Dilemmas — Coverage Matrix — Ontological Atlas

By attribute

Information · Cosmic Conservation 10 dilemmas

Whether information can be destroyed at the cosmic scale (cycles, thermodynamics)

What happens to "you" when you die? When does a person begin? What is marriage? What makes someone the same person over time? Is the late-stage dementia patient still the person their spouse married? If a teleporter copied and destroyed you, would you have survived? Is anything truly lost when someone forgets? Does deleting your data online destroy something real? Could the dead, in principle, be brought back? Is forgiveness ontologically possible?

Information · Ontological Status 13 dilemmas

Whether information is fundamental, relational, or emergent

What happens to "you" when you die? When does a person begin? What is marriage? What is money? What is a nation? What makes someone male or female? Should we edit the human germline? Could an AI have a mind that matters? Do animals have moral standing comparable to humans? Could a fetal brain organoid in a petri dish be conscious? What makes someone the same person over time? Is the late-stage dementia patient still the person their spouse married? If a teleporter copied and destroyed you, would you have survived?

Matter · Ontological Status 17 dilemmas

Whether matter is fundamental, relational, or emergent

What happens to "you" when you die? When does a person begin? What is marriage? What is money? What is a nation? What makes someone male or female? Should we edit the human germline? Do you really choose? What is our place in nature? Should we colonize space? Is genetic engineering of food stewardship or domination? Could an AI have a mind that matters? Do animals have moral standing comparable to humans? Could a fetal brain organoid in a petri dish be conscious? Is the world created from nothing? Is the physical world fully real? Does matter have intrinsic moral standing?

Observer · Moral Authority 3 dilemmas

Where the school locates the ultimate source of authoritative normative knowledge

Should we trust expert testimony when we can't verify it? Is religious revelation a real source of knowledge? Does an LLM 'know' the things it correctly produces?

Observer · Agency 6 dilemmas

Whether observation shapes reality or merely registers it

Do you really choose? Are addicts responsible for their addiction? Should we hold AI systems responsible for what they do? What is our place in nature? Should we colonize space? Is genetic engineering of food stewardship or domination?

Observer · Metaphysical Agency 7 dilemmas

What kinds of agency beyond natural causation the school recognises

Can prayer for someone far away affect them? Are coincidences ever more than coincidence? Does environmental harm in another country bind me morally? Are the dead morally present to the living? Is reality fundamentally digital? Are there indivisible units of experience? Is memory stored or reconstructed?

Observer · Number 23 dilemmas

Whether selves are genuinely distinct, or aspects of one

What happens to "you" when you die? When does a person begin? What is marriage? What is money? What is a nation? What makes someone male or female? Should we edit the human germline? How much weight do future people deserve? Is regret rational? Do we owe extinct species something we cannot give them? What is our place in nature? Should we colonize space? Is genetic engineering of food stewardship or domination? Could an AI have a mind that matters? Do animals have moral standing comparable to humans? Could a fetal brain organoid in a petri dish be conscious? Can prayer for someone far away affect them? Are coincidences ever more than coincidence? Does environmental harm in another country bind me morally? Are the dead morally present to the living? Is divine omniscience compatible with human freedom? Does meditation reveal something genuinely timeless? Does prayer change God's mind?

Observer · Physicality 9 dilemmas

Whether the mind is reducible to the body

What happens to "you" when you die? When does a person begin? What is marriage? Could an AI have a mind that matters? Do animals have moral standing comparable to humans? Could a fetal brain organoid in a petri dish be conscious? What makes someone the same person over time? Is the late-stage dementia patient still the person their spouse married? If a teleporter copied and destroyed you, would you have survived?

Observer · Time Instance 7 dilemmas

Whether the observer spans many moments or a single one

What makes someone the same person over time? Is the late-stage dementia patient still the person their spouse married? If a teleporter copied and destroyed you, would you have survived? Are the dead morally present to the living? Is divine omniscience compatible with human freedom? Does meditation reveal something genuinely timeless? Does prayer change God's mind?

Observer · Theological Method 2 dilemmas

The kind of religious-theological authority structure: Magisterial (institutional teaching tradition), Confessional (creedal Scripture-as-doctrine), Existential (personal decision before God), Conversionist (conversion experience), Critical (historical-critical method), Mystical (direct experiential union), Process-relational (temporal divine persuasion), Pragmatic-civic (civic-utilitarian religion), or N/A

What kind of religious-theological authority does the tradition recognize? Is salvation, liberation, or fulfillment individual or communal?

Space · Locality 1 dilemma

Whether distant things can be intrinsically connected

Does environmental harm in another country bind me morally?

Time · Extent 6 dilemmas

Whether time is finite or infinite

How much weight do future people deserve? Is regret rational? Do we owe extinct species something we cannot give them? Is the universe running out of usable energy? Are natural resources fundamentally finite, or only practically so? Could we owe future generations more than is materially possible to provide?

Time · Freedom 3 dilemmas

Whether the future is fixed by the present

Do you really choose? Are addicts responsible for their addiction? Should we hold AI systems responsible for what they do?

energy_conservation 4 dilemmas

Is anything truly lost when someone forgets? Does deleting your data online destroy something real? Could the dead, in principle, be brought back? Is forgiveness ontologically possible?