Banno

As if basing one's beliefs on empirical evidence were not an act of faith... If you are a Boltzmann brain, what are the chances of your having just ha...

If. And each time you reply, that chance shrinks, and not just a little bit, but by a truely extraordinary quantity. All is grist to my previous conte...

There are an awful lot of "if"'s in the argument. But we are not talking about whether there are any Boltzmann brains, so much as whether you are a Bo...

Keep it up. Maybe some time you will get lucky, and dissipate before the next reply... Or maybe we will reach agreement that there is something quite ...

Yep. In an infinite space of infinite possibilities, there are presumably an infinity of non-Boltzmann brains, so I don't see that you have grounds fo...

Sure. It's based in a very odd notion of "valid". And, for that matter, of "human mind".

Nuh. I'm arguing that since you picked out a ball with a green stripe, chances are it was red, and will disappear momentarily. But it hasn't disappear...

No, it isn't. And your reply renders it even less likely that you are a quantum fluctuation.

Perhaps I can put it like this: I don't really need to write a reply to your post, because if you are a Boltzmann brain, then the overwhelming probabi...

Well, the thread is about the world, not about solipsism, so the argument used did nto directly address sophisms. probably for another thread. Yep. So...

Most long-lived brains are batty brains. That yours is not a batty brain shows that on the balance of probability it is not a Boltzmann brain. That th...

Yep, I think that's right. But there is a further step. There are far more batty brains than Boltzmann brain. But there is a further step. Supose you ...

Well yes, there are good reasons to doubt that the cup will remain in the cupboard. The point here is simply that your "when I am not perceiving the w...

When first I played with ChatGPT I had it "prove" 999983 is not a prime - it just baldly asserted that it was the product of two integers. Then correc...

Here's perhaps the original paper in which the mad brain response is worked out: You are not a Boltzmann Brain

Yeah, I recall that. Still can't make sense of it. Just to be clear, my use of ChatGPT here is purely rhetorical, intended for amusement.

ChatGPT The use of "=" to signify both equality and identity in different mathematical contexts doesn't necessarily imply an inconsistency in mathemat...

:wink:

You made the marks. You uttered the words. You asked the question.

Three acts? Or one under three different descriptions? Either way, you asked a question by writing a sentence, and wrote a sentence by making marks.

Other than what? You made some marks. An act. You wrote something. An act. You asked a question. an act. Would you like to count this as one act or as...

So you made some marks on a screen. Did you also write something? And did you also ask a question? You tell me. If all you did was make marks on a scr...

IS that a question? Or only a bit of writing?

You didn't also and thereby ask any questions or make statements? Well then, what am I to answer here?

Ok. If you want me to pick at this some more, I'd say that the conclusions reached by such arguments, especially in pop literature and in these fora, ...

Sure. That does not render Boltzmann brains true. Again, I don't see a need to "resolve" the issue; indeed, I don't see that it could be resolved. The...

I don't see a need to "resolve" the issue. But if pushed I'd use much the same sort of argument I used against reincarnation - what is the "I" in "I h...

Haven't you here both spoken (written...), and asked a series of questions?

Then perhaps our only point of difference is, what reasons are to count as "good"... :wink: But there's a further issue we might consider, in that so ...

And how would you reply to each of these counterpoints, were you arguing my view? Your responding to me is not an argument for the world. It cuts all ...

I dunno. It seems to me that you should have difficulty in denying the existence of these words, even as you are reading them. How can that be? It see...

Ok. So we still have no explanation of how you came to misapprehend "=".

yep. Yep. Comes in the main from Wittgenstein. See On Certainty. The discussion in this thread, like all discussions, presupposes the existence of an ...

The cups are simple, clear and shows up the issues in a way that other examples tend to obfuscate. The claim from the OP is that when one is not perce...

Yeah, didn't think so.

Sure, good, wonderful. Now, can you set out the objections raised by Quine, and how it is that you address them? Otherwise, it seems to me that your d...

Yeah, I'm quite familiar with the paper. What are his objections, specifically, and how does your account address them?

SUre, all that. So what were his objections? The ones you refer to in the title of this thread?

What do you think? Or is "I don't know what Canberra is" foundational? What justifies believing "I don't know what Canberra is"? Isn't that question s...

Wouldn't that you don't know the meaning of "Australia" be the background for your doubt?

Ok. So the objections that you point to in the title of this thread - what exactly are they?

Ok, and it is synthetic. So there are synthetic facts? SO facts divide into synthetic and analytic? There are synthetic facts, too. So what is it that...

But is it a fact?

I'm asking if it is a fact that there is a small black dog in your living room right now, given that there is a small black dog in your living room ri...

SO, on the presumption that there is indeed a small black dog in your living room right now, and the view that facts are analytic, does it follow that...

, . Perhaps the emphasis on imagination in some maths teaching is what leads to those here who insist on the truth of their mathematical intuitions de...

So you have no reason to believe in the existence of the things behind you? When you put the cup in the cupboard, you cease to have any reason to beli...

The response I think most telling is from On Certainly. Doubt requires a foundation. In order to doubt that Canberra is the Capital of Australia, you ...

I'm not seeing how this relates... You see, if you are a brain in a vat, then there are vats and brains. That is, there is still an "external world". ...

Righto.