Recent content by filbertim

If you still take the same road, how do you know you have free will? True, a robot would be 50/50, but since random numbers aren't it would still be predictable. Can there really be free will without the ability to spontaneously change your mind independent of outside forces? Even if it's not a...

Python for the elegance and fun. Because at this point that's why I program. But it really is quite fun making neat little logical structures in python. It's a little game...

"You'll win at...WEDDINGS!" GOD yes.

"Well, it was the only procedure that'd allow me to really live after that accident. I mean, being a cyborg's not perfect, but it's sure as hell better than being a vegetable." --Railu of the New West That what ya meant?

The original method was young goose in bottle being fed (admittedly it won't live for long, but they grow fast). Time travel would certainly work.

Dogma certainly doesn't

Obviously to continue what is needed is a definition of 'alive,' and a definition of 'fire.' Does your 'alive' include humans? Viruses? RNA? Self-replicating chemical structures (like amino acids, I believe)? Fire? To organize this discussion, it would seem best to give a detailed...

Imagine a detailed fantasy world outside of the room. Devote every waking and sleeping moment to its creation and to your life in it. Studiously forget creating it, and never open your eyes again. You haven't found a way out, but you have escaped.

Xenu's adamantly against it so it's gotta be right. Hell, Hubbard's got a new book just about to come out called "Diametics on The Path: Origin of our Universe." They say he'll be doing a book tour, too... Edit: That helped you make up your mind, huh?

Sorry, to be redundant, Pegasus (redundant) but would you mind answering the 'two paths in the woods' thing? I'm curious as to how 'not taking the easiest path = FW' fits into that.

I chose not to vote for things I didn't understand, like Presidential and national stuff, plus some state measures. What I can comprehend is small-scale government, and though county-level in CA is stretching it, it's at least open to comprehension. The nation as a whole? Not so much, in my...

What is this 'Of course'?! I admittedly cannot prove that you do not have free will, but can you prove you do 'choose'? Huh. The article predicts my every move...self control it is, then. But what is a non-deterministic universe? Is not determinism determined by the possible but not...

You know that picture of 'ol Al with his tongue sticking out? Now I imagine it inside his cheek. Facts vs. Theory indeed. I see your Stalin and raise you a Mao: "All political power comes from the barrel of a gun." And, hell, a Machiavelli: "[...]it is necessary to be a fox to discover...

You have a set of criteria in making decisions, yes? If those criteria extended to all decisions, and you always had time to consider before deciding, you would become perfectly predictable. Already those with moral codes are more predictable. So, yes, that fits into determinism. But doesn't...

Well...yes, but as previously pointed out, we can't operate on the assumption that there isn't free will. It's unprovable, choices are still required, and our current society sorta depends on it and wouldn't take kindly to a dismantling of the justice system. I think I don't have free will...