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Cool video

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 8:15 am
by Ganzo

Re: Cool video

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 10:33 am
by Menelvir
Different. Seemed to combine some elements of exploratory questions / neuroscience / philosophy / physics.

One part I found particularly interesting:

"The common cultural belief has mostly been that we need a narrative, a diachronic view in our life, to establish moral values. But with our current understanding of the empathic and social nature of the brain, we now know that a purely scientific view with no attachments to our identity or story, yields a far more accurate, meaningful, and ethical paradigm than our anecdotal values."


Seems to be more or less a rejection of traditionally-held moral belief systems (i.e. religious-based morality).

I've read a few different philosophers, so I'm aware that the idea of non-religious based morality has been around for a while. There are several examples some modern philosophers of ethics have proposed various non-religious moral systems (e.g. Derek Parfit - rationality-based moral systems, Peter Singer, et. al.).

Pt.2 was a little more esoteric for me, as I'm not a student of physics, but it seemed to lean toward the idea that there might be a way to harmonize different models, i.e.

Copenhagen interpretation / standard model vs. quantized models SS theories

As I understood current researches, part of ongoing project was to bring those theories together through a GUT or TOE.

The narrator also mentioned the "Many worlds" interpretation which I was under the impression was pretty fringe -- I'd be somewhat surprised to learn that it was gaining wider acceptance.

Pt.3 I like almost any and all discussions or speculations on the nature of time, so this was interesting, even if I didn't completely comprehend it all.

I liked the idea, if space-time were visible, that moving clock hands would make a visible helix.

Mention of the internet and interconnectedness reminded me of the idea of moving toward a technological singularity.

Also,
"The more attached we are to a belief system, the less able we are to make conscious choices for ourselves."


That resonates with me fairly strongly -- dogma and dogmatic beliefs are essentially an intellectual prison.

So on the whole, I thought it was interesting for as broad as it was.

Did you guys hear that Neil DeGrasse Tyson is in production (in cooperation with Ann Druyan) to make a new 'Cosmos' series?

That could be very cool.