The World is one Big Dream...

How do we know ANYTHING exists? How do I know you exist or you know I do? The world is s complicated it is almost inconcievable. I think life is one big dream all based around yourself...

Naw, couldn't be true. If that were the case you'd be driving a Ferrari and have Britney Spears, Jennifer Anniston, Katie Holmes and several other girls hanging all over you. Life is too unfair to be a dream.... :D

just think about Matrix, I mean there's no way anyone can disprove that idea..

I actually think that I the most plausable way of explaining life. The Matrix has a good base of arguing... But what goes beyond the machines and stuff. I'm talking about a pure, endless dream. Not one you can control. Perhaps the things we call "dreams" are really reality and reality is the dream. We'll never know until death and dead people don't talk...

WOW thats scary :(

You are absolutely right. As far as I am concerned, there is absolutely no way to prove the existence of matter, or anything else.. for that matter.

I think there could be no more enlightening experience to have a near death experience (and I don't mean like barely avoiding a fatal accident and "seeing your life flash before your eyes;" I mean where your heart stops and you are actually dead for a brief time before being revived) so that your have your foot in death's door. Maybe this would be very enlightening.. maybe it would be nothing but blankness. But just being able to taste the unknown, and have insight into what may be humanity's greatest mystery, would be incredibly rewarding.

EVERYONE wonders about what happens to a person after death. Not knowing is what keeps us from taking life for granted, but it is also kind of a tease at the same time. Fate's grand mockery of human life.

To the concept of life being an endless dream, I've always been fascinated by the notion of nothing existing. Try this: just picture the existence of nothing. Start with the earth, the solar system, the galaxy, etc. and picture none of it existing... nothing. A vast nothing. No light, no matter. I am having trouble conveying how powerful an idea this is, but the true notion of nothing is frankly scary and very difficult to grasp for me. Let me beat on this some more: NOTHING. How can there be nothing?

Think also about that: mostly what you see is what you believe. Now what you see is an interpretation of our mind. Evidence for that we have all the time. Look at your friends the 'picture' you have of a friend of yours isn't the sam as another has of him, so it goes on... I discussed about that subject 2 days ago with a couple of friends it's actualy endless (that's why we call it philosophy). The same is with all the laws sciense found during the centuries we assume they are correct 'cause they are correct in theire own circle of hypothesis - but what if the fundamental hypothesis we mad is wrong that would turn everything wrong...

it's true all hard sciences are born from unwavering faith in the Scientific Method (which has worked many, many times over). However, if you do believe in the ability of logic to explain all things, there are certain things you CAN prove absolutely. The existence of one's self, of time and absolute truth are both provable through simple logical statements (think Archimedes' Point and other logic satements). The existence of an external world is an extension of that basic logic, although it's subjectively perceived state does make absolute knowledge of just what's out there difficult at best.

But here's a wake up call: Math & Logic works, the Theory of Relativity works, what is known about Quantum Physics works. Don't believe me? Then please explain how you were able to post here :)

Texan: Were you ever at carforums? (supercars.net)

interesting theory... how can we prove that we aren't in something like the Truman Show then? To think that right now I could be in a coma in an operating room in Mars

I've kinda noticed "Truman Show" occurences. I've noticed little things that kind of lean towards that philosophy...

Lizard King- Nope, never been there. Isn't that the site some people have talked badly about?

Some do, its still a good place though.

The fact that you exist is without question. Consciousness itself is proof of your own existence. The only true question would be whether or not your perceptions of reality are, in actuality, the same reality seen by everyone else...assuming that everyone else is not just an extension of your own consciousness and a world your mind has created.



[Edited by ichthus on 02-26-2001 at 11:41 AM]

Well that we can write here isn't actualy proof for the quantuum physic and there are some theories about it which bring up the doubt that thy could be wrong.

if Quantum Physics doesn't work, why does the transistor, the basis for all modern computers, work (keep in mind you are using one to post here)? I currently have a friend working on the Unification Theory (the theory to finally unite Relativity and Qauntum theories), just don't forget you first heard the name Chris Martin here. He will be in many textbooks in 20 years, mark my words.

I don't argue the premise that we may be living in a dream state because it undermines the very principles by which nearly all of us live. Our will is our own, our life is what we make of it. These are the terms by which we live, and saying otherwise not only negates countless years of intelligent thought, but should require more proof than a simple statement. The idea that there is a larger world than our own mind can create, that all of us exist in this world, should not be questioned. It's laws, it's nature, even it's origins can be questioned, but not it's existence. And this is entirely self evident unless one passes on the ideas that have formed cultures for thousands of years.

Not to sound bitter, but does anyone really think their existence is merely a dream, a simulation, or any act of creation other than whatever originated us as a species? I for one do not, I believe that my existence is very real and very objectively true. "I think, therefore I am". Archimedes point.

You make some very good points in retalliation to the arguments pertaining to ths notion of existence being a perpetual dream state. Even if the existence of matter and all its accompanying principles can not be proven to be true, the sheer illogical nature of this theorem makes it difficult to swallow because of all that we do "know" (although some of these things we actually take for granted - for example, flimsy an example as this might be, we can not prove that the sun will rise tomorrow. It is highly likely, and there is next to nothing to suggest that it will not, but we actually take it for granted that it will in fact rise tomorrow).

The teachings of Socrates seem to ring ever true here (who said you can't learn anything from watching movies like Bill and Ted eighteen times? :) ): The only true knowledge lies in knowing that you know nothing. Indeed, even thousands of years after his death, with all the scientific research that has been performed on every aspect of life, matter, evolution, etc., there is so little we actually know. And in turn, everything we learn seems to open more doors to other unexplored, as of yet unknown dimensions. Often it seems so ludicrous that there is any sense to be made of this important statement, but here it seems to be of unwavering accuracy.

Try to imagine that. If an additonal dimension would exist we would miss pretty much things... :bandit:

The whole what if life was a dream thing is so Descartes. That's what the Meditations are pretty much all about.

if this is the matrix then damn think about it... wait why am i saying this no one is reading this everyone is just in my head! god ive gone cross eyed!:bloated: :p :D

Unforunatly Texan Logic such a wonderful thing that you can use it to disprove it. Kant found a way of using his own Logic to disprove the existance of time out side of the human mind, but then along came Shopenhour who showed that it did exist out side the human mind useing a diffrent Logic. (dont ask how they each did please, I dont have the time to reread it all, :D)

I think you (like you noted) simply have to accept that we exist in some kind of a reality, we may not be able to percive all of it (e.g. we cant see in the UV spectrum) but we can know all of it, we just have to find away. If you dont, well then you have no foundation for any claim that you may make, and simple participating in life become pointless.