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Thursday Morning Ramble. "Reality"
16 years ago
For more of your favorite Overlord please visit: http://heisyourleader.blogspot.com/
Ah, the breakfast of champions. Hot tea and cold...kidney beans...Don't judge me! It's what was available! Plus, I felt like having beans...
It's time for another rambly journal. I'm making a habit of this, aren't I? Prepare for a series of disjointed early-morning thought processes!
I recently saw an ad for a television which claims to have better resolution than real life. Assuming that were even physically possible, how would we know? We take reality for granted, without considering the fragility of the concept, or, at least, the tenuous nature of human perception. Everything we know about reality is based on clusters of abstract sensory data, and the electrical impulses which are decoded by the brain. We have no objective way of knowing if red is red, or if green is really green. Any scientific experiment run to try and assess the objectivity of reality would, even if it was flawless, be useless for human purposes, seeing as the interpretation of the results would again rely on the human brain's reception of sensory data. If a brain were to be placed in a jar, and the neurons wired into a sufficiently advanced computer, physical reality could be entirely subverted without the notice of the observer. The electrical impulses delivered could mimic exactly the impulses generated by sensory organs, and would, to the brain, be indistinguishable from the real thing. If an illusion cannot be deciphered, if the illusion causes the intended effect, is it still an illusion? Or is it real?
Now that the caffeine has kicked in, I'm running short on time. Hopefully my just-waking brain is of some use or enjoyment to you!
Ya know, I really am starting to make a habit of this...What do you think, should I continue the habit? Should I make "Leon's Thursday Morning Ramble" a regular occurrence? Should I become (Le gasp!) a blogger?!?! Would I even be capable of maintaining a regular (or at least almost regular) schedule? Maybe I could make the rambles more cohesive, more in-depth, or at least more subject-driven. It would certainly give me something to do. Something to get my brain working. Something healthier than watching movies all day.
So, I put it to you. The fate of "Leon's Thursday Morning Ramble" is in your hands!
...Unless I decide to do it anyway, bwhahahaha! Seriously though, what do you think?
It's time for another rambly journal. I'm making a habit of this, aren't I? Prepare for a series of disjointed early-morning thought processes!
I recently saw an ad for a television which claims to have better resolution than real life. Assuming that were even physically possible, how would we know? We take reality for granted, without considering the fragility of the concept, or, at least, the tenuous nature of human perception. Everything we know about reality is based on clusters of abstract sensory data, and the electrical impulses which are decoded by the brain. We have no objective way of knowing if red is red, or if green is really green. Any scientific experiment run to try and assess the objectivity of reality would, even if it was flawless, be useless for human purposes, seeing as the interpretation of the results would again rely on the human brain's reception of sensory data. If a brain were to be placed in a jar, and the neurons wired into a sufficiently advanced computer, physical reality could be entirely subverted without the notice of the observer. The electrical impulses delivered could mimic exactly the impulses generated by sensory organs, and would, to the brain, be indistinguishable from the real thing. If an illusion cannot be deciphered, if the illusion causes the intended effect, is it still an illusion? Or is it real?
Now that the caffeine has kicked in, I'm running short on time. Hopefully my just-waking brain is of some use or enjoyment to you!
Ya know, I really am starting to make a habit of this...What do you think, should I continue the habit? Should I make "Leon's Thursday Morning Ramble" a regular occurrence? Should I become (Le gasp!) a blogger?!?! Would I even be capable of maintaining a regular (or at least almost regular) schedule? Maybe I could make the rambles more cohesive, more in-depth, or at least more subject-driven. It would certainly give me something to do. Something to get my brain working. Something healthier than watching movies all day.
So, I put it to you. The fate of "Leon's Thursday Morning Ramble" is in your hands!
...Unless I decide to do it anyway, bwhahahaha! Seriously though, what do you think?
Too...? What dost thou mean too? Who else has been dining on beans that I am unaware of? Do I even want to know?
Yes, but Thursdays are the morning that I'm almost guaranteed to be on, and with nothing better to do. Who knows? Maybe a little mini-essay writing would do me good. Not like I'm getting anything else done.
I am, apparently, a very theoretical person. I like to ask the "big questions" and follow lines of thought every which way, but at the same time I'm totally aware and accepting that the closest thing to the "real answers" I'm ever going to get is 42. It matters little if the hammer that hits you is real or not if it still hurts, right?
Also, this philosophy class session deals with the nature of reality to a certain extent: http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy/deat.....lecture03.html
The most important part of that discussion is about "inference to the best explanation," about which Shelley says, "What we're justified in believing are those things that we need, not simply when they would offer us some kind of explanation, but when they offer us the best explanation that we can think of." I mention this because it's easy to get sidetracked in philosophy regarding proof - one can point out that you cannot disprove, for example, the existence of demons. But the question isn't whether we can disprove the existence of demons, the question is if demons are the best explanation for, say, bad milk or disease.