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"YH QotD"

When it comes to the age old question "Where did we come from?"

There seem to be two answers:

1. God made everything etc.

2. We evolved.

There it is. Black and white. One or the other.

Well, how about this:

God (or someone else) made the basics, and we evolved from there. Why not have some grey? Why can't there a mixture of the two theories?

Thoughts?

i reckon Your Honour is the only one who actually exists and we're all living in his mind

Being a disciple of Pyrrho of Elea, my opinion is that I don't have one.

Another theory is that the big bang was the universe exploding. Yet, due to the force of the explosion (I'm not talking like a bomb or something, like another huge cosmic explosion) it restarts back into time. So it's like, a continueing cycle.

Crazy.

We evolved. Either that, or the aliens dropped us off from Pluto.

VenomByte wrote:
> Assuming our race doesn't wipe itself out, we'll get there.

Ah, but how do we know we're not already there, and that this lifetime is just such a 'game' playing out in our minds in the space of a few minutes, just like dreams do when we sleep at night?

Any moment you could be crossing the road and get hit by a truck, and instead of dying, you snap back to the *real* reality as someone disconnects you from the console...

"Well done, sir! You survived for 32 game years... that's today's high score!"

VenomByte wrote:
> When we do, then what? Then we can create and immerse ourselves into
> any one of a million different artificially created realities, none
> of which we can discern from the real thing. Some of those realities
> could be simulations of the past, or the future, or of alterntaive
> worlds, whatever takes our fancy.


http://www.123infinity.com/extraterrestrial_life.html

Check this link out. It basically says the same thing.

monkey_man wrote:
>That would explain a lot of
> things - why is there no species inbetween apes and Human, when apes
> haven't died out through evolution as other species have? Could
> there really have been an advanced civilisation, like Atlantis, that
> was destroyed by natural causes? Even better, destroyed themselves
> after successfully re-introducing us?



Or we, in turn, wiped them out?




> Good question, YH.


Cheers :-)

I don't remember where I heard this (probably here), but it's an interesting theory:

Consider the advancement of video games, immersive realities and so forth. Eventually, they will reach the level where they are undetectable from the real thing. Hooking up electodes to the brain a-la matrix style is entirely possible, if a little beyond our current technology levels.

Assuming our race doesn't wipe itself out, we'll get there.

When we do, then what? Then we can create and immerse ourselves into any one of a million different artificially created realities, none of which we can discern from the real thing. Some of those realities could be simulations of the past, or the future, or of alterntaive worlds, whatever takes our fancy.

The thing is, we won't be able to tell the difference between them and reality.

So then, if there are a potentially infinite number of such fake realities and only one 'real' one, what are the chances that the one we're in is actually the real one?

Pandaemonium wrote:
> ßulle†† wrote:
> Good point. There could well be an explanation far beyond our
> understanding, that we are yet to discover. The thing is, who knows?
> Nobody in our lifetime will ever know.
>
> For all we know, the true explanation could be something that has
> never even been suggested before...
>
> Thats what I'm trying to get across. :)

See, I'm a little more open minded than you thought (maybe!).

For now though, I'll stick to what I accept - regardless of whether it gets blown out of the water or not. Since we'll never know, I have no need to worry :)

Pandaemonium wrote:
> monkey_man wrote:
> If space ends... what's beyond it?
>
>
> Iain M Banks "Notes of the Culture"
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
Didn't post link

http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~stefan/culture.html

Its an interesting read.