Science is full of subjects that are under study but which are not fully understood. Consciousness is one of those. It's not a "mystery," it's a subje...
That was the point I was trying to make at the museum. As I indicated, I'm not sure it's true. This is one of the questions that is hard to get a hand...
Yes, of course. I overstated my point for emphasis. What I was trying to get across is that my understanding of how the physical universe works is clo...
It's always struck me that there is only one place for those mathematical entities to exist - the mind of God. A belief in Platonic ideals and a belie...
Sure, I guess, maybe. Maybe not entirely. I don't believe that the universe is, somehow, mathematics as some do, but ever since I started learning how...
Last week a friend and I visited the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. We got in an interesting discussion with one of the guides there. I said...
All the things you say are true. My point is that none of these things is unknown in the sense that the nature of dark energy or the existence of extr...
I think that's what I don't get. What's the big deal? What explanatory gap? If you have trouble grasping how the mechanics and electronics of our mind...
No doubt that all the aspects of "meaning" I mentioned have something in common. It's not as if all the meanings of "meaning" are unrelated. But still...
You seem to be using the word "meaning" in at least three different senses: Meaning as the definition of a word Meaning as the interpretation of a set...
This paragraph from "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" This sentence is made of lead (and a sentence of lead gives a reader an entirely different sensation...
"Hill Street Blues," that neutrino there (no, not that one, the one right next to it), metaphors, the word "equanimity," sticking your hands in fans f...
That's not right. It's acceptance, not indifference. I don't think that's right either. I wonder how much of happiness is a matter of temperament. Som...
The word I use when I think about happiness is "peace." Buddhists talk about an end to suffering. I guess a Christian would talk about grace. I think ...
It strikes me that any artistic endeavor where the meaning comes first and the work follows along later is likely to be unsatisfying. I like surrealis...
Some, many, most? discussions on the forum are built from poorly presented facts, undefined or poorly defined terms, and unsubstantiated claims. I don...
There are hundreds of neuroscience studies about the nature, scope, behavioral effects, and experience of consciousness. These have gotten more specif...
This is not true. I just looked up an estimate on the web that says there are 1 EE 21 stars. It would be relatively easy to figure out the number of g...
Is this really the source of any confusion? If I say "I'm cold." You generally know I mean "I feel cold." If I pick up a beer or if I'm outside and sa...
I'm fine with this. I have no trouble believing that many, most?, predictive models generated using data mining are spurious, but that ought to be sel...
I would say that, if I can generate predictions of the behavior of complex systems on a consistent basis, i.e. significantly better than chance, I hav...
Hey, if you get rid of all the self-important windbags, there'll be no one left, except me and @"S". Personally, I consider myself an important windba...
Of course I was joking, but not completely. First - Popeye's explanation is as good as any of the others presented here. Second - It underscores how p...
This is nothing new. This issue was fully addressed by that great American philosopher P.T.S. Mann in the 1930s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzHmu...
So, who is T Clark? Let's see: At a far distance, he is, just as we all are, and, as BC has noted, as everything else is too, an illusion. A little cl...
I looked it up - skitsnack. I don't have any real objection to giving Dylan high accolades, even the Nobel Prize in songwriting. But it's not lichchur...
What a bunch of bullshit. He's a songwriter, not a poet. I like some of his stuff, but people worship him. And yes, his voice is crap. On the other ha...
I learned this when my children were born. I've talked about it with other parents too, and most of them agree. Babies being born are all there. They ...
This is sort of the opposite of what I just said in my response to Metaphysician Undercover right above this response. As I indicated in that response...
I haven't really thought about the philosophy or science of language since my psych classes back in the .... well, a long while ago, so I'm uncomforta...
I didn't buy that explanation either. As I indicated previously, it's not clear to me that everything has to be caused. If my memory is correct, both ...
Sure. I think you understand what I was trying to do - It's not that I know, it's that it doesn't seem obvious to me that everything that exists has t...
I didn't get involved in that previous thread. I started paying attention when it was already far along and I didn't think I could catch up. I did loo...
I don't really think I know what this means, but I have a feeling that I disagree with it. You say "can trace it's cause back" what do you mean exactl...
I'm not sure. I'll have to think about whether or not I think they're the same thing.... Earlier, you discussed the conservation laws as preventing ge...
I don't think this is true. Actually, I don't think anything has a reason. All the things we know are just descriptions of how things behave, which ca...
As I read your post and then all the follow ups, I kept thinking about it from the other direction - the process you're describing is how the little g...
Again - matter, meaning, reason, significance, importance, insignificance, irrelevance, importance - all these are human terms for human situations. O...
I wasn't really quibbling with your thought experiment. It's just that, when I read it, it struck me that the whole anti-natalist argument is a produc...
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