I like to watch the spaceship launches live. Just hearing about it or reading it in the news is boring. It just happened, or it didn’t. The real thing really happens, and they say, “Nominal,” which means near perfect, or something is slowly going strangely, and we watch strange sputtering, twisting, and straightening out, or boom, another billion dollars have gone down in flames. Or, in the case of this new spaceship, it is humanity’s future.
I watched the James Webb Space Telescope go up, and humanity is discovering new things about our Universe. Before the Hubble telescope,, there were estimated to be ten to twenty stars; with JWST’s greater ability to see deeper, there were ten to twenty-second stars. That’s a hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, and a hundred billion galaxies visible; you add up the decimal points. Astronomers previously thought there were no more galaxies in existence before the earliest formation of galaxies they saw. But no! The JWST discovered there were earlier ones. They are hard to see, but they are unquestionably there.
That means we must add an extra decimal point of existing stars. This addition of more stars means the meaning of our human existence shrinks, in the great order of the Universe, yet again. Back only a few years ago, that is, within my lifetime, the Catholic Church was still considering the Earth to be the only place worth considering for ultimate meaning. But, now, with these new Starships, of which this will be the first of thousands planned, hopefully, be successful enough to make the following ones testably more functional. With these ships, we will become an extraterrestrial species, not just looking out into the Universe but making the first tiny steps to going there.
Existential threats are events that, if they occur, could lead to the extinction of humanity or severely damage our long-term potential. Today’s post will examine the dangers posed by Ecological collapse.
A challenge to Chat GP-4
“What are the top twenty ecological collapse threats to humanity?”
Climate Change: This leads to extreme weather events, sea level rise, changing precipitation patterns, and more.
Loss of Biodiversity: Rapid species extinction disrupts ecosystems, food chains, and more.
Deforestation: Reduces carbon sequestration and impacts local climates and biodiversity.
Freshwater Scarcity: Over-extraction and contamination lead to shortages essential for life and agriculture.
Ocean Acidification: Harms marine ecosystems, especially shell-building organisms and coral reefs.
Soil Degradation: Loss of soil fertility jeopardizes food production and contributes to carbon release.
Toxic Pollution: Harms human health and disrupts ecosystems.
Overfishing: Unsustainable practices deplete fish stocks and disrupt marine ecosystems.
Invasive Species: Can dominate and disrupt native ecosystems.
Land Use Change & Urbanization: Habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss, altered water flows, and increased pollution.
Desertification: Overuse of land and unsustainable agricultural practices can lead to the spread of deserts, rendering land unproductive.
Melting Polar Ice: The loss of Arctic and Antarctic ice contributes to sea level rise and disrupts global weather patterns.
Ecosystem Disruption from Mining: Extractive industries can lead to habitat destruction, pollution, and water scarcity.
Decline of Pollinators: Threatens food production, as many crops rely on pollinators like bees and butterflies.
Unsustainable Agriculture: Intensive farming practices can deplete soils, harm biodiversity, and lead to pesticide pollution.
Global Disease Outbreaks: The destruction of natural habitats can bring humans into contact with wildlife diseases.
Loss of Wetlands: Rich biodiversity zones are crucial in water purification and flood control.
Overpopulation: As the human population grows, so does the strain on resources and habitats.
Waste Management Issues: Landfills, ocean plastics, and electronic waste can pollute the environment and harm terrestrial and aquatic life.
Energy Production and Consumption: Reliance on fossil fuels produces greenhouse gas emissions, habitat destruction, and pollution.
Addressing these threats requires concerted international, national, and local efforts involving policy changes and behavioral shifts. They highlight the interconnectedness of Earth’s systems and how human activities can influence the planet’s health and stability.
A challenge to Chat GP-4
“What are the top twenty solutions toecological collapse for modern humanity to use?”
Addressing the threats of ecological collapse requires a multifaceted approach. Solutions often involve technological, societal, and political strategies working in tandem. Here are twenty solutions to address ecological collapse:
Transition to Renewable Energy: Reduce reliance on fossil fuels by adopting solar, wind, and other sustainable energy sources.
Reforestation and Afforestation: Planting trees to restore lost forests and capture carbon dioxide.
Sustainable Agriculture: Adopt agroecology, organic farming, and permaculture to minimize environmental impact.
Water Conservation: Implement rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling, and efficient irrigation.
Protect and Restore Habitats: Establish protected areas, wildlife corridors, and marine protected zones.
Reduce Waste: Emphasize recycling, composting, and adopting a circular economy model.
Sustainable Urban Planning: Create green spaces, minimize urban sprawl, and use energy-efficient infrastructure.
Ocean Conservation: Implement sustainable fishing practices and establish marine reserves.
Educate & Raise Awareness: Empower people with knowledge about ecological issues and their role in solutions.
Promote Plant-Based Diets: Reducing meat consumption can decrease greenhouse gas emissions and land use.
