The “hard problem” of consciousness exists entirely because, with the scientific revolution, came a philosophical commitment to a purely mechanical model of the world. This despite the fact there is actually no logical connection.
They simply refused to include many questions, of which consciousness is the paradigm case, in their model. Then – Suprise! – it could not be shown in the mechanical model. It’s “hard” only in the sense that it’s “hard” to find home runs in football.
Overdue, way overdue.
The whole farce should never have gotten off the ground in the first place…but it did.
Then it should’ve been stopped as soon as Decent Joe was discovered doing the same thing (for decades)…but it wasn’t.
Following that, it should’ve been stopped immediately after Jack Smith admitted lying to the judge several months ago…but it wasn’t…no, of course it wasn’t.
Smith should be held in contempt of court. So should his rabid CONTROLLERS.
Consciousness is not a question of algorithms or data quantity doesnt enter into it its this inimicable quality you cant
replicate because Creation is the unique thing
Like shakespeare said of a rose
Judge Cannon rules in accord with some old odd thing called “The Constitution”?! How very quaint but — truly now — can she do that?
No, I jest.
Second best news I’ve seen all week.
Re: Classified Documents case being dismissed – Events certainly seem to be going against our corrupt overlords lately. The last (figurative) bullet left in their lawfare gun appears to be the sentencing in the nonsense falsified business records case coming up in September. Do they dare try to throw Trump in jail over that after all that has happened… not mention all that may happen between now and then?
I fully expect things are going to get more strained and bizarre before the election. The assassination attempt was no surprise for me. I’m fully expecting a least a few more major dramatic events to occur over the next few months. Something along the lines of China attempting a naval blockade of Taiwan or Iran releasing a dirty bomb using their proxy Hezbollah along the border between Lebanon and Isreal.
I really hate living through interesting times.
One of the more DO-ABLE Distractions(TM) that “Biden” may well “decide” to foment—so it seems to me—at this critical juncture (but then for a serial PSYCHO-MEGA-cover-upper, EVERY juncture is critical) would be to FINALLY defenestrate the Bibi-Monster.
(Just to show everyone WHO’S the boss….)
Well, let’s hope I’m wrong about that…
Glenn Greenwald tackles the thorny issue– is Joe Biden a decent man. No surprise at the answer for conservatives, but a dose of reality for the left to pry Joe’s hands away from the presidency?
Re: putting President Trump in Rikers. That would certainly cap off an election for the ages.
The left is so deranged they would be dancing in the streets even knowing it would seal the election for the “Most Hated Man in the World”. Or is their derangement such a break with reality they can’t understand it would guarantee the 47thPresident of the United States, Donald J. Trump?
as I say, you can’t replicate consciousness, specially in a hive mind,
no he isn’t a decent man, is he the worst of the ring wraiths well thats debatable,
Bibi, as I’ve speculated here before Barry, has a kind of nasty/nice dilemma of his own to navigate come his meeting with “Biden” next week: acknowledge Biden isn’t there (as everyone can see), or make himself a subservient fool by pretending everything is a-ok with the dodderer-in-chief.
Meanwhile, either way Bibi’s nation’s fate hangs in the balance. It’s going to require a species of consequential statesmanship the likes of which no-one has recently witnessed.
The VP pick may be JD Vance.
He has a motorcade now.
He wouldn’t have been my choice.
E pleb nista, some simple truths that the dems insist on denying or obfuscation, like section 1512 of the US Code or Presidential Immunity,
Is Joe Biden a “Good and Decent Man”?
==
Other than Mona Charen, did anyone not on the payroll of the Democratic Party nexus ever claim he was?
Quick break from the overwhelming politics of the last few days:
The materialistic view of consciousness continually overlooks the fact that neurons interact via molecular, electromagnetic, and even atomic processes. That necessarily brings in quantum indeterminacy, and with it, maybe an underlying look at the origin of consciousness. Personally, I’ve come to the idea that QM is necessary, and as the speaker says, consciousness is obviously tied directly to the brain. If consciousness is an independent existence, the maybe the brain is a transducer of such.
but what makes the brain such a transducer, even if you created an organic framework, instead of the palladium core, typical too much scifi (from Asimov on) could you achieve consciousness, I guess we are touching as much as the soul of the machine
so Skynet is supposed to be such an AI, because it is aware of it’s existence, but is that really consciousness the way we understand it, Cyborgs who already have an organic component, see Cybermen or Dalek, but are they really alive,
then we come to the Ian Malcolm question, because we can do a thing (ie: clone dinosaurs’) does it mean we should,
A whole series of films from fritz lang’s metropolis to a rather obscure offering
singularity suggest you shouldn’t, also that last one with jennifer lopez,
Abraxas, mine either. Too much like a right wing Obama.
