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Post by ='= Absinth on Nov 8, 2006 12:18:44 GMT
But i can't get drunk with beer anymore, it's like water now
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Post by ='= Kiwi on Nov 8, 2006 13:10:25 GMT
those are the words of a true alcoholic
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Post by Ørder on Nov 8, 2006 13:41:26 GMT
those are the words of a true alcoholic what he said ^^
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Nov 29, 2006 16:33:40 GMT
In this context, Descartes offered a brief description of his own experience with the proper approach to knowledge. Begin by renouncing any belief that can be doubted, including especially the testimony of the senses; then use the perfect certainty of one's own existence, which survives this doubt, as the foundation for a demonstration of the providential reliability of one's faculties generally. Significant knowledge of the world, Descartes supposed, can be achieved only by following this epistemological method, the rationalism of relying on a mathematical model and eliminating the distraction of sensory information in order to pursue the demonstrations of pure reason.
Later sections of the Discourse (along with the supplementary scientific essays with which it was published) trace some of the more significant consequences of following the Cartesian method in philosophy. His mechanistic inclinations emerge clearly in these sections, with frequent reminders of the success of physical explanations of complex phenomena. Non-human animals, on Descartes's view, are complex organic machines, all of whose actions can be fully explained without any reference to the operation of mind in thinking.
In fact, Descartes declared, most of human behavior, like that of animals, is susceptible to simple mechanistic explanation. Cleverly designed automata could successfully mimic nearly all of what we do. Thus, Descartes argued, it is only the general ability to adapt to widely varying circumstances—and, in particular, the capacity to respond creatively in the use of language—that provides a sure test for the presence of an immaterial soul associated with the normal human body.
But Descartes supposed that no matter how human-like an animal or machine could be made to appear in its form or operations, it would always be possible to distinguish it from a real human being by two functional criteria. Although an animal or machine may be capable of performing any one activity as well as (or even better than) we can, he argued, each human being is capable of a greater variety of different activities than could be performed by anything lacking a soul. In a special instance of this general point, Descartes held that although an animal or machine might be made to utter sounds resembling human speech in response to specific stimuli, only an immaterial thinking substance could engage in the creative use of language required for responding appropriately to any unexpected circumstances. My puppy is a loyal companion, and my computer is a powerful instrument, but neither of them can engage in a decent conversation. (This criterion anticipated the more formal requirements of the Turing test.)
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Nov 29, 2006 16:34:03 GMT
Meh...Im a genius
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Post by ='= DreaMz on Nov 29, 2006 20:06:36 GMT
lol
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Dec 5, 2006 20:29:09 GMT
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Dec 5, 2006 20:29:27 GMT
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Dec 5, 2006 20:29:48 GMT
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Dec 5, 2006 20:30:06 GMT
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Dec 5, 2006 20:30:28 GMT
Trying to beat MH...
;D
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Post by ='= Inzain on Dec 6, 2006 1:42:30 GMT
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Post by ='= Luci()wl on Dec 6, 2006 11:13:46 GMT
Dammit that made me lag
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Post by ='= Kiwi on Dec 6, 2006 11:40:20 GMT
ROFL inzain u must've been rly bored...
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Post by Ichi Killer on Dec 6, 2006 11:42:14 GMT
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