[ExI] Sunday Creationist

[William Flynn Wallace]

I see that few people want to tackle the problem of calling most of
humanity, those who are religious, idiots.  Maybe we can see this as a
function of manners.  We are perhaps going to think that they are all
morons, but have the manners to keep our opinions to ourselves, or at the
very least, use that language when we are certain who we are communicating
thinks like we do.  In any case, calling someone a moron does no good at
all and might do some serious harm.  Like start another jihad.  Unlike some
I have talked with, I believe that anyone who is human deserves at least a
small amount of respect (which upon future actions could be lost).

bill w

On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 5:55 PM Will Steinberg <steinberg.will at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 15:15 John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 10:40 AM Will Steinberg <steinberg.will at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> The atoms in a brain can perform calculations because they are organized
>> in the only way that can, the way Alan Turing described. The atoms in Earth
>> are not.
>>
>
> There are MANY atoms in the brain that do not perform calculations.  From
> molecules of cerebrospinal fluid to structural cells like glia or
> microtubules, though those may very well end up implicated in cognition.
>
> Similarly, just because parts of Earth aren't directly computing (and that
> negation itself is a potentially dubious claim) doesn't mean that they
> aren't implicated in computation.  Plus, what about the noncomputable?  Cf.
> The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose.
>
> The point is, what separates a brain or brains from Earth?  Nothing.
>
> If some aliens only saw Earth as a black box, at a certain resolution, and
> they sent a meteor at us, and the world responded as one by sending a
> missile to hit the meteor, the aliens would deduce correctly that the Earth
> performed a calculation.
>
> Furthermore, those brains are just the current endpoints of a 4D structure
> that has 'nonconscious' Earth in its past.  As Sagan said, in order to make
> an apple pie, you must first create the universe.
>
> He is hinting at the interconnected and supremely conditional nature of
> all things.
>
> And no, the comic wasn't smart.  I'm honestly shocked that an intelligent
> person like yourself has such a low bar for something being 'smart'.  It
> was low-hanging fruit at best.  Phoned in.  As the funnies pages tend to be.
>
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