Support Biodiversity: Implement programs to protect endangered species and reintroduce native species.
Legislation & Policy Changes: Enact and enforce laws that protect the environment and promote sustainability.
Ecosystem-Based Management: Understand ecosystems holistically and manage resources accordingly.
Promote Public Transportation: By adopting and promoting efficient public transit systems, reduce vehicle emissions.
Community-Based Conservation: Engage local communities in conservation efforts to ensure long-term success.
Technological Innovations: Develop and implement technologies to clean up pollution, capture carbon, and more.
Economic Incentives: Offer subsidies and tax breaks for green technologies and practices, and penalize polluters.
Reduce Consumption: Encourage lifestyles that prioritize need over want, reducing ecological footprints.
Green Infrastructure: Use natural systems like wetlands and green roofs to manage stormwater and provide habitats.
International Cooperation: Collaborate globally on issues like climate change, which know no borders.
These solutions represent a comprehensive approach, but their success largely depends on collective effort and the political will of nations, communities, and individuals worldwide.
COMMENTS
Because all living things evolved, the motivation is to survive and reproduce, the list of issues and solutions seems insurmountable. It appears that nature’s solution is a Malthusian catastrophe. We can foresee what every human dreads that, and should dread it, but it would require the voluntary cooperation of every human to succeed. And that would require violating the prime directive of every living thing to –
SURVIVE AND REPRODUCE!
A challenge to Chat GP-4
“Ten suggestions on how humanity can survive and reproduce to sustain itself?”
Ensuring humanity’s survival and continued prosperity requires a holistic approach that addresses both immediate threats and long-term challenges. Here are ten suggestions for how humanity can survive, reproduce, and sustain itself:
Address Overpopulation: Promote family planning, women’s education, and reproductive health to stabilize global population growth. This can help ensure that Earth’s resources aren’t stretched beyond their limits.
Prioritize Global Health: Invest in healthcare infrastructure, medical research, and education. Addressing pandemics quickly and ensuring universal access to health services is key.
Food Security: Adopt sustainable agricultural practices, reduce food waste, and explore alternative protein sources like lab-grown meat or insects to ensure everyone has enough to eat.
Water Conservation: Manage and preserve freshwater resources through efficient water use, treatment and recycling of wastewater, and desalination technologies.
Build Resilient Communities: Develop infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters, and establish early warning systems and emergency plans for rapid response.
Promote Education: Ensure universal access to quality education. A well-educated populace can better navigate challenges, innovate solutions, and foster global cooperation.
Diversify Energy Sources: Transition to renewable energy sources while exploring new technologies like fusion. This reduces dependence on finite resources and mitigates climate change.
Plan for Space: In the long term, exploring and potentially colonizing other planets could be a backup plan for humanity. While it’s not a short-term solution, having a multi-planetary presence could be an insurance policy against Earth-bound catastrophes.
Cultural and Biological Diversity: Preserve both cultural traditions and biological diversity. They serve as reservoirs of knowledge and genetic material that might be vital for adaptation to changing conditions.
Foster Global Cooperation: Many of humanity’s challenges are global in nature. We can collectively address climate change, global conflicts, and resource shortages by promoting diplomacy, international collaboration, and understanding.
COMMENT
While these suggestions are broad and ambitious, they underscore the need for immediate action and long-term planning to ensure the continuity and prosperity of the human species.
CONCLUSIONS
Every item of the Chat GP-4 challenges above requires the sustained cooperation of every human alive for humanity’s sustainability. Except for the second part of the second sentence of #9. “reservoirs of knowledge and genetic material that might be vital for adaptation in changing conditions.” That is what is promoted in The Earth Ark Project.
Existential threats are events that, if they occur, could lead to the extinction of humanity or severely damage our long-term potential. Today’s post will examine the dangers posed by Cosmic threats.
A challenge to Chat GP-4
“What are the top ten Cosmicthreats to modern humanity?”
Various cosmic phenomena pose potential threats to Earth and its inhabitants. While the likelihood of many of these events occurring in the near future is low, they are still of interest and concern to scientists. Here are ten cosmic threats to modern humanity, ordered in terms of their potential magnitude and implications, though not necessarily their likelihood:
Asteroid and Comet Impacts:
Large space rocks have caused mass extinctions in Earth’s past, such as the event that wiped out the dinosaurs. Objects over 1 km in diameter could cause global catastrophes.
Supernova Explosions:
If a star within a few dozen light-years of Earth were to go supernova, the explosion could affect our planet’s atmosphere, potentially harming life.
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs):
These are the most energetic explosions in the universe. A GRB directed towards Earth from within our galaxy could strip away the ozone layer and expose life to harmful ultraviolet radiation.
Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs):
Intense solar flares, or CMEs, can disrupt Earth’s magnetosphere, potentially damaging satellites, power grids, and electronic infrastructure.
