There are several words in our lives for which we have no precise definition, like consciousness, friendship, life, and love. Still, we know what we mean with those words. Another word for unknown knowns is instinct or intuition. No scientist can explain consciousness. In my view, our individual consciousness might well relate to a universal mind or universal...
Panpsychism
Keep the Faith
Why is it so hard to keep your faith that things will get better?? Last Friday, I was looking for news articles on someone who is important to me. I use Google Alerts for such a purpose. After creating a draft alert, I noticed an article. After reading that article, I decided to delete my draft alert. That news did not raise my hopes - to put it mildly. I then...
42 percent of CEOs think AI may destroy humanity this decade (Futurism)
Futurism title: 42 percent of CEOs think AI may destroy humanity this decade Futurism subtitle: "It's pretty dark and alarming." By: NOOR AL-SIBAI Date: 17 June 2023 Introduction LO: Clearly, I belong to the 58% of people who are "not worried" because the risk of AI is - indeed - "overblown". As long as machines will not have beliefs, the risk of Artificial...
Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs?
Recently, I noticed this strange question above in an Aeon-Psyche article: Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs? A radical philosophy of mind says no. Last Saturday, a new friend said the following: "Believing is in the nature of mankind; it's a clear feeling. You're almost born with it." I couldn't agree more with what he said. It was in a slightly...
Nature and God are two sides of the same coin (Spinoza)
The phrase above is from Baruch Spinoza's book Ethics (1677). In the Latin language, it was: "Deus sive Natura". Wiki: "For Spinoza the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or, what's the same, Nature, and its modifications (modes)." I suppose, this comes close to my views. Big Think, The Well, newsletter 25 April 2023 The...
Unknown unknowns
Strictly speaking, unknown unknowns are (like) oxymorons because we cannot know the things that we do not know. Human inventions challenge the notion that unknown unknowns could or would even exist. As an individual, I have (very?) many unknown unknowns. Unknown unknowns may, however, not exist when we view (all) humans as a group rather than as aggregated...
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