I think, therefore I think....
I tried to understand the steps evolution took to give me the marvelous brain I have today.
One can look at creatures like the octopi, that have a simple hub in the head connected to eight simple brains in their arms. The starfish have a simpler brain.
From the bottom up I see microscopic creatures that act as thought they know what they are doing. I wonder if their brains are mindless computers, storing data like black boxes in commercial jets. Maybe these experiences are at first used to make decisions, for a programmed response. These experiences would logically be grouped as useful, inhibiting, nourishing, deadly. Maybe these become emotions like satisfaction and fear, and instincts like hunger and self-preservation.

How do I catalog by author books written randomly, or by monkeys? I believe the assembly line than makes some young adult book series has some answer to that.

If you believe in alien intelligent life, then most technology and advancements in science are not new, just new to Earth.
In the experiment with monkees at the typewriter, one tries to imagine the odds of them accidentally recreating an existing work. A human author runs an infinitesimally small chance of recreating an existing work, but can create new works easily.
By statistics, the monkeys at the typewriters would create an infinite number of valid ORIGINAL novels or manuals before duplicating sn existing one.
Barnes and Noble could sell these monkey books in their own section.

I personally think new ideas are coming along all the time. I remember in 8th grade I had an idea and voiced it in biology class, that within each atom is contained another complete universe.

With due respect, that is a very common idea. Also the possibility that our galaxies are like atoms in a larger reality.
By contrast, I have a theory that galaxies are half matter and half antimatter. no one else has ever said that.
In design, innovations can be new. Invention can result in a new device, or new application by assembling existing parts.
Writers don't invent words, yet can create something new with them.
Progressive music attempts to be unique, Blues tries to be predictable and derivative.
Uniqueness doesn't necessarily mean art, and art is not completely objective, beauty "in the eyes of the beholder". Art has a real consensus. Artists tend to recognize quality in the work by other artists.
Anyone can write a poem. Those who write the best poetry more fully understand rhyme, meter, alliteration, form, content, colorful descriptions, etc.

There will inevitably be disagreement as to what is human error, what is greed, and what is necessary.

TAOTG,
I have pondered something similar. Cells in our brain can do no thinking, but cells acting together make our mentality. If creatures like ants or bees developed a way to incorporate all of their brains, they might achieve a very high collective intelligence.
For humans, it seems like integration with computers would be the first step, then perhaps there could be a "Borg" type collective.
If you flashed a series of colored dots on a screen in front of me, sensors could detect what parts of the brain electrifies to what degree. From this data a map could direct a computer to stimulate those areas of the brain to create a mental image.
Recording brain electricity during thoughts or dreams could give data to be played back, a video of your imagination or a video of your dreams!

IMHO a "theory of everything" is sophomoric, and shows a lack of understanding of understanding itself. I compare it to the ancient belief that there was a particular music tone that would destroy the universe.

I like some of the changes caused by the pandemic.
I believe that we should have been doing much more networking.

Children can learn most things by networking without being crowded into classrooms. An effort to create well designed video learning modules would give all children the benefits from teachers who prove to have the best, most interesting way to teach each subject. Half the day at an actual school would be enough, rounded out with home lessons on laptops like college students have.

I think teleconferencing is better for corporations, instead of executives jetting all over at great expense, just to shake hands and talk in person.

The advance in medical technology, like more better ventilators and public detectors for symptoms, is likely the inevitable future fast forwarded to now. This can have benefits beyond covid-19.

The present we were used to is now the past, for the better in some ways.

Freewill IMHO is not "the end justifies the means".
I believe ultimate freewill is a product of spontaneity, making your own decisions, and the FREEDOM and OPPORTUNITY to do what you choose. Non-conformity would have to be important, as any ready guide that one follows blindly cannot be considered true freewill. Some might argue that blindly conforming is a choice itself; but you don't know the edict until it has been told to you, so it is the "choice" of someone else that you must wait on.

we are aware of things that we are not. In other words, we are aware of things that are completely external to us

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That better defines consciousness, depending on your definition of aware. Simple no-brain creatures of one cell or very few cells react to their surroundings, have some "sense" of their IMMEDIATE surrounding environment. There is obviously a limit to the ability to sense an environment, and react in a manner supporting survival, without a complex brain. As creatures evolved, and competed, the need for a brain ensued.

