Metaphysic Storm

Post by PZ Myers a member of the out cAmpain.

That smart guy, Carl Zimmer, has written an article on those smart molluscs, the octopus. I like that his conclusion is that we can’t really judge their intelligence, because it is different than our own.

That’s the same answer I give to questions about the existence of intelligent life in the universe. I suspect that it’s there (but rarer than most astronomers seem to think — intelligence is an extremely uncommon adaptive strategy here on Earth, as is probably likewise elsewhere), but that it will be radically different in intent and action than our own, as different as we are from a squid, or a dolphin, or an elephant, to name a few forms that have evolved large brains. Often, the question of alien intelligence is more like, “Are there people like us out there?”, and I think the answer to that one is clearly no, almost certainly not. There are too many alternative pathways.

I think that life is far rarer than most science enthusiasts assume. I know the numbers are big and there most certainly are many planets with water and the proper temperatures in this enormous universe. But the actual conditions that are required for replication to begin is in my guess very, very rare. However, once replication does begin convergence seems highly probable. Heads with sight, sound and smell detectors are going to be vital in any environment. Legs for locomotion and arms with hands are essential for environment manipulation. We’re so close in abstract terms to all the vertebrate mammals. Nearly identical when you use relativity as a judgment.

I also believe in an infinitely cycling universe because of the conservation of energy. Therefor, I think that life emerging from non life is inevitable when limited time isn’t a consideration. So even though I’m an atheist and don’t give any credence to personal reincarnation, I believe that there are indeed “people like us” out there, a “divine” natural design. The real question is when.

Stephen Wells said, Why would a head be vital to the gas giant airbags of zebulon-B, whose senses operate at radio wavelengths and whose intellect is dispersed among the swarm? Or to the megaclams of Gwflhrx, whose perimeter is studded with a thousand eyes and whose nerve ganglia are safely protected deep within their mighty shells?

J said, Sorry PZ, but that’s way too broad to actually mean anything substantial. What are you talking about when you say “people”? Bipedal and two-eyed, with penises and vaginas? Nobody subscribes to that notion of extraterrestrial life.

On the other hand, some traits of human life which are special on Earth (e.g. language) might conceivably have evolved many times in the observable Universe. Maybe they’re what Dan Dennett calls “Good Tricks”, which are prone to being converged upon independently.

Even within the swarm there are individuals and the head is a most efficient way to give the body the ability to navigate. I’ll have to give the megaclams of Gwfhrx more thought but I don’t know how far they would get manipulating their environment. Environment manipulation, I think, is a fair way to judge intelligence. Too much manipulation by the highly intelligent might be a good sign of idiocity.

J said, Sorry PZ, but, “Often, the question of alien intelligence is more like, “Are there people like us out there?”, and I think the answer to that one is clearly no, almost certainly not. There are too many alternative pathways.” [is] way too broad to actually mean anything substantial. What are you talking about when you say “people”? Bipedal and two-eyed, with penises and vaginas? Nobody subscribes to that notion of extraterrestrial life.

On the other hand, some traits of human life which are special on Earth (e.g. language) might conceivably have evolved many times in the observable Universe. Maybe they’re what Dan Dennett calls “Good Tricks”, which are prone to being converged upon independently.

Even within the swarm there are individuals and the head is a most efficient way to give the body the ability to navigate. I’ll have to give the megaclams of Gwfhrx more thought but I don’t know how far they would get manipulating their environment. Environment manipulation, I think, is a fair way to judge intelligence. Too much manipulation by the highly intelligent might be a good sign of idiocity.

@J “Nobody subscribes to that notion of extraterrestrial life.”

I do. Continue Reading »

After completing my painting of Canal street with the billboard stating “Impossible is nothing”, I’ve been thinking about writing about the phrase. The ambiguous words have fascinated me because they can imply very different philosophies. “Nothing is Impossible” comes from the ADiDAS sports ads, which is simply a carpet motivational statement meaning next to nothing. A human being will never run as fast as a cheetah. The reason the statement caught my attention was because it’s very similar to where my philosophy originated from. My friend Jamie asked me what the opposite of a spoon was and the answer I deducted, no-spoon, was my first step down a path of thinking about zero. The opposite of anything is the lack of that thing (the empty set), noanything is pure zero and to ever have it is impossible. That, which at the time I didn’t recognize as the first law of thermodynamics, sent me thinking about nothing for quite some time. I was overwhelmed by the power the knowledge of zero had over me. I’ve yet to meet another atheist who made the switch to naturalism is such a manor.

After g00gling “nothing is impossible” for a quick briefing on the search returns, I ran into god. I wasn’t planing on writing about god but it seems as though his omnipresence is hard to escape. Nothing is impossible with god with quotes, returns 60 thousand results. I watched the first video which was from Facing the Giants, a Christian promotional movie who’s plot follows a boring but classic underdog story about American football. It earned an impressive 10 million for the minuscule budget is was made with. I believe the budget was due to the volunteer cast and the return must of been an act of god’s money managers. I watched the you-tube clip as the coach worked on convincing his team that it was god who helped them kick the giants asses because of all the petitioning they made to the lord. And that got me thinking about Reverend Hagee’s remarks about god sending Katrina to New Orleans because of the gay pride parade.

