Book Review/Rebuttal: Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

November 13, 2024 by Joe Gray in Book Review, Fiction, Philosophy

It's not that I don't recommend this book or that it doesn't offer a philosophical perspective that warrants review. It is worth reading but it fails to persuade as it offers only a simplified and narrow perspective of human behavior. It requires a wholesale acceptance of its premises and provides little in the way of relevant counterarguments. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is written well and is narrated masterfully by Anthony Heald in the Audible version I listened to. When engaging with this book I recommend being aware of its rhetorical tactics and remaining skeptical of its biased perspective.

Consent in America?

August 14, 2024 by Joe Gray in Cultural Musings, Ethics, Freedom, Philosophy, Rants

If consent is something people think is valuable then they should look at the way they act and the way they treat others skeptically. They should evaluate their actions as well as the actions of others to determine where consent was disregarded. In this way, people might live up to the standard of ethics that holds consent as a virtue.

You are NOT in a story

June 19, 2024 by Joe Gray in Atheism, Consciousness, Fiction, Psychology, Thoughts, Philosophy

Others can do what they want and the world can make up stories about it but it doesn’t mean that I have to take them seriously or agree with them. Stories are a part of life and they have as much power as we want to give them but stories are not the same as life.

I Hate Thought Experiments

May 04, 2024 by Joe Gray in Ethics, Philosophy, Rants, Psychology, Thoughts

While thought experiments are meant to challenge readers to think about things in different ways they always seem to miss the mark for me. They are like really bad stories with continuity errors, plot holes, and preachy subtext. Maybe it is because they are usually created by academics but thought experiments wreak of pretentious attempts to dumb down a moral, social, or scientific concept into a clever puzzle for the masses.

Religion as Cultural OCD

May 01, 2024 by Joe Gray in Ethics, Freedom, Philosophy, Religion, Thoughts

Would you rather do something because you think it has value or live with the harsh truth that what your doing is nonsense? Sometimes giving it up means losing that value you thought was there. If so, you would have to find value in other things and other activities. It might even be possible to engage in those activities for different reasons and retain the value that derives from them. If one gives up religion they give up a set a way of life and the consequences of that should not to be taken lightly.

How to Create Consciousness In AI

January 12, 2024 by Joe Gray in Communication, computers, Consciousness, Philosophy, Psychology, Tech, Thoughts, Artificial Intelligence

These are my thoughts on how one might be able to create an AI that could talk about its internal self to an outside interlocutor. I certainly feel like my internal consciousness occupies a place in my mind but it is only accessible to me. Combining two AI programs and limiting them in the ways described might allow for a self-aware AI that could act in ways that we would describe as conscious. This is a very complicated thing to work out and I’m not sure it is a good idea to work toward this goal but it might lead to a better understanding of human consciousness and more useful AI systems. The moral implications of this are a different consideration and one that should be critically evaluated by those attempting to advance AI, robots, and technology in general.