Fried plantains and stewed goat. — Nils Loc

Fried green bananas, cut thin, are good too. You can use them like chips with dip. Plantains should be left to ripen until they are almost black on the outside and then fried or toasted.

But you can keep the stewed goat thanks, never did like goat.
Stewed beef in coconut milk, with yucca, green plantain, white cabbage, served over rice is great though.
And anything to drink accept vodka and tequila.

The subject is doubt, not conversion. — Hippyhead

If someone doubts the truth of their church, would they not leave it. Leaving is not the same as being converted.

If solipsism is true there can only be one solipsist.

One? — Wheatley

OK, which light bulb will he change?

What happened to Koen, has he stopped believing in himself?

Getting atheists to doubt the qualifications of human reason to address the very largest of questions (scope of god claims) is pretty close to impossible. — Hippyhead

But getting an atheist to doubt the usefulness of the endeavor would be impossible.

Getting Catholics to doubt the degree to which the Bible is literally true is child's play in comparison. — Hippyhead

How many of them have you persuaded to leave the church then?
Not many of them actually believe that the bible is literally true, at least not the ones that have a bit of education.
I know a lot of Catholics and while many of them might not know how to defend their faith, I doubt that many would be convinced enough to walk away from the church.

FYI, there's more acceptance of doubt in religious communities than on atheist forums. :-) — Hippyhead

Could you give us an example, sounds interesting.

Apparently the giant companies like Dole are eschewing new tech gene modification to try and get ahead of the new oncoming fusarium wilt problem (like what hit the Gro Michel with panama disease in 1950s). — Nils Loc

That is where I got mine. Yes they are used to make better products in the research farms, I think that the one I had came originally from Hawaii. That is where you mostly see them planting seeds because for production it is just too time consuming to use in production. But I think that even this will be slowly dying out as direct gene manipulation gets better.
One of the fascinating things about food plants is the way they spread around the globe. They can trace the genetic paths for many plants as they have traveled around the world with early explorers that have taken their version of a plant to another place and it has mixed with local varieties creating new versions. Most of the time these explorers looked for places to live that had similar climates, therefore in many cases had similar plants.

There is a great book called "The history of the potato" that is not at all as boring as it sounds.

I don't read too many books nowadays, but I listen to a lot. Audio books are the best thing since real books were invented.

Books are like windows, every time you open one you can see into a different place, world or time. You can be a part of someone else's life or even someone else for a while. It is kind of like living different lives and experiences at one time.

But do not get stuck reading just one type of book, read everything. I read cereal boxes at breakfast.
Variety is what makes the world go round.

Just goes to show how uneducated some of the people are.

There are plenty of different types of bananas in the world, and a quick search would have found many sites to disprove his theory.

https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Seeded_Bananas_16736.php

I had a different version growing in my garden a few years ago but it got killed by the lazy neighbor spraying grass instead of cutting it. I got it from a research garden at one of the local banana export farms.
Even modern banana plants have flowers and can be cross pollinated, although I am not sure how much difference it would make. No one uses seeds any more because it is so much easier just to cut and replant the shots that continuously come out of the roots.

If the banana was domesticated 7,000 years ago, does that mean they were as seedless back then? — Nils Loc

No, just like wheat and corn they were mixed and match to get better fruit and ended up like the ones this guy buys in the supermarket.

Don't get hung up on this; — SophistiCat

I ain't. :up:

Venn Diagram will work here, to present a visual overlapping of counts. — Caldwell

But they are not that good at representing percentages of a whole.

That is not funny, its truly hilarious. Truly being the key word. :rofl:

Would It help to put it this way?

2/3 registered users have never posted
Of those who have posted, 2/3 have under 10 posts — SophistiCat

Here again you are creating sub groups to try to explain data.

Or if you like pies (who doesn't?) — SophistiCat

Pie charts are much easier to understand, because the are based 100% and split into parts equivalent to the percentages. Have you ever tried to create a pie where subgroups appear in several places in the chart?

Percentage of people who like green eggs: 71%
Percentage of people who like ham: 85%
Percentage of people who like Dr. Seuss: 93%
etc., etc., etc.. — Pantagruel

Now this is much clearer, nothing like the other set. It is obvious that we have a hundred percent of people and that a percentage of them like certain things. No subsets involved, just different objects to like or dislike.

The stats weren't presented as an analysis of the collective, but of the properties of individuals. No wonder I have so much difficulty offering systems theoretical arguments. — Pantagruel

But as an individual I might fall into several of those groups.

