Share your deep thoughts

[control-z]

No, I don't mean secrets (although I'll take those too.) I'm talking about things that make you go hmm, things that make your brain dizzy. Like this:

Your computer hard drive can contain any song ever recorded, any movie ever made, any software ever written. The bits just need to be arranged in the proper order. That's all you're doing when you download/install things, you're just arranging the bits in the right order.

[fishbicycle]

If lemonade is made of lemons, and grapeade is made of grapes, how come marmalade isn't made of marmals?

[Hockey Monkey]

Originally Posted by fishbicycle

If lemonade is made of lemons, and grapeade is made of grapes, how come marmalade isn't made of marmals?

Marmals don't have enough juice in them.

[control-z]

On that same train of thought, what is Naugahide made from?

[olivesmarch4th]

According to my religion, I'd be a lot happier if I just let go of my need to have a fixed identity. Nevertheless, I am constantly trying to understand myself, to my own detriment. I would be much more satisfied if I could only let go of the need to live up to my own unreachable ideals for human behavior.

In a slightly related vein, my need to define myself is standing in the way of my art. A friend reminded me the other day the importance of being authentically and unabashedly human, underscoring it with Borges' short story ''The Circular Ruins.'' I haven't written in forever, because I can't come to terms with my own humanity. Borges, among other writers, is painfully aware of his own mortality and weakness as an artist, and that is one of the things that make him great.


On a more objective note, I remain convinced that there is something really fucked up and unexplainable about the Universe, even if there is no god. I don't see how ''all life as we know it is due to the sudden rapid expansion of matter at an infinite rate/temperature'', while true, is even remotely less ''WTF'' than any theology. Our spontaneous, apparently coincidental creation and subsequent consciousness as a species is never going to make rational sense. I definitely see the appeal of religion. At least it offers the hope of someday understanding the meaning of existence. Science does not offer meaning, only cold, hard facts that make my brain hurt.

[cmyk]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

On a more objective note, I remain convinced that there is something really fucked up and unexplainable about the Universe, even if there is no god. I don't see how ''all life as we know it is due to the sudden rapid expansion of matter at an infinite rate/temperature'', while true, is even remotely less ''WTF'' than any theology. Our spontaneous, apparently coincidental creation and subsequent consciousness as a species is never going to make rational sense. I definitely see the appeal of religion. At least it offers the hope of someday understanding the meaning of existence. Science does not offer meaning, only cold, hard facts that make my brain hurt.

I love this. My sentiments exactly.

[Shoeless]

How much wind could a windbreaker break if a windbreaker could break wind?

[runner pat]

Originally Posted by control-z

On that same train of thought, what is Naugahide made from?

Naugas.

[control-z]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

On a more objective note, I remain convinced that there is something really fucked up and unexplainable about the Universe, even if there is no god. I don't see how ''all life as we know it is due to the sudden rapid expansion of matter at an infinite rate/temperature'', while true, is even remotely less ''WTF'' than any theology. Our spontaneous, apparently coincidental creation and subsequent consciousness as a species is never going to make rational sense. I definitely see the appeal of religion. At least it offers the hope of someday understanding the meaning of existence. Science does not offer meaning, only cold, hard facts that make my brain hurt.

I believe the spontaneous thing. Or that we're part of a Matrix-style simulation. In fact the odds of that are probably better than the odds of there being a God.

[Dragwyr]

What makes my head spin right now?

This cold and headache I have.







Deep enough for you?

[plnnr]

When you die, 99.99999999% of the population is not going to know, much less care. The world will continue to turn, life will go on. For you, there will no more chances to do all the things you wanted to during this lifetime. Your family will be sad for a while - they will shed tears. Then, Christmas will come and they'll say, "Boy, X sure liked Christmas," and they'll open their presents and watch the game and get ready for New Years. Life will go on and eventually you'll just be a memory, and eventually you won't even be a memory - you'll be a statistic or a note.

As my dad is fond of saying, "The world owes you nothing and outside of your immediate family no one is going to be too torn up that you're dead."

[garygnu]

Would it be good immigration policy to offer extensive, free English training to documented, legal immigrants?