Aerial photo of farm show grounds and video of assassination attempt here:
The bit about the rooftop being outside the Secret Service’s zone of responsibility looks to be nonsense. The Secret Service is in overall charge of everything. It looks like they failed to secure the industrial park just outside the fairgrounds, even though the rooftop is closer to the podium than most of the fairgrounds are, as well as a better location for a shooter. USSS can blame the local police, but their job was to make sure that the whole area was secure, even outside the farm show grounds.
Physicsguy, the measurement problem of quantum mechanics requires a consciousness in my opinion. The atheist physicists have convinced themselves otherwise but they really don’t have good arguments against it. Even one of the founders of quantum mechanics , Erwin Schrodinger had problems with it, and came up with the famous cat paradox As always in physics, experiment rules, and slowly experiments are getting closer to answering the question of whether consciousness is required.
I could be wrong about Vance. Ohio is giving him added security after the Trump assassination attempt. I have to stop repeating the latest rumors.
Bob Wilson.
I agree. I guess maybe what I was trying to say is that the consciousness is necessary even for brain function?? It is a tough nut to crack. Certainly the experiments from Aspect back in the early 80s to now all show that the Copenhagen interpretation is quite in play.
Art Deco said: Other than Mona Charen, did anyone not on the payroll of the Democratic Party nexus ever claim he was?
I’d argue that probably over a decade ago during the height of the Obama years, I think the general public impression of Joe Biden was that he was indeed a good and decent man. In pop culture he was often portrayed as affable, avuncular, and a bit silly. I distinctly remember the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” had a running gag that the good natured, busy body protaganist of the show, Leslie Knope, had a crush on Joe Biden. In fact Dr. Jill and Joe Biden themselves even made a brief cameo in one of the later season episodes. Around the same time, another Sitcom, “Community”, had an episode which presented Joe Biden in a similar way.
To be fair, this was a little bit before the whole Burisma affair. But then again it was long after his infamous `88 presidential campaign where he plagerized speeches and boldly lied about his past and creditials on camera. Not to mention his borish, jackass behavior during the 2012 VP debate with Paul Ryan.
Leftist heads are exploding after Judge Cannon’s decision regarding special counsel Jack Smith. Perhaps that was not a good metaphor given Saturday’s events. The latest is that the judge repeatedly cited Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ decisions in her ruling. LOL
“The Supreme Court’s decision to grant Trump immunity over “official acts” may have portended the decision by Cannon, who approved Trump’s request to delay the trial so that the ruling could be evaluated. She then cited Judge Clarence Thomas three times in her own ruling to dismiss the indictment.
“In Trump’s immunity ruling, Justice Thomas all but invited Judge Cannon to find Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed as special counsel,” MSNBC’s Adam Klasfeld commented. “Cannon noticed.”
and she relied on the meese brief, as someone who was targeted twice by independent counsels, for obscure reasons, they couldn’t force him to recuse like
they did with ashcroft and sessions, but they sought to tarnish him anyways, this was mark levin’s trial by fire, as chief of staff,,
Regarding consciousness…
What is love? For anyone paying any attention there is no question love is real. It can be felt. Sensed.
Like consciousness, one can argue it’s a word humans made up to describe a series of events, or patterns. And any physical set of rules or tests you devise to define love, like consciousness, can be violated to disprove its existence. There is no 100% testable hypothesis, no litmus paper that always indicates the presence of love. But we all can feel it when it’s present. And four people can be present in a room and 2 or 3 or 1 may not feel it.
But love is real. And consciousness is real.
And, like consciousness, love is counter to the theory of evolution. Why would families like those depicted in the film, “Possum Trot,” import hungry mouths into their already impoverished community?
Cogito ergo sum. “I think therefore I am.”
And God said to Moshe: Ahiah Ashra High“I AM what I AM”, and he said, thus say to the children of Israel: Ahiah – “I AM” has sent me unto you.”
There are some things in heaven and earth that Horatio’s philosophy simply cannot prove.
Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, Founder of https://israel-alma.org/ talks to Willy OAM about the broader context of the goals of Iran and it’s proxy war using Hezbollah and Hamas.
More reason to see a Trump administration back in charge of our foreign policy.
Another open-thread comment about something else I read.
On July 2nd, Philip Hamburger wrote a short opinion piece entitled “No Remedy for Censorship: The Perils of Murthy” (https://tinyurl.com/5ewdum8y).
