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28th December 2017, 03:13 PM | #41 |
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28th December 2017, 03:51 PM | #42 |
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This is an incredibly ironic answer Fud. Before man knew about those tiny invisible organisms, he explained it as curses or the act of the devil or demons. Before we understood thunder and lightning or earthquakes or volcanos, man said they were caused by gods. Those answers NEVER EVER EVER got man closer to understanding anything.
Yes, it is true that everything that is proven was at one time unproven. Please tell me the use of answering one unproven question with an unproven entity? You're simply appealing to bigger mystery, not actually answering the question. Ridiculous ideas by definition are deserving of ridicule. I'd also correct you that people are just starting to go this route. I'd say people have been taking this route since there has been people. And crazy ideas that end up working have reasons why they work. |
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28th December 2017, 04:32 PM | #43 |
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There were also "Scientific" explanations given. Bad air was one of them. It was surprising how entrenched these beliefs were. Well, not that surprising if you spend any time trolling people on sites like Breitbart.
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I'd say it's a lot more mainstream now. Max Tegmark is very well respected. Check out his Mathematical Universe theory.
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28th December 2017, 07:00 PM | #44 |
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Bad air is much closer to the truth. Then the next question is what is bad about the air that causes those illness. At least by suggesting that the air is the reason, you have offered a line of inquiry to follow. When you say it is a miracle, you're done.
I don't have a clue what this means. I grant you this but with a caveat. Scientists are only postulating a possible line of inquiry. And then they get to work proving it and if they can't they move on to another theory. When one refers to something miraculous or supernatural, one has immediately ended the inquiry since man is only able to investigate the natural or material world. Fine. Tell us how we can prove the supernatural or divine. Do we pray for an answer? You're confusing Einstein's opposition to Quantum mechanics. Schrodinger's cat was as much a joke about how quantum mechanics might work for atomic particles, it doesn't work for large items. The problem isn't necessarily about crazy ideas as it is about using mysteries that have pretty much zero chance of being proven. Miracles are necessarily divine or supernatural and therefore beyond investigation. It ends inquiry as opposed to theories that are the beginning of inquiry. |
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29th December 2017, 06:40 AM | #45 |
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I haven't read up on the latest research in the last 20 years, but my impression at the end of the 90s was that progress is being made constantly, aided by advancing computer capabilities.
That is somewhat similar to the problem of controlled nuclear fusion: it's already understood in principle, progress is steady, and the amount of work still ahead, and the capacities needed before we get there are also understood at least in rough outline. I am fairly convinced I'll see both prototype conscious machines and prototype fusion reactors before my lights go out. Another 20 years ought to be plenty of time. Not quite 30 years, Douglas Hofstadter, in "Gödel Escher Bach" made prediction about how long it will take till chess programs beat the world champion. Turned out he was far too pessimistic, it happened way sooner than this AI expert thought. I think the problem is with you, Fudbucker: you don't understand consciousness, and you project your own ignorance on others. |
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29th December 2017, 06:58 AM | #46 |
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All 100% correct, Oystein, but I think we should be careful about allowing Fudbucker to straw-man the entire conversation with his trivial and illogical aside.
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29th December 2017, 07:08 AM | #47 |
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Waiiiit a second, you don't know what the word "consciousness" means, but you demand to have us explain how it works?
I could turn around on you and say that theism, nor metaphysics nor dualism, will ever explain how prelzinism works, and are therefore all to be rejected. Hell, there isn't even a known meaning to the word - I blame it on theism! The failure to even know what you are talking about - what consciousness is, when you use the word, in your own mind - is your failure. |
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29th December 2017, 07:13 AM | #48 |
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29th December 2017, 08:13 AM | #49 |
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Am I the only one that doesn't find "conscious pieces of meat" to be an absurd conclusion?