[SiXSwordS]

Thou must hasten therefore; not only because thou art every day nearer unto death than other, but also because that intellective faculty in thee, whereby thou art enabled to know the true nature of things, and to order all thy actions by that knowledge, doth daily waste and decay: or, may fail thee before thou die.

—Marcus Aurelius

[Omegaman]

Life is hard, then you die.

[Hampshire]

While there are no longer any living vetrans of the Civil War there surely must be a big handful of people that knew civil war vetrans personally when they were 18 years old and the vetran was 73.
Do you know anybody still alive that knew a Civil War vetran?

[Shryn King]

I haven't been able to stop long enough to think that deeply in a long while; but, my mom asked me last week, "Why do we call them a pair of pants when it's only 1?"

[olivesmarch4th]

Originally Posted by control-z

I believe the spontaneous thing. Or that we're part of a Matrix-style simulation. In fact the odds of that are probably better than the odds of there being a God.

Oh heavens, don't misunderstand me--my bets are on the spontaneous thing too. But where does that leave us? Knowledge without meaning.

[Kuboydal]

Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.
-Ogden Nash

[Noone Special]

Originally Posted by Omegaman

Life is hard, then you die.

Or similarly... "Mother Nature is a Bitch."

[Swampwolf]

Originally Posted by Shryn King

I haven't been able to stop long enough to think that deeply in a long while; but, my mom asked me last week, "Why do we call them a pair of pants when it's only 1?"

I think it was Steven Wright, maybe not, who pointed out how odd it is that "panties" is a plural word, yet "brassiere" is singular, when it should be the other way 'round.

[Ximenean]

How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have that dangerous beak.

[BaneSidhe]

How far does up go?

[jjimm]

Humanity's grip on civilization is incredibly tenuous. We in the west live in our cities and suburbs, but, terrorism notwithstanding, these are only temporary refuges from the danger the majority of the world lives in. Most of humanity is clinging on by a thread, and disaster can strike at any time: the Tibetans scratching a meagre living from the desert in the sky; the Vietnamese up to their waists in the paddies; earthquake victims living in the rubble of their destroyed communities; African villages walking miles just for water and dying of easily cured diseases. I can't help thinking that the past few milennia of human development might be a brief interegnum in an otherwise volatile meteorological and seismic status quo.

Also, lolcats are cute.

[Hampshire]

In 1900 there were about 1.6 billion people on the earth. 99.9% of them cease to exsist anymore.
Currently there are about 6 billion people wandering the planet. In another 110 years 99.9% of them will be dead also. Completely wiped out. All of them.

[Lobsang]

If a tree falls in a forest and there is nobody there to hear it, do I need to eat more fibre?

[elelle]

It occurred to me, just yesterday, driving home in my much beloved Subaru: that here I am as a human being, zipping around in my trusty car, a little meat being encased in a go-to shell....

It occured to me that the human body is the same sort of shell for the kernel of Divine awareness; it's just a transport mechanism, but the Driver is capable of way more than the vehicle, with the right training. Made some good sense.

[Shagnasty]

Originally Posted by Hampshire

While there are no longer any living vetrans of the Civil War there surely must be a big handful of people that knew civil war vetrans personally when they were 18 years old and the vetran was 73.
Do you know anybody still alive that knew a Civil War vetran?

This may blow your mind but there is still a Civil War soldier widow still alive or at least there was the last I heard. No, it wasn't Alberta Martin of Alabama that died a few years ago and had a website that proclaimed herself as the last Civil War widow in glorious style to the world. After Alberta's death, the news reached the family of Maudie Hopkins of Arkansas and they were terribly confused. Maudie is also the widow of a Civil War soldier and she never thought anything of it until the world made a big deal out of the similar story. They had no choice but to come forward and kill the record of Alberta Martin.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...06/ai_n6412799

[An Gadaí]

While pondering some of the responses on this thread I started to think that at some point in the future people might no longer care about the Holocaust, that it might become a myth, too heinous to have ever been fully real. It's only natural I suppose that things pass irrevocably into history and beyond but still it's a thought that bothers me.

[LouisB]

Originally Posted by Omegaman

Life is hard, then you die.

