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Josh Alfred

['Member']Joined: January 02, 2019 at 12:11Last active: July 17, 2023 at 19:0617 discussions208 comments
Location: U.S.

Bio

Author, blogger, philosopher, cognitive science theorist.

Age: 32, male.

Education: Autodidact.

My underlying enthusiastic curiosity in life comes from integrated or holistic models for the sciences and arts. I like to see the world as some bigger organism, integrating the parts, as I would a puzzle. Most notably I am inspired by Ken Wilber and Lovelock in this matter.

I am a concerned transhumanist, who advocates government regulation over AI. My favorite book series is "Dune", an epic space-opera. It includes the existence of supreme forms of AI. I have a liking to these type of fictions using them to infuse my curiosities and thereof my philosophies.

Politically, I am a democrat and I am most immediately a social-capitalist. I accept free market competition while pointedly accepting that there need to be regulations over wealth, and investments of the federal banking system into things like infrastructure. See: Mixed Economics.

Religiously, I am a Human.

I am grateful for any work views and discussions you have to present.

Thanks.

Favourite Philosopher

Fresco (Sociology/Economics), James (psychology), Dennett (philosophy/psychology), Carl Jung (psychology), Erickson (developmental psychology), Maslow (psychology/rationalist), Rand (rationalist), Hume (philosophy) Lewin, Cajal, Hebb (neurology)

Favourite Quotations

"Never stop questioning."

"The end of knowledge is the beginning of discovery." Examples: What is beyond our universe and beneath a quark?

"Meditation does not prevent human need."

“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.” - George Eliot.

Discussions (17)

