[extropy-chat] A few points of interest for future historians

[Marc Geddes]

>Don't be so hard on yourself and don't take all the
>verbal venom to heart, Marc. 
 
I don't mate :D  Why would I be concerned about what a few obnoxious prats on internet messageboards think of my philosophy?  I only look into this stuff as a hobby.  There's no pressure on me to get stuff right ;) 
 
But I'm ending all the speculative stuff because I don't want to keep pissing people off around the transhumanist lists.
 
 
 
>Your ideas are
>interesting, they are just not "scientific".
>Metaphysics is just not science no matter how you
>slice it. Rather than scrap your thoughts entirely, I
>would spin them not as theories but as a philosophy of
>mind. They cannot be proven or disproven, but they can
>be contemplated. I don't find your ideas any more
>objectionable than I do Buddhism or Des Carte's ideas,
>they are just not amenable to measurement.
 
Firstly, what you read wasn't meant to be presented as a 'theory', it was just a plain English Intro to a few on-going interesting philosophical ideas I banged out in about 30 seconds.  But some people complain that even that's too long and complicated for them ;) 

As to metaphysics, my hope would be that what is now metaphysics might one day become amenable to scientific treatment.  
 
 
>quantitaive scientific theories get beaten up all the
>time, science is very adversarial in that regard. That
>is what peer review is all about, and trust me peer
>review is not about congratulatory back slapping, its
>more about let me take this microscope and tweezers
>and try to find the tiniest flaw that will allow me to
>unravel your life's work. Most such theories even if
>they are essentially correct, aren't vindicated until
>well after a scientist's death. Suck it up trooper and
>make the best of what you got! Don't worry about
>"pulling an Eli", instead try to make "pulling a Marc"
>mean something positive.
>
>
>The Avantguardian 
 
Ah, bit of a misinerpretation here I think.  By 'pulling an Eli' I didn't mean to suggest I was seriously trying to emulate Eli in the intellectual sense, I only meant in the sense of keeping my mouth shut and only saying things when I could back them up.
 
But I'm kind of pleased that Eli has been brave enough to show up in this thread entitled 'A few points of interest for future historians'  and slag me off ;)
 
I do stick to those very general speculations I made.  For instance the current Bayesian framework clearly fails to deal directly with mathematical reasoning or mental experiences, which would suggest a major generalization of probability theory is required. 
 
Any way, don't want to get into a feud with Eli here.  Just pointing out the guy's on-going arrogance.


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