics think about this. You would know better than I how other religions regard it....

No, apologies, but I'm making a literal point. The obvious answer is no. Human beings can not successfully manage ANY amount of power delivered at ANY...

Yes, that's it. Well intentioned madness. Yes, but imho, her thinking is muddled. She continually talks about "effective governance" while at the same...

This seems a wildly inaccurate characterization of Wayfayer's writing. You're just sinking your own ship with this kind of talk.

It's an exaggeration NOW, as I disclaimed above. Please note that my comments address the direction in which this technology is headed. And, CRISPR is...

SIDEBAR: I recently spent about a month politely presenting a reasoned challenge to where this technology is headed in a series of daily posts on the ...

Are you familiar with CRISPR? You seem very educated, so I thought you might be. Quick summary for those who need it, CRISPR is new Nobel Prize winnin...

Imagine that you teach a six year old child how to ride a bike. Sure, they may fall and scrape their knee, but they get back on the bike, master ridin...

And now, in fairness, a challenge to the Israelis... The irony here is that while Israelis are among the most intelligent and competent people anywher...

Western democracies have evolved past the simplistic authoritarian schemes of the past. Here in America the top 1% own 40% of the nation's wealth. The...

The irony of this debate is that if Israelis were to take my suggestion, pack up everything and move to America, leaving the Middle East entirely.... ...

Seems a good plan to me.

Do we see unity itself via rationality? Or do we see thoughts about unity? I've been proposing intelligence is embedded in reality. This idea is a pro...

Well yes, but now we arrive at a problem which Wayfarer may wish to comment on. It's rather difficult to see the unity of all things (should that exis...

Well, you know how it is, here, there, everywhere. Everyone wants to play the blame and shame game, and few are really that interested in the actual s...

Why can bacteria perform actions which if we did them we'd say they are intelligent? Bacteria can select specific information (virus DNA), store that ...

I can vote for this. We are exploring "a" question, not necessarily a right question.

Yes, agreed. I'm not allergic to the God concept, or however you might describe the "something or somebody". Does this help? Are we exploring the conc...

Yes, does this idea perhaps transcend the subject/object paradigm you've referred to? If God penetrates all matter, wouldn't that equal God being anot...

Maybe it's not a miracle? Maybe life is following the "laws of intelligence" in the very same way it is following the "laws of physics"? Or maybe the ...

Well, the word "intelligence" typically refers to a property of a separate unique entity. So we use language such as "I am intelligent" and "you are i...

Ok, I hear you in regards to semantics and definitions etc, and agree that what you've expressed is the most common view. I'm just asking members to r...

Yes, agreed. I'm struggling with words like "intelligence" in this thread. And please note, I stated in the OP that these ideas are just what's on my ...

I hear you, and thanks for the thumbs up. Glad you're enjoying the thread.

Yes, agreed. To call science a religion is to bend the word religion too far. But it seems completely fair to claim our relationship with science is q...

Check out the above post about bacteria if you want.

One of the topics that got me going in this direction was a month or so I spent learning about CRISPR, a new technology which makes gene editing easie...

I'm not proposing an otherworldly dimension, but rather the opposite. The theory is that intelligence is built in to the fabric of observable physical...