1s & 0s : something & nothing. — Gnomon

Si, nothing is information (message, 1 byte in a text doc) and also carries information (medium, 0/off the binary opposite of 1/on).

If that's the case, I feel that everything is, in line with your theory, information. In other words "O bits/bytes" never applies!?

However the amount of info in a message T, given 4 equiprobable possibilities (C, A, T, G) as in DNA is given by the formula log₂4 = 2 bits. That means if there's only 1 possibility, say message w, then the information content of w itself is log₂1 = 0 bits.

From a pre-Shannon perspective, everything is information - 0 bits is impossible - but from a Shannon point of view 0 bits is possible - it is the information content of a message w that has only 1 possibility viz. w itself. Everything ain't information. It's quite a puzzle.

Non intellego. All I'm saying is a philosopher/wisdom king $\geq$ democracy. What explains such a position?

Nice! And Jesus, as he perished - horribly - on the cross uttered "Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?"

Why, indeed!

One does come away from this feeling cheated, but then it also makes sense in a weird, hard-to-word, way. Which of these two dominates our lives will determine our overall well-being.

The problem of evil has been/is/will be the greatest test of our faith (in God) - the 1755 Lisbon earthquake triggered a deep soul-searching among intellectual's of the day, causing many folks to embrace atheism. I wonder if Covid had a similar effect on religion! Fascinating!

The Joker speaks the truth. Rather depressing, but facts are facts. :sad:



Me either Peter my Parker.

:up: Danke Bitter Crank.

Lehrer echoes GIGO! You really can't blame computers for anything for the simple reason that it does exactly what you tell it to do!

Tyranny? What about Socrates' philosopher kings and Buddhism's wisdom kings? Mythical, like dragons?

Democracy is to me "the least worst option"; it really ain't the best system, but it'll have to do (for now). I hope that doesn't make me an anarchist. :chin:

Most interesting. — Ms. Marple

The survivors probably lied about drawing lots - any detective worth his salt can figure that out.

Danke for bringing that to my attention. This reversion to basic instincts is well-documented. A reminder of our animal ancestry/heritage - we're all just one bad day away from becoming the guy you don't wanna meet in a dark alley. I hope some of us can keep their sanity & humanity despite.

Non intellego. :sad:

Well, here's what's most interesting as far as I'm concerned: I recall opening a text document on my laptop and without writing anything on it, I closed it. I then checked how big the document was and it said 0 Kb (Nothing to see here! Move on, move on!).

I then opened it again, saw the cursor ready to display what I was gonna type. I hit the spacebar key, the cursor moved 1 space to the right. I closed the file and rechecked its size. Whaddaya know, it was now 1 byte. Even nothing is information. What do you suppose this means for your theory? I'm curious.

Cosmic perspective? Do remind us how small we are! I'll temporarily forget I read Martin Rees' tome Just six numbers.

Good to you have you on the team - stargazing (naked-eye, just like how the ancients used to) was an opportunity I would seldom pass up on. A quick question: The orion & "frying pan" constellations seem most familiar to me. Any interesting facts about these two? Muchas gracias in advance.

Having reasons is a burden. — schopenhauer1

:groan: They used to draw lots you know ... shipwreck survivors ... to decide who was gonna die so that the others could feed. Have you heard of Richard Parker (watch Life of Pi starring the late great Irrfan Khan :death: :flower: (that's 2 r's mind you)!

Much obliged mon ami, much obliged. :up:

Actually, it’s the other way around… — Pinprick

It is really frustrating ... So much rage in that voice - I suppose its typical of death metal singing, screaming rather! I'm sure the vocalist is quite different from the persona he acts out on stage/in the studio. I ain't sure though, it's been so long since I listened to such "songs" and watched/listened the apposite interviews. I need an update, I hope I get the time.

As for God hating us, my all-time favorite God-rant is George Carlin's (vide infra).



You might find :point: God on Trial interesting.

