Patterson in Pursuit

Does consciousness "emerge" from physical phenomena? What does "emerge" even mean? If we grant that consciousness emerges, and that it has a distinct ontological status, doesn't that imply dualism? To help me answer these questions, I spoke with Dr. Braddon-Mitchell at the University of Sydney. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

I grew up in a Christian Evangelical household. This is my experience with religious fundamentalism. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Are the foundations of mathematics rock-solid? Are we allowed to doubt them? How central is the concept of "infinity" to modern mathematics - and has the logic of infinity been fully worked out? To help me answer these questions, I've traveled to Sydney, Australia to interview an unorthodox mathematician on the topic. Dr. Norman Wildberger is also skeptical of the modern foundations of mathematics - even though he's a teaching professor at the University of New South Wales - and he has a popular youtube channel where he's laying out new foundations for the field. You can find his youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/njwildberger Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

There are no infinite things - no infinite sets, magnitudes, densities, shapes, distances, or anything else. Every thing is exactly the way it is. It has boundaries and is therefore finite. If this is true, then we have a great amount of work ahead of us, re-founding modern mathematics on a more solid logical ground. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Breakdown of the interview I had with Dr. Patrick Girard about paraconsistent logic. Nothing is both true and false at the same time. Any logical theory that suggests otherwise is catastrophically flawed. There are no true logical contradictions, and if we get this wrong, we eliminate any chance of internal incoherence in our theories. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

How to replace one theory with another. You must accomplish three things: 1) Explain where the dominant theory is wrong. 2) Explain why your theory solves the problem in #1, while preserving its explanatory power. 3) Explain why the incorrect theory still had predictive power. Do those three, and you've made a compelling case for a paradigm shift. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Are all boundaries artificial? Is "the self" a real thing, or is it just an illusion? Does anything have essence? These are the questions I'm breaking down from my interview with Dr. Janet Gyatso from Harvard. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

This is the most personal article I've written. It's about love - but it's not meant to make you feel fuzzy. I believe love is the highest state of human existence, but getting to a loving state of mind is incredibly hard, and it comes coupled with a great deal of pain. Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

Resting at the heart of modern mathematics is the concept of infinite sets. It's a notoriously difficult concept, and in my own evaluation, it strikes me as logically contradictory. So, I accept an invitation to talk with an ex-mathematician who specializes in set theory - perhaps he can set me straight and help me understand the basic ways of thinking about these "completed infinities."   Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe

I can't help but notice the West's reaction to the Charlie Hebdo massacre. It's so abstract. If I were to be cynical, I'd say that people's reactions are fake. They don't really care about the tragedy; they care about social signaling to their peers. Original article here: http://steve-patterson.com/charlie-hebdo-excuse-take-selfies/ Get full access to Steve Patterson's Substack at stevepatterson.substack.com/subscribe