Let's meet fishies (and lion-dogs)

My favorite shisa are the comical cartoony ones. Or maybe the terrifying intimidating ones!
patreon.com/thinkstr

[@VK-sz4it]

I will give an example that is bordering on my professional area. Consciousness used to mean ability to be there mentaly. Something quite universal. We can't know if other is conscious or automatic (because it is beyond markov blanket), but we assume they mostly are. In that sense, most (if not all) of animals are conscious. Here comes cognitive science. And because it is interested in cognitions above all, consciousness changes its meaning to ability of introspection. Not many animals can introspect. People read those books and now can justify animal cruelty, because "those have no consciousness". Here you might say, well we should separate science and culture. But 1. Culture is not whatever it you want it to be. It is quite variable, yes. But thing is, we animals have quite a lot of things dtermined by biological factors. 2. Culture influences research on many levels. Now that I think, I have better examples, but because I have already typed in this one...

[@Thinkstr]

Thanks for watching. I think you and I are on the same page. You're definitely right, some aspects of culture and consciousness, on a physics level, are deterministic. I think my angle on it is just fighting "learned helplessness;" if we lose belief that we can have any impact through our decisions, we might call something deterministic even though it doesn't have to be. In my usual pretentious sense, we call some things deterministic just because we've lost hope and have surrendered to the current when we don't actually have to tumble downstream. For no particular reason, here's a clip from Gurren Lagann where Simon prevents Rossiu's suicide by punching him in the face: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJu3qKynaamsj9k

[@VK-sz4it]

@@Thinkstr @Thinkstr Oh yes, I agree. Although, I didn't mean physics-level determinism, rather some rational limits posed by biological facts. For example, babies have attachments to their mom. It is imaginable that some culture could stray that feeling (update inborn instinctive prediction), make that feeling fuel something completely different in adults. Yet there are limits to that since it is not what this "instinct" was meant to do. In the end not all hypothetical societies are possible or stable just for psychological reasons. I believe free will vs determinism debate is kinda pointless And I agree that fixating on idea of physics-level determinism is often manifestation of feeling of learned helplessness. It is often the case. Although in your case I honestly want to say, whatever that anime reference was, you are delivering that metaphorical punch. Japan was always my dream. It didn't happen (but could). Okinawa (Japan with warm climate) was beyond my dreams.

[@Thinkstr]

@@VK-sz4it I think a good example of my angle is adopted children. Often they say they only have one set of parents, and it's not the biological one. I enjoy being in Japan, but it's not perfect, ha ha. No country is. And I've been in Okinawa long enough to be annoyed by the humidity.