Gender
Male
About
Location
Pikesville, MD
Birthday:
November 21
About Yourself
I'm basically the classic "computer geek", in that I like to tinker with computers quite a lot. In fact, I use a distribution of Linux as my primary operating system (don't worry though, I'm not all anti-Microsoft, either ;) ). But there's another side to me that I hope to be able to bring out more by having joined this site: my spiritual side. Basically, I'm in conflict with myself over the old "free will vs. predestination" debate, and it gets to me on such a deep level, that it hurts both sides of me (i.e. both my spiritual and techie side). I want to believe in true and complete freedom, but I also want to be able to expect the technology that I enjoy tinkering with to be able to function the way I expect, instead of just complete chaos, if you know what I mean by that... :\ I think I know deep inside that free will is real, but I just can't get over my notions about how computers work and how there seem to be so many analogies between that and the way the human brain/mind works. The notion of a fully "sentient" AI scares the hell out of me, let's put it that way, and not for the reasons often portrayed in science fiction stories. I want there to be some regularity to existence, but I don't want my choices to be part of that "regularity", i.e. I don't want to believe in predestination. But without predestination, then how can the world still make sense logically? I suppose you could argue that nothing absolutely has to make sense logically, but I want it to be. I want to have my computers as deterministic finite state machines, but i don't want to be a deterministic finite state machine. Can you really have your cake and eat it too in that regard? Anyways, I suppose I should wrap this up, as it's turning more into a description of my worries than my interests...
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"Well damn. I thought this was going to be something of a question of "does free will really exist?".
I have that problem. No joke; I have serious emotional problems over it. If someone brings up anything (or if I see anything) that even in the…"
I have that problem. No joke; I have serious emotional problems over it. If someone brings up anything (or if I see anything) that even in the…"
Free Will and Determinism: The Conflict(TL;DR: Is the universe just a computer, or is it something more?)There is an ongoing debate in physics (and somewhat in philosophy as well, as it has much relevance, I believe) about whether or not all events…
"Thanks for the replies, everyone. I guess what I need to do is just focus on what comes to me naturally. I'll still try to hold onto my computer interest, but if it gets to the point where I can't even make posts like these without getting all…"
Latest Activity
"I love the fact that one can benefit from melatonin, from solar near infrared, even through a cap....Did my run in the sun, again today...after that last message..Actually, being a "nordic" racial type I can glean benefits easily from the sun, as I…"
"Yep, good data on the benefits of sunbathing and simply getting out in it...I've just bought a new sun-lounger, as I busted the last one...😀 Can't strip down at present to sunbathe, as even though it's sunny here, there's a cold wind, as…"
"Great information from Dr Berg here about what avoiding the sun may do to you. https://youtu.be/rDeLISqGgfs?si=iKqjMMBUqf8PoMxG"
"Great information from Dr Berg here about what avoiding the sun may do to you. Gonna go for a long walk and get some sun after this video. Gorgeous day here :) https://youtu.be/rDeLISqGgfs?si=99GVwG1qfQjHrs6B"
"Thanks Drekx glad you enjoyed them. Ill post the others when I get the chance and good information you just provided there about Asket and her people. She's very beautiful indeed just like you said :) Timar and other areas in the DAL are definitely…"
"A good series of videos, Justin...Also I'd like to add that Asket, as with her people, of planet Timar, in the DAL (Dajansini Arg Lasergnoralin) universe, are all descended from space travellers, who originated from within the Plejares star cluster,…"
"Chapter 2 here gets into what was going on in Billy's life during this time along with the teachings he learned from Asket. https://youtu.be/jM8uV34Hjdw?si=-UGtX8I_NWaACOIN"
"Chapter 2 here gets into what was happening in Billy's life at this time along with the teachings he learned from Asket. Gonna post other chapters as soon as I can probably later on in the week and then more chapters soon after that. Good listen so…"
Comments
Mostly what caught my eye was this:
"There is a misleading thought that there is a /dev/urandom on earth. I'm glad to tell you there is no such thing as /dev/urandom: this kernel was built without it. Many processes refer to that device, which in fact is not a random data generator: it's a symlink to /proc/self/ actually(it's what you've choosen or did now or in the past)."
This caught my eye because it gave me an interesting perspective on my whole free will vs. determinism conflict...
/dev/urandom is a "pseudo-file" that provides a constant stream of pseudorandom numbers under Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. Basically my interpretation of the above statement is that the "randomness" in our world is actually not generated from something outside of us (a universal "/dev/urandom", if you will), but rather it is generated by us. We have free will. We just don't know how to fully exercise it yet. ;-)