The cold temperatures in Russia are not irrelevant to the people who live in Russia. — Agree to Disagree

And don't forget the researchers in the Antarctic! Imagine how much more pleasant life would be for them if the Earth warmed up 20 degrees or so.

That was Trump's government. Sessions recused himself over undisclosed conversations with the Russian ambassador. Republican Trump appointee Rod Rosenstein appointed Republican Bob Mueller as special counsel. Republican Trump appointee Chris Wray led the FBI that cooperated with Mueller. Why do you think so many of Trump's own people ended up investigating him?

Also, did Biden get more votes than Trump in the 2020 election?

My guess is because they are incompetent, deep-state bureaucrats. But maybe it was to clear their names from the blizzard of lies by then surrounding the hoax. — NOS4A2

Are Mike Pence, Bill Barr, John Kelly, and James Mattis also "incompetent, deep-state bureaucrats"?

Also: who got more votes in 2020?

The government perpetrated the greatest fraud against the US in modern history with the Russia hoax — NOS4A2

That was Trump's government. Sessions recused himself over undisclosed conversations with the Russian ambassador. Republican Trump appointee Rod Rosenstein appointed Republican Bob Mueller as special counsel. Republican Trump appointee Chris Wray led the FBI that cooperated with Mueller. Why do you think so many of Trump's own people ended up investigating him?

Also, did Biden get more votes than Trump in the 2020 election?

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a nice way of redistributing wealth.

I agree completely. Nepotism pales in comparison to insurrection. But it's like George Carlin said: "'Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that". This Hunter Biden crap will make the average voter think "a pox on all your houses" and they'll draw a moral equivalency between Trump and Biden, and there goes a huge advantage Democrats have. I'm almost thinking Biden should step aside, but there's no way this country will elect a black woman as president.

I think Biden's done a good job governing, but even liberal outlets are starting to question some things.

"NBC News hasn’t corroborated this reporting, but Lowell’s confirmation, as reported by Business Insider, that Biden knew some of his buyers is, in and of itself, alarming. It raises the possibility that buyers could use his art as a way to buy political influence or favors through his connections to the president."
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/hunter-biden-art-sales-democrat-donor-identity-rcna96411

This constant drip drip of shady activities is making it harder for Democrats to draw a contrast to Trump's rampant corruption.

And furthermore that the DA that handled the investigation was a Trump appointee and stated unequivocally that there was no political interference in the case. — Quixodian

And there are two whistleblowers who stated under oath that there was.

"IRS supervisory special agent Greg Shapley, and a second agent, Joe Ziegler, claimed there was what Shapley called in testimony a pattern of “slow-walking investigative steps” into Hunter Biden, including during the Trump administration in the months before the 2020 election that Joe Biden won."
https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-irs-justice-department-congress-republicans-32d9f33fb0d05c483d76926504d45bef

Also:

“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” according to testimony the whistleblower gave to Congress, which quotes from texts that are allegedly from Hunter Biden to the CEO of a Chinese fund management company.

The message continues: “Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand. And now means tonight.” The message goes onto say, “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/politics/hunter-biden-joe-biden-2017-text-message/index.html

What's the evidence Joe Biden had anything to do with it? — Relativist

No evidence, except it's his son and his son is getting preferential treatment from the justice department. It looks bad.

No. But as I said, there's no evidence the DOJ is being influenced by Biden as Republicans allege. — Relativist

I don't agree. The plea deal that fell apart was a sweetheart deal. It looks bad.

I wanted him to successfully go after China, we almost had a DACA-for-border-funding deal, the Covid vaccine was a legendary accomplishment.

Have you ever criticized Trump here? It's not a hard question to answer. Why do you keep dodging it?

Making inferences from such experiences is only works if:
A. You are not yourself a Boltzmann Brain
B. We are not inhabitants of a Boltzmann Universe — Count Timothy von Icarus

(A) yes
(B) what is a "Boltzmann Universe"?

Cosmology at its best. A PhD thesis could be written on this observation. — jgill

The lack of observation of any Boltzmann Brains anywhere (they're not limited to space) suggests the density of Boltzmann Brains is rather low. If it were high, we would have seen some by now, right?

2: How are you defining "density"? Do you mean the average number of Boltzmann brains within a given cubic area? — alan1000

yes

But how could anyone possibly know the answer to that question?

Well, when we explore space, we don't see any Boltzmann brains, which suggests the density is very low (or we occupy a special place).

Someone on a philosophy forum once said the amount of new information (they might have said knowledge) in a dictionary is essentially zero, because all the dictionary does is refer to itself. That's always stuck with me. What do you think of that?

Have you ever criticized Trump here?

Have you ever criticized Trump here?

What did you think of Trump praising Xi Jinping?

The hate is not really for him it is towards that sizeable portion of the electorate that persistently supports him and will not be budge. — yebiga

MAGA is losing the culture wars at all levels. Despite being overwhelmingly Christian, MAGA is very much "of the world" and obsessed with their idealized 1950's view of when America was "great". They're so emotionally invested in this, they can't think straight and let a man like Trump become their champion.

Fake electors just got charged in Michigan.

Why would Ukraine give away land at this point for a peace treaty? After the attempted coup in Russia, they smell blood. If they can attrit Russia some more, maybe the whole war will end.

My own opinion leans towards the US not being very serious. They have too strong an interest in continuing this war. — Mikie

Yeah, the U.S. definitely wants to bleed Russia dry, however, China could step into the void and be a peace-maker. I suspect both sides are too far apart for negotiation to work right now, sunken cost fallacy and all that.

What will happen to food prices? How many people will starve because of Putin's invasion?

there’s apparently little willingness to engage in serious peace negotiations. — Mikie

Is Russia willing? What kinds of concessions/demands do they have?

Are you defending RFK and/or his supporters? It sounds like you are.

So it would be fair to say that it's kind of strange that people who distrust the wealthy support wealthy candidates? Esp. ones like,

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/federal-court-approves-25-million-trump-university-settlement-n845181

https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/donald-j-trump-pays-court-ordered-2-million-illegally-using-trump-foundation

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-distorted-vaccine-science1/

Isn't RFK Jr's net worth $50 million?
— RogueAI

If you say so. Your point? — Isaac

Shouldn't we suspect RFK (and Trump) of "[engaging] in underhand, clandestine deals (conspiracies) to extract more wealth"? That's what wealthy people do, right?

the wealthy do in fact engage in underhand, clandestine deals (conspiracies) to extract more wealth — Isaac

Isn't RFK Jr's net worth $50 million?

Putin's hold on power seems rather tenuous lately. I don't see Zelensky having to fight off a coup. Who knows what can happen with another 100,000 Russian casualties? Eventually the Russian people will tire of this and Putin, esp. when their forces keep losing ground.

"Using its own data, the ISW has calculated that Ukrainian forces have recaptured about 253 square kilometres of territory since the start of the counter-offensive on 4 June which, it says, is about the same amount of territory as Russian forces have captured in the past six months."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682

Hypothesize your reaction to a son or daughter coming to you and declaring their intention to begin a career as a sex worker vs. a sports professional. Wherein there is a difference lies the answer to your question. The open minded liberal tends to be open minded and liberal about prostitution as long as it's "them" that's doing it. — Baden

That's a good point, but the particular sport matters. MMA fighter? Boxer? I'd rather my kid be a sex worker. Ditto for any sports where doping is rampant.

Chalmers and Koch are perpetuating a giant public con. — apokrisis

Really? Are they actively scheming to fool people or just unwitting dupes of a Bayesian mastermind?

"The mind seems to be non-material, though tied to the brain which is material. . . . . The very idea of mind acting on matter by a pure effect of will appears a little spooky" — Gnomon

Is substance-dualism making a come back?

On the other hand, it would be great to have a philosophical zombie sherpa help you climb Everest because it wouldn’t matter if they fell off. — Wayfarer

I think this passage is interesting:

"One huge advance would be the invention of a “consciousness-meter,” which could provide a “precise readout of the state of consciousness” of any given object. “I could point it at your head and get a read-out of your state of consciousness. Point it at this flower and see if it’s conscious or not. Point at a dog to see if anything might be going on in it. We don’t have that.” Such a device would “basically give you the data you need to formulate, let’s say, a semi-mathematical theory of consciousness,” which correlates a given physical system with a given conscious state."
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/david-chalmers-thinks-the-hard-problem-is-really-hard/

If you had such a meter, and pointed it a suspected P-zombie, and it registered no consciousness, wouldn't you still treat the suspected P-zombie as if it were conscious? After all, no device is infallible. I also don't see how such an invention could ever come about. Suppose you think you've come up with a consciousness detector, and you point it a dog. How could you possibly verify the accuracy of the meter? That would require another meter to verify the results of the first one, and you have an infinite regress. I see no way around this.

It's alright. Got a bit more boring lately as I've finally had to give up work completely, but I live in a nice place, so I'm OK. Thanks for asking though. — Isaac

Have your views evolved? Last time I asked you that, you claimed you didn't understand the question. Do you now admit that questions of "what is it like to be x" make sense?

Do you know what it's like to be you?

ChatGPT knows something that Dennett doesn't. — Wayfarer

If an Ai was capable of consciousness, and that consciousness influenced it's decision making, knowing what it knows about the evils we humans are capable of (and have done over the millenias)... would it admit to being conscious? What does game theory say about that?

Many other scholars and academics, including John Searle and Thomas Nagel, agree that Dennett's attempt to account for the first person perspective in objective terms, is conceptually flawed from the outset. — Wayfarer

How can it not be??? If we knew the biology of an alien species to 100% accuracy (or close to it), would we still have any inkling whether they were zombies or not? Not to sound like a broken record, but materialism utterly fails to give a satisfactory response to this problem regarding machines. Does ChatGPT have a first person perspective? Will it's fifth-generation successor? Materialism/physicalism is utterly unable to answer this question, and the problem will only get worse and worse as the Ai's get better and better.

Now that you are talking of this mystical thing of “the mind’s eye”, is that something a philosophical zombie also has? — apokrisis

The mind's eye is a "mystical thing"? No, it's not.

Let's talk about feels. What are you afraid of?

I can't quit you!