Creative blocks
The very laws of physics imply that artificial intelligence must be possible. What’s holding us up?
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2016
I ran across this article today, and to me, it provided an interesting alternate (not adversarial) view of the Twitter phenomenon. Maybe we can consider some of the points made, at our next meeting, April 8th.
Friday, March 18, 2016
Great Ideas of Philosophy X -- Free Will vs Determinism
 | ||
| "By definition exercising conscience means that one is willfully choosing through free will for themselves right action over wrong action. The concept of following orders is completely polar opposite to the concept of exercising conscience."~Passio |
Written in the Stars
I am here to tell you we can never meet again
Simple really, isn't it, a word or two and then?
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why or when
You think of me or speak of me or wonder what befell
The someone you once loved, so long ago, so well
Simple really, isn't it, a word or two and then?
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why or when
You think of me or speak of me or wonder what befell
The someone you once loved, so long ago, so well
Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply
Every moment of my life from now until I die
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply
Every moment of my life from now until I die
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand
Is it written in the stars, are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for, just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment in which we had no say?
In which we're given paradise but only for a day?
Is that all that we are good for, just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment in which we had no say?
In which we're given paradise but only for a day?
Nothing can be altered, oh, there is nothing to decide
No escape, no change of heart, nor any place to hide
You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned
What it is to be in love and have that love returned
No escape, no change of heart, nor any place to hide
You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned
What it is to be in love and have that love returned
Is it written in the stars, are we paying for some crime?
Is that all that we are good for, just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment in which we had no say?
In which we're given paradise but only for a day?
Is that all that we are good for, just a stretch of mortal time?
Is this God's experiment in which we had no say?
In which we're given paradise but only for a day?
(Is it written in the stars, are we paying for some crime?)
(Is that all that we are good for, just a stretch of mortal time?)
Is this God's experiment in which we have no say?
In which we're given paradise but only for a day?
(Is that all that we are good for, just a stretch of mortal time?)
Is this God's experiment in which we have no say?
In which we're given paradise but only for a day?
Songwriters
ELTON JOHN, TIM RICE
ELTON JOHN, TIM RICE
Monday, March 14, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Great Ideas of Philosophy VII -- Philosophy
Thanks to my great friend, Skyler Collins.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Great Ideas of Philosophy VI -- Existentialism, To be or Not to Be
What makes this current of
inquiry distinct is not its concern with “existence” in
general, but rather its claim that thinking about human
existence requires new categories not found in the conceptual
repertoire of ancient or modern thought; human beings can be
understood neither as substances with fixed properties, nor as
subjects interacting with a world of objects.
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Great Ideas of Philosophy V -- Logical vs Physical
From a favorite Facebook friend, Dr. Robert Higgs:
Learning a little physics is dangerous: it can create an unsettling mental condition for a person. At times I dwell on the "fact" that nothing exists in the material world but electro-magnetic waves; it's the stuff of which every seemingly solid thing consists, and nearly everything we see is almost entirely empty space -- except for those pervasive waves, of course, which pulse through the universe and indeed through you and me and become, at a much different level of perception, the handsome young you with your beautiful head of hair and the superannuated me with my nearly bald pate. Waves, just waves; that's all there is in the lot of us.
But is that really so? Is my soul also nothing but waves? The materialists would say so, if they did not simply dismiss the question as meaningless. But what is the meaning to which they themselves refer? Is it also nothing but pulsing waves? And if so, in what sense can [we] say that it has meaning?
People who never got past the eighteenth century in their understanding of physics may have a big advantage in the retention of their sanity.
Friday, March 4, 2016
Great Ideas of Philosophy IV -- Empiricism vs Reason
Two great ideas that underlie the methodology of Science are empiricism and reason. In the days of Descartes and Newton, some thought these were in conflict.
My view is that they are complementary -- empiricism tells us what to observe, and reason tells us first what we may expect as observable and second how to make sense of the observable.
Empiricism -- "the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume."
Reason (or Rationalism) -- "a belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response"
My view is that they are complementary -- empiricism tells us what to observe, and reason tells us first what we may expect as observable and second how to make sense of the observable.
Empiricism -- "the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume."
Reason (or Rationalism) -- "a belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response"
Great Ideas of Philosophy III -- Occam's Razor
What is Occam's Razor?
The empiricists' version might be stated thus, "The simplest explanation which fits all the facts is the most likely to be true."
This implies that either oversimplification or overcomplication depart from the truth. The formulation is also sometimes called the Law of Parsimony.
Of course, William of Ockham, a monastic logician/philosopher who has been credited with the Razor, included both scripture and the church as facts that should be taken into account.
The empiricists' version might be stated thus, "The simplest explanation which fits all the facts is the most likely to be true."
This implies that either oversimplification or overcomplication depart from the truth. The formulation is also sometimes called the Law of Parsimony.
Of course, William of Ockham, a monastic logician/philosopher who has been credited with the Razor, included both scripture and the church as facts that should be taken into account.
What Makes You You? - Wait But Why
What Makes You You? - Wait But Why
Please excuse the couple of instances of profanity in one illustration. Otherwise this is fascinating.
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