Comments by "Lawrence D’Oliveiro" (@lawrencedoliveiro9104) on "Big Think" channel.

Science has a history of surprising those who said it could never answer particular questions.
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One technique I have used involves asking awkward questions about obvious consequences of their beliefs, that they have difficulty answering. Basically it is doing what scientists do anyway, as part of their job, in finding testable consequences of their theories. Instead of telling them they’re wrong, try leading them to that conclusion themselves. It takes patience, though. Sometimes they find creative ways to dig themselves in deeper.
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Science is about confronting the tough questions, not running away from them. Is life too complex to have arisen by itself?
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Something to think about: the Linux kernel, probably the most productive software project in history, is written in C, not C++.
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He’s too busy conquering the entire computing world with Linux.
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Viruses seem to be the ultimate form of parasite: descended from a regular living thing which gave up every capability for independent existence -- even its own metabolism -- in favour of preying on other living creatures.
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Clarke’s First Law: “When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right. When they state that something is impossible, they are very probably wrong.” OK, so Jim isn’t elderly, but ...
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My answer is: the purpose of life is to be dissatisfied with any explanation of what the purpose of life is. Does that leave you feeling dissatisfied? I rest my case.
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Is entropy a state of high information or low information? I ask because, say I buy a new hard drive. Initially all the sectors are filled with zeroes. I add it to my system and keep putting files on it. The more files I put on, the less predictable the bits on the disk becomes. This particularly happens with compressed or encrypted information, because the more efficiently computer data is stored, the more it looks like random noise.
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@anywallsocket Does the entropy of a system depend on the presence of a conscious observer, then? Kind of analogous to the “Copenhagen Interpretation” of quantum theory, but for thermodynamics?
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@anywallsocket “As a general principle, all values measured by humans are subjective, and only hold meaning relative to othered measured values ...” -- can that be described as a “measured value”, or is it something different?
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@anywallsocket So what did you mean about measurements being “subjective”, if the models they support do indeed “accurately reflect the world”, i.e. are “objective”?
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@anywallsocket I wonder how you reach that conclusion about science, other than via “empirical studies”.
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@anywallsocket Is that a form of “epistemic philosophy built around empirical studies”? Or is it concocted out of thin air?
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@anywallsocket You say “cling” as though you have some objective basis for playing down the value of the idea?
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@anywallsocket So you admit these are your personal opinions, yet the way you state them suggests you are claiming them as facts.
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... but who was it who actually carried out that instruction?
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Science is about confronting the tough questions, not running away from them. Is life too complex to have arisen by itself?
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@RickDelmonico So you would answer “yes” to my question, then?
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Science is about confronting the tough questions, not running away from them. Is life too complex to have arisen by itself?
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Suppose the answer is “yes”. If life is too complex to have arisen by itself, then it must have been created by something ... or someone.
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But surely this entity that created life must be even more complex than life itself.
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Science is about confronting the tough questions, not running away from them. Is life too complex to have arisen by itself?
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Science is about confronting the tough questions, not shying away from them. Is life too complex to have arisen by itself?
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