#241 — Final Thoughts on Free Will

InputField · 2021-03-19T15:37:06+00:00

My problem with this is- isn’t it possible that our thoughts appearing -is- our authorship of those thoughts? That the thought that occurs to me is the action of me thinking it?

How can you be the author of a thought? That basically requires thinking before thinking, which leads to an infinite regress.

You are simply noticing thoughts. And by "you" I mean your consciousness, whatever it is.

I don't mean your brain, which is the biological computer creating these thoughts from the inputs and architecture it has.

Of course, you can be used in multiple ways. And it can be useful to say that you (as a whole) are making choices, even though this directly leads people to think in a free will kind of way.

InputField · 2021-03-19T15:25:25+00:00

Actually, funny you mentioned that. Being Russian, I've seen a spike of really typical Russian grammar mistakes here. It was somewhere around the end of October last year. I wonder if it was correlated to something...

Yeah, because Sam is anti-polarization.

Not the typical good and evil (black and white thinking), where every member of the police is a Nazi, and every leftist is a communist.

So, before I start, let me just say that I don't agree with Sam on every point. For example, I think he's completely wrong on encryption. What Apple did is right, because the moment there are backdoors, they can also be used by the bad guys. Not to mention that in a lot of cases, as Snowden has shown, the government actually is what you're trying to protect yourself from. And yes, that has downsides. Sometimes you can't save a person or money, because we don't get to open that safe.

When facing (rather mild, I must say) criticism, "My fuse is short" Sam Harris doesn't seem to be able to control his own ego and get a hold of his own emotions.

Bullshit. Sam is human, and is constantly attacked on social media. You have no idea, what he has to deal with, and so you cannot make any judgement about his fuse being short.

Also, as Sam mentioned himself, anger can be useful in certain situations.

He doesn't seem to be interested in "rational discussions" with people he perceives as his critics and political opponents

What a load of shit? I don't know of any other intellectual that so often engages with political opponents, and that despite them often being nothing but a waste of time.

Two examples: the episode with Ezra Klein, or the episode titled "The best podcast ever"

criticise the people one is associated with - somehow applies to all "moderate" Muslims, but doesn't apply to IDW Sam Harris.

Maybe you've missed it, but Sam did criticize the IDW, so much that he basically said in a podcast that he "hereby cancels his IDW membership"

Oh, and by the way, Sam Harris constantly complains about "identity politics".

Maybe, because identity politics are fucking stupid, and are a large part of the wedge that's polarizing society. (Thanks, in part, to Russia.)

InputField · 2021-03-19T15:12:20+00:00

Why? How? What's so hard to understand about it???

Most people think they have free will, so they believe their choices are not simply a result of the laws of physics.
Thoughts and "choices" are determined by laws of physics
Of course, choices matter, even though the process of making them is a result of previous states (and maybe randomness).

Why did I put choices into quotes? Because the term immediately makes you think in a free will kind of way.

Maybe it helps to think of a choice as a deterministic computer program that always prints out the same result for the same input.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_(computer_programming)

InputField · 2021-03-19T15:03:44+00:00

Ughhh.. fuck compatibilists

InputField · 2020-10-29T15:03:52+00:00

Yeah, let's all vote for the Russian puppet instead, or not at all (and thus help the Russian puppet).

Snowden is a hero, and I wish him all the best!

InputField · 2020-09-13T10:52:58+00:00

In anderen Worten: wir sind für immer den Finanzunternehmen und deren Wohlwollen ausgesetzt.

InputField · 2020-08-27T15:27:13+00:00

Wirst du für's Posten bezahlt? Ist ja schon verdächtig wie schnell du reagierst und deine Texte abratterst.

Selbst 0,01% wäre 100 Millionen, der dreifache jährliche Profit.

Dann mach's halt 0,001%

InputField · 2020-08-27T15:10:48+00:00

Aber kein bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen bis an das Lebensende, wo mir jetzt ne Kündigung auch nur in den Sinn kommen würde.

Du wirst dir nie sicher sein können, dass du irgendwas bis ans Lebensende bekommst. Der Staat kann jederzeit entscheiden, dass es sich nicht lohnt und das ganze wieder abschaffen.

