Is the world an illusion?

Are you serious or do you want to have fun with it?

My serious answer would agree with Jimerson... it doesn't matter if it's reality or perceived reality, if you jump on the subway tracks this show ends... if you've got $50 "cyber dollars" in your wallet and you "cyber burn" them then you can't "cyber enjoy" a "cyber steak".

It's not important whether or not anything is real... because your perception of it will still be shaped by your actions (and reactions).
 
Has anyone here seen The Doom Generation. One of the chatacters asks, "Do you ever wonder what the purpose of our existance is" and someone else responds, "Who cares"

Questions like this are like buying a lottery ticket, it's just mental masterbation
 
I've had a few odd days where it seems like there are just TOO many coincidences to accept. If you have one of those days it starts to feel all "truman showy".

Did you have one of those days Ullanta?
 
MattinSTL said:
Are you serious or do you want to have fun with it?
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I'm not sure I see the difference...

My serious answer would agree with Jimerson... it doesn't matter if it's reality or perceived reality, if you jump on the subway tracks this show ends...
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Well, I'm not really sure until I try it. And I think many wars have been fought over the issue...

if you've got $50 "cyber dollars" in your wallet and you "cyber burn" them then you can't "cyber enjoy" a "cyber steak".
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Then I'd be a fool to create them as "cyber dollars"! But I bet I could salivate over a bell ringing (or a TV commercial)? Even your Cyber-steak puts a little flavor inmy mouth.

It's not important whether or not anything is real... because your perception of it will still be shaped by your actions (and reactions).
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Yes, if I get locked into it all. And I WILL NOT MAKE MATRIX REFERENCES!
 
The world can be as much of an illusion as it wants... as long as Copperfield doesn't show up at my house at 3am. That's where I draw the line.
 
Filmjunkie677 said:
Lay off the acid and mushrooms.
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What? I can't cook my mushrooms in lemon juice?


Mattin:
Sure, coincidences! But here's what gets me... after a while at my former day job, I made the realization that I had driven my same commute route well over 1,000 times. And yet retained none of it... just a generalized schema. No memory for any particular one. We go on auto-pilot and drive places we're used to driving if we get distracted by other thoughts, and do the things we've developed expertise in without participating. Where does all that go?

Anyway, where's Piero? Thast's why I created this little thread, to keep the crappy 750 line thread on track...
 
As long as we are kicking around nebulous concepts... I've got something I want to vent... this little tidbit will define your ability to grasp numbers, odds, and the concept of reality itself. This has bugged the HELL out of me ever since I first heard it.

Is it possible to beat 1 in 24 TRILLION odds? I say "NO"... and yet CLICK HERE

If you think something like this can be explained away with "somebody has to win" or "they beat the odds" then there's no point in discussing anything cerebral with you.

Think about that statistic. Now let's test your capacity to accept reality, consider alternatives, or prove some other possibilities within your own mind. The possibility of evolutionary life is rejected based on odds TWICE THAT GOOD at the WORST CASE/BEST CASE SCENARIO. In fact it's said that based on 1 in 10 trillion odds it's 100% impossible!

So how is it that people can accept this little tidbit as a 5th page story and go, "huh... how 'bout that"...?

EDIT: Just so everybody keeps a level head on this... my above point can go either way... As I stated, I don't think there IS such a thing as "beating" 1 in 24 trillion odds. Maybe there is a big guy up there influencing things? All I know is you have to open your mind to possibility when something like that becomes reality.
 
HorseFilms said:
The world can be as much of an illusion as it wants... as long as Copperfield doesn't show up at my house at 3am. That's where I draw the line.
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Didn't he marry Heidi Klum? I think he may have better things to do at 3am... though if he does them in your house, grab your camera and you can get a lot of tabloid money!
 
MattinSTL said:
As long as we are kicking around nebulous concepts... I've got something I want to vent... this little tidbit will define your ability to grasp numbers, odds, and the concept of reality itself. This has bugged the HELL out of me ever since I first heard it....
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I don't quite follow your evolution argument... can you tell us what your odds there are referring to?

First, let me say, I think I agree with you; and there's something far beyond our still naive physics at work. No more detail on that at the moment, though...

But, "beating the odds" I think is also a big issue here. I don't know about beating odds. The odds that my DNA and life experience would line up up to make me exactly as I am are far worse than that lottery number; and the odds that I'm me and you're you are that number squared, at least. If we go by this kind of numerical analysis, every single event that happens in the world can be described by odds more dramatic than that on a moment by moment basis.

What are the odds of any person becoming a successful film director? Millions to one, I'm sure. What are the chances, for someone who dedicates his/her life to such? Far higher. I'd say, with enough work, almost guaranteed.

Any observer of successful people will tell you, what we TRY to do, what we WORK at, what we BELIEVE IN, has some ripple effect in the world. Makes a difference, no? Others can see it, feel it. And it sways the order of the universe.

Naive "scientific"-minded laymen (not real scientists, I mean; no religious connotation!) have little problem accepting self-fulfilling prophecy in the negative... "if you don't believe you can do it, you never will." But they balk at "if you do believe you can do it, you can", and start looking at odds for justification. But odds assume far more knowledge than we have! As any real scientist knows...
 
David Jimerson said:
If the Matrix has me, I don't wanna know. I really don't care.
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Exactly my problem with those movies... why would ANYONE want to be "liberated" into such a lousy world?
 
Blaine said:
A gilded cage is still a cage. :thumbsup:
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But how do you know which is the cage? I mean, the whole point is... the world is illusion! Why pick the crummier one?
 
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