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TheMadFool

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You haven't proved that consciousness isn't just data processing. Of course I haven't proved that it is but that's the point isn't it? We don't know w...
August 30, 2020 at 07:58
The way I understand subjectivity as it relates to consciousness is that it's a private i.e. inaccessible by anyone else. In my humble opinion, those ...
August 30, 2020 at 07:44
Something must give. Would you rather believe that X, the native Chinese speark, doesn't understand Chinese? Where does that lead to?
August 30, 2020 at 07:28
So, you're running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Acceptable, given that the jury is still out on the issue. What I'd like to know is what...
August 30, 2020 at 07:23
Blinding me with science, eh? :smile:
August 29, 2020 at 19:05
Of course we can switch points of view but that doesn't mean a moral perspective is somehow flawed - it's just one side of the story. Humans are much ...
August 29, 2020 at 19:02
You're doomed to heart-wrenching disappointment, friend but wait...there's nothing left after death that could feel anything let alone heart-wrenching...
August 29, 2020 at 18:49
How does one understand the whole without understanding the parts? The very definition of a whole is that it's made up of parts.
August 29, 2020 at 18:33
Nevertheless, idealistic relative to you. It's a relay race - you do your bit and hope your team mates make it to the finish line. To be fair, the ext...
August 29, 2020 at 18:29
This question bothers me, especially the way Richard Dawkins, of meme fame, approaches. According to Dawkins, a being that can create something as com...
August 29, 2020 at 15:42
As it appears to me, purpose is generally understood to be reflexive. In the context the word "purpose" is usually found in - life - a person' purpose...
August 29, 2020 at 15:30
:rofl: :chin: Deepity :smile:
August 29, 2020 at 14:32
The problem: 1. X = Native Chinese Speaker 2. Y = Chinese Room with a person who doesn't understand Chinese following mechanical linguistic rules 3. M...
August 29, 2020 at 14:30
That's something we all have to find out, preferably later than sooner. I wonder why?
August 29, 2020 at 14:24
All this reminds me of Leibniz's principle of identity of indiscernibles. If we can't tell apart a person who can speak Chinese and a Chinese Room in ...
August 29, 2020 at 11:44
Funny that you should say that. Reminds me of speciesism and racism. What should we call this brand of discrimination? Beingism? To be frank, I'm not ...
August 29, 2020 at 11:41
I'm not saying brains are computers jot and tittle. I made it clear that working from the fact that consciousness seems to result from logic being app...
August 29, 2020 at 07:01
Well, prima facie this means thinking equated to data processing alone is not sufficient for consciousness but take a close look at what's missing - a...
August 29, 2020 at 06:15
This is self-contradictory. How do you know you were thinking "even in deep sleep" if you don/t/can't remember it? Data processing in the sense that w...
August 29, 2020 at 05:23
Well, I would've thought the state unconsciousness is something only a previously conscious entity can enter into. So, for example, the two of us, con...
August 29, 2020 at 05:00
Well, what is consciousness if not data processing? Think of the times when we all agree that a person is not conscious e.g. when sleeping or when s/h...
August 29, 2020 at 04:42
I'm afraid no computer will ever qualify as a p-zombie. The idea of a p-zombie is that it has to be physically identical to a human and no computer is...
August 29, 2020 at 04:07
:up: I did admit I could be caricaturing your position on the matter at hand. It appears that I've been hoisted with my own petard :smile: . Neverthel...
August 29, 2020 at 03:53
Yes, it was a reply to Gus Lamarch. I meant that it's much much easier to prove a pantheon of gods than one god. Look at all the chaos we see around u...
August 29, 2020 at 03:10
:smile: :up:
August 28, 2020 at 14:52
:up: :ok:
August 28, 2020 at 14:51
Ok. Provide me with a definition of you, Gus Lamarch and I'll show you you're not unique enough to be different from all of us.
August 28, 2020 at 14:51
Well, in my humble opinion, the refutation of your position lies in the past; looking backward serves the critical function of revealing, showing you,...
August 28, 2020 at 14:47
I'm not assuming anything. I'm having trouble trying to define "existence" in a way that allows me to say "God exists but isn't perceivable/detectable...
August 28, 2020 at 14:29
It looks like it's easier to prove the opposite. Anyway, sticking to my guns, I'd have to say that, with an attribute like omnipotence, there's a natu...
August 28, 2020 at 12:21
I did say it was an analogy and the analogy holds. It's my understanding, possibly mistaken, that shunyata builds off of the concept of interdependenc...
August 27, 2020 at 15:24
I don't think so. Shunyata, as an analogy, is about composite numbers - numbers that can be decomposed into primes - but it doesn't, in fact can't, de...
August 27, 2020 at 06:14
Well, it seems that our first task is to find out what "thing" refers to; after all, as the OP said, nothing means NOT a thing.
August 27, 2020 at 06:09
Ok. Let's do a survey of "individuals" to get a handle on the issue. Isaac Newton developed the theory of gravity and many other scientists and ordina...
August 27, 2020 at 05:40
Is this a reply to my question? If it is, it mustn't have escaped your notice that this ambiguity is within a given language and not a result of trans...
August 27, 2020 at 04:34
:ok:
August 27, 2020 at 04:24
What constitutes the uniqueness of my experience if not as one filtered through my beliefs and no one has a monoply on beliefs, right? You and I could...
August 27, 2020 at 04:18
An example will help to make your case here.
August 27, 2020 at 03:55
That can't be true. As far as I know, although scientific language is a subset of ordinary language, all words used in science are given precising def...
August 27, 2020 at 03:45
In my humble opinion... All people, excepting the delusional and those who're hallucinating, are in agreement on what it is that they perceive through...
August 27, 2020 at 03:11
Read above. Jainism as a formal religion maybe losing ground to other faiths but Jainism's core idea of ahimsa/non-violence is becoming increasingly p...
August 27, 2020 at 02:50
So, you agree, the matter of what's extreme and what's normal in re an issue depends on one's own locus on the spectrum of possible positions one can ...
August 27, 2020 at 02:47
Aah, I see. You're in favor of the Arisotetelian golden mean but isn't the idea of extremes something relative. We don't do so well in the Antarctic c...
August 26, 2020 at 17:29
August 26, 2020 at 16:45
This view of science limits it to physics - the fundamental science. Not wrong for everything builds off of it, even biology but I don't recall limiti...
August 26, 2020 at 16:40
But this speaks in my favor??!! You describe Jainism as an extreme point of view and you quote someone who sees extremism as a positive force for chan...
August 26, 2020 at 16:27
Perhaps I'm at fault here but you took simple concepts such as faith and rationality, the clear distinction between them and turned them into somethin...
August 24, 2020 at 17:47
Good distinction my friend but you're ignoring it. Every idea is at one point in its history is/was/will be extremist but some, not all, have managed ...
August 24, 2020 at 17:45
I think you're taking this a bit too far - it's like a cat with fangs and claws thinking that fangs are claws are far superior than everything else an...
August 24, 2020 at 17:25
In: Privilege  — view comment
I think you're conflating privilege with entitlement. The former has a negative connotation due to the fact that it's supposed to be unfair but the la...
August 24, 2020 at 17:17