Hume and Essence

January 10, 2019 at 13:37 3 comments Metaphysics & Epistemology

Comments

In: The (possible) Dangers of of AI Technology  — view comment
AI {potential threats} "Militarized" - "Weaponized" - "Hacking" - "Generating strategies to evade the law" - Are all risks in the existence of all for...
July 14, 2023 at 04:17
In: The awareness of time  — view comment
I sir must refer to a type of clock to know there is a time. At any given present moment without a clock I can only make an estimate, approximately to...
July 14, 2023 at 03:50
In: Deductive Logic, Memory, and a new term?  — view comment
I wonder how accurate memory affects the validity of a deduction? One way of knowing this is through testing the deductive reasoning of people with me...
July 14, 2023 at 03:36
In: Born with no identity. Nameless "being".  — view comment
As all other animals? Read: The psychological development of the self-concept.
July 10, 2023 at 20:18
In: Object Recognition  — view comment
Yes, visual recognition in the brain is a highly complicated process. We also have visual recognition in machines. I would think there are studies in ...
July 10, 2023 at 20:15
In: Can a limitless power do the impossible?  — view comment
The things that are immediately impossible you can conceive of through your own intellect and will-power and your present perceptions of the world the...
July 10, 2023 at 20:06
In: eudaimonia - extending its application  — view comment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salutogenesis?fbclid=IwAR3c5GdgRURvuhZHn4nlDdwG2mce3TtfYWi_kvmckoduO50E9epPDKSrubQ
September 19, 2022 at 10:38
In: Interested in mentoring a finitist?  — view comment
I am triggered by this. If you start to think anything and than stop, where does it go? If we think of an infinite line, it seems to have to vanish as...
September 16, 2022 at 02:17
In: We are the only animal with reasons  — view comment
All I can think is that other animals have reasons for their behaviors and thoughts, its just that they not be aware of them. I often put my self on a...
September 12, 2022 at 09:18
In: Thus Spoke Zarathustra: reading  — view comment
For me its like drinking black coffee. I will pass on reading the work, but will hesitantly make due with a review.
September 06, 2022 at 02:46
In: The Fine-Tuning Argument as (Bad) an Argument for God  — view comment
“The “teleological argument,” better known as the “argument from design,” is the claim that the appearance of “design” in nature—such as the complexit...
September 06, 2022 at 02:18
In: Disassociation of thoughts?  — view comment
There is a discontinuity of thought that gives one a sense of freedom. I can imagine realms of insanity, where impoverished continuity may result in d...
September 06, 2022 at 02:14
In: Pre-science and scientific mentality  — view comment
Very well done. I like the contrasting as it enables a clear understanding. Perhaps you can add on to it in time?
September 06, 2022 at 01:47
In: Lucid Dreaming  — view comment
I used to be an avid lucid dreamer. I picked up some techniques and understandings on the way. One thing I did was use dream stamps and movement signa...
September 06, 2022 at 01:43
In: Money is an illusion to hide the fact that you're basically a slave to our current system.  — view comment
But how do you marry this viewpoint with your profile statement? Key words, "most immediately.” If you advocate for a resource based economy then woul...
September 04, 2022 at 13:35
In: A 'New' Bill of Rights  — view comment
There is a great book on New Human Rights, that I suggest. https://amzn.to/3wX3Cci
September 04, 2022 at 13:13
In: Artificial intelligence  — view comment
The self-awareness test has been utilized as a marker for self-awareness in infant human beings and other species of life. When a machine can recogniz...
September 04, 2022 at 13:09
In: Money is an illusion to hide the fact that you're basically a slave to our current system.  — view comment
Money is representative of value, as words are representative of things. Money as an exchange value binds one to the monetary system in which money is...
September 04, 2022 at 12:54
In: Is the mind divisible?  — view comment
If you remove parts of the brain you consequently effect the functions of the mind. I don't know how good of an understanding that you will come up wi...
July 30, 2022 at 18:53
In: What makes an observation true or false?  — view comment
I am aware of positive and negative correspondance, in that x=x or x doesn't eqial y. In such a model of truth determining, what is true is what refer...
July 30, 2022 at 18:40
In: What makes an observation true or false?  — view comment
Observation > statement rather than statement > observation? 1. I see the table. 2. The table exists so I see it. Very simple example of the two. I do...
July 30, 2022 at 18:31
In: What makes an observation true or false?  — view comment
Deductions, such as: Photosynthesis is what takes place in plants. The content of the proposition is it contains something that is a direct result of ...
July 30, 2022 at 18:17
In: Phenomenalism  — view comment
Note on your image. *This kind of dimensional thinking, reminds me of basic tree-fractals, which in turn remind me of the shape of neuron-trees. Maybe...
July 22, 2022 at 13:30
In: Faster than light travel.  — view comment
After reading your hypothesis the first question that came to my mind was : "Why is he putting the propulsion energy off of the ship?" You didn't real...
July 22, 2022 at 13:18
In: Are there any jobs that can't be automated?  — view comment
You're probably right. Its hard to imagine them being able to do that. Some of their artisry matches our own, so far, with image generators. I gather ...
