Do you code? Imagine writing a sentient program and it asks itself the same question.
Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
31–40 of 43 posts
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#32Do you code? Imagine writing a sentient program and it asks itself the same question.
A bored God asked if he could, and not if he should, and observed his creation with furvor. After some time and a bottle of wine, he refined the process much further. A curious cast spawned an unwarranted task, but the system continued to tick. He shrugged with indifference at the illegal reference, and closed his laptop lid with a -schlick-
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#33I found asian philosophies very interesting in this regard. There is an interesting Hindu philosophy about 4 states - awake, sleep, dream and turiya. In below video, lecturer explained them very beautifully. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGKFTUuJppU Also you might enjoy Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid where author tried to explain self-referential systems. If you pick up any interest in asian philosoph…
Yes, it's called Advaita Vedanta. Swami Sarvapriyananda's lectures are always a great source of knowledge about Advaita. So Advaita is about you, that is, about consciousness. You are consciousness. And then it goes something like "you're not your body and you're not your mind, you are the "pure subjectivity" present in any qualia, you are Sakshi." Or Atman, also a popular term. Also there's that equation that Atman…
This is a great amount of references, thank you for providing the next week of research for me :)
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#34"... it's just you against your tattered libido, the bank and the mortician forever, man. And it wouldn't be luck if you could get out of life alive."
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#35The absurd dream of a sentient universe scale alien consciousness or a really bad series of jokes.
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#36That you are overthinking. Take a deep breath. Yes, you are here.
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#37The first paragraph of Nabokov’s memoir Speak, Memory. “The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour). I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who…
Similarly, from the prologue to Nikos Kazantzakis' "Askitiki":
"WE COME from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. As soon as we are born the return begins, at once the setting forth and the coming back; we die in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of life is death! But as soon as we are born we begin the struggle to create, to compose, to turn matter into life; we are born in every moment."
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#38I think we'll never know because the way our brains are wired. If you ask yourself "what's the origin of reality", there are 2 kinds of answer:
1. Our reality has been created by someone or something. This could be God, or some civilization that lives in an upper reality (so we are being simulated), it could be randomness, anything. The point here is: something started the fire.
2. It has always existed. No beginning, no end.
Now, answer 2 is something we (humans) can't grasp; our brains can't think of something that has existed forever. Imagine no beginning at all... that's hard to grasp (if not impossible), I think.
Answer 1 is just a "local" answer. The immediate follow-up question would be: "so who created our creators?". And again, the same two answers apply. At the end of the day, answer 2 seems the only answer I can imagine (because answer 1 just starts a loop of questions/answers that is never stopped).
Edit: I'm not talking here about the origin of our universe. That can be discovered just fine. I'm talking about reality as in: the reality of everything.
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#39It's completely irrelevant, and spending time thinking about it is time that could be spent on any number of more useful endeavors.
There are two sides of me:
One cares deeply about these kind of topics. Reality, existence. This side cares nothing about the rest (having a job, love, friends, money, etc.)
The other side of me cares nothing about existentialism. It's more pragmatic (get a decent job, have some friends, have some fun, etc.)
I keep a balance between both sides, because without the one or the other I would be just plain miserable.
So one side of me agrees with you. The other doesn't :D
Re: Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)
#40god is funny, he doesn't spare energy to prove he exist for those who believe
in him, but he do the same to prove that universe follow physics law and so
he is useless.
So is ratatouille.