This formerly Hot thread seems to have cooled-off. And the topical question, which implies a rational (intentional?) First Cause, seems to have elicit...
So, why worry about the infinite array of possible futures, what could be, when what is "now" is at least OK. Worrying does not not change the future....
My tower of mental facts, not material ivory, is built upon the foundation of ubiquitous Information. So, it's true that the Mind is a product of a ma...
I just heard a bit of "gallows humor" in YouTube's The Expanse. Miller, the battle-scarred detective on space station Eros, was surrounded by men with...
Yes. But humans do "have to bother". It's in our nature to compare what-is with what-could-be. And to strive to better a bad situation. Would you chan...
I agree, that some oppressed people in the world, have compelling reasons to consider suicide as "an escape clause". Yet, ironically, most of those su...
What other choice do we have, besides depression and suicide, when faced with our lack of omniscience or omnipotence? As a Christian, I used to think ...
Yes. The key insight of :The Fall" myth is that humans are both blessed and cursed by their "knowledge of good & evil". Which makes us moral agents, w...
Does that dismal view of the current state of the world, mean that you'd prefer to go back to the totally natural -- no synthetic furs -- Caveman time...
I assumed as much. The reply was intended to be Ironic. You have made your dismal view of Reality, "boiling, toxic, mudball", clear from the beginning...
I apologize, if that comment sounded dismissive or damning. But it was just intended to convey that my personal worldview does not envision any kind o...
Thanks. It's hard to find reasons for optimism on a relentlessly hyper-critical forum. I do find that having philosophical and scientific reasons for ...
Yes, the 20th century "information craze" has earned the label of "The Information Age". But, as you noted, most of the attention has been directed to...
I'm afraid a "simplistic" understanding is the best I can do, since I am not trained in more complicated interpretations, and technical jargon (" onti...
I'm glad to see that you enjoyed the addition of a little optimism and positivism, not to say Pollyannaism, in your bleak Realistic life. Apparently, ...
The Enformationism worldview does not claim to "know" what the "over-arching" purpose of this experiment in evolution might be. Barring a direct revel...
No. I am not a scientist, nor a mathematician. I'm just an amateur philosopher, who created his own personal worldview -- for his own private personal...
I don't emphasize the "good and bad", because my philosophy is BothAnd. It acknowledges the Duality of Reality, but "reduces" to a Monism in Holism. :...
I don't know why an intentional universe creator would bother to instigate a messy world like ours. But I have a theory, based on my Enformationism wo...
Was that transcendent "intentional" perspective inevitable : due to an accidental structure of the Singularity, or to an intentional arrangement of it...
Yes. Those scientists, who address the question of "something from nothing", necessarily assume an omniscient view of eternal existence prior to the B...
In the first paragraph of Tallis' article, entitled “The Laws of Nature”, he says : “. . . to apply that knowledge {about states of matter] outside of...
Although he doesn't make it explicit in the article, Tallis seems to be raising the same old questions that many scientists would put-down to "Mystici...
I'm not qualified to discuss some of the technical issues you raise concerning Big Bang theory. But, I can grok your notion of a "dialectical oppositi...
OK. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on Tegmark's Platonic inclinations. But maybe we can at least agree on the "Spinozist" half of your "Epicu...
I'm not sure what you're saying here. Are you agreeing or disagreeing with my interpretation that the Mathematical Universe is a mental construct? Tha...
I think you have answered your own question. The "mathematical universe" he's talking about exists only in Minds, not in Matter. So, his "universe" an...
Ironically. the biggest obstacle to the Taliban, in attempting to establish an orderly Islamic state in Afghanistan, is internal tensions. According t...
Accumulation from Where and When? The notion of a "tiny ball" sounds like ancient Atomism, except that it assumes the existence of highly compressed i...
Sorry, if I confused you. I was asking a philosophical "why" question, not a scientific "how" question. As a philosophical layman, I tend to take the ...
I'm not sure. I'm not taking sides. But I'm referring to whatever alternatives you have in mind when categorizing the Science versus Woo controversy. ...
Of course, I was putting words in Planck's mouth to illustrate the philosophical problem of the abrupt beginning of our space-time world from an initi...
Who said anything about "woo"?. What I said was : "Both sides assume without evidence, that some-thing existed before our space-time era began. But on...
"What came before the Big Bang?" questions stimulate some creative thinking on both sides of the Realistic Science versus Idealistic Philosophy divide...
From a historical perspective, the Taliban and ISIS are comparable to the "primitive" tribal barbarians, who sacked Rome, bringing an end to a world-w...
Yes. Metaphorically, I think of the Singularity as an atom of Uranium undergoing fission. Unlike an atomic bomb though (the Big Bang), this ongoing di...
I get the impression that polarized arguments (as opposed to mutually respectful dialogs), such as this Physics versus Metaphysics thread, is more pol...
180, your defenses of Science and Realism are mostly attacks on the messenger, whom you deem "pedantic" etc, not on his message. If that is not "ad ho...
That question was rhetorical, and not intended to to elicit an answer. But you seemed to drop his name as an expert on the topic under discussion. You...
In my metaphorical model of "The Singularity", which is basically a mathematical ellipsis . . . . meaning whatever happens beyond this point in incalc...
As they say, "you are welcome to your opinion" on any topic. What was John Dalton's opinion of Atomism? Atomism has metamorphosed over the centuries f...
I agree. That's why I developed the philosophical notion of EnFormAction, to encompass the enigmatic properties of Energy, and the all-encompassing ub...
Yes. Since Quantum Theory undermined Atomism, along with the fundamental assumptions of Materialism, scientists and philosophers have been scrambling ...
The definition of information in this sense is: information enables the interaction of form. or Information = evolutionary interaction That definition...
Yes. I've read several of Dennett's books, and his arguments are very clear. But, in calling Consciousness an "illusion", he was basically explaining ...
Yes. That distinction is relevant, in that technical "explanations" tell us How something works mechanically. But an "interpretation" of the same obse...
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