(December 5, 2014 at 7:52 am)Heywood Wrote:(December 4, 2014 at 10:05 pm)Jenny A Wrote:
Presumably nobody is viewing the far side of Pluto right now....yet you and I would both agree that the far side of Pluto is not imaginary. Why? because potentially we could put an observer there and view it. Perspective is what determines what is real and that perspective exists whether or not a conscious observer exists. Our entire understanding of reality is formulated on this idea that what is real is determined by perspective.
No, our reality is not created by perspective. Take dreams for example. I have them from time to time, and I'm sure you do too. Do you think they are real in the sense of representing a reality? I don't, I doubt you do either. I don't because my conscience mind is sure that they are merely dreams not reality and from time to time even my dreaming mind is aware that I'm just dreaming. But the perspective from my brain is the same.
(December 5, 2014 at 7:52 am)Heywood Wrote: Imagine you are in a space ship positioned in space. You see me pass you in my space ship traveling at the speed of light. You observe a clock on my space ship and see it is stopped. Is time really not passing for me? From your perspective there is no flow of time for me. Now from my perspective reality is completely different. From my perspective I see you passing me at the speed of light. From my perspective your clock is stopped and for you there is no flow of time.
Does the flow of time exist for me? Well it exists and it doesn't exist. It all depends on perspective. Sub realities exist and they don't exist...it all depends on perspective. How can something exist and not exist? The notion is nonsensical. I resolve the nonsense by thinking about it this way. If something can be observed to exist from at least one perspective, then that thing can be said to exist. Since a sub reality is real and has physicality from the perspective of the things they contain, I can credibly say sub realities exist....even if they lack physicality from my perspective. I can credibly say the flow of time exists for you even though it doesn't from my perspective.
I think the problem here is that I see no perspective from which computer generated "sub-realities" exist. They are collection of mathematical rules with the results displayed visually. There is no inside perspective.
Try this piece of inductive reasoning:
When people say words, the objects named are not created by the words.
When people draw pictures, the objects depicted are not created by the picture.
When people write a mathematical equation, the things described by the equation are not created by the equation.
Therefore, when people use mathematical procedures to create words and pictures on a computer screen, nothing is created except the words and pictures on the screen. No new objects or space is created.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.