Aside from the stupidity of using race as a taxonomy with which to order human beings into this or that category — NOS4A2

Maybe if the racial differences were hard to notice. The racial differences between blacks and whites are very noticeable. This makes it a lot easier for whites to "other" blacks, almost to the point where blacks are considered a different species (one that is closer to apes and chimps, of course).

The appeal of race consciousness and racial identity politics to supporters of it is that they get to retain the use of race as a heuristic in their thought, and all the perversions that necessarily arise from it. An example is on display in the criticisms above, where the race of the speakers and not their arguments are all that needs be considered, even if proponents of color-blindness are of all supposed races. The racial heuristic—used as it was in the old racism as it is today, and in the exact same fashion—serves to stop and hinder thought precisely when it is needed most. — NOS4A2

There are eight black CEO's in the Fortune 500. That's about 1.5%. Yet blacks make up 12% of the population. Their representation is off by almost an order of magnitude. Given how blacks have been treated in this country throughout it's history, don't you think racism has something to do with how few blacks there are running Fortune 500 companies?

When I hear conservative white guys railing against 'Woke-ism' and CRT by promoting how 'color blind virtuous' they are it always sounds insincere to me. — GRWelsh

And they pine for the 1950's.

:100:

Is extreme idealism not prone to illusion and misrepresentation of the world? Even with all the justification, your own mind created evidence, logic and justification without the external reference would be still illusive and deceptive. How do you prove it is real, and doubtless knowledge? — Corvus

I can't speak for Wayfarer, but as an idealist, my own thoughts on that are idealism inevitably leads to god for just that sort of reason.

Put another way, it is empirically true that the Universe exists independently of any particular mind. — Wayfarer

If anything exists in a universe with no minds, then non-mental stuff exists in that universe.

I do. But I think racism is an aberration of thought and belief rather than a feature of some particular system. — NOS4A2

It's a feature of any human system.

Or that that the term “racist” is being too liberally applied. — DingoJones

Except I know some racist people for whom the term is not being too liberally applied and I bet everyone here does too.

Do you know any racists? I bet you do. So do I. So does everyone here. That suggests it's systemic, no?

You see how educated people twist themselves in knots trying to answer a simple question? There is no "solid". There is no matter or fields or particles. It's all just a dream. Idealism solves so much and asks so little.

Yes, it won't be easy. Fossil fuels are cheap. Countries can quickly increase their standards of living using them.

I don't get your point about government spending to combat climate change. Are you saying there's a worldwide conspiracy by governments, scientists, and research institutes?

Consequently, there is no means of performing standard, traditional ontology nor investigations into the world as it is in-itself. — Bob Ross

Presently, science is trying to explain consciousness with the ontological assumption that materialism/physicalism is the case. If, in ten thousand years, that scientific project still has not given a definitive answer to the hard problem/mind-body problem, wouldn't that be strong evidence that materialism/physicalism is not true?

Yes. Your thinking parallels my own, but your solutions seem pretty unsatisfying. I'm sure you feel the same way. — T Clark

Yes.

I wonder where there will be room for humanity when it's all over. — T Clark

There will still be a need to sift through all the Ai-generated images looking for the best ones. That doesn't require a lot of skill though. If I was a professional artist, I'd be worried. Or I'd sell my paintings with a video of me making the painting included, so there's proof a human did it.

Yes, its computing solutions for equations of motion in physics. — Apustimelogist

What do you think of this, by Searle? "“The wall behind my back is right now implementing the WordStar program, because there is some pattern of molecule movements that is isomorphic with the formal structure of WordStar. But if the wall is implementing WordStar, if it is a big enough wall it is implementing any program, including any program implemented in the brain.”"
https://philosophynow.org/issues/124/Is_Everything_A_Computer

If no one is looking at a computer simulation of a tornado, is it still a computer simulation of a tornado? Or is just a bunch of pixels turning off and on?

"The idea that plants might be conscious is not popular, but it is definitely not untestable, unscientific, or “magicalist” (not a word)."
https://iai.tv/articles/no-theory-of-consciousness-is-scientific-auid-2610?_auid=2020

Conscious crystals can't be too far behind. I hope Shirley MacLaine lives long enough.

My whole experience (tentatively I would say consciousness) is just a stream of these things. They cannot be reduced further... they are the bottom and foundation for everything I know and perceive. — Apustimelogist

What about when you clear your mind? When I meditate, I can clear my mind for at least a short time so there is no stream of anything, yet I'm still conscious.

Take the simplest of computational networks - two states going through a logic gate, producing a new state. — Generic Snowflake

Is an abacus falling through the air, beads moving back and forth from the wind, doing any computations?

What does a solution to the hard problem look like? — Apustimelogist

Idealism.

I don't see "should" as having all that much to do with what we suppose. However, in the case a loved one of yours having a stroke in your presence, I hope it will occur to you that your loved one has a physical brain, and getting your loved one to a doctor who knows about brains is important. — wonderer1

That too is consistent with a dream. What's your next move, kick a rock? :razz:

You talk about information a lot. What theory of consciousness is your favorite?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the question, but my impulse is to answer that we've seen physical brains by opening up skulls. That's why I suppose they exist. Do you suppose physical brains don't exist? — flannel jesus

I suppose that physical matter doesn't exist, let alone physical brains. It's all mental stuff. The hard problem vanishes.

The effect of general anesthesia in suppressing consciousness.

The effect of mind altering drugs.

