The Philosophy Page
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Questions of life, existence, reality, the univerese, and why M&M's melt in your hand...


This is just a page of ideas about philosophy. Some of it might be similar to my rants, some of it might be better. Anyway, my mind is pretty twisted, so feel free to be disturbed. (Or have a Disturbathon.)
What is reality?

Reality is what you as a person experience, what you perceive, how you view the world. Reality is reflexive: Reality is Reality. Reality is defined by the Webster's New World College Dictionary as "the quality or fact of being real." Although everyone experiences reality differently, it can be said that everyone ultimately experiences reality through their brain. Brains have been known to go wrong; about 50% of the population of the US is thought to have some sort of mental disease. So, if someone has schizophrenia, does reality change, or just the way they perceive it in their brain? If reality can only be experienced in the brain, and some brains have contradicting realities, can it truly be said that either reality is correct? In fact, the very nature of reality can come into question. After all, what is real? Can we say with any true conviction that we actually exist?  What is too say that we are not simply the abstractions of someone's thoughts? Because, after all, what truly distinguishes thoughts and real things? Tactile sensation? Visual stimulation? These are simply the results of electricity passing through the body in a certain pattern. So is it possible that our entire world is simply and interconnected web of nerve implulses? After all, it is our only evidence that our world even exists. If two brains simultaneously imagine the same thing, regardless of whether it actually "happened", did the event actually occur? Becuase, after all, where does the past exist? In memory, in the brain? The questions go on...

Let's say that we came up with some way to prove that the world that our brain tells exists actually exists. Even if we didn't, we have to take what we can perceive for granted, because it is the only world we can interract with. The laws of unvierses/who knows whats that we don't exist in don't apply to us, so we can examine this universe for what it is. As of now, to the best of our knowledge, the known universe consists of space-time lattice in which  also exists matter/energy. The space-time lattice is infinite, as far as we know.  So, if we constitute a given amount of matter/energy converted to space-time, and space time is infinite, does this mean that we are nothing? Because anything divided by infinity will result in zero (or at least be infinitely small). So we are quite possible something that is nothing. Strange. An interesting new theory of the universe is the string theory and its variants. One of the consequences of this theory is that the universe is composed of something like 10 dimensions. There is actually very solid mathematical foundation for this, although it has not been proven. However, assuming there are more than our four dimensions (length, width, depth, time), imagine how much more complex our universe is than we can perceive! I mean, think of something that is 1D. This is defined as a point. As three dimensional beings, we can barely comprehend this concept, in fact, it is mathematically undefined. Next, imagine something that is 2D. Think of how much more infinitely complex something in 2D is than a point in space. The difference is tremendous!!! Now, take another step up to the 3D world. The difference between a 2D and a 3D world is stupendous. Now imagine the difference between a 3D and 10D world. To think that we could be as abstract and non-existent as a point in space. Reality is weird.

The nature of the Future

Time is a strange thing. When you think of time, you  probably think of past, present, and future. In 'reality' (see the above shit), time is actually a dimension. Many find this hard to believe, but it is true. If you think about it, a dimension is a variable needed to determine the position/size/shape of a given object. You have all of the obvious dimensions, namely length, width, and depth, but one must also consider time. Without time, you could never determine whether your object was in one place or another because the object moves in space over time, thus rendering time a dimension. For humans, and most of the matter in the universe, time can only be experienced in the state is at in the given instant one chooses to experience it. For example, it is, at the time of this writing, March 22, 2004. Right now, that is the only state we can experience time in. We cannot voluntarily choose to suddenly have it be [insert date here]. This being the nature of time, we are left with the challenge of measuring the time that we are not currently experiencing, whether it has happened or not. The easiest way of doing this is by dividing time into the past, present, and future. The past covers events that have already occured. Let us genuflect on the nature of the past. One of the predominant questions about the past is: does the past exist? I find this question is best answered in the book 1984 (if you havent read it, leave this site immediately, read it, and return. I want all of you to suffer at the hands of Orwell.). Orwell's theory of the past is that it doesn't exist. I tend to agree with this  because there is no tangible place where you can access the past. The past will never occur again, just as the exact same moment in time can never occur twice. In fact, one could never even argue that the past ever existed. We have absolutely no way of saying: here is the past, behold, it exists. The curious nature of the past, however, is that it has seemingly profound effects on both the present and the future. So, although the past does not exist, nor can it be proven to have existed, the past effects us all in more ways than we might know it. But just how valid is the past? That question brings us to the nature of the future. We like to think of the future as what will happen, the nature of time as it progresses. The future is a difficult thing to comprehend. Think about it: the future determines everything that will happen. Ever. For eternity. The future cannot be changed, because what will happen will happen. THE COURSE OF YOUR ENTIRE LIFE HAS ALREADY BEEN DECIDED BY THE FUTURE. If one considers the future, one realizes there is no such thing as free will. How can you truly choose how your life will go if it is already in the future? Many will argue, "well, you can choose your life no matter the future, because you can change the future." No, you can't. Why not? Because if you do really 'change'  your future, then the 'future' you perceived was never actually true. For instance, if you say your future is that you are going to drop out of school and become a hobo, and you say "NO! I am going to get good grades and change that!", then you never really were going yo drop out etc. You were always going to get good grades etc., and you were going to since the beginning of time. This is a very tough concept to swallow for many. Just sit back and think about it for a second if you don't get it. Once you do understand this concept, it brings up questions such as, "So, you mean it doesnt matter what I do, my life's course has already been decided?"  Techinically, no. But, this philosophy defies both common sense (even though it is true as far as the rules of logic/time/weird physics shit go) and makes life seem pretty pointless, I've come up with a few philosophies that I simultaneously accept that do an OK job of making life seem worth living.

1. The Feelings Theory. This theory says that although your life may be predetermined, you are still experiencing your life and it feels as if you have free will. You are still enjoying (or not enjoying) the sensations and pleasures of life, and you should be happy with that. You should just live your life as normal, which is most easily done by ignoring what I have just said about the nature of the future. (This might also be referred to as the 'Ignorance is Bliss Theory'.)

2. The Multiple Realities/Universes Theory. This theory states that you are a conciousness inhabiting a body in any one of an infinite of parallel universes. This set of universes contains every single possible set of events that could have possibly occurred ever. These universes could vary from each other as little as a fly flew 1.5 inches in this one, in this one it flew 1.6. They could also be as different from our world as...well, it's beyond the human imagination. Anyway, you, as a conciousness, occupy a body in anyone of these universes at a given time. Based on your decisions, you , as a conciousness, change between universes, thus changing what you experience. This theory does make free will possible because the objects in all the universes are changing according to a future, but you as a being are simply experiencing different universes. This theory might not make a whole lot of sense...but then again, it should probably be in a book about Difficult Concepts to Grasp rather than some casual shitty website maintained by a twisted and difficult mind.

So, do some thinking tonight about just how little you know about your world, and how fruitless it is to even try to find out the tiniest bit of information about it.