P4P

How do you know that I'm not a robot? How do you know we're not living in the matrix?
The usual resolution is some form of Occam's razor: sure, it's possible that I'm a robot, but the simpler explanation is that I'm human, and simpler explanations are preferable.1...

The argument from marginal cases asks us to consider a child with a severe mental handicap. They are able to do simple physical tasks like feed themselves and move around, but unable to communicate beyond basic grunts.
What, the argument asks, is the difference between this child and, say, a cow? There are of course many superficial distinctions, but it's hard to find some difference which could plausibly be considered relevant. And of course if some distinction were...

Suppose you take a bunch of equally-sized marbles and squish them from all sides. You'll get one of two shapes:
These configurations are referred to as "rectangular" and "hexagonal":
Certain crystals have a molecular structure similar to these patterns, which is reflected in their macroscopic structure:...

There was recently a discussion on patterns in modular arithmetic, in which the author showed some interesting pictures that result from plotting various functions. They introduced modular arithmetic by the standard appeal to time (an example wikipedia...