Do People Think?

[LaZ3R]

What if we are living IN a computer program all part of God's computer :p

Maybe this is his version of "The Sims" and he really controls us and every decision we make, without ourselves noticing anything.

Ahhh, so many questions and possibilities :p.

[Nick]

not related to computers but is one person's reality the same as another's?

such as my green isn't the same color as someone else's green

[HeavenAgain]

Quote:

such as my green isn't the same color as someone else's green

we were all taught the same way, or at least most of us... so we recognize the same, so your green colour should be the same as mine (plus, theres the words under the colours, which already taken away the "freedom" for your own thoughts)

and now... the title is already wrong... "do people think" of course people think o_o, or i think we think, or i think that i think we think....

this is pretty much "pointless" to talk about, since we can't even prove that ourselves as human being exists or not...

in conclusion "I think, therefore I am", fun topic

[Nick]

not what I meant by the green thing... I mean what if we see different color's in our own eyes that differ from another's perception even if looking at the same thinng

in fact xkcd even has a comic on this

http://xkcd.com/32/

[HeavenAgain]

then we "simply call them colour blind"
although there is not really a right or wrong, because what you see is what you see... no one have the right to judge it
but it will be pretty bad for communication.. like could you pass me the red marker, and you ended up giving me a purple one. who's colour blind now? majority wins i guess

[Zampano]

It's funny because I raised this idea with a classmate just today after having it soak idly in my mind for few months.

I'd suppose the 'complaining' machine would have to be programmed to have those kind of emotions. The assumption I made when I started this topic was that a humans brain can't act just like an infinitely complex program which simulate the behaviour we commonly associate with free will. Of course, that was before I had my doubts put to rest by the size and obscurity of the "beginner" quantum mechanics Wikipedia page. I can be convinced that the writers understood themselves enough to be fully qualified if they wrote pages of that magnitude.

[HeavenAgain]

well... we "learn from experience" as well as our mistakes, i doubt a computer can simulate that, even if its "quantum mechanics", they are programed to behave a certain way, and they learn from us (humans) not themselves, while we learn on our own, and "discover!" we make computers happen. computers are just tools to make calculations and things less painful for us, in the end human wins over computer
but computers are still good

[Nick]

a simply "learning" machine

code:

if notKnown then touch fire knownThatFireHurts = true

[syntax_error]

how does a computer know fire hurts?

[Nick]

it doesn't but it's taught not to touch again because it was told it hurts

[syntax_error]

why would it be told it hurt?

[Clayton]

momop @ Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:24 pm wrote:

not related to computers but is one person's reality the same as another's?

such as my green isn't the same color as someone else's green

You know, I've actually thought about this for some time now. I don't think the people that followed up on that post really were sure what you're talking about however. For clarification, everyone is taught their basic colors in kindergarten. Everyone knows what brown, red, yellow etc look like. But what if brown to you looked like your purple to me? Or your green looked like your blue to me, and I still called it green? The point is, do we all see the exact same thing when we look around a room, or do we all see different colors?

[Saad]

Clayton @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:31 am wrote:

momop @ Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:24 pm wrote:

not related to computers but is one person's reality the same as another's?

such as my green isn't the same color as someone else's green

You know, I've actually thought about this for some time now. I don't think the people that followed up on that post really were sure what you're talking about however. For clarification, everyone is taught their basic colors in kindergarten. Everyone knows what brown, red, yellow etc look like. But what if brown to you looked like your purple to me? Or your green looked like your blue to me, and I still called it green? The point is, do we all see the exact same thing when we look around a room, or do we all see different colors?

We probably don't see the same thing as each other, however there is no real way to prove it, since we all know of each color with a name, regardless of what shade we see.


Also, I'd say computers are designed in such a way that it reflects our conscious thought process, rather then humans thinking like computers. If's are only one part of how our mind works, for example we have instincts which computesr do not have. Computers basically are designed to help us solve problems that we wouldn't be able to solve with a humans speed of thought.

[richcash]

Saad @ Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:09 am wrote:

Clayton @ Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:31 am wrote:

momop @ Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:24 pm wrote:

not related to computers but is one person's reality the same as another's?

such as my green isn't the same color as someone else's green

You know, I've actually thought about this for some time now. I don't think the people that followed up on that post really were sure what you're talking about however. For clarification, everyone is taught their basic colors in kindergarten. Everyone knows what brown, red, yellow etc look like. But what if brown to you looked like your purple to me? Or your green looked like your blue to me, and I still called it green? The point is, do we all see the exact same thing when we look around a room, or do we all see different colors?

We probably don't see the same thing as each other, however there is no real way to prove it, since we all know of each color with a name, regardless of what shade we see.

No, we all see the same colours. Period. I'm sure you all know the colour of a light wave is determined by its wavelength. The shorter the wavelength, the more blue or violet, the longer the wavelength, the more red. Right?

So, look at a colour gradient made by gradually changing the wavelength of light waves (a rainbow is a perfect example). We all see a smooth transition from shade to shade. It doesn't matter that we have been taught artificial bounds that allow us to identify what a light wave looks like. It's all one colour that gradually gets more red or more blue/violet. We all see the similarities from shade to shade (the colour doesn't dramatically change when the wavelength slightly changes). But if we didn't see the same colours then some of us wouldn't see a smooth transition from shade to shade. It has to be in that order. There are no colours, colours are just bounds set up to distinguish certain light waves from others.

[Clayton]

That doesn't mean our eyes all see the same color from the same wavelength of light. While I see your point (believe me, I've thought about this many times), I still think that it's hard to just say that any one given wavelength with always look the same to every person (excluding color blindness to eliminate confusion).