Life is hard by the yard but its a cinch by the inch.

[Ghanima]

Approximately 110 billion "people" have existed on earth in the last million years. That's 11 * 10^10. Cite from 1987.

There are a calculated 8.4 * 10^18 habitable planets.

a team of astronomers led by Dr. Simon Driver at the Australian National University estimated the number of stars presently within reach of our telescopes to be 7 * 10^22 (“Star survey”). When we divide the number of habitable planets within the Milky Way by the total number of stars in the Milky Way (Frank, et al used the figure 4 * 10^11), we get 0.00012 habitable planets per star. Multiplying this by the total number of observable stars in the universe gives us 8.4 * 10^18 habitable planets

That means for each person (and/or homo sapiens precursor primate) who has lived in the last million years, there are 76 billion planets out there suitable for life. And that's just what we can see from here.
Considering live evolved on our planet fairly early on (3.5 million years ago), just imagine all the life out there.

That blows my fucking mind.

[Beaucarnea]

Originally Posted by elelle

It occurred to me, just yesterday, driving home in my much beloved Subaru: that here I am as a human being, zipping around in my trusty car, a little meat being encased in a go-to shell....

It occured to me that the human body is the same sort of shell for the kernel of Divine awareness; it's just a transport mechanism, but the Driver is capable of way more than the vehicle, with the right training. Made some good sense.

! Rush hour interstate traffic becomes my metaphor for the path on the way home. All these people heading towards something safe, something sacred, something home; and I understand why they want to get there so quickly.

[yams!!]

the famous chemist, amedeo avogadro gained renown through his hypothesis that equal volumes of different gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules. namely, in 22.4L of gas at standard temperature and pressure, there exists one mole of atoms/molecules/whatevers. the mole is equal to 6.022x10^23 particles.

most people believe the term 'mole' to be derived from the latin moles, meaning a 'heap,' or a 'pile.' in actuality, avogadro despised latin, and would never have allowed 'his' number to be associated with, as he called it, "a gory old dead language of wankers and stiffs." the term 'mole' came about because avogadro was a huge mole enthusiast. after coining his ideal gas law, he devoted the rest of his life to the study of moles in their natural habitats. upon the death of his pet mole, avogadro dissected his former pet in what is still one of the most exacting autopsies ever recorded, and discovered that moles consist of 6.022x10^23 distinct parts, making the mole by far the part-iest mammal in existence.

humans, by comparison, have only 2000 parts. (cite, lever2000 soap commercials.)

avogadro's pet mole's name was lance.


love
yams!!

[Shagnasty]

Originally Posted by yams!!

humans, by comparison, have only 2000 parts. (cite, lever2000 soap commercials.)

avogadro's pet mole's name was lance.

love
yams!!

That cite is crap. I keep counting my parts over and over and I only come up with 1743. Am I missing something?

[yams!!]

Originally Posted by Shagnasty

That cite is crap. I keep counting my parts over and over and I only come up with 1743. Am I missing something?

maybe you are a western reticulated chipmunk? western reticulated chipmunks generally have 1743 parts.


love
yams!!

[control-z]

Originally Posted by yams!!

maybe you are a western reticulated chipmunk? western reticulated chipmunks generally have 1743 parts.

(Holds up sign)WESTERN RETICULATED CHIPMUNK SEASON



Some nice responses so far by the way.

[jackelope]

The Big Question in astrophysics has always been whether the universe is expanding fast enough to break free of its own gravitational pull, or whether it will eventually slow, stop, and collapse back in on itself. The thing to do, obviously, is to track the speed at which it’s expanding, and find out how much it’s slowing down.

So about ten years ago some scientist-types got to studying the rate of expansion, and found that it is accelerating.

[Ellen Cherry]

Originally Posted by Hampshire

While there are no longer any living vetrans of the Civil War there surely must be a big handful of people that knew civil war vetrans personally when they were 18 years old and the vetran was 73.
Do you know anybody still alive that knew a Civil War vetran?

My father-in-law's grandfather was a veteran of the Civil War. My father-in-law is still alive (age 79).