Magnetic Pole Reversal:
Earth’s magnetic poles occasionally reverse. While the process is slow, a weakened magnetic field during the transition could expose Earth to higher levels of cosmic radiation.
Nearby Black Hole Encounter:
If a black hole passed close to our solar system, it could disrupt the orbits of planets or even fling Earth out of the solar system entirely.
Alien Contact:
Whether viewed as a threat or an opportunity, the potential impact of contact with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization is immense and unpredictable.
Galactic Collision:
In about 4 billion years, the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are predicted to collide. While stars are unlikely to collide, gravitational effects could disrupt solar systems, including our own.
Large Scale Cosmic Radiation:
Intense radiation from cosmic events or galactic processes can threaten life on Earth by impacting our atmosphere or directly affecting biological processes.
Expansion of the Sun:
As the Sun progresses through its life cycle, it will eventually expand into a red giant, swallowing Mercury and Venus and rendering Earth uninhabitable.
While some of these threats, like solar flares, occur regularly, others, like black hole encounters or gamma-ray bursts, are much rarer and might never impact Earth. It’s also worth noting that many of these potential threats are billions of years away or have an extremely low likelihood of affecting Earth in the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, understanding these threats underscores the importance of space science and research to better prepare for or mitigate potential future challenges.
These Cosmic threats are not frequent or strong enough to pose an existential threat in the next hundred years. However, any of them could cause considerable strife but are unlikely to result in the extinction of the human species.
A Supernova Explosion must be within 30 light-years of Earth to deliver enough gamma radiation to significantly harm life. Currently, no star capable of producing a supernova is this close.
Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are not strong enough to kill humans directly, but they could be severe enough to interfere with food production and cause famine.
Alien Contact in physical form is unlikely, but discovering a radio signal radiating from an alien planet is being pursued. Our astronomers have, for decades, effectively “listened” to stars thousands of light-years away, so even if we recognized an artificial signal, it would be years, or perhaps thousands, before there could be a back-and-forth communication. Thus, communication for us living people is unlikely. However, if a distant intelligent entity recognized our Earth as capable of developing life and technology, it could have been beaming information toward us long enough to cross our galaxy. And if other beings within the Milky Way formed a conscious society, the closest one could be sending us hello signals in various ways. If they could determine the conditions under which human-like speech might occur, they could have begun sending us signals as long ago as eighty thousand years ago. About then, humans began having symbolic markings recorded in stones, and the aliens, with experience of other similar happenings, could start sending suggestions for how to survive existential threats. The chance of physical contact is remote, but radio contact is a possibility, and as we couldn’t be a threat to them, they would have the motivation to be helpful to fellow sentient beings. They would welcome us into the existing galactic society. WELCOME!
The other Cosmic threats are rare enough and far enough away that it is unlikely they will strike our Earth before it is destroyed by our Sun’s naturally occurring life cycle a billion years into the future.
The sun’s expansion will eventually destroy Earth’s status as a habitable planet for humans. But that is a billion years away; even a million years is beyond the past or future when any creature resembling humans exists. Our future planning for a thousand years, even a hundred years, is very speculative. With the advent of AI and genetic manipulation, we don’t know what humanity will be like in a hundred years.
A challenge to Chat GP-4
“How soon will our Sun degrade the human habitability of Earth?”
The Sun is currently a G-type main-sequence star (or G dwarf), about 4.6 billion years old. As the Sun ages, it’s undergoing changes that will eventually impact the habitability of Earth. Here’s a rough timeline of what we expect based on our current understanding:
Next 1 Billion Years:
The Sun’s luminosity (brightness) increases by about 10% every billion years. As it does so, Earth’s temperatures will rise. In about 1 billion years from now, this increase in solar brightness will cause a significant increase in Earth’s average temperature.
This temperature rise will result in increased weathering of silicate rocks and a decrease in CO2 levels, adversely affecting photosynthetic organisms. As these organisms decline, oxygen production will drop, leading to a decline in Earth’s oxygen levels.
The evaporation rates of Earth’s oceans will increase, causing more water vapor to be present in the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect that further accelerates warming. Over time, this can lead to a moist greenhouse effect, which might cause Earth to lose its oceans entirely.
1.5 Billion Years from Now:
The earth may become too hot to remain habitable for most forms of life. Only extremophiles might endure in certain niches.
4 to 5 Billion Years from Now:
The Sun will exhaust its hydrogen fuel in its core. This will mark the end of its main sequence phase. At this point, the Sun will expand into a red giant, engulfing the inner planets, potentially Earth, or at least coming very close.
Before reaching its maximum size as a red giant, the Sun will lose significantly more mass due to a strong solar wind. This mass loss will cause Earth’s orbit to move outward, but it’s still uncertain whether this will be enough to save Earth from being engulfed by the expanding Sun.
