Post B4urRQXcYzY2A7MoXw by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B4urRPtuwbmyAyn6f2 by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
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       Enjoying Pollan's new book "A World Appears" but he does something that frustrates me, which is to treat materialism/physicalism as if it's some sort of intellectual hidey-hole scientists crawl into to avoid the idea of subjectivity.But then a lot of the arguments against this are something like "well, physicalism seems like it can't explain how I feel watching a sunset." I think this is the kind of statement Dennett used to flag as either being simply false or true in a trivial sense.
       
 (DIR) Post #B4urRQIjSLddPwOvL6 by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
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       Simply false, meaning that your alternative to physicalism is to say there's some way things work that can never be explained by any inductive method, but which is also localized specifically in brains that are sufficiently large.Or trivially true: of course the scientific method and its assumptions can't say what that subjective experience is like in particular. But let's rephrase it: the methods of science won't perfectly capture what it was like to be me at 7:35:21 AM on April 3 2026.
       
 (DIR) Post #B4urRQXcYzY2A7MoXw by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
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       If you stipulate that the nothing counts about the experience except the ability to experience it while being you, it's clear you're never going to be able to say something general about it and that any attempt to do so must be reductionist.Then, as I'm growing grumped about this, he hits me with this:"What quantum theory is telling us about the nature of reality has shaken science's confidence that materialism can serve as a sturdy metaphysical foundation."
       
 (DIR) Post #B4urRQm9gxAqtCAQCW by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
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       To which I say no. No, no, no, no, no it has not. Quantum theory is really weird and there are unknowns, but it doesn't involve giving up materialism. In fact, it gives insanely accurate reliably predictions.Boo, then, I say.
       
 (DIR) Post #B4urRQzcsrwvYyTBCK by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
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       In general, I'm annoyed at the idea that it's some sort of retreat from grandeur to see the brain as physical. You have, between your ears, the most intricate machine ever created, about which we are still discovering basic construction facts. Why does magic make it better?
       
 (DIR) Post #B4urRRKBeQOcak5bFI by Nikolai_Kingsley@dobbs.town
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       @ZachWeinersmith magic makes it easier to pretend you understand it.