I mean, they're all around me. I am one. Why would I find it absurd? This seems like an argument from incredulity, like he's just trying to word it in a way that sounds strange even though it's an incredibly normal thing. Calling them "pieces of meat" makes them sound like dead slabs of steak or something, and I agree that would be absurd. But we're talking about living brains, right? That's not absurd at all. I see critters with tiny little simple "brains", like bugs, that show very simple and limited behavior. Then I see the more complex ones show more complex behavior. Once you get to fancy enough brains, you've got really fancy complicated stuff including consciousness. This seems like a logical and observable progression. Do I know all the mechanics of it? Nope. But that doesn't make it absurd. Will we ever understand it? I think we will, but that's not really important. If humans had been wiped out by a plague before we ever understood photosynthesis would that mean that it was impossible? After all, if materialism leads to an absurd conclusion, like the existence of vegetables that eat sunlight, it's devastating for the theory. Some stuff we have already figured out. Some stuff we will probably figure out later. Some stuff we won't. That has no bearing on whether or not science is a useful tool or what is true. I can make almost anything sound absurd. And to bring this all back to the topic at hand, this is one of the things that probably prevented me from remaining religious. This sort of incredulous "are you saying that fish somehow turned into monkeys?" thing worked on me for a little while but as soon as I started swatting down those arguments in areas where I disagreed with them I also started to recognize them coming from my own side. This very quickly whittled away at the foundations of religious belief. |
29th December 2017, 08:42 AM | #50 |
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Off topic... but my guess is no, you won't see a commercial nuclear fusion reactor in the next 30 years. Still, way too many hurdles since the longest controlled fusion reaction has been under 2 minutes. I'd bet on Thorium Fluoride Molten Salt Reactors though within the next 15 years.
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29th December 2017, 08:43 AM | #51 |
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29th December 2017, 08:53 AM | #52 |
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29th December 2017, 09:05 AM | #53 |
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I look forward to hearing your explanation as to how brains produce consciousness, given all this research you talk about.
And let me ask an obvious question: how will you know if a machine is conscious or not? And let me ask another obvious question: what is consciousness? |
29th December 2017, 09:08 AM | #54 |
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I agree entirely. There will always questions and followup questions. We're like little kids asking the question why. We're peeling back the onion.
I despise the 'divine' answer because it is not only not an answer and has no explanatory power, it limits our ability to inquire more. |
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29th December 2017, 09:09 AM | #55 |
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"The Conservatives want to keep wogs out and march boldly back to the 1950s when Britain still had an Empire and blacks, women, poofs and Irish knew their place." The Don That's what we've sunk to here. |
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29th December 2017, 09:23 AM | #56 |
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29th December 2017, 09:37 AM | #57 |
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You really are hijacking this thread.
There are machines all over the world that are conscious. They're aware of their surroundings and react to them. All that seems necessary are sensors and some kind of processor and you have created a low level form of consciousness. |
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29th December 2017, 10:40 AM | #58 |
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29th December 2017, 10:49 AM | #59 |
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And what then turned you from an agnostic (weak atheist) to a theist?
Perhaps you should've chosen to use the "hard problem " of "love" instead of "consciousness"? After all, as all good theists know, science can't explain love either. I'm happy for members of any ilk to comment in this thread. |
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29th December 2017, 10:52 AM | #60 |
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Man, there are so many other threads for you to genuinely comment in and you have commented in than this one regarding your pet-theory. Now you come up with some tenuous at best reason for derailing this one back to your pet-theory.
Seriously. What's the problem that you cannot bump another of the other half-dozen more-related threads? |
29th December 2017, 10:52 AM | #61 |
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29th December 2017, 10:56 AM | #62 |
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I don't see how it's tenuous. I was a hardcore atheist for a long time. Then I started to really examine the hard problem of consciousness. Now I've concluded science (or specifically, science based on a materialist foundation) won't solve it, and that failure of science has bled over into my other science-based beliefs, like atheism.
You are free to ignore my posts, if they disturb you, which they seem to do. God knows why. ETA: and you're really going to complain about me when BobTheCoward is currently gumming up the works in about a dozen threads? That's kind of amusing. No offense, Bob. |
29th December 2017, 11:02 AM | #63 |
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Why would using every single post for 5 pages or more to climb back on your same-old-same-old hobby horse, utterly off topic, disturb anyone? I mean, we're all so grateful you've chosen here of all places to propound repetitively and endlessly your personal predelictions, when you could have, for instance, done it in a thread on consciousness. Heaven forefend.
