" there is no "consciousness center" that has all sensory information flowing to it. Rather, there is a lot of parallel processing and interconnectedness at every step of perception."

But there is still an overarching mind that makes judgements about what constitutes truth or not.

We can know with 100% that pain exists. Could we tell we are high or depressed if we cannot be sure of our comparisons with not-high or not-depressed? — Richard Goldstein

You would probably need a point of comparison to figure out if you are high or not, but depressed? Do you have to have experienced non-depression to know you're depressed?

Do we know with 100% certainty that we're in extreme pain? High? Depressed?

I'm almost directly in the path of Hurricane Hillary. Kind of weird to see a tropical storm warning for the High Desert of Southern California.

You can't get "ought" from science, so philosophy will always be around.

The Ruble's not doing too well. Worth less than a penny.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/14/economy/russia-ruble-slump-ukraine-war/index.html

"Earth Just Had Its Hottest Month Ever. How Six Cities Are Coping."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/july-2023-hottest-month-record-climate-change-5e5b3097

Interesting seeing that headline in the WSJ. That would have been unthinkable 15 years ago.

I love seeing the "lock her up" crowd in the maw of the criminal justice system.

That quote is an anonymous, hyperbolic, and erroneous opinion. — Jack Rogozhin

"Trump’s tweet said, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.""
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/

Only touchy one here is you. I asked a serious question. You seem to like the Azov Nazis a lot — Jack Rogozhin

I prefer Ukraine win it's war against Russia, but I'm under no illusions what life in Ukraine would be like compared to my comfy existence in America, so I'm good where I'm at. You, on the other hand, seem to hate America and love Russia, so what's stopping you from relocating? Money?

Kind of touchy, aren't you? It was a serious question. You seem to like Russia a lot.

Have you ever thought of emigrating to Russia?

What country do you live in?

Putin is Russia? I'm asking this to make this clear, were Dubya or Trump "America" and is Zelensky "Ukraine"? — Jack Rogozhin

Putin is the leader of Russia. Had he not wanted to invade Ukraine, it wouldn't have been invaded. Why did Putin want Ukraine attacked? What do you think was his primary motivation?

"What do you mean by "Russia"?"

I mean the country Putin is president of. If you prefer: why did Putin invade Ukraine? Although, that's an awkward sentence. Why did Putin direct his armed forces to invade Ukraine?

Why do you think Russia invaded Ukraine? What was their primary motivation?

No more than biological processes are identical to chemical processes. — T Clark

Isn't every biological process a chemical process?

That is a lot like Gettier's clock example in his paper on knowledge and justified true belief.

Suppose reality is as materialists claim it is. Wouldn't they then have knowledge of "base reality"?

Very well said. Materialists seem to have abandoned the idea of denying consciousness is a thing or waving it away by claiming mental states are identical to brain states. Panpsychism and Integrated Information Theory are all the rage now. I don't think eliminative materialism will ever make a comeback. It's hard to understand how it became popular in the first place, it's so intuitively wrong.

"In the audio, recorded three days before the election and published by Mother Jones on Wednesday, Bannon told a group of associates Trump already had a scheme in place for the 3 November vote.

“What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group, according to the audio.

“He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/14/steve-bannon-audio-trump-declare-victory

You replied to this post less than a day ago. You're just trolling at this point.

Bannon will likely testify that Trump had a scheme in place to claim the election was stolen if he was losing. That Trump, Bannon, Stone, etc. all talked about it and went forward with it. Wouldn't you agree that would be very damning? What do you think a jury would think of such testimony?

Well, India and China are not going to give up fossil fuels. They arrived late to the party. They resent the First World wagging their fingers at them after stuffing themselves silly.

I see.

Is your position that we can dig up and burn gigatons of fossil fuels and nothing bad will happen? Doesn't that seem a little naive, even without getting into the science?

And why does the spellchecker not recognize "naive"?

it is the declines in sea ice at the other pole—in the Arctic—that are pushing the global sea ice trend downward.

Yes, the global sea ice decline is worrisome, don't you think?

"Sea ice around Antarctica reached its lowest extent on February 21, 2023, at 1.79 million square kilometers (691,000 square miles). That’s 130,000 square kilometers (50,000 square miles) below the previous record-low reached on February 25, 2022—a difference that equates to an area about the size of New York state."
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151093/antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-another-record-low

Bananas. People keep slipping on bananas. That too. :groan: — frank

Banana slippage is an existential threat?

It must be a quote from Donald Trump because he is the only one that can speak about his thoughts, intentions, and beliefs. If an eye witness can quote him then that would suffice for me. — NOS4A2

"In the audio, recorded three days before the election and published by Mother Jones on Wednesday, Bannon told a group of associates Trump already had a scheme in place for the 3 November vote.

“What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group, according to the audio.

“He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/14/steve-bannon-audio-trump-declare-victory

Does that suffice?

Yea, we'd need a global government probably. Or if a new power source was just so much better and cheaper than fossil fuels, that would do it as well. — frank

I think we're going to need a world government with some teeth because there are existential issues that keep popping up: climate change, Ai, genetic engineering, nanotechnology.

at some point the issue of climate change (and the ecological crisis more generally) clashes with some aspect of the ideology one holds dear. — ChatteringMonkey

I don't think that's it. I think people want cheap energy, vacations, and cars. They also want to combat climate change, but they really want cheap energy, vacations, and cars. It's ideology clashing with consumerism.

Do you only speak in questions? Is this an interview? — NOS4A2

Obviously, my point is there are a whole lot of people Trump has hired over the years who say terrible things about him now and/or implicate him in crimes. Are they ALL deep state operatives? Of course not. I also don't think you think Trump got more votes than Biden, which leads me to my next question: why do you support Trump over DeSantis? DeSanit's former employees don't hate him. He says the election wasn't stolen. He hasn't been indicted. Etc. Doesn't Trump's stolen election bullshit bug you?

Also, everyone grapples with questions of purpose, meaning, ethics, duty, etc. I think these questions are a lot more important to people than how old the universe is or what Dark Matter/Energy are.

Physics necessarily leads to metaphysics. Philosophy can't be avoided.

I don't think it will be. I think Biden will have a senior moment ala Mitch McConnell and Trump will be in jail or under house arrest. Maybe Harris vs DeSantis? DeSantis wins in that case. This country is a long way away from electing a black woman to be president.

I don't know what you're trying to say.

Are you agreeing with some kind of judgement unavailable to the rest? — Paine

I took Metaphysician Undercover to mean the lack of Trump supporters here is a mark of quality.

:100:

Is there only one Trump supporter on this whole forum?

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.