So I posted up a pic (pornographic) on a shared space (online) for a friend of mine and here is the madness that ensued: (edited to help coherentness)
DERRICK ROSEwrote: all dat yellow makes me feel weird. Maybe I'm a Green Lantern
Mar. 26
MORRIBB TYLER LEHRERwrote: ...yeah… you don't have the qualifications to be a Green Lantern.
Mar. 26
DR: yeah, I’m not fictional
Mar. 27
MtL: Matter of perspective really.
Mar. 27
DR: oh fuck up with your tripped out head games shit. You’re real, I'm real, Obama's real, and so on and so forth. I ain't sum trick u can bamboozle bro! I wnet 2 collage!
Mar. 27
MtL: What determines what or who is real? If not actions. And what actions separate us from imagination and bring us to be factual beings? Just because you think you're real doesn't mean you are. There have been countless books/stories/pieces about characters who thought they were real. Example, the Matrix. Neo thought he was real. He thought his world was real. Turns out, things weren't as they appeared. His world was fabrication and so were the majority of his interactions. So the question is posed back to actions. If he never left the Matrix would he have been real? If he never experienced life; living and dying in that pod, would he truly have existed?
Now same question for you. Are you absolutely positive that you are real? That any of this is real? Not just based on faith but on concrete evidence? Can you prove your existence?
Mar. 27
DR: I'm not about to get into Nietzscheand Existentialism, and I’m aware of all the ‘I’M REAL’ fiction out there but honestly, yes, we're real. How do we prove it? ‘Cogito ergo sum’,. I think therefore I am. Fictional things can't think. They can only do. At least that's what I remember from PHY class.
Mar. 29
MtL: But cells don't think. Therefore then are cells real? If we are made up of cells then how can we be real? Our thought processes are mere artifact. Excess that is a product of the millions of cells that have converged upon one another to make a living system of living systems. Of course though how can they be living if what the systems are composed of don't think right? As you know as well as I do, cells just do.
Mar. 30
DR: I think Descartes was talking more about the consciousness. If you're doubting you exist that means something has to be thinking about not existing which means that thing exists. I believe that's what he meant.
I think you're arguing that our thoughts are only biologic responses. I remember an article "What is it like to be a bat" that argued that we know how a bat sees but we don't what it's like to see like a bat which means there's a consciousness that exists in a creature beyond that of pure biology. If that's the case then I think these people were discussing the mind is real. If you're talking about the body not being real because the parts that make up its sum only communicate through signals and do not possess an actual consciousness, then maybe it's possible that it serves as a "vehicle" for the consciousness in this level of "reality or not reality". IIRC I remember providing the example of the tv, cable box and cable signal. They work together to give you an image of something. If you sever the cable line no image, but if there's no image does that mean the cable signal doesn't exist? Something like that, my argument had some more substance but that was my main point. He gave me a B though. Asshole.
What? I’m off topic. There's a difference between existing and living. You said cells don't think which means a living system cannot be considered living. But science dictates that something living has to go about certain biologic processes and have the elements CHON in its composition. Something dead still exists even though it's not living. Cells don't think but even today scientists' don't know everything about the communication which causes them to do what they do. How do we not know there's not a consciousness that's influencing these things the same way the tv is not reliant on the signal?
tl;dr I don't know bro
Mar. 31
MtL: Thoughts ARE only biological responses. As far as tv's and cable signals versus the brain and body, that point is sorely moot since televisions don't think therefore they, by Descartes, don't exist. Now they do know how cells work. The brain system however, not so much. But single celled organisms have been quite well documented. Documented to the point where its been stated they work as would a computer. Each cell has a set of instructions and follow along a set of rules. You know this. So there is no thinking, just doing, as far as existing and living. Being what you've just stated then clearly there's a difference. So the assumption becomes living without existing or existing without living. By Descartes' words, the body does not exist. The mind however does. Since the bi-product of the conjoining systems is thought right? That being said the query of what thought or rather thinking is comes into question. If involuntary thought as a result of a biological response does occur then can it truly be considered thinking?
If not, then obviously, we don't exist. If so, then we still don't exist but merely our thoughts do. Like a river, thought exists, which means perception exists. So then back to the original question, how can anyone prove they exist? It is very possible that all of this is just a perception. A delusion even. That there is one mind that accounts for it all. Like as you said with the t.v. and signal. If there is no picture then does the signal not exist? Only in this case, if thought can’t perceive it than can it exist?
