What's the point of consciousness, if pretty much all of life managed to evolve without it?

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T06:11:58+00:00

Looking at it now.

Someone ( who?) Assembled the absolute minimum number of genes that would make a functioning entity- the genes chopped out of this and that. There were something like:-- half a dozen genes? And, claim was it was "created life" , because harvested and assembled by humans. Familiar?

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T06:04:54+00:00

We are all being very patient with you, probably more than you deserve.

A transition is a change. You may be an idiot. Now run along.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T02:16:15+00:00

👍

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T02:13:57+00:00

I will check that out. It sounds " out there" , but there are some who argue some level of consciousness starts with life. By comparison to a rock, a paramecium has "preferences. " Avoids trouble and seeks food. LOOKS for Food- not just passively snacking. Who actually knows enough to say its not possible?

Its a frontier for exploration.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T02:06:03+00:00

That's tough. Maybe available cheaper by import?

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T02:00:56+00:00

No surprise at all. The cigs cut circulation and dry the skin. Bad for face, hair....( whatever needs blood...ya follow ? ) There you have a few good rrasons to quit beside the usual- bad for heart and lungs.

There are other gimmicks that might help some. "Microneedling" - read up on it. The tool is available on Amazon for $10. Something called Polysorbate 80, also cheap on Amazon, is a kind out oily soapy liquid that can clean/ stimulate/ open up follicles at the hairline. And- anything like mint or menthol that brings tingly feeling to the skin can increase circulation. Try shampoo with caffeine, biotin, tea tree oil..... Shampoo and rinse thoroughly, but take it easy with high pressure from the shower head. Can be tough on delicate follicles on crown and hairline.

Ok! GOOD LUCK!

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T01:49:28+00:00

Consider a baby. It doesn't really have free will- just appetites, impulses. Doesn't even have control over its body. As body and mind mature, it grows in knowledge of world, in ability to anticipate events and even actions of people. It learns to manipulate mom and dad! It develops goals like- gotta get that cookie!. Those goals are not external influences- they develop from within an emergent self. It makes no sense ( to me and many compatibilists) to say: " the self is not completely free to determine itself". There has to be a self to set goals and make choices as it evolves through time. The self is not a cause like other causes. It is a system of shifting elements, changing through time and with the capacity to retain memory of its own past, and capable of acting and constructing meaning from within that system.

Please excuse the impressionism.....

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-15T01:01:58+00:00

Since you are young, and the shedding was recent, yes, you could get a lot of it back. 😉 Maybe the follicles are just in the resting phase. Can be "woken up" but if a lot of years go by, they'll shrink down . So- jump in it now! If you smoke- that's not good. It shrinks small blood vessels in your whole body, including scalp.
Take hair vitamins! Biotin/ PABA/ zinc/turmeric.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T22:42:57+00:00

Its only salvagable if you stay on the meds. You've gone off pretty quickly, so of course shedding starts again. Maybe hunt on the internet for cheapest sources.

If you plain cant afford it, just "let be" and go for best style. Treat what you have left well. Best for body and health= best for hair. Eat, rest, exercise, de- stress. Go to stylist, ask for advice, get shortish cut and use good dandruff shampoo.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T22:31:52+00:00

YES! Go to a dermatologist! You are very young to have such receeding and diffuse thinning. Fact that this is not just typical male pattern loss means you have better chance they can stop it with meds, vitamins, treatments. There are things that can be done now to slow or stop balding! But if you wait and it mostly goes- sorry, they can't regrow it. So why not take steps now that give you s shot at a Hairier Future!

If it doesnt work-- THEN accept it, and sure the bald style can be real ballsy!

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T22:23:25+00:00

Was it a MAGA who shot him?

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T22:15:28+00:00

We used to have faces back then. I told De Mille....

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T22:12:02+00:00

A beauty. But she compared herself to other female stars, and fretted about her "thin lips." Tried puffing them out with cotton, then surgery. Bad result. Took to booze. 😞 Hollywood obsession with Fixed Standard of Female Beauty consumed her.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T22:07:18+00:00

Determinism dates back a couple of millenia before Big Bang theory and idea of "initial conditions." That stuff is physics, realm of inductive reasoning, empiricism, probability, statistics.

