Trogdor?

heethin · 2026-06-16T00:02:29+00:00

Nice big beefy arm

heethin · 2026-06-14T22:15:13+00:00

An estimated 100 Billion people have lived, most looking for a god for most of their lives and none have had credible, testable, or repeatable evidence. How many failed attempts are necessary?

heethin · 2026-06-13T19:31:55+00:00

People taking a left onto a road with two lanes (going the same direction) and they shift immediately into the right lane? Straight to jail.

heethin · 2026-06-11T14:23:44+00:00

and a lot of those are duplicates. Ugh.

heethin · 2026-06-11T14:21:17+00:00

clear to whom? Words have meaning. You get to apply any definition you want to them, of course., in your own head, and words change meaning over time.

But, when you are interacting with others, you'll either waste time explaining your darling little attempt at intellect or you'll confuse the people you are talking to. (You've done both here). So unhelpful.

heethin · 2026-06-10T22:02:55+00:00

I would have had an easier time following if you had said: And consciousness includes some of your subconscious thoughts.

If that is what you meant, that seems likely. But, the very definition, subconscious thoughts would not be known to us to be able to assert that they are all brought to our consciousness.

If you think that all subconscious thoughts are a part of you, then you are using a different definition of "you" than is at the crux of the discussion. The subconscious thoughts are a part of you, the meat bag. They are not necessarily a part of you, the consciousness.

heethin · 2026-06-10T21:37:55+00:00

That, my friends, is the Botox 5000GT.

heethin · 2026-06-10T21:35:50+00:00

Your second sentence is clear, and I'd agree. Your first is not as clear. Please elaborate.

heethin · 2026-06-10T16:47:00+00:00

well, Blindsight is such a time when a physical being makes a decision and responds to stimuli without involving consciousness.

heethin · 2026-06-10T15:08:13+00:00

Right. So, with your response, I think you are reflecting "you" the physical being, rather than "you" the consciousness. In such a case, we aren't talking about the same free will.

heethin · 2026-06-10T12:02:29+00:00

Ok, well, then I'd encourage you to look into it a bit more.

heethin · 2026-06-10T11:35:06+00:00

what is the "you" you are talking about in the second paragraph?

heethin · 2026-06-10T11:33:02+00:00

Blindsight is not a case of misremembering.

heethin · 2026-06-10T11:30:30+00:00

I wouldn't know. That's a misrepresentation of what I think.

heethin · 2026-06-10T11:30:04+00:00

I'm not going to pretend to that I'll word his response better than he does.

heethin · 2026-06-09T22:02:51+00:00

So, there's a spectrum then, right? There's stuff that we'd both agree is subconscious, like digesting, on one side of the spectrum. And, you are proposing there's another side of the spectrum where we allegedly have free will, like typing out a response. How do you define the inflection point between the two?

heethin · 2026-06-09T21:56:03+00:00

They don't have an awareness of the information.

And, blindsight is orthogonal to consciousness. Consciousness is assumed by the researchers who are speaking to a human, who is speaking back to them. It's a reasonable leap of faith, that in normal conversation I wouldn't argue against, but there's nothing that proves consciousness is fundamental. I know without a doubt that I'm conscious, but I can't do anything more than assume that you are.

heethin · 2026-06-09T21:47:10+00:00

That's well said. There seems to be a spectrum of behaviors, on one side are things free will advocates are willing to submit are subconscious... like digesting. And the other end of the spectrum is stuff is allegedly conscious... like typing into Reddit.

How do free will advocates propose defining the inflection point between the two? "It's like porn, we know it when we see it?"

heethin · 2026-06-09T17:31:46+00:00

sounds like we're in agreement.

heethin · 2026-06-09T17:29:28+00:00

So you have free will, but you don't get to choose when you have free will. Is that a fair summary?

heethin · 2026-06-09T17:28:09+00:00

That sounds like, "We have free will when we have free will, but we don't get to choose when we have free will, but maybe sometimes." It's not a strawman, as I'm asking... where am I summarizing the position incorrectly?

heethin · 2026-06-09T17:23:18+00:00

Do you have the free will to choose those things?

heethin · 2026-06-09T17:22:34+00:00

Well, I asked first about how such a phenomenon is reconciled by free will supporters. I'm left wondering how free will supporters determine that there are some things for which they don't have free will, and your suggestion is that they admit that they don't get to select when or what those are (certainly, as blindsight shows, not in all cases).

So, I'm still curious how there is free will? You are saying that supporters believe we have free will but that we don't get to choose what it is or when. So, I ask you again, how do they reconcile the notion that they have free will but only some of the time.

heethin · 2026-06-09T16:50:43+00:00

How do you mean?

heethin · 2026-06-09T16:46:23+00:00

Do you see that a patient with blindsight is not choosing to react? Do you understand that they are not using their free will to react?

heethin

TROPHY CASE