(February 15, 2013 at 9:25 am)Tiberius Wrote:Mental masturbation does not replace reality. Point of view does not replace a lab.(February 14, 2013 at 2:00 pm)Phish Wrote: -is there any way we can prove that we aren't just sleeping and when we die we wake up.No.
Quote:and how do you go on living,such questions totally screwed me upWe make assumptions. It is far easier to assume that what we experience is reality, and not some dream or virtual world. What matters is that we recognize and state these assumptions.
(February 14, 2013 at 3:17 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Really? Ugg. This is simply mental masturbation. It confuses "POV" issues as being equal to scientific reality and they are NOT the same thing.Who mentioned science? Nobody but you it seems. The question is quite valid in the realms of philosophy and logic. Science, as you are probably aware, cannot answer this question as it only works within the scope of what we have deemed "reality". It cannot answer questions about the nature of the "reality" itself.
Quote:Yes this is reality. We are here.That didn't answer OP's question. You are assuming that what we experience as reality is all that exists. You cannot prove to me (or anyone else) that we are not in a dream, or a simulation. It doesn't work like that.
Quote:This is as old as the question "If a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound". Not worthy at all of any serious consideration.Bullshit. That question may seem simple, but it is remarkably complex and does require a lot of understanding, both from a scientific and a philosophical perspective. What it boils down to is what "sound" actually is. We know that when pressure oscillates in certain ways, it creates sound in our ears. The question is, does that "sound" exist before it reaches our ears, or is it only our interpretation of the pressure oscillation that we call sound? If it is the latter (which to me is more reasonable), then a tree falling in a forest makes no sound if there are no sound receptors around to hear it. All it does is make a lot of pressure oscillations, but without a receptor to translate those oscillations into sound, they are meaningless.
Quote:Shrodinger's cat is garbage.Physics would disagree with you.
You can accept flawed perception without defaulting to making claims without backing them up.
Ultimately it works best like this.
You open your mouth, you make a claim, then you prove it.
It does not work like this.
I make a claim, since we don't know everything anything is possible so it is true until we disprove it.
Science certainly has some really freaky stuff in it, like gravity affecting time. But admitting that human perception is flawed does not make everything possible by default.
This is why we have scientific method and labs. To insure quality of data. The fact that scientists don't live in the future does not mean we let our brains fall out and assume something is true first.
A falling tree will still make a sound even if you don't hear it. The laws of physics are not suspended because you don't hear the sound. Right now somewhere in another country YOU don't live in a car horn is honking. A TV is on making noise in a house or apartment you don't live in.