11–20 of 92 posts
No. No, I think the world would still be there if we didn't question it. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. (Philip K. Dick)
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No. No, I think the world would still be there if we didn't question it. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. (Philip K. Dick)
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http://art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/0066/borges.pdf
(It's the short story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Borges.)
No. No, I think the world would still be there if we didn't question it. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. (Philip K. Dick)
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The answer is pretty simple. Gold was predicted to be whitish looking, like Platinium, based on the physics of the time. But due to a phenomenon unknown at the time (relativity) it was gold. That is how we know our minds don't create reality. We seem to live in a universe of consequence, not a dream. There are things we don't understand that we come to figure out, not the other way around.
On the other hand, if by "how would we know?" you mean the fundamental unknowability of everything, yes I agree with you. But as Russel said, "it's boring to stop there" so let's just park that observation and continue on. In this way, philosophy mirrors theology. You take some things by faith and you get on with your life.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Leaving aside my general scepticism of basically everything, including the knowability of the truth of a statement, including the statement: "At least one mind exists." The answer is pretty simple. Gold was predicted to be whitish looking, like Platinium, based on the physics of the time. But due to a phenomenon unknown at the time (relativity) it was gold. That is how we know our minds don't create reality. We seem…
I'm pretty sure gold was well known long before predicting the colors of as-yet-unobserved metals based on any kind of physics.
Towards the end of the article was the question I had all along reading it: "Where was mind when the universe was born? And what sustained the universe for the billions of years before we came to be? He nonetheless bravely offers us a lovely, chilling paradox: At the heart of everything is a question, not an answer. When we peer down into the deepest recesses of matter or at the farthest edge of the universe, we see,…
Why this life, why is this the one I have? Where did all of this come from? How did all of this happen?
Life is a waking dream, because we often completely forget that we really just don't know at all why we are here. But we pretend, we forget, we make up stories, we do anything we can do to run away from that question. Why. How did all of this happen? Why does everything happen the way it does? What does that mean, for what I am, all the way at the core?
It's not really nihilism, but it sort of is. It's just, that's the perpetual question that never gets answered directly.
I've thought of myself before as a monad - a being so fundamentally lonely in their own existence that they split themselves up into infinite pieces, just to forget, there's nothing more than what they are. Maybe some buddhist influences, but, we all have our struggles in life. It's not really intended to be sophistry. It just is a very beautiful, but very chilling awareness. What if I go back into what I was when I die?
You could see this as a mental metaphor my mind has arbitrarily made up for all events I've witnessed and been a part of, some sort of perpetual social ostracism I keep walking myself into. But I still think it's more than just that. I loved science growing up. But I can never answer that question - and I know absolutely, that I never will. What happened before 'I exist'?. For any of us. My father often has had a variant of this question, and in the past, it's rubbed people the wrong way because, only a fraction of it gets expressed. We all wear masks. Sometimes there's just a profoundly deep sadness that no one can see.
Chilling, and lovely. In perpetuity.
Flagged for pseudoscience.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leaving aside my general scepticism of basically everything, including the knowability of the truth of a statement, including the statement: "At least one mind exists." The answer is pretty simple. Gold was predicted to be whitish looking, like Platinium, based on the physics of the time. But due to a phenomenon unknown at the time (relativity) it was gold. That is how we know our minds don't create reality. We seem…
> Gold was predicted to be whitish looking, like Platinium, based on the physics of the time. But due to a phenomenon unknown at the time (relativity) it was gold I'm pretty sure gold was well known long before predicting the colors of as-yet-unobserved metals based on any kind of physics.
Therefore, the theory was not quite right, and naturalists of the time could conclude that their model was incomplete. I don't think anyone was ever doubting the true color of gold.
Towards the end of the article was the question I had all along reading it: "Where was mind when the universe was born? And what sustained the universe for the billions of years before we came to be? He nonetheless bravely offers us a lovely, chilling paradox: At the heart of everything is a question, not an answer. When we peer down into the deepest recesses of matter or at the farthest edge of the universe, we see,…
The past was created when people started probing it, in the same sense that the present is.