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

do you have an Oedipus simplicity, then? :-I

Can't say as I've ever wanted to kill my father in any manner, complex or simple, so I guess the answer is no.

It's entirely possible that I have a mathematical singularity located inside my mind, but that's another story entirely. Is the thought of a pink elephant a real thought?

*thinks of a pink elephant with big floppy ears*
.
.
.
i believe im delirious right now...
but that was definitely a real thought
-saffire

Is a delussion not a real thought? I realize it isn't a physically real thing, but doesn't it really exist in the realm of thought? Or am I getting too philosophical here?

Aw, why not get philosophical.

What about the thought "This thought is not a thought"?

Can you think that thought?
Is it a real thought?
Will your mind blow up like one of those old Star Trek computers if you try?

As it is possible to think things that are not neccisarilly true, it is possible to think that thought. I can think: I am a pickeled herring. I can think it, it is a real thought, but that doesn't mean I'm actually a pickeled herring. How can a thought not be a thought? I don't understand that. I understand false memories, I understand false conceptions, but these actually are thoughts. Define thought, please.

But there's a sort of category difference between "I am a pickled herring" (false-to-fact) and "This thought is not a thought" (self-contradictory), is there not?

Perhaps the root difficulty here is that "thought" itself is a concept with many different levels. There's the fleeting-across-the-mind level, and the deep-belief-I-really-grasp-it level (this would be SO much more elegant in German!) and probably others.

It seems to me that although we can put together the words "This thought is not a thought" and even have those words in mind, we can't really think (believe?) that thought in the same way that we can think "the sky is blue" or even "I am a pickled herring" -- the latter being a thought that does not directly contradict itself.

No?

I see what you're saying. I'm slightly curious as to what "deep-belief-I-really-grasp-it" translates to in German. I think I'd abbreviate it to "grok".

have you ever eating pickled herring?
quite tasty :d
-saffire

no, I've not.

You ought to try it. As saffire says, it's quite tasty. As we live on the farm longer and longer, I think we're starting to move towards the old Pennsylvania Dutch standard of "seven sweets and seven sours" for every dinner. There's something about having a big vegetable garden that makes you want to pickle everything in sight.

well, perhaps someday I shall try pickeled herring. But not today.

oh come on....everyone else is doing it....
-saffire

Well then, I'm sure there'll be a shortage. I'll wait until it's a tad less fashionable.

I canned 2 quarts and 3 pints of dill pickles today. They'll be ready to eat in about a month. Perhaps you would prefer those to the herring?

much. dill pickles appeal more to my tastes than pickled herring, mostly because I'm not much of a fish person. Though I don't see how I would be able to come pick up pickles down here. I suppose I'm in a bit of a... no, even I can't say that.

Well, it will be at least a month before they're ready to eat, and certainly we'll still have some left at spring break time. Just imagine, you could be the first in your class to go to Endicott instead of Daytona or Palm Springs!

Could be, though I was thinking of a camping trip down here for spring break... pickles would be... different.

personally i like crunch pickles... and none of those sweet ones... :d
-saffire

I'm sure there's something clever to be said playing off that last remark and the saying "sweets to the sweet"...however my sleep-befogged brain is currently unable to come up with it. Sorry.