Here’s the first paragraph:
“Last week, in Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court hammered home the distressing conclusion that, under the court’s doctrines, the First Amendment is, for all practical purposes, unenforceable against large-scale government censorship. The decision is a strong contender to be the worst speech decision in the court’s history.”
I heard rumors that Secret Service resources were diverted away from Trump to an event hosted by Dr. Jill. I’ve heard it said that these “resources” included snipers? If such rumors prove to be true it’d be pretty awful.
This is the problem that my Secret Sources have cited: Secret Services resources were diverted to Jill Biden’s event and away from Trump’s because they followed agency protocol applying to Trump as a former president, according to two sources within the Secret Service community. There were also many supplemental agents from different field officers (not Trump’s regular detail) providing security at the rally because Trump’s regular detail has been overworked (some working 7 days straight), and only two counter-snipers.
But Trump is not just a former president — he is the first in modern history to have run for president again — and he has been the focus of several prosecutions and controversies (understatement intentional).
Who made the decision to divert the resources to Jill Biden’s event?
More questions, this time from Dan Bongino.
“Why was President Trump even on stage at that point?”
New from
@dbongino
: Sources tell him that “they had been monitoring [the sh*oter] since he came in around that external perimeter area…they lost track of him, apparently, and he was hiding in a building about 300 yards away.”
“There are some things in heaven and earth that Horatio’s philosophy simply cannot prove.” – Rufus T.
Exactly. How do we explain transcendental experiences? In my life I have had four transcendental experiences for which the only explanation is a force or higher consciousness. They have occurred when I was in psychic pain or in the presence of intense beauty. The feeling was always one of unconditional acceptance. An inner certainty that I was accepted by a higher power/God. Has it made me a better person? Perhaps. Has it given me faith that there is a spiritual world that we see only darkly? Definitely.
As you say, we like to measure everything and be able to explain it in material terms. That has certainly allowed us to create a material world that was unimaginable even 200 years ago. But humans 200 years agio may have been in better touch with their spiritual side because life was slower, and people had more time to contemplate those things that are unexplainable, but very real when you experience them.
On consciousness — I have an old roommate and HS debate partner who became an MD/PhD researcher mapping the synapses in the brain down to individual cell level. (His sole teaching course is bioelectricity taught in departments of Biomedical Engineering.)
Back in the 1990s when he was working on his dissertation project (brains of frogs), I reminded him of his undergrad years reading Descartes and the British empiricists in philosophy.
He said something grandiose but prophetic: “I want to solve the problem of human consciousness.”
President George H.W. Bush declared that the 1990s would be the decade of brain research.
And sometime in this period, my brilliant friend said something striking and revealing as he finished his Bachelor’s in physics.
He said: “The solution to consciousness is likely to be as paradoxical and astounding as the wave/particle duality of light.”
I love that insightful metaphor and have reminded him of it, from time to time.
Your comment sums up my impression also. Even in the physical world we can easily measure there are myriad things we do not perceive. We discussed audio and human hearing recently here at neo’s. The same is true of the “visual” spectrum. Human vision can only perceive a tiny sliver of the radiation emanating, reflecting and refracting all around us. If something is too small for our fingertips to sense through touch does that mean it doesn’t exist?
From wikipedia:
Children’s brains contain more “silent synapses” that are inactive until recruited as part of neuroplasticity and flexible learning or memories. Neuroplasticity is heightened during critical or sensitive periods of brain development, mainly referring to brain development during child development.
What humans learn at the early stages, and what they learn to apply, sets humans on course for life or has a disproportional impact.
Could it be, in the past, or even in different cultures that exist today, more emphasis was placed on “tuning” the brain to non-material things, or things we don’t perceive as material in modern, western culture?
I found the video deeply unsatisfying psychobabble.
Rufus T., we are on the same wavelength here. 🙂
I’ve tried meditation and been somewhat successful, but it has not put me in touch with the spiritual force that I’ve experienced. I don’t doubt that for some it is a path to that level of consciousness – a tiny peek into an unseen level of our existence. But meditation is, at least for me, not easy. I suspect I’m too impatient.
The mind is an amazing thing though. Even though I’m old and unbale to travel much anymore, my mind can carry me back to places I have visited and recreate the experiences. Well, probably not perfectly, but good enough for me and inexpensive. 🙂
Is consciousness binary?…does someone have it or not have it? (in which case I guess you could call them a something rather than a someone) Do dogs, for example, have some level of consciousness but less than that of a human?
So where is Joe now?
