Eyes on the prize

J

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
After 25 years, a famous neuroscientist admitted to a famous philosopher that he does not have a physical basis for consciousness yet. The stakes? According to some reports, a case of fine Portuguese wine (others say it was a bottle of 1978 Madeira and 5 "other" red wines).
 
We are definitely not winning the race to get our brains uploaded to the cloud, but hopefully by the time they figure it out we'll get the electronic tongue so our cloud-selves can finish off our cellars.
 
Even if we are, in fact, elements in someone else's sims game, our own consciousness of our existence is sufficient proof that we do exist to ourselves, which is all the proof we need. It doesn't prove anyone else exists (nor did it even before the more recent, some more recent exotic versions of the hypothesis that reality might be our own illusion) and it doesn't prove that we aren't mistaken about the nature of our existence. But those are metaphysical questions worthy of curiosity but without he power to change much. Whether we actually walk down the street or only imagine that we walk down the street doesn't change our experience of walking down the street.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Not to worry, even if they get there, it won't resolve the question of whether we actually exist.
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I once worked with a rather abrasive fellow whose response to arguments about solipsism was to punch the speaker in the face. He believed this disproved the theory because why would you dream up a world in which you get hit in the face?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Not to worry, even if they get there, it won't resolve the question of whether we actually exist.
Click to expand...
I once worked with a rather abrasive fellow whose response to arguments about solipsism was to punch the speaker in the face. He believed this disproved the theory because why would you dream up a world in which you get hit in the face?
Click to expand...
How did he explain nightmares? Especially since he was one..
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Not to worry, even if they get there, it won't resolve the question of whether we actually exist.
Click to expand...
I once worked with a rather abrasive fellow whose response to arguments about solipsism was to punch the speaker in the face. He believed this disproved the theory because why would you dream up a world in which you get hit in the face?
Click to expand...
Not persuaded. I submit this disproof was disproven by Mitch Hedberg.
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Please, make it stop!
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I keep hoping the same thing, but I'm not holding my breath. What if none of us are who we seem to appear to be on WINE disorder? Okay, sure, I've met some of you at jeebs a decade ago, but who's to say that the person we allegedly were on Wine therapy is the same person we were back in the Compuserve days, much less on the Marked Squires board?

And does holding the keys to a wine cellar make us beholden to the person that curated it, even if that person was way into high alcohol, fruity/gobby Paso Robles Zinfandel whereas the same person, by the same name and holding the same cellar keys, is only into shrill white wines that come from places in France that nobody else has ever heard of? And I don't believe that what we drink defines us as peoples, but based on the mien of the participants of this forum, I don't suspect that I'll ever be challenged to a caged-ring battle-to-the-death by any of the members over my contention that Verdejo would be an extremely viable grape if planted in California. Or maybe them's not fightin' words in a solar system where Cabernet reigns supreme anyway. I dunno.

My middle name might as well be Existential Dread (even though I don't have the hair for it). Maybe the wine market comes crashing down soon and I'm out of a job but I could drink what I want and when I want to without fear of "sending the wrong message" because obviously, I need to post everything that passes through the pie-hole to "be someone."

-Eden (but what if I am not who I think I should be, but exist only as a figment of the collective imagination of the forum members, kept around for occasional entertainment value and less-frequent tasting notes? Do I exist on another level? It reminds me of an obtuse joke an obtuse philosophy teaching assistant once told me: "René Descartes walks into a wine bar. 'You wanna glassa wine with your ham sandwich?' asked the bartender. 'I don't think so' replied Descartes and he disappeared." Maybe if I were to adopt an "I drink, therefore I am" approach to life it might inspire a heightened sense of reality on my part?)
 
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