Two of my sons want us to start a coffee plantation. I keep thinking of Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen- "Out of Africa".
On Aug 2, 7:06 pm, Vam <[email protected]> wrote: > Seems everybody else is competent, knowledgeable and certain about > matters only " X " may be privy to ! > > Today morning, I toyed with the thought... then asked for a cup of > coffee instead of the usual tea. It's a matter of fact... I do not > remember having coffee as my first cup of the day. > > Then, too, I toyed with the thought... and decided to take my car for > pollution check today itself, when I could easily have performed the > task on any one the next 5 days. > > Now, all my contemporaries can show me the research papers, the > library full... and can pronounce with all manner of reasoning and > rhetoric, their own beliefs and opinions, but the fact that is clear > to me, as was then when it happened and now as I recall... is that I > did act out of my own free will. > > I believe it's everyone's job and responsibility to come to their own > understanding and conclusion in such matters, and actually fob off all > manner of opinions that ' scientists ' and ' researchers ' are > throwing out ... dicting and contradicting, everyday. > > I suspect matters are much simpler and immediately accessible to each > one of us. > > On Aug 2, 10:51 pm, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > "We have access to a technology that would have looked like sorcery in > > Descartes's day: the ability to peer inside someone's head and read > > their thoughts. Unfortunately, that doesn't take us any nearer to > > knowing whether they are sentient. "Even if you measure brainwaves, > > you can never know exactly what experience they represent," says > > psychologist Bruce Hood at the University of Bristol, UK. If > > anything, brain scanning has undermined Descartes's maxim. You, too, > > might be a zombie. "I happen to be one myself," says Stanford > > University philosopher Paul Skokowski. "And so, even if you don't > > realise it, are you." Skokowski's assertion is based on the belief, > > particularly common among neuroscientists who study brain scans, that > > we do not have free will. There is no ghost in the machine; our > > actions are driven by brain states that lie entirely beyond our > > control. "I think, therefore I am" might be an illusion. > > So, it may well be that you live in a computer simulation in which you > > are the only self-aware creature. I could well be a zombie and so > > could you. Have an interesting day." (from a recent New Scientist) > > > We range over debates in free will and what it is to be human. So far > > we haven't established free will or even that we are not merely > > avatars in 'something else's game'. > > > I wonder whether there are advantages in considering ourselves as > > creatures limited by programming and also capable of it?- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text -
