Incisively Yours, Penumbra! A Raw, Revealing Interview with Penumbra!

[Sunstone]

I am pleased to offer you an intelligent, incisive interview with Penumbra. In this interview, we will explore the innermost reaches of her tortured and twisted soul. A soul she doesn't actually possess, since she's a nontheist. But no matter! We'll still explore it!

On to the first round of questions, then!

(1) When people say to you, "God is on your side", do you still catch yourself looking to your side to see if it ain't so? That's to say, how firm are your nontheist convictions using Dawkins' scale of one being absolute belief and seven being absolute disbelief?

(2) What are two of the things you hoped to accomplish when you accepted the Admin position here at RF, and have you accomplished them?

(3) Would describe yourself as a methodological naturalist, and if so, does that way of describing yourself mean you have brown hair?

(4) Suppose you could travel back in time with four RFers in order to scam millions of Nazis out of their wealth -- which four RFers would you take with you, and what would each of them contribute to the enterprise?

(5) If you had a dog, what three things would your doggie like best about you?

(6) I understand you aspire to become a writer of fiction. What sort of things are you doing to prepare yourself for that?

(7) What color are you most reluctant to admit to liking? And why?

(8) Can a frozen peach find lasting happiness with an impoverished miner's burrow? If so, how?

(9) Who are your top three political villains, and why? Politicians, pundits, preachers -- anyone involved in politics is fair game here.

(10) Please fill in the blank: "In days of yore, it was common to ______________."

(11) Could it be? Could it really be?

(12) What are your four top goals in life? And why isn't possessing an interstellar rowboat one of them?

(13) What two traits do you possess that are least often found together in humans?

(14) What is the most creative way in which you would prefer, if you could, to assimilate chocolate?

(15) What is the real reason study after study has shown that 100% of all forest fires occur in heavily wooded areas?

(16) Have you ever been to a nudist resort, and if not, have you ever applied for and been granted a scholarship for the culturally deprived?

(17) What are the top advantages a chipmunk has over a Masada sports car?

(18) What was the most unbelievably good meal you've ever eaten, and why don't we believe you about it?

(19) Would you describe your position on the political scale as, "Moderate or Middle of the Road", "Leaning towards Babylon", "Committed to the Psyche Ward", or "Changing". And why?

(20) I sometimes write things out more or less stream of consciousness, then go back and edit for clarity and sense. Is that how you write? If not, how do you write?

 

[Penumbra]

(1) When people say to you, "God is on your side", do you still catch yourself looking to your side to see if it ain't so? That's to say, how firm are your nontheist convictions using Dawkins' scale of one being absolute belief and seven being absolute disbelief?

That would depend on the specific description of a god.

For detailed and anthropomorphized descriptions like the goddess Athena, or some cosmic personality capable of creating universes that gets angry about what I do when naked, I'd say about a seven, absolute disbelief. For vaguer concepts, like Brahman or a panentheistic deity, or deism, or the Tao, I'm more agnostic on the matter. The less specific it is, the fewer aspects of reality are known to contradict it, and so the hypothesis can reasonably persist.

(2) What are two of the things you hoped to accomplish when you accepted the Admin position here at RF, and have you accomplished them?

Not sure what I wanted to accomplish.

As admin, I worked on the rule updates, various small matters, and tend to deal with technical matters like when we were dealing with that recent influx of spambot registrations by tweaking the human verification method of the forum to address it or a couple of times when I found problematic hidden things in threads by looking through the page source, stuff like that.

(3) Would describe yourself as a methodological naturalist,

No. Methodological naturalism is the idea that the scientific method can't be applied to the supernatural, or that all causes are natural.

The way I see it, the supernatural is just a category encompassing things that either don't exist or aren't understood enough yet to be classified as natural. Existence is the way it is, and categorizing parts of it as "natural" and other parts as "supernatural" is rather arbitrary. For example, things like electromagnetic radiation capable of transmitting energy and information through a pure vacuum and being described counter-intuitively with wave-particle duality, or the fact that millions of neutrinos flow through your body every fraction of a second without notice, or basically the entire field of quantum mechanics, are all seemingly like magic, and yet are physics, and in some cases were new layers of existence as it's understood, or new ways of understanding the fabric of existence.

