Marchesk

Apparently your eyes and brain don't exist when nobody's perceiving them, but you can still have a visual perception.

I think it holds up pretty well. Trouble is when it comes to mind, at least consciousness. But that's a small part of the entire universe, so I'm not ...

Seems awful like experience things causing other things all the time. Sometimes I'm wrong about what's causing what, and confuse correlation for causa...

So a person's story has a beginning (birth) but not an end? Appealing to reincarnation to continue experience is no better than appealing to heaven. N...

Let's say you're shut in a vacuum sealed room with a fire. Both you and the fire are consuming the limited oxygen in the room. Then a partition is put...

If you found a flattened hiker who had camped out next to rock face, then it's possible they didn't see or hear the falling rock. If it crushed them q...

Exactly. If you look away from a falling rock, does it cease to exist until it crushes you, and then goes back to not existing once you die? What if y...

I think this fundamentally confuses how we come to know about the world with the way the world is itself. Just because we can't get outside ourselves ...

Well, Berkley had the same sort of perspective in that he didn't saysay the light bouncing off a flower into your eye is an interpretive act. Rather, ...

I'm asking whether it's coherent to think that only the thing I'm experiencing right now exists given how that thing or part of the world is interdepe...

Here's another related way to go about this. Has anyone died from something unperceived? Yes, quite often. One example would be going on a hike and be...

Let's say that when nobody is observing the rest of the universe, all that matter is destroyed. So you get in a car while nobody is doing astronomy, a...

With some science and Heidegger thrown in. A big part of the perceived world is the interdependence of all the things we perceive. For example, how is...

Because it's there when you reenter the room and open the desk. If you doubt that, you can set a camera to record a video or snapshots of the paper wh...

Not all arguments deserve equal weight. Sure, but what if there's good reasons for one's metaphysical commitments? But what would the black swans look...

That's two criminal offenses in one incident. Did she get his license plate and report him? I did have a guy at a park who was staring me down when I ...

But there is some societal guilt or shame for being privileged. I remember this college event for a club I attended. We were all white. This one guy c...

Can plastic be made out of hemp?

In all such matters, I refer you to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc

The oceanic gyres serve as a large dump for plastics of all kinds. But maybe we can CRISPR some critters into eating it.

But what about Keillor. Is touching a back sexual assault, or is there more to the story? I've had women grab my ass on a few occasions. It wasn't wan...

As some species get more intelligent. The keyword there is some. Intelligence is a favorable adaptation for some species. But those species aren't eve...

I take it you're no fan of Freud. The brain and body also exist in the moment of decision.

The problem has always been certifying our knowledge. If all we have is deductive logic, then we'll never know much. If the demand is certainty, Desca...

But you're not consciously aware of what all goes into making your decision.

Wow, really? I would be down with a few centuries, at least. Humans live such short lives as it is, compared to other time scales.

You mean deductive logical support. Inferential and probabilistic reasons can be given for it. It's seems perfectly rational to me to infer that we ha...

It all depends on whether one is convinced by mereological nihilism, and the project of reductionism in the sciences. I tend to think that objects can...

It's not whether AI can solve tasks performed by bacteria, it's the likelihood that bacteria will still be around long after the last machines rust aw...

It's an interesting question as to whether the end result of human civilization is AI. But personally, it's not my goal to create AI, and even if I ha...

Because it's in a different dimension. Are you in the same place as me when I'm in Times Square and you're 10 miles above?

Is there perception that can't be scientifically perceived? What does that mean?

Empirical is perception only.

I can watch things change right now. Time at the very least is empirical.

Like Hopi and English?

Sure, I'm going to understand that all human beings have names (unless they're feral), and when they point to themselves and say something, odds are t...

But we weren't talking about feral children. I brought up anthropologists and different language speakers meeting for the first time, like the Europea...

Yeah, but you're not going to know the grammar for an unknown language.

Wouldn't you start out by pointing out objects and saying the word for them, after maybe giving your name?

There are many times in history when humans have encountered groups they had no previous contact with, with individuals from both learning each other'...

How could it occupy the same place?

But then how do anthropologists go about learning an unknown language from some tribe in New Guinea upon first contact? Wouldn't the equivalent of poi...

Interesting idea. Where does the value stem from, then? Internal experience? Social interaction?

Not all theists are Christians. Christians generally have well defined concepts about God, the afterlife, etc.

Most Christians think they can talk about God, so they wouldn't understand the Wittgenstein quote. It's only theists who define God in purely negative...

Yep, I have done so myself out of spite, anger, jealousy or bitterness, and have seen others do so. Also, I've stood at the ledge of a building or cli...

It sounded like the Amish punishment for rape was not very severe, to say the least. And in a society where you're allowed to kill a relative because ...

Guess that depends on where he was hanging out while he was dead? There was an X-Files episode where these idiots uncovered a genie who gave them thre...

What Bitter Crank said. Jesus was talking to people who expressed an interest in being his followers, which seemed to involve leaving your old life be...

Maybe so, but there was a show on how this Amish girl ended up going to the police because her brothers were repeatedly raping her, and the Amish comm...