Arkady

If we're in a simulation, and we make airplanes within the confines of this simulation, then it seems to me that we don't actually possess the technol...

Yeah, it definitely seems like something's missing. However, as I said I haven't read up on this in detail, so Bostrom or other proponents of the argu...

Yes, evidently. I just wonder what he would posit as the reason for accepting such an assumption. Perhaps given that it's supposed to be an "ancestor"...

You, too. Glad to see that the site is still kicking, and in good hands.

Thanks. I might check in from time to time, but I have pretty severe demands on my time these days, wife, kid, house, the usual crap. :smile:

Oh, yeah, I recall his banning. I was just wondering if anyone had heard from him, here or elsewhere, as I enjoyed his contributions, profanity-laden ...

Anyone know whatever happened to Postmodern Beatnik or Kwalish Kid? PMB doesn't appear to have posted in like 8 years; hope he's ok.

As someone with only a passing familiarity with simulation-type arguments, and who's too lazy to read Bostrom's actual writing on it, can someone succ...

Then seems like a bad time for Trump to be cutting taxes, wouldn't you say?

Well, pigs engage in plenty of cannibalism themselves, so what's good for the, uh, goose is good for the gander.

Even domestic pigs don't really have "naked skin," per se: though they may be less hairy than their boar progenitors, they still have plenty of hair, ...

Has my secret love life at long last been validated by science? All of these years of shame: well, I shall be ashamed no longer!

Sure. You can start by actually reading the New Scientist article that was linked to, which addresses this very issue. New information can arise via m...

Well, given that Point 1 is factually incorrect, that doesn't bode well for the other points, if that's to be the foundation of the argument (I'm goin...

The fallacy here is a bit like saying that we should doubt that the Black Death occurred because no single skeleton we ever found from 14th century We...

In case you're interested and haven't seen it, the SEP has an article on this topic. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/modality-epistemology/

Some states have laws mandating that their electors vote for the candidate that received the most electoral votes. I believe that electors voting for ...

We needn't postulate a false dilemma between "US voters are smart" and "US voters are stupid." I'd also like it if tosspots (assuming that's something...

The majority of voters didn't vote for him, though. The mechanics of the electoral college allow for the minority to impose their electoral will on th...

I think it's still widely accepted, though, that the vapors are the primary cause of swooning and of female hysteria.

Indeed. Even when examining individual cells which are genetically identical, there can be marked differences in their behaviors and fates, never mind...

Except that it's not as if, for instance, the Chinese do not perform science as we know it in the West. When they launch a space probe, they presumabl...

Pbxman: "I'm sick and tired to this anglo-centric forums in which only this USA hero UK (its fave PET) view is allowed and it not they censure you! Yo...

This still really, really sounds like you are appealing to the results of modern science to underwrite one particular view of the world (i.e. indeterm...

Fair enough, then.

No: my position remains, as it was when we started this exchange many posts ago, that determinism is not a moribund thesis in philosophy. You essentia...

This survey data. https://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl I wouldn't say that "compatibilists go with the freedom side of the freedom vs determinism...

I'm not sure what this is based on. Most are compatibilists, which at least allows for determinism.

Nope. Soft determinism re: free will is one such thesis.

So, the rightness or wrongness does seem to be rather salient, wouldn't you say?

So, Laplacean determinism isn't wrong? Or it's just not part of your increasingly elusive point?

You said "Naturalistic views of the world haven't had the world as a place with anything like Laplacean determinism for over 100 years now," and when ...

You could ask them. I am far from an expert, or even a particularly well-informed layman, with regards to modern physics, but I suspect, as with many ...

Assuming that you're talking about developments in quantum mechanics, of course philosophers are aware of them, and have responses to its supposed ind...

Determinism is hardly a moribund view in philosophy. "Soft determinism" with regard to free will (a species of compatibilism) says that determinism is...

I've never really understood how libertarian free will could be consistent with a naturalistic view of the world. It ascribes contra causal powers to ...

I know that it's not the primary focus of this thread, but a consequence of this view of causation is that there could be no first cause/first event, ...

Trump has apparently thrown another Twitter hissy fit in response to an SNL impression by Alec Baldwin, asking how media outlets get away with such mo...

I still hear claims that organisms reproduce "for the good of the species" or similar utterances, which is pretty amazingly wrong. Organisms reproduce...

Would you consider, say, quantum computing to be "new" enough to constitute a genuine novelty, and not merely a refinement of something which came bef...

No. I assumed that the linebacker in question was a biological male, as virtually all high school football programs are exclusively male.

Why not? There are 300 lb women, are there not? Why couldn't a 300 lb linebacker suffer from gender dysmorphia?

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Please condemn this unholy abomination to the pits of Hell.

No, you didn't merely describe: your post was quite clearly laden with value judgments about "the masses," employing descriptors such as "blindly," "m...

Is it somehow more noble to work 20 or 60 hours per week?

Perhaps Putin and Pence have a joint custody agreement concerning their toddler.

Trump has agreed to a deal to at least temporarily end the government shutdown, and he's already being blasted for this decision by Ann Coulter. Coult...

Declare victory and withdraw...I'd agree with that suggestion, except that then we'd have President Pence, which I fear would be worse. Trump is a lar...

Trump's die-hard supporters are so credulous they would likely believe that flowers were a wall. A columnist recently suggested that, since Trump lies...

Your post also melts away belly fat.