Careful with this one.. I almost went into a thought-induced catatonic state.

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Permalink Reply by Dylan Fahey on November 11, 2009 at 11:59am

Don't reinvent the wheel. Move to India.

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Permalink Reply by Georg F on November 12, 2009 at 4:40am

You would still exists from other peoples perspective

also thinking that if you're gone, that everything else doesn't exist either sounds very ego-tastic to me
why would it be YOU that the universe evolves around?
It's a bigger chance that it's not you
so reality will still exist ;-)

ok, but jokes aside, there is a really interesting experiment with light rays, that behaved differently wheter someone was present during the experiment or not (or something like that)
the experiment showed that the human mind creates some of the laws of physics
unfortunately I can't remember the name and the exact details, but it's something that the humand mind can't really grasp

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Permalink Reply by Mr. Wolf on November 12, 2009 at 6:31pm

I think your referencing the "double slit" experiment.. Basically -
When matter is shot through either one or two slits in a material, the matter hits the 'backboard' like you would expect a pattern of either one or two lines behind the board. When water flows through two slits, a wave interferance pattern shows up, understandable.

But when you go on a much smaller scale, with electrons (tiny particles of matter), things change up. With one slit, electrons make an expected line pattern behind the slit. But when you introduce two slits, the electrons create a wave pattern behind the slits, like water would.. Which is confusing, considering electrons are matter, and not waves. When you try to observe this happening, the electrons revert back to what normal matter would do, and leave a two line pattern. Looks like just watching the electrons causes them to pick one slit or the other, rather than a wave of possible spots. Even when shot one at a time, the electrons leave a wave pattern behind two slits. Crazy stuff. Theres a short video that explains this way better than I could..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc
Pretty interesting.

What happens to the stuff we're not observing?

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Permalink Reply by Georg F on November 14, 2009 at 7:26am

fantastic! Thanks for that link! I could never find it myself because I forgot the name of the experiment

yes, so I what I meant with "behaved differently wheter someone was present during the experiment or not" was actully the observation of the electrons going through the slits

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Permalink Reply by OneWingedFly on November 14, 2009 at 5:24pm

Here's the thing. If you are deprived of senses you already had then your mind will make up its own reality. This is like phantom limbs.Also those born blind, for example, probably have some sense of even colors. So, to survive, invariably the mind will recreate some sort of reality even without senses.

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Permalink Reply by Mr. Wolf on November 14, 2009 at 5:38pm

What do you think is left behind when you have no senses? We may never know what the world looks like 'underneath'. Do you think if this ever happened to someone they would know that their mind is fooling them? How do we know the reality we are used to isn't just the product of something like that?

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Permalink Reply by OneWingedFly on November 16, 2009 at 6:41am

lol dear Mr. Wolf, I've gone down this road before. I can't handle the uncertainty and mind boggle. Have you seen the movie "The Believer"? If so, remember the end? The dude keeps climbing the stairs, again and again, each time facing the same man saying the same thing to him, and never reaching the top.
F* that!

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Permalink Reply by Jordan on November 15, 2009 at 11:41pm

We make our own realities, life is just a giant demonstration of the placebo effect and the power of our own minds. Everything is possible, just think it!
Any self-doubt, or worry will fulfill itself and cause you to fail, so leave those things behind!
Go boldly towards your dreams.

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Permalink Reply by Whistle on November 16, 2009 at 2:15am

Inspiring speech is inspiring?
Anyways, this question is much like the famous "If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Just by the nature of the question, it's impossible to prove either way. Also, consider this: I'm currently holding a red apple. We could both look at it and call it red. But what if the color I call red is the one you percieve as blue? There's no way to tell, since we've been both raised to consider that apple as red!

I'm not sure if that makes complete sense, but hopefully you get what I'm trying to say. :3

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Permalink Reply by Mr. Wolf on November 17, 2009 at 8:20pm

I havent seen the movie yet, but thanks for bringing it up. Im down to rent it. From what you say that is a pretty crazy spin of an ending.. Really really makes you think. And Jordans kind of right, but no matter how hard you try it seems there will always be that sense of "...F*ck this, theres no way". (Am I allowed to cuss on here?)

And good question, Whistle. Whats your take on that? Does it make a sound?

Thanks to the respondants. I hope Im helping you think as much as you all are :D

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Permalink Reply by Opus V on January 31, 2010 at 11:32am

I've always thought that our senses are the foundation for our conciousness, and once the conciousness is created, it can steer the senses.

Our senses are automatic for the most part, when a child is born, they are constantly "recording" from all of their senses. Eventually these recordings start to form a complete picture, and a child forms a sense of self. Once this is done, the human brain is able to manipulate the recordings created by senses. That all might sound crazy, but this is supported by research done with children and their mental development, you can see these different stages happening at predictable points in specific orders as a child develops.

I believe that if it were possible to be concieved without any senses(there are more than 5) it would also be impossible to think of anything, or form any type of conciousness..Think about it, what would you think about if you never saw or heard or touched etc? Have you ever had a single thought that wasn't related to something you've previously experienced?

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