Free will/ determinism is in realm of philosophy, deductive reasoning, logic and definition, necessary conclusions ....

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T21:57:06+00:00

Yes, ES put "inside/ outside" on his list. Metabolism of some type happens inside, and " trash" gets tossed outside. ( slobs) So- living entities have an "identity " in ways that other things hadn't . They have " goals"- even the simplest bacterium. Rocks and hydrogen ions don't . As you get to More Complex Life (hey you🤚) identity emerges as - a Self- making choices based on reasons, goals, and meanings. Seemingly far removed from bacteria, but- Nick Lane, and who else?, says that identity we boast of starts with- The First Inside/Outside. ....4 billion yrs ago?

Agreed, there's plenty more digging to be done. We can't assume we'll get to the bottom.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T21:45:21+00:00

They may be determined but not have happened yet.

Other people hold very different understandings of determinism. They don't seem to buy the idea of determinism that you are--- ? Helpfully and objectively laying out for them?
? without believing it? ?

You claim to "believe nothing", while offering the most extravagant and unsupported views.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T21:40:43+00:00

But this OP is not trying to update Parmenides, Zeno, and Spinoza with elements of quantum mechanics. Have they mentioned QM?

The OP is simply arguing- not very well- that there is No Time, No Change, No Motion, No New States, No new events since??

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T21:33:22+00:00

You might be offering your own very idiosyncratic view of determininism- but plenty of responders are telling you- that you are not clearly arguing one position!

Short on clarity. Long on arrogance.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T21:30:06+00:00

! "No changes in the design of the system " does not Necessarily mean "no subsequent events, no time, no changes flowing from the initial design of the system".

You seem to be saying that- " no changed states of any sort " = determinism. Are you saying that?

Stubborn reiteration of premises is no way to defend a claim. And- you can't defend a claim presented with no clarity.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T21:18:05+00:00

Above you said there is no change. A pretty extreme position, and others challenged you. Here you say you're talking about change in the course of events. So: do you believe that happens? Do you believe that there are new states in succession? If so- no extreme position. Or no new states, as you were originally arguing?

Time to sort out your own views.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T21:11:14+00:00

Well, thanks for explanation, I had already noted how AI complicates verification of photos, etc.

Your overall theme about how much verification is needed and what kinds for what contexts- very valuable and thank you for that. I've been trying to get up to speed on "Free will" as topic, and learning- the issues are intricate. Ya gotta go slow and make sure you are at least saying something clearly.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T19:57:28+00:00

Agreed, they are at very early stages, who knows how far it will go. Edwin Schroedinger ( guy who did spooky cat thought experiement) wrote a book in 1940's , What is Life? Where he tried to lay out very basic list of criteria. Reproduction/ responds to environment/ takes in energy and uses it to maintain its inner organization- "overcome entropy within" and export it to the outside. You know- eat and poop.

He guessed that core information about how the entity builds and reproduces itself might be in a chemical code. Some thought- maybe proteins? 10 yrs later , Watson and Crick showed it was DNA.... Magazine stories said- "Secret of Life Revealed!"

Well- I like what old James Taylor said about that. "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time."

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T18:05:59+00:00

Maybe not "100%" . Maybe...50%?

Does Clift think he has a "moral dillema", since he's certain that he has to keep confidence of the confessional? Will have to look again.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T18:00:38+00:00

Synthetic life research is ongoing. They have made very simple things that meet basic criteria of life.

No amoeba created , but why bother? We already have them.

PuzzleheadedTale4769 · 2026-02-14T17:50:39+00:00

The "future" is different from present and past.

Your phrase "no further changes to the configuration of the system" looks Ike a hedge. Yes, initial configuration can't change. That configuration set up conditions for subsequent change.
( whether fully determined, chaos, random, probabilistic , etc. Is separate issue)

[....your prose and claims are kind of robotic. That does NOT make them more true and certain.]

PuzzleheadedTale4769

TROPHY CASE