[ExI] Do digital computers feel

William Flynn Wallace foozler83 at gmail.com
Tue Dec 13 18:42:50 UTC 2016


Which books on metaphysics have you read? Which would you 'commit' 'to the
flames'?

Regards,

Dan

Well, there's the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, and many others that
I would not bother.  What they believe is none of my business.  I do draw
some of my morality from them but not because the ideas are written there,
as if blessed by some god(s).

 If I were the world dictator I still would burn no books no matter how far
out, fanciful, stupid, silly, totally wrong etc. they were.  I would not
attempt to judge.  Or maybe judge but leave alone.

Oh I've read a few, not many, and every time I have to ask just what the
HELL they are talking about.  Of course there is no reference to any kind
of data, and speculation about worldly things without data seems endless,
as exemplified by the continuing debates over topics in Plato and Socrates
that have no use or value to me or to science.  They do keep some
philosophers in rent money.  Dennett is pretty interesting but at the end
there are no conclusions, no facts, only idle speculation - cotton candy.
I do love to read about moral theories, but that's about how people act in
various experimental manipulations and those yield facts and speculative
whys.

About otherworldly things I have no interest except for scifi.  I try to
keep concepts without good experimental references out of my head.  Psych
is bad enough already with instinct, conscious, mind, intuition and lots
more in the clinical area (which is not mine, though I have a degree in it
too).  (Long ago I was a spoilsport in late night dorm arguments because I
asked people to define their terms.)

If you can come up with some solid data you can use any concept you want
to.  If not, then don't bother me.

It boils down to this:  if by metaphysical you mean beyond the physical,
then we cannot communicate, since I don't believe that there is anything.
Physical monism.

bill w

On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 7:24 PM, Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Dec 12, 2016, at 4:14 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for
> instance; let us ask, *Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning
> quantity or number?* No. *Does it contain any experimental reasoning
> concerning matter of fact and existence?* No. Commit it then to the
> flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.   Hume
>
>
> Which books on metaphysics have you read? Which would you 'commit' 'to the
> flames'?
>
> Regards,
>
> Dan
>   Sample my Kindle books via:
> http://author.to/DanUst
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
>
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