Word is that the Obama faction is giving up on their palace coup for Joe Must Go. The situation is more complicated. Trump looks stronger than ever. They don’t want to divide the party.
Furthermore, I think the Democrat nomination is now a poisoned chalice, no matter who drinks from it. So let Joe have it.
The Axis of Resistance is continuing to try to coerce Gulf states into reducing their economic cooperation with Israel .. Kataib Hezbollah warned Saudi Arabia on July 13 that it will “pay the price” for allowing Israel to conduct trade through Saudi territory .. Kataib Hezbollah accused Saudi Arabia of allowing Israel to use overland trade routes through Saudi territory “as an alternative to sea lanes.” Kataib Hezbollah was likely referring to the trade corridor that connects Israel to the Persian Gulf via the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Israel has increasingly relied on this land route to mitigate the impact of Houthi attacks on international shipping around the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.
Gulf states ain’t the only ones the “Axis of Resistance” try to coerce, i.e., Egypt and Jordan have held steady for Israel thru such coercive tactics…
physicsguy: “Certainly the experiments from Aspect back in the early 80s to now all show that the Copenhagen interpretation is quite in play.”
Can you expand on that for the rest of us?
JJ: “How do we explain transcendental experiences?” So the question remains for me, how is it that a majority of people seem to have the ability to have these experiences (or beliefs from them), while a substantial minority of the rest of us do not seem to ever encounter them? (or perhaps not frequently? or as strongly?) If as our brains evolved the ability to have these experiences led to enhanced cooperation that aided survival, some variation in this characteristic can be expected with variation in our respective DNA or epigenetic episodes.
Can consciousness be “emergent” from our population of 10^15 synaptic junctions, firing in an astronomical number of combinations, but all involving biochemical interactions [including “love”]. I remain skeptical that any QM level aspects are needed – aside from the impact of cosmic rays on DNA – but I have a couple of books on the subject yet to read, so I try to keep an open “mind” on that. 🙂
David Foster: “Do dogs, for example, have some level of consciousness but less than that of a human?”
Thus, if dogs have smaller brains, fewer synaptic junctions, etc., they may miss out on something emerging that humans can experience. Even setting aside transcendence, our abilities in Theory of Mind are pretty phenomenal compared to most other animals
[i.e., I know that you know that he knows what she knows, etc.] .
Did anyone take one for the team and devote 20 minutes you’ll never get back to watching David Brooks and the other PBS poseurs this evening?
R2L,
‘…how is it that a majority of people… the rest of us do not seem to ever encounter them?’
Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Matt. 7:7-8
Lasted about 30 seconds of the video. Other humans trying to explain Consciousness, Transcendental Experiences, etc. has never really interested me.
Am certainly not an expert on anything, but it seems we are born into a physical/material world with a strong connection still ‘Intact’ to/from whoever/wherever/whatever we came from. Maybe that connection is why some young ones see an “imaginary” ‘Someone/Something’ – or the term “Guardian Angle” originated from – or maybe that is why humans have a long history of creating “gods” and “religions” – or perhaps where the concept of a ‘Spark of Life within each of us’ came from – or why people seek the “Meaning of Life” – or go in a search for themselves – and/or etc.
‘Like two golden birds perched on the selfsame tree,
intimate friends, the ego and the Self dwell in the same body.
The former eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree of life,
while the latter looks on in detachment.’ – The Mundaka Upanishad
It’s baffling for Joe Biden.
R2L…”Even setting aside transcendence, our abilities in Theory of Mind are pretty phenomenal compared to most other animals
[i.e., I know that you know that he knows what she knows, etc.] ”
This is true. I think it’s also true that Theory of Mind abilities (which often seem to be categorized under ’empathy’) vary hugely from (human) individual to individual.
Molly Brown – yes, but we cannot see or feel what we do not see or feel, and if I don’t seem to have much of a need or urge to go looking [see Karmi, too?], why should I make the effort? Roger Walsh suggests meditative practices can find another realm of mental “something”. Others have claimed the same thing, causing Sam Harris (and at least one Substacker I know of) to go searching for that connection as well. But my materialist conjecture is they have (perhaps) simply found some extra mental networks within the brain, or some bio-physical/chemical reactions [perhaps the creation and release of some especially compelling neurotransmitter not normally released, either not yet discovered or not yet seen and recognized in that role.] Again, conjecture but satisfying to the mostly rational part of my brain/mind, pending learning more.