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. — Richard Dawkins

Quite unfortunate, our plight, some more so than others! :sad:

Don’t know if it is possible unless sleepwalking or in a trance. — schopenhauer1

C₂H₅OH was the common factor in zinloos geweld! Under the Dionysian spell, si, si! Have you heard of naked fanatics? :snicker:

I used to follow true crime stories long ago, but these days I'm bogged down by personal issues that I won't bore you all with. Anyway, was random surfing Wikipedia, one link led to another (should've laid down some bread crumbs, but no, being the genius I am, I didn't) and soon I was reading the entry on Zinloos Geweld (senseless crime). The idea was Belgian-Dutch - crimes that lacked motives i.e. were sans reason. Quite a lot to unpack there; thought I might put something on the table.

that is not healthy! — Amity

I second that.

bye — Amity

See ya! Nice talking to you.

Something that might resonate with you:

Le meglio è l'inimico del bene (the perfect is the enemy of the good). — Voltaire

The paradox of perfection: Perfection is an imperfection!

Why must such 'perfect' human beings exist? — Amity

Are yoy saying perfection is impossible? Our standards may differ - I'm a realist, at least that's what I feel I am.

Do we/you need an Ideal Idol? — Amity

If we didn't need 'em why do they "exist"?

I thought "Broken English" referred to someone whose English skills are bad not only for grammar issues. — javi2541997

You jest of course.

Who? Have you seen these people and how they are in all circumstances?
What they think and feel...what they might keep hidden from view? — Amity

Suffice it to say that such people exist - they have to for reasons I'm not at present able to articulate.

Democracy, if we're talking about government here, was, in my humble opinion, born in a rather ignoble family - sheer mistrust of one's fellow man (no one, absolutely no one, could sit on the throne and not become a tyrant) - and for that reason any attempt to paint democracy as something grander is hopelessly misguided. Prove me wrong ... please.

English is not my mother tongue. I oftenly make some grammar mistakes — javi2541997

Broken English, it's called. Native speakers are known to make (silly) mistakes too, the best example of which to my mind is "irregardless" but that's not grammar, oops!

Good advice! I'm a nicotine junkie, have been for the past 20 odd years. I guess it's a sacrifice I havta make; recall how asceticism recommends denial of bodily wants; it even goes so far as to, at the very least, treat needs (food, sex, shelter, clothes) with contempt. The right balance between mental hygiene and physical well-being is not a myth though - I've seen people who've done it so to speak. Kudos to those who've seen the light.

Mens sana in corpore sano. Indeed!

:up: Danke, kind person.

Like Jim al-Khalili writes in his book 9 enigmas in science, resolving a paradox/dilemma can be done by seeking & subsequently finding the right angle with which to view such cases. For example, apologies if it fails to get the point across, what's impossible in 2D space (flipping chirality of 2D objects) is possible in 3D space.

why are you quoting drunks — Bitter Crank

In vino veritas (truth in wine).

I like the sewer analogy, nice!

The humanities & social sciences are a work in progress to my reckoning and more important than that is comparing them to other "more respected" disciplines like science, math is, I think, comparing apples to oranges.

Well, to my simple and untrained mind, the "solution" is quite simple - some sets should be banned! Oui, mods? That's what Bertrand Russell did I believe.

want to know about some ancient myth that refers to or of which the central point is a dilemma or dilemmas. — Alkis Piskas

Si, si!

I found this :point: Sophie's choice on Wikipedia. Then there's the trolley problem (re utilitarianism) and the axe murderer at the door (re Kantian ethics). Have you heard of Protagoras' paradox of the court? It's worth the read - the counterdilemma "solution" to dilemmas.

@schopenhauer1 did allude to this point about life - it's kinda like a torture chamber game where you havta make a choice between two/more undesirable options, one after another till we die and perhaps even beyond, in the afterlife. :scream: Takes the fun outta free will if you ask me.

You raised a good point in re the choices needn't necessarily be undesirable, they could both be desirable and could be had (double the pleasure or something like that) at the same time (polyamory was probably the norm whether all parties were willing paricipants or not).

Too, quite notably, the logical OR is inclusive.

