Yes, I make the point that these discussions include a presumption of something beyond Science as we know it. The only way to discuss life, mind, Will and the like needs to look at the Universe from outside, but the Universe is everything.
If we accept the premise of something beyond the Universe, sentience exists here and must extend there. Please continue the train of thought yourself. You may reject the logical inference anytime your beliefs are troubled but understand your rejection does not invalidate the conclusion.
Thanks for the feedback. I will be stopping this now.
So if you simulated the thoughts of a newborn and the same person at death, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart?
What does it mean to say that they contain the same mind despite being composed of different matter?
It seems like you've assigned some definitions to a set of terms, become invested in a position based on those definitions, and now frame any sort of dispute in which those terms come up as a conflict over that position. You're using the same words as everyone else here, but you're discussing an entirely different subject, and a confused one at that.
I wasn't proposing any such thing, but yes, I do believe that the material properties of minds and rocks are different... for example, I'm 99+% confident that all minds are able to perform computations as a consequence of their material properties (and as a consequence of the physical laws that relate to those properties), and that most rocks are not able to do so as a consequence of their different material properties.
I find it unlikely that most rocks can discuss anything at all.
Sure.
And as long as you're just as indifferent to the state of mind of the individual who is executing those physical results as you would be to the putative state of mind of an orbiting planet, then there is no particular reason to engage with the two differently.
And that hypothetical indifference is itself the physical result of earlier causes, and the consequences of expressing that indifference (for example, engaging with people the same way you engage with planets in their orbits, and people being upset at that, and etc.) are just further physical results, and on and on.
Conversely, if I am not indifferent to individual states of mind (because my prior causes are hypothetically different than yours), then I may engage with people differently, and they may respond differently, and that is also a physical result emerging from prior causes.
This completely fails to acknowledge the point of the entire post. What does it mean to ask whether we have free will in the first place? What's actually going on when someone asks it?
Yes, I make the point that these discussions include a presumption of something beyond Science as we know it. The only way to discuss life, mind, Will and the like needs to look at the Universe from outside, but the Universe is everything.
If we accept the premise of something beyond the Universe, sentience exists here and must extend there. Please continue the train of thought yourself. You may reject the logical inference anytime your beliefs are troubled but understand your rejection does not invalidate the conclusion.
Thanks for the feedback. I will be stopping this now.