Fire Ologist

"Nothing to see here. Move along..."

Saying it materializes out of thin air is shorthand for - who the hell knows yet. Where precisely is the thin line between the identity we call a hurr...

Dude, I didn’t read your post yet when I wrote the below. Sounds like a similar page out of a similar book. I agree. There is a problem of identity wh...

By philosophically possible I take you to mean theoretically or rationally possible. I don’t think it is theoretically possible to even imagine this l...

Thanks for reading it and for the thoughts! The weaving between philosophical and straight story telling could be smoother. And I agree the opening is...

The mind itself IS the misfiring. All else obeys the firing. But the misfire, the mind, does not, and this creates anxiety in a world that is firing.

I revised your quote because I think you are right there anyway. Take out the “supposes” too, because it is no different than “desires or intentions o...

Anxiety is a sort of state where you are physically in one world (about to walk on stage to deliver a speech to 500 people), but psychologically/menta...

We don’t know where intuition really comes from just like we don’t know where desires come from - so the question of do we have free will remains unan...

I think most people see consciousness as something they know, and determinism as something they have a sense of, but don’t really know (as most people...

That would be one way physics on the one side, could explain logic on the other. But then explanations themselves are theories, so how could physics i...

It could use a summary but I think I see you saying we in the west have much to learn - in method and in practical wisdom - from the east. And I agree...

Consider these two sentences: 1. “This sentence has five words.” Or 2. “The sentence ’this sentence has five words’ has five words in it.” Sentence nu...

Right. A statement is about something, and, as a statement is separate from that something. But “this statement is false” is about itself. So it has n...

Make existence great again. MEGA I’m working on it..

:up:

Yes. I think I understood that. Yes, and in another certain group of physical events we call the overall activity “me choosing.” So if all of the phys...

The mind, however it comes to be (such as consciousness with/in/of the brain) is simultaneous with decisions (judgments, choices) directing reason (lo...

And they think the self is an illusion as well. And desire, which supports choice, is a frustration of the real. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe these thoughts...

Not a perversion of nature. I think it is good that humans have removed themselves from nature. Charity, and saving the weak are good. Chemistry spit ...

The way I see it, humanity evolved to remove itself from nature, so now the weak sometimes proliferate, and the strong are kept down, the mutation is ...

I think that what “I think” is determined by me. In a deterministic world, “me” is determined just as much as the thoughts thrust upon it, so “me” may...

But how does the phrase “make sense TO ME” make sense in a deterministic world? How do “you” make sense to you, if there is only a causal chain - wher...

Totally agree. Because the only way our politicians know how to win an election is to divide the people into those for one and against the other.

In a deterministic world, equating “I choose” with “consciousness telling me what to do” is a metaphor. Nothing is actually “telling” anything. It’s c...

I didn’t think I was taking any sides, or trying to refute anything. Didn’t mean it that way anyway. One of our problems is, that could be a quote fro...

There is no way to debate politics anymore. It’s all slogans and talking points. Soaked in hyperbole and metaphor. “The most consequential election of...

You come to a fork in the road and the cart is rolling forward and you may either go left or right. Left or right is going to happen. So when you go l...

That’s a contradiction. You say you are a part of the causal chain. All of the parts add up to the chain. So what do “you” add to the chain of determi...

Wondering if I am free requires freedom to happen. A machine that honestly wonders whether it is free or not has freed itself from the machine. Otherw...

What do “you” add to the causal chain, if “your choice” is determined? What happens when the chain bumps into “you” if the effect of “you” is determin...

The issue is are they “my” beliefs. Not whether they are based on reason. What causes “you” to claim your beliefs are “yours”. Regardless of whether t...

No. It’s like proving matter exists. Seems plain to me that there is a “me” as a distinct body and my awareness of this (my mind) is distinct within t...

So this is a thought experiment in psychology?

That is beautiful! I agree language is functioning to convey meanings and yours and my logic is functioning to respond meaningfully to each other. All...

I don’t think I ever had sight of it. Anyway, thinking, to me, is the ground and a condition of freedom. It is because we can think at all about anyth...

A consequence is an effect. So “consequence is being used separate from…causality” is confusing and needs more explanation. And I have no idea why tha...

So you are free to either think or not think, and nothing but free will decides when you think or don’t think. So how is that a world of determinism?

I see that I’m frustrated. We don’t understand the question anymore. And this analogy isn’t clarifying. (Why did you place “I like rock music” under b...

I agree “better” raises the subjective, or at least the relative- better for what? For instance. I also agree it is unclear what is being asked.

If we are free, is it better to believe we are free, or to believe we are not free? So that’s your question. If I assume I am free, am I still free to...

Metaphorically. You read what I wrote, and you replied. And I read what you wrote. I am replying now. If, as I reply now, all is determined, not by ch...

Well, if, in fact, all action is determined, it’s the exact opposite of “wandering” anywhere. There is no more wandering in a deterministic world, whe...

If determinism is true, aren’t we all, in a sense, always told what to think?

It’s a trick question to me. If determinism is true, then, along with my “choice”, the illusory agent making “my” choice vanishes along with the illus...

Instead of a religion, ask if God matters. If we assume God matters, and/or assume we matter to God, then instead of seeking a religion, you seek a sa...

Assumptions from Dan’s paper: “Likelihood of truth (including internal consistency and not relying on propositions that we have good reason to believe...

Hey Dan. Honestly, I don’t know what the problem precisely is. I’d have to make it up based on some assumptions. Can you state the issue more clearly?...

This is a massive question. A justification for a policy can be more narrow and include less factors, whereas a justification for an isolated act can ...

We is a good starting point. It’s not just whether it is better that I believe I am free or not, it is whether we believe we are better. Just to float...