RogueAI

"Ergo, if I = something that's thinking, you are me, I'm you, you're Descartes, Descartes is me, so and so forth until I = everyone." I don't agree wi...

Tautologies don't refute themselves. The Cogito is tautological, but it's also saying something about the world: you can doubt a lot of things, but yo...

It's a delusion. A necessary condition for uttering any sentence (esp. "I don't exist") is existence. We can quibble about what "I" means, but putting...

Science is great at improving the dream we're all having.

I have a low understanding of this. It seems to me that a number like 2 is just a label for the idea of "a thing and a thing", and that 1+1 has to equ...

Didn't Xeno's Paradox get solved?

I was thinking the same thing too, but I thought of it a different way. When people have kids, they're not literally bringing a new person into the wo...

There was a Ren and Stimpy episode, where Stimpy forced Ren to wear a happiness helmet, which made him very happy. When Ren eventually gets it off, he...

Do these "others" exist before you force them to enter your world?

I guess you're right. I don't make a conscious effort to ignore my shadow. It just sort of gets filtered out of my conscious awareness.

To ignore something requires you to notice it in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if animals just don't even notice the things in their visual...

Yes, "ignoring" implies a choice in the matter. Technically, my cat was not reacting to her shadow. Like Tim said, it's probably a learned response.

I agree, so what happens when that continuity is broken by periods of non-consciousness? Death and rebirth?

It seems fantastical that a creature could simultaneously evolve an apparatus for seeing and an apparatus for processing the visual information by cha...

If H2O was a mineral in a universe with different laws, wouldn't it be H2O*? Presumably, the different laws of nature that allow H2O to become a miner...

This is what I was getting at with InPitzotl: What does "Water is H2O" even mean in a simulation? All references to the external world in a simulation...

I would argue that there are possible worlds where reality is a simulation and H2O isn't water.

Ok, that was a good discussion.

If this is a simulation, what would you define water as? A combination of things or computer code? It means reality is such that water is not made of ...

If you're not talking about the nature of things, you're talking about how things seem to be. The idealist chemist will, of course, agree with the mat...

There's a difference between observed behavior and the true nature of things. An idealist and materialist aren't going to agree on the mechanics of th...

Much appreciated.

When you unpack what "H2O is water" means, you get a story of hydrogen and oxygen joining together by sharing electrons to form a molecule where the h...

Thanks.

Frank, Shawn, what is a good resource for a primer on this stuff? Is Kripke pretty accessible?

I lol'd, which in the end, is the mark of a good discussion.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying water is consistent with two modes of reality: materialism and idealism. H2O is only consistent with materialism. And ...

Yes, H2O only refers to a physical thing. Water can refer to a physical and/or non-physical thing.

I would replace "Jennifer" with "house plant" because personhood issues muddy the water. Also, "object" implies a physical thing. So, if we're both re...

"Water" is consistent with two different versions of reality: idealism and materialism. H2O is only consistent with materialism. It makes no sense to ...

But H2O specifically refers to a physical thing. That's not true with water.

The typical scientist is going to think that H2O is a physical substance that exists external to you. You, the idealist, would obviously not agree wit...

I don't think they refer to the same thing. "Water" can refer to a physical substance or an immaterial one (think of "water" in an idealistic universe...

I bounced this off one of my favorite philosophers, and he directed me to 2d semantics, where I quickly got lost.

Yeah, I edited it to reflect the true odds. It's a tricky case. I think the problem stems from the prisoner looking at Friday in isolation when he sho...

If you look at it in a Bayesian sense, then the probability of getting hanged on any particular day is mildly surprising, since absent any other infor...

What evidence do you have that we only have one lifetime? How is that a known thing?

It is not known that we only have this one lifetime. You're making an assumption.

How would anyone know the converse? I don't see the justification in assuming this is the only life we've ever lived. A popular interpretation of QM i...

What if one believed that people choose to come back again (reincarnation)? In that case, there would be no consent issue to having kids.

How sure are you that people are non-existent before they're born? Does your whole position rest on that?

I've been thinking about that. We tend to value animals in proportion to their perceived intelligence, but does intelligence mean anything when talkin...

I think the most important thing a person can do is conquer their ego. It's the root cause of a lot of problems, for men and women. I don't think it's...

That's true. Each individual neuron doesn't think or feel anything, but combined, they are more than the sum of their parts. Your position is going to...

I agree, so why did you bring it up?

Is there any gain to using the word "being" when talking about whether rocks and bats have minds? If so, what is it?

This is a problem. Suppose I've made an exhaustive list of everything that makes up me. I'm also experiencing some pain from stubbing my toe. If I ask...

I've been reading Sean Carrol (theoretical physicist). I get the impression that if you accept the idea that there are a lot of worlds other than this...

The fact that one has a mind and the other doesn't is a "being" statement? It's just a factual description: the rock is mindless, the bat has a mind.

One has a mind and the other doesn't. That's the fundamental difference between the two: one is conscious and other isn't (or maybe the rock is? Anyon...