Philosophical topics/speeches

[Dragon Writer]

well, if you accept alternate dimensions, there ARE other universes...infinite universe, really....and then there are planes, and theoretically all of this is overlapping everything else...it could be quite a mess. *thinks alternate dimensions are very interesting, since in at least one of them young wizards would be truly occuring* magic is a possiblity, therefore there must be a dimension where it exists...which owuld make everything that happens in young wizards a possibility, which would mean it ALSO would have to exist in some dimension or another...which is why dimensional travel is so interesting. The OTHER thing that interests me is that, as i said before, the big bang is supposed to have orriginated with some large bit of matter (i think) but if there was no universe before teh big bang, how could there be matter? there had to be SOMETHING before us...and is anyone willing to talk about temporal mechanics, or does that just give everyone a headache?

[Rhi]

Don't worry, young reader, I already had a headache before I read that last post The idea about the Big Bang as a firecracker in a closed room was interesting, I wonder by using that same analogy we could explain other universes as other firecrackers with their own shock waves intermingling and messing with all the rest of the shock waves, and firecrackers within firecrackers as alternate realities, and vacuum cleaners that mimic black holes as they suck up the firecrackers, and...ouch my head

[EricG1793]

Originally posted by young reader:
the idea that the universe is infiinte, that it has no boundry is nice...but then how is it expanding? how do you build upon infinity? therefore, by nature, there MUST be a boundry...

Wow. Now there's ANOTHER snag between the theories. That's a really good point; I never thought of that. However, it also brings back the question: What's on the other side of the boundary? And another question, what exactly IS the boundary?

Ugh... now my head is hurting, too!

Rubywolf, you make a very good virtual model of the universe! That's a good way to explain it. Also, the underwater caves could be black holes! Although, the ocean has boundaries, so that goes against your saying that the universe has no boundaries. The ocean's boundary is a sand slope... then you get out of the water. The other side of the boundary is land, humans, and land animals, all of that. So what about the universe itself?

[Rhi]

*Rhi gets tired of universe-discussion and curls up to take a catnap* What happens when we sleep? Sure, our bodies stay in the bed, but our minds are decidedly elsewhere. The dreams that we dream-are they just the brain playing or are they something more? Are dreams glimpses into other worlds, other dimensions where our perception is based on our reality trying to explain theirs? Or do dreams have meanings, giving us not so much a map of the future but a schematic of how things could be, might be. *Rhi wakes up from catnap* Ah, the ramblings of a dreamer...

[Dragon Writer]

*gets into temporal mechnaics for the fun of it real quick* if you went back in time, and shot your dad, what would happen? would it create a paradox, foricing the time stream to remove you? would everything implode? or at the last instant, would you simply shift into another dimension where that's SUPPOSEd to happen...my answer: you couldn't do it. something would always stop you, because the future is only fluid so long as no one knows what's going to happen, for certain. you know for CERTAIN your father was not shot, the team stream will come up with things to stop you...you CAN hire an assasin to do it, because you don't KNOW that wasn't done, just that none came close to succeeding, and if you leave quickly enough they might even succeed...at that poing, you'd either sceese to exist, be burned out of the time stream right up to the point where you started to change things, or shift into an alternate dimension where it's supposed to happen...if you do the last,. you WON"T sceese to exist since i think the souls of everyone repeate dimension to dimension, at least the base soul does...you might have a differnt body, i different gender (father determines gender, after all) a different family...a different everything. but you'd still exist...and you most likely wouldn't remember it being any other way. it's inmteresting to think about, even if it DOES seem to give most people a headache...

[EricG1793]

*Waves hands in air* Whoa! Slow down! One subject at a time, young reader! And Rhi... there were still questions to be answered on space. We talk about one thing until three people at least say that it's time to move on. I'm not trying to dictate or limit the discussion, but it'll just get too confusing if we have three topics going at once!

[mysss]

I think that something would always happen to stop you changing history. On a slightly related note, my friend once told me that a friend of Adolf Hitler was killed by a sniper in WWI when he was right next to him- I immediately thought it'd be interesting if this was a failed assassination attempt from the future and even more so if the person inadvertently caused Hitler to go mad or something.

