RogueAI

let me try try this: Imagine there are two people from 20,000 years ago who know nothing about brains. One of them stubs his toe and complains about t...

If chemical state ABC = physical state XYZ, then physical state XYZ = chemical state ABC. If a=b, then b=a

Can we agree, as a general rule, that if X and Y are identical (similar in every detail; exactly alike), then talk of X is the same as talk of Y? Any ...

Not really: Global CNS correction in a large brain model of human alpha-mannosidosis by intravascular gene therapy Intravascular injection of certain ...

Chemistry is not identical to physics, that's absurd. i·den·ti·cal /???den(t)?k(?)l/ Learn to pronounce See definitions in: All Zoology Logic Mathemat...

You think the best move is to deny (2)? Brain state vocabulary isn't scientific? What is it then?

I emailed this to a famous philosopher of mind on the off chance she was bored and didn't have anything better to do. Apparently, she didn't. She said...

Again, my argument is strictly against brain state=mental state. If mental states are representations of brain states A), what does that mean, exactly...

I'm arguing against the position that equates the two (identity theory). My argument doesn't work against dualists. Except no one thinks chemistry is ...

I think we're headed for a no true scotsman, where every example I give of religion and philosophy is going to elicit the same response from you: nope...

And the actions proceeding therefrom. Morality is not just "moral thinking". Morality has to do with the rightness and wrongness of actions. If free w...

Discussions of animistic beliefs aren't religious discussions? What an odd thing to claim.

I don't think we have anything either. Or, to put it more precisely, if we have alien stuff, then I think the zoo hypothesis solution to the Fermi Par...

Well, it follows that moral thinking is going on.

I don't see the obviousness, but I would certainly prefer it not to be true. How would morality exist without free will?

I guess it would be. I completely misread your poll. I could have sworn there were two options: moral objectivism and moral relativism. Funny, how the...

Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm too stupid to understand Goodman.

How would morality exist if solipsism is true? How could morality exist if free will is impossible?

There should be an option for "morality doesn't exist".

Looking under a rock CAN be science. It isn't always science and it isn't always not science. The scientific method wasn't codified until recently, bu...

Andromeda is too close away for that to be an issue. Stars like our sun have been around for billions of years, and for most of our own history, life ...

My rule of thumb has always been that good philosophy is immediately clear and understandable: Plato's allegory of the Cave is perfect, so is Nagel's ...

Philosophy can always help, specifically the branch called epistemology (study of knowledge). This is an example of "extraordinary claims require extr...

If the U.S. military couldn't make it, who could?

So they're going to do interstellar travel, but they're not going to colonize or build space habitats and solar collectors? That, right there, is sill...

That's true. Given enough galaxies, it's not too improbable that we might be the first in this galaxy. The problem is that we can see all these other ...

Yeah, that's possible, but it's highly highly unlikely that we would be the first "Elder" race. Stars like the sun and planets like Earth have been ar...

Hi. So, is this the evidence you've come to believe should happen if they exist? Hi! That is the evidence I believe should happen if they exist AND ha...

Your use of language was wrong. I don't think it's semantically nitpicking in these kinds of identity questions.

I'm going by the definition we've all agreed on for "you" and "me" and "I". Those are singular pronouns. They can't refer to more than one person (wel...

Thanks for the link! I have to read up on this. It's been 20 years since I was in class.

That's very ad hoc. It's much simpler to avoid the special pleading and just go with idealism. I agree with you that consciousness isn't computable. T...

That can't be right because "me" and "you" are singular pronouns. One of the transporter people could be you, or none of them could be you, but logica...

Simulation theory runs into the same problems materialism does wrt consciousness: how does opening and closing switches (or q-bits) in some special or...

Materialism (and materialists) make very bold claims about reality. They should have a causal explanation for consciousness by now.

It's debatable whether there's an outer physical world. It's not debatable there's an "inner" mental world that is composed of sensations and noemata....

Yes, that's interesting as well. As there's no agreed explanation for how consciousness arises, you can't get much more speculative than "how do brain...

It's the "something from nothing" problem. "How does consciousness arise from non-conscious matter?" How does something (consciousness) arise from not...

We've made tremendous progress in identifying brain state/mental state correlations. I see no progress on the causation front. When it comes to how no...

Well said.

Who gets triggered by discussions about consciousness?

That is an excellent piece of writing by Nagel. He's always been a great writer. He's also right. Dennet tries to dress it up, but he's essentially de...

You misquoted me. If X is shrunk to the size of Y, X does not turn into Y. In the thought experiment, people shrunk down to the size of electrons woul...

Is imagination dead here?

Assume a miracle happens and people shrink down to electrons and are shot at some double slits.

Yes, you have an easy to understand causal chain for any normal event, all the way back to the beginning of the universe, and then at some point, the ...

I could possibly accept there are microscale uncaused events, but uncaused macroscale events (e.g., earthquakes)? Those have causes, and the chain of ...

I too apologize for my snarkiness.

It's quite false there was a testing problem and they fixed the testing problem. Makes perfect sense. I can see why people get frustrated enough to sw...

Better late than never, but we're going to see Italy-level pain here shortly. The testing fiasco will go down in history as one of the great American ...