RE: Why materialists are predominantly materialists
September 23, 2016 at 2:38 am
(This post was last modified: September 23, 2016 at 2:40 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(September 22, 2016 at 11:53 pm)bennyboy Wrote: Okay, I'll dream up a unicorn, and then you try and poke it with a big needle. Then try and poke the brain portions in which the unicorn is represented.Is there a difference?
Quote:I might smell smoke, or the unicorn might vanish, but I can tell you what won't happen, 100%-- the unicorn won't get poked with your needle.I'm not sure how you could know that.
Quote:That's because the experience is an experience, and the mechanism is a mechanism. They aren't the same.It was invalid as a general rule, and unsupportable as a specific rule. I don't know what else to tell you. They may not be, in the special case of a brain (plead away)...but we have no good reason to think that and plenty of good reason to think otherwise.
Quote:And no, you can't poke red. That's because red is a color, not an object, and only objects can be poked. You can poke maybe the brain part that generates the experience of red, but you can't poke red.If you say so, I guess.
Quote:I think you are conflating representation with reality. There are little people on my TV screen, but that's just a representation. I can't touch the little people cuz boink! my finger will just bounce off the screen. The movie characters won't be like "Hey, dude! Don't poke me!" Yeah, I could corrupt the file, or melt the physical film, or whatever, and fuck up the movie-- but that doesn't mean I'm doing those things to say Angelina Jolie.
When you say you can't touch the "little people" that's demonstrably untrue. You can. I know this because those "little people" are just a bunch of bits. You can hold them in your hand. They aren't, -actually- "little people". OFC you aren't doing any of those things to angelina jolie. You're doing those things to the collection of bits you -call- angelina jolie...for whatever godforsaken reason. You can probably see how this can be extended to include our brains and our experiences, right?
Wasn't I the one that was supposed to be conflating representation with reality....?
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