How do you know for sure? String theory wasn’t even conceived until a few decades ago. Time itself was never conceived as an alternate dimension, until Hawking put it all together. Before Galileo, nobody knew that pendulums always swing in a regular rhythm, and objects of different mass fall at the same speed. Kepler’s theory of planetary motion displaced an alternate, earth-centered theory of our own solar system which was regarded as scientific fact for nearly two millennia!
Science is always changing. You have no evidence that souls do NOT have an extra-dimensional component. There is no consensus or even definition on what a “soul” really is, and many skeptics assume they don’t exist at all. Science is always changing, and the only true crackpot is the scientist who assumes that all we know, is everything there is to know. Anyone who takes that position is genuinely ignorant.
Nope. The cat being in a mixed state of dead and alive is a thought experiment about whether quantum mixing can be transferred up to the macro scale. It can’t. The measurement device that activates the cyanide is what collapses the wavefunction, and the cat is thereafter immediately in a completely dead or alive state whether anyone ever opens the box or not. (Although if you wait long enough, it’ll be in a completely dead state.)
I’m not asserting that I can prove souls don’t exist or even that they don’t have an extra-dimensional component. What I’m saying is that you’re attempting to hijack onto a tool created for an entirely different purpose simply because it sounds to you like one way to explain something you’ve already decided is true. If you want to construct a scientific theory of spirits or souls or whatever, it should stand alone on its own merits. Also, experimental validation would be nice.
Which, incidentally, string theory does not yet have. String theory is so far just a mathematical construct. An exceedingly complicated one, and one which may well lead to new physical understanding if they can ever figure out a way of testing it at a sensible energy and time scale, but at its core is not yet any different than “solving” an equation by changing all the variables and transforming everything into base 8.
KGS, I have no dog in this fight, and this will be my only post in the thread. Please find a way to check in with the new doctor, even if it’s something as simple as sending them a link to this thread asking for feedback. This transition phase you’re in doesn’t seem like it’s a fun place to be.
I hope you’ll at least think about finding a way to check in with the new doctor sooner rather than later.
Naw. I’d base it on his years of posting history. As it happens, this pitting is undeserved, but that’s saying quite a bit; it takes a crazy person to Pit Der in a manner that doesn’t immediately get 99% of the board chiming in with “Oh, is it Der’s monthly Pitting already?”
That’s not my interpretation. I’m confident that’s not the interpretation of many readers, either.
Thanks, but no worries – I’ve already made an appointment. This new guy comes highly recommended, too.
(I really don’t understand why people are worried…do I truly appear that meshuggah? “Crazy”, “irrational”, “hot-headed”, those words I understand…but severely mentally ill??? Wow, the prejudice and lack of trust here must run deeper than I thought…)
I didn’t hijack the thread, I responded to you. And the idea of me as some sort of SDMB secret overlord is ridiculous.
ALL skeptics do, because there’s no evidence for them. And for the same reason, assuming that string theory has nothing to do with souls is the right position, because there’s no evidence that souls exist to have anything to do with anything. And nothing in string theory even implies souls are possible.
Judging from this thread, that confidence is sorely misplaced.
Prejudice? Lack of trust? Your own words paint you not just as one who applies theories to things totally unrelated, without understanding either theory or field, but somebody who has had problems with his mental stability in the past, and shows no significant signs of having stopped. We judge you from your words, and they’re not very encouraging.
I feel compelled to reference this video conference on Garrett Lisi’s E8 Theory, if only to point out his version of Schrödinger’s Cat with the roles reversed. (starts @2:00)
I did not hijack the thread. Der Trihs hijacked it by bringing up unrelated topics and making baseless assumptions in his patented, jerkass manner. I’m shocked that he managed to fool everyone and deflect his deliberate, premeditated hijack onto someone innocent (i.e. myself) – read the thread again carefully, see how he responds, it’s obvious he’s at “fault” here.
I’ve already run experiments, albeit in an uncontrolled enviroment. (Yes, falsification is a HUGE stumbling block to “proving” spirits exist – for one thing, you have to get the spirits to co-operate in order for any theory to be falsified. It doesn’t help that spirits are motivated to hide their presence from humanity, not assert it.)
You said it yourself – and it’s exactly what I’ve been saying, “Never assume that all we know is all there is to know.” I merely posited an extension of M-Theory and extra dimensions beyond SpaceTime as a way to define the concept of spirits & souls, and Der Trihs countered from a position which assumed that our current scientific knowledge is 100% accurate and 100% complete – which is utter bullshit. (Not to mention his baseless assertion, “Souls do not exist” – which makes me wonder why he entered the discussion in the first place?)
Seriously, is it possible that engaging this deranged poster (KGS, I’m looking at YOU) in an ad hoc manner by so many members is doing more harm than good?
I am truly concerned that KGS is not able to function rationally, and needs immediate medical treatment. I would report this thread to a Mod if I didn’t see there was at least one involved already.
Yes, you do. As a matter of fact, as someone who lived with an uncontrolled, unmedicated, extremely bipolar person who also has Asperger’s, you are hitting so many notes of familiarity with me that it makes me distinctly uncomfortable to read your posts. It’s all there, the grandioseness, the sweeping generalizations, the bizarre fixations, the jumping around from subject to subject making connections between completely disparate concepts and getting agitated when nobody but you can see them–but it never occurs to you that YOU are the one that’s out of step with the consensus. The things you’re saying might be making perfect sense to you, but to everyone else it’s total gibberish.
