Patterner

I believe Deacon would agree:

I just started reading The Symbolic Species, by Terrence Deacon. Literally only the Preface so far. In it, he tells us about giving a talk about the b...

Thank you. It's confusing me right out of the gate, but I'll see what I can do.

The photons are the same, whether or not they are perceived at all. Without a perceiver who has subjective experiences, there is no red. I had only he...

My observation is that people's intuition is wrong as often as right. It often seems to be someone's "feeling." Other times the answer someone's intui...

:rofl: :rofl: I don't know why. Someone explain to me why my phone types "booty" when I swype "not"! I don't think I've ever intentionally typed "boot...

Not sure what you mean. Why would our deep learning/intuition telling us determinism is not correct be evidence that determinism is correct? Or is tha...

I'm not trying to compare them. And no, they are not opposites. I'm just noticing that both are about our identity and thinking, but one is a commonly...

So yeah. I live in bliss. :grin: Still, I think it's an interesting thought. Stop random people in the street and ask them about consciousness. Even i...

It's not a need for a word for thinking in the Determinist sense. It's the fact that there isn't one. Because the idea is not something that has been ...

Well, not having had an inkling of this whole line of thought until a couple days ago, plus not having ever read a word about such things, I'm going t...

No. Just another example. It may be that the word applies at times. But I'm not sure that's the intent of the word, though. The definitions I'm findin...

I'm not remotely knowledgeable enough to debate it. I'm just thinking we don't have words for the competing ideas being discussed. We have a word for ...

In not remotely. I just thought FO didn't understand what fj was saying, and tried to get them on the same page.

Yes. I agree with you entirely. I argued the same position in another thread not long ago. The problem, I believe, is that languages were developed by...

I think I understand what you're saying. I don't think you understand what he's saying. Heart beat was a good thing to mention. In a deterministic wor...

Beats me. By whatever non-determined consciousness is behind them. Different people who believe this type of thing might have different ideas. Some mi...

But, in that context, the "consciousness literally telling determinists what to do" is, itself, determined. So it's still a consistent theory. I was t...

Right. Worded that way sounds like a consciousness telling us what to think. I would say determinism means the web of physical events is our thoughts....

Determinism tells us exactly what to think, and exactly when to think it. Yes?

That is a valid point. They're isn't even an answer to the question of how webs of physical interactions are conscious/have subjective experience/are ...

If several people are misunderstanding you, particularly if they are all misunderstanding you in the same way, then yes, there's a good chance you wor...

:up:

There is no objectively correct answer. It is a matter of opinion. Many people believe it is 'better' to believe Determinism, and many believe it is '...

I would rather know what's going on, and base my decisions on that. The truth shall set you free, or some such crap. Let's say I'm happily married, cr...

Since you put 'better' between ' and ', it would be a good idea to define how you are using the word at the moment. Otherwise, different people might ...

I believe in Non-determinism, and I would not put up a fight. I would embrace the opportunity of the experience. I do not believe a believer in Determ...

How about looking at it this way... If you were forced into the machine against your will, and you had reason to believe you would never be able to es...

I certainly would. I wouldn't miss the experience. It's not. You said:I disagree, and am telling you why. What is able to be experienced in the real w...

I hadn't heard of Nozick. But how I experience an event - how I feel about it, and what I chose to do next - are real, regardless of the nature of the...

Deliberating adds to the equation. You cannot know that a decision made immediately and a decision made after any amount of deliberation would be iden...

I predict that conversation will never end. :grin:

This was your idea. I didn't know you were looking for a purpose for Oracle. What did your have in mind? Off the top of my head, I'd say there's money...

Ok. Oracle gives a final spoken prediction, but secretly writes down what it knows thwarter will do at that point.

The oracle would know how the thwarter would react to its prediction. It could say, "Now that I've told you you will do X, you will do Y, just to thwa...

Because they are smarter, and they know best. At least in their own minds. If there was going to be a democratic vote on same sex marriage, I'd bet ev...

If the majority think what's good for everyone is incompatible with what some minority wants, and they believe they are voting for the good of everyon...

In a democracy, we would vote on all the issues. For example, whether or not people of the same sex, or different races, can get married. I remember a...

We know what knowing is. But we don't know how it is that we are able to know. We all have our favorite theories. Yours and mine both fall under the u...

I understand the idea of Atman being, shall we say, shards of Brahman, limiting itself in order to experience things in different ways. But that, itse...

We can say matter is its own explanation, and is nothing other than itself. how does choosing to not try to explain something solve the mystery of it,...

I don't understand why minds, being mental stuff, in a reality of nothing but mental stuff (or maybe there wasn't any mental stuff other than minds?),...

I don't understand what you mean. What is the mystery, and how have we solved it? What is its intrinsic nature?

"How is it that it never rains in southern California?"

I don't know what you mean. Certainly it is impossible to do anything and everything we can think of. I can't jump up and fly to the moon. I can't wal...

I wasn't crazy about writing it. :grin: I don't always know how to express myself in these matters. And sometimes it's not even my fault, As ssu just ...

It's about whether or not I can actually choose one path or another. As opposed to having multiple paths in front of me, but there being no possibilit...

I see it the other way around. If choices are made because of the physical interactions of all the constituent parts of the brain (whether considered ...

I truly don't understand how you can say the things you are saying. It occurs to me that we're miscommunicating. Thinking we're talking about things t...

My mind being immaterial would not mean it, even partially, operates independent of the laws of nature. Since my mind is a natural thing, it would mea...