David Foster – yes, the empathy/ sympathy axis seems a logical place to start with evolving this capability, but I am sure you recognize it comes into play in many non-emotional situations as people conduct their many forms of communication to establish trusted relationships or even just hands-off ones. We even consider the state of minds of long dead authors as we try to plumb the information they have left us. A variation along a spectrum of “intensity” for these various TOM, rational, religious, transcendental, and related mental actions is part of my hypothesis, analogous to variations in many other abilities among humans – and presumably demonstrates a corresponding variation in genomes across a population.
If physicsguy has studied the QM aspects and claims, I would welcome his summary of what he believes is happening.
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The “hard problem” of consciousness exists entirely because, with the scientific revolution, came a philosophical commitment to a purely mechanical model of the world. This despite the fact there is actually no logical connection.
They simply refused to include many questions, of which consciousness is the paradigm case, in their model. Then – Suprise! – it could not be shown in the mechanical model. It’s “hard” only in the sense that it’s “hard” to find home runs in football.
“Judge dismisses Trump’s classified documents case;
“This is the latest roadblock Special Counsel Jack Smith has faced in his prosecutions of former President Trump.”—
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/judge-dismisses-trumps-classified-documents-case
Overdue, way overdue.
The whole farce should never have gotten off the ground in the first place…but it did.
Then it should’ve been stopped as soon as Decent Joe was discovered doing the same thing (for decades)…but it wasn’t.
Following that, it should’ve been stopped immediately after Jack Smith admitted lying to the judge several months ago…but it wasn’t…no, of course it wasn’t.
Smith should be held in contempt of court. So should his rabid CONTROLLERS.
Consciousness is not a question of algorithms or data quantity doesnt enter into it its this inimicable quality you cant
replicate because Creation is the unique thing
Like shakespeare said of a rose
Judge Cannon rules in accord with some old odd thing called “The Constitution”?! How very quaint but — truly now — can she do that?
No, I jest.
Second best news I’ve seen all week.
Re: Classified Documents case being dismissed – Events certainly seem to be going against our corrupt overlords lately. The last (figurative) bullet left in their lawfare gun appears to be the sentencing in the nonsense falsified business records case coming up in September. Do they dare try to throw Trump in jail over that after all that has happened… not mention all that may happen between now and then?
I fully expect things are going to get more strained and bizarre before the election. The assassination attempt was no surprise for me. I’m fully expecting a least a few more major dramatic events to occur over the next few months. Something along the lines of China attempting a naval blockade of Taiwan or Iran releasing a dirty bomb using their proxy Hezbollah along the border between Lebanon and Isreal.
I really hate living through interesting times.
One of the more DO-ABLE Distractions(TM) that “Biden” may well “decide” to foment—so it seems to me—at this critical juncture (but then for a serial PSYCHO-MEGA-cover-upper, EVERY juncture is critical) would be to FINALLY defenestrate the Bibi-Monster.
(Just to show everyone WHO’S the boss….)
Well, let’s hope I’m wrong about that…
Glenn Greenwald tackles the thorny issue– is Joe Biden a decent man. No surprise at the answer for conservatives, but a dose of reality for the left to pry Joe’s hands away from the presidency?
Is Joe Biden a “Good and Decent Man”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRZ7xVsbykE
Re: putting President Trump in Rikers. That would certainly cap off an election for the ages.
The left is so deranged they would be dancing in the streets even knowing it would seal the election for the “Most Hated Man in the World”. Or is their derangement such a break with reality they can’t understand it would guarantee the 47thPresident of the United States, Donald J. Trump?
as I say, you can’t replicate consciousness, specially in a hive mind,
no he isn’t a decent man, is he the worst of the ring wraiths well thats debatable,
Bibi, as I’ve speculated here before Barry, has a kind of nasty/nice dilemma of his own to navigate come his meeting with “Biden” next week: acknowledge Biden isn’t there (as everyone can see), or make himself a subservient fool by pretending everything is a-ok with the dodderer-in-chief.
Meanwhile, either way Bibi’s nation’s fate hangs in the balance. It’s going to require a species of consequential statesmanship the likes of which no-one has recently witnessed.
Not across this globe, anyhow, that I’m aware of.
The Trump Florida Case: Dismissed. – ‘A huge loss for Special Counsel Smith’ by Techno Fog
Thanks for the link, Karmi.
The VP pick may be JD Vance.
He has a motorcade now.
He wouldn’t have been my choice.
E pleb nista, some simple truths that the dems insist on denying or obfuscation, like section 1512 of the US Code or Presidential Immunity,
Is Joe Biden a “Good and Decent Man”?
==
Other than Mona Charen, did anyone not on the payroll of the Democratic Party nexus ever claim he was?
