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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · 2d

debt owed to the wealthy & then "redistribute their land." But if we did that, no one would ever lend money or buy land again & credit would disappear from the economy. Heedless of these consequences, Hudson is determined that we should all be equally poor in his dream collectivist utopia.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · 2d

Lunatic fringe #marxist economist Michael Hudson has a background like an Onion self-parody. His father was a jailed Trotskyite activist whom Hudson, betraying his closet elitism, claims had the highest IQ in the penitentiary (at least among the Trotskyites). Hudson thinks we should cancel all

The Dissenter @thedissenteryt.bsky.social · 2d

New episode (1159), with Dr. Michael Hudson. We talk about his book, Temples of Enterprise: Creating Economic Order in the Bronze Age Near East. #History #Economics #Science

YouTube: youtu.be/ljF33z_NAqM
Podcast: bit.ly/3KCHoq0

#1159 Michael Hudson - Temples of Enterprise: Creating Economic Order in the Bronze Age Near East

YouTube video by The Dissenter

youtu.be

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · 2d

question of "intelligent design," a theory that despite Sean's
polite kindness to its proponents, really is little more than an attempted fraud on the public.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · 2d

tuning is irrelevant because the parameters may be different in every universe. In addition, as no one can say what a god consists of, or does or would want, there can't, in principle, be any evidence as to whether a god could or did create a universe at all. So fine tuning is not probative on the

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · 2d

Sean is certainly correct that the fact that certain parameters of physics appear "fine tuned" is any not evidence for god or a simulation. If there is just one universe, you can't calculate any probability for these values which just are what they are & don't raise any issues. In a multiverse fine

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 2d

Mindscape 331 | Solo: Fine-Tuning, God, and the Multiverse. In which I shamelessly steal material from the #PhilosophyOfCosmology course I am teaching to talk about some big questions. #MindscapePodcast

www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...

Title card for Mindscape Podcast episode on Fine-Tuning, God, and the Multiverse.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · 28d

Charlie Kirk is rapidly becoming the Horst Wessel of Trumpism.

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 28d

Look at how some MAGA people are exploiting this tragedy before the facts are known. It’s deplorable.

Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 28d

We documented some of the calls for retribution that followed Charlie Kirk’s murder. With @kieraevebutler.bsky.social and @juliannemcshane.bsky.social www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Sep 4

Contrary to what List says, beliefs have nothing to do with free will. What drives free will is individual wants, needs, desires and goals. And that requires subjective conscious
experience.

Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Sep 4

could have any desires, beliefs or goals. The simple fact is that they could not. AIs lack the engine that drives free will, namely our minds and interests which create the goals and intentionality we act on.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Sep 4

This is nonsense. Human behavior is driven by consciousness & emotions (including unconscious processes). AIs don’t have that, as they have no minds or subjective experience of any kind and don’t care about anything. The problem here is to ask how AIs lacking consciousness or self interest

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Sep 4

Talking about free will without mentioning the mind or self interest is like talking about cars & leaving out the engine. List takes Dennett’s metaphor for humans as computers to absurd extremes arguing that since a computer is a good metaphor for humans, somehow humans must act like computers!

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Sep 4

But free will in humans and animals arises from the biological & psychological interests which drive how we navigate the world. Without self-interest, free will could not exist as we would lack a basis for making decisions. Our consciousness drives our behavior based on our goals and interests.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Sep 4

List, normally a well reasoned advocate for human free will, goes astray here in arguing for the existence of free will in AIs without any mind or consciousness. List relies on Dennett’s mistaken behaviorist views which deny the mind a
causal role in human action.

Christian List @clist.bsky.social · Sep 2

To determine whether an AI system has free will, we shouldn't look for any mysterious property, ask if the system is unpredictable, or expect its algorithms to be indeterministic. We should ask: are there explanatory reasons to view the system as a choice-making agent with alternative possibilities?

