Philosophy Thread

[Professor Fenway]

As long as it pertains to philosophy, i'm cool with it.

First question to discuss: Prove to me that you, as an individual, exist.

[Error]

Simple answer: Prove I do not.

Real answer: If you define an individual as a singular human being, easy enough. If you define it as a concious mind? Who knows? For all you're aware, you're some highly-complex construct that believes it's Fenway. Or perhaps not.
Nobody knows why the human mind works - how is easy, electrochemical signals, but the nitty-gritty of how a human mind comes to be? Nuh-uh.

So to cap it off: There is no reason to believe I don't exist. And I'd hope you have no reason to doubt your own existence.

[Luna]

Ok, I'll pose a question. What is nothing? (Based on how the human mind works this should be impossible to answer)

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

Nothing is the lack of matter and energy.

[Saravanth]

Matter is but energy, condensed into slow vibration.

[Ivan2006]

You're supposed to prove it to Fenway.
And actually, there is no way to prove your existance to smeone else.
The only thing that you can ever be completely sure of is your own conciousness.
Because no matter how your thoughts come to be, you can still be sure that there is some construct producing these thoughts.
Everything else can not be completely proven. You could be living in the Matrix for all you know.
Now, the thing is, regardless if you are in the Matrix, there is no way of finding out for sure or change anything about it, so for the sake of not going insane, it would be best to just assume that we do not live in the Matrix, because no matter if we are, it won't change a thing.
Now, if we assume that this universe exists, there are only two possibilities left from your point of view, namely a) I am a very sophisticated secret (because officially no such good bot exists) VI bot pretending to be human and for some reason being active on this forum. In all seriousness, the existance of such a bot is unlikely and it would be even more unlikely for a bot to try and infiltrate this forum. The only reason why anyone would want to infiltrate you wth me would be either getting some personal information about you or have you engase in roleplay (as you may remember, the original RP was kicked off by a thread of mine). So unless one of you has an actual important thing about you, like ACH being from a parallel universe IRL, there would be very little reason for you to ever be a target of such an expensive and sophisticated system, if it even exists. Therefore, it is unlikely that I am a VI bot, and you can assume I am human.

Closest to evidence I can get.

[ACH0225]

Considering that there is no indication that we exist to you aside from the messages posted here, you have no reason to believe everyone or anyone here is real. Should you believe we are or aren't, it makes little difference; your response would be fact, and any alternative or other belief you would or could hold would be irrelevant, as it would never happen.

Memory is the most important facet of sentient existence. Even if you starving, illiterate, and sickly, your memory forms the bulk of who and what you are. If you forget something, and nobody else remembers, then that something is gone. No matter it's effects, or its repercussions, it is gone. In a few hundred years, all the people from this forum will be dead. This is a given. What will happen after that is, in some ways, sad. Every moment and thought put into this forum, every post and carefully articulated story and argument will die as well. If you are a person who believes that by writing a story, you create a world for the characters, then the characters of every RP will die eternally. They won't die a glorious death, and be remembered; they will go out with a whimper into the night. Moreover, within another few hundred years, everyone on this forum will be forgotten; the various descendants of the forumers will no longer remember their ancestors here, and we will all fade to nonexistence.

[Vinyl]

I am the One True Electro Gypsy, I am the future man who plays tunes upon his Yamaha, I play fine electric beats wearing trousers made of leather, He who stands motionless while I drop a melody, who plays long into the night until my fingers bleed. Who are you but a mere and simple being made of that which sustains the life it made of itself? What are you to that which is very super famous, that is so pervasive in its quest for attention of beings such as yourself that it subjugates populations simply by forcing its will of recognition upon them. The happenstance that is your persistent self description is cosmic coincidence, and is unimportant in the full scope of the potential multiverse.

Therefore, I implore you as to why you have made the false decision that is questioning the fabric of the reality you hold so preciously regardless of whether you do so out of necessity or preference.

[Error]

Because the electro gypsy can't curb human curisoity.

Besides, there he goes.

[Tau]

What is nothing?

Define nothing.

Seriously. Do you mean 'nothing' as in simply being void of content (that is, a perfect vacuum), as in a lack of human understanding or experience, or as in being incapable of existing (like magic)?

Open-ended questions like that are impossible to answer, by virtue of the fact that they're just too vague.

[hr]

From a functional point of view, we are nothing more than Turing machines. We act on effectively infinite sets of data provided to us (our senses) according to a set of rules (our understanding of the physical world, and our conscious decisions). By that line of logic, one must simply prove that our senses aren't feeding us artificially synthesized information.

Of course, when I say 'simply prove', I really mean 'just prove'. Proving that our sensory system actually exists and functions as we think it does is easy - so long as, in doing so, you already assume that it is. It's a catch 22, really.

[ACH0225]

Something I've been meaning to consider; for one day, everyone should cover their eyes with something, and plug their ears. Then, with the 2 most major human senses disabled, see what they learn about life. It's almost like those gourmet restaurants in total cave darkness and no talking; you are focused on the food only.

[҉]

Something I've been meaning to consider; for one day, everyone should cover their eyes with something, and plug their ears. Then, with the 2 most major human senses disabled, see what they learn about life. It's almost like those gourmet restaurants in total cave darkness and no talking; you are focused on the food only.

They would learn that there exists a small group of people who are not suckers and who would spend the day robbing banks.

[Solar112]

@Fen: There is no way for me to prove that I exist.
@CvN: As Dayn, and Sara said, A lack of energy.

[Prototype]

Ok, I'll pose a question. What is nothing? (Based on how the human mind works this should be impossible to answer)

Nothing is defined as a lack of anything.

Next.

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

Can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't real?