Interesting, oui?

I'm interested, deeply so, in dilemmas and its close cousins if you know what I mean. Making hard choices, tough decisions, finding oneself between Scylla and Charybis, that sorta thing. Life seems to be about choices - imagine a complex decision web that represents your life. Can you point to any myths - culture irrelevant - that revolve around this subject? Muchas gracias señor!

I sense a disturbance in the Force. — Luke Skywalker

I want a definition of truth but for that I must already posses a definition of truth!

Fun fact: Pathological lying in medical jargon is mythomania aka pseudologia fantastica.

A blessed life 98-year-old man! Requiescat in pace. :death: :flower:

I read, well, actually skimmed through the essay - Wolpert gets an A+ as far as penmanship, grammar (@180 Proof :grin: ) & rhetorical flair goes. The theme however isn't new as the Latin aphorism si comprhenedis, non est Deus clearly demonstrates; nevertheless the idea is framed within current knowledge & methodologies - we could call it progress I guess.

The essay also sketches out for further research the limitations of human cognition, something we're so proud of, even naming ourselves homo sapiens & raises the question of our tools' (logic, language, math, etc.) capabilities vis-à-vis unraveling the mysteries of reality.

I've always wondered, since I found out about some parasitic worms that have devolved neurologically in the sense lost their brains (imagine that!), whether, in the domain of cognition, we're the first ones to arrive or the last ones to leave in a manner of speaking? "To be smart is stupid" says Wolpert and that's very Zen, oui monsieur?

Speaking for myself, I believe there's a threshold in mentation which once attained is like a gateway crime - beyond it everything conceivable can be conceived, everything that can be grokked can be, no limits. Whether we're approaching that point - a singularity in its own right - or whether it's already under our belt is unknown.

If the Singularity can happen, maybe it's already happened — 180 Proof

Maybe ... I sense ... a presence! :snicker: I'm into what you'd call woo-woo. I hope you don't mind!

De gustibus non est disputandum vs. the PSR.

But all that you have said here is that what you choose to believe is down to you. — Banno

Well, what I've said isn't something we aren't already familiar with (re novacula occami + other qualities (seemingly) unrelated to truth such as beauty, elegance vis-à-vis the scientific method).

As far as I can see, people aren't convinced the world isn't real. Skepticism doesn't work that way - all it does is raise a possibility, an alternative to what we (think we) know and then shows how the two are adiaphora (indistinguishable). That means pragmata (stuff, sensu amplissimo) are anepikrita (undecidable). What follows is aporia (bewilderment) which leads to ataraxia (tranquility).

No, I'm not French, but I wish I was :chin: ; just watched too much Hercule Poirot, that's all.

So David H Wolpert is alluding to the technological singularity which some scientists have predicted is bound to happen at some point in the future. Wonderful! Technology is heavily biased towards brain power - (artificial) intelligence - and no one's given even a single thought on the matter of artificial heart (no I'm not talking about medical science). It could be a costly mistake if you catch my drift.

I think many people would agree with you. — Tom Storm

:up: By the way, what, in your assessment, would be a good life? It seems that because the Greeks thought of morality in terms of character (of a person), Jesus (a good person according to Christians) was the first to cross my mind.

Prosperity and wealth is a sociological phenomenon, so yes, it hasn't got anything to do with biology. — ssu

We can override our biology! Isn't that awesome? Hunger strikes, celibacy (voluntary), etc. Mind-blowing as far as I'm concerned. Hardwired!? Pfft! :smile:

I believe what you said in a previous post obtains - I'm unable to grok your theory of EnFormaction. Perhaps, like some quantum physicists claim, uncertainty (yin/true/1 OR yang/false/0) is a feature (of reality) and NOT a bug (in our epistemic methodology). Ignorance (noise) is part and parcel of knowledge (signal). Gracias, good day.

All that comes to me mind is that we're in really hot water! The easy way out is to die and/or not procreate (celibacy is a virtue in almost all religions. :chin: ). If you wanna do it the hard way be my guest; godspeed! Love you!