This is my summery of a bunch of theories and stuff.
I think the universe is a very complicated thing. People often describe it as a vaccuum, but I don't get that analagy. How the hell is it a vaccuum? I don't see the universe cleaning up my room. Wanna know how i see the universe? I see it the way "the sims" see the inside of my harddrive. They're not programmed to even know what they're made of. But what if we created a game (like the sims) 20 years from now? Our technology has improved so much that a program like that may have the ability to evolve. We will surely create some sort of A.I. in the future. Will the A.I. realize it's exssitance is only inside of a computer? How is it supposed to not know? If it is self-aware, requires (albiet digital) food, water, sunlight, isn't it alive? That's how I see the universe. We're unable to comprehend or even imagine what is beyong the universe. This gives creedance to the theory that their his a higher being, though not as magestical as "god"... We humans have evolved a lot. It makes me wonder if our "creator" is even aware of us? Is there some uber ginormous alian in front of a weird computer screen writing the program for our anialation as we speak? Or are the the figment of it's imagination, and it is meerly dreaming us? Who knows. All I know is if the dream were to end, or we were programmed to be destroyed, there's obviousely nothing we could do about it. If 'the sims' knew their day was done, they could have all the technology that their little hearts desired, and there's still nothing they could do to prevent my hand -- in the real world -- from unplugging my computer. This brings up a philisophical question. Is it better to not know the truth at all, or to know the whole truth? Personally, I'm not afraid of the truth. Though it makes me wonder... If I do learn the truth, will I spontaneousely combust? For those of you who haven't stopped reading this yet, spontaneousely combusting apparantly happens to people when (correct me if I'm wrong) their little electrons stray from their normal revolution around a molecule. This doesn't stop at one molecule, it is a domino effect which causes the sudden implosian of every cell in your body. Electrons = electricity. If you're not dizzy with thought yet, let me remind you that 'the sims' are no more real than you or I because when you break it down, we're all made of electricity anyway. And apparantly our program is much mor sophistacated. What if one of the chatacters from "the sims" realized the truth? That would be kind of funny wouldn't it? But it would throw off the entire game because it would no longer have any will to play along. Easy solution: Delete the character. Or maybe it's "will" is just a program anyway. (There are theories that free will is actually an illusion... to back the thoery up, ask yourself: Have you EVER done ANYTHING for ANY OTHER REASON than to get rewarded with pleasure or to avoid pain? REALLY break it down... the absense of pain = pleasure. Curiousity = pain. .. now... does that mean your will is free?) If you're not feeling like a pre-written character to a game yet, please consider this: Scientists are also saying that our Universe has the same NATURE as both a hologram and our minds. For instince: Einstein said that no form of communication can travel faster than light. However, scientists have discovered that two points CAN communicate INSTANTLY regaurdless of their distance from eachother. Theres a name for this particular "point" and the theory... But I'm too lazy to find it for you. ... Now the way this is simular to our minds is because our mind is supposed to work in "waves" which means we collect all relevent information from an idea at the same time. Let me make this easy for you: Close your eyes and say the word "blue" in your head. *actually close your eyes and do it right now...* ............. ok. Now did you imagine the color blue or did you see water, the sky, blue paint or something else that is blue? What your mind did was gather all relevent information that came WITH the word blue, regaurdless of it's location within your mind. The association was retreived INSTANTLY, just like two points in the universe. The universe is like a hologram for the exact same reason. If you want to learn more about this, just google "universe hologram" and you'll see that I'm not 'bs'ing you. So what have we discovered here? That you and I are both no more or less real than those little guys jumping around on your computer screen. The entire universe is a hologram (more like a program written on a gigantic computer which works like the brain), and everything we think we know, including our own motives, is predetermined by a force we can't control, and when we break it down as far as possible, we're just made of electricity anyway. One more thought: If we are a program, or even a dream... Who created our creator? Are they a hologram too? *gulp* Wouldn't this mean that we are a dream within a dream? If that were the case... the ultimate dreamer at the top of the chain holds our exsistance gently in it's hand. Should they awake, then multiple layers of trillions of years of evolution would instantly blink out of exsistance. If you've read this far, and you haven't lost your mind... Good for you. Don't creep too far to the edge though; you might get deleted.
Please pardon my pseudo-intellectuaphilisophicalismysiticality.
There's some interesting theories there Sayzak, but haven't you ever heard of paragraphs? I will have to think on it all a bit more and absorb everything you've said.
The concept your talking about sayzak is called Quantum Physics.
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
let me bring up a few problems with your theories we control the sims , the sims are not alive , they do not think , there is far too much history and technology and if there wasn't this '''play ground'' called life what else would there be?
Artificial Intelligence is impossible. To create artificial intelligence is an anomaly of what our imagination would like to believe is true. Put it like this, to create Artificial Intelligence you would need to program a forever perputual never ending form due to Artificial Intelligence resembling us, and humans have that unique unknown hidden ability to create and imagine. How can you program imagination? It is pure phenomenon and will never be explained.
Phantom, I disagree with you, many with me will. AI may be an imagination for now. But remember that something that comes to human mind finds its way to reality, atleast out of 100 % - 90 % have come to reality. Imagination is the most important thing in creativity. A person someday must have thought about a sitting chair and then next day he would have made it in real life. The way we have evovled, same way AI will become reality some day. maybe we will not live for that day.
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
Personally....I think we all exist but we exist in different ways...like plants exist with water and sunlight and i bet there's another life form different than us.
Consciousness does exist though, so it must be possible to configure something capable of being conscious ! Maybe out of the infinite potential that is this universe, we will be the first to figure it out !
All patterns are conscious due to their self referencing nature. If it's not chaotic, it's conscious !
I don't see A.I. anywhere in our near or extremely distant future. How can you make something when you have no idea how it came about in the first place? The truth is, no one understands how consciousness was birthed from the material world. Some say the material world is birthed from the consciousness, to an extent at least. If you walked outside and stared at a tree you would see that it has leaves (unless it's winter or something). Those leaves will most likely be green. But how do you know? Everything you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, your entire contact with reality is interpreted through sensory preceptors. You can never directly experience the world, it's impossible in the scientific sense. This brings up the constant speed of light. Even if a light beam was shot from an object traveling near the speed of light, the light beam will still be that constant speed of light, no change. Some say that light travels no where and spends no time doing so. "We observe a finite amount of space along with an "equal" amount of time. In our world, the light does travel through space and time. Since the total interval must be zero, the distance covered must exactly balance the time taken—that is, we must always observe 186,000 miles of space for every second of time. This we interpret as the speed of light. But this "speed" is not an intrinsic property of light itself; traveling no distance in no time, light has no need of speed. What we interpret as the speed of light is actually the ratio in which space and time manifest in our perception of reality. It is this ratio that is constant. And this is why all our measurements of the apparent speed of light are constant." So we are aware of ourselves, aware that we exist. This makes us like nothing else in the universe. How can something as seemingly unconscious as matter ever lead to something as immaterial as consciousness? No one knows.
Kevin: Remember that one time when I ate those napkins?
Me: (laughing) Yeah.
Kevin: That was funny. Do you remember what made me do it?
Me: I'm pretty sure you just said, "Hey, watch me eat these napkins".
Kevin: (laughing) Yeah, that sounds about right.
05-12-2004 09:22 AM
I will have to think on it all a bit more and absorb everything you've said.
I reckon I exist, not so sure about everyone else now 
**~`'~**xxXX
