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Gnomon

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In: Emergence  — view comment
Almost 10 years ago, when I first began to post on this forum, I did take seriously, and was impressed with his extensive knowledge of philosophy. But...
January 27, 2023 at 19:10
In: Emergence  — view comment
Although his concept of Dataome may sound similar to Panpsychism, as a professional scientist, Scharf would be loathe to use terminology that would in...
January 27, 2023 at 18:51
In: Emergence  — view comment
Yes. Empirical Science may be the final arbiter of pragmatic Empirical questions, but theoretical Philosophy is still arbitrating questions that remai...
January 27, 2023 at 18:28
Pardon my probing for meaning : How do you characterize your "indifference" to philosophical Ontological origins*1? Is it aggressive Atheism, or apath...
January 27, 2023 at 00:21
In: Emergence  — view comment
In recent years, I've seen several videos by Al Khalili on YouTube -- including this one -- and find them very informative (pardon!). I have to leave ...
January 26, 2023 at 18:18
I think you have answered your own question. In my experience on this forum, posters rarely get "upset" with routine exchanges of views. But when a po...
January 26, 2023 at 00:58
In: Emergence  — view comment
True. "Cold" only has meaning relative to Hot, so it exists meta-physically as a relationship concept in the mind. Yet, "Hot" is also a non-thing, wit...
January 26, 2023 at 00:43
In: Emergence  — view comment
Some posters on this forum will reject your notion of "non-physical", partly because they associate that label with "spiritual", and partly because th...
January 25, 2023 at 18:09
In: Emergence  — view comment
Thanks for the effort, but you are not likely to resolve "the impasse", because for it seems to be an ideological war of Good vs Evil (Scientism vs Sp...
January 25, 2023 at 00:17
In: Emergence  — view comment
FYI. I have explained many times before why I ceased responding to 's "inconvenient questions". It's primarily because his snarky responses, besides i...
January 24, 2023 at 19:01
Yes. Atheism is a response -- part rational, part emotional -- to traditional religious god-models of a "magic man" in the sky. But philosophers typic...
January 24, 2023 at 18:45
In: Emergence  — view comment
Thanks for the vote of confidence. But, some on this forum have accused me of overweening ego for promoting a new paradigm based on the emerging scien...
January 24, 2023 at 17:53
Ha! That's an Atheist twist on a typical Christian argument. I suppose you're saying that the god-question is binary (either-or). But Agnosticism take...
January 23, 2023 at 23:36
I'm late to the party here, so I'm not sure if key terminology has been defined and agreed upon. I am neither an Atheist nor a Theist, but like all hu...
January 23, 2023 at 18:44
In: Emergence  — view comment
Ha! No messianic salvation intended. Just philosophical enlightenment. And one of my many messiahs is physicist Paul Davies. :joke: However, my straig...
January 23, 2023 at 18:05
In: Emergence  — view comment
Yes. Most belief systems are conservative, and don't change with every shift of the wind. Old paradigms give way to new worldviews only as old believe...
January 22, 2023 at 23:31
In: Emergence  — view comment
You will find lots of empirical evidence to support my thesis in the links to articles by professional scientists. But, only the Enformationism thesis...
January 22, 2023 at 19:06
In: Emergence  — view comment
Skepticism toward unorthodox notions is essential to a scientific worldview. But openness to novelty is also necessary for advancement of knowledge, a...
January 22, 2023 at 18:45
In: Emergence  — view comment
OK. Here is a definition from the BothAnd Blog. If that's not narrow enough for you, I have more. BothAnd is a philosophical concept not a scientific ...
January 22, 2023 at 18:34
In: Emergence  — view comment
The yardstick should be chosen to suit the object to be measured. If we are discussing the evolution of physical/material stuff of the Earth, a physic...
January 22, 2023 at 00:28
In: Emergence  — view comment
Your proposed "fundamental" particles may be appropriate for a scientist in a lab to use as a guide. But I'm not a scientist, and my lab is my mind*1....
January 21, 2023 at 17:58
In: Emergence  — view comment
I appreciate your willingness to engage in philosophical dialog, even though my posts may express a worldview that at first glance appears to violate ...
January 20, 2023 at 23:38
Ironically, that Empirical, tangible-results-oriented, understanding of "Reason" is common even on The Philosophy Forum, where we don't do anything re...
January 20, 2023 at 18:46
In: Emergence  — view comment
True. If you are a pragmatic scientist with the intention of making a material difference in the world, there is no need to consider generalizations o...
