[ExI] Weighing the Soul

[Adrian Tymes]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 10:33 PM Stuart LaForge <avant at sollegro.com> wrote:
> You see the energy
> that it takes to erase that bit is a real physical quantity so the bit
> that got erased must be a real physical object too.  Otherwise one has the
> paradox that something that does not exist takes energy to destroy.

Not so much.  It takes energy to disrupt a pattern, even though the
pattern itself has no mass - it's just an arrangement of the matter
and energy within.

> This could be rendered mathematically as P(φ)*P(ψ) <= P(φ), which is
> saying that the product of the  probability of a you being  a physical
> being (phi) and the probability of you being a psychic being (psi) is less
> than your probability of being a purely physical being (phi) no matter
> what those respective probabilities are. Therefore all information,
> including perception, thought, and other mental phenomena must be physical
> as well.

This conclusion does not flow from the equation.

P(φ) and P(ψ) are each between 0 and 1, inclusive.  Therefore
P(φ)*P(ψ) <= P(φ) but also P(φ)*P(ψ) <= P(ψ).

And that says nothing about what P(φ) and P(ψ) are, let alone that
either of them is 1.

It may be correct that the information that makes up a soul or mind
has mass.  But this fails to prove that.