Plus, if any spiritual realms are relevant to material realms, meaning if there is any interaction from the former to the latter, then that is testable, because the material universe gets altered, supposedly. So depending on the specific claim, it can potentially be tested like anything else, if it's specific enough.

and if so, does that way of describing yourself mean you have brown hair?

I do have brown hair.

The relationship is probably just coincidental rather than causal, though.

(4) Suppose you could travel back in time with four RFers in order to scam millions of Nazis out of their wealth -- which four RFers would you take with you, and what would each of them contribute to the enterprise?

Why would I invite four people and have to split the money, when I could instead hoard it all to myself?

Maybe one of the physicists of the forum, to provide a second opinion on how to best avoid accidentally tearing apart the fabric of reality, or something.

(5) If you had a dog, what three things would your doggie like best about you?

That I feed it, walk it, and give it attention. They tend to be simple.

There was a house I used to sleep at sometimes, and one of their dogs loved me more than her owners. She slept with me every time. I didn't really do anything, other than exist, and be nice to her.

(6) I understand you aspire to become a writer of fiction. What sort of things are you doing to prepare yourself for that?

Read fiction, read author blogs and interviews, read articles on how to write fiction.

(7) What color are you most reluctant to admit to liking? And why?

I'm okay with admitting the various colors I like.

Usually dark ones, 'cause I'm emo like that.

(8) Can a frozen peach find lasting happiness with an impoverished miner's burrow? If so, how?

I'm not aware that peaches have a capacity to experience qualia.

(9) Who are your top three political villains, and why? Politicians, pundits, preachers -- anyone involved in politics is fair game here.

Radical social or fiscal conservatives, I suppose. Villain isn't a word I'd use.

(10) Please fill in the blank: "In days of yore, it was common to ______________."

see humans outside regularly.

(11) Could it be? Could it really be?

Only if you believe in your heart of hearts.

(12) What are your four top goals in life?

Have a net positive impact on the world, maybe write some novels, learn and grow, and love.

And why isn't possessing an interstellar rowboat one of them?

Design infeasibility and a lack of economic justification.

(13) What two traits do you possess that are least often found together in humans?

People say I'm peculiar but I don't know of any rare trait combinations I have.

(14) What is the most creative way in which you would prefer, if you could, to assimilate chocolate?

I'm radically opposed to creative ways of eating chocolate. People often offer me chocolate things that are something more than chocolate, like chocolate with almonds, and I just think, "Why are there almonds here, when there could be more chocolate?" It's destroying something beautiful.

Usually I eat 80% cocoa organic chocolate, and I generally eat it while sipping green tea. I enjoy that mix, because the tea seems to cleanse and refresh the palate between each bite.

(15) What is the real reason study after study has shown that 100% of all forest fires occur in heavily wooded areas?

Bears.

They look innocent but it's a lie.

(16) Have you ever been to a nudist resort, and if not, have you ever applied for and been granted a scholarship for the culturally deprived?

No and no.

Well in a vague sense I told my school I should get a scholarship 'cause I was poor, but they said no and I was like, "alright".

(17) What are the top advantages a chipmunk has over a Masada sports car?

It's cuter.

(18) What was the most unbelievably good meal you've ever eaten,

Red Thai Curry with vegetables and rice.

and why don't we believe you about it?

Because you are weak in faith.

Let go of your ego and just be, man.

(19) Would you describe your position on the political scale as, "Moderate or Middle of the Road", "Leaning towards Babylon", "Committed to the Psyche Ward", or "Changing". And why?

Liberal, progressive, social democratic, green party, nihilist.

(20) I sometimes write things out more or less stream of consciousness, then go back and edit for clarity and sense. Is that how you write? If not, how do you write?

I think for a minute about the key points I want to hit, then write things as a stream of consciousness, and then edit.