The consciousness is an advantage in nature where complex information, ability to predict and plan ahead, and awareness of physical self can overcome simple actions and reactions of non-conscious creatures. Evolution would greatly favor creatures who attained levels of consciousness.

Even without senses, the mind could still imagine and find some level of understanding. Philosophy is learning by logic and imagination from within, without external input. Mysticism is essentially about sensory deprivation, removal of all static so that one can hear the wisdom of the universe. While dreaming, you are sensing nothing, but in your mind experience what seems real.

The falling tree doesn't require awareness for it to make a SOUND. Noise suggests awareness of a nearby person with hearing. Facts exist, knowlege suggests a being aware of a fact.

There doesnt seem to be any other system, besides consciousness, to guide complicated fauna in its daily struggles.That should tell us that consciousness is the best game in town.

What if dog was spelled "C-A-T"?

Perhaps instead of immoral we could say repulsive. When people get into excess food, alcohol, or drugs. When the drugs do the user, they can become immoral, selfish, dishonest, abusive. They spend every dollar they have, sell everything, then beg steal and borrow to get money for drugs. They don't give a damn about anyone.
I suppose there can be some that can do a little and leave it, but has anyone ever said that a person was better after they started doing heroin?

Yes, but if defense lawyers only put effort sometimes, then more innocent people will be denied a fair shake in court.
Is it an aberration that those standing trial for their crimes are supposed to lie and say that they are not guilty?
They are supposed to perpetrate others lies to convolude truth and dodge justice. It is sadly the only fair way to level the playing field, when circumstancial evidence can result in prosecution.

Not usually suppress evidence, except in the movies and TV.

There is an assumption that a verdict of not guilty is always possible, if the lawyer is good enough. They can not suppress damning evidence.
In this case, a good lawyer would try to gain sympathy and get life instead of death, or possibly a lighter sentence.

Why are we conscious? The ability to think is a large advantage, in the wild and in modern human civilization. Even among conscious creatures, the more intellegent have advantage, like the more intelligent dolphins dominate sharks.
Plants have less of a struggle, if their immediate environment doesn't change too much. The propagation of plants doesn't result in consciousness; imagine how empty and meaningless the universe would be with no creatures to be aware of it?

I agree with creativesoul. If you can't show the math you should not post these conclusions.

Protons and electrons have a charge when separate. Together the charges cancel.

Ammount of real numbers = infinite
Ammount of even real numbers = infinite

I meant whole, or natural numbers, not real numbers.

If different infinities have different values then is it really a definite quantity?

Ammount of real numbers = infinite
Ammount of even real numbers = infinite
Does this mean that infinity divided by 2 equals itself?

Does this not violate the definition of a real number? Seems like there was something on this in "analytical geometry"...

I feel insulted when agnostics are grouped with atheists. They are very different. An agnostic is a confused, wavering intelligence with no meaningful lasting conclusions.

A %100 religious person is more similar to an atheist.They both are thoughtful, have a definite set of answers, are unwavering, They just happened to get a different answer.

The insulting phrase "there are no atheists in foxholes" is typical of an agnostic, not an atheist.

An agnostic is a wavering religious person, changing their beliefs based on current events.

An atheist understands the world without a God, and has no doubts which crop up when things get bad.

Would a person of 30, normal intelligence disbelieve in Santa because

1 He didn't get the gift that he wanted?
2 The world makes no sense without the Santa Claus mythos?
3 Because he was told that Santa Claus is not real?
4 Because most people don't believe in Santa?

I believe that he doesn't believe in Santa because he understands the world and what Santa really is.

I'm of the opinion an actual infinity cannot exist.

I believe that beyond time and space, that infinity is only a mathematical construct.
We can not deal with infinite time or space, and nothing else in our world becomes infinite.

