Anything is possible.The Human mind is very powerful.
I think that depends on the mind.
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How do we know were not in a coma and everything around us is made up?
- Thread starter waloshin
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I think that depends on the mind.
So, you just watched The Matrix?
Keebler & leekohler beat me to it.
My gosh. That's a 42% rate!
(Out of curiosity I checked my rate. Only 0.08% Note to self. Need to start more threads.
)
So, you just watched The Matrix?
Keebler & leekohler beat me to it.
My gosh. That's a 42% rate!
(Out of curiosity I checked my rate. Only 0.08% Note to self. Need to start more threads.
Nope not the Matrix haven't seen that for years.
So let me get this straight.
There are six billion people currently in a coma ? And some are having a group dream that they are on an internet forum ?
Or is it just one person in a coma and he's dreaming all of this discussion up ?
The latter, you are real and I am fake, a figment of your imagination, or is it the other way around?
Been watching too much Lost have we?
lol.... Pot calling the kettle black, eh?
Dagless said:
^^^ Too funny!^^^
Is all this only a dream?
I've pondered this question many times. But not in a while. In fact, I believe the last time I pondered the notion, I was about 8 or 9 years old. Then I was unplugged after I took the red pill.
I've also pondered this thought many times... and it is something we'll never know, just like life-after-death.
Can we start a petition to have a new forum section created? Call it "Waloshin's Cheesy Philosophical Questions"
I really hope that's true. Then all the dumb and goofy things that I have done would have never happened .
.Wrote that a few years back...
Probably the smartest and dumbest I've written in a while...
How do you know you're not a brain in a vat?
That you, your being, your conscience, is nothing more than billions of neurons suspended in nutrient rich liquid?
Receiving electrical impulses that simulate what you feel?
Love, hate, hurt, freedom, torture, air on your face, the warm touch of your partner.
All these things controlled, at the whim, of the mad scientist that put your brain in that jar.
How would you know you're not a brain in a vat?
Life would go on. You would "wake up" day after day.
Go to work. Get stuck in traffic. Go to the grocery. Talk to your friends.
Who is to say those are your friends? Are they also brains in a vat?
So what's to keep that mad scientist from having a room filled with brains in those glass vats?
Is your "friends" from your virtual world there as well? Your significant other next to you or across the room floating?
Did you meet your friends or were they "programmed" to meet you. Undoubtedly, they are your friends. You know them, they know you.
Maybe just another experiment of that mad scientist.
Now you're going to stop and wonder, as most have done, where is God in this? Where is that omnipotent, fierce, loving, ever present God?
But really, who is God? What is God? That voice in the back of your mind?
Wait though... That voice... Back of my mind...
Is it God or your ever present keeper?
Are God and the "mad" scientist one and the same?
I'm mean, think about it (in your vat), that scientist gave you life in one form or another.
You live.
You feel.
You love.
You hurt.
Did God not give you those feelings?
Does God not say, "Lo, I am with you always?"
So does the mad scientist.
"He" is with you always.
"He" gave you life.
Without that mad scientist, you essentially, may never have existed or would cease to exist!
How do you know you're not a brain in a vat?
You live.
Thanks to a jar and some liquid.
You feel.
Thanks to a computer.
You love.
Thanks to a program.
You have fellow human beings.
Thanks to a series of run times, or other brains in vats...
As a human, we strive for freedom, understanding.
We try to reach beyond ourselves.
To "touch the face of God" in other words.
But would you want to know why you exist?
Would you want to know how you exist?
Why?
Why not?
But what if we are just that brain, suspended in liquid, electrodes running to our cortex and nerves.
Would we want to know?
Would we still strive for that understanding?
Or stay oblivious to that mad scientist?
Stay in our virtual world, striving for all that is obtainable in it.
I mean essentially, one could live forever.
Who controls the programming of that?
You or your keeper?
A brain in a vat of nutrient liquid.
How would you know?
Would you want to?
Probably the smartest and dumbest I've written in a while...
How do you know you're not a brain in a vat?
That you, your being, your conscience, is nothing more than billions of neurons suspended in nutrient rich liquid?
Receiving electrical impulses that simulate what you feel?
Love, hate, hurt, freedom, torture, air on your face, the warm touch of your partner.
All these things controlled, at the whim, of the mad scientist that put your brain in that jar.
How would you know you're not a brain in a vat?
Life would go on. You would "wake up" day after day.
Go to work. Get stuck in traffic. Go to the grocery. Talk to your friends.
Who is to say those are your friends? Are they also brains in a vat?
So what's to keep that mad scientist from having a room filled with brains in those glass vats?
Is your "friends" from your virtual world there as well? Your significant other next to you or across the room floating?
Did you meet your friends or were they "programmed" to meet you. Undoubtedly, they are your friends. You know them, they know you.
Maybe just another experiment of that mad scientist.
Now you're going to stop and wonder, as most have done, where is God in this? Where is that omnipotent, fierce, loving, ever present God?
But really, who is God? What is God? That voice in the back of your mind?
Wait though... That voice... Back of my mind...