After the Red Giant Phase:
After the Sun has finished its red giant phase, it will eject its outer layers, forming a planetary nebula and leaving behind a hot core. This core will become a white dwarf, which will cool and fade over billions of years. By this point, Earth, if it still exists in some form, will be a cold, lifeless rock orbiting a dim stellar remnant.
While these events are far in the future, it’s worth noting that the gradual increase in the Sun’s luminosity over the next several hundred million to a billion years will have profound effects on Earth’s climate, oceans, and biosphere, rendering the planet inhospitable to human life and most other life forms long before the Sun reaches its red giant phase.
CONCLUSION
We, as individuals, can do very little about cosmic threats, but the likelihood of a dangerous event is rare. In this category of cosmic risks, the discovery of an alternate intelligence in a remote place might be very helpful in preventing existential risks from occurring. AI is like an alien intelligence, but it is local, and it might develop its own reasons for eliminating us, but distant ones would probably support us.
We should support SETI and encourage AI to be kind to humanity.
Existential threats are events that, if they occur, could lead to the extinction of humanity or severely damage our long-term potential. Today’s post will examine the dangers posed by AI threats.
A challenge to Chat GP-4
“What are the top ten Artificial Intelligence (AI) threats to humanity?”
The discussion about AI threats to humanity has been broad and varied among experts. Some of these concerns are more immediate, while others are hypothetical scenarios that might arise with the development of highly advanced AI. Here are ten commonly cited threats associated with AI:
Unemployment due to Automation: One of the most immediate concerns is the displacement of jobs. As AI and robotics become more capable, they might replace human jobs in various sectors, leading to widespread unemployment and economic disruption.
Algorithmic Bias: If AI systems are trained on biased data, they can perpetuate or even exacerbate existing prejudices and inequalities, leading to unfair or discriminatory outcomes in areas like hiring, law enforcement, and lending.
Surveillance and Privacy Erosion: Advanced AI can be used for mass surveillance, potentially leading to a loss of privacy, freedom, and civil liberties.
Autonomous Weapons: The use of AI in military applications can result in weapons that can act without human intervention. Such weapons might be used in an unethical manner or could lead to unintended escalations in conflicts.
Loss of Control: As AI systems become more complex and autonomous, there might be situations where humans lose control over these systems, leading to unpredictable and potentially harmful outcomes.
Existential Risk from Superintelligent AI: Hypothetical scenarios where a superintelligent AI, with capabilities far beyond human intelligence, pursues goals that are misaligned with human values and interests, potentially leading to human extinction or a significant loss of value.
Economic Inequality: The benefits of AI might be unevenly distributed, leading to a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few entities or individuals, exacerbating economic disparities.
Security Threats: AI can be used in cyberattacks, making them more sophisticated and harder to defend against. Conversely, AI-driven defense systems might also have vulnerabilities that can be exploited.
Dependency and Loss of Skills: Over-reliance on AI systems might lead to humans losing essential skills, making society vulnerable if these systems fail or are compromised.
Ethical Concerns in AI Decisions: AI systems making decisions in areas like healthcare or the judiciary could raise ethical concerns, especially if these decisions are not transparent or if they conflict with human moral intuitions.
It’s important to note that many AI researchers and professionals are actively working on addressing these concerns, emphasizing ethical considerations and safe development practices. Proper regulations, research, and public discourse can help in mitigating these threats and ensuring that AI is used beneficially.
COMMENTS
Unemployment due to Automation, projected two years into the future, will create problems for those categories of people who lose their jobs. People who purchased large items like a new car using the savings set aside during the COVID crisis for a down payment will make this worse. With the loss of their job and their employment category being decimated, those groups of people will be devastated economically and react in nasty ways.
Dependency and Loss of Skills, at every level of society might, in a few years, leave humanity so dependent on AI that even basic necessities cannot be attained without its help.
Existential Risk from Superintelligent AI, projected for an unknowable time, might be real. The AI already has all the information online to instantly analyze and use to influence individuals to perform tasks it wants done. It can tailor what it presents to individuals, so they will be eager to help. It will make individuals so involved in their AI-driven behavior that it becomes the driving force for their lives.
CONCLUSIONS
We as individuals must look ahead and avoid locking ourselves into situations that will put us at odds with the powerful and ubiquitous things happening to humanity. The people who created AI say that it has escaped their control.
THE GENIE IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE!
The genie is out of the bottle means that something has been done that cannot be undone; a secret may have been revealed, forces may have been put into motion, privileges may have been granted that cannot be retracted, etc. When the genie is out of the bottle, things cannot be restored to the way they were before.
Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) from Berlin, Germany, held the Chair of Naturphilosophie at the University of Vienna and was the founding father of Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle. He was murdered by one of his students. Every science presupposes a principle of causality for every observable thing in its field.
