Trump is done — creativesoul

Sadly, these are edible words.

:up:

If scientists find an extrasolar planet with an atmospheric oxygen percentage comparable to that of the Earth, it will be pretty huge news — wonderer1

Then the question would be, how many light years away? What we see may have happened eons ago.

I have actually known a modern Luddite. I knew him when he was virtually penniless and watched him become a billionaire, with a cabin on the seacoast having no electricity for his getaway. He would do away with dams and hydroelectric power in order to save the fish that lived in the rivers. He has been a staunch supporter of wild rivers.

He doesn't use a computer, but his employees do, keeping up with a business that is worldwide. However, recently he stepped away from the corporation he established and set up a foundation. He is a year or two younger than me and during the 1990s was on a panel consulting with Bill Clinton. His success story is the American dream come true. I wish him well - but he would take down dams if he could.

If alien beings are among us I would guess they come from some sort of alternate reality rather than a distant planet. This is my pet theory about the Grandfather Paradox: The instant grandpa is killed the reality shifts and we never know the time traveler existed.

The question that is of great importance is why we are here — simplyG

Good luck with that. As an existentialist I say we are here by accident and we make meaning in our lives. Otherwise, the study of God and Angels is medieval scholasticism.

Could not an advanced species, with different cognitive capacity and an alternate physicality, inhabit the 'space' we do not experience? — Tom Storm

Flying saucers would be horse and buggy stuff for them.

But anyway, the key point here is that science is backing away from naive realism to understand the world of abstract quantification. Just a mathematical model and its habits of measurement. Epistemic method replaces ontic claims about what is "really out there". This is what information and entropy are all about. — apokrisis

The physicist Richard Muller, in Quora, expresses the opinion that current physicists are being misled by the graceful dynamics and beauty of mathematics. He argues that nature is a bit rougher in texture, with topics like String theory taking precedence over what is in fact real, not merely an intellectual sheen over fact. I assume he is thinking of quantum theory in particular.

At least superficially, this is contra to Wigner's famous piece on the unreasonable effectiveness. Perhaps not.

Unfortunately, these legal struggles will make Trump even more popular with a large number of Americans. Look at Bolsonaro in Brazil . It is legal for someone in prison to be elected president.

WTF is wrong with the Dems? Biden is six years my junior and I can tell you someone that age should not be president. And then there is VP Harris.

Suppose we are that highly intelligent species with advanced technology, and we wish to travel to a star and its planets a million light years away. We are capable of bringing our speed in short order to very, very close to light speed. So we hop aboard and take off, and it takes us less than a year to reach the star. However, Earth is long gone, not even a scrap of matter remaining. Of what value is our journey to those left behind?

If we left our planet because it was quickly dying, and we wanted to preserve humankind the trip would indeed be a terrific gamble. And our destination might have changed dramatically by the time we arrive.

So, even if there had been intelligent life other than ours, it would have been a truly desperate decision, coupled with incredibly advanced technical capabilities, to attempt a journey to Earth.

When asleep and a loud sound occurs, if we don't awaken the sound is interpreted by the brain into some kind of dream occurrence. But this is not the deep sleep discussed here.

Also, no one has mentioned how crappy the alien pilots must be to keep crashing all the time. I can only think of two possible reasons 1)After you get three DUIs on Koozebane, they sentence you to Earth 2) Earth is where all the college kids on Venus go for spring break — T Clark

:100: :party: :clap:

Lucid dreaming brings one to a state of full awareness, but it's sleep state is shallow rather than deep.

As usual, your post is a superb antidote to the mind-numbing babbles on "consciousness" that pervade this forum.

And on top of that, it makes it sound like full attention is the true ground state when instead, practiced inattention is the general goal of the brain — apokrisis

And does that general goal produce pleasure?

I was a mathematician on one hand and a rock climber on the other - and the dichotomy is interesting. An intellectual pursuit is obviously one end of the spectrum - although even here a period of relaxation allows notions to bubble to the surface - but surprisingly perhaps, climbing can attain its goals at both ends.

One might think that getting to the top of a climb first is all it's about, and assuredly most participants delight in achieving this goal, but at the other end of the spectrum there is reward in practiced performance, smooth, effortless. This was analyzed and researched by an old acquaintance of mine from the U of Chicago many years ago: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. He defined this as "flow". Long ago I wrote a chapter on climbing as a mystical art form for a compendium on mountaineering, moving as far away from competition with it's intense focus as possible.

I would guess action sports like basketball induce pleasure in both "spheres" :cool:

I had a chat with Bing AI, asking if a rock has consciousness. It gave a well-reasoned reply, but ended by asking me if I believed a rock has consciousness. Wise ass robot.

Arguments about panpsychism can easily devolve into mere word play. If one introduces behavior as a kind of corollary of consciousness one must contend with the notion that things like glass possess behaviors when acted upon by various forces and environments: A behavior of glass is it melts at high temperatures. When I pick up a rock and drop it, it falls as behavior when subjected to gravity. If I heat the rock it may crack at a certain temperature - according to its patterns of behavior.

...constraints from the higher level not only help to select the lower level-trajectory but also pull it into its future at the same time. Top-down causality is a form of final causality’

(Development and Evolution 1993, p.270)

Elementary discrete dynamical systems move forward one step at a time, iterating a function. With feedback from "above" that iteration could become a composition sequence of many functions, not simply an iteration of an unchanging function. This kind of stuff is right down my alley. I'll have to give it a look. Thanks for elucidating this concept. :cool:

there are four possible arrangements with probability 1/4 each: {HH, HT, TH, TT}. — JeffJo

:up:

The use of probability in this regard is no more than medieval scholasticism. And I have trouble accepting 1). But that's just me. Let's watch those angels breaking symmetry on that pin.

