It's really a matter of economics. Once solar is below the parity level of coal oil and gas, then you will see inevitable economic forces making decisions instead of policies. That's just how things work. I just don't know if solar and other renewables can get to that point soon enough.

Shale oil is not a US innovation. It predates the US by a couple of hundred years. — Benkei

Hah, I get the point. American exceptionalism at its best. Seems like the solution will have to be found from the same source of the problem, capitalism, and consumerism (as long as owning a green vehicle is a statement of status and being cool). Tesla seems to be dragging the competition in that direction, and hats off to him.

My dad taught me about Platonism at a young age. I tend to return to the Republic quite often as it is a very comforting book for a male at least.

I then became familiarized with Stoicism in my teenage years, again from my father, which taught me that every person has the capacity to reason and dictate one's behavior through reason. How? Think Rawl's veil of ignorance.

Then a little later, as the emotions subsided and desires became less intense, I got involved in Buddhism, albeit rather superficially.

The metaphysics of it all is that human nature is inherently good; but, rampant desires and emotions can distort it into something terrible. That reality is essentially mathematics at play and that human nature can be quelled by disregarding one's lusts, desires, and negative emotions (through such stuff as CBT, which really is a form of Western Buddhism, without delving into psychoanalysis of the source of desires, passions, and wants.).

Thus the statement, "The world is the totality of facts." is not a fact, but a definition, a linguistic affair, for or against which factual evidence cannot be brought. — unenlightened

Yes. If talk proves talk wrong, stop talking. If talk proves the world wrong, talk differently. — unenlightened

So, what is it? Metaphysics or no metaphysics?

Wittgenstein: The world is the totality of facts.
Carnap: The world is the totality of physical objects and logical structures.
Quine: The world is the totality of physical objects and mathematical objects.
Lewis: The world is the totality of things in possible worlds.
Armstrong: The world is the totality of states of affairs. — quine

What would Kripke say?

The world is the totality of every realized and unrealized modalities?

The sad fact is that climate change is going to occur however you look at it due to dependence on hydrocarbons for fuel and the amount of money subsidizing it along with invested in it, plus the lobbying yada yada.

If someone reads about it, there's a bunch of methane being released in Siberia and the Artic along with unknown estimates from the Antartic. I suppose Greenland might have large deposits too, but I'm talking out of my ass about Greenland.

God save the Netherlands.

I believe shale methane hasn't reached peak yet. And last I recall there is something like 200 years worth for the US to run off in the country alone. Also, shale oil/gas is a US innovation that hasn't yet taken hold of the rest of the world due to limiting the tech to the US to benefit initially from it the most last I recall.

Lastly, there's I think a thousand years worth of methane clathrate in the Mexican ocean and along the California coast laying on the seafloor. Once, prices are right you can expect that to be exploited soon enough.

But, who's going to do all the work?

I believe MAD will keep us all safe, as long as North Korea's leader is satisfied and nobody sells him a sub capable of getting to our shores undetected.

Besides, Earth is beautiful. Where are you gonna go on vacation on Mars? Musk's idea is that people will all become movie addicts and spend all their leisure time enjoying Henry Fonda films.

I can already see Musk's idea of becoming 'King of Mars' and proclaiming, 'We're going to have capitalism on steroids here with a lot of socialism!'

I'm obviously joking, but I certainly don't want to be the first on Mars.

Forget about hot fusion, cold fusion is making a comeback.

As for the topic. We have an ocean full of deuterium and hydrogen... We have thorium in plenty. We have technology coming up with actual transmutation of elements all while releasing abundant energy in the process (a complex one but workable). Then there's the sun.

People also seem to forget that we also have a nuclear fission reactor beneath our feet that is limitless in energy production via geothermal means, all while sequestering carbon emissions by storing excess carbon capture from nearby coal plants to store underground until the stuff turns into limestone. Speaking of which, if you look up the LCOE of geothermal as compared to other renewables, then geothermal will almost always have an absolute advantage over any other renewable source, and it also beats non-renewables too like coal, gas, and nuclear. Hell, Yellowstone could potentially power the entire US if we wanted to, providing some serious non-stop power without carbon emissions and other positive externalities like promoting public awareness on the impending disaster of a Yellowstone eruption. Anyone?

It's really a lack of funding and current lobbying and governmental ineptitude really holding us back. India and China are ahead in terms of planning for a cleaner future; but, I don't believe that much in social planning unless you can wipe out a population and start from anew. Tesla, Panasonic, graphene batteries, and supercapacitors, better energy storage, less transmission waste for energy intensive industries, more localized energy production for homes and less energy intensive utility, seem to be the future. There's also natural gas as mentioned, which if things go sour then current vehicles can be retrofitted with LPG gas as they do in Europe and elsewhere.