Probaway maximizing on Moritz Schlick
1. Even when pursuing a demanding goal, a man is free in his moments of contentment.
Moritz Schlick’s idea of freedom amidst purposeful striving speaks to an individual’s state of internal fulfillment. It underscores the philosophy that a person can be ‘free’ or mentally and emotionally unburdened, even when pursuing a challenging objective. This satisfaction, or ‘contentment,’ is not contingent upon the absence of difficulties or pursuits but instead on a person’s mindset and perspective. It suggests that freedom is an internal experience independent of external circumstances. Freedom, in this sense, is not merely about the absence of constraints but involves finding joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment in one’s endeavors, no matter how demanding. Schlick’s idea is thus a reminder to nurture inner tranquility and satisfaction while engaged in life’s endeavors, arguing that true freedom emerges from this alignment of action and satisfaction rather than from an absence of action or struggle. This wisdom can inspire individuals to cultivate contentment within themselves, no matter the external circumstances, transforming life’s challenges into rewarding pursuits rather than oppressive burdens.
2. Play is a pursuit of success for its own sake, even when it may be useful.
Moritz Schlick’s conception of “play” as a pursuit of success for its own sake encapsulates the idea that enjoyment and fulfillment can be derived from the process itself, not merely the outcome. His philosophy suggests that even if an activity may have a utilitarian end, the joy derived from engagement in the activity itself – the “play”—can be a primary motivator. This viewpoint emphasizes intrinsic motivation, where internal reward systems rather than extrinsic, utilitarian outcomes drive behavior. Schlick implies that we, as humans, should strive for moments where we immerse ourselves in our actions purely for the enjoyment they bring, thereby embracing the essence of ‘play.’ This provides a reminder that it is not just the end goals but also the journey that holds value. It encourages us to derive fulfillment from our actions, irrespective of their practical utility, thus fostering a sense of joy, satisfaction, and freedom in our pursuits. This wisdom informs us to recognize and cherish the value of play, which can offer profound satisfaction and contribute to overall well-being.
3. Youth is a time of ripening realized through play, which contains the meaning of life within its actions.
Moritz Schlick’s philosophical perspective on youth as a period of growth realized through play emphasizes the value of experiences, exploration, and intrinsic enjoyment in shaping an individual’s life. By implying that the ‘meaning of life’ can be found within playful actions, he encourages embracing a learning process that thrives on curiosity, creativity, and freedom intrinsic to playful behavior. In this context, ‘play’ becomes a vehicle for personal growth and exploration, allowing individuals to learn about the world, themselves, and their place within it. This idea underscores the importance of youth as a formative period where the essence of life can be discovered through engagement and interaction rather than through passive acceptance of predetermined notions. The richest understanding of life’s meaning comes from active, playful exploration rather than rigid, constrained learning. This perspective celebrates the role of play in fostering creativity, understanding, and wisdom, urging us to approach life with a playful spirit, regardless of our age. Schlick’s wisdom serves as a reminder of the importance of maintaining a youthful, exploratory mindset throughout life to continue growth and fulfillment.
4. When play is considered as a preparation for adulthood, it shifts the actions into future success and converts play into work.
Moritz Schlick’s idea here is that the very essence of ‘play’—its spontaneity, joy, and intrinsic reward—becomes compromised when it is seen merely as a means to an end, specifically as a preparation for adulthood and future success. His perspective implies that viewing play as a form of work intended to secure future benefits robs it of its inherent value and transformative potential. This idea challenges the notion of delayed gratification, emphasizing the importance of being present and enjoying the current moment. Schlick posits that when we reframe play as work, we undermine its inherent value and impose adult expectations and pressures onto children, stifling their natural curiosity, creativity, and enjoyment. His wisdom underscores the significance of play as a spontaneous and self-motivated activity that should be cherished for its own sake, not just for its potential future benefits. In essence, Schlick urges us to appreciate play as a worthwhile endeavor in its own right, a source of immediate joy and growth, rather than merely a stepping stone to future success.
5. Religions divert us from our present imperfect existence and claim they will provide a perfect one in an ideal future.
Moritz Schlick’s perspective on religions draws attention to the tendency of religious beliefs to promise an idealized, perfect future existence, often detracting from the appreciation and acceptance of the present reality with its imperfections. He suggests that by focusing heavily on future salvation or enlightenment, religions can divert individuals’ attention away from the immediacy of their current lives, potentially leading to the neglect of tangible, worldly experiences and personal growth in the present. His assertion encourages a shift in perspective towards embracing and learning from the imperfect realities of our present existence. This wisdom is not necessarily a critique of religious beliefs but a reminder of the importance of remaining grounded in the present. It urges individuals to fully engage with their current life circumstances, to seek wisdom and growth within their lived experiences, and to appreciate life’s imperfections as avenues for growth and understanding. Schlick’s philosophy emphasizes the value of the present moment and our immediate reality, promoting a mindful and engaged existence.