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"The Conservatives want to keep wogs out and march boldly back to the 1950s when Britain still had an Empire and blacks, women, poofs and Irish knew their place." The Don That's what we've sunk to here. |
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29th December 2017, 11:09 AM | #64 |
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Self driving cars
The real question is how do you define consciousness? Are there different levels of consciousness? Here is a link to a Japanese machine that is self aware. http://www.businessinsider.com/this-...til-now-2015-7 |
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29th December 2017, 11:59 AM | #65 |
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Well you certainly don’t have the smell of an atheist. Perhaps in truth you see yourself as an agnostic that’s neither theist nor atheist? (Please let’s not have that debate in this thread).
In the beginning you were a hard-atheist but then you realised science couldn’t answer the hard question of conciseness so you became a weak-atheist. Why? Science doesn’t know, therefore perhaps some goddidit? Your disappointment in science makes a god of magic and miracles more likely? Why? Science is a knowledge system, theism is a belief system, why does your perceived failure of a knowledge system drive you toward a belief system? Are you really that desperate for an immediate answer that you're prepared to abandon the credibility of credibility (I guess so). Theism awaits you if it doesn't already have you. ETA - I have you down as a weak atheist due to weak science success. You happy with that? |
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29th December 2017, 12:14 PM | #66 |
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It's a side effect from reading a lot.
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29th December 2017, 12:16 PM | #67 |
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29th December 2017, 12:35 PM | #68 |
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I don't get him either. It comes off as phony or illogical or both. Fud says he's not a theist and perhaps in a pure sense of the word he's not. But nevertheless, his advocacy of looking beyond the material world reeks of the same kind of superstitious nonsense that accompanies theism. He suggests that because science has of yet been unable to answer questions that beings have thought about long before the advent of the scientific method is a reason to abandon it and look elsewhere. I don't fathom that.
I know of NOTHING that is not material and have never seen any proof of anything that is immateral does or could exist. And I'm sure that Fud doesnt have a clue how to test for this and if we could test for it it would cease to be immaterial. There in lies his conundrum. |
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29th December 2017, 12:50 PM | #69 |
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OK.
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29th December 2017, 12:54 PM | #70 |
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Paranormal/supernatural beliefs are knowledge placebos. Rumours of a god’s existence have been greatly exaggerated. Make beliefs truths and you get make-believe truths. |
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29th December 2017, 12:58 PM | #71 |
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29th December 2017, 12:59 PM | #72 |
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Okay, well, I have several follow up questions but I don't really wish to continue the derail here, so I'll leave you with this last word.
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When you don't care enough to be precise in your terminology (you have said many times you will use the word 'god' as an accurate description of your beliefs) why would you care enough to claim being an atheist over a theist? |
29th December 2017, 12:59 PM | #73 |
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29th December 2017, 01:09 PM | #74 |
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Total Nonsense. You simply do not know this and the fact is science has been the singular most effective method of knowing anything conclusively.
While there may be three models, there is in fact only one model that isnt simply a hypothetical. And no matter how many times you say it, it is nothing more than bad air. I'd argue that we generally know what is involved in consciousness and only a few details remain and there is very little reason..No, no reason to look outside the material for the answer. |
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29th December 2017, 01:17 PM | #75 |
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29th December 2017, 04:42 PM | #76 |
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First of all, any statement in the lines of "Science cannot explain X" should always end with the word "...yet"
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29th December 2017, 04:55 PM | #77 |
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This must have taken some work. Thanks mods!
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29th December 2017, 04:56 PM | #78 |
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Why? Why are you so sure there's an explanation to everything? Science is running up against some hard limits in cosmology and particle physics. When it comes to proving whether other universes exist, there probably won't be a "yet". they're likely causally disconnected fro us. It will just be inferred from inflationary theory.
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29th December 2017, 05:00 PM | #79 |
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29th December 2017, 05:11 PM | #80 |
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