We measure the totality of energy by the rate of electrical flow times the amount of time, giving us Kilowatt hours.
If we multiply an infinite universe times the infinitely small, moving point in time in which it exists, perhaps the infinities cancel. This seems like a comfortable, perhaps pathological workaround to the notion that nothing can be infinite.

1. “What does the hairdresser see between mirrors?”

This could have many extraneous answers.
A. At the hair shop, one would see the wall that the two mirrors are mounted against.
B. She could see herself.
C. Air that is invisible, but is between the mirrors.
ETC

I think the interesting answer is the opposing mirror effect where you see many reflections in a row.

3. “When the pieces stop moving, the witness goes blind.”
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If you invert the sentence, you get: "When there is movement, the camouflaged becomes visible".

I like that answer the best. Cats and hawks only see their prey from a distance when they move.

I see.
Two pennies are alike, When one contrasts and compares two pennies, they might say that they are the same, opposed to being different.

But they are not the same penny.

There was a Star Trek Voyager episode where they came across advanced aliens who were descendants from Earth's dinosaurs, and left the planet for some reason before the big extinction event.

If aliens were here millions of years ago, they may have taken many creatures, in the name of preservation. If not a zoo, at least a DNA bank would preserve all previous life forms.

Perhaps a decision was made, to give Earth to the mammals, and take the upright intelligent reptiles elsewhere to live and evolve? This was the crux of the STV episode.

I am curious about the difference in brains. Humans have two side-by-side brains, two hemispheres . They are running parallel. Birds [evolved reptiles] and reptiles, have two different brains in a line, running in series.

Why is a religion so good at commanding people to behave a certain way

In the news recently,300 Catholic priests molested 1000 children in one state alone.

Philosophers are folks who might at worst cheat on their wives, or drink or smoke a little sumpin' sumpin'. They don't usually commit acts of violence or molestation.

Religion and philosophy are really versions of the same thing. Trying to understand our world, people..The ethics in the bible are philosophical.

When it comes to 9/11, the vast majority of people don't want to know the ugly truth. It is better to let it go, a case of blissful ignorance.

time is transcendent: a river in which we ride and in which events occur. But why should we believe this?

Unless there is a valid scientific reason for the universe to profoundly change, like time stopping, one should default to the belief that time continues to progress whether or not the matter is in motion.
Without some matter in motion, it becomes hard to track the progress of time. This does not demand that a dimension disappears, and time ceases to progress.

It's too easy to claim others to be insane by accusing them of conspiracy theory.
We all have heard many ridiculous conspiracy theories. This empowers a few grandstanders to make sweeping jestures about what all is true or not true.

Liberal media. The "me too" movement. Russia muddling in the election. These are theories about conspiracy.

True ignorance, not denial, can be seen in Alzheimer's patients and the mental retarded. They are blissfully happy, they don't have the capacity to worry.

Inductive reasoning is the belief that you select an answer first, then test it for correctness. It most often results in seeing observations through a biased filter. I believe that deductive reasoning is a better method for finding an answer that likely isn't at first obvious.
If one can truly delineate all possibilities, and logically and correctly eliminate all but one, then the remaining possibility is the answer, proven indirectly.
This is not as easy as it sounds. Improbable is very often mistakenly defined as impossible, and eliminated unjustly. With many mysteries of science, what seems to be the least probable often turns out to be the correct answer.
Example: When a man flips a coin, on Earth, how many possible outcomes ensue? Most would say three. Heads, tails, and balanced on the edge.
Explosions occur on Earth, collisions, collapsing of structures. If These things occurred after the coin is flipped, but before it landed, the result might be that the coin is destroyed, or lost. A nuke could vaporize the coin. So a fourth possibility ensues, "none of the above".

Religions limit God to a being that must provide an explanation to man in the form of writings. No one seems to believe a God would exist with a manual.

Change requires time. Time does not require change.

If i were married to someone with 9 figures in the bank, i think I could overlook a little indiscretion.