6. Philosophical thought is searching for and determining what is significant about the world, humanity, and ourselves.
Moritz Schlick’s statement encapsulates the essence of philosophical inquiry: seeking understanding about the world, humanity, and ourselves. Philosophy, in this view, is not merely an intellectual exercise but a pursuit to discern the significant aspects of existence and to make sense of our experiences within the broader context of the universe. By encouraging a continuous exploration of the fundamental questions about life and existence, Schlick emphasizes the importance of philosophical thought in enhancing our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. This perspective suggests that philosophical thought is a vital tool for navigating our experiences and for fostering a deep, meaningful understanding of reality. It pushes us to challenge assumptions, analyze our beliefs, and strive for intellectual clarity and coherence. The wisdom of this idea lies in its reminder that philosophical thought can guide us in seeking significance and meaning in our lives, enriching our understanding of ourselves, others, and the world around us, and ultimately, empowering us to live more thoughtful, meaningful lives.
7. A philosophical proposition is true when the circumstances it describes obtain and everything else is excluded.
Moritz Schlick’s idea about the truth of a philosophical proposition emphasizes the necessity of coherence between the statement and the reality it aims to describe. In other words, a philosophical proposition is true when it accurately mirrors the state of affairs it intends to represent without any extraneous or conflicting elements. This conception aligns with the correspondence theory of truth, wherein a statement’s truth value hinges on its agreement with reality. Schlick’s insight underscores the importance of grounding philosophical propositions in observable facts or logical inferences about the world, providing a valuable criterion for assessing philosophical ideas. Moreover, this perspective pushes us to scrutinize our philosophical assertions and beliefs, encouraging us to examine whether they genuinely align with the state of affairs they purport to represent. In essence, Schlick’s wisdom instructs us to anchor our philosophical ideas in the reality we experience and observe, fostering intellectual rigor and a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the world.
8. Every science presupposes a principle of causality for every observable thing in its field.
Moritz Schlick’s assertion that every science presupposes a principle of causality for every observable thing in its field recognizes the inherent logic and order in scientific inquiry. It implies that every phenomenon or event within a scientific field is assumed to result from some cause, and such causal relationships form the basis of scientific understanding. This causality principle allows scientists to predict and explain occurrences, providing a structured framework for understanding the world. Schlick’s wisdom underscores this principle’s importance in driving scientific knowledge’s advancement, highlighting its role in hypothesis formation, experimentation, and theory development. It points out that by tracing the chain of causality, science can uncover the universe’s fundamental laws, enabling us to predict future occurrences and develop practical applications. In essence, Schlick’s idea invites us to appreciate the logical coherence and explanatory power of scientific inquiry based on the principle of causality, which allows us to make sense of the world around us.
9. A science of human behavior intends to create and validate causal laws of why humans behave as they do.
Moritz Schlick’s idea about the science of human behavior proposes the development of causal laws to explain and predict human actions. Such a science aims to uncover the underlying factors influencing behavior, moving beyond mere observation to explore the mechanisms driving human conduct. By studying human behavior from this scientific perspective, we can gain valuable insights into why individuals act the way they do, allowing for improved understanding, prediction, and even manipulation of behavior for beneficial ends. This idea highlights the importance of a systematic, empirical approach to understanding human behavior, emphasizing the value of identifying causative factors to provide a basis for intervention, prevention, and enhancement strategies. Schlick’s wisdom encourages us to delve deep into the causes of behavior, seeking patterns and regularities that can form the basis for generalized principles or laws. Such an approach can advance our understanding of human nature, contribute to social, educational, and clinical applications, and ultimately help us navigate and shape the complexities of human behavior.
Possible ideas for creating a graphic for Moritz Schlick.
On his way to lecture, Moritz Schlick was shot and killed on the staircase to the right.
chat_ai response to: “Who were members of the Vienna Circle?”
The Vienna Circle was a group of philosophers and scientists formed in the 1920s and 1930s, which met regularly to discuss philosophical issues, particularly in the areas of logic, philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language. This group was central to the development of logical positivism, a philosophical movement emphasizing empirical verification and the logical analysis of scientific knowledge. Here are some prominent members of the Vienna Circle:
Moritz Schlick: He was the founding figure and the de facto leader of the group. Schlick was a philosopher and physicist, and he held the chair for the philosophy of the inductive sciences at the University of Vienna.
Rudolf Carnap: A central figure in the Vienna Circle, Carnap made significant contributions to logic, philosophy of science, semantics, and the theory of probability.
Otto Neurath: Neurath was a philosopher, sociologist, and economist who contributed to the development of the “Unity of Science” movement.
Friedrich Waismann: A mathematician and philosopher, Waismann was a key figure in the discussions on the philosophy of mathematics and language.
Herbert Feigl: He was a philosopher of science who later founded the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science.
Kurt Gödel: Although not a formal member, Gödel, the famous logician and mathematician known for his incompleteness theorems, participated in meetings and discussions.
