Philosophical Speculations

Another example: I used to play CS:GO, a first-person shooter game, a lot when I was a teenager. Apart from the ethical implications (although, contrary to what the media often used to claim in the panic, you can very well distinguish that shooting a game character, pixels of zeros and ones, is not ...

Ok, thanks. I will simply conclude with a brief list of observations that provide a somewhat coherent image of my thinking process on this topic. I don't expect a response if there is no further interest in exploring these specific observations. - When do we shift from educational experimenting ...

How do you experience it when returning to such demonstrations? You say above, "possibly return to it from time to time, and that's it ". But what's it? If we are returning to it from time to time, surely that's because its educational value is not being exhausted by multiple encounters. How would ...

It is critical to bridge our feeling of 'separate concerns' between 'real experiments' and metaphorical exercises that merely prepare us for the real deal down the road. Everyone can probably relate to the feeling, when they first start meditating, that they are entering some kind of new space of ...

Federica, Before I move on to address your previous points, which I will soon, can you please slow down and try to reflect on why you feel the need to take such a dismissive and condescending tone in these discussions, as if you are waging a battle against us? I say "us", because it's not just with ...

Thanks for addressing this point, Federica. I think Cleric has shown quite well in this essay how all computer technology and corresponding 'spaces' of activity (including digital games) must evidently be extensions of the imaginative rehearsal space, where we manipulate and transform mental images ...

A similar exercise can be performed by producing a continuous vowel sound with our inner voice and slowly and smoothly morphing it through different vowels (a, e, i, o, u). This exercise is especially valuable because it helps us close the leeway even further. When we move the focal point of our ...

What does it mean that we got distracted? It means that some unknown factor beyond the power of our focused input has nudged our flow into a differently shaped riverbed. Here, the physicist or biologist would immediately object, “But such unknown factors are only mirages in consciousness. In r ...

In any case, I am ready to come back to this specific point if you wish, let me just give it more thought. Yes, that would be good Federica, and also the related point that becoming proficient at a game, just like a sport, scientific technique, or artistic practice, can become synonymous with ...

... Ashvin, this is an iteration of what you previously stated. I don't have a mission to convince you. I have now expressed my caveats and if we don't agree, so be it. Actually, it has introduced new considerations about the imaginative rehearsal space, but I understand why you don't want to ...