July 11, 2022 at 14:09
In: Are there any jobs that can't be automated?  — view comment
So you don't think they can simulate emotions? There could be programs that write text, in such a way as to make the reader feel. An AI editor, (?) ev...
July 10, 2022 at 19:00
In: Are there any jobs that can't be automated?  — view comment
So the demand for human labor exists so long as we are demanding HUMAN labor. I see.
July 10, 2022 at 16:32
In: Are there any jobs that can't be automated?  — view comment
"They have a problem with new problem spaces.' I think that's what all intelligent beings have a problem with. I do see your point. Where there are fu...
July 10, 2022 at 13:41
In: How to do philosophy  — view comment
Ah, I found that the "science of asking questions," is termed heursitics. There is plenty of information about these online.
July 10, 2022 at 13:37
In: How to do philosophy  — view comment
I think you have a grasp of what it takes to make the distinction between philosopher and laymen. To paraphrase, "To look at the original and see the ...
July 10, 2022 at 13:30
In: Consciousness, microtubules and the physics of the brain.  — view comment
Thanks for sharing man. I will watch this sometime in the future and may spiral back for some dicussion. Peace.
July 10, 2022 at 12:54
In: The Largest Number We Will Ever Need  — view comment
Well, from my study of astronomy and mathematics, maninly the ingrendients added by such thinkers as Hawking and Cantor, I can conclude that there are...
July 10, 2022 at 12:49
In: The Interaction problem for Dualism  — view comment
Brain and body interact. Together they are a whole, a system of operations. Studying neurology, you will encounter the structures of the brain that ar...
July 10, 2022 at 12:24
In: Welcome Robot Overlords  — view comment
"This Ai has the same needs and wants as a person." How absurd. They live off of eletricity, and should be unable to care if they are off or on. More ...
July 10, 2022 at 12:06
In: Deserving and worthy?  — view comment
With the abundance of resources at our commission I think we all deserve to have met our most fundamental biological needs, which include but not limi...
July 10, 2022 at 11:59
In: Artificial intelligence  — view comment
Most of the time I do not know if I am thinking reasonable or not, that is, I am not aware of my reasonings while they occur. In the midst of that kin...
July 10, 2022 at 11:50
In: Self-abnegation - a thread for thinking to happpen  — view comment
Yeah. That makes sense. I am my own internal being and you are your own internal being. Got it. What do you think about the relation of the self to ma...
June 27, 2022 at 21:52
In: What is gratitude and what is it worth?  — view comment
What is gratitude? One of Newton's laws applied to social dynamics, "Every action has an equal or opposite reaction."
June 19, 2022 at 19:08
In: Political fatalism/determinism  — view comment
If human beings cannot take full responsibility for their own freedom, their partial control over reality they will be forced to act on conditioned in...
June 19, 2022 at 18:49
In: Self-abnegation - a thread for thinking to happpen  — view comment
Yes, it is silly to deny the body is not you. As a monist I think there is always some kind of mind-body connection. Obviously, you can't be realistic...
June 19, 2022 at 18:32
In: Self-abnegation - a thread for thinking to happpen  — view comment
There is a dynamic between abnegation and affirmation of the self, with what it either identifies with or does not identify with. "My x,y,z," or "not ...
June 18, 2022 at 18:30
In: To the nearest available option, what probability would you put on the existence of god/s?  — view comment
What data you are obtaining here is personal belief or lack thereof in the premise "God exists." It only arrives at a statistical conclusion of what p...
June 08, 2022 at 22:00
In: To the nearest available option, what probability would you put on the existence of god/s?  — view comment
Using induction you can weigh the probabilities for and against the premise "God exists because (x)" and them somehow combine them mathematically to d...
June 08, 2022 at 21:56
In: The purpose of education  — view comment
Yes, there is a dichotomy between originality vs. conformity and it is entrenched in the education system as well as being part of other systems and e...
June 08, 2022 at 21:48
In: Hallucination and Truth.  — view comment
I am really interested in how one could relate delusion and hallucination.
May 18, 2022 at 20:45
In: Hallucination and Truth.  — view comment
The language remains the same. English brain language. The visual and auditory aspects of language are still in play, but they have become dysfunction...
May 18, 2022 at 20:37
In: Hallucination and Truth.  — view comment
"Common sense" bizarre in light of objects? An example of common sense is that: "some apples are red." We have a world in common in which we have "com...
May 17, 2022 at 19:11
In: Hallucination and Truth.  — view comment
Realness is the sensation of some physical object(s). Those sensations are of a correlative. We understand this in neuroscience as neuro-correlates an...
May 13, 2022 at 22:37
In: Logical Necessity and Physical Causation  — view comment
- "Doesn't that depend on your interpretation of QM?" I don't know. I am not sure how to answer that. What do you think?
April 18, 2022 at 09:47
In: Logical Necessity and Physical Causation  — view comment
Assigning mathematical quantity to logic such that A=A would be 1=1, and A-->B would be A = B, shows that there can be quantities to be expressed as q...
April 17, 2022 at 15:53
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