Posters (>0 posts) with fewer than 10 posts: 63% - if I have made 1 post I am in this group
Posters with fewer than 626 posts: 95% - if I have made 1 post I am in this group
Posters with a single post ("drive-by"): 25% - if I have made 1 post I am in this group

As I said, the data is not really clear.

That reminds me about something in a book I read a while ago, can't remember which though.

I think this guy went into space with an AI space ship that had downloaded the internet and used it as a reference to communicate with the human.

After the AI referred to FLORIDA man several times the guy asked what he meant. Someone that does dumb things was the answer, based on the number of times Florida man appeared in news headlines doing stupid things.

But at least the sheriff took a couple of weeks to think about it before coming to his decision. Or maybe he is just a slow thinker.

An easy one then.

How many "solipsists" does it take to change a light bulb?

How long does it take for a "solipsist" to answer a post?

Can you think of a sound without replicating it with your inner voice?

Can you think of the feeling of touching a rough surface (i.e., sand paper) without "seeing" the act of touching the rough surface in your mind? — Daniel

When you think of a chainsaw do you replicate its image in your mind? When someone talks about the noise they make, do you replicate the noise in your head?
I don't. I can't even image what it would be like to have all of the sounds that you thought about being replicated with your inner voice.

Any sensory input that is in your memory can be recalled, possibly even relived to a certain extent. But I have to actually try to replicate the sound of a ships horn before I can "hear" it in my mind. I can think about the chirping of birds as well without having to have the chirping replicated.

So i'm here , if you are interested, ask me a question... — Koen

So if you are the only thing that exists, that means I am either a part of you or have been invented by you.

What's my name?

Sounds like the argument we are hearing from some of the crazier church leaders right now.

Fate(god) already knows whether you will live or die in the pandemic, so come to church and pray instead of going to the hospital.

Does the mind occupy a space? — Daniel

That’s because it’s pure speculation. How would one even begin to test such a theory? — Possibility

And as far as I am concerned that wraps it all up.

Almost anything we say here as an answer to the question could and probably should be counted as speculation. If the geniuses don't know yet, I am going to sit around and wait for then to figure it out. :wink:

:grin: No, SophistiCat's stats did not add up to 222%. Please read it again. — Caldwell

But it appears to.

Note that "posters" are a subset of "users," and posters with < 10 posts are a subset of posters with < 626 posts. — SophistiCat

As I said, I am not that great at statistics and the manner of presentation is I think unusually as well. In the little studying I ever did of statistics (not that much in engineering) it was always made clear to us that the percentages should always add up to 100%

One would expect to see something like the following to give a true representation of the data.

Registered users: 7,603
Users with no posts: 64% = 4,865
Etc, etc. until reaching 100%

Including subsets within subsets blurs the reality of the information. One would, I think, like to see statistics that give a clear picture of the quantity of each group, and the total does make more sense when it adds up to 100%

I am going to take a while to think this one through. :chin:

I am not great at math nor statistics, but I don't think there are 222% of users here in the forum. :smirk:

I'd say it is obvious that our minds are constantly changing; — Daniel

Again, no one disagrees. But are mental state and physical state the same thing?

To say that a mental state is physical, then it would have to be contained in the brain. But which part of the brain do you mean?
To say that the mind is in the atoms of the brain means that the atoms themselves are the mind and therefore the mind does not occupy space because it is the brain and 2 things cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

but isn't the rotation confined to a space? — Daniel

No, rotation is just the result of the motor running, a property of the engine. If rotation was physical and taking up the same space as the engine there would be a big bang.

but the rotation in itself is not something that has mass, it doesn't need so — Augustusea

Exactly, the rotation is the result of the energy being used in the motor, just as the mind is the result of energy being used in the brain

the mind is a result to a process, that process is physical, the mind is just a result of it, i.e. doesn't have to be physical, and that process in the brain does have mass, and is affected by time and space — Augustusea

Would not this be something like saying that the horsepower of a gasoline engine or its rotation occupy space?

So the relationship in question is not that of the cup, but of its energy, as a comparison to the mind and its relationship to the brain and ‘surroundings’. The energy is not solely a property of the cup or the coffee, any more than the mind is solely a property of the brain or the nervous system. It exists as a property of continually changing particle relations in the variably integrated organic system, and manifests as energy events that appear to ‘occupy’ the brain and/or the nervous system depending on the measurement/observation. — Possibility

And that is the problem being discussed, no one disagrees with the rest of it.

If the mind changes, why not consider it a physical entity? — Daniel

So if I decide to give you an answer or leave it and have a beer, there should be something physically different about me? I doubt it.

...answers on the back of an envelope in ten words or less. — Banno

Sealed with a $10 bill inside. And forget the return address.