Quick break from the overwhelming politics of the last few days:
The materialistic view of consciousness continually overlooks the fact that neurons interact via molecular, electromagnetic, and even atomic processes. That necessarily brings in quantum indeterminacy, and with it, maybe an underlying look at the origin of consciousness. Personally, I’ve come to the idea that QM is necessary, and as the speaker says, consciousness is obviously tied directly to the brain. If consciousness is an independent existence, the maybe the brain is a transducer of such.
but what makes the brain such a transducer, even if you created an organic framework, instead of the palladium core, typical too much scifi (from Asimov on) could you achieve consciousness, I guess we are touching as much as the soul of the machine
so Skynet is supposed to be such an AI, because it is aware of it’s existence, but is that really consciousness the way we understand it, Cyborgs who already have an organic component, see Cybermen or Dalek, but are they really alive,
then we come to the Ian Malcolm question, because we can do a thing (ie: clone dinosaurs’) does it mean we should,
A whole series of films from fritz lang’s metropolis to a rather obscure offering
singularity suggest you shouldn’t, also that last one with jennifer lopez,
Abraxas, mine either. Too much like a right wing Obama.
Aerial photo of farm show grounds and video of assassination attempt here:
https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/063-moa-away-thats-it
The bit about the rooftop being outside the Secret Service’s zone of responsibility looks to be nonsense. The Secret Service is in overall charge of everything. It looks like they failed to secure the industrial park just outside the fairgrounds, even though the rooftop is closer to the podium than most of the fairgrounds are, as well as a better location for a shooter. USSS can blame the local police, but their job was to make sure that the whole area was secure, even outside the farm show grounds.
Physicsguy, the measurement problem of quantum mechanics requires a consciousness in my opinion. The atheist physicists have convinced themselves otherwise but they really don’t have good arguments against it. Even one of the founders of quantum mechanics , Erwin Schrodinger had problems with it, and came up with the famous cat paradox As always in physics, experiment rules, and slowly experiments are getting closer to answering the question of whether consciousness is required.
I could be wrong about Vance. Ohio is giving him added security after the Trump assassination attempt. I have to stop repeating the latest rumors.
Bob Wilson.
I agree. I guess maybe what I was trying to say is that the consciousness is necessary even for brain function?? It is a tough nut to crack. Certainly the experiments from Aspect back in the early 80s to now all show that the Copenhagen interpretation is quite in play.
Art Deco said: Other than Mona Charen, did anyone not on the payroll of the Democratic Party nexus ever claim he was?
I’d argue that probably over a decade ago during the height of the Obama years, I think the general public impression of Joe Biden was that he was indeed a good and decent man. In pop culture he was often portrayed as affable, avuncular, and a bit silly. I distinctly remember the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” had a running gag that the good natured, busy body protaganist of the show, Leslie Knope, had a crush on Joe Biden. In fact Dr. Jill and Joe Biden themselves even made a brief cameo in one of the later season episodes. Around the same time, another Sitcom, “Community”, had an episode which presented Joe Biden in a similar way.
To be fair, this was a little bit before the whole Burisma affair. But then again it was long after his infamous `88 presidential campaign where he plagerized speeches and boldly lied about his past and creditials on camera. Not to mention his borish, jackass behavior during the 2012 VP debate with Paul Ryan.
Leftist heads are exploding after Judge Cannon’s decision regarding special counsel Jack Smith. Perhaps that was not a good metaphor given Saturday’s events. The latest is that the judge repeatedly cited Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ decisions in her ruling. LOL
“The Supreme Court’s decision to grant Trump immunity over “official acts” may have portended the decision by Cannon, who approved Trump’s request to delay the trial so that the ruling could be evaluated. She then cited Judge Clarence Thomas three times in her own ruling to dismiss the indictment.
“In Trump’s immunity ruling, Justice Thomas all but invited Judge Cannon to find Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed as special counsel,” MSNBC’s Adam Klasfeld commented. “Cannon noticed.”
https://news.yahoo.com/news/judge-aileen-cannon-repeatedly-cites-145233570.html
and she relied on the meese brief, as someone who was targeted twice by independent counsels, for obscure reasons, they couldn’t force him to recuse like
they did with ashcroft and sessions, but they sought to tarnish him anyways, this was mark levin’s trial by fire, as chief of staff,,
Regarding consciousness…
What is love? For anyone paying any attention there is no question love is real. It can be felt. Sensed.
Like consciousness, one can argue it’s a word humans made up to describe a series of events, or patterns. And any physical set of rules or tests you devise to define love, like consciousness, can be violated to disprove its existence. There is no 100% testable hypothesis, no litmus paper that always indicates the presence of love. But we all can feel it when it’s present. And four people can be present in a room and 2 or 3 or 1 may not feel it.
