[MD] Uncertainty

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
Then my cat, UTOE, depends on someone's perceiving him for his existence?

[Arlo]
Does a dog have a Buddha-nature? Its the same question... I'd say 
only "your conceptual awareness of UTOE depends on your perception of him".

[Platt]
I think if you broke your leg you would not treat the experience as 
an analogy but rather as a directive to seek medical assistance as quickly
as possible

[Arlo]
When did I say the "experience" was an analogy. Just the opposite "I 
broke my leg" is an analogy for the "experience". That analogies are 
useful tools in orienting and guiding our behavior is pretty much a 
given. That is what gives them value. So your second point is just a 
"well, duh" (I really don't mean that mean-spirited). The 
"experience" may induce screaming, the "analogy" guides future 
planning and action.

[Platt]
Death is the end of life. I'm sure you'll consider the death of a 
loved one as something other than an analogy.

[Arlo]
Death is not a thing, it is the absence of a thing. Saying "Joe is 
dead" means that Joe is absent from existence. I've lost loved ones, 
and it hurts very bad. "Death", by the way, is "an analogy" we use to 
describe that absence. As an "analogy" it has been understood in a 
plethora of ways across many, many cultures.

[Platt]
Word games?

[Arlo]
No, my answer "no" is hardly "permanent", but it is rather "stable" 
at the moment.

[Platt]
In that case, the present is real and permanent (timeless)..

[Arlo]
Well, that's just recursion again. Einstein's words, ".. the 
separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, 
although a convincing one" is just an analogy. You've conflated all 
of them into "the present", but this is not what Einstein is saying. 
Even a concept like "the present" is a illusion. His statement is 
that "time" itself is value-relation, like "height" or "width". 
Saying "time" is permanent is akin to saying "length" is permanent. Its not.

[Platt]
I'll buy that ("the concept of "time" drawn from human perception 
began when such a perception among humans attained value.")

[Arlo]
That'll be a nickel, please.