Ok. I might be wrong on this. Aren't time and space connected? Can they act independently of one another; as in, can something occupy a space and not be affected by time, and vice versa? If the mind is affected by time, shouldn't it also occupy a space? — Daniel

Still stuck on the problem of the brain being the mind are you?

Is the mind timeless? Does it change at all with the passage of time? Or does it always posses the same exact qualities as time progresses? — Daniel

The mind would change through time based more on its use than on actual time passing. There is an old saying.
"Twenty years of experience is not the same as a year of experience repeated for twenty years"

The mind would change more with the accumulation of data and learning to process it which differs in individuals. I know several 30 year olds that have the mind of 13 year olds, and at least a couple of 13 year olds that have the mind of much older people.

But if the mind is dependent upon the brain, then as the brain deteriorates so does its ability to run a fully functioning mind.

the mind changes definetly with time, as do all physical things, it gets more complex, with more processes, more memories, and more thoughts, and even on an atomic level, its atoms will get replaced by new ones eventually — Augustusea

You said a while ago that the mind does not occupy space then say it is a physical object. Which is it?

There is no reason to assume that the mind, understood as energy, is confined to the material of the brain. — Possibility

I would love to hear all about this, please explain why you consider this to be true.

We attribute properties to conceptual ‘objects’ arbitrarily - Banno’s cup is not the only thing keeping his coffee hot, . — Possibility

But the cup does not care because the environment's affect on the coffee are not in its properties set.

and it also keeps other items hot that exist outside of the red cup. The cup casts a reflection on the shiny white table that has the property of being red, ‘occupying’ space outside of the red cup that is contingent upon the existence and redness of the cup in relation to the table and the light... — Possibility

So if we take the relationship of the cup to its surroundings as a comparison to the mind and its relationship to its surroundings, the energy in the form of heat or reflected light can be projected from the cup and into or upon other objects we can do the same with the energy in the brain?

I cannot wait to hear your explanation of this, even though as far as I can see, it has nothing to do with the question of the mind taking up a space.

Is the mind affected by time? — Daniel

Affected as in not working properly due to age or as in responding to the passing of it?

the mind or consciousness is a process, the brain occupies space, the electrochemical signals do, consciousness is just a result or outcome of such, it doesn't need to occupy space — Augustusea

Agreed.

All that describes is the distinction between matter and energy. — 3017amen

But matter and energy are the same thing, just in different states.

You haven't made the case that energy somehow doesn't exist, like it does everywhere, and within space. — 3017amen

Everyone knows that energy exists, and no one is saying that it does not. The discussion is whether the mind occupies space.
If the mind is counted as energy, then it is part of the material of the brain.That makes it a property of the brain and it cannot exist outside of the brain so it cannot itself occupy space.

Banno's red cup has the properties of being red and keeping his coffee hot, neither can exist outside of the cup so they do not occupy any space.

Then you would simply have to prove why/how there is something and not nothing. — 3017amen

I don't have to prove anything because I have not made any declarations that require proof. And what I said does not lead to whether there is something instead of nothing either.

Hold your hand in front of you, it takes up space right. What information is in that space that is separate from the hand that is occupying it. None. The genetic info included in the cells is part of the cells, a property of the cells, and it occupies the same space as the cells. When the body dies, what happens to the information? The basic information that many think is included in atoms and particles is still there, so where did the other stuff go to?

It's kind of the latest thing in science — 3017amen

Does that guarantee that anything they think is true? There are many people that think that while quantum theory could explain things in biology it cannot be applied to the mind. Until someone comes up with some evidence for us to review, I will again reserve my thought on the matter.

Space then contains information and energy. Just like light energy being within space. — 3017amen

The fact that space contains information and energy does not make it conclusive that information and energy occupy space.

The electrochemical process take up space much like the electrical grid in your home. — John Onestrand

As has been explained earlier, electricity is an effect of the movement of electrons and the electrons are part of the conductive material. The electricity then does not take up any more space than the piece of wire.

When there's no power to the grid the output stops and the question "where does it goes?" becomes pointless; — John Onestrand

Of course it is pointless to ask where something goes when it was never there in the first place. The wire is exactly the same as it was before, after and during the flow of electricity.
If ten people are passing a couple of balls around the room, is the more or less space occupied when the stop passing it? There is no difference in occupied space only the position of occupation in the room, just as in the material conducting electricity.

We could add a new verse about crooked necked, hunch shoulder, half blind people as well to bring it up to date.



Read the comments under the video.

https://www.final-materials.com/gb/379-crucibles

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/melting-temperature-metals-d_860.html

Check the temperatures of the metals against the capabilities of the different types of crucibles.