do you believe life is an illusion?

We are all the same in our desire to have a spectacular life.

 

I understand and respect those who chose to be different and believe they are different. Or at least I try too because I am only human and not the best example of a human, in that. I actually admire those who try to answer the question, "Is life is an illusion?" and other situations like it. Those are the people that will impact life, hopefully for the better. So, there is no animosity on my part. I just prefer to be the same and I view life as something that needs to be survived, not impacted. I have my reasons, like we all do, but it doesn't make it any more right or wrong.

ANYWAYS, this topic is not about being the same or different. It's about answering the question, "Is life an illusion?" and a sub conversation of, "Is life and reality the same?" Sorry, for detouring. That was my fault. But, my original statement still stands, life is what society thinks is an illusion and what society thinks is reality, what they think is real or not real.

 

I don't. (sadly)

 

So if the 'computer' itself contains all the information of the universe and was the primary cause it would have to be made of something which is beyond what is in the universe it created right?

 

Yes, it would have to be part of a "bigger" universe, a system capable or containing more information, everything else in that universe plus enough information for the representation of our world.

 

Due to the level of structure and order the computer hypothesis assumes, it sounds like a reinterpretation of the watchmaker analogy and thus (correct me if I misinterpretted) is essentially a theistic argument.

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but having an arbitrarily high degree of order does not require that that system be designed by an intelligent creator. I'm also going to say that proving one way or another may be impossible.

Computers can crunch numbers and run through complex algorithms at incredible speeds. It may seem like performing math,atical calculations must require some type of intelligence but it doesn't, computers are machines and they don't "think" about what they do. They take an input and produce an output but they behave that way because, well it has to be that way and there is no choice to be made, they operate by a set of rules and the output they produce is the only one possible based on the input given.

Choice and free will could be an illusion entirely, it seems to me that our brains process information this way, there is a complex process that happens internally and signals eventually reach areas that produce some sort of action but this whole process could only happen one way it seems, based on the conditions of everything involved at that moment ..

 

I tend to agree with Shakespeare: "Life is a tale told by an idiot - full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

QP

 

Computers are designed and constructed instruments with programmed structure and order just as watches are, both of which require (designers) creators.

I agree that complexity and (perceived) order doesn't necessarily require a creator, however if you ascribe to the notion that our reality is based in a 'computer' program particularly with some of the given input you have suggested to make our universe go, I don't see how you avoid the necessity of a creator.

 

I believe the physical (what we SEE) is not real. What we don't, is...

Why? It's just what makes sense to me. Shrug.

 

Maybe the Dr. Pepper people were insinuating something along the lines of this and that everyone experiences Dr. Pepper differently.

 

That went right over my head.

 

Life is not an illusion. Reality is neither solely an illusion. What we are experiencing is distorted perception, not an illusion. It could be called an illusion in the way that what we see is only one way to see it and that's what our brain and senses make of it, but that doesn't mean the stuff we see isn't really there. It just looks different from other perspectives.
That we are missing out on a 'complete picture' doesn't mean what we experience now is not real.

 

We all experience the same thing. Temperature fluctuation for example and we experience that because we all have a habitable range. There are no unique experiences, our experience is one of ongoing creaturehood. It is events that are locally construed.

Here is a soup recipe, life soup. We are individuals as components not isolates from the soup. I may taste like salt, you may taste like pepper but you are for flavoring soup, creator, not being pepper or created thing. We are both tasting and knowing. We can isolate taste and we can also be tasteful.







We appear isolated by the evidence of our bodies and it presents a confusing picture where we can be both here and not here in seemingly real terms. I am here but not there or you are there but not here or I am here in body but I'm consciously engaged in thoughts of being somewhere else or not overtly aware of my surroundings.

 

I've not seen the commercials.

 

After discussing the notion of a computer reality, I thought I'd share this passage from the book I'm reading as it came across as somewhat synchronistic to the discussion.. This passage has to do with building a computer that would act human, which in turn makes me think how ridicously complex a computer running the universe would have to be ...

"If operations of a brain are to be seized and mastered, they must also be altered. In addition, the principles of mathematical chaos hold. The body and brain comprise noisy legions of cells, shifting microscopically in discordant patterns that unaided consciousness cannot even begin to imagine. The cells are bombarded every instant by outside stimuli unknowable by human intelligence in advance. Any one of these events can entrain a cascade of microscopic episodes leading to new neural patterns. The computer needed to track the consequences would have to be of stupendous proportions, with operations conceivably far more complex than those of the thinking brain itself. Furthermore, scenarios of the mind are all but infinite in detail, their content evolving with the unique history and physiology of the individual. How are we to feed that into a computer?"

 

I think computers only operate by what they are fed by man......unless you believe the old saying when man asks the computer if there is a god and the computer replies..."Now there is."

I think the human brain is capable of so much more........than any computer at this stage, anyway....