A few posts back I wrote, “god could not make a law that he could not brake.”, which is a refined version of the “could god make a mountain that he could not move?” question. It begs the argument about god as he is defined: the all powerful, all knowing, all loving creator of everything. I can completely understand why believers in god would think that he works through us and nature. There is a staggering amount of strange and mysterious things that happen down here on our little blue planet. And people who believe in an interactive god would naturally use their derivative skills to interpret the will of god. It’s frightening to watch Hagee as he condemns New Orleans, not directly for the fairly high percentage of homosexuals we have, but for the huge number of Christians that “allow” them to be here.

That got me thinking about a world in where god actually does work his intent. I’ve decided that if there is a god he has got to be a trickster. His personality is more akin to the definition of the devil. And I’m not only referring to “bad” things that happen in life. If we are to assume that we can derive gods will from acts on earth, than those acts should at least be somewhat clear. Otherwise he’s not communicating at all, he’s playing the fool. Hagee thinks that Hurricane Katrina was sent here on the day of the Gay pride parade as a sign that he disapproves of homosexuality. A completely rational stance for a person who derives there reason from nonsense. I think that the hurricane came because of warm gulf water and winds from western Africa.

The Christian writer Vox Populi recently asked atheists why they don’t believe in god. From his vast network of blogfoolafans he ascertained the following reasons: Argument from: Sub-optimal design, insufficient evidence, lack of scientific evidence, failure to be impressed by religion, inability to believe, unfamiliarity, material utility, post-trauma disorder, accident of circumstance, unconvincing arguments.

Apparently non of these anti-arguments are convincing to him. But to be fair he most likely doesn’t believe that hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans to punish the homosexuals. But why not? Why wouldn’t a living god punish those who he doesn’t like. Isn’t that why Jesus pleaded against his skillful persecuters, “They know not what they do”. Or is god so busy that he would rather let the devil do the work for him in the after world? That doesn’t sound like an all powerful or guiding god at all. This world would be much different if god were acting on it and that’s evidence based reason to believe that god does not exist or that he’s a trickster who likes fucking with our heads. Perhaps god doesn’t like the less intelligent because he makes his intent so difficult to deduct and his managers are trained to keep the flock from skeptical thought. If we lived in a world were he sent Hurricanes to San Fransisco and earth quakes to New Orleans when too many people get their gay on, I think far less people would find it impossible to have faith.

Nothing must be god’s MOA.

The CHRIST. But I don’t know Sin. What a roller coaster ride my friends! I’ve been to every corner of the Universe and it is beautiful. Jesus is alright with me. In fact I think I’ve become his number one fan. Us Infinitologists know the mind of god and it is Ultra. Now the funny thing about Jesus is that he never really existed. He didn’t walk on water. He didn’t bring back the dead. And he didn’t die for the sins of a hungry sexy chick. There are just some laws that no one can break. Those laws were never created; they (U =) just R. We can see Jesus every solstice if you watch the light. And he will continue to rise till the end of the world.

What a numerical it is for a man who probably never existed to have so many fans. God bless 801

Today was a stress on my faith. I know I’ve had a charmed life full of mystery, torture and riches beyond imagination. I woke up and ate breakfast at slim goodies; got the tex-mex special. As I waited in line I told my mom of the upcomimg marage and the desire to do so in the Church I grew up in. She told me I’d have to develope a relationship with a priest to make the pope happy. I walked to my table and got the best seat in a packed house. Beside me sat a guy with a zero shaved into his head. Uh? No big deal, just a coinidence because of the O hi O game in town. The zero reminded me of my bus ride from the Frech Quarter yesterday. A huge black man wearing a Los Angeles jersy sat beside me. The number on the yellow microfiber was 08. I asked him if he was from LA; he said, “no, just like the team”. I wished him well on his evening of beer, weed and crawfish. We shook hands.
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After much investigation I’ve discovered that one of the driving forces that causes faith heads to latch onto their delusions is the belief that their life has infinitely more meaning if there is an invisible sky daddy fortifying their eternal meaning vessel. The standard issue argument against the naturalists is that our lives must be very shallow if all we can claim to be is the mortal human animal. The religious see us holding a glass that’s empty and pity the loss of the contents. We reply, “What glass? I have a body”

It’s as if those that walk in the kingdom of the holies, look at us humans and wonder how we can live from day to day, year to year, with the knowledge that at the end we’ll “complexly” not be. It’s assumed that since the secularists can’t extract meaning from another dimension we are forced to place a valued rating system on the meaning of a persons life depending on how much their actions influenced, or their work influenced, future groups of humans. Logically the idea of god and the good Shepard is very comforting in this view of reality. In my opinion this is the cause that secular/religious people create idols of historically documented figures. The god child view also contains the belief that it doesn’t really matter at all what one did or made, for as long as they loved the god and try to obtain the impossible perfection of his prophets, they have achieved the ultimate meaning in the eye of the god. Because apparently gods purpose was to create souls that could chose not to love him, thus creating a dualist system of mean and mean-nots. God must fear a world of atheists because then he would loss meaning, his purpose would be a failure and all would flash in a skillet of hell. Continue Reading »