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Dennis Hackethal

@dennis-hackethal·Member since June 2024·Ideas

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Activity

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4257.

Those are still spatial metaphors. I'm not saying we can't extend our ideas through imagination, creativity etc. Only that the metaphors and concepts we use/have meaning for us, are constrained by the perspectives we can take as humans. When we try to explain how bats perceive through echolocation, we fall back on visual simulations, because sight is the only perceptual world we know. Ideas have a similar limitation

#4257·Knut Sondre Sæbø revised about 20 hours ago

I'm not saying we can't extend our ideas through imagination, creativity etc.

That’s what you were originally saying in #3626. That’s what the claim “Living according to reason and rationality alone is impossible” amounts to.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4254.

We explain the world by postulating invisible things, but we can only understand those abstractions through concrete metaphors rooted in our physical experience. A concept or idea with no experiential grounding is meaningless.

#4254·Knut Sondre Sæbø, about 21 hours ago

A concept or idea with no experiential grounding is meaningless.

Maybe, but that’s different from confusing a parochial factor for a fundamental one.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4254.

We explain the world by postulating invisible things, but we can only understand those abstractions through concrete metaphors rooted in our physical experience. A concept or idea with no experiential grounding is meaningless.

#4254·Knut Sondre Sæbø, about 21 hours ago

Not all explanations use metaphors.

  Dennis Hackethal commented on criticism #4251.

But the criticisms don’t try to find out how easy to vary the Persephone myth is. Nor do we try to find out how hard to vary the axis-tilt theory is.

#4251·Dennis HackethalOP, about 22 hours ago

Basically, a small part of the notion of ‘easy to vary’ gets to live on in Veritula as an approximation, as Popper would phrase it.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4250.

But some of the criticisms basically say that the Persephone myth is “easy to vary”.

#4250·Dennis HackethalOP, about 22 hours ago

That’s only some of the criticisms though. Others have nothing to do with easy/hard to vary.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4250.

But some of the criticisms basically say that the Persephone myth is “easy to vary”.

#4250·Dennis HackethalOP, about 22 hours ago

But the criticisms don’t try to find out how easy to vary the Persephone myth is. Nor do we try to find out how hard to vary the axis-tilt theory is.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #4249.

@liberty-fitz-claridge take a look at this discussion as a whole. At the time of writing, the Persephone myth (#4240) has 5 pending criticisms, whereas the axis-tilt theory (#4243) has no pending criticisms. Hence a rational preference for the latter: Veritula says to reject ideas with pending criticisms and adopt those without.

#4249·Dennis HackethalOP, about 22 hours ago

But some of the criticisms basically say that the Persephone myth is “easy to vary”.

  Dennis Hackethal submitted idea #4249.

@liberty-fitz-claridge take a look at this discussion as a whole. At the time of writing, the Persephone myth (#4240) has 5 pending criticisms, whereas the axis-tilt theory (#4243) has no pending criticisms. Hence a rational preference for the latter: Veritula says to reject ideas with pending criticisms and adopt those without.

  Dennis Hackethal revised criticism #4246.

If any prediction of this theory is found to be false, we could easily change it to make different predictions. That’s bad.

If any prediction of this theory is found to be false, we can easily change it to make different predictions. That’s bad.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #4240.

Long ago, Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped and raped Persephone, goddess of spring. Then Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth and agriculture, negotiated a contract for her daughter’s release, which specified that Persephone would marry Hades and eat a magic seed that would compel her to visit him once a year thereafter. Whenever Persephone was away fulfilling this obligation, Demeter became sad and would command the world to become cold and bleak so that nothing could grow.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1
#4240·Dennis HackethalOP, about 23 hours ago

If any prediction of this theory is found to be false, we could easily change it to make different predictions. That’s bad.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #4240.

Long ago, Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped and raped Persephone, goddess of spring. Then Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth and agriculture, negotiated a contract for her daughter’s release, which specified that Persephone would marry Hades and eat a magic seed that would compel her to visit him once a year thereafter. Whenever Persephone was away fulfilling this obligation, Demeter became sad and would command the world to become cold and bleak so that nothing could grow.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1
#4240·Dennis HackethalOP, about 23 hours ago

“[W]e have no way of knowing that Demeter is sad…” (BoI chapter 1)

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #4240.

Long ago, Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped and raped Persephone, goddess of spring. Then Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth and agriculture, negotiated a contract for her daughter’s release, which specified that Persephone would marry Hades and eat a magic seed that would compel her to visit him once a year thereafter. Whenever Persephone was away fulfilling this obligation, Demeter became sad and would command the world to become cold and bleak so that nothing could grow.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1
#4240·Dennis HackethalOP, about 23 hours ago

“[P]eople do not generally cool their surroundings when they are sad…” (BoI chapter 1)

  Dennis Hackethal submitted idea #4243.

[T]he true explanation of seasons [says] that the Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun. Hence for half of each year the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun while the southern hemisphere is tilted away, and for the other half it is the other way around. Whenever the sun’s rays are falling vertically in one hemisphere (thus providing more heat per unit area of the surface) they are falling obliquely in the other (thus providing less).
[S]urfaces tilted away from radiant heat are heated less than when they are facing it, and … a spinning sphere in space points in a constant direction.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1
  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #4240.

Long ago, Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped and raped Persephone, goddess of spring. Then Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth and agriculture, negotiated a contract for her daughter’s release, which specified that Persephone would marry Hades and eat a magic seed that would compel her to visit him once a year thereafter. Whenever Persephone was away fulfilling this obligation, Demeter became sad and would command the world to become cold and bleak so that nothing could grow.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1
#4240·Dennis HackethalOP, about 23 hours ago

[W]hy those gods and not others? …
[W]hy is it specifically a magic seed and not any other kind of magic? Why is it a conjugal-visits contract and not some other reason for someone to repeat an action annually?