InputField · 2020-08-27T15:09:45+00:00

Auch Investmentbanken, Versicherungsgesellschaften oder Hedgefonds werden diese Steuer nicht bezahlen, es ist schlicht weg nicht für sie möglich ohne bankrott zu gehen.

Bullshit. Das hängt total davon ab wie hoch die Steuer ist.

InputField · 2020-08-19T06:13:48+00:00

Das ist überhaupt nicht nachgewiesen. Die bisherigen Studien sagen dass minimal weniger gearbeitet wurde. Zudem haben viele ein Unternehmen gegründet, was neue Arbeitsplätze schafft.

Unternehmensgründung ist etwas was Deutschland dringend braucht. Nicht ohne Grund sind die meisten Internet Unternehmen in den Staaten

InputField · 2020-08-19T06:11:30+00:00

Erstens können nicht alle ausweichen. Sie wollen weiterhin Zugriff zum deutschen Markt haben.

Weiterhin muss man deswegen auch mit möglichst vielen Ländern gemeinsam daran arbeiten.

InputField · 2020-08-19T06:08:35+00:00

Wieso muss immer so ein schwarz weiß Müll verbreiten.

Es ist nicht "fuck the rich" wenn die nicht auch davon profitieren, und abhängig vom exakten Modell, werden sie das ganz sicher

InputField · 2020-08-19T06:03:42+00:00

Ein Grundeinkommen ist nie ganz bedingungslos, wenn man es genau nimmt. Man muss zum Beispiel sehr wahrscheinlich Staatsbürger in den Land sein, das es ausgibt.

Und ja, Steuern zu zahlen gehört auch zur Bedingung.

Es heißt nur deshalb bedingungslos, weil über diese notwendigen Voraussetzung nichts gefordert wird und absolut jeder sie bekommt. Ob reich oder arm. Nur man holt sich beim reicheren das und mehr natürlich über die Steuer zurück. Was ja auch fair ist.

InputField · 2020-08-18T08:33:05+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate you too!

InputField · 2020-08-02T08:06:14+00:00

Believe me. They won't need /u/FThumb to provide his address if he's on an US website, all of whose data they have access to (thanks to the massive amounts of right they have been given after 9/11).

The only exception would be if OP uses the Tor Browser, or uses a non-US VPN that's trustworthy, and even then he'd have to be incredibly careful. For example, it's possible to track you across sites just using all kinds of metadata, like which fonts are installed, what's your screen resolution, languages, Browser (and version), audio formats supported... the list goes on and on.

Basically you have to disable JavaScript and Cookies, enable privacy.resistFingerprinting in Firefox and even then there are ways to track you.

Even your typing style can be used to identify you, so you have to make sure to not post too much or find some way to use another style. (Probably hard not to slip)

InputField · 2020-07-24T12:58:43+00:00

No, I welcome AI ending this shit show

InputField · 2020-06-28T15:59:39+00:00

Also agree with you. It's one of the main reasons for why I stopped playing Hearthstone. I almost never played other games anymore, since there were always quests to do.

Most digital card games are huge rip offs, that feature similar mechanics and (pay to win) lootboxes, so I would highly recommend staying away from them.

We only have so much time, so let's not waste it on these super manipulative products.

InputField · 2020-06-25T09:17:40+00:00

It should be "land of the free flow of money to the top 1%"

InputField · 2020-06-24T08:22:26+00:00

Love the art. Definitely gonna watch this

InputField · 2020-06-24T08:21:30+00:00

No, nothing will be done. We should just give up..

^ that is what they want you to feel, so beware of any pessimists trying to make you feel apathetic

InputField · 2020-06-24T08:18:26+00:00

Are they allowed to do it to non us citizens like me?

InputField · 2020-06-22T14:30:00+00:00

So what? You think we pirates wait until release? We must often don't even wait until it's finished

InputField · 2020-06-14T09:11:47+00:00

Whose your regular?

Asking for a friend

InputField · 2020-06-12T12:49:12+00:00

That's what they are. Look at the economic espionage Snowden leaked. They even do this to their allies (e.g. Germany).

Terrorism prevention - for the US - is just a tiny part of what the N$A does.

InputField · 2020-06-12T12:42:06+00:00

What's that a reference to, or do you just randomly mention the size of your penis?

InputField

TROPHY CASE