We are all wrong from time to time, even on matters about which we have absolute confidence, alas. In your lifetime there can be any number of occasions on which you may be absolutely certain and yet absolutely mistaken. Thus I posit.

If you were held captive by a malign fiend which deceived your senses, of what if anything could you be certain?

If you inaugurate a method of doubting everything, you could thus be reduced to the simple conclusion that because you are concious, and aware of your own thoughts, you could not plausibly doubt your own existence. You see its a simple "I think, therefore I am.", it sounds so trivial, until in context.

"I'm real! I exist! And upon that rock, I shall build an edifice of reason!"

But I digress, in this case, my point is truth is slippery. Although that slipperiness is a disadvantage in some situations, it is also vital to the way we live. The wrong truth at the wrong moment causes housing markets to plummet and nations to growl at one another.

But to make matters worse, I suggest now that human beings are incapable of knowing truth, or anything at all, in an absolute sense of course.

We believe. We theorise. But we have no direct perception of whether our belief is matched by the objective universe.

But, what if this is a role we fill?

If the Heisenberg stuff is literally true, we as conscious beings have a sort of role in the ongoing creation of the universe. We cause tiny indecisions to go one way or another, just by looking at them. So the one has to ask:

If we learned to appreciate the universe directly and without the possibility of error, would we inaugurate a cascade?

What if our way of existing is contingent on these little uncertainties in the fabric of out world? And thus, what if knowing this entails knowing that, which implies that, and so on and so on until there are no open questions any more, and every choice is made as a consequence of every other, and finally we become little clockwork people. And wouldn't that rather mean the extinction of intelligence?

12 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

Hi!

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

short answer: yes

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Indeed it is, you verbose wordsmith you.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Kony 2012.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

horny 2012

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I enjoyed reading this...

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

tl;dr

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

true, very true. That got me thinking now.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

So what are you wearing? :3

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

42

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I think so too

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Truth is elusive, it's nowhere to be found \
Yeah, the truth can never be written down \
It's not in any magazine \
You can't see it on your TV screen \

Truth is evasive, oh, you might have the facts \
Got it straight, you think, but then it all \
Cracks wide open, you can search the world far and wide \
The only truth that you can ever find \

Is in another, soul that's got the same burning need \
To find out what's 'neath the cover of \
The one we'll meet without truth on it \
So let's get together, see what we can uncover \

One that defines your world \
It's your truth, your life \
One that excels \
Special reminder \
To get your way through \
This Shadow world \

Here.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

The truth is out there.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

inaugurate a cascade. well i dont think there is a way of "perceiving things without error," perception is perspective, and it changes from being to being. what we perceive the world around us to be is not the same as what a dog sees, or a bat or cephalopod or whatever. And what your other question leads up to, is ultimately asking "what is intelligence" and that question really isnt understood by most and possibly cannot be. We look for life in outer space and its stupid, because we are literally surrounded by 'intelligent life' here on this planet. For the most part the way we choose to interact with it is by eating it. Literally, like in restaurants. So intelligence is a perception as well. But, something tells me no one reads these replies probly just some template thrown up every so n so...

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Why are you spamming this pseudo-intellectual crap everywhere, what is wrong with you?
Also, maybe you should provide a source, i'm pretty sure you didn't wrote that

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Old puzzle rehashed, calm down

Also spamming? I think I posted the puzzle once like 3-4 months ago and it was never solved and I didn't want to write a solution, this is the second time it has been posted, this time with its own topic instead of as a response,

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

why not just say its a puzzle then? instead of pretending you're looking for answers. between these puzzles and jade's stunts, its hard to know whats a troll around here and what aint

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

"why not just say its a puzzle then?"

I can see you are new here. A lot of people like making puzzles without saying it's a puzzle.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

yeah, but posing questions and what not.. just wasting time if you buy into it and actually, like respect what they are saying / asking.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

A PUZZLE WITHIN A PUZZLE.

PUZZLE.

NOZZLE.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Ah, ok then. For some reason, i found that text mildy irritating, mostly because of the ADD positions of bolded text and formatting. Still, it doesnt raise or prove any valid point even if it was made to instigate some sort of contemplative reaction
EDIT
I'll give you this as my peace offering

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Ok.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

i know theres a giveaway hidden somewhere in this...

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Can't help but think the answer is in your misspellings, but I can only find four of them.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Yes, from time to time. However that's why they are theories. We look in the science world to disprove them and then we know we are wrong. However, the statistical likely hood of being wrong in something we call a law is so low that we give it the name law. Our lives are based off of statistical likely hoods therefore you actually have a good change about being wrong yourself with that statement according to your logic. So therefore, if everything can be wrong even when we are most certain that also applies to you and that would mean that you could be wrong in saying that so everything we must say is correct. Even though it is unlikely there is a statistical chance that the inverse of what you said is true and that is similar to the statistics that a law or even a well proven theory is wrong. So there is a little perspective for you.

tl;dr: Your logic is flawed.

Also: Nice puzzle I might come back to this later.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

We don't know truth, we proove stuff, and everything, as the rest of the stuff that goes on in our lives, is subjective to each individual.

There's a saying i've heard once, that says this:
Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

Theology is looking for a black cat in a dark room, pointing at a random corner and saying "IT'S THERE!"

(comparison doesn't matter much, the point is there for you to see)

Will we ever reach that point? that ideal? maybe, perhaps the day we fully understand ourselves as human beings, who coexist with whatever environment we are at the moment, or maybe we will be forever stuck in a world of subjectivity, where some wacko will tell us in the year 2013 that in the year 2014 the world will end due to an alien race will arrive and dance macarena till we all die...... and most will buy it.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Seriously?

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

TL;DR;Too much bold. However, I'm sometimes even wrong on the internets!

EDIT: read some. I can't tell if I should report this as spam or not. Large type and bold says yes, but I'm not really sure where we draw the line. He says it's a puzzle, but since it was unsolvable last time, maybe it's not a puzzle? =)

(In summary, I give up.)

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

didnt read, but headline is so fruiting true:/

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Almost there!

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

hey im glad i saw the giveaway link in the middle :D

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I do not see such things! My eyes hurt! ;_;

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Closed 12 years ago by SuperFluffyKitty.