On Materialism
The Notorious Meat Robot Letters
I have here gathered in one place links to all my essays written on the topic of radical materialism, called panphysicalism.
I have long since become convinced that the position of radical materialism is not actually a philosophical position as much as a symptom of mental disease.
The partisans of the doctrine I have met seem both unable to express their own position in a rigorous fashion, unwilling to examine the logical implications thereof, and untrained in making simple philosophical distinctions (as between form and matter, final cause and efficient cause) but also unable to stop talking. The behavior is that of a victim of mesmerism, or a mild case of monomania.
Perhaps they are indeed the robots they think they are.
- http://scifiwright.com/2006/09/convince-me-logic-is-useful/
- http://scifiwright.com/2007/12/immaterialism-the-long-answer/
- http://scifiwright.com/2007/06/metaphysics-corner/
- http://scifiwright.com/2007/12/the-mental-wheels-of-materialism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2007/12/materialism-revisited/
- http://scifiwright.com/2009/06/dialog-with-a-materialist/
- http://scifiwright.com/2009/06/on-the-same-topic-2/
- http://scifiwright.com/2009/08/on-means-and-ends-in-nature-or-why-neo-fights/
Then I started to discuss the matter in depth:
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/06/sophomoronology/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/06/water-can-wet-you-and-fire-can-burn/ [important preliminary statements made here]
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/06/final-cause-or-hammers-and-letters-in-a-lifeless-universe/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/06/debating-with-the-tin-woodman-of-oz/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/06/reprogramming-metaphysics/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/06/the-experiment-that-proves-empiricism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/06/methological-dualism-conceptual-objectivity-immaterialism-legality/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/07/the-experiment-that-proves-empiricism-is-get-drunk/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/07/free-will-as-a-category-of-final-causation/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/07/free-will-and-physics-no-conflict/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/reflections-in-a-chessboard/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/drawing-swords-against-the-deluge/ [not precisely on topic, but entertaining nonetheless]
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/yet-another-visit-to-the-clockwork-brain/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/dialog-with-an-adding-machine/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/predictive-brainology/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/cannot-stop-debating-determinists-stop-i-have-no-free-will-stop-send-help-stop-make-me-stop/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/parable-of-the-chessmen/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/09/the-parable-of-the-picture/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/10/scolding-an-atheist/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/10/parable-of-the-chessmen-2/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/10/determining-the-physical-consequences-of-indeterminism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/10/the-argument-from-honest-argumentation/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/12/the-magic-darwin-fairies/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/12/return-of-the-robot-zombie-slaves/
- http://scifiwright.com/2010/12/why-i-am-not-a-materialist/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/05/philosophy-corner-trapped-in-a-chinese-room-with-alan-turing/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/05/philosophy-corner-burrowing-out-of-a-dead-end/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/06/determinism-and-indeterminism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/06/materialism-revisited-2/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/06/yet-another-question-about-materialism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/06/barbicane-and-lucretius/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/07/rene-descartes-and-his-steam-powered-robo-dog/
- http://scifiwright.com/2011/09/the-promissary-note-of-physics/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/01/isaac-asmiov-and-the-insanity-of-materialism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/02/from-the-archives-parable-of-the-chessman/ [same essay]
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/02/the-argument-against-materialism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/09/more-of-the-same-2/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/10/the-challenge-of-the-ultimate-prime-number/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/10/from-the-archives-parable-of-the-chessman-2/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/10/the-same-inescapable-topic-yet-again/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/10/on-the-necessity-of-ontology/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/10/seeking-closure-on-the-closure-discussion/
- http://scifiwright.com/2012/10/the-last-post-on-this-topic-for-a-while/
- http://scifiwright.com/2013/09/on-the-impossibility-of-empirical-metaphysics/
- http://scifiwright.com/2013/09/one-more-time-sysiphus/
- http://scifiwright.com/2013/09/lost-in-the-garden-of-forking-paths/
- http://scifiwright.com/2014/05/goedel-and-panphysicalism/
- http://scifiwright.com/2016/08/parable-of-the-stopsign
Whew.
Perhaps someday these essays can be gathered into a book like one of those described by Robert W Chambers or HP Lovecraft, dreary yet inhumanly horrible, in order to stun insomniacs, punish those not covered by the Geneva Conventions on humane treatment of enemies, or open a dread gate to Yuggoth on the Rim.
A similar investigation of the question of machine intelligence can be found here: The Cabinet of Wisdom