[SquidWard1473]

What if life is just a simulation created by someone else to see how society will turn out. What if life is moving so fast for the other person but at normal speed for us. If a full 90 years us life for us is a five minute period for them...

[raisingale]

Descartes said "I think, therefore I am." (Cogito ergo sum). Perhaps the mere thought or awareness of one's existence is all that's required to make the life experience "real". Time in other dimensions or the relativity in time is relevant in so far as we experience it.

[hauntinghelper]

Good point. How do we truly define life? I for one believe in the afterlife, so I would define it to be beyond our physical existence we are currently experiencing. I think therefore I am... I do believe self-awareness is a crucial part of what we call life.

I don't know why this is in the paranormal thread... but it's always an interesting discussion.

>thread moved<

[TUT317]

what if life is just a simulation created by someone else to see how society will turn out. What if life is moving so fast for the other person but at normal speed for us. if a full 90 years us life for us is a five minute period for them...

The most quick solution to this problem is to think about life in terms of money. Imagine that the only currency that everyone has experienced is counterfeit money. In other words there is no such thing as real money.

When we think about this it makes no sense to make any claim to knowledge about counterfeit money. How can we call a currency counterfeit if we have never experienced real money? The counterfeit money would be real money from our point of view. We can only use the term 'counterfeit money' if we have had the experience of knowing real money.

The same type of argument applies to dreaming versus reality. The dreaming argument only makes sense if we have a reality.

Tut

[TUT317]

Descartes said "I think, therefore I am." (Cogito ergo sum). Perhaps the mere thought or awareness of one's existence is all that's required to make the life experience "real". Time in other dimensions or the relativity in time is relevant in so far as we experience it.

Yes, Descartes is a key player in all of this. As to whether awareness of oneself using the Cartesian method is enough to know what is 'real' is largely dependent on two arguments.

Basically, the common sense view that the world is real and we experience that reality in a direct way through our senses.

Opposed to this view is that the brain generates a copy of the physical world. On this basis we don't actually know how the world is, but it is representation that our minds present to us.

Important to realize that Descartes was not a common sense, or naïve realist. Rather, he was of the second type. He was a representational realist. So life experience is not enough to know what is real from Descartes point of view even though we might be aware of ourselves.


Tut

[smoothy]

I think people that ponder these questions more than a few minutes usually do so under the influence of narcotics.

[Fr_Chuck]

Then your actions are controlled by the other persons thoughts. So it does not matter. So guess it does not matter if you read this post or not. Unless I am the one controlling you and everyone else,

[TUT317]

Then your actions are controlled by the other persons thoughts. So it does not matter. so guess it does not matter if you read this post or not. Unless I am the one controlling you and everyone else,

This position is basically known as Solipsism. The world is nothing but myself, my mind and the ideas it creates. In the extreme form, yes I am controlling you and everyone else. This is because you only exist because I choose to let you exist. In the end nothing exists except that which is contained in my mind.

There are obvious problems with this philosophy. However, the point is that Descartes is not of this school. Even though Descartes does start claiming he cannot doubt his own existence he nonetheless attempts to provide a method of overcoming skepticism. In other words, there are some forms of knowledge that are immune to doubt.

Tut

[TUT317]

I think people that ponder these questions more than a few minutes usually do so under the influence of narcotics.

Perhaps some people are but these types questions still remain very important.

Tut

[smoothy]

Perhaps some people are but these types questions still remain very important.

Tut

Obviously to some... I think those few tend to have too much free time on their hands if that's all they have to worry about. Personally I don't have ENOUGH free time to do what I need to do in my personal life... much less concern myself over stuff like that.

[NeedKarma]

Obviously to some....I think those few tend to have too much free time on their hands if thats all they have to worry about. Personally I don't have ENOUGH free time to do what I need to do in my personal life...much less concern myself over stuff like that.

I feel the same way about politics. To each their own.