Jake

I'm interested in tactical arguments, you're interested in moral arguments. I'm interested in what might actually cause a person to stop killing anima...

You don't have to, agreed. But not being interested in a solution that would actually work illustrates that it's moralistic finger pointing that inter...

Yes, you prefer to scold them, and position yourself as superior. My only complaint with this is that it doesn't really work that well, and tends to g...

Yes, you're very interested in ethics, I grant that without reservation. But, for instance, you're not very interested in factory meat, a technical so...

Like I said, I disagree with the assumption that human reason is relevant to the question. It may be so, or perhaps not. I'm not willing to assume it ...

In order for "not a logical concept" being a useful observation we'd first have to establish that human logic is relevant to whatever is being investi...

If we were to give a 10 year old access to ever more power without limit catastrophe would inevitably be the result sooner or later. Same for a 15 yea...

Ah, I see, we're supposed to believe in the qualifications of your chosen authority on faith. Like you do. Hmm, that sure sounds familiar... I haven't...

No, it's pathetic! But yelling that was kind of cathartic, so thanks.

See? I told you. There it is!

I write utterly fascinating deeply penetrating philosophical posts about the most important subjects. This is my latest work, which will very soon be ...

My sense is that our current understanding of time is still quite primitive. As example, I was recently surprised to learn that time moves at differen...

Hi there Tiff, Yes, they made choices, agreed. But it was luck for me. I had nothing to do with where I was born. I could have been born to Charles Ma...

Yea, that could definitely work, excellent point. Let's hope they can find someone like that.

What inspired this post was a story on NPR about the battle for Mosul, and all the related horrors. So much of humanity spends their entire lives in s...

We watched the first few episodes. Not bad, not that good, in our experience. However we are considering giving it another chance given that it now ha...

He he, ok this post made the thread worth it. :smile:

I feel that way too. A lot of people do. But that may not be enough. How people feel is less the issue than who shows up to vote. Here's an example of...

By the laws of random chance wacky things are going to happen from time to time. The moment of decision will come in the next election. If he is elect...

We all have wacky ideas like this sometimes. In a virtual realm we could play these inclinations out and learn from them, without any real people bein...

If science cannot verify the existence of X, then the best evidence tells us that science is not currently qualified to speak to the existence or non-...

As best I can tell it works like this. Some scientists consider themselves not just experts at science, but experts at thinking. From that stance it's...

This is silly. But I understand your focus better now. You're not really interested in animals, but in ethics. Which your thread title does disclose, ...

One thing that comes to mind is that I would find Jibo more interesting when I was stoned. Thus I'm wondering if chemical enhancers will be part of wh...

Good point! Yes, there is such a basis. Our need to know, or failing that, pretend we know. Whether we can say anything at all about the nature of suc...

Meet Jibo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dAP2D0rqc

Will robots perhaps help us better understand what it is we really want from each other? It seems we rarely really know what it is that we really want...

The way I see it, robots will provide a middle ground compromise between becoming a hermit, or subjecting oneself to social torture. :smile: Ok, yes, ...

Now see, if you were a robot, I'd adjust the slider from "the way too philosophical" setting towards the "down to earth" setting. Like it or not, you'...

Please prove that human logic has anything to do with phenomena the scale of gods. Thank you. GODS: Proposals about the most fundamental nature of eve...

Another angle may be that the frustrations we experience with other people may be really just a reflection of our own inner disturbance. Imagine that ...

A non-religious example might be space. Everything is overwhelmingly made of space. There may be some hidden property of space which causes it to gene...

First, while it's surely true that many, or perhaps even most, people can be seen as more trouble than they're worth, that's not true of everyone on E...

As you can see, I find this to be a fascinating topic. I do so at least in part because since I found the Net in 1995, the transition has been happeni...

The full scope of the argument is... You worship science. Beginning, middle and end.

Good points, thanks. As I imagine it, those already born when these technologies mature will probably turn up their nose. Those born in to that new wo...

The problem here is that products like that don't taste that good to meat eaters. I like them, you like them, but we're already vegetarians.

What I see is that everyone around us assumes without questioning that the theist vs. atheist paradigm is the only valid way to approach such issues. ...

And you would in fact argue that in almost every post in every thread.

Ok, no problem, thanks again for sharing, and for this forum.

Yes, that's it. As we can see with today's Google and Facebook, there is already huge work underway in developing software that can track you and lear...

Surely true, now. But we are entering a world where compromise will increasingly fade away. Real human beings in our lives will be replaced with digit...

Well, let's see. First, all of human life is based on some assumption or another, so an investigation of these assumptions is useful, in theory. So al...

Well, ok, if you prefer not to reason about your publicly stated positions, that's your choice of course, and leaves me with little left to do here. N...

Should anyone's time should permit, I have another question. How similar is PlushForums to Vanilla? Did they totally overhaul Vanilla, or is it more a...

Fair point. I tend to focus on nukes because they are an existential threat right now today. My best guess is that the kind of issues you reference wi...

I'd like to apologize for being somewhat adamant and bombastic. I sometimes grow impatient with the pace of some conversations, which tends to make me...

Exactly. Ok, that's fine, no problem. I hope you understand I'm not trying to make you be a theist, but rather trying to help you be more loyal to you...

Not that this is all that useful, but your posts reminded me of a prayer experience I once had. I was about 16, surfing by myself. A storm came up so ...

My vote is that philosophy, especially academic philosophy, bears little resemblance to reality. It's a fun game for we nerds to play, that's about it...