Can AI systems have free will? - Synthese

While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sket...

link.springer.com

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 22

This part is surplusage. All known examples of consciousness have been experienced by biological organisms. The biological organism is the subject that experiences consciousness. There is no self other than the biological organism. And the organism must have a body to experience it (ie, embodiment)

Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 22

In addition, much of animal consciousness involves and is consumed by emotions/feelings of pain, pleasure, joy, hunger, etc. There is no evidence that AIs can be designed to feel such things or care about them.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 22

But the conclusion of the paper that consciousness can exist in artificial non-biological systems is speculative.
There's no evidence for that claim & no conclusive evidence against it. But we have no AIs that share any of the elements above, eg, subjectivity, interests, survival needs or bodies.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 22

organism and the actions it needs to take to survive/thrive.
Consciousness can only be experienced through a body (a brain in a vat can't experience its environment without a body to sense it). And consciousness in animals is goal directed and mortal. It detects things the organism needs to know.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 22

This is an important paper from @wiringthebrain.bsky.social.
There is no question that consciousness is fundamentally and irreducibly subjective. The subject for all known examples of consciousness is the biological organism that experiences it. Conscious beings are aware of the boundaries of the

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · Aug 22

Consciousness needs a subject osf.io/preprints/ps... - new preprint with Carolyn Dicey Jennings @cdj.bsky.social (commentary on Anil Seth's BBS piece)

To be conscious is to be an experiencing subject. This can be defined not in terms of computational functions or particular biological substrates, but rather in terms of relations: between subject and world, between parts of the subject, and through time. These kinds of relations – comprising a conscious mode of being – may well be implementable in artificial systems.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 22

correct.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 14

Lions have little sympathy for either the zebra they killed or for the hyenas they are holding at bay who want the carcass. And beautiful women may have little sympathy or time for very unattractive females. And why should they? Those left behind can usually do very little for the rest of the pack.

Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 14

An interesting talk with Dr Robert Brooks on incels. Few except other incels have any interest in their problems. Quite naturally, successful people only rarely have much sympathy for those who fail. So Incels would probably do better to whine less and focus on solving their own problems.

The Dissenter @thedissenteryt.bsky.social · Aug 13

In episode 563, I talk with Dr. Robert Brooks about his fascinating book, Artificial Intimacy: Virtual Friends, Digital Lovers, and Algorithmic Matchmakers. #Technology #psychology #Science

youtu.be/qiSGH9UVokY

#563 Robert Brooks Artificial Intimacy: Virtual Friends, Digital Lovers, and Algorithmic Matchmakers

YouTube video by The Dissenter

youtu.be

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 14

“Flourishing” is a nonsense word like Nirvana & salvation. Beware when it's used. It's a subjective concept with no established meaning. Nazis thought they were flourishing in Germany in 1939 & Trumpists think they are flourishing now. Serial killers think they are flourishing when they get kills.

Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 14

#SerifeTekin gets confused when talking about the self. There is no incorporeal construct called a self inside each of us. The #self is just the biological organism you are with your appearance voice, interests and goals. It has all the characteristics that you have because it is you.

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 14

Interesting talk with psychiatrist S. Tekin @thebusyowl.bluesky.social on how social conformity often defines mental illness. Why isn't #religion a mental illness? Having delusions about serving the imagined rules of supernatural beings is hardly sane.

The Dissenter @thedissenteryt.bsky.social · Aug 14

In episode 568, I talk with Dr. Şerife Tekin about the #Philosophy of #Psychiatry, mental disorder, the self, and flourishing.

youtu.be/2wLJGPBLTfQ

#568 Şerife Tekin: Philosophy of Psychiatry, Mental Disorder, The Self, and Flourishing

YouTube video by The Dissenter

youtu.be

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Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 11

#Determinism is the ultimate conspiracy theory because #determinists believe that everything is rigged.

Ted Tillich-Farris @tillichfarris.bsky.social · Aug 11

www.cnbc.com/2025/08/11/s...

Sam Altman now says AGI, or human-level AI, is 'not a super useful term’ — and he's not alone

Computer science experts say it's better to focus on the more specialized use cases of AI.

www.cnbc.com