Is it God or your ever present keeper?
Are God and the "mad" scientist one and the same?
I'm mean, think about it (in your vat), that scientist gave you life in one form or another.
You live.
You feel.
You love.
You hurt.
Did God not give you those feelings?
Does God not say, "Lo, I am with you always?"
So does the mad scientist.
"He" is with you always.
"He" gave you life.
Without that mad scientist, you essentially, may never have existed or would cease to exist!
How do you know you're not a brain in a vat?
You live.
Thanks to a jar and some liquid.
You feel.
Thanks to a computer.
You love.
Thanks to a program.
You have fellow human beings.
Thanks to a series of run times, or other brains in vats...
As a human, we strive for freedom, understanding.
We try to reach beyond ourselves.
To "touch the face of God" in other words.
But would you want to know why you exist?
Would you want to know how you exist?
Why?
Why not?
But what if we are just that brain, suspended in liquid, electrodes running to our cortex and nerves.
Would we want to know?
Would we still strive for that understanding?
Or stay oblivious to that mad scientist?
Stay in our virtual world, striving for all that is obtainable in it.
I mean essentially, one could live forever.
Who controls the programming of that?
You or your keeper?
A brain in a vat of nutrient liquid.
How would you know?
Would you want to?
(Out of curiosity I checked my rate. Only 0.08% Note to self. Need to start more threads.
Now you made me check... I think I'm at 2.9%... I'm a massive spammer, compared to you!
And I'll add a +1 for the Matrix theory.
Nah I know im not in a coma/made up world mainly because if I was then I wouldn't be stuck in this sh**ty job and there would be zombies lots of them and guns and every thing would be like a action/horror film lol my imagination is to over active sometimes so that's how i know I'm not
Coma? You mean I may not be this incredibly awesome in reality?
Oh, you are. I wouldn't hire just anyone to post for me!
The Matrix? you know, I lost interest after the first one. The others were, ridiculous.
To test your theory, drop a few bananas in your shorts, then step into a Monkey Cage. Let us know if the experience was "real enough" for you.
If the subject bothers you so much go read!
the man has asked himself those question since he existed!
You think therefore you are. After that every one has his theory. What is existing, do we have a soul, is it over after we die bla bla bla...It is an interesting question and I think you would be better of by reading.
You won't find an answer anyways....
the man has asked himself those question since he existed!
You think therefore you are. After that every one has his theory. What is existing, do we have a soul, is it over after we die bla bla bla...It is an interesting question and I think you would be better of by reading.
You won't find an answer anyways....
if we are in a coma, then how do you know that what you experience now will hold true when you wake up?? life could be totally different in the "real world".If my brain made up all this wonderful technology then I could be a millionaire if I wake!
There's one thing that won't change. Greed.
In my coma everybody here owes me all of your worldly possessions.
As others have said, we don't.
I strongly suggest starting with René Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy," but only the first two, really, as after that he realizes the theological implications and begins backpedaling. One can hardly blame him: the Meditations were published just six years after Galileo's arrest for heresy.
I did read an interesting paper a few years back that advanced the argument that we are actually more likely to be simulated by a computer than to be the actual flesh-and-blood creatures we seem to be. The argument runs something like this:
Start with the common assumption that human technological progress will continue far beyond what we can imagine today, eventually becoming capable of simulating the thought processes of a conscious human being and more. Now observe the human penchant for running simulations. It stands to reason that humans will run increasingly complex simulations of their own species, either for entertainment (a super-realistic version of The Sims) or for research purposes. The demands of research in particular, supported by computer power that advances much more rapidly than humans can reproduce, would call for a much larger number of simulated individuals than there have ever been actual individuals.
Therefore one must...
I strongly suggest starting with René Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy," but only the first two, really, as after that he realizes the theological implications and begins backpedaling. One can hardly blame him: the Meditations were published just six years after Galileo's arrest for heresy.
I did read an interesting paper a few years back that advanced the argument that we are actually more likely to be simulated by a computer than to be the actual flesh-and-blood creatures we seem to be. The argument runs something like this:
Start with the common assumption that human technological progress will continue far beyond what we can imagine today, eventually becoming capable of simulating the thought processes of a conscious human being and more. Now observe the human penchant for running simulations. It stands to reason that humans will run increasingly complex simulations of their own species, either for entertainment (a super-realistic version of The Sims) or for research purposes. The demands of research in particular, supported by computer power that advances much more rapidly than humans can reproduce, would call for a much larger number of simulated individuals than there have ever been actual individuals.
Therefore one must...
- reject the idea that human technology will continue to advance in the way people commonly expect.
- posit that humans will, for some reason, give up running simulations of other humans (a possibility, perhaps for ethical reasons, but hardly guaranteed).
- or conclude that eventually the number of simulated humans in the Universe will far outnumber the number of real humans that have ever lived, thus making it far more likely odds that you are a part of some future simulation than that you are an original human of the period in which you seem to be living.
Then PLEASE, dont wake me up. I dont want to live in a world with iVista's and Mobile Vista 3Gs.