Reality?

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Yeah, aren't I awesome?

But anyway, I still think that there are obvious parts of reality that people share in their individual interpretations. I doubt many schizophrenic people don't experience, say, gravity or time the way everyone else does. People generally have the same understanding of causation, and expect the universe to be consistent, etc. A phrase like "reality is subjective" just seems too broad to be accurate.

[Skyling]

Reality exists independently of human perception. Certainly this perception is what is subjective, but my wallet will remain the same regardless of whether or not I'm looking at it, and also regardless of whether I am looking at it or a crazy person is.

Think "If a tree falls in a forest..."

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Reality exists independently of human perception. Certainly this perception is what is subjective, but my wallet will remain the same regardless of whether or not I'm looking at it, and also regardless of whether I am looking at it or a crazy person is.

Think "If a tree falls in a forest..."

Heh, well, that's just it. Many physicists will tell you that the moon doesn't exist when it's not being observed.

[Skyling]

Heh, well, that's just it. Many physicists will tell you that the moon doesn't exist when it's not being observed.

Humans are far too anthropocentric!

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Heh, well, that's just it. Many physicists will tell you that the moon doesn't exist when it's not being observed.

Humans are far too anthropocentric!

Ha, it's definitely not a problem with those physicists overestimating their significance, believe me.

[scythe]

Reality exists independently of human perception. Certainly this perception is what is subjective, but my wallet will remain the same regardless of whether or not I'm looking at it, and also regardless of whether I am looking at it or a crazy person is.

Think "If a tree falls in a forest..."

Heh, well, that's just it. Many physicists will tell you that the moon doesn't exist when it's not being observed.

But the moon is always being observed!

If you look at the tide, you're indirectly observing the moon. There's a similar argument for just about every worldly process, because it's big enough that it's gravity affects most things in tiny but measurable ways.

A particle or system of particles is said to exist in an indeterminate state when nothing from the outside world is affected by it in any significant way. That's when you get wavefunctions and coherence and entanglement and all those other fun things. On the other hand, the tree in the forest is interacting with the ground in a number of ways, among other things.

[jean-luc]

Reality exists independently of human perception. Certainly this perception is what is subjective, but my wallet will remain the same regardless of whether or not I'm looking at it, and also regardless of whether I am looking at it or a crazy person is.

Think "If a tree falls in a forest..."

Heh, well, that's just it. Many physicists will tell you that the moon doesn't exist when it's not being observed.

But the moon is always being observed!

If you look at the tide, you're indirectly observing the moon. There's a similar argument for just about every worldly process, because it's big enough that it's gravity affects most things in tiny but measurable ways.

A particle or system of particles is said to exist in an indeterminate state when nothing from the outside world is affected by it in any significant way. That's when you get wavefunctions and coherence and entanglement and all those other fun things. On the other hand, the tree in the forest is interacting with the ground in a number of ways, among other things.

Exactly, the concept of "it doesn't exist if I'm not looking at it" dramatically oversimplifies the scenario in which an item could not exist. Schroedinger's cat is only indeterminate because it is sealed away in a box such that it cannot interact or effect Schrodinger in any way. On the other hand, the moon and a tree have a great effect that can directly impact just about everything (think if a butterfly flaps it's wings...).

[noops]

I'm not sure about this whole thing. If we were in some sort of simulated reality or whatever, they wouldn't possible let us know just let us, I dunno, speculate, or whatever.

Who knows? I sure as hell don't. Tsukatu does, I bet.

Though I suppose it would be... Interesting if it turned out that we're all just Sims in some sort of creepily huge online-game, somewhere. Think Second Life, but way more indepth.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Though I suppose it would be... Interesting if it turned out that we're all just Sims in some sort of creepily huge online-game, somewhere. Think Second Life, but way more indepth.

Whoah, yeah. And what would happen if people in the simulation found out? They should make a movie or three about it.

[SlappyMcGee]

Somebody noticed the other day that when I think nobody is watching, I do actions that people usually do to be comical. (Ergo, check the amount of water in the water filter in the fridge by lifting it up to my head and smiling) And I also look like Jim Carrey, so I live a life of Truman.

[otters~1]

Though I suppose it would be... Interesting if it turned out that we're all just Sims in some sort of creepily huge online-game, somewhere. Think Second Life, but way more indepth.

Whoah, yeah. And what would happen if people in the simulation found out? They should make a movie or three about it.

I think they might try to buck the system, but I'm not sure.

[Tunco]

Suppose that you're in a dream right now, all the things you've lived is a dream so far, you're just a 2 year old baby, you can't talk, you can't do anything, except thinking stuff and crying. That is what reality is, -a dream- my perception of reality, of course.

If this is a dream we're living right now then it sure is possible that all of us are living the same 'dream'. If you disagree with me I should ask this question to you; "Do I know the difference between the interpretation of dreams and interpretation of real reality? -which is a dream, under these circumstances- "How do you know you're not dreaming right now?" "Do you always aware that you're dreaming when you dream?" No. Because you know how it feels like to be awake. "But how do you know that you don't image the difference between them, right now, in a dream?" You don't. So that's why it won't even make a slightest difference either we wake up or not.

"I guess reality is what you make of it." Reality is down to individual interpretation.

