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

Someone recently sent me an email forward self-quiz (yes, those veritable hotbeds of philosophical discussion as I'm sure you know). In it was contained the phrase:

"The moment you're born, you start dying."

I disagree. The moment you're born, you start living.

I realise I'm in danger of stating the bl00dy obvious but it occurred to me, and I thought this was probably the place to say it .

<"The moment you're born, you start dying.">

Roadie. I agree with you. The above quote is too true to be good! OK, as soon as you're born you start using up your allotted lifespan. On the other hand, your actuarial life expectancy increases during the first year or so of your life.

Hey, isn't it 'dieing' or are we changing the colour of our clothes here? Either way, we need a definition of the term before starting to pontificate!

toxx

It may well be dieing, I'm not sure. Only problem is, as soon as you start me off going e-i before you know it there'll be an e-i-o on the end of it, so I tend to avoid then.

If you change it to "The moment you're born you start to die", then that is definitely not true, except in a few unfortunate cases. Granted, "Start dieing" and "start to die" don't mean exactly the same.

To die, to be dying.

To dye, to be dyeing.



az

Ah! Many thanks, az .

Yep. Cheers az. I wasn't sure. Anyway, where it the definition from someone?

toxx

Hey this is mere semantics. Let's do some philosophy as in: 'Do we have freewill?' or 'Is there a God?'.

toxx

It all depends what you mean by 'God'

Or even "Do we have freewill or is there a God?"

And for Z phantom - "The universe is not *like* anything; it is only like something to be aconsciousess *in* the universe."

Noggin

Noggin. I disagree completely, as you might have guessed. The universe is like itself. 'To be, is to be necessarily self-identical'. I don't recall who said it - but argue against it if you will.

toxx

Oh yes! <... it is only like something to be aconsciousess *in* the universe.">

So what is *that* like then?

toxx

Yes.

toxx

No problem, Roadie. A person who doesn't have a body, is perfectly good, omniscient, omnipotent, outside time and space, creator and sustainer of whatever else there is.

toxx

pumpikano

And for my philosophical phrase:

-You just can’t fully explain the universe. This explanation is what many various philosophies offer to try to explain the universe because they can’t explain it.

Eh?

Jorge Luis Borges wrote a nice piece about how his death had already begun; "I have closed some doors I will never open again" is a phrase I recall. How true.

Here's a quote from Steven Pinker: "No one acquires the truth by divine revelation"

-- from The Blank Slate" p. 360, where it is in the middle of a sentence, so there is no capital N in the original.

So toxx, can you give me a description of what the universe is like that doesn't depend at some point on the way consciousness experiences it?



Well I know what it's like for me. What's it like for you?

Noggin

Noggin. It would be rather like the description of atoms, which consciousness never experiences as such. There would be equations for those who understand them. In fact, consciousness doesn't appreciate galaxies except as fuzzy patches in the night sky. At some point, of course, there are observational inputs from instruments of one kind or another, but we don't routinely describe, say, Jupiter by reference to space probes and telescopes; although, of course, we can.

toxx

Do tell. Is it more like being a bat or Condillac's statue?

toxx

About collecting quotes: there's a lot to choose from in post 352.

... and then cycling down the wrong side of Sweden - I presume.

toxx