Apr. 1
DR: How can you determine that thoughts are only biological responses? If you have someone who is handicapped and can’t communicate due to brain trauma, how do you know there thoughts exist but have no way to be presented to the rest of us? Similar to the tv and the cable or a tree falling in the woods alone. Just cause I cut the cable and the tv isn’t showing an image doesn’t mean the signal isn’t transmitting. Consciousness can work in a similar manner possibly; at least this is what some people talk about when discussing dualism. The mind/body problem. Descartes lived in a time where science and microbiology weren’t as developed as they were now but as someone who debated that God existed I doubt he was under the assumption that thoughts = biology. Stating that thoughts=biology is affirming the notion that the tangible world is the only thing that exists hence no metaphysical world. It’s clear that he believed in higher forces and believed in abstract things like the soul.
They do not know everything about eukaryotic cells. Single celled organisms are prokaryotes and are not what compose things like animals, people, plants, etc. Another reason why consciousness is a problem.
For something to be a delusion, then there has to be something to be deluded. If this something is being deluded to think of all the things in this universe that means it’s existing outside of our concept of reality meaning its situation is different from ours. If determining what is “real” depends on said situation than that means one here cannot judge if this world is indeed “fake or real” since you can only see things from this side.
Apr. 1
MtL: Therein lies the river of consciousness. Every thought of ever thing that thinks flowing together, separated solely by tangibility. Then again there's the 'what' you spoke of in your last paragraph that I addressed briefly earlier. But I'll get to that later.
To say that the belief that thoughts are biological responses connotes denying a higher power is far from evident. In the past it was dictated that science and religion couldn't mix but the incongruities that continue to be found and formed only point to some amalgam of the two. A lot of the old arguments aren't valid anymore because so much has changed due to perceptions and translations and what we are told are facts. Truth be told there constantly is a flux of information being found that either disproves a level of science or proves a level of divinity. And because of this balance both (thoughts as biological and divine creations) can co-exist.
Granted. So, lets dive even further into the gene pool. What makes up cells? And do those things that make up cells think? Yes, I'm talking about atoms.
It's funny that you've come to the conclusion I've been at so entirely. I was never implying that WE were fictional/not real but rather that the possibility exists that YOU aren't real. That this could all be some delusion of mine. Or just some delusion of yours. Or something else entirely. Think for a minute about the prospect that there isn’t a tangible world. That we all exist as one in the metaphysical plane and that this is merely a recreation of that same plane given shape, sound, and color. Not to even impose on you some sort of "Big O-esc" experience with androids living out a program in a fake city apart of a fake country apart of a fake world. But just that these or rather those gaps in our own dimensional space identified through string theory are in essence, the river. Co-consciousness of millions that create all that happens and exists or will ever exist.
So yeah as I stated in "Old Philosophy" the meaning of life is meaningless. And it is such because there is no way a single mind could perceive it as it is the co-consciousness of the world that has spawned such meaning. Now as far as why I use a river as the medium is because I now ask you to think even bigger at the meaning of a co-consciousness amongst billions of existences. And what that "consciousness" could really be.
And just to make note as what you stated is true. One can't know if their world is fake or true since they can only grasp one side which is why it becomes a matter of perspective since there are just too many possibilities.
Apr. 2
DR: Thoughts = biology is popular notion amongst physicalism philosophy. Again from what I remember from philosophy classes these people believed that there was nothing beyond what is experienced in life. That the mind is a result of chemicals and signals.
Do atoms think? No I don't think so but who knows with all that quantum physics crap. Also if you're saying old/past arguments don't matter anymore, should the whole criteria of thinking means you're real even matter since Descartes said that?
I don't understand this co-consciousness. Are you saying there's a pool of conscious minds that think up the world as we know it?
Yes I think one of the biggest most acceptable answers to this whole question is that it's too big to answer and thus it does not matter, is impossible to answer, or something else.
Apr. 2
MtL: So wait are you just mentioning that to mention that or is their some relevance to something else?
Technically no. Everything matters. Even things that are disproven or left for dead matter in the grand scheme. But primarily it's all important because it leads to development/progress.
What I'm saying is what if that's what the Lord is. The collective consciousness of all existence existing in tandem with one another yet remaining separate? And that yes, it is the combining of that existence's experience that fabricates the physical plane. Just a thought.
Schweet. Then care to explore the previous section I just wrote?
