In response to Closet survey #1
Comment author: aluchko 15 March 2009 10:43:48PM 8 points [-]

Something that I don't so much believe as assign a higher probability than other people.

There is a limit to how much technology humans can have, how much of the universe we can understand and how complicated of devices we can make. This isn't necessarily a universal IQ limit but more of an asymptotic limit that our evolved brains can't surpass. And this limit is lower, perhaps substantially so, than what we would need to do a lot of the cool stuff like achieve the singularity and start colonizing the universe.

I think it's even possible that some sort of asymptotic limit is common to all evolved life, this may well be a solution to the fermi paradox, not that they aren't out there, but no one is smart enough to actually leave their rock.

In response to comment by aluchko on Closet survey #1
Comment author: eujay 16 March 2009 07:12:02PM 1 point [-]

I have wondered about the assumption that technological / scientific / economic progress can continue forever, and I am also suspicious of the idea that arbitrary degrees of hyper-intelligence are possible. I suspect that all things have limits, and that mother nature long ago found most of those limits.

In response to Closet survey #1
Comment author: eujay 14 March 2009 11:45:48AM 2 points [-]

I am an atheist Platonist. I believe that ultimate reality is mathematical / tautological in nature, and that matter, mind, motion are all illusions.

In response to comment by eujay on Closet survey #1
Comment author: eujay 14 March 2009 07:14:02PM 3 points [-]

Oh, I should also add that I am a communist (ironically, 'converted' while in the Army).

In response to comment by eujay on Closet survey #1
Comment author: MichaelHoward 14 March 2009 12:08:34PM 6 points [-]

What do you mean by illusions? If matter, mind, and motion are our subjective perspective of stuff that reduces completely to a timeless mathematical object (I suspect it probably does), I don't think it follows from that that we can say it isn't real.

Comment author: eujay 14 March 2009 07:11:49PM 1 point [-]

Like I said above, fire is not made of hot stuff, water is not made of wet stuff, etc. The 'atoms' that make up our subjective reality would not themselves be in motion or be conscious. But yes, consciousness is odd sort of 'illusion' in that it creates a subjective reality. Would it make sense to think of levels of reality, with some being 'more real' than others? Or maybe we can think of certain levels being 'dependent' on lower / more fundamental levels? Consciousness would then be located at a very high level, far from the 'foundation'. (Which is part of why I am an atheist.)

In response to comment by eujay on Closet survey #1
Comment author: cabalamat 14 March 2009 03:00:10PM 8 points [-]

Is this belief falsifiable? If not, is it meaningful?

In response to comment by cabalamat on Closet survey #1
Comment author: eujay 14 March 2009 07:01:33PM 1 point [-]

Not falsifiable, but more parsimonious than thinking that something 'acts out' the reality that we see. Other explanations of reality leave behind a material residue. A bit like saying that water is made of wet stuff, fire is made of hot stuff, etc. True explantions 'destroy' the things that they explain. And I favor the theological argument that the foundation of reality must be something necessary. Mathematical Platonic reality does the job perfectly.

In response to Closet survey #1
Comment author: eujay 14 March 2009 11:45:48AM 2 points [-]

I am an atheist Platonist. I believe that ultimate reality is mathematical / tautological in nature, and that matter, mind, motion are all illusions.