vapidity of the metaphysical

nothing exists except the physical. abstractions are real insofar as they are emergent properties of physical systems or insofar as they reflect some universal truth.

the study of mathematics is a physical process, of course. “two” and “one hundred eighty six” have physical representations in minds, on paper, or in a computer. I am not advocating finitism, however. I posit that the finitist is simply one who talks past the “infinitist”; surely, “there exists an infinite number of real numbers” and “you can produce new real numbers indefinitely” are equivalent statements. one reflects some universal truth, i.e. that which is true independent of any physical evidence, and the other reflects the mechanical processes that can result from such a truth. we can even declare a cardinality of the reals, and as long as we are not contradicting ourselves, it is no trouble at all.

social phenomena are obviously real. they are systems of behavior in real physical people. the effects of the choices they make within this system are observable. “the economy” is obviously not a physical object. but it is a property of physical objects. were those physical objects manifesting the economy to not exist, there would be no economy.

but there are no ghosts. how this can be determined with such great confidence is left as an exercise to the reader. my decisions are not made by a ghost puppeteer. when I die, there is no ghost left behind. the physical process of me has ended, and what’s left behind is a corpse that my wife can eat.

there are no ghosts which structure societies nor ordain behavior. it is assumed, to a certain extent, that one might or should believe in ghosts. it is a normal thing to believe in ghosts, so ghosts factor into the thinking of those who purportedly do not believe in them.

this is reflected in pop culture nihilism. in reference to, for instance, human emotion, one might say, “it’s all just chemicals” in angsty pseudo-profundity. what a meaningless statement. if everything were ghosts, I could just as easily say, “it’s all just ghosts”. I wouldn’t really love my wife; it would just be what the ghosts ordained.

that all things are emergent from a certain set of facts of reality, as opposed to the intentions of ghosts, should be exciting. it is fascinating that complex systems can arise from a set of well-defined mechanics. that my mind is a computation performed by electrically sensitive cells arranged into an organ is very fascinating. that this grew based on a series of chemically coded instructions is equally so. it reveals endless depths of things to be understood, rather than the arbitrary and nebulous whims of ghosts. were reality truly made of ghosts, it would be disturbing– and just frankly boring.

there is no intention outside of the confines of physical brains, as this would require ghosts. there were selective pressures out of which biology arose, but this is not nearly the same as intention. one cannot say anything about the true purpose or motivation of a human being, e.g. to exploit others, to breed, etc. such claims imply ghosts, even if they purport not to. if you want to know what someone truly cares about, you can just ask them, and they might tell you. for instance, some of my primary motivations are justice, doing interesting things with the computer, and adoring my lesbian wife.