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Wayfarer

Comments

:roll:
April 12, 2018 at 12:28
It’s an act of interpretation - which is the entire point.
April 12, 2018 at 12:15
As I just said to Willow, and as I read Wheeler as saying - humans are 'the universe coming to know itself'. But that is not something 'physical' - or...
April 12, 2018 at 11:48
ON the contrary - as Wheeler says - that we are ‘a patch of the Universe coming to know itself’. And I can’t see how that can possibly be incorrect? W...
April 12, 2018 at 11:39
So, what is the meaning of ‘participatory universe’? Some other random Wheeler quotes that seem relevant. You can knock them all off, like a coconut s...
April 12, 2018 at 11:30
Anyone else here in agreement with this? Because all of those actions - every one, which experiment, how to set it up - they are all set up by an obse...
April 12, 2018 at 11:22
Still not the point. The particular piece of information in question - about the ship - can be described exactly, by any one of a number of media and ...
April 12, 2018 at 11:16
Well, you’d be mistaken. The information could be transmitted wrongly, or correctly. If it’s transmitted correctly, then it stays the same. The rest i...
April 12, 2018 at 11:09
Fair enough, I stand corrected. But I still think it’s a legitimate question as to whether any actual ‘registration’ has occurred in the absence of an...
April 12, 2018 at 11:08
I was actually going to refer to an article about Wheeler called Does the Universe Exist if we're Not Looking? Any idea why that article might be call...
April 12, 2018 at 10:36
Unfair, and I think it says more about you. You have an intense, emotional commitment to a philosophical outlook that I regularly challenge, and whene...
April 12, 2018 at 10:20
No, you're not being naive. StreetlightX, for some reason, has an intense dislike of my posts, and often goes off like this. Apparently I spread 'inte...
April 12, 2018 at 10:07
Who, nevertheless, agreed with my analysis here. The whole issue is about 'the measurement problem'. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a debate. Of course,...
April 12, 2018 at 10:05
That is a world-class dodge, even if there were nobody around to comment on it :smile: There’s pilot-wave theory, and many-worlds. To which my questio...
April 12, 2018 at 09:47
Not at all. The whole argument is about what constitutes 'an observer'. This is where you came into the argument: But this is the whole nub of 'the ob...
April 12, 2018 at 09:29
As I said yesterday, you resort to condescension because you can’t actually come up with an argument. It is a plain fact that in normal usage ‘an obse...
April 12, 2018 at 08:23
What is ‘sophistry’ about claiming that ‘an observer’ is in fact an observer? Claiming that an apparatus constitutes an observer is the only ‘sophistr...
April 12, 2018 at 08:05
The ‘Syria reaction’ was going OK up until Trump woke up and decided to tell the Russians he was going to fire some really ‘new, smart’ missiles - by ...
April 12, 2018 at 06:11
Von Neumann came later than Bohr and Heisenberg. The point is, I think the idea that 'consciousness causes the collapse' incorrectly suggests the whol...
April 12, 2018 at 04:50
So - it's acknowledged to be 'observer dependent', but by designating the observer as 'a reference frame' rather than as an actual scientist, then the...
April 12, 2018 at 04:42
Notwithstanding the fact that all apparatus are constructed by observers. (Sorry for intruding with a philosophical observation.)
April 12, 2018 at 04:06
I think there is a profound point which has dropped out of the consideration of this argument, which is that in traditional philosophy, there was a se...
April 12, 2018 at 03:26
What I make of David Chalmer's point is simply that because of the first-person nature of experience, then it's not fully describable in objective or ...
April 12, 2018 at 00:10
I hate to break it to you Kym but you can't be a materialist. You're not cunning enough. :-)
April 11, 2018 at 21:49
I've been dwelling on this question for years - actually it is why I joined forums - and the view that I've come to is, in brief, that 'modernity is a...
April 11, 2018 at 20:59
One analogy that is useful here, is that this is rather like saying that the drama in movies has a basis in the film (although perhaps the analogy is ...
April 11, 2018 at 20:47
What you then write is an abbreviation of what Thomas Nagel describes as ‘neo-Darwinian materialism’ - a model which proceeds to describe consciousnes...
April 11, 2018 at 11:06
If I relay that idea to your eyes, can I trust them to pass it on to your brain?
April 11, 2018 at 09:28
That’s Dennett’s ‘unconscious competence’ model. There is one fan here on the Forum (although in my opinion he doesn’t really understand what he’s say...
April 11, 2018 at 07:41
I don't agree that this is what the thrust of Chalmer's questions are. Asking 'how' or 'why' is a different question to what Chalmers raises. I think ...
April 11, 2018 at 07:05
I think this is descriptive of the stance of natural sciences, is it not? This is not a criticism but a reflection on what actually is being analysed....
April 11, 2018 at 04:00
It is the ancient question of 'reality and appearance' - so it's not just something that can brushed off. The very notion of 'the noumenal' arose out ...
April 11, 2018 at 00:12
Useful opinion piece in the NYTimes. also this pretty scathing analysis in the Daily Beast.
April 10, 2018 at 23:38
Let me leap in here with the following observation: that 'the tree' is indeed a complex of sensations, perceptions and judgements. Part of that is 'ap...
April 10, 2018 at 11:22
Have a look at Quantum mysteries dissolve if possibilities are realities.This is a proposal which is not ‘fringe’ or alternative but which is philosop...
April 10, 2018 at 10:38
Probably not as bad as having to resort to condescension whenever argument fails.
April 10, 2018 at 10:27
That’s not it. Darn, now I’ll have to go and dig it out. It’s exactly what he says: = clumsy experimenters. I’m sure that Patterson article is a lot w...
April 10, 2018 at 10:23
That Patterson article SLX linked says: ‘In a nutshell: in order to “observe” things at a quantum level, it requires specialized devices, which necess...
April 10, 2018 at 10:06
Observations are carried out by observers, who use apparatus to make their observations. Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2009-06-quantum-mysticism...
April 10, 2018 at 09:33
Do you mean, a self-assembling apparatus? The self-assembling apparatus that interprets the findings? That kind of observer?
April 10, 2018 at 09:00
:cool:
April 10, 2018 at 08:58
probably that graffiti was Wallaby wishful thinking :shade:
April 10, 2018 at 08:05
Never mind. Provides an opportunity for re-telling my favourite story about a bit of graffiti sprayed on an Auckland wall: ‘Australia Sucks’ To which ...
April 10, 2018 at 07:24
You lost me there, Andrew. Care to elucidate the distinction?
April 10, 2018 at 07:15
Fox News is truly diabolical. On behalf of all Australians, I apologise for there being a Rupert Murdoch.
April 10, 2018 at 07:07
He’s doing more than ‘picking a fight’ - he’s trying to actively undermine both Justice Department and the FBI. Often seems to have friendlier things ...
April 10, 2018 at 06:41
I have to say, I am finding the 'Mueller investigation' pretty perplexing. Nobody is told exactly what is being sought, but it seems to have a pretty ...
April 10, 2018 at 01:09
I think that Kant in his mature (i.e. post-Critiques) thought came to the view that the very notion of a 'proof' with respect to God was something of ...
April 09, 2018 at 22:54
My considered view after about a decade of these debates is that knowledge has an irreducibly subjective pole. The notion of a ‘mind-independent reali...
April 09, 2018 at 09:42