RogueAI

Thanks, Athena. I teach 6th grade, which is all subjects. I have the same group of kids all day (virtually, now).

That's funny you mention it, I just had a training on implicit bias. It was very good. No one was demonized. I think we need more of those trainings.

Thank you. Yeah, computerized grading helps. Same with deliberately not looking at names on assignments. This is mostly a problem when I'm doing final...

Talk about the time you fell for a logical fallacy.

When I'm grading students, and it's a tough call on the grade, I often find myself giving the black students a lower grade. I catch myself doing this ...

Good discussion!

That's a pretty cynical view, Kenosha. I'm not sure I buy it. I think I have a pretty good concept of, say, a million. Although, to your point, I have...

That's true. But your position entails that for any number over 143,672, when we do math we're not really understanding anything, we're just playing a...

I'm going to push back on this. I agree that for any absurdly long number, it's hard to imagine how we can hold it in our minds, and yet, for any numb...

The words and sentences get longer and longer. But you don't need to be able to think of an infinitely long number for this to be a problem for materi...

No, because the brain is finite in size. It can only be configured X many unique ways. If you had a brain that was thinking different thoughts for an ...

That's not my point, though. My point is it seems like there are an infinite number of possible thoughts to we can think of, and that's not possible, ...

There are infinitely many possible thoughts, since there are infinitely many numbers, and each number can be thought of (or is that true? Are there so...

There are only a finite number of birds possible.

It goes into a new body the next time the universe branches off.

We haven't made any progress on the Hard Problem. For the questionsHow are we conscious and Why are we conscious, science has nothing to say but conje...

No.

I don't think the brain produces consciousness because I think materialism is highly improbable (due to its ongoing failure to make progress on the Ha...

"You are the one that have asserted that neurology cannot produce consciousness." This doesn't make sense. I have asserted that it's highly improbable...

I don't accept the brain produces consciousness. The existence of some non-conscious stuff is simply asserted to be the case without a shred of eviden...

Solving the memory problem is an "easy" problem, because the answer is simply some brain mechanism. Solving the question: why does a working brain pro...

What progress? The theories about how matter produces consciousness are highly speculative, all over the map, and there's nothing close to a consensus...

Do you see the absurdity of your question? This is why I don't waste my time with Dennett or his followers. They inevitably end up doubting really obv...

Because the Hard Problem hasn't been solved. Ergo, the book you linked doesn't solve it. I don't think neuroscience is going to solve the hard problem...

You are confusing the easy problem (neural correlates of mental states) with the Hard Problem (how does non-conscious stuff produce conscious experien...

http://consc.net/papers/facing.html

This sounds like panpsychism. The matter that makes up the brain is intrinsically thinking/feeling stuff? I assume you mean neurons? What about the ma...

If we're making astonishing progress, shouldn't somebody have seen something that points the way to a mechanism by now? What's your timeframe on how l...

I've always wondered that too.

Talk of qualia muddies the water. Take something simple, like the pain of stubbing a toe. How does the feeling of pain emerge from non-thinking/feelin...

I said it was a hypothesis, not a particularly good one! In these discussions, I really am at a loss to explain how the Dennet's and Churchlands of th...

Have you heard of "aphantasia"? There are people out there who are really and truly different from other people when it comes to mental experiences. I...

I'm sorry, I totally misread what I quoted you as saying. Must be euphoria hangover from Biden winning. I read you as saying: if science can given an ...

Yes, a person from long ago wouldn't be able to figure out why there's lightning. It may be that we're in that position regarding consciousness, and i...

If materialism is right, and inanimate matter exists, there's an explanation for how it gives rise to conscious experience. We might never KNOW the ex...

What an odd thing to say. How does consciousness arise from inanimate matter? If that's not a hard problem, I guess there should be an answer to that ...

That was my avatar on a politics forum! Also, I saw a rainbow this morning for the first time since April (I live in the desert). I swear to god, ther...

This is what it's like talking to these Dennet types: Does it hurt when you stub your toe? Qualia is incoher- No, does it hurt when you stub your toe?...

No, by "failed" I mean the universe would not have been life-permitting had the constants been different. I should have been clearer. Setting aside is...

"My tablet, since you didn't like the multivariate argument, could have tipped the scales in favor of life. " Your tablet? I have no idea what you're ...

I have no idea what you said here.

Nonsense. The statement: "aliens, if they exist, aren't made of chocolate and don't have candy cane brains" is not irrational. It's true.

How does empiricism tell you that non-conscious stuff exists? Is there a hidden anti-panpsychist proof in empiricism?

What is your justification for assuming physical non-conscious stuff exists?

The bolded doesn't follow. Just because you can't find something in reality doesn't mean you conclude it doesn't exist, or you conclude that everythin...

Let's take the lottery example. Suppose someone wins the lottery. No big deal. Suppose that same person wins again next week. Big deal, but it happens...

Well, if we CAN be surprised by our existence, and a life-permitting universe (any kind of life) is highly highly improbable, then the fact that we fi...

No, I don't think it's any gods. The point is that your own existence CAN be considered surprising, in the firing squad scenario. Agreed? Or would you...

Of course you have an explanation of reporting activities. Reporting activities can't possibly mean reporting activities. We're talking about "reporti...

Isaac, do you believe it's possible you're not really conscious right now, as you're reading this? Do you think you can be talked into the belief "I a...