On Sat, May 27, 2017  David Nyman <da...@davidnyman.com> wrote:

> ​> ​
> it is unscientific to ignore alternative modes of explanation when
> progress seems to be blocked
>

​Those ​
alternative modes of explanation
​ are not only ​
unscientific
​ there are a complete waste of time because there is no way, even with
unlimited experimental capacity, such explanations can ever be proved or
disproved. And as if that isn't bad enough the "explanations" can't even be
stated without numerous personal pronouns with no unique referent due to
the fact that personal pronoun duplicating machines have been invented.


> ​> ​
> Of course any theory offered in replacement must subsume what has
> succeeded up to that point. This is the sort of thing that happens quite
> normally when one theory replaces another in the same domain, as for
> example Einsteins's did with Newton's.
>

​Einstein gave many very clear examples of his theory making different
predictions than Newton did, the precession of Mercury's orbit is only one
example.  If even one of Einstein's prediction had failed his entire theory
would be forgotten today, but none of them failed. Where is the equivalent
for Bruno's theory or any other consciousness theory? ​Show me the
precession
​!​


> ​> ​
> A different mode of enquiry may well allow us to take a quite different
> view of its 'brute facts'.
>

​Maybe. Maybe​

​the chain of "what caused that?" questions goes on forever in which case
there will always be unanswered question. So either unanswered question or
brute facts​ must exist, you can't get rid of both.


>> ​>>​
>> There is every indication that "consciousness is the way data feels when
>> it is being processed" is a brute fact and it's pointless to ask how did
>> that happen.
>>
>
> ​
> ​> ​
> Oh dear. Alas, there are far too many unacknowledged assumptions in that
> slogan to gain any understanding of what is actually being claimed.
>

​​
What is
​actually ​
being claimed is that consciousness is the way data feels when it is being
processed
​. ​You can argue if that is true or not but I think the claim itself is
pretty clear, or at least as clear as things get when consciousness is
involved.

​John K Clark​

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