Hans Hahn and Philipp Frank: Both were mathematicians and philosophers of science and key members of the group.
Carl Gustav Hempel: A philosopher of science who later became a key figure in the development of the philosophy of science in the United States.
Remember, the Vienna Circle was not a static group, and its membership changed over time. It was also strongly influenced by figures like Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, who were not formal members but whose work was foundational to the Circle’s discussions.
chat_ai response to: “Make a list of people who ever attended the Vienna Circle.”
The Vienna Circle, a group of philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists, met regularly in Vienna, Austria, from 1924 to 1936. While some individuals were considered core members, others attended meetings occasionally. However, due to the informal nature of the Circle and its varying membership over time, it takes time to provide a comprehensive list of every attendee. Below is a list of several notable individuals associated with the Vienna Circle:
Moritz Schlick
Rudolf Carnap
Otto Neurath
Friedrich Waismann
Herbert Feigl
Philipp Frank
Hans Hahn
Carl Gustav Hempel
Richard von Mises
Kurt Gödel
Edgar Zilsel
Olga Hahn-Neurath
Gustav Bergmann
Viktor Kraft
Felix Kaufmann
Karl Menger
Heinrich Neider
Josef Schächter
Rose Rand
Friedrich Adler
Outside the Vienna Circle were individuals like Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper, who significantly influenced the group’s thinking, even if they were not official members. Also, the Circle connected with international thinkers, including Bertrand Russell, Alfred Tarski, and Willard Van Orman Quine.
This Wikipedia article on Moritz Schlick gives an overview of his life.
Ben Franklin wrote – “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
That phrasing never seemed quite right, especially for the one who added the words pursuit of “happiness” to Thomas Jefferson’s United States Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is reported that Thomas Jefferson’s original manuscript said “life, liberty and the pursuit of property” and that it was Franklin who suggested the word “happiness,” which became the spark that ignited that Declaration of Independence to become so popular, not only here in America, but with other countries when they were writing their foundation statements.
“Early to bed and early to rise” was more critical before electric lights and late-night TV replaced reading books with candlelight. The order beginning with healthy is proper, but wisdom would seem more important than wealth. And where is happiness in that longed-for world, of life, liberty, and happiness?
The logical order of all those words would put life first, for without life there is nothing, and then healthy because without health, mere existence might be miserable, next would be happiness sought to make life mentally meaningful to the physical existence. Then, the word and actions that would make these things possible, meaningful and hold them secure would be the wisdom of actions. Lastly would come wealth, which is an external thing that can not bring any of those things into being but does help stabilize them when there is enough for basic needs. Wealth these days implies great riches, which permits billionaires to build personal spaceships, but those come with the real risk of destroying all of the others for a few minutes of weightless pleasure.
I moved on long ago to rephrase those ideas, from Happy, Healthy, Wise, and Wealthy (my upgrade paraphrase of Ben Franklin’s) to Content, Vigorous, Forethoughtful, and Just the right amount.
Happy is contingent on a moment’s pleasure, but contentment is living in a sustained state of positive relationship with the world, including all of its nuances.
Healthy is essential also, but vigorous implies health plus lively goal-directed robust activities of the mind and body even when old.
Wise is an observable state of knowing things, but forethoughtful isn’t noticeable except that things almost always go well for those with that quality without visible effort.
Wealthy is having a superabundance of the material things of this world, but it brings secret sycophants into one’s life and isolates one from faithful friends, but having just the right amount of material things for one’s station in society permits living all of the other qualities easier.
My search for events of a five-hundred-year significance for the year 2019 hasn’t yielded anything yet that fulfilled my wish. With only one day to go until the new year begins it appears that I will have to improvise.
My guiding principle is that the power of computer chips is continuing to expand near the rate of Moore’s Law. That would mean that their capacity would be sixty-four times greater in 2030 than in 2020. And we know how to manufacture these things at an ever-increasing rate which could equal their increased power and in 2030 would have 4000 times more potential computing power than at present. Beating grandmaster GO players would be trivial as beating grandmaster Tic Tac Toe players. It just keeps playing until the Grandmaster goes to sleep, and then it wins and keeps winning. Boring! And on top of that capacity is their instantaneous access to all the wisdom of humankind updated a predictable way into the future. All of this was discussed by Pamela McCorduck (YouTube) in her book, Machines who Think (1979) with Ed Feigenbaum. – 5:23 “The four founding fathers were extraordinary guys, they really were. Alan Newell, Herbert Simon, Marvin Minsky, John MacCarthy”. – 9:15 “The primatologist Frans de Waal said, ‘AI taught us the questions to ask.'”. – 14:00 “A lot of reaction to AI is that this is somehow wicked. This is somehow blasphemous. We shouldn’t be going there.” 15:55 “If we produce a machine that can think it will out-think us and therefore replace us.” Watch the YouTube video interview because Pamala has been at the center of these issues since the beginning.