The fact that human intuition 'looks like' the result of the way information processing occurs in neural networks.

All sorts of ways minds can be impacted by brain damage. — wonderer1

That is all consistent with idealism. Why should we suppose there exists a physical brain made of non-mental stuff? Also, do you think all instances of information processing give rise to subjective experience? Or only some? Are you a proponent of IIT?

Thinking and feeling arise as the joint firing of neurons, i.e. neurons form patterns. — Wolfgang

Why does some neuron activity result in thinking and feeling while other neural/neuron activity results in no feelings? Why are we conscious of only some brain processes? Is IIT a pseudoscience?

:up:

For most of my life, Republicans were the ones more likely to vote by mail. Dear Leader didn't like it, so of course the Republican sheeple changed their voting patterns.

But metabolism and feedback throughout the body are essential to conciousness. There are whole books on how the endocrine system effects conciousness that can make it seem like it is the main driver, the neurons ancillary dependants. This is obviously wrong too, the system is complex and there is a circular causality at work. "The Other Brain," is a great book on the massive amount of "work" that glial cells do in the brain. The neurons only take center stage, alone, because we have placed them there in our abstractions. — Count Timothy von Icarus

But there is still the same explanatory problem: brain states XYZ + body + quantum effects = the pain of stubbing a toe, but brain states ABC + body + quantum effects = the experience of seeing red, while brain states DEF + body + quantum effects = nothing. What is it about these brain states that leads to different experiences (or no experiences)?

Also, are you claiming it's impossible to create a mechanical analogue of a working brain + body + quantum effects? If we did, how would we know it's conscious? What if we simulated a working brain and body and quantum effects? Would the simulation be conscious?

If the election was stolen from Trump, why is he running again? Why will his supporters bother voting for him? If the rascally Democrats could steal an election out from under Trump WHILE he was president, aren't they going to do a much better #steal now that they have the Whitehouse?

Isn't all this similar to Descartes' evil demon? Sure quaddition could be different than addition. Sure there could be an evil demon messing with us every time we think 2 and 2 are 4 (spoiler: it's really 5). But there's probably no evil demon and quaddition probably gives the same answer as addition.

Right, but all the "stuff" is just mentation, mental stuff. We're all part of one disassociated cosmic mind for him, right? So, of course if all minds disappear there is nothing, because there is nothing but mind. Saying "all minds cease to exist," is equivalent with saying "the universe ceases to exist." — Count Timothy von Icarus

Well, yes. The idealist would say that if there are no minds, nothing exists. The materialist would object to that. I don't see how bringing process into the discussion removes that point of disagreement. The idealist and materialist are still going to disagree on what would exist if there are no minds. Even if consciousness/mind are processes, the (non-panpsychist) materialist is still going to claim mindless stuff exists and would continue to exist if all minds disappeared. The modern-day materialist is going claim Jupiter still exists in a mindless universe, right? Or has materialism undergone a radical change?

You have an enlightened view. All the atheists I've interacted with roll their eyes when I talk about idealism.

Universal consciousness conceptually doesn't have those trappings. If you reject religion for similar reasons, a lot of atheists are going to consider you a like mind — flannel jesus

Until you start talking about the cosmic one mind. Then you're considered a dupe who believes in "woo".

If substance emerges from process, what would claims like Katsrupt's that the world is made up of "mental substance," even mean vis-á-vis competing claims that is is "physical substance." — Count Timothy von Icarus

I think Kastrup would say the primary difference is that in his ontology there is no mind-independent stuff. If all minds disappeared, so would the universe. Materialism/physicalism claims the universe would still exist, even if there were no minds.

You're coming across as kind of a jerk. I notice that happens a lot in these consciousness discussions for some reason.

The courts didn't give him standing, they didn't hear the substance of the claims. — yebiga

"In his Nov. 21 order dismissing the case, Brann criticized the Trump campaign for seeking to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying its election results without presenting any evidence to support such a “drastic remedy.”

“One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption,” Brann wrote. “Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state.”
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/06/rudy-giulianis-bogus-election-fraud-claims/

Did you believe in Sydney Powell's Kraken?

How apropos. I was just pointing out to wonderer1 in another thread how flimsy scientific theories of consciousness are. Now one of the leading ones get's called pseudoscience. Well, well.

It's not bluster to point out science's failure to explain consciousness. It's also not bluster to predict science will continue to fail to explain consciousness. You might not agree with that prediction, but there's no blustering going on. When do you think science will figure out consciousness? 10 years from now? 100? 1000?

Do you think mind/consciousness can emerge from electronic switches being turned on and off in a certain way? From moving abacus beads? Would a system of valves, pumps, and water that's functionally identical to a working brain have a mind?

How about answering my question? Do you have something more than incredulity for an argument? — wonderer1

I think science's continued failure to explain consciousness is evidence that incredulity is the right response to the idea that minds and consciousness emerge from mindless unconscious stuff. Philosophers will continue to win bets against neuroscientists.

What basis do you have to think that it is possible for a mind to exist, sans an information processing substrate for the mind to supervene upon? — wonderer1

I think the theories that involve mind emerging from a substrate are unconvincing-bordering-on-absurd. Do you think that if you wire a bunch of electric switches together and turn them off and on in some way the pain of stubbing a toe will emerge? Or the taste of of orange? Or the experience of seeing red?

I would be more sympathetic to atheism if science could explain consciousness. As it is, I think it's more likely we're aspects of a universal one-mind.