Okay, I'm going to be excessively nit-picky here and call this statement completely empty.
At first, I figured that you were saying that reality is defined by individual interpretation. For one thing, you quickly end up in a convoluted loop if you try to define something by interpreting an already present definition. Interpretation entails some separate existing thing (the object of interpretation), and if reality is this thing, then clearly it has some form outside of the one it's given by the interpreter. But if it's then defined by its own interpretation (especially by humans, of which no single member can fully comprehend the entirety of reality), then we've necessarily changed it drastically. It cannot ever resemble whatever the heck it once was. Or if you don't even think reality existed before humans were there to define it through this "interpretation" process (which would make "interpret" a poor choice of a word), then you're saying that humans were the Creators.
So you're either guaranteeing that we're all completely schizophrenic, you're calling us gods who don't realize our own perfect knowledge and/or creation of reality, or you didn't mean to say something quite like this.

The only alternative I can think that you might have meant is that each person's understanding of reality is a subjective interpretation of it, which is to say that each person's interpretation of reality is his interpretation of reality, which is not a useful piece of information because it's an identity.
My perception of reality is my perception of reality. My right foot is my right foot. One equals one. Fucking brilliant.
If this latter bit is what you meant (which is also the only reasonable interpretation of what you wrote, I think), then you've said nothing meaningful. Which is to say, you're talking out of your ass.

I'm really not trying to be a complete dick here... it's just that I remembered a war I declared on "wise" phrases that are empty at their core, and that I should probably get back in the game.

I'm not going to try to be a complete dick here but reality is not down to individual interpretation. Every action you do has reasons, but you can't control that reasons. Every action someone makes has great consequences too, that's why you're on that chair, reading this right now. Reality is down to a public interpretation. If not, -everybody has difference opinions about it so it's more likely to be not- if we have different opinions about it which are independent from each other, then the actions we do has great consequences which is likely to make more great consequences, which continues as more great consequences.

Cogito ergo sum.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

If this is a dream we're living right now then it sure is possible that all of us are living the same 'dream'. If you disagree with me I should ask this question to you; "Do I know the difference between the interpretation of dreams and interpretation of real reality? -which is a dream, under these circumstances- "How do you know you're not dreaming right now?" "Do you always aware that you're dreaming when you dream?" No. Because you know how it feels like to be awake. "But how do you know that you don't image the difference between them, right now, in a dream?" You don't. So that's why it won't even make a slightest difference either we wake up or not.

"At twilight's end,
the shadow's crossed,
a new world birthed,
the elder lost.
Yet on the morn
we wake to find
that mem'ry left
so far behind.
To deafened ears
we ask, unseen,
which is life,
and which the dream?"
-Aaron Diaz (author of Dresden Codak)

Also, Lucid Dreaming.

[Tunco]

If this is a dream we're living right now then it sure is possible that all of us are living the same 'dream'. If you disagree with me I should ask this question to you; "Do I know the difference between the interpretation of dreams and interpretation of real reality? -which is a dream, under these circumstances- "How do you know you're not dreaming right now?" "Do you always aware that you're dreaming when you dream?" No. Because you know how it feels like to be awake. "But how do you know that you don't image the difference between them, right now, in a dream?" You don't. So that's why it won't even make a slightest difference either we wake up or not.

Also, Lucid Dreaming.

I know about that fact, just ignored it because it was an exception.

[SlappyMcGee]

If this is a dream we're living right now then it sure is possible that all of us are living the same 'dream'. If you disagree with me I should ask this question to you; "Do I know the difference between the interpretation of dreams and interpretation of real reality? -which is a dream, under these circumstances- "How do you know you're not dreaming right now?" "Do you always aware that you're dreaming when you dream?" No. Because you know how it feels like to be awake. "But how do you know that you don't image the difference between them, right now, in a dream?" You don't. So that's why it won't even make a slightest difference either we wake up or not.

"At twilight's end,
the shadow's crossed,
a new world birthed,
the elder lost.
Yet on the morn
we wake to find
that mem'ry left
so far behind.
To deafened ears
we ask, unseen,
which is life,
and which the dream?"
-Aaron Diaz (author of Dresden Codak)

Also, Lucid Dreaming.

I love Aaron Diaz!

[jinxed_07]

Though I suppose it would be... Interesting if it turned out that we're all just Sims in some sort of creepily huge online-game, somewhere. Think Second Life, but way more indepth.

Whoah, yeah. And what would happen if people in the simulation found out? They should make a movie or three about it.

They could just wipe the knowledge from us since they are the game masters. I guess such a game could be called "Planet tycoon" and earth is just one of many scenario's a person could choose...
but I believe that with all we feel and see and experience that reality is too complicated to be simulated and put into code...even with the greatest amount of super-computers.

And even if reality is just a simulation, I wouldn't want to know about it.

...and after 9 years, I realized, ignorance is bliss.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

...and after 9 years, I realized, ignorance is bliss.

I hope you realize that they probably just killed him. I mean, why go through all the trouble of wiping his mind and hooking his ass up again? It's not like he'd know the difference anyway.

[OutrightOJ]

What and how we're living right now is reality. 'Nuff said.

The Matrix is a film. 'Nuff said.

Even if what we're seeing isn't reality, what would we consider 'reality' to look like, be like or anything else relating to that? What if our dreams are in fact reality? Anything is possible but it depends if the idea is reasonable enough to even be considered 'reality'.

If that makes any sense at all, though.

[jinxed_07]

...and after 9 years, I realized, ignorance is bliss.

I hope you realize that they probably just killed him. I mean, why go through all the trouble of wiping his mind and hooking his ass up again? It's not like he'd know the difference anyway.

My only point is I wouldn't like to know if all I'm living is some life-simulation.

Even if what we're seeing isn't reality, what would we consider 'reality' to look like, be like or anything else relating to that? What if our dreams are in fact reality? Anything is possible but it depends if the idea is reasonable enough to even be considered 'reality'.

If that makes any sense at all, though.

Reality could be defined as any thing our brains perceive, even if it is sensing something that might not even be there.