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1

This explanation basically just says “the gods did it.” The details have no bearing on the underlying explanation.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #4240.

Long ago, Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped and raped Persephone, goddess of spring. Then Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth and agriculture, negotiated a contract for her daughter’s release, which specified that Persephone would marry Hades and eat a magic seed that would compel her to visit him once a year thereafter. Whenever Persephone was away fulfilling this obligation, Demeter became sad and would command the world to become cold and bleak so that nothing could grow.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1
#4240·Dennis HackethalOP, about 23 hours ago

This explanation predicts that the seasons happen at the same time everywhere. It contradicts observation: in Australia, the seasons are ‘inverted’.

  Dennis Hackethal submitted idea #4240.

Long ago, Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped and raped Persephone, goddess of spring. Then Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth and agriculture, negotiated a contract for her daughter’s release, which specified that Persephone would marry Hades and eat a magic seed that would compel her to visit him once a year thereafter. Whenever Persephone was away fulfilling this obligation, Demeter became sad and would command the world to become cold and bleak so that nothing could grow.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, chapter 1
  Dennis Hackethal started a discussion titled ‘Persephone vs Axis Tilt’.

In a recent Twitter space, @liberty-fitz-claridge asked how Veritula would model the clash between the Persephone myth and the axis-tilt theory of the seasons, as compared in The Beginning of Infinity chapter 1.

This discussion shows how. It explains the rational preference for the axis-tilt theory over the Persephone myth not in terms of which we find harder to vary, but in terms of the former having no pending criticisms, whereas the latter does have pending criticisms.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #4217. The revision addresses idea #4236.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but potatoes seem to be a good source of fiber. Very filling.

Carbonated water and diet sodas also feel filling, and they don’t even have calories. Diet sodas can help people lose weight. I like to drink Diet Coke when I’m on a cut. The caffeine gives me energy.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but potatoes seem to be a good source of fiber. Very filling, also due to their high water content.

Carbonated water and diet sodas also feel filling, and they don’t even have calories. Diet sodas can help people lose weight. I like to drink Diet Coke when I’m on a cut. The caffeine gives me energy.

  Dennis Hackethal archived idea #4234 along with any revisions.
  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4234.

Need the ability to exclude archived ideas from search results.

#4234·Dennis HackethalOP, 2 days ago

Done as of e612125, polished as of 046438f.

  Dennis Hackethal submitted criticism #4234.

Need the ability to exclude archived ideas from search results.

  Dennis Hackethal revised criticism #4227.

For these reasons, diets that are equal in calories but that vary in nutritional content can have vastly different weight gain/loss outcomes.

I don’t know if I agree with the word “vastly”. People have done Twinkie diets where they eat nothing but Twinkies (plus some supplements to get the bare minimum) and they lost weight.

Still, I’ll edit my idea to say that people should get all the nutrients they need while in a deficit.

For these reasons, diets that are equal in calories but that vary in nutritional content can have vastly different weight gain/loss outcomes.

I don’t know if I agree with the word “vastly”. People have done Twinkie diets where they eat nothing but Twinkies (plus some supplements to get the bare minimum) while monitoring calories and they lost weight.

Still, I’ll edit my idea to say that people should get all the nutrients they need while in a deficit.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #4212. The revision addresses ideas #4218, #4219, #4220, and #4222.

Most people are overnourished. One way to take control is to measure your daily energy expenditure and not eat above that.

Using an online calculator like https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html, you can get a decent estimate of your daily caloric needs.

Then, using https://cronometer.com/, track your food to ensure you don’t exceed your daily caloric needs.

By eating in a 500-calorie deficit, you can lose about a pound per week. Lift heavy weights a couple of times a week so the weight you lose is fat, not muscle.

This is a simple way to do body recomposition.

Most people are overnourished. One way to take control is to measure your daily energy expenditure and not eat above that.

Using an online calculator like https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html, you can get a decent estimate of your daily caloric needs (aka your caloric maintenance).

Then, using https://cronometer.com/, track your food to ensure you don’t exceed your daily caloric needs.

By eating in a 500-calorie deficit, you can lose about a pound per week. Lift heavy weights a couple of times a week so the weight you lose is fat, not muscle.

Avoid a prolonged deficit. Eat high-quality foods so you get all the macro- and micronutrients you need (Cronometer will tell you). Recalculate your caloric maintenance once a month or so to make sure you don’t hit a wall.

This is a simple way to do body recomposition.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4219.

A chronic calorie deficit will trigger a suppression of the active thyroid hormone T3. Lowering T3 causes a lowering of the metabolic rate, which lowers the rate of caloric burn at rest.

For this reason, CICO dieting often hits a wall when the body adjusts to the new low calorie lifestyle.

An alternative is to improve the quality of the foods, such that the metabolic rate increases while caloric intake is kept the same (or even increased too, by a lesser amount). This would be preferred by the body as it is a more complete solution: all nutrient requirements are being met and energy is being produced and utilised in abundance.

I think it is much more useful to think of the body as a dynamic energy-processing system, rather than a ledger of calories.

#4219·Benjamin DaviesOP, 5 days ago

Yes, there are many factors that influence how many calories the body metabolizes. I’d add fiber content and thermic effect. But I think of them as footnotes to the CICO model, not criticisms. Taking them into account makes CICO more accurate. Cronometer takes them into account.