<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">John, regarding physicalism, you might want to read this:</div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/">http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/</a></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">and Daniel Stoljar's book _ Physicalism_. The idea is not so easily dismissed as you seem to believe. Stoljar's goes over problems with defining physicalism in detail. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Also, I don't believe work done on it is pointless either. In a sense, most people who believe strong AI is possible hold some variant of physicalism. I mean they believe and work under the presumption that some form of physicalism is true. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Also, physicalism isn't trivial by way of being empty -- any more than Ancient Greek atomism was similarly empty. The latter held all things were ultimately composed of atoms. There wasn't anything else but atoms and stuff made of atoms. Regardless of whether it was true, it didn't suffer from being either trivial or being vacuous because it didn't pose stuff not made of atoms.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br><div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);">Regards,</span></font></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);"><br></span></font></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><font size="3"><span style="line-height: 20px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);">Dan</span></font></div></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294);"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">My latest Kindle book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N72FBA2">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N72FBA2</a></span></div></div></body></html>