How do you believe in the simulation without becoming an egomaniac?
I was exhausted, laying on my bed after a hike with some friends. I'd been reading all this eastern wisdom lately, loving "Experiencing the Teaching" and "Thick Face, Black Heart" and trying to detach myself from emotions and disruptions. But I'd never been one to meditate. I was already calm and well. I figured, though, instead of making it about relaxing or trying to make some violet energetic healing light or whatever, I'd just try to zoom into my brain, imagine it in all its complexities... See it shining, every neuron- for what reason? I didn't know. I don't know still. But I did it.
Closed my eyes. Pictured my brain like a light up outline of white and orange against a deep, dark black background. Tried to imagine all of the magic working in there, all the electricity zooming around and doing brain things. I just focused and watched and imagined....
Then my eyes open and I see a body walk out from behind my eyes. A body? My body? It takes a step down onto a lab floor and is greeted by a guy in a lab coat. Hm, the guy in a lab coat has long, golden hair. I don't remember what my body looked like, but it starts chatting with Jesus-guy, which I can't hear, seeming to relay details of my experience. I watch them walk away a few steps but they stop and turn back to look at "me", noticing I was... Well, noticing them. Their faces twist in mild astonishment as they meet "my eyes" and confirm I'm looking back. It's obvious by their reaction that whatever "I" am is not supposed to be sentient- or awake- or whatever "I" am at that moment. But there I am, looking my creators in the face.
I come to back on my bed.
I eagerly scribe what just happened all down in a notebook and keep it to myself for a long time. It's such a strange experience. And so provocative for me. You hear all the time these days about how we're re a simulation, or in a simulation. The likelihoods are all there, right? Probabilities abound. You can't go around thinking you're the body being used to navigate the simulation, though. Then what is your family? What is your life? What is your beautiful child? A fiction, a code, a stimulus being used to entertain (or train or educate, as it seemed in my "dream"?)
It doesn't have to be understood that way. If they're codes and nothing then so am I. I'm a cloud being ridden by some genuine thing somewhere else. My mind is not any less real or meaningful than my entire worl
... keep reading on reddit ➡A oxygen delivery system is a given, but what about nutrition? Would it need specific Neurotransmitter metabolites to create stuff like GABA and dopamine? What would the vat have to be filled with? Something similar to Cerebrospinal fluid?
And please don’t say:
-Pragmatism
-Ockham’s Razor
-Or you never know
I get those arguments and tips but they don’t work for me because doesn’t take from the fact that they can be controlling your life, things that come your way, your actions, your thoughts, your feelings, your speed(of how the mind works), etc, this pretty much means pure evil exists. If they can feed you a simulation of reality, why can't they give you a phobia--or simulate some trauma that gives you a phobia--or something like that
https://youtu.be/zO0sSJB1TrI
“The Brain in a Vat thought-experiment is most commonly used to illustrate global or Cartesian skepticism. You are told to imagine the possibility that at this very moment you are actually a brain hooked up to a sophisticated computer program that can perfectly simulate experiences of the outside world. Here is the skeptical argument. If you cannot now be sure that you are not a brain in a vat, then you cannot rule out the possibility that all of your beliefs about the external world are false.”
In my philosophy class(in college) , we learned about the idea of skepticism and that our brain could be in a vat and my professor showed us this video (https://youtu.be/zO0sSJB1TrI), and sometimes I wonder if it causes all the hell, weird thoughts, superstition, coincidences, and all the bad and weird stuff is thanks to that evil son of a bitch that needs to pay the price for his unreasonably and pure evil sadistic acts. Maybe we do not have free will and that neuroscientist is only making us think we do and we don’t and everything is fake and an illusion. And it probably makes sense that true evil exists, because why else would a neuroscientist want to put my brain in a vat and make me stimulate a fake reality? He probably won’t get away with it anytime soon. Also maybe that is why the mind and body aren’t connected for any dualists outs there,. Can't know for sure! I often wonder if the whole world is just in my head. Lots of stuff supports that idea, really. Like crazy coincidences or superstition. I've had some crazy synchronicities happen to me. Brain in a vat is true in some sense. All sensory perception is interpreted in the brain. Even the concept of a brain is just a mental concept.
I'm assuming once you were submerged in that heat, you'd draw in a breath of hot oil as you tried to scream, as well. Would your throat get blistered to the point of blocking your airway, causing death that way?
A Brain in a Vat
Let’s start by taking a position of radical doubt. Suppose for a moment that you are not really a human being with an actual body. In reality, you are nothing more than a brain floating in a vat of fluids, with electrodes attached to various parts of your exterior that allow evil scientists to manipulate you into thinking that what you perceive is actually there, when in fact it is nothing more than an imaginary world constructed by the scientists. Right now, they are making you think that you are reading this article when in fact you are not.
From this point of extreme skepticism, we will prove beyond all possible doubt that God exists.
1. One cannot deny one’s own existence.
Cogito, ergo sum. Even if you’re just a brain in a vat, your own existence can be verified simply by the fact that you perceive—that is, you see, hear, smell, taste and touch things. Whether or not your perceptions are accurate is another question, but even if you doubt your own existence, you must exist, for it is impossible for a non-existent thing to doubt. In fact, the very act of doubting proves that you exist. Therefore, denying your own existence is a contradiction in terms. I can deny yours and you can deny mine, but I can’t doubt mine, nor can you doubt yours.
2. There is at least one thing that exists.
It is possible for you to be deceived in your perception. In fact, it’s conceivable that every one of your perceptions is a delusion. But even if that is the case—even if nothing you think exists actually exists—you still must exist.
Entity is the word we have for anything that exists. You exist, so you are an entity.
3. There is such a thing as existence.
You can know with certainty that there is at least one entity, at least one thing of which the term existence can be predicated. If there were no such thing as existence, nothing would exist, not even you. But, as we have seen already, that is impossible.
As Aquinas would say, there must be an “act of being” in which all entities participate. This act of being must itself exist; it must be an entity. Thomas calls this entity esse, which is Latin for “to be” or “to exist.”
4. The nature of esse is actuality.
Now that we have established that esse is an entity, we must ask: What is the nature of this entity? What is its definition?
To answer these questions, we must consider existence by itself, apart from everything else.
What do we mean when we say t
... keep reading on reddit ➡When the drum talks about how everything could be an illusion as it's just signals to the brain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat
>The brain in a vat is an element used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. It assumes the following; -The brain is the origin of all consciousness. -The brain operates on electrical impulses. -External stimuli can affect the way the brain operates. -Any external stimuli to the brain can be simulated to a degree that the brain cannot distinguish these simulated stimuli from natural stimuli. The point is that you could be a brain in a jar, being fed false impulses for your entire life by an external source, or you (still a brain in a jar) could be hallucinating your entire life from lack of stimuli. Solipism is an interesting school of thought that explores this concept in part.
A navy seal.
I use focused fire to target the head so I'm not sure if that affects it but 95% shouldnt be missing much at all, let alone missing 15 shots in a row.
Vats has been bugged for some time. I have a vat character with only vats perks and gear and she will kneecap almost 100% of the time, but switch to head and (until i log off and back on) she misses 100% of headshots. 100%. (At various ranges from nearly out of site to point blank)
To test it i once fired 750 10mm rounds into a crippled ghouls head. Not a single hit. Switched to the left leg and instant kill.
Edit 1 - for those now joining us, this is most common on pistol builds. Rifleman builds seem less affected and i will have to do testing on rifles next time i get it, which is usually weekly.
I killed everyone in that town.
The second one said “thanks, you’re a lifesaver!” The first one responded “actually I’m a KitKat”