Does the fact that the universe have a totality of facts that are intelligible via the PoSR, mean in any way that it is self contained, consistent, and provable?

But, those 'things' act in concert as logical facts.

It's nonsense to say that a tree doesn't falls in the forest if nobody is there to witness it, it just does.

That really depends on the facts of physics. Your proof is a perversion of Zeno's paradox as you state.

If it were true, then no physical law can be said to be absolute in all instances, which I doubt to be true. Every problem would be a super-task, at least any non-localized problem.

Show us that we're all full of shit and hiding our desires behind a veil of rationalizations.

Let the orgy commence.

Maybe it's not evil, maybe it is. But, it's not good in-of itself and doesn't lead to virtue.

The world is the totality of things. — quine

This is clearly not true. A computer is a logical space, which behavior is dictated by logical facts. Ask Turing. And as per the Church-Turing-Deutsch principle, the world is the totality of facts, not things.

Perception doesn't fit in with solipsism in the Tractatus, is what I'm saying.
Marchesk explained the issue.

This can go about two way's and Wittgenstein choose the rather treacherous/fallacious path of solipsism in the Tractatus and with it private languages if I dare say so. The other path he could have taken is to assert a dichotomy between the self and an object but instead encapsulated both in language by saying that the limits of my language are the limits of my world (as if one could not learn a new word or fact), and the rest of the Tractatus would have fallen apart in my opinion.

I think the Investigations show's that solipsism was the wrong path to take.

There are obviously infinite modalities to states of affairs and the world, after all, is not two dimensional.

Yeah, just watching this again.

I need to sear his passion for Stoicism into my mind again.

Yes, I surprised the professor didn't get and give a collective heart attack for such a lecture on Stoicism.

Oh, I've seen that 2 times already.

My Stoic skills are good, much more training needed.

There's probably a half-way house between Marcus Aurelius's iron self control — Baden

But, it's Marcus Aurelius. The philosopher king! The only that ever existed. The good emperor as his populace called him.

Try forgiving yourself more and do more of what makes you happy. — Bitter Crank

Philosophy, as Marcus Aurelius would say to guide one's steps and path in such a torturous world full of lust, desire, and evil.

You have a wife? I'm sorry but I thought you were too mad of a fool to have one. :_)

That doesn't make it true. I would say that religions are prone to falsehoods. — Michael

They are prone to falsehoods; but, they are right in some regards. Whether they take things to excess is another matter.

That wouldn't make it evil. And I think the key term there is excessive. Anything that's excessive is a problem, e.g. excessive eating. The key is moderation. Outright avoidance can be just as problematic as indulging too much. — Michael

No, it would not make it evil; but, it exposes oneself unnecessarily to the vices and dark elements of human nature. How do you know how much self-pleasure is enough? You don't.

Yes there is. But even if there wasn't, that wouldn't make it evil. — Michael

Most religions recognize that self-pleasure leads to the path of unhappiness. And, quite frankly my excessive (previous) indulgence in pornography has made me quite unhappy.

That's what everyone says. See, there is never any level of satisfaction achieved with self-pleasure. It's like telling a drug addict his or her habits are wrong.

Then, I'm not many people then. This is funny, people are arguing that I should indulge in self pleasure. Self-pleasure is evil.

But the sense of accomplishment and victory over one's desires. Not many people can say that they have attained that status.

Besides, I get enough pleasure reading the posts and posting here. :_)

Nah, I got it wrong. God was just lonely so he created us. End of story.

How could an all good being be lonely? Is this God just being vain?

Hmmm, not getting your drift here. Care to explain?

For all the talent and great music and aesthetic appeal, I find myself returning to the above low budget film with a great philosophical argument.

"The only thing which exists is myself.

In the begging there was darkness and the darkness was without form and void and in addition to the darkness there was also me and I moved upon the face of the darkness and I saw that I was alone.

Let there be light."

The bomb was lonely!

[The bomb] can indeed do what [it] wants, but [it] cannot will what [it] wants.

What about it?

Daisy, Daisy / Give me your answer, do. / I'm half crazy / all for the love of you.

Dave was being a dick.

That's like what a father says when he doesn't get things his way. Or what a potential mother says when she places the priority of her own welfare above the fetus.

Sad things.

I hope I dream about the bomb tonight. It was at least a good bomb.

The bomb was just doing its job!