The Microstructure of Experience

I argue that experiences can have microphenomenal structures, where the macrophenomenal properties we introspect are realized by non-introspectible microphenomenal properties. After explaining what it means to ascribe a microstructure to experience, I defend the thesis against its principal philosophical challenge, discuss how the thesis interacts with other philosophical issues about experience, and consider our prospects for investigating the microphenomenal realm

Modeling Mental Qualities

Conscious experiences are characterized by mental qualities, such as those involved in seeing red, feeling pain, or smelling cinnamon. The standard framework for modeling mental qualities represents them via points in geometrical spaces, where distances between points inversely correspond to degrees of phenomenal similarity. This paper argues that the standard framework is structurally inadequate and develops a new framework that is more powerful and flexible. The core problem for the standard framework is that it cannot capture precision structure: for example, consider the phenomenal contrast between seeing an object as crimson in foveal vision versus merely as red in peripheral vision. The solution I favor is to model mental qualities using regions, rather than points. I explain how this seemingly simple formal innovation not only provides a natural way of modeling precision, but also yields a variety of further theoretical fruits: it enables us to formulate novel hypotheses about the space and structures of mental qualities, formally differentiate two dimensions of phenomenal similarity, generate a quantitative model of the phenomenal sorites, and define a measure of discriminatory grain. A noteworthy consequence is that the structure of the mental qualities of conscious experiences is fundamentally different from the structure of the perceptible qualities of external objects

The Future of the Law on the Moon

Outer space is rapidly becoming the domain for industrial-scale private-sector innovation and entrepreneurship. By developing and maturing the unprecedented technology for vertical landing and partial reuse orbital-class rockets, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) has reduced the cost of access to orbital space by a staggering factor of magnitude, i.e., to one-tenth the previous rate. SpaceX is now on the cusp of launching its next-generation launch system called Starship to orbit. Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable (land, refuel, and fly like airplanes) and expected to decrease the cost of access to orbital space to a level comparable to air travel— whereby private-sector industry in outer space would become economically viable. SpaceX is developing Starship at a breakneck speed, planning for an orbital launch in April 2023. Starship would function as the Earth–Moon transportation infrastructure for private-sector lunar activities like tourism, hospitality, mining, research, entertainment, construction, health, agriculture, and manufacturing. And the Moon is just three days away. Assuming a large fleet of reusable Starships would take flight to the Moon in the coming years, lawyers have an urgent and exciting task of laying the legal groundwork on the Moon for the complex modern governance and economy. But the legal discussion on the future of the law of the Moon has not even begun. This Article aims to fix this lacuna by first presenting specific and realistic parameters for discussion: namely, SpaceX would likely give the United States the exclusive, economic, and scalable access to the Moon within a few years, enabling a sizable private sector presence (persons and property) on the Moon engaged in commercial ventures within a decade. A commercialized Moon would require the United States to assert legislative jurisdiction (U.S. federal law taking effect), exercise adjudicatory jurisdiction (personal jurisdiction over persons and property and subject matter jurisdiction regarding controversies that arise), and install a governing body physically on the Moon. After a brief introduction of today’s space industry, Part II surveys the history of U.S. regulation of commercial space exploration. Part III summarizes the current regulatory framework that governs only the launch and landing of space vehicles on Earth. Part IV is a more detailed analysis of the space industry and the economics of space exploration. Part V shows the possibility of domestic jurisdiction in outer space, delimited by binding international space treaties and customs. Part VI focuses on two treaties as providing the foundation of domestic jurisdiction in space. As an example of the governing body, in Part VII, this Article introduces the U.S. Lunar Court and sketches the legal contours of this new adjudicatory body. The Appendix shows detailed calculations of Starship’s expected capabilities and economics based on Falcon 9’s historical data

Does sentience come in degrees?

I discuss whether "sentience" (i.e., phenomenal consciousness) comes in degrees

The Neuroscientific Study of Religious and Spiritual Phenomena: or Why God Doesn\u27t Use Biostatistics

With the rapidly expanding field of neuroscience research exploring religious and spiritual phenomena, there have been many perspectives as to the validity, importance, relevance, and need for such research. In this essay we review the studies that have contributed to our current understanding of the neuropsychology of religious phenomena. We focus on methodological issues to determine which areas have been weaknesses and strengths in the current studies. This area of research also poses important theological and epistemological questions that require careful consideration if both the religious and scientific elements are to be appropriately respected. The best way to evaluate this field is to determine the methodological issues that currently affect the field and explore how best to address such issues so that future investigations can be as robust as possible and can become more mainstream in both the religious and the scientific arenas

Fast and Accurate Coarsening Simulation with an Unconditionally Stable Time Step

We present Cahn-Hilliard and Allen-Cahn numerical integration algorithms that are unconditionally stable and so provide significantly faster accuracy-controlled simulation. Our stability analysis is based on Eyre's theorem and unconditional von Neumann stability analysis, both of which we present. Numerical tests confirm the accuracy of the von Neumann approach, which is straightforward and should be widely applicable in phase-field modeling. We show that accuracy can be controlled with an unbounded time step Delta-t that grows with time t as Delta-t ~ t^alpha. We develop a classification scheme for the step exponent alpha and demonstrate that a class of simple linear algorithms gives alpha=1/3. For this class the speed up relative to a fixed time step grows with the linear size of the system as N/log N, and we estimate conservatively that an 8192^2 lattice can be integrated 300 times faster than with the Euler method.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Speciesism and Sentientism

Many philosophers accept both of the following claims: (1) consciousness matters morally, and (2) species membership doesn’t matter morally. In other words, many reject speciesism but accept what we might call 'sentientism'. But do the reasons against speciesism yield analogous reasons against sentientism, just as the reasons against racism and sexism are thought to yield analogous reasons against speciesism? This paper argues that speciesism is disanalogous to sentientism (as well as racism and sexism). I make a case for the following asymmetry: (a) some non-humans clearly have interests, but (b) no non-conscious entities clearly have interests. This asymmetry, I argue, renders sentientism immune to the standard argument against speciesism