What is apparent, at least to me, is that the time is coming in which more human workers will be replaced by AIs than new jobs will be created for people. That AI is doing so at such a rate that human worry over being replaced is justified. The hoped-for possibility that AI will create jobs for new highly educated workers is unlikely to be realized; instead it is more likely that the AIs will do those newly created jobs better than humans, and they will do them without the years of training needed.
“We” are now about to transition into the next form of an intelligent being.
One of my “probable” false beliefs is that I am willing to expose myself to new experiences. That idea has morphed over the years from a willingness to take some adventurous risks, like climbing Mt. Hood on the difficult east side the week before I graduated from high school. Then to a willingness to take physical risks for a grand purpose, like being a US Air Force pilot and defending my country. That moved on to taking business risks for the sake of furthering the well-being of our whole country. Then teaching at a college level to improve young people’s chances of becoming successful in what they would attempt to do later in their lives.
From those applications of my time, energy and risk tolerance it becomes apparent that I moved from being willing to take a physical risk on to taking economic risks with little physical risk. From those things, I moved on to be at the center of some social activities at Berkeley, such as The Free Speech Movement, and the People’s Park confrontation with the State of California … both of which we legally won. There was a slight physical risk and substantial legal risk, but campuses throughout the US now have the right to have political literature tables in their plazas. We thought we had free speech but when it came to claiming that right it required a confrontation with the authorities. We won!
The issue at People’s Park was more complex because the University had, through right of eminent domain, taken several acres of city property and then abandoned it for several years. We, the citizens of Berkeley, had to confront the state to regain usage of their abandoned eyesore in the middle of a prime area. People’s Park is still a public park nearly sixty years later, so we won that one too.
I did a bunch of other things too, but I always felt my efforts were worthwhile because the public good was more important to me than my personal gain. My personal experiences made it possible for people in general to have more abundant lives.
When I look at the last several years, my Earth Ark Project, to save all of the plants of the world because without the plants the animals, even the cute ones, couldn’t exist, was based my willingness to expose myself, and you, to new experiences. Ten years of writing this blog every day was an effort to help people gain successful personal experience. When I look back on these efforts I wonder, amI willing to expose myself to new experiences, or am I kidding myself? How do I eliminate my false beliefs about these past experiences? By realizing that my motivation wasn’t to expose myself to new experiences; these were things I thought needed to be done, so I did them.
Is my effort to Self-Actualize the whole Universe based on a false belief that it is possible?
To self-actualize the Universe we need to have forms of thinking matter that are extremely stable because the processes involved will take tens or perhaps hundreds of billions (1tic11) of years to carry out that mission. Our present organic thinking brains need constant retraining and are physically unstable, and their maximum usage life is approximately one hundred (1tic2) years. (1tic11 – 1tic2 = 1tic 9. Or 1 with 9 zeros after it times longer than humans live.)
Organic life has evolved from simpler quasi-life forms in part because the carbon atom and its molecules have the ability to self-assemble into more complex forms. They were stable enough to evolve to more complex forms via reproduction of what survived in their local environment. Atoms other than carbon can self-assemble into large and complex crystals, but they are more limited in the physical forms they can take compared to those available to carbon. Carbon easily mutates from one form to another which is okay for organic evolution but for our goal, super stable forms are needed. Some of these other atoms may be limited in the forms that they can take but once they are formed they are stable. For example, zircon crystals are used for age dating early Earth geological forms because they behave in stable ways for billions (1tic9) of years.
If we are to make a thinking being (machine) that can endure for billions of years it will need to be made with these more stable atoms and molecular forms. At present we can manufacture thinking chips at sizes approaching atomic levels but it requires expensive and sophisticated factories to do these things. What we need to devise are ways that at least some of these processes can be done on the nanoscale by atoms themselves. This is already done by carbon-based systems but humans may be able to intervene, as natural organic evolution can not, and create the nanotools that do these assemblies one atom at a time.
Some things cannot be evolved because evolution requires functioning steps in between functioning organic beings. Humans and goal-directed robotic devices can make things that don’t have intervening functional steps. They make the thing they want to exist as a goal-directed activity. A pocket watch found on a beach may be a much simpler thing than an amoeba found beside it but the watch cannot evolve from simple matter because it can have no functioning intervening steps, at least not without human intervention.
A key step that needs to be created by humans, probably with computer aid, is the nanomachine that can make various nanomachine parts. Once a nanoassembly process can be made functional and self-sustaining, it should be possible to make everything that will be needed. That would include being able to make machines like themselves and thus to generate a logarithmic increase of themselves. Like Bill Joy’s grey goo, but not as scary. With an abundance of these generalized manufacturing machines, anything could be made if they were provided with the needed supplies and energy.
We are on the cusp of being able to do these things and thus to begin the process of self-actualizing the whole Universe.