Ben Mills

math teacher

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@anusbomber @MMMalign We definitely underestimate how much our knowledge fits this time and place we live in.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@anusbomber @MMMalign Agree. And there would be a gap between what you know and what they would want information about. Someone from that show forged in fire would be very popular.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@Dervine7 @jichikawa I think I get it now. I intuitively want to assign a value of false to the conditional because it would be false if the antecedent were true. But that's only one of the four possibilities. Thanks.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@anusbomber i

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@tblanchfield 33

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@RiosAlmodovar @JoshuaSteed2 @tjwaldron @neiltyson It is possible that a different genetic code codes for similar biochemistry. On the other hand if we find out there is a fundamentally different biochemistry that has evolved on their planet thrn their cellular ancestor could be radically different than ours and all bets are off.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@RiosAlmodovar @JoshuaSteed2 @tjwaldron @neiltyson It's speculative but if there is a hereditary mechanism that allows for evolution then even if it doesn't involve DNA you could still expect to see evolution settle on similar solutions in similar environmental conditions. Chemistry would still be the same.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@Helenreflects Mathematical anti-realism

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@JoshuaSteed2 @tjwaldron @neiltyson Not really. Sharks and dolphins are an example of convergent evolution.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@Cincyfella @LucidSentient @EdmundPAdamus @JasonSamfield @RichieMcGinniss "Even as a child, I was embarrassed by this statue, which seemed so demeaning to Black Bostonians."

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@Austen The windows phone was pretty cool, just came out too late

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@NathanielVirgo @_fernando_rosas I think it's troubling to consider because we are afraid we might lose some of our justification to be morally disgusted by someone like that. But that concern is misplaced if we were already living in a deterministic universe when we initially were disgusted by Hitler's actions.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@NathanielVirgo @_fernando_rosas It is admittedly a strange thought to think Hitler couldn't have done anything different or something like that. I do lose a little sleep over that one sometime.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@NathanielVirgo @_fernando_rosas I'd even go as far to say that our counterfactual reasoning abilities is a more straightforward way of saying what we are actually talking about when we say we have free will.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@NathanielVirgo @_fernando_rosas That is my thinking also. For example, in the two-slit experiment where one photon goes is random but there is still a predictable pattern. I don't see how that randomness is the essential factor in biology-level systems.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@_fernando_rosas Those modern ideas say some random fluctuation could have allowed a different outcome, but it still remains to show how that randomness lets you have the type of responsibility for your actions that is traditionally required for free will.

[Ben Mills @millsbigben]

@_fernando_rosas Exactly. It was all but assumed by most scientists before quantum physics cast it into doubt and now a probabilistic or indeterministic conception of nature is more prevalent.