January 20, 2023 at 18:15
The commonsense definition for existence is indeed that of the common man (and common animals), who believe only what they can see. But philosophers a...
January 19, 2023 at 23:07
In: Emergence  — view comment
No. That is a mis-interpretation of my intent. "Im-material" simply means not-made-of-matter. It does not mean super-natural. Are the ideas & ideals i...
January 19, 2023 at 22:47
In: Emergence  — view comment
We are discussing a philosophically divisive topic here. And judging by the unusual number of replies to my posts, my unconventional (immaterial) worl...
January 19, 2023 at 18:15
Is your existence the result of a long chain of random accidents, or specified by Darwinian Natural Selection? Does evolutionary selection operate wit...
January 19, 2023 at 00:49
In: Emergence  — view comment
I typically use the word "Information" in a more general sense than "Data". The original etymological usage of "Information" referred to the meanings ...
January 19, 2023 at 00:14
In: Emergence  — view comment
My personal philosophical worldview is entitled Enformationism. It's based on emerging evidence that the whole universe is an information-processing s...
January 17, 2023 at 23:19
My personal philosophical worldview, Enformationism, is not exactly Pollyanna optimism, but it does have a positive outlook, based on the evidence for...
January 16, 2023 at 23:20
The innovative & pioneering & super-rich entrepreneurs (go-getters), including Elon Musk, do indeed seem to be optimistic about their technological in...
January 16, 2023 at 18:54
I agree that life on Earth is not an idylic Garden of Eden, but as you implied, we human care-takers are assiduously working to improve a less-than-pe...
January 15, 2023 at 23:35
All religions are based on some kind of philosophical worldview. And most include a dualistic Manichean assessment of world history as a struggle betw...
January 15, 2023 at 18:33
In my reply to 's comment about "hand-waving, I noted that seems to think that my enthusiastic presentation of Enformationism is a form of evangelism ...
January 14, 2023 at 22:37
It may be presumptuous of me, but I have interpreted the ancient usage by Plato & Aristotle -- of the ancient word for "Form"*1 -- in terms of modern ...
January 14, 2023 at 18:44
My philosophical answer to that question is the Natural analog Program we call Evolution. As to Who the creator might be, all I can do is use metaphor...
January 14, 2023 at 17:45
In my TPF posts, I am not trying to appeal to religious believers, but to philosophical reasoners. I abandoned my own religion many years ago. And I d...
January 14, 2023 at 17:28
I didn't make-up the notion that Information is the fundamental element of the world*1. So, I have linked to many different articles, written by profe...
January 13, 2023 at 23:30
Gnomon has tried to update & adapt those ancient "classical" notions of Essence, Idea, Form, with new insights from modern Information Theory and Quan...
January 13, 2023 at 18:53
Yes. Gnomon typically quotes the quantum physicists who were both pioneers of the New Physics, and somewhat open to non-classical (mystical) concepts....
January 13, 2023 at 18:30
For the record, by "non-scientific" I mean philosophical and meta-physical. But seems to equate modern Philosophy with classical (non-quantum) Physics...
January 13, 2023 at 18:14
I was surprised my your description of my "enthusiastic" presentation of Enformationism as "mere handwaving" (empty gestures)*1. My intention is more ...
January 13, 2023 at 18:07
As a proposed comprehensive belief-system, an -ism, my personal philosophy should be approached with skepticism. But also with an open mind toward nov...
January 12, 2023 at 23:36
Yes, and then . . . the beat goes on. I don't know how you would physically determine if non-physical forms of Information are conserved. But since, i...
January 12, 2023 at 22:47
's question is treating "Information" as-if it is nothing-but Physical. Yet, in the sense of "essence of all things" Information is both physical and ...
January 12, 2023 at 18:46
I don't label myself (my personal Self) as Materialist. But I also don't define Me as Spiritualist. Ironically, one definition of Spirit is "the essen...
January 12, 2023 at 02:58
180disproof :joke: likes to throw-out abstruse stuff that he knows you & I are not familiar with. And I suspect -- brilliant as he is -- 180poo doesn'...
January 10, 2023 at 19:15
Yes. According to my non-scientific thesis, the Origin of our universe (closed system), which began with all the energy it would ever have*1, implies ...
January 09, 2023 at 23:34
In science, an Anomaly is a "glitch" : data that contradicts the norm. Literally, the word means "irregular" ; metaphorically it means : "does not fit...
January 09, 2023 at 19:00