For me it’s the fur, especially in the dog’s right side. It’s too muddy and undefined.
Even the most single-toned animal will have more detail in it’s fur regardless of lighting.
This is my dog waiting for me to get my ass out of bed to get her breakfast.
I don’t need to zoom in to see individual hairs.
But I do experience my own existence and awareness.
Yes you do. we all do. But is your self-awareness of that fact merely a function of your synapses responding to stimuli in a predictable way?
In other words, is “I think therefore I am” just another biological response to stimuli rather than something philosophically greater than those “observable collection of behaviours” as you describe them.
I’d argue that no, it isn’t.
We are “aware” for the same reason that we pull our hand away from a hot stove burner; neural response to external stimuli.
It’s not that we are “programmed”, as you describe. It’s simply that (I believe) our self-awareness is a biological function, not an existential one.
I know it makes me a terrible person. But I have trouble coming up with any response to this except “good. The time for bullshit words is over”
it’s not hard to tell that it’s a painting after even a cursory glance.
But the question is, would it have been harder to spot as a painting if I hadn’t been told it was a painting before clicking on it?
I dunno. But I still think it’s very obviously a painting. A very good one, for sure. But not quite as photorealistic as this thread seems to want to ooh and aahhh about.
In order for that debate to even take place, it has to be proven that “consciousness” exists on some special level.
There’s no proof that there is some special sauce that is “consciousness” beyond just synapses, hormones and chemicals.
In other words, It’s very likely that consciousness falls under the category of “if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”
My answers aren’t dictated by an awareness of self; they’re dictated by a chemical hormonal soup that we pretend is some grand concept of self-awareness.
I feel like this was the ultimate sin of Andromeda (a game that sadly had far too many sins)
It had some great combat mechanics (that I hope get ported over to the new one). But the characters are just ultimately so damn forgettable. There’s no reason or need to get to know them. And when you’re main character is just a nepo-baby, that’s a problem.
At the very least they could have made Cora Harper an interesting character as the person who has trained her entire life only to be superceded by said nepo-baby. But nope…she’s just immediately cool with it and all you can do is find her a fucking rose garden.
What…a…waste…
The only somewhat interesting characters that should have been fleshed out more was Sloane Kelly, the security chief who led the rebellion and became the head of the exiles. SHE could have had an interesting storyline in an Aria T’loak type of way. But she’s just relegated to killing her in order to advance another boring plot.
I’ve played the trilogy multiple times with multiple different agendas for the character (today I’ll be a racist like Ashley. Today I’ll be smart-ass, etc…)
And the only hard-and-fast rule is “always…kill…Alenko”.
I’ve actually gotten all the way up to Virmire multiple times with the intention being “okay…not this time.” only to have the thought strike me right at the moment of truth that i still have two more games to go with him hanging around and at least the space racist has boobs to distract me.
Poor poor Kaiden.
I’m going to cheat and say that with the exception of everyone’s favourite space-racist, most of the side characters from the Mass Effect Trilogy are far more compelling than Commander Shepard.
When I thought the world had a future, I would have opted for cryogenics.
But I am 100% that we are on our way to the big reset button.
Not necessarily extinction, per se. But a societal bottleneck where a man-made catastrophe throws the survivors back technologically and we have to start the climb all over.
Getting past that point to the realm of actually achieving the technology necessary to unfreeze me seems unlikely. So cryogenics is just death with a preserved corpse.
I’ll take death. The sooner the better, lately.
Are you sure about that?
Because the thing that most people never consider with “post apocalypse” scenarios is “lubrication”.
Everything needs it, and for the most part it’s petroleum based lubricants. Chains, gears, wind turbines, cogs, wheels, doodads and whazzits…
The machines that create power require regular lubrication and maintenance to prevent them from breaking down. Power, is needed to mine, refine and ship the petroleum…
You see where I’m going with this…