Profile for Student of Trinity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Student of Trinity |
| Member number | 3431 |
| Title | Electric Sheep One |
| Postcount | 3335 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Dikiyoba Seeks to Flaunt the Meaningless Approbation of Dikiyoba's Fellows in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, December 22 2007 08:07
Profile
No, but like JFK, he claims to be jelly-filled. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Revised political-geneforge sympathies poll in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 12:34
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A very nice explanation. Welcome to the boards. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Dikiyoba Seeks to Flaunt the Meaningless Approbation of Dikiyoba's Fellows in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 12:16
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Du bist ein Berliner. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Bipolar in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 12:04
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quote:FYT. 'Just' just does more harm than good in sentences like this. It's intended to exclude the dualist or anti-reductionist notion that there is some extra ghostly substance, beside matter, making up minds. But what is wrong with that naive view is not that it overcomplicates mind, but that it oversimplifies it. It is less, not more, than the truth. So 'just' is mostly firing in the wrong direction to be against it. And on the other hand, the substance dualist view is really only wrong as physics. That is, it's almost certainly wrong as a theory of the brain. As a theory of the mind it is almost certainly quite correct, in the following sense. Spirit may not be a rival substance to matter, but it almost certainly makes sense as an alternative category. Mind is not an extra substance in the brain, in the same way that the plot of Hamlet is not an extra kind of ink smeared between First Folio pages. But one can definitely distinguish between story and ink, and the plot of the play is real in a way that is arguably much more important than the reality of any individual spot of ink. Plot is a different category, not an alternative substance, but not an error or illusion either. Similarly mind and brain. And the distinction between category and substance is really only important on the level of physics; in philosophy of mind as such, it's just a shibboleth. I can insist that a dualist find-and-replace 'substance' with 'category' in all their statements. If that's all it takes to make me happy, though, then in an important sense I'm not really disagreeing with them. So just as saying that Hamlet is just ink and paper may be right in one sense, but is not a useful contribution to literary criticism, so insisting on substance monism in psychology is in my view a mistake in emphasis. Of course, insisting on substance dualism is the same mistake, plus a mistake in physics. The substance monists are right. They should just get over it. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| An ode to Jeff Vogel in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 11:40
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I dunno. I had to hack up my Heroes of Might and Magic III CD with a chef's knife. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Bipolar in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 06:57
Profile
I'll second this. I went through a bleak period once where I really wondered whether I might be clinically depressed. I consulted a psychiatrist, who quickly (and in retrospect quite correctly) concluded that there was no reason to begin taking medication immediately, and suggested I look at counseling. I then consulted one licensed counselor, who just about as quickly concluded that I was quite reasonably discouraged because some aspects of my life sucked, and that I needed practical advice more than soul-searching. He provided some very concrete and feasible suggestions that I wasn't seeing by myself, and a few weeks of consultation with him really helped me weather some tough months effectively. When things had calmed down and I decided that I could actually use some soul-searching after all, I found another counselor who was again very helpful. In one sense he didn't tell me anything I hadn't already thought of by myself. But I had also already thought of many other, contradictory things; I lacked the perspective to have confidence in any one hypothesis. For example, I was frustrated that I wasn't accomplishing enough in my work; but I really couldn't tell whether I was lazy and needed to knuckle down, or overdriven and needed to relax. In short, my small sample of the mental health care industry was very positive. Everybody was very professional, nobody pushed drugs on me, nobody wasted my time with nonsense, everybody was genuinely helpful. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Bipolar in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 06:09
Profile
Don't buy shares yet. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| World building poll in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 03:48
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And "open source soulware" does sound better than "necromancy". -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Bipolar in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 02:59
Profile
I tend to agree with Alec's claim that mainstream medicine actually thinks quite widely, and rejects things on solid empirical evidence rather than from purblind prejudice. And it is obvious that modern medicine can do wonderful things. But it doesn't hurt, or even really weaken that case, to admit that medical science is still in its early infancy. We really know very little about how human biochemistry works. And we know almost nothing at all about how neurochemistry works to produce psychological phenomena. We're about as far from having a really scientific psychiatry as those ancient Greeks and Chinese, with their static-charged amber and hunks of magnetized iron, were from building laptop computers. Or maybe further; who knows? I'm optimistic that the pace of scientific research has accelerated so much since then, that significant progress may come over decades rather than centuries. But there is clearly a long way to go yet. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| World building poll in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 21 2007 02:51
Profile
If contacting your soul changes your personality, it sort of raises the question of just what 'you' is. If your soul isn't you, then who is it? It sounds as though it might just as well be anything from a guardian angel to a personal demon. And it might make for an interesting fantasy world, if these questions were open. Magicans contact something, which is in some way linked to them personally, but is also not exactly the same person as they are. Some like to think it is their own soul, whose past lives their normal consciousness had forgotten. Others think that what they are doing is accepting a divine helper spirit. Or some kind of alien symbiont, like the Star Trek Trill. Still others consider the whole business to be nothing more nor less than a pact with a demon. Which theory is true, if any? Could be a very interesting campaign theme. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| When bullying goes galactic.. in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 20 2007 13:09
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I don't know what photons are, but they aren't 'pure energy'. We've had this discussion before, I believe. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Why aren't their any cats or dogs in Geneforge? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Thursday, December 20 2007 12:54
