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VagabondSpectre

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The way I'm usually referring to information is in the sense of physical data contained in particular arrangements and regimes of interaction between ...
April 26, 2017 at 03:12
I think that to us humans there will always be de facto indeterminacy primarily due to limits of measurability and the physical horizons of knowledge ...
April 25, 2017 at 23:19
Where information begins to regulate chaos is the semiotic ground level (how that base dataset first emerges aside), but there's no difference in prac...
April 25, 2017 at 23:10
What about the predictability of the moon's orbit around the earth? At the Newtonian scale, how can indeterminacy be observed?
April 25, 2017 at 04:04
I simply cannot get away from the idea that the material instability you describe (providing a mechanism for information to express through) is actual...
April 24, 2017 at 21:05
What is the inherent lack in the human condition? My point is that God and religion do not appropriately use reason to convince people to be moral. Of...
April 24, 2017 at 10:05
The kind of computation to which I refer isn't just basic computation; "deep learning" is an example of the type of computation that I would compare t...
April 22, 2017 at 21:15
So I take it you're not agnostic then... What is the actualization of humanity? Atheism is itself a lack of theistic beliefs. there's a difference bet...
April 22, 2017 at 08:02
For me, belief in God is so distant that it's outside of my observable universe X-) I think the hardest part for a believer in understanding "the fenc...
April 22, 2017 at 06:05
The fact that data contained in DNA exists in an environment where it interacts in a complex network (and hierarchy of networks) of interactions (whic...
April 22, 2017 at 05:37
I wouldn't say a regular computer is alive, but a (true)artificial intelligence that exists within the environment of digital infrastructure (with inp...
April 22, 2017 at 05:23
The point of the analogy is that nobody has access to the closet (i make it my closet in the analogy so it makes sense in the real world; you don't ha...
April 21, 2017 at 20:06
The analogy describes the agnostic perspective. Having access to my closet equates to actually having evidence or knowledge of god as opposed to being...
April 21, 2017 at 07:50
We're both operating fast and loose with the definition of life, so let's not forget that all I'm trying to do is compare and explore given examples o...
April 20, 2017 at 21:52
The label I wield for myself is "agnostic soft atheist". You're likely familiar with the way I use the term "agnostic" (I believe we don't have knowle...
April 20, 2017 at 07:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXI5oUhseo I can't take full credit for "knowing" this song, You-tube brought me there after I searched and enjoyed "...
April 20, 2017 at 05:54
The problem in bold is that I don't understand how my faith and I might relate to "the infinite". I can recall the feeling of doubting god from my rel...
April 20, 2017 at 05:36
I'm just pointing out that the intention to procreate or go on living is not present in all examples of life. These examples of life die, but they con...
April 20, 2017 at 04:27
I'm skeptical of this claim. I'm skeptical because I've made effort in life to over-apply doubt in hopes of eviscerating the requisite beliefs of fait...
April 20, 2017 at 03:52
There are definitely some sports where women can keep up. I don't think there is actually such a thing as a professional open water swimmer, but I bel...
April 19, 2017 at 19:31
Are you saying that "belief in science" is incompatible with "belief in god"? Are you a disbeliever in science then?
April 19, 2017 at 18:16
Compared to the epic throes of such sarcastic existential neediness, what alleviation of suffering could there ever be? My point is that religious fol...
April 19, 2017 at 08:53
How about antibiotics then? Surely not requiring limb amputation or death alleviates suffering. How about the combustion engine? Electric heating? Air...
April 19, 2017 at 08:05
Morphine for one thing, the strongest opiate of all!
April 19, 2017 at 07:46
What alleviation from suffering can science offer an atheist which it cannot and does not also offer to the religiously devout? From my perspective (a...
April 19, 2017 at 07:31
What benefit accrues? The validity of my own particular definition of course! *Badumptss* Arbitrarily extending word use will accrue no benefit, but I...
April 19, 2017 at 07:10
Not all life has reproduction or self-perpetuation as a goal. Humans can be anti-natalist and also suicidal. Pretty much all standard life we observe ...
April 17, 2017 at 22:57
When in cynical doubt, add more cynicism. (Y) Exploring the rhetorical question I asked really does shed light on why we have women only sports teams,...
April 17, 2017 at 21:20
Plenty of stuff undermines western values. Being free to undermine values happens to be itself a western value... We don't all of us oppose terrorism ...
April 17, 2017 at 19:39
As far as can tell, all free-diving records are held by men. Unfortunately free diving is not much of a spectator sport so there are no leagues, altho...
April 17, 2017 at 18:53
Point is, they can't. Which professional female athlete of which sport can compete with professional male athletes in the same sport? If they could co...
April 17, 2017 at 07:57
Our values are definitely being tested... The increasing social and political complexity of the modern world seems to generally pit reason against emo...
April 17, 2017 at 07:37
It means that in the grand scheme of things the infrastructural damage caused by 9/11 amounted to less financial cost than what a single insurance com...
April 17, 2017 at 07:17
Not at all, but the fact that Larry Silverstein (WTC owner) had the towers fully insured puts a damper on the idea that severe or lasting infrastructu...
April 17, 2017 at 05:30
It seems that our reaction to terrorism, on both the public and political level, is well typified by terror. On the level of the public it seems to ai...
April 17, 2017 at 05:00
I have a harder time seeing and believing that radical Islam and Islamic terrorism poses even a remote existential threat to western civilization than...
April 17, 2017 at 04:36
Rest assured you would have received a direct reply. This was an open post formulated in response to reading an article that Wayfarer posted which des...
April 17, 2017 at 03:48
AndrewK is quite right to point out that it's no more practical to throw money at the domestic "war on terror" than it is to throw money at the war on...
April 17, 2017 at 02:38
I didn't quantify/compare AI with mitochondria intelligence. That's apples to oranges. Why would a fully functional AI that can think and act on it's ...
April 16, 2017 at 21:41
It sounds like you're just presuming that some sort of separate entity exists apart from the brain and it's goings on which has something to do with h...
April 16, 2017 at 21:07
Decoding the physics and chemistry of human intelligence is well behind other fields of biology, but what about artificial intelligence? Granted we do...
April 16, 2017 at 07:05
I agree, but fearless should not be confused with strength. The image of a lone child doesn't speak to collaboration, to me is expresses desperation. ...
April 16, 2017 at 00:49
Let me try to be more specific: "Life" is any entity capable of intelligent reaction to it's environment. We still mostly have the problem of defining...
April 16, 2017 at 00:38
O.K, let's talk about the brain then, along with it's accompanying nervous systems. The structure of the brain and it's goings on is what produces hum...
April 15, 2017 at 21:52
As far as I can tell, the bull was originally about strength (and capitalism?). Whoopdedoo! The addition of the girl seems to put innocence at odds wi...
April 15, 2017 at 21:10
Yes and no. The brain is the seat of consciousness. If we meddle with the brain, the consciousness gets meddled with. If the brain gets destroyed, as ...
April 15, 2017 at 20:16
Isn't block theory of time (eternalism) just a fancy way of saying "determinism"? Time is a measure of change (from our perspective), and it is the ne...
April 15, 2017 at 19:27
No the hard problem has not been solved. Our best guess is that the consciousness is a kind of reflection/illusion produced by interactions of matter ...
April 15, 2017 at 19:02
Fire fits the list indeed, but I wonder if you could find a satisfactory exception for my definition too: "Intelligence" (decisions from "memory" (sto...
April 15, 2017 at 18:57
The bull was only installed in 1989 as an act of guerilla art. You must be confusing this piece of art with a different one! (or else are making a ref...
April 15, 2017 at 05:31