h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Rene D. did not quite have it down pat - just because you think you are - does it mean you are... what?.

But that's what I have alway's said.

Think about it (or don't!).

Is it all a dream? Do you think it is?

Anyway. Have a can of this fine warm Newcastle Brown Ale - things shall become clearer.

*Descartes whispers in Frink's ear*

Ahhh.....but if you don't exist, how could you have a thought? Can nothing think?

What if you only think because your existence is purely the figment of something else's imagination - and any existence is also fictional. Part of what makes your imaginary existence is the bit about you thinking that you think.

Do computers think, or do they think they think?

( I think it's time to go out and buy a crate of brown ale - maybe something stronger. At least if I don't exist, I can go out and wreak havoc and the universe will remain in balance)

To add:

How do you define "think" and "am". What has to be thinking to "be". Is it a collection of chemical reactions? Where is this being? What is a thought, and what is not?

If we think with our brain - what is the actual thought that makes us be? Does a neuron have thought - it gets some input, does soemthing and has an output? Does it think, and does it exist?

(time to pour another pint or six)

Wow, I really do need a drink before I ponder that.....

Try the tequila - it will makes things dimly clear.

Dude,

I don't think very much, does that mean I'm having trouble existing?

If I think harder and for longer, will I overcome myself? Will I be more than a mere ephemeral existence?

Ok. Tequila now.

That probably means you just think less that you think you are (or not) - that may not relate to your existence (or not).

The tequila doesn't think I am sure - Therefore no need to worry about any bad effects from drinking it - except perhaps fusing a few neurons - that may or may not exist anyway.

Ok,

so I may or may not be in existence based upon my thinking or not thinking,or possibly just thinking that I think (and therefore exist).

The tequila doesn't think and therefore my hangover (which cannot be generated by a non-existent tequila) does not exist.

J'existe.

Or in the words of the Pythons - Renee Descartes was a drunken fart, I drink therefore I am.

Ah.. Mais oui, mon ami. Je pense...

Great minds drink alike.

The actual dilemma is whether thinking defines being. Should it be "I think, therefore I am" or "I am, therefore I think"? Or should it simply be "I am"?

Furthermore, what defines "am"? Actually, this is the wrong question. We should ask what defines "I am". If you consult the Bible (or Cecil B. DeMill's "The Ten Commandments... your choice) "I am" is defined as the name of God. Is the maxim therefore, "As a thinking being, I become God"?

YES! Logically, I am the only self-cognizant being in existence. I am infinite; the universe began to exist only when I thought of myself as "born" and nothing occurred before that, and I have no proof that I will die. In addition, you cannot prove to me that you exist; my mind is sufficiently schizoid and masochistic to dream up anything you can do. Therefore, everything in existence, except me, is merely a figment of my imagination, and will disappear as soon as I stop imagining it. As the only self-existant being, I have created both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, merely to amuse myself (eternity can be boring, especially if you're all alone). Why don't I remember creating it? Because I don't want to. I'd rather have company, even if they only exist in my mind.

Feels great doesn't it! Maybe you imagine your mind also.

A Universal God could be an "I am" or a "we are".

In a biological sense, the human body is a collection of cells all interacting. Chemical reaction producing thoughts and actions. In a larger scope, do the interactions of planets, gasses, stars galaxies, moved by physical forces to produce some change in state constitute thinking of some kind? Is this any more thought than what we perceive to be our own thought, or selves?

Okay, so perhaps "I am" should be changed to "we are (am?)". Just like all of the cells in our body acting in unison, each one striving for its own (supposed) goals, is it possible that humanity, each individual being, truly exists, but only as a member of an overarching planetary (universal?) ego? And that each being, striving for its own (supposed) goals, is actually only acting in response to the unconscious whims of this superbeing who is composed of all our parts? And is it furthermore true that any time of war, sickness, or famine on earth or the universe can correspond to illness in this superbeing? Not only possible, but 100% probable (just like everything else). Therefore, the question remaining to be asked is: Why do we perceive ourselves as having free will? What possible purpose does it serve?

Free Willy

Personally, if I thought I didn't have free will, I couldn't make myself get out of bed in the morning........oh, but if I didn't have free will, that wouldn't be my decision to make, and something else would force me out of bed.........

Maybe we think we have free will so we can feel good about choosing to not watch Free Willy.

Maybe there is free will, but within certain boundaries? As in, I have free will to waste my weekend rather than study, but try as I might I don't have the free will to eat bill gates. But then if I was bill gates' minder I might have the opportunity. Maybe I should not try to write stuff like this after having about three hours sleep.

Lance.

That's interesting, God made me waste my weekend away......I know it wasn't my fault

*wandering through, shouting*

'ot Poyz!

They don't exist, get 'em while they're not.

*fading*

All flavours. 'Ot Poyz! get 'em whi...

I'll have one without sauce.

Lucky for you the sauce doesn't exist either.