Apr. 3
DR: You said "To say that the belief that thoughts are biological responses connotes denying a higher power is far from evident." and I'm saying that the popular belief amongst physicalism philosophers suggests otherwise. They believe that because everything is biological that means no God, no soul, etc. And have their own reasoning as to why. The article I mentioned before by Nagel. To be a bat was in response to a popular physicalism philosopher to go suggest consciousness goes higher than the pure biological. If you have some sort of reasoning to support what you said then fine.
It maybe important to you but it's a matter of perspective. The same thing you were chirping about earlier. There's a reason why philosophy isn't mandated like math and science. Most of society does not feel the same way about it as they do other topics because it doesn't help them with everyday life. To determine what's important in the grand scheme of things is also hard to pinpoint. We don't even know what the grand scheme is. Also In the grand scheme of what? The universe? Let us not be so bold to presume that our species' existence is vital to whatever. If we were all wiped out, life would continue to exist. And keep in mind this is something that's been and being debated by older, smarter guys then us and they still don't agree. Not to be a party pooper but I think it'll be quite hard for two dudes to come up with a final answer about what is real in comments box for a picture of a yellow bitch with her pussy out. In the end though I think to some it does not matter in the slightest.
It is quite possible that the Lord is some sort of collective consciousness of all the living things of the universe. It's a theory that's had some play in fiction though it’s usually referred to as a mass of souls but honestly I think it's a similar idea.
Wait which previous section I thought I touched on everything?
Apr. 3
MtL: Ah I see what you mean now. But as far as reasoning to support what I've been saying I don't think it's necessary since they're two sides of the coin and I don't think we need to go into a creationism vs. evolution type argument since I'd imagine I know where you stand.
You're looking at intelligence in terms of relativity to schooling/education but there's more to it than that. Occam's razor shows us that sometimes, knowing more only impedes the development of the truth. As far as things not mattering, is that just a throwaway sentence? I mean stating that fact doesn't really amount to anything in regard to this. Not that it isn't true but that it's true about anything and everything in all aspects of life that there will be someone or even masses of people that could care less.
The section about collective consciousness being the Lord. That being said what are your thoughts then on it since you've seen the idea, in essence, presented before?
Apr. 4
MtL: Oh and yeah maybe the great answers to the universe won't be answered here but at least this exists if nothing else but as proof that we're not just a bunch of sick perverts.
Apr. 4
DR: I understand where people who say it doesn't matter come from. They see the question itself as a sort of unanswerable question kinda like a paradox (but not really) they realize that whatever the answer is they will never be able to find it and/or if they do what will change about their life? So they forget about it.
It's a possibility. I've thought about it too. A mass of consciousness and all that. I mean there's not really much more I can say about that.
Dude, we could be curing cancer, saving puppies, and drinking tea with Jesus and we'd STILL be sick perverts
Apr. 6
MtL: You say you understand that perspective but then do you also BELIEVE it yourself?
Why is that all you "can" say about that? What's preventing you from diving further?
And I'm appalled by the accusation. But no seriously, I'm not trying to imply that the gravity in which this conversation has taken completely absolves us from perverse excursions. This development is far from some sort of pardon for crimes of the perverse nature, past or present. It more stands as a pivotal example of how sexual gratification isn't solely what makes up our psychological skill sets.
Apr. 8
DR: Depends on my mood. But just because we understand something doesn't mean we have to believe it (contrary to what **** is always saying).
Because there's nothing else I have to add. You presented the idea and I said oh yeah I've heard of that, kinda, and thought about that myself. The end.
Uh yeah I didn't need an online version of armchair philosophy to prove that busting a nut wasn't the only thing going on in my brain and if you were talking about yourself and/or people in general I didn't know there was an epidemic of nymphos and failed Sexaholic Anonymous members! Fucking CNN doesn't talk about anything but Obama!
Apr. 8
MtL: I think you have that backwards. As 'Fatass' seems to be of the school of reasoning that if you don't understand it, you don't have to believe it. i.e. homosexuality.
That's pretty anticlimactic.
It's not for you or me. But for the records. An account of the set of values and substance beyond mere perversion for the masses were this ever to be stumbled upon by the uninitiated.
Apr. 9
DR: ‘Fatass’ is stupid.
Whatever, it is what it is. Not everything has to be some big epic shit fest
Yeah ok keep telling yourself that. Last time I checked all of this was just for shits and giggles. If you wanna give it some depth, go ahead. I mean, why not, people write scholarly essays on the inner thinkings of Sesame streetcharacters.
Apr. 16