Dr. Bob

Measure differences in what? We can’t ask *c. elegans * about it’s state of mind let alone consciousness. There are several issues here; a philosophical issue here about what you are modeling (e.g. mind, consciousness or something else), a biological issue with what physical parameters and states you need to capture to produce that model, and how you would propose to test the fidelity of that model against the original organism. The scope of these issues is well outside a reply chain in Lemmy.

It’s an analogy. There is actually an academic joke about the point you are making.

A mathematician and an engineer are sitting at a table drinking when a very beautiful woman walks in and sits down at the bar.

The mathematician sighs. “I’d like to talk to her, but first I have to cover half the distance between where we are and where she is, then half of the distance that remains, then half of that distance, and so on. The series is infinite. There’ll always be some finite distance between us.”

The engineer gets up and starts walking. “Ah, well, I figure I can get close enough for all practical purposes.”

The point of the analogy is not that one can’t get close enough so that the ear can’t detect a difference, it’s that in theory analog carries infinite information. It’s true that vinyl recordings are not perfect analog systems because of physical limitations in the cutting process. It’s also true for magnetic tape etc. But don’t mistake the metaphor for the idea.

Ionic movement across membranes, especially at the scale we are talking about, and the density of channels in the system is much closer to an ideal system. How much of that fidelity can you lose before it’s not your consciousness?

Thanks fellow traveller for punching holes in computational stupidity. Everything you said is true but I also want to point out that the brain is an analog system so the information in a neuron is infinite relative to a digital system (cf: digitizing analog recordings). As I tell my students if you are looking for a binary event to start modeling, look to individual ions moving across the membrane.

It’s all good. The generations thing comes from the boomers as well, the huge number of babies that were born in the post-war period and that covered a lot of countries. They needed a name and everything else just formed around them.

I won’t deny that someone born in 1946 had a very different experience than someone born in 1964, but from a programmatic view they all benefited from growth in programs and services aimed at children and youth. Those programs underwent a dramatic change in the 1970s as they became means tested or mothballed because of the small number of children.

Again, this is anecdotal, but I switched schools every two years before high school. Every one of them closed because there weren’t enough children in the catchment area. They were built because of the baby boom, and my Jones siblings walked to schools in the neighborhood because classes were full. I was bussed from Grade 1 onwards. And so on.

I’m not an American. Federal grants still exist in Canada as well, but the eligibility criteria changed and the program was no longer universal by the time I went to post-secondary. As I said that was an example and there are many. I also had to deal with the height of the AIDS epidemic. The first case report in the literature was 1981. And lead contaminated water was never an issue in our jurisdiction.

If you are a millenial you don’t have any lived experience from the period, so why do you question mine? I was part of the “baby bust” as they originally called it and programs and services that were available to my older siblings were not available to me.

No it’s not. My older siblings are part of Jones and with just six and eight year gaps they have had very different experiences than X. My favorite example; there were still government grants for university when they went through. They worked odd jobs during the summer knowing that grants would pay full tuition and residence. Government backed loans paid the rest. By the time I went through the grant program had been dismantled and loans were partially privatized. And I graduated into the aftermath of Black Monday.

You’re focusing on the wrong part of my argument. The cat bit was a humorous throwaway.

Memento mori is directly and explicitly tied to humility and mindfulness. This is well documented from both contemporary and historical sources and is absolutely distinct from the indulgence of “making the most out of life”. YOLO is about risks and embracing the experience rather than contemplating the consequences. YOLO is closer to “hold my beer” than anything else.

This couldn’t be more incorrect. Memento mori is a call for humility. Carpe diem is a call for purposeful action. YOLO is a “hold my beer” moment preceding a calculated stupidity.

Carpe diem is a call to action - to not fritter your life away on inconsequential things. YOLO is a polite way to say “fuck it”.

Not technically correct, superficially correct. “A cat on a pillar and a caterpillar are basically the same thing! Amirite?”

Memento mori is a caution against excessive pride. We are all equal in the grave and we are all going to die. Memento mori tokens or reminders were carried by powerful people to remind them to temper their decisions and maintain humility. Definitely not the “fuck it” attitude of YOLO.