Timeline for Where is the universe?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 9, 2014 at 5:19 | comment | added | Paul Ross | @virmaior, I'm just being pedantic, but if you're insisting on proving it invalid by reductio ad absurdum, you had better make sure you're actually constructing such a proof. I can intuitively see that something like a counterexample response might work, but it takes a bit more logical work than that. | |
| Aug 9, 2014 at 2:13 | comment | added | virmaior | @whatissleep I'm not misunderstanding Tyson's argument, I'm saying his argument is quite poor. It's a rhetorical move that points out previous mistakes, puts them in a pattern, and then applies them to a new unproven case. But that's exactly what my reductio above does as well. If Tyson wants to be consistent, then he should tell people there are probably other intelligent life form's sharing their body, and they just don't realize it. | |
| Aug 9, 2014 at 2:11 | comment | added | virmaior | @PaulRoss, I'm not really sure why you're missing the reductio here. Tyson's claim is that at each level of scale we've been mistaken in believing we're the only X. Without additional premises, that's a terrible argument. Thus, the reductio has equal validity. | |
| Aug 8, 2014 at 15:55 | comment | added | what is sleep | @virmaior Also Neil's point is that humans have a tendency of regarding the place they exist within (Earth, this solar system, and the Milky Way galaxy) as the only one, which has always been wrong in the past, so it seems odd that we continue to assume we live in the only universe. | |
| Aug 8, 2014 at 15:46 | comment | added | what is sleep | I'm not saying Neil is right, I'm just getting his point across. I'm a rookie at "philosophy" and it seems that proving any statement is very very hard if not impossible, please take my answer with a grain of salt as it's just an idea I'd like to share. | |
| Aug 8, 2014 at 7:41 | comment | added | Paul Ross | @virmaior, I don't know about alien parasites, but the degree to which bacteria colonies can be responsible for biochemical changes in humans and their behaviour is not easily discarded as a collapse into absurdity. If collective intentional action that acts rationally is sufficient for intelligence, you might need to pick a better reductio. | |
| Aug 8, 2014 at 0:20 | comment | added | virmaior | The Neil deGrasse Tyson point is facetious. Allow me to reductio ad absurdum that. You think you're the only intelligence using your body. Considering that people turned out to be wrong on so much else, we have every reason to believe you have an intelligent alien parasite. | |
| Aug 7, 2014 at 23:27 | history | edited | what is sleep | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 152 characters in body
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| Aug 7, 2014 at 23:23 | review | First posts | |||
| Aug 8, 2014 at 2:28 | |||||
| Aug 7, 2014 at 23:22 | history | answered | what is sleep | CC BY-SA 3.0 |