06 NOV 2014 by ideonexus
Human Communication with Matrioshka Brains
Communication between humans and MB is essentially pointless. The computational capacity difference between a MB and a human is on the order of 1016 (ten million billion) times greater than the difference between a human and a nematode (~109)! A single MB can emulate the entire history of human thought in a few microseconds. It is important to consider that intelligence may not be a linear process. There is a rather large difference between the... 1 
notes
notes31 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
The Difference in How the Public and Scientists Use "Theory"
The formal scientific definition of theory is quite different from the everyday meaning of the word. It refers to a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence. Many scientific theories are so well established that no new evidence is likely to alter them substantially. For example, no new evidence will demonstrate that the Earth does not orbit around the sun (heliocentric theory), or that living things are not made of cells (cell theory), th...
1 In common usage, it is the equivalent of an educated guess, in science, it is nearly synonymous with the facts it is built on.
26 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Two Views of Consciousness
There is no end of hypotheses about consciousness, particularly by philosophers. But most of these are not what we might call principled scientific theories, based on observables and related to the functions of the brain and body. Several theories of consciousness based on functionalism and on the machine model of the mind... have recently been proposed. These generally come in two flavors: one in which consciousness is assumed to be efficacious, and another in which it is considered an epiph...Folksonomies: consciousness
Folksonomies: consciousness
1 notes
notesOne view is that it is the executive function of the brain, the other is that it is a byproduct of its processing.
01 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Do Not Attempt to Reconcile Science and Religion
Since religion intrinsically rejects empirical methods, there should never be any attempt to reconcile scientific theories with religion. [An infinitely old universe, always evolving may not be compatible with the Book of Genesis. However, religions such as Buddhism get along without having any explicit creation mythology and are in no way contradicted by a universe without a beginning or end.] Creatio ex nihilo, even as religious doctrine, only dates to around AD 200. The key is not to confu...Folksonomies: religion spirituality
Folksonomies: religion spirituality
1 notes
notesQuote by Hannes Alfvén on religion's rejection of empirical methods.
09 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Not All Thoughts are Memes
Where do new memes come from? They come about through variation and combination of old ones - either inside one person's mind, or when memes are passed from person to person. So, for example, the poodle story is concocted out of language that people already know and ideas they already have, put together in new ways. They then remember it and pass it on, and variations occur in the process. And the same is true of inventions, songs, works of art, and scientific theories. The human mind is a r... 1 notes
notesThoughts we keep to ourselves are not memes, because they are not passed along to others. New memes come ideas that we put together in new ways.
The "poodle story" referred to in this meme is the urban legend of a woman who microwaved her dog to dry it after a bath.
