I never said, nor implied, that consciousness doesn't exist. Your comment seems to be based on this mistaken idea. I also want to point out that I used Idealism in the philosophical sense in which it is the opposite of Materialism, not in the sense of being starry-eyed.

The problem with dualism is that mind and body need to be able to interact in some manner. In order for that to happen we have to posit a mechanism for that phenomenon. Until such a mechanism is discovered, or in some other way found to be necessary, then Occam's razor says to ignore it. (Note, that doesn't strictly mean that it doesn't exist, just that you don't posit something you don't need.) Additionally, I never said that there is no consciousness. I said that the question of "Does consciousness cause the brain" is not an interesting question.

This is question begging.

As for the rest of your comment: Positing a spirit/consciousness that exists separate from (and prior to) the material body is magical thinking in exactly the same way as talking about gods and souls and we can write that off as imaginary. The experience that we have of consciousness is not separate from nor prior to the material body. In fact, my experience of consciousness began some years after my experience of body; which is to say that in my earliest memories (experiences of consciousness) I know that I already had a body.
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JimFive

Disclaimer: I am not a quantum physicist.

I agree with that, I think environment might be better. However, I don't think that the double slit experiment can be explained by saying "something got in the way". That the method of observation affects the results seems pretty clear there. But that doesn't mean that the response to the environment is mystical.
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JimFive

I would add that WhatsApp is already at both ends of the communication as well. So, even without a stolen key or MITM, WhatsApp can read any message at either user's end and do something with that information. (Simple idea, scan messages for references to pop culture event and send that information to the ad servers). So, sure, the message is encrypted end to end, but so what.
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JimFive

The first amendment contains more than the right to free speech. It also contains the right of free association which is what is used to defend discriminatory practices.

It also contains freedom of the press which I think much more closely fits the situation of Google's search results algorithm. Google is allowed to publish what it wants however it wants, within the bounds of libel/slander and related (e.g. fraud) laws. So, while the results of the algorithm may not be "speech", Google's right to publish those results seems like it should be protected.
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JimFive

I shouldn't bother but here goes:

This is not an interesting question. You are essentially asking if the universe is based on physics or mysticism. Idealism is absurd, Dualism leads to unanswerable questions and Materialism seems to be working out pretty well for us.

The observer doesn't need to be conscious. While quantum physics is weird, it is not mysticism.

You can if you include the HD and it's magnetic contents as part of the computer hardware. There is nothing non-deterministic about the way a computer loads and executes software.
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JimFive

Person 1 scoops 3 bowls, person 2 can either choose a bowl or scoop into 2 bowls, person 3 likewise can choose or scoop into 2 bowls. Persons 1-3 pick bowls if they haven't already.

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JimFive

I just want to point out that there is at least one exception to this idea. In personal calendars, for example in outlook, someone may have a recurring appointment on Wednesday at 11 am. This time should not change with daylight savings time, it should stay 11am regardless of what the UTC offset is.

Having said that, I agree that everything should default UTC and exceptions such as personal calendaring should be well thought out.
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JimFive

I disagree. The pricing won't be $50/channel. It will be something like:
Connection Fee(possibly includes local OTA): $30/mo
Basic Channels (each): $5/mo
Premium Channels (each): $10/mo
Supreme Channels (each): $20/mo
ESPN: $50/mo

And every channel you actually want is going to be Premium or Supreme. So your 4 channels are still going to cost $70-150 every month
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JimFive

There are places where the stop lights are on posts at the side of the road and only slightly above you, about the height of the lights on a Semi trailer. If the road is divided there may be a light on each side of the road indicating instructions for particular lanes. I saw this most often in Paris, but I've also seen it in Chicago.
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JimFive

Since this is the entire point, I find it suspicious that you gloss over it.

If the reason that women don't want to go into tech is due to social systems (education, media, etc) that discourage women by treating women is a biased way then those social systems should be changed to eliminate that bias. Why should they be changed? Because social systems are supposed to provide equal opportunity and treating people in a gender biased way fails at that. That failure means that society is not getting the best value from its populace.

Alternatively, if the reason is that the "culture" of technical workplaces is hostile to women, then that culture should be named and shamed until it changes because it is morally reprehensible to treat people badly, even if the current members of that culture don't think they're doing anything wrong.
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JimFive

Are they?

I haven't heard of any men proclaiming that they had left a large veterinary project due to rampant sexism and harassment. I have heard that from women on programming projects.

Or is there some other professional area(s) that men are moving to which they see as a better field than veterinary medicine that for some reason women aren't pursuing?

Red herrings and false dichotomies are red herrings and false dichotomies.

I just listened to this story and one of the key points was that male college freshman had been given computers as toys and already had several years of tinkering with them before college while the profiled women had not had that experience. They posit that this disparity was due to computers being advertised as toys for boys in the early 80s. The one woman also implied that the college professors were expecting that the students would have that computer experience before entering the program.
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JimFive

Those would be per item rates. And sure, buying parts instead of assembled goods would remove some of the "progressiveness" of that system, but would only be reasonable if the cost of assembly was less than the additional tax.

Again, I'm not endorsing this type of system, but if someone wanted to create a progressive consumption tax, they probably could.