I’m mostly half-serious.

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  • 331 Comments
Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: August 15th, 2023

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  • balderdash@lemmy.zipOPtomemes@lemmy.worldThis shit is getting ridiculous
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    10 days ago

    I never said we should have zero debt, that’s a strawman. Most economist recommend a moderate amount of debt due to various positive effects (some of which you mention). So the real disagreement comes here:

    It’s all connected and that’s why running a deficit, a (relatively) small one, is a good thing.

    The implication being that you think the U.S. has a (relatively) small amount of debt. Now, I am willing to be convinced otherwise, but I do not think that the U.S. currently has a small amount of debt. Our debt to GDP ratio is higher than other developed nations, which is concerning.

    I do concede that we aren’t in danger of a debt crisis on the scale of Greece or Sri Lanka. But ~$34 Trillion in debt needs to be part of the discussion when we keep praising the economy.










  • balderdash@lemmy.ziptoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlDo you believe in Aliens?
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    3 months ago

    Well I suppose it depends on your views of consciousness. Some would argue that our consciousness is nothing more than an emergent phenomenon grounded on the electrical impulses of our neurons. Personally, I’m convinced that the phenomenon need not be physical. It should be possible, with enough computing power, to model the same interactions. But I admit that if you reject this possibility, then the simulation hypothesis loses credence.



  • balderdash@lemmy.ziptoMemes@sopuli.xyzChad Diogenes
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    3 months ago

    The argument makes less sense outside of it’s context. Moore was responding to the skeptical position that we’re all in a simulation. Moore argues that this skeptical argument undermines itself: all of the language, terms and concepts which form the simulation argument are based on the sensory experience that the argument would effectively dismiss. Furthermore, any argument that we’re in a simulation is epistemologically on a par with the argument that we’re not. Therefore we should have less confidence in the skeptical argument than the common sense conclusion that we have hands.


  • balderdash@lemmy.ziptoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlDo you believe in Aliens?
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    3 months ago

    Sorry, I suppose people haven’t heard of the “Simulation hypothesis” in philosophy.

    Nick Bostrom argued that, statistically, it is more likely that we live in a simulation than not. Assume that an advanced civilization could build a machine with enormous computing power, sufficient to simulate a human mind and a universe “around” it. It follows that the number of such simulated minds/universes could be near infinite. So the probability of our actually being in a simulated universe dwarfs the probability that our reality is not a simulation.


  • balderdash@lemmy.ziptoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlDo you believe in Aliens?
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    3 months ago

    I’m agnostic. If you find the statistical probability argument for the existence of aliens salient, then by the same token you should believe that our reality is a simulation. In which case, the existence of aliens once again becomes questionable; the statistical probabilities of an infinite simulated universe are outside the realm of our current knowledge.

    edit: See comment below on Nick Bostrom’s Simulation Hypothesis.


  • balderdash@lemmy.ziptoMemes@sopuli.xyzChad Diogenes
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    3 months ago

    Reminds me of the G.E. Moore epistemological argument against universal skepticism:

    • Here is one hand,
    • And here is another.
    • There are at least two external objects in the world.
    • Therefore, an external world exists.

    Philosophy sometimes goes so far that an appeal to common sense is a breath of fresh air.








  • Can God kill Himself.?" This presumes God is a physical and material being.

    I’m afraid I don’t see why being non-physical entails being eternal. For example, couldn’t God create an angel and then destroy it later? If angels are non-physical beings that can be created and destroyed, then immateriality doesn’t entail eternality. Moreover, you’re right that God cannot die, but it doesn’t follow that the answer to question #1 is “no”. If there was something that God couldn’t do, then God wouldn’t be omnipotent. So the question asks can God commit a logically contradictory action.

    God would then be both a non material being, and a material being in which he animates, that has the potential to lift the stone. Now if you belive that every material object has consciousness…

    I think our starting assumptions are somewhat far apart.