Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
But the questions of life and death asked by some threads will long outlast any fashion fad, even a tie made up with the most sturdy Windsor knot.
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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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But the questions of life and death asked by some threads will long outlast any fashion fad, even a tie made up with the most sturdy Windsor knot.
Melrose
Suspended
How do we know we are not the threads and that the threads are our lives.
Shanghaichica
macrumors G5
That's a good way to block of everything... But wake up when u need to pay your bills 🙂 I don't think they would be made up. (edit,,, no one will make sense here now)
Lets say that you're in a coma. How do you know that the world '' outside of you're coma '' is anything like the world '' inside of you're coma. 😀
Mac'nCheese
Suspended
Some days it feels more like a pre-beta bug-riddled computer simulation.
D.T.
macrumors G4
How do we know we're not in a comma? Pause a moment and think about that.
I did. I've concluded I'm in a colon. A descending colon. Or possibly a bit farther.
We don't—not for sure. We also don't know that this isn't the Matrix, that there isn't an invisible metaphysical unicorn that follows each of us around, that Santa isn't real, that jews aren't controlling everything, and that lizard-people aren't taking over.
Now, I'm a pragmatist, and as a pragmatist, I've carefully scheduled each day to yell "WAKE UP!" at the top of my lungs for 10 minutes, take every red pill I can find, refill my metaphysical unicorn feeder, revise the letters I've addressed to the North Pole, color coordinate yarmulkes with my outfit, and practice flicking my tongue out to catch bugs.
If you're sincerely worried we're all in a coma, I implore you to do the same.
I like turtles. Not to detract from lizards in any way, I just like turtles (and tortoises) more.
I'll also point out that not all lizards eat bugs (insectivores). Some are herbivores, like iguanas, while others are carnivores, like monitors. So the best way to ensure you're pleasing all the possible lizard-people factions is to eat a balanced diet. Naq qevax lbhe Binygvar.
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Gutwrench
Suspended
Huntn
macrumors Penryn
The Matrix explains it perfectly and is completely plausible, if you go with the vague technology. 🙂
And in that movie as explained, this bleeds over to biological organisms where the brain interprets electrical signals, forms a picture and creates the reality we exist in. We assume that all of our interactions with our environment and other people are accurate and consistent, and that the other people we interact with are just like us, but that too is an assumption. The reality is that each of us could be living in an advanced simulation, possibly by ourselves, surrounded by AI organisms, without any assurance we are really a biological based entity. Maybe, maybe not. 😀
Lioness~
macrumors 601
Experience, if you been in a coma, you know the difference, for instance.
Realty is definitely perceived differently from variously kinds of awareness.
If you are in a coma and know you’re in a coma, you’re aware to that level.
When you know you live in a dream that’s not real, you’ve awakened to next level of awareness.
Illusions vs. reality is what make the consciousness evolve in its ability to perceive, grow and transform.
But of course, if you are in a reality that seem real to you, it might be an illusion to someone else.
Realities overlaps so to speak.
That’s what’s makes it interesting 😀
Realty is definitely perceived differently from variously kinds of awareness.
If you are in a coma and know you’re in a coma, you’re aware to that level.
When you know you live in a dream that’s not real, you’ve awakened to next level of awareness.
Illusions vs. reality is what make the consciousness evolve in its ability to perceive, grow and transform.
But of course, if you are in a reality that seem real to you, it might be an illusion to someone else.
Realities overlaps so to speak.
That’s what’s makes it interesting 😀
AustinIllini
macrumors G5
You can’t know and there is an interesting school of thought which suggests something similar to this may be true. But it’s unknowable - Descartes etc etc
ActionableMango
macrumors G3
Musk seems to think the odds are almost definitely that we are living in a computer simulation. On the other hand, we all know what he's smoking.
In any case, this seems like a testable condition. Let's say we are all in a sophisticated computer simulation. If we could get everyone to suddenly start hopping in clockwise circles, then the admin of the simulation would think something's up and intervene.
Except the admin put that idea in your head, along with the idea of posting it, so any apparently testable output would, in fact, be an expected output of the sim. The logic is irrefutable.
Of course, the admin just put that idea in my head, which suggests the logic may be refutable, but not by anything in the sim. There is a Giant Enigmatic Boogeyman lurking in any self-referential system that attempts to prove things about itself.
ActionableMango
macrumors G3
I don't think it's irrefutable. I would expect a sophisticated simulation to include self-learning. I wouldn't expect every single thought in our heads to have been programmed there, not in an incredibly sophisticated simulation such as our reality.
For example:
LizKat
macrumors 604
Spoken like a man truly weary of having had to surprise many a citizen by the fact that his or her simulated reality is not necessarily in sync with today's simulation of, say, law enforcement. 😛
Where were you with that solution to putting paid to a thread that otherwise has been running over 150 pages and counting in a certain subforum recently...
Just when we all finally agreed on something? Only reason to intervene then is if we're about to prove it's not a good idea for everyone to rush to one side of the cruise ship to see if that's a simulated shark or just a dolphin.
btw half of Wall Street does hope we are living in a simulation. Otherwise there are once again looking like not quite enough chairs in the dance hall for when the music next stops playing.
