God's Debris...

so i just read this book yesterday,today..whatever day it is(come to think of it,uh..whatever month it is)...

first book in recent memory i've picked up andnot set down until i finished it...it was pretty damn odd...and like the reviews say i also had alot of shit i should have been doing,hah..


so i thought since the book is called a thoght experiment,for those that have read it...lets have at it.

the experiment as Adams says is:

Try to figure out whats wrong with the simplest explainations.

these are the Old man that knows everything about everything.


if you haven't read the book,i know it's on the internet somewhere..little over 130 somthin' pages...read it and discuss...


hmmm,
K.K.

ok, i thought I'd type the inner panel in case some people don't want to search without knowing what the book is about.


"imagine that you meet a very old man who-you eventually realize-Knows literally everything.Imagine that he explains for you the Great Mysteries if Life: Quantum Physics,Evolution,God,Gravity,Light,Psychic phenomenon,and probability-and In a way so simple,so novel,and so compelling that it all fits together and makes perfect sense. What does it feel like to suddenly understand everything?"

"you may not find the Final answer to the big question inside,But God's Debris might provide the most compelling vision of reality you will ever read. the thought experiment is this:Try to figure out whats wrong with the Old man's explanation of reality. Share the book wit your smart friends.The discuss it later while enjoying a Beverage"

that sounds like a really awesome book actually :D
ima look for that at my library next time i go!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by killerkat

whats wrong with the Old man's explanation of reality(?)

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Because the real answer is

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ife.png/220px-

of course

read it.

it reads like someone has just discovered Douglas Adams and is all a-whirl with the wonder of it all. most people get over this sort of pseudo-intellectual almost-philosophy by the time they're about twenty-five years old.

I really don't know how you can have a debate about this. the problem with simplistic explanations is that they are easier to understand, but that is in no way a reflection of whether they are true or not. while it can be excepted (or not) that there is a concrete reality, any and all perceptions of it are subjective, and therefor not true or universal.

It goes back to Descartes' arguement. He theorized that his ability to comprehend existence was proof of the reality of existence, because if there was no existence, then he wouldn't be able to think about it. While he didn't really believe that his own mind was the creative force behind reality, he thought that his intellect gave him some special ability and authority to proclaim truths as if he created them (because to a certain extent, he did.) What he did not do, because it would prove him wrong, was to offer the counter to his argument. If I don't think, therefor Am I not? The answer is that Descartes is full of shit, and the existence or non-existence of the universe is true, regardless of whether him or anyone else has the ability to perceive it.


Ok Ok, since this whole line of thinking opens up a can of worms that debunks things I've said before and things that I will say (such as a conversation with One Eyed Cat that I haven't forgot about and will get to soon), I'll go ahead and answer the skeptics question: If everything is subjective and concrete reality is irrelevant, then how can I make an argument for rational conditions of right and wrong? The answer is just because everything that we think is false, doesn't mean it has no context. The perceptions of a subject may not have any relation to anything else, but it still has a relation to one thing: It self. They matter to us, and that's why they are important.

Hm, well, I read half of it yesterday, then unfourtunately I had to go finish up some things. I'll try to finish it up today.
So far, some things were a little to BS-y, but over-all I'll read anything that gets the mind druding along, and there were some fun points in it.

I reccomend Schrodinger's Cat by Robert Wilson.