Pisces000221

The first class of Philosophy Through Science Fiction. Our instructor is Morgan Wallhagen.

Having finished our school's reading assignments last winter (I chose "The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant) I think I have quite got the point of "what is philosophy" introduced in today's class (we're just scratching the surface though...) As for the discussed question about whether science ends up being philosophy, I'm supportive of this idea. I don't think philosophy will become science one day. Scientists find their conclusions and theories through experiments, obvervations and mathematical calculations, and claim that "it must be the case" — while philosophers thinks (rather than calculates) about general problems and say "it should/it's better to be the case." As the fields of science grow larger, its ultimate form will be philosophy — a science of all sciences. As we can see today, take Physics for example, heated discussions and arguments are carried out while theories keep getting renewed and uncertainties grow increasingly. Pretty much like philosophy, I think :)

I'm still reading other materials provided (that was a LOT really...) but the essay on the simulation argument attracts my interest. Actually I started thinking about this question several years ago and couldn't figure out an answer. This passage really inspired me, especially the conclusion that if we're starting our own simulations on day, it's very very likely that we're living in a simulated world. THAT IS REALLY SURPRISING AND AMAZING!!

One sci-fi novel I once read (The Three Body Triology), imagined a future world where people found that the activities of human brain somehow involve quantum physics. Another passage I saw, proved that if an organism of any type (protises or something like that) emerged from a system, there's almost sure to be intelligent animals, and civilizations, in the coming years. Does that imply that, if we're able to simulate every single particle in a universe, we could automatically get organisms and civilizations in the future? (I can't figure it out.)

Philosophy is an amazing and charming subject. Knowing a bit about it would certainly be of benefit!

(During the movie section today, I enjoyed the beginning... watched normally for some time... and got distracted during the last few minutes... Perhaps it would be nice if the teacher stops every, say, 15 minutes and get us to discuss about the 15-minute part?)