RegularGuy

A law cannot be written for Noah or Brett personally. It’s in the Constitution.

good movie. :)

Just as a curiosity, do you worry about getting enough iron and other vitamins and minerals as a veggie/vegan? I have too much to stress about in my o...

I think that’s where a little bit of tolerance goes a long way.

Which militia is the most gay-friendly? lol

I think it’s productive to recognize differences, but I don’t know if it’s healthy to emphasize differences. Certainly there are group politics. But t...

I meant just what you suggested. The world needs welders and other tradespeople, and the education system should and does reflect this. Most hard-work...

I’m not saying that the term “race” has no use. I think I’ve granted that. I just think that identifying with a particular race in politics causes pro...

Apathy and anhedonia are things I’ve dealt with, too. Perhaps it’s inevitable in any intelligent creature’s life?

Never mind that minds may be inherent or at least inevitable in at least this universe. That’s another discussion, though.

I went off my medication for seven months in my twenties and started running and doing push-ups and sit-ups. I lost 50 pounds in that time. Had to go ...

I think math is a tool to describe reality just as physics is. Math isn’t inherent in reality. It’s inherent to our minds in describing reality.

I think Crazy Diamond was illustrating the point that “2+2=4” doesn’t say anything about the universe itself but is a useful language game tool in cer...

Genome sequencing would do away with these diagnostic tactics and would result in much more accurate diagnoses and treatments. Not everyone in even is...

Individuals shouldn’t identify too strongly with race, in my opinion. It causes social problems (to put it mildly). If everyone had their own genomes ...

Furthermore, you are now conflating “race” and “species”.

Aren’t their offspring sterile?

One thing I’ve learned in my 39 years of life is we’re all a little “off”.

Sure, I guess “race” has some useful meaning, but when it engenders identity politics it becomes a problem.

Certainly there is much genetic variation among Africans, but my illustration was meant to point out how we’re all related, making the term “race” eff...

I took the National Geographic DNA test, and it showed how my ancestors migrated out of Africa and settled and intermingled around the globe over the ...

I was always athletic until I became diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder/schizophrenia. Then the medications changed my metabolism, energy levels,...

Well, at least we agree on something. Weren’t you the one who said I was going to be sodomized by a robot? LOL

This sounds like my persuasion of the blending of materialism and idealism.

I agree with this.

What if all universes were incapable of supporting life? Would they still hold meaningful information?

What if a quadrillion monkeys scribbled on a chalk board where the “intentionality” of the man-made keyboard is taken out of the equation? What if in ...

Is anyone here arguing that the universe would hold meaningful information without conscious minds existing to make it “meaningful information”?

What do you mean by this?

I agree that intention is essential to meaning. As far as the million (or quadrillion) monkeys accidentally typing something meaningful, I would say t...

I haven’t read through much of this thread, but isn’t the question whether a mind is needed to give the text meaning? Is that the point of this thread...

I wrote this verse when in my early twenties: Oh, troubled woes of the undetermined mind! What sweet placidity would sure countenance prevail! Aphrodi...

Thanks. I really don’t know why @"S" hates me so much. I thought for a minute a few weeks back that we bonded over “Rick and Mortie”, but that didn’t ...

cool

That’s a good idea. Perhaps if one is popular, then we could do a reading group?

Rather than wasting more of your time, perhaps you could suggest to me a symbolic logic textbook that I can download to my Kindle? Thanks.

How do you define “tautology”?

I don’t understand what you mean by this.

I skipped symbolic logic in college because I didn’t need it to graduate. The joke about nerds and getting laid was just that, a joke. The idea of mat...

I understand a tautology to be a proposition that has to be true given the meanings of the terms used. Is that wrong?

“1+1=2” is a mathematical tautology that is self-evident to anyone who ever had an apple then was given another one. Theories of logic just seem like ...

Just humor me a bit. Does the theory refer to anything in physical reality, or is it free-floating? This is critical to my understanding. If it is fre...

Please explain the critical distinction. A theory suggests that it’s foundation is in the observable physical universe. Or do you disagree?

Boolean arithmetic and binary arithmetic ARE languages as are all mathematics.

I hold that mathematics is based on tautologies. That is why you can come up with mathematical equations that do not refer to anything in the physical...

How is it irrelevant when it is in the topic title?

I’m saying that “1” has a meaning. “+” has a meaning. “=“ has a meaning. “2” has a meaning. Given these meanings, “1+1=2” must be true all the time. Y...

My objection was that self-evident equations shouldn’t have to be proven (given the meanings of the terms used). Why not prove something interesting?

“1” and “2” are not variables, and “1+1=2” is basically a linguistic tautology.

Would you seek to prove this tautology: “A bachelor is an unmarried man”? I suppose you could try, but why? Why not try to prove something that isn’t ...