I once had to go to a psych ward to visit my ex-husband, taking my two young children in tow. One was two, the other about 10 months old. He had gone on a manic jag of a couple weeks duration, then ran off in our only car–he wrecked it, left it in the middle of the freeway with the engine still running, the doors open and the radio blasting then went on a destruction spree that included bathing naked in a fountain outside a funeral home during a service, eating raw tadpoles and fish he caught in a stagnant pond, and trying to steal a horse then flooding the tack room because he was angry the horse wouldn’t get near him. He finally got picked up from the cops and was 5150’d. When I went in to see him he was still very manic, doing weird shit, saying some bizarre stuff but he was almost making sense. Then I had to bring our young son in to the room because it was feeding time and I was still nursing. When my husband saw our son, a baby, he started screaming and crying–turns out he’d been having hallucinations that a hundred years had passed and our son, an elderly man, was talking to him in his head and seeing the baby caused his whole hallucination to collapse. Reading your posts feels just like watching him gibbering and crying, trying to run away from our baby.
Get help, guy, I am serious as a heart attack. Trust has nothing to do with it–some of us, many of us, have a lot of experience talking to people who’re in full mental meltdown mode and it’s not something that you can A) forget or B) mistake for anything else.
Only to you, apparently. You made statements; I responded. That’s not “hijacking”.
And that’s a claim without evidence, about something for which you have no evidence. A double whammy, and a convenient one. Why should anyone take such claims seriously ? Why should anyone believe you’ve run any “experiments” ?
NO ONE has said that. What I and others have said is that you don’t understand the theory, and that it has no relevance to souls anyway.
Because the thread is called **Is acknowledgement of a spirit reasonable? **; and the answer according to the evidence is “No”. And I said that there are no souls because there’s no evidence for any, or, as I’ve said many times, for them even being possible. It’s not “baseless”; I have all of science to base that claim on. You have nothing.
It’s the dole if you’re not mentally ill but you’re just collecting it because you don’t want to support yourself. Can’t have it both ways-- can’t say you’re totally well but also deserving of disability.
You know, Zoe, you and KGS bring to the forefront of my mind this question: how do you distinguish the illness from the person? When a mentally ill person comes off as a total fucking asshole, are they responsible for that perception, or should we just write it off as part of the illness? Is it kicking someone if they show their ass in the Pit over and over, insulting other people and spouting arrant nonsense? Or are you being totally patronizing by saying, “No, don’t argue with that guy! He’s not an asshole, he’s sick! Leave the poor lunatic be!”
You can’t have it both ways. You will try, of course, with your own unique brand of self-righteous condescension. Either KGS is mentally ill and we should just leave him alone, or we should take him at his word that he’s well, and then, you know, he’s fair game. Which is it? I need to know, because I’m just trying to help.
Keep in mind that folks willing to put it out in public
(vs PM) ** especially those of us not conneted to the original thread ** arelikely to be begging you to seek help 'cause you seem to really be in need of same. If you’re serious that you are checking in, try not posting until afterwards. You need help.
Well…that was not my intention. If it sounded like I was playing fast and loose with the fundamentals of string theory, then – I kinda was. I didn’t think it was off-topic, since the topic of “human souls” itself is already kinda out there, but…whatever.
NOTE TO ALL: I will no longer entertain questions about my current mental state. I can only state with 100% confidence that I am currently grounded, sleeping regular hours, and all that good stuff. If you disbelieve me, and you still feel worried & paranoid about my supposed fragility…that’s your problem. Deal with it.
The nature of your statements construed an ongoing straw man argument and a deliberate hijack. Very subtle, though – you set a trap, and I fell for it. Believe it or not, I commend you on that part – nicely done! (Doesn’t make you any less of a jerk, though.)
It all comes down to trust, doesn’t it? If you don’t trust me to tell the truth, we’re at an impasse.
And yet, I posited an alternate theory – based on MAINSTREAM SCIENTIFIC THEORY – which would allow for the existence of souls. Wassamatter? Are you afraid of losing confidence in your fictional, baseless assertions?? Is fear your main concern? (Note: I don’t detect any fear in your aura – however, for all I know, you may be shielding.)
Folks, KGS has a mental ailment, engaging him further about these things is about as appropriate as giving a drum set to Anne Frank. Mods, you should consider closing this thread.
KGS, I have a relatively tame question for you. DT pointed out that a presidential election is not the same thing as many people believing something and thus making it more likely to be true.
Do you agree with DT on that point? Do you see the distinction being made?
Der Trihs said, “Popularity does not determine truth.” I merely countered his dualistic statement by offering an example of popularity determining truth – i.e. a democratic election. Barack Obama is our new President-Elect, and that’s an example of historical (and future) truth.
The problem I see with Der Trihs is his inherently dualistic mind-set – everything is black or white, right or wrong, real or unreal to him. That sort of mindset is inherently ignorant and blatantly prejudiced – dualism violates multiple philosophies and scientific principles, from the Grand Unified Theory to the Buddhist concept of “One”.
What I can’t divine is whether he’s like this naturally, or whether he’s just acting like a jerk. (Most likely, it’s a little of both…)
(starts 