Roy Davies

I agree. The concept of conjecture and refutation means that an idea is only as good as its ability to stand up to being refuted. A good idea also has...

I tend to think of ideas have a value to the society or group of minds in which it exists. That value is relevant only to that society at that time, b...

That’s an interesting point. Though I don’t know about ideas being ‘true’ or not. Some very destructive ideas can exist in a society and thus keep it ...

Yes, the meme concept is where my thinking started in this area. Yes, culture is the collection of minds and thus it is this collection that evolves i...

Thanks. I’m obviously new to this forum and am still finding out the intricacies of the platform. Though I am presently on an iPad, so not sure if hov...

I am eternal. If eternal means infinite time, since any moment of time can be infinitely divided, then any moment of time is the same as infinite time...

I can only perceive that other entities exist, but I don’t know for sure.

Reality exist only as we perceive it, surely?

Aren’t emotions just chemical changes in the brain and thus merely subjective experiences?

Are you sure about that? My limited understanding of quantum physics suggest that something is being created out of nothing all the time, but that it ...

Those were examples of the sorts of predictions we should be able to make. One is not ‘right’ per se, and there are no doubt other sorts of prediction...

From a psychology point of view, people are quite predictable. Many of our behaviours and actions we think of as ‘free will’ are in fact natural steps...

So, if an idea is like an evolving organism, what does this allow us to predict? That ideas adapt to fit their environment? That idea evolution is bli...

Could be. Like any good theory, it is only useful if it allows one to make testable predictions.

The question that I have is: what do you mean by ‘understand’? As a human, I can have some understanding about how my brain works. Cognitive science h...

I’m curious about this statement. Does a simple cellular organism experience pain or pleasure? It certainly would try to avoid existential threats - w...

I think humans are the only animal that can be bored (though I do think my cats look pretty glaze-eyed sometimes). How one can be bored with so much i...

What is meant by immortality? I think in the context of this discussion, it seems to mean ‘existing for ever’. But time is an aspect of this universe,...

Many animals, humans especially, will put up with short-term discomfort and pain if there is a longterm perceived benefit.

The ultimate result of the technique of persuasion and rhetoric is whether the person you are trying to convince actually buys the product you are try...

So, to the title; a raven is an example of an organism that has evolved, and the idea of a writing desk is likewise, a physical representation of an i...

2 follow-on questions: if an intelligent being (what we might call a god) looked into the workings of our brains and could understand it, would they t...

The problem I think would be coming up with a suitable conjecture that could be tested scientifically using refutation. Whilst I have not studied this...

I’m also curious about what it must be like to be in the mind of someone with depression. Thankfully, I’ve suffered sadness, but never depression, but...

From a mental health point of view, ‘living in the moment’ or ‘mindfullness’ is a good antidote to many of the depressing thoughts that people have. H...

I want to know who carried out that study with the dogs - sounds like the ethics board was asleep for that study...

I do like the idea of dolphin monkeys - trying to think what they might look like. Anyway, surely clothing has evolved along with the human need for p...

In a technical sense, that link posted before does, literally in that it is a URL, refer to this post. However, that only makes sense in the context o...

If I can create an reality In a computer and someone can experience it as if it is real using a VR headset, then how is that experience different from...

I think Jorndoe beat me to that point though a few comments above.

Like this: Reference to this post.

Being a computer scientist, I would argue that this post can only be considered as referring to itself if there is a link inside the post back to the ...