Believe In Reality

A reflex is example of a mechanism of cause/effect without a mind/will. Be it the kneecap reflex to placing one’s hand on a hot stove, the reflex is a muscle action that occurs without the brain; the nerve signal travels from the source to a ganglion then right back to the muscle (to contract). There is no brain, mind or thinking involved.

https://youtu.be/S58vlJwhwDw

One of the best books I’ve read in the last ten years. 5 stars. A must-read. Context is so important to understand things. Kurt Anderson lays down the timeline of US events that defined and shaped our atypical American psyche. This is so important to understand lest we spin off to neverland, never to return to global importance. We do not want our greatest long term impact to be the global superpower who went crazy.

So here we are in the 21st century. Human knowledge is at the point where we have a decent understanding of the universe, including all but a certainty that no gods exist. What a contrast. How long do you think it will take for these disparate ends to meet up, for 90% of the population to believe and act according to the reality we know? Generations? Thousands of years? Ever?

Walter Smith (on Facebook) asks: Is philosophy also (but not only) an art (method) to transform the illogical and irrelevant into the logical and to present it as essential? No. Philosophy is the practice of logic. It is an important sandbox in which we are allowed to ask any question without restrictions, even to the point of questioning apparent reality, although to have any credibility it must conform to the rules of logic.... This broad freedom of comes with a limitation however, in that it in most cases it can only generate hypotheses, not absolute knowledge. The value is that we can take these hypotheses and investigate them with the more robust tool of science. For the hypotheses that can’t be tested empiricallyabstract concepts, supernatural ideasphilosophy is the end of the road, unsatisfactory as that is to those who mandate knowable answers.

Fake news is with us forever and it has just been demonstrated that a large portion of a population are not only susceptible to it but causative. At its strongest it can be a self-reinforcing process. Whether from inadvertent or manipulative falsehood, society needs to adjust to this increasing danger, in part by developing education to recognize it at every age. This is one of the major tasks for the millennial generations.... https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1094

Answering Jason, et al: There is information in everything except an absolute vacuum. How atoms are arranged in a particular rock is information. A better word is function. Does a particular set of information result in a future state that does something? For example atoms in a gas rearranged are still just gas, while molecules in certain mixes react to yield a different mix. You are correct that there is chemistry. Life is chemistry on a larger, entropy-resisting scale. ... However your just adjective is incorrect. It is precisely the large scale that defines that certain chemistry as life.

There are many threads on social media about people saying they don’t know anyone with Covid-19 and doubting the severity. Do we really need to be this obtuse? As of today 295,000+ people have died. We are stacking up more than one million cases a week. And for many, Covid is not done when the initial worst is past. Please be smart everyone. If you doubt, err on the side of caution. Give your neighbors that amount of consideration.... Be safe everyone. Care for each other. https://youtu.be/ybo6SJQe5vg

Some serious progress in the mathematics of warp drive research. This is still a speculative dream but it has been driving some legitimate study for some time now. Interest in science is SO important to humanity. https://youtu.be/8VWLjhJBCp0... Read also: https://www.researchgate.net//335213493_An_Examination_of_

This is an essential reality that psychologists need to learn and recognizethat religion and cult are psychologically the same, top to bottom. Religion has only gotten a free pass because of historical traditional norms. ...relevant to former Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Emissaries of Divine Light, Scientologists, and others. In addition to the major fundamentalist denominations, certain issues here can apply to more... moderate and liberal churches as well. Excerpt From Leaving the Fold Marlene Winell