Profile
Jeff's games all have ridiculously overpowered rats, to the point where he really ought to include a Holy Swarm Crystal of Antioch. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Dikiyoba Seeks to Flaunt the Meaningless Approbation of Dikiyoba's Fellows in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 19 2007 03:42
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I believe Dikiyoba has been approbated before. This makes her a reprobate. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| When bullying goes galactic.. in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 19 2007 01:19
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It's not clear that galactic collisions are dangerous to humans at all. The distribution of stars over enormous scales may change, but they all remain many light years apart on average. So planetary civilizations really wouldn't care. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| When bullying goes galactic.. in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, December 18 2007 06:01
Profile
It wouldn't take a death star. An ultrarelativistic rock from space could blow the Earth to smithereens at any second. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| When bullying goes galactic.. in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Tuesday, December 18 2007 05:45
Profile
I guess somebody finally found an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Giscard Letter in Avernum 4 | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 17 2007 14:53
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Just wait for Avernum 6: Revenge of Giscard. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| What will happen to Spiderweb Software? in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 17 2007 14:41
Profile
Jeff will bequeath his empire 'to the strongest'. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Spiderweb Release Dates & Other Stuff in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Friday, December 14 2007 00:25
Profile
Avernum 1-3, Blades of Avernum, and Nethergate use minor variations on the same engine. The Geneforge games use a quite different engine, so you should check one out to compare. Avernum 4 and 5 use a sort of hybrid of the other two engines. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Omaha Mall Shooting in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 12 2007 23:10
Profile
All those years we scrimped and saved here to send Drew to law school, they're beginning to pay off. (Since lawyer jokes are so common, I should say that I mean this seriously, except for the scrimping and saving part.) -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| RPG Life.. in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 12 2007 22:24
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An ornk in G1 can do a lot better than simply being undomesticated. How could you forget? -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Omaha Mall Shooting in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, December 12 2007 01:10
Profile
Everyone agrees that prohibiting gay marriage is technically unequal and discriminatory. Everyone also agrees that some inequality and discrimination is okay, while other is not. This seems to be about as far as the discussion has gotten logically, though. People need to offer reasoning why the discrimination of banning gay marriage falls into one category rather than the other. Stillness seems to be arguing from the premise that discrimination is okay if it is 'discrimination in favor of' of a group, and wrong if it is 'discrimination against' a group. Stillness could do some work here on articulating what this 'discrimination-for' vs. 'discrimination-against' distinction means, since it isn't quite clear to me. But perhaps other people could indicate whether they recognize this premise as meaningful, and if so whether they accept or reject it. On the other side the premise has been articulated, that discrimination is wrong unless it serves a greater good. Some work could also be done here in explaining what constitutes a greater good, and how, if a greater good is recognized, we can establish that it is being served. But Stillness could say whether or not he finds this premise meaningful, and if so, whether or not he accepts it. For my part, I have to say that I don't yet see how the discrimination-for versus discrimination-against distinction is meaningful. It seems to me that any possible discrimination is always both at once. I suspect 'for-against' may turn out to be a will-o-the-wisp, looking nice from afar but always eluding clear definition. I guess I do accept the premise that discrimination is wrong by default but can be justifiable. But I am concerned that 'greater good' may be a will-o-the-wisp as well. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Omaha Mall Shooting in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 10 2007 23:17
Profile
I agree that whatever legal or tax benefits accrue to marriage would more sensibly and legitimately be attached to purely civil contracts between any two signatories regardless of sex. Churches can administer their sacraments, or not, as they choose; this should have no secular consequence. Render unto Caesar. As I understand it (and perhaps Thralni can correct me) this is how things are in the Netherlands. The Dutch social fabric is pretty obviously still going strong. Since Thuryl is on this thread: I think legal domestic partnerships of groups larger than two must be possible now, if the parties draw up a contract from scratch. That might not get an employer to pay multiple spousal benefits, for example, but maybe it's reasonable to limit an employer's liability at some point. Anyway, menages à N for N > 2 are uncommon, and baffling to me, but if the participants want a contract it's no skin off my nose. The legal issues are bound to be a lot more complex with anything that doesn't happen nearly as often, though, so I doubt larger groupings could become really comparable to couples, no matter how tolerant social mores may become, without some sort of basic shift in the Anglo-Saxon legal system. EDIT: It's not the church wedding that's expensive, it's the big reception, the photographer, the honeymoon, and all that. And that all costs the same if you get married in a civic ceremony. Marriage ceremonies themselves are cheap, or even free. [ Monday, December 10, 2007 23:25: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| For all you physics gurus in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 10 2007 15:09
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Well, they could measure electrostatic forces with small objects charged by friction. And they could measure magnetic forces between permanent magnets, or (after 1820) between current loops. And the pattern of iron filings around a bar magnet, for instance, certainly suggests some sort of field picture. Whether the forces were in fact attributed to local fields, or to direct non-local forces, was a matter of philosophic prejudice, until Faraday's discovery of induction. Once Maxwell's displacement current was added, it was very clear that the fields had their own energy, momentum, and so on, and were not simply bookkeeping devices for forces acting instantaneously over distance. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Omaha Mall Shooting in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Monday, December 10 2007 11:34
Profile
quote:Right — as I said, in the quoted post, using the example of pedophilia. Unequal isn't necessarily wrong. Calling it equal is. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |