Recent content by pftest

I used to do hard labor for about 10 years, and now i work as a programmer for about 10yrs also. Every day still feels like a holiday compared to the physical work. Just the mere fact that you can yawn or stretch for a few seconds, or get a glass of water when you feel like it. And waking up at...

I used to stay polite to these kids. Until one day i was walking down the street and one of them asked me if i care about poor children, i said no and kept walking, and the girl said "thats stupid". She surprised me so i didnt stop and complain. Now i no longer feel an obligation to stay polite...

Heres how i look at the situation: A standup guy (Zimmerman) is trying to protect a neighbourhood, he sees a suspicious looking individual (Martin), follows him and then approaches him. Martin viciously attacks him and Zimmerman defends himself with his gun. I think if Martin were still alive...

Yesterday the bbc article (or it was a different one) also said that the rival rebel group (linked to al qaeda) had stated they would kill any member of the Free Syrian Army. So that would be a civil war within a civil war. I suspected as much, thanks for the link. I also think you are right...

I don't think you can blame it all on mutations. There is the nature vs nurture issue: both the genes and the environment influence behaviour. So the "force" that you asked about is anything that influences behaviour. Just look a at a human being to see what influences us: environment, genes...

I think this is much better. I was never a fan of the previous grey design when it was introduced, it always seemed dull to me, like the site was inactive. It certainly makes a difference. I am not entirely happy with the green. Id try a few different colors (orange comes to mind), but you...

Thats what you would think, but A is also an elementary particle, it has no composition.

Yes, they are elementary particles. A muon decays to 1 electron + 2 neutrinos.

Ive read that elementary particles can decay. I am trying to understand how this can be with a particle that has no composition. So i have two questions: If elementary particle A decays into particles B and C, then why can't we say that A is composed of B and C? If an elementary particle can...

When you talk about the relationships, presumably you are referring to the actual physical forces between particles, right? So while we can create an elaborate hierarchy of descriptions, physically speaking the system remains a flat collection of particles and forces interacting. I think its a...

Thats actually what i mean, we set up arbitrary boundaries, and then we say consciousness happens on this side of the boundary but not the other. If the boundary is arbitrary, then it is not possible for consciousness to only exist on one side.

The important part i see in the paper is that complexity or emergence is observer dependent. That means consciousness cannot be the result of it.

I don't see how those differences are more than quantitative differences. "parallel processing", if two muscle fibers in a leg contract at the same time, it would fit the definition of parellel processing. Which is an arbitrary definition in the first place, and only indicative of a...

Do the both of you agree that the differences between brains and limbs are quantitative?

I disagree, virtually everything about the human body can be attributed to the universe. The electrons, particles, spacetime, the four interactions, the way they behave (by universal laws), etc. The human brain really isn't as special as we'd like it to be. And let's look and what a radio...