But love is real. And consciousness is real.
And, like consciousness, love is counter to the theory of evolution. Why would families like those depicted in the film, “Possum Trot,” import hungry mouths into their already impoverished community?
Cogito ergo sum. “I think therefore I am.”
There are some things in heaven and earth that Horatio’s philosophy simply cannot prove.
Heh, yeah — not feelin’ the love here: https://x.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1812908680083333231?t=muUURTsm38xQTBnbRwLvMA&s=19
day ending in y
Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, Founder of https://israel-alma.org/ talks to Willy OAM about the broader context of the goals of Iran and it’s proxy war using Hezbollah and Hamas.
More reason to see a Trump administration back in charge of our foreign policy.
The IRGC & A Much Larger Global Campaign – Is The West Losing? – Former Intelligence Officer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwDBz5X35-8
Another open-thread comment about something else I read.
On July 2nd, Philip Hamburger wrote a short opinion piece entitled “No Remedy for Censorship: The Perils of Murthy” (https://tinyurl.com/5ewdum8y).
Here’s the first paragraph:
“Last week, in Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court hammered home the distressing conclusion that, under the court’s doctrines, the First Amendment is, for all practical purposes, unenforceable against large-scale government censorship. The decision is a strong contender to be the worst speech decision in the court’s history.”
There’s nothing I can add to that.
P.S.
On June 27th, Neo wrote here about the Court’s decision (https://tinyurl.com/zdujtea8).
I heard rumors that Secret Service resources were diverted away from Trump to an event hosted by Dr. Jill. I’ve heard it said that these “resources” included snipers? If such rumors prove to be true it’d be pretty awful.
More questions, this time from Dan Bongino.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/07/folks-if-they-had-this-subject-on-their.html
“There are some things in heaven and earth that Horatio’s philosophy simply cannot prove.” – Rufus T.
Exactly. How do we explain transcendental experiences? In my life I have had four transcendental experiences for which the only explanation is a force or higher consciousness. They have occurred when I was in psychic pain or in the presence of intense beauty. The feeling was always one of unconditional acceptance. An inner certainty that I was accepted by a higher power/God. Has it made me a better person? Perhaps. Has it given me faith that there is a spiritual world that we see only darkly? Definitely.
As you say, we like to measure everything and be able to explain it in material terms. That has certainly allowed us to create a material world that was unimaginable even 200 years ago. But humans 200 years agio may have been in better touch with their spiritual side because life was slower, and people had more time to contemplate those things that are unexplainable, but very real when you experience them.
On consciousness — I have an old roommate and HS debate partner who became an MD/PhD researcher mapping the synapses in the brain down to individual cell level. (His sole teaching course is bioelectricity taught in departments of Biomedical Engineering.)
Back in the 1990s when he was working on his dissertation project (brains of frogs), I reminded him of his undergrad years reading Descartes and the British empiricists in philosophy.
He said something grandiose but prophetic: “I want to solve the problem of human consciousness.”
President George H.W. Bush declared that the 1990s would be the decade of brain research.
And sometime in this period, my brilliant friend said something striking and revealing as he finished his Bachelor’s in physics.
He said: “The solution to consciousness is likely to be as paradoxical and astounding as the wave/particle duality of light.”
I love that insightful metaphor and have reminded him of it, from time to time.
Voters shun another antisemitic Squad member
https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/double-lammy
J.J.,
Your comment sums up my impression also. Even in the physical world we can easily measure there are myriad things we do not perceive. We discussed audio and human hearing recently here at neo’s. The same is true of the “visual” spectrum. Human vision can only perceive a tiny sliver of the radiation emanating, reflecting and refracting all around us. If something is too small for our fingertips to sense through touch does that mean it doesn’t exist?
From wikipedia:
Could it be, in the past, or even in different cultures that exist today, more emphasis was placed on “tuning” the brain to non-material things, or things we don’t perceive as material in modern, western culture?
I found the video deeply unsatisfying psychobabble.
Rufus T., we are on the same wavelength here. 🙂
I’ve tried meditation and been somewhat successful, but it has not put me in touch with the spiritual force that I’ve experienced. I don’t doubt that for some it is a path to that level of consciousness – a tiny peek into an unseen level of our existence. But meditation is, at least for me, not easy. I suspect I’m too impatient.