My deep thought: the Civil War veteran and my son have the same name, and despite the nilhistic views in this thread, I can feel the history and legacy of my son's great-great grandfather when I speak his name.

[FlyingCowOfDoom]

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.

--FCOD

[Elendil's Heir]

I've always been fascinated by the concept of microcosmos, and how atoms look just like miniature solar systems. Who knows how many tiny universes we each contain?

Time to go re-read Horton Hears a Who. Or watch the last scene of Men in Black.

[garygnu]

Completely disjointed deep thoughts on pattern recognition in humans:

Electrons orbit nuclei
Planets orbit stars
Stars orbit galactic centers
Galaxies even orbit other galaxies

Why wouldn't the pattern continue in both directions? At the subatomic level, bosons could orbit quarks or whatever. Universes could orbit other universes, or even could orbit some other thing we don't even know exists.

Is the purpose of human life to observe and understand the universe?

[Annie-Xmas]

Why is it that there are things you do every day without any trouble but if you had to them the rest of your life you would kill yoiurself?

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Annie-Xmas

Why is it that there are things you do every day without any trouble but if you had to them the rest of your life you would kill yoiurself?

Like correct spelling?

[jjimm]

Birds fly. They actually have a mechanism to propel themselves through the air. They must perceive the world in full 3-D, rather than the enhanced 2-D that we live our lives in. How cool is that?

[enigm4tic]

I just thought I'd share, that despite the fact that I've seen this thread topic before, I caught it out of the corner of my eye and I could've sworn it said "Share your deepthroats"
back to your regularly scheduled thread...

[interface2x]

In the last year, I have gained 20 lbs. If these trends continue, I'll weigh 1,138 lbs. by the age of 80.

I've had either a sore neck or a tension headache more or less constantly for four months and I'm scared it'll never go away. I don't know what to do.

[Phantom Dennis]

It's amazing how many people go through life in some form of denial. The human mind seeks out beliefs that are comforting and reassuring first -- empirical truth is usually a distant second. Once we've attached ourselves to a certain belief set, our brains will do amazing acrobatics in order to defend that belief to ourselves. We're all fundamentally logical -- even if we believe weird things, and we will find a way to rationalize those beliefs, even if we have to invent our own kind of logic. What's amazing about creationists, to pick an example, is the fact that most of them actually *beleive* in it. It's easy to dismiss the idea as a calculated, transparent attempt to introduce proselytizing to the public schools, but it's more complicated than that, which just goes to show how gullible and creative the human mind can be if it latches onto an idea that it wants desperately to be true.

[xanthous]

It is incomprehensible to me that someday I'll die and be no more. No more thoughts. No more feelings. No more body. No more anything.

It's probably the most chilling thought that has ever come into my head.

[yams!!]

Originally Posted by xanthous

It is incomprehensible to me that someday I'll die and be no more. No more thoughts. No more feelings. No more body. No more anything.

It's probably the most chilling thought that has ever come into my head.

and then your body will decompose, and all of your atoms will go off and become part of something else.

it blows my mind to think that atoms are not alive (not in any way we can recognize, anyway), but if you combine different atoms together in different combinations, you get everything, from granite to the sun to spinach to people. and if you had a really, really, really tiny pair of tweezers and could tweeze yourself into a pile of single atoms, it would just be a pile. but somehow when those atoms combine to make up everything that makes up a person, somehow all of these little tiny dots result in something that produces emotions and thoughts and feelings.

how do they do that? it's amazing in and of itself that atoms combine to form everything in existance, but to think that they can combine to form something tangible, which then goes on to create something nontangible - it's like they're bridging different dimensions.



god, i love science.


love
yams!!

[blondebear]

42

[Sock of Doom]

Originally Posted by yams!!

it's amazing in and of itself that atoms combine to form everything in existance, but to think that they can combine to form something tangible, which then goes on to create something nontangible - it's like they're bridging different dimensions.

It's even crazier to think that those atoms are 99.99%+ empty space . You're basically made up of nothing. Just a whole bunch of electric fields interacting with each other.

Also, atomic-scale "tweezers" have been invented:
Stuff from Stanford
Shameless plug for my department