hypericin

Great point, except for the fact that Boston is not a computer simulation for the benefit of a brain in a vat.

if the vat world is reality, what do we call the would outside of it?

The argument that the simulation is the reality for the brain in the vat cannot accommodate the situation where the brain is housd in a body again

I thought of a neat prize. Those who want to could chip in a buck or two to get the winner's story entered here: https://www.tckpublishing.com/2021-sh...

I do. In this view, how would you account for what happens when the brain is unplugged, housed in a new body, and "wakes up"? Not sure what you're get...

Not really. I am discussing two models of the relation between myself and the world: the common sense brain in a skull, and far fetched but technicall...

:up:

No. Familiar perceptions do not reveal the world as it is. "Perceiving the world as it is" is a contradiction in terms. But, they do reveal mappings f...

You lost the thread of the argument. I wasn't suggesting it was. I was pointing out that there is very much such thing as a life not worth living. Abb...

Trickle down climate remediation? People are already far more prosperous than the planet can sustain, and they ain't doing shit. What if? What if? I t...

This one strikes me as a beginning of a story. Did the author get bored?

If the titles were prefixed with I see no harm in putting them where they can be seen in the main discussion feed.

How would the optimists respond to this: Improving metrics of quality of life in recent history reflect increasing prosperity. Population has increase...

I would suggest you are fortunate enough to have never experienced major depression. For me, if I experienced just my worst state all the time, never ...

Imagine the worst depressive episode of your life. Multiply it by 10, and make it unremitting, over the course of your entire life. Such a life has no...

The only people here who have underwent a large scale catastrophe of the potential magnitude of the coming crisis are people who have lived through wa...

Good point, no doubt I would be posing the same question to the philosophical discussion newsletter of the day. Still, climate change is more of a "wh...

Where the hell is the left wing QAnon for the polluters and the policymakers who subsidize and legislate for them, in exchange for their "speech"? The...

Hehe. Well told, I liked the voice of the protagonist, and the overall quirky uniqueness. My constructive criticism: the ring felt incidental to me., ...

Hmm reminds me of a thread, I think I know who wrote this. Very unique, colorful, trippy.

I like how it grabs the readers attention from the beginning. Interesting overall, though some of the ruminations lost me. Not totally sure what you a...

I liked this. It had a dreamy, barren, maybe post apocalyptic feel. My constructive criticism: To my eyes there was a lot of telling. Some of it could...

Very nice story! I like how the dog theme ties the story together. They are still neighbors. Awkward! My constructive criticism: * The "surprise" felt...

The fact that you and the local paper reporter were ashamed doesn't somehow make the attitude normative. Maybe instead of internalizing it and spreadi...

Mental Health. Pfft! What a load of shit! Id love to see you collapse under that kind of pressure. Too bad you aren't a fraction good enough at anythi...

The authors anxiously and narcissistically review their stories. What was it? Oh, crap!

If all these metrics are predicated on an unsustainable trajectory leading directly to catastrophe, summing them up doesn't quite help.

You are imposing this burden on your "hip and cool" kids. For whom the problem may well be irredeemable by the time they are adults. What are you doin...

The future is unknowable. But according to our best predictive efforts, it will be quite bad indeed.

How confident are you in your assessment that climate change is just one adversity among others? Would you stake your life on it? Another's?

Though from the pov of the real world, you are just dense.

From the pov of your binary universe, where the alternative is either carbon neutral or no better than the current, your point is irrefutable.

To be fair the pickings are slim here.

The thing might refer to either or both of the thing-in-itself and its subjective manifestations. The thing-in-itself explicitly excludes all subjecti...

I was responding to

What consciousness is not a "CSE"?

It would not. But a leftist approach government is democracy, which would be responsive to people's actual interests, like, you know, having a future....

There is no actual, legitimate debate. Which is more important, your freedom to not wear a mask and not get vaccinated, or my freedom to not get a let...

I believe in our universe an infinite ocean would inescapably collapse into a black hole

I think they have been incredibly consistent. They stand for, at bottom, no less than the complete destruction of the United States. Just look at some...

There are 3 kinds of "color blindness". Only one of them qualifies as any kind of virtue. 1. Failure, feigned or not, to perceive phenotypic differenc...

I used to think so, now I think not. I like this argument. Although in my case, at least, the two are linked. When I am drunk and/or high, not only is...

The counterargument here is that values ultimately rest on the human, and (probably) animal. They do not have independent existence. Could an object b...

Fake acct., I was trying to post an extra story in the story contest, haha. Same. I think the axiom I proposed is too narrow. Harming reservoirs of va...

Since you said the deadline is Aug1, if I submit on Aug1 it should be valid.

Writing would be cool if it wasn't so damn slow, so damn hard.

I don't think its a matter of equivocation. The great philosopher Rumsfeld analyzed this one adequately. There are three types of questions: 1. Those ...

What absolute is being aimed at? I deliberately phrased the question "how voluntary are emotions", not "are emotions voluntary". Breathing is somewhat...

Why make room for constructs which don't exist. Evil isn't "just psychology", it is a pattern which pervades the human condition. It is eternal, but o...

Evil is privileging one's own material/emotional/ideological interests to the point where doing harm to others in order to meet them is a matter of in...