The mind is an amazing thing though. Even though I’m old and unbale to travel much anymore, my mind can carry me back to places I have visited and recreate the experiences. Well, probably not perfectly, but good enough for me and inexpensive. 🙂
Is consciousness binary?…does someone have it or not have it? (in which case I guess you could call them a something rather than a someone) Do dogs, for example, have some level of consciousness but less than that of a human?
So where is Joe now?
Word is that the Obama faction is giving up on their palace coup for Joe Must Go. The situation is more complicated. Trump looks stronger than ever. They don’t want to divide the party.
Furthermore, I think the Democrat nomination is now a poisoned chalice, no matter who drinks from it. So let Joe have it.
Iran Update, July 15, 2024 – snippets:
Gulf states ain’t the only ones the “Axis of Resistance” try to coerce, i.e., Egypt and Jordan have held steady for Israel thru such coercive tactics…
physicsguy: “Certainly the experiments from Aspect back in the early 80s to now all show that the Copenhagen interpretation is quite in play.”
Can you expand on that for the rest of us?
JJ: “How do we explain transcendental experiences?” So the question remains for me, how is it that a majority of people seem to have the ability to have these experiences (or beliefs from them), while a substantial minority of the rest of us do not seem to ever encounter them? (or perhaps not frequently? or as strongly?) If as our brains evolved the ability to have these experiences led to enhanced cooperation that aided survival, some variation in this characteristic can be expected with variation in our respective DNA or epigenetic episodes.
Can consciousness be “emergent” from our population of 10^15 synaptic junctions, firing in an astronomical number of combinations, but all involving biochemical interactions [including “love”]. I remain skeptical that any QM level aspects are needed – aside from the impact of cosmic rays on DNA – but I have a couple of books on the subject yet to read, so I try to keep an open “mind” on that. 🙂
David Foster: “Do dogs, for example, have some level of consciousness but less than that of a human?”
Thus, if dogs have smaller brains, fewer synaptic junctions, etc., they may miss out on something emerging that humans can experience. Even setting aside transcendence, our abilities in Theory of Mind are pretty phenomenal compared to most other animals
[i.e., I know that you know that he knows what she knows, etc.] .
Did anyone take one for the team and devote 20 minutes you’ll never get back to watching David Brooks and the other PBS poseurs this evening?
R2L,
‘…how is it that a majority of people… the rest of us do not seem to ever encounter them?’
Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Matt. 7:7-8
Lasted about 30 seconds of the video. Other humans trying to explain Consciousness, Transcendental Experiences, etc. has never really interested me.
Am certainly not an expert on anything, but it seems we are born into a physical/material world with a strong connection still ‘Intact’ to/from whoever/wherever/whatever we came from. Maybe that connection is why some young ones see an “imaginary” ‘Someone/Something’ – or the term “Guardian Angle” originated from – or maybe that is why humans have a long history of creating “gods” and “religions” – or perhaps where the concept of a ‘Spark of Life within each of us’ came from – or why people seek the “Meaning of Life” – or go in a search for themselves – and/or etc.
It’s baffling for Joe Biden.
R2L…”Even setting aside transcendence, our abilities in Theory of Mind are pretty phenomenal compared to most other animals
[i.e., I know that you know that he knows what she knows, etc.] ”
This is true. I think it’s also true that Theory of Mind abilities (which often seem to be categorized under ’empathy’) vary hugely from (human) individual to individual.
Molly Brown – yes, but we cannot see or feel what we do not see or feel, and if I don’t seem to have much of a need or urge to go looking [see Karmi, too?], why should I make the effort? Roger Walsh suggests meditative practices can find another realm of mental “something”. Others have claimed the same thing, causing Sam Harris (and at least one Substacker I know of) to go searching for that connection as well. But my materialist conjecture is they have (perhaps) simply found some extra mental networks within the brain, or some bio-physical/chemical reactions [perhaps the creation and release of some especially compelling neurotransmitter not normally released, either not yet discovered or not yet seen and recognized in that role.] Again, conjecture but satisfying to the mostly rational part of my brain/mind, pending learning more.
David Foster – yes, the empathy/ sympathy axis seems a logical place to start with evolving this capability, but I am sure you recognize it comes into play in many non-emotional situations as people conduct their many forms of communication to establish trusted relationships or even just hands-off ones. We even consider the state of minds of long dead authors as we try to plumb the information they have left us. A variation along a spectrum of “intensity” for these various TOM, rational, religious, transcendental, and related mental actions is part of my hypothesis, analogous to variations in many other abilities among humans – and presumably demonstrates a corresponding variation in genomes across a population.
If physicsguy has studied the QM aspects and claims, I would welcome his summary of what he believes is happening.