Oh, and I also wanted to mention something else from The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Someone made a total perspective machine that showed you the whole universe, and it would instantly destroy you (make you go mad, I think, but I'd have to check) when you used it by showing you how small and insignificant you actually are in the grand scheme of things. I think I wanted to mention that in relation to the impossibility of figuring the universe out...*shakes head to clear it* This is all very complicated stuff for our little brains . Oh! That was it! We can't understand it because our minds aren't built for it in the same way they can't cope with real perspective.

[Dragon Writer]

yes, it did make you go mad....and all through a piece of pixi cake ((or was it fairy cake?) and i think would stop you from changing things, only because of a meld of several theories...shrodengers cat, or something works here. until the box is opened, the cat is allt higns at once because you don't KNOW what the cat is. once it's open, it's quite simply dead. the future is fluid because we don't KNOW what's going ot happen....if someone DID know, with one hundred percent certainy, not just because of a dream that may or may not come to pass, but because they absolutely new for a FACT what will happen...the future would lock up. at least for all things they know. If you go into the past, we lock up the future for them too, so can't change anything major...nothing we know about. but that does NOT mean you can't set something into motion to change things after you leave....

ok, i suppose i should resolve once and for all back to space, but i had to say something to the post before me....but i just don't know what's left to say. we've gone over all the theories, and said all the problems.

[EricG1793]

OK we'll stop with space.

I guess we'll talk about Rhi's question next, as it came first.

I was thinking about that a few days ago. So your brain goes in to a low-function state. That's the best way I can think about it for now. So what about the rest of your body? It seems to me as if they all have minds of their own. You roll over in the middle of the night without realizing or thinking about it. You breathe. And sometimes you even make some sort of grunting noise in your sleep. So what exactly makes decisions for what the body does when the brain is in that low-function state? And why do surrounding conditions wake us up, like sudden, loud noises such as thunder, or sudden changes in lighting, like lightning or a light turning on?

[mysss]

It was fairy cake... you could mess with whatever you wanted 'cause it would already have been messed with in your "present day" and nothing you could do could change history as you knew it. It's all part of my theory.

[Dragon Writer]

i like my theory better...and maybe there IS a dream world of sort where all collections meet...one where times don't exist, which would explain so many people have dreams taht come true....of courrse, then there's a thousand other theories to think over, like how far it extends, how far the average person penetrates, if you die there does your subconsious mind really translate that to real life death? stuff like that. i think about it occasionally.

[EricG1793]

Originally posted by young reader:
i like my theory better...and maybe there IS a dream world of sort where all collections meet...one where times don't exist, which would explain so many people have dreams taht come true....of courrse, then there's a thousand other theories to think over, like how far it extends, how far the average person penetrates, if you die there does your subconsious mind really translate that to real life death? stuff like that. i think about it occasionally.

Well the reason our theories are different is that I was talking about what happens physically, because Rhi asked what happens when we sleep. But you're thinking of a mental state, so we're thinking on opposite terms.

Oh, no, wait, wait, wait.... I thought we were talking about what happens when we sleep. I didn't realize you were still talking about going back in time.... I thought we were sticking to one thing at a time, whichever question was asked or suggested first.

[Rhi]

Maybe go back in time as you sleep? I dunno...*gives up trying to combine topics* And I was talking mentally and physically, so knock yourselves out! (maybe it would help answer my question, a nice big thwonk and the question about sleeping is answered ) I read somewhere that you can't move when you dream, but I usually wake up in a different position than I fall asleep in and what about sleepwalkers? They're moving and seem to be dreaming, or maybe they're not dreaming, hmm, any sleepwalkers here?

[EricG1793]

Originally posted by Rhi:
(maybe it would help answer my question, a nice big thwonk and the question about sleeping is answered ) I read somewhere that you can't move when you dream, but I usually wake up in a different position than I fall asleep in and what about sleepwalkers?

LOL Yeah, that would answer questions, but the unconscious, bleeding, bruised person wouldn't be able to tell stories about their experience for a while.

But what about creatures when they sleep? (FYI, out of humor, I call cats "creatures") Our creatures sometimes twitch all four legs at the same time when they sleep. Is this a sign that they're running in their dreams?

[Rhi]

Hmm, good idea. Or maybe they're delivering the killing blow to some hapless bird or mouse in their dream, or shaking paws with the Queen of England I've had dreams where I've been running and woken up out of breath, so that sounds entirely plausible...