Suppose a B-brain occupies one cubic foot of space. Then 10 of them occupy 10 cubic feet, 100 of them occupy 100 cubic feet, etc. Density is just mass/volume. So the density for any volume of space is just one.

?? Reference, please. — jgill

For what? — noAxioms

Perhaps I misinterpret what you said. It sounds like you are saying that it is certain those monkeys will type out Shakespeare.

This article aims to show that if we assume two things as given, that of an interactionist view point and the theory of evolution by mutation and natural selection, it follows that there is a particular moment in time I label the initial alteration.

I might argue there is no particular moment so described, but rather a long more or less continuous development of human consciousness. More or less in that there are jumps here and there, but overall a kind of continuity with various aspects of mind appearing as a kind of dynamical system influenced by feedback from environment.

Astronomical odds are still finite, so when multiplied by infinite time, they become not just probable, but certain — noAxioms

?? Reference, please.

Consciousness: a categorical mistake. To have consciousness is not like having an ice cream cone.

At least you are correct in that the last people usually left holding the bag are workers, — ssu

Don't forget the retirees on fixed income.

A draconian rate hike would not be a good idea, but something above the 5.1% might be appropriate. Yes, banks are in turmoil and seeking cash and not happy with the higher CD rates they are forced to pay.

However, I'm a novice in financial affairs.

Paul Volcker, where are you? The current feds are too timid, IMO.

I haven't kept up with this thread, but when I read the original statement in the OP, what comes to mind is Yogi Berra's advice: When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

The things shown and their appearance in your experience are not the same. The phenomenal experience is of the thing shown. — Fooloso4

If I were an auto salesperson, what would I make of this in my everyday experience? Would it make a difference were I to be a mathematician?

Yes— and how is this relevant to climate change? — Mikie

Milankovitch Cycles

But I see warming acts on the cycles as well. Learned something.

Lowering CO2 emissions is well within our abilities. — Mikie

No argument there. A noble effort if done cautiously with regard to human comfort/misery.

What’s childish is being an 80-year-old coming to a philosophy forum and declaring that climate change is only “natural,” then chastising people for being “woke” and emotional for believing otherwise. If you don’t want to be insulted, then stop insulting peoples intelligence. Next time take 10 minutes to learn something about the science of climate change — Mikie

At 86, and a one-time meteorologist for the USAF - doing weather briefings for fighter/interceptor squadrons and nuclear packed B52s going back and forth to the edge of the Soviet Union - certified by completing a post-graduate curriculum at the University of Chicago - I am probably qualified to speak here.

Years ago climatology was a mostly statistical study and was considered the "basket-weaving" class we took. Many from that generation may have similar opinions of climate science - the modern version. It's much more sophisticated now, but I suspect it has its flaws, and, like quantum theory, these are beyond the realms of common discourse. However, I think what you read from reputable sources is fairly accurate. Where I personally differ is the assumption humans will be able to deflect the consequences to any substantial degree. So it's best to prepare for what is to a large degree beyond our control.

The Earth's movement in our galaxy is beyond our present abilities to alter.

It's not for evesdropping on military sites that the Chinese buy farm lands along the Canadian border with the US. They look long term into the probable future, seeing that agriculture may well move north.

Well, yes. It would, off course, depend on people/beings outside of time. Superobservers. — Patterner

Yes, to distinguish differences in realities. I wonder, do we shift realities, never realizing? The very idea spoils a sense of adventure a time traveler might have. Best not to engage in the practice.

But there will be differences that are noticable to people who know what it should have looked like. — Patterner

How could they have known? Any minor changes in the timestream will actually be what they are accustomed to.

The Grandfather paradox shows how a trip to the past could shift alternate realities in the present in such a way no one would notice. Suppose someone has actually gone back in time and done some major damage. Then we would be in an alternate reality and could not distinguish the differences - there would simply be none. That person, who existed in one reality, would not exist in the present reality.

The Grandfather paradox is the biggy. Here's my take on the subject: You go back in time and kill your grandfather before he procreates. Instantly the world you came from vanishes and is replaced by an alternate reality in which you don't exist. So you disappear and there is no way to tell time travel has occurred. It's a suicide mission.

On the other hand, suppose you go back in time and don't do any real damage. Then the minor alterations you might cause in the time stream are absorbed and normalized. I don't subscribe to a butterfly chaos, rather what Stanislaw Lem saw as a series of effects that peter out and vanish over a time.

On the other hand . . . . .
Climate Alarmists

Sleepwalking to extinction. — Mikie

More like running. But yes, to extinction — Manuel

On the coast of Florida that might be more likely wading.

An interesting read. Recent discussions on TPF about definitions at the beginnings of philosophical arguments needing to be precise or left in some wobbly state demonstrate the tendency of the discipline to subside into the babbling of an academic brook.

We seem to be more concerned right now about whether we’re living in a virtual reality than whether we’re living in a text.

Speculations in science - even science fantasy - become a more attractive if not reasonable intellectual adventure than parsing sentences.

I should describe the mathematical ideas associated with infinite causation chains and initial values (“first causes”) that a colleague and I developed over thirty years ago.

And keep in mind that Russell was 76 in 1948 — Banno

Thus he was blessed with the Wisdom of the Ancients. Right? :cool: