I am disgusted by the incredibly high amount serious replies in this topic.

I thought about the subject a month or two ago. I didn't just come to this subject yesterday -.-
History doesn't matter. You claim that there is proof of history but how am I to know if you are part of this dream, as well as history?
I find your sarcasm to be just as funny as this sentence.

@Shocko:

A.) You have no proof of this.
B.) What if you are in this dream right now replying to my topic? I have no proof as well as you don't have proof. As far as I'm concerned, the possibility of life being a dream is still high.
C.) Whats love got to do with this?

@JaFF:
Why did you post if you feel disgusted? I'm being serious and I wanted serious replies. That is why I placed this in the Serious Discussion forum (but someone felt the need to move it..)

You're completely missing the point
That is completely irrelevant.
No, I did not claim that; you only claimed I claimed that claim. The point is that your mind would have to have fabricated every single detail including every thing you've ever heard about history, every story you've ever encountered.
Good for you. This idea is one of the oldest philosophical conjectures ever formulated and was equally pointless then as it is now.
The fact of the matter is that this is your current reality and you still have to deal with consequences and rules within it. Posting about it just proves that you do not even believe yourself since you're asking other people's opinions on the matter.

I wanted to quote Doodan's 'no' and respond to it with 'this', but that's a bit overused, isn't it?

I posted about it because I was wondering if anyone else in the community had thought of it. I do not wish to believe it myself, it is a very weird subject but it made me wonder about the possibility of it actually being true.

I mean I guess I would have to trust reality to see what is truly there, but it's those questions on my first post that make things difficult.

That made me laugh. Long and loud.
Honestly there's only 1 answer in this topic that you need:
There simply is nothing to discuss about.

At the current stage there's no way to prove either of the options.

I'm quite surprised by the people not even trying to grasp the concept he's talking about. Doesn't matter how unlikely the chances are...
Stuff like this:
Since you are completely unaware of the real world, how could you say that would work? What if, in the real world, pain didn't exist? Following the same idea, what if this life was a game? What if pain was a concept developed in this game to keep you from going too far ahead, like how MMO's work.

Anyway, that's my argument. I'm not saying I agree with the statement Fierce is making, but that you can't rule out what he is trying to put out.

The OP belongs on a ''philosoraptor''

And, in the hypothetical case that we/I/whoever are/am/is just dreaming, what's to prevent this?
Considering we make, presumably, several "stor[ies]" every night as we sleep and have dreams, I think a lot of us are really pretty far ahead of all that we've heard from others.
ono, he doesn't believe that some hypothetical possibility is actually true!
And, arguably, one who actually does may find it distressing, and therefore decide to search for any logical basis by which to be comfortably certain that "life is[n't] a dream".

See my first response in this topic.


I am positive I am mentally incapable of simulating the interactions of quarks and gluons.

I just realized The Matrix is a perfect example of my point too >.>

Deathman, and all you other dreamers in the topic, do you really think that this is a new subject for mankind? When I posted before in this topic it was for what you might call "lulz" Think anyone in the last couple thousand years hasn't thought of this and discarded it as rubbish? If you really think life's a dream, then go ahead, be my guest and try flying off a cliff, see if it works. Oh wait, you're not going to? Oh yes, that's because life is real isn't it... and you might die.... funny...

Disclaimer: The contents of this post are not to be construed as to be a statement actually commanding that you jump off a cliff. They were written only for the purposes of illustrating what would happen if you did jump off a cliff, and shall not be construed to mean that the poster actually wants you to jump off a cliff or is in any way responsible for any cliff jumping on the part of anyone who reads this post.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 12 2009, 2:45 am by Vrael.

No one here stated that they believe life is a dream. Where did you come to that conclusion?

If I wanted to I could try flying off a cliff. Would I? No. Why? I want to dream longer and what is the outcome if I do die and its a dream? Would I wake up? If I did wake up, what would happen and where would I be?

^ "If"

You're clearly entertaining the idea though, since you made this topic. Thanks for responding to this though, you've made me realize I need to edit in a disclaimer to my original post.

You can say whatever you like, but based on what I know of people, you're lying. The real reason you won't jump off a cliff is because your brain tells you that it would be detrimental to your health. Besides, if you admit that you're going to wake up anyway, then clearly life isn't a dream lol.

The fallacy that life is a dream stems from the fact that the dream is creating its own rules, and that the person having this dream could be a dream themselves that are thus followed by a set of rules, and it can go on and on and therefor falls under what is known as the Homunculus argument: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus_argument

Now someone may point out that this arguement applies to vision, but, Homunculus arguments are always fallacious unless some way can be found to 'ground' the regress. BAM, BOOM, OCCAM'S RAZOR LIVES TO TELL ANOTHER TAIL OF SUCCESS!!

BEFORE OCCAM'S RAZOR
I am just a dream of someone else who exists.

AFTER OCCAM'S RAZOR
I just exist.

How am I lying? I said "Would I? No."

If I fully thought life was a dream my brain would agree with me. Now if you meant instincts, that is different, but true.

When I said "Would I wake up?" that would clearly mean that the life you were living was a dream.

First and foremost... Why the hell does it matter?

Descartes decided to be Extremely skeptical about our senses, and about the surrounding world. Through these prepositions he proposed dualism... he went further to try to prove the existence of his beloved god. Descartes never really bothered to apply his own skepticism to his skepticism. He didn't think that maybe he was going... overboard with all of this. The only reason he was able to create dualism... was because he punched reality in the gut when he said that we can't trust our senses. I don't know about anyone else; it seems a lot easier to disprove or attack someones idea rather than to promote your own. This is what made his idea so revolutionary and appealing, his entire philosophy was just a sledgehammer to reality's face. What monumental philosophy has Descartes left me with? Well, some of it is interesting... but none of it i use on a daily basis.

Be skeptical about how skeptical you are about reality. It might do you good to be comfortable with your "dream".

"I think, therefore I am."
You think, which I don't know, therefore I don't know you are.
I think, therefore I am, which does not contradict the possibility of me dreaming.
Is solipsism is flawed, or the "Life is a dream" prospect contradictory with it?
"ono, he doesn't believe that some hypothetical possibility is actually true!"
What one believes has nothing to do with whether or not you can disprove what they're presenting.
So stfu with that argument.
A decent response? Cheers for A_of-s_t!
However...
"In science, Occam’s razor is used as a heuristic (rule of thumb) to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models rather than as an arbiter between published models."
It doesn't disprove, it only says that something's not yet worth taking precedence over others.
So...
Which doesn't really provide anything in the way of a concrete, "Dream-reality idea is flawed because of ..."
Why the hell does SEN mafia matter?
I don't see you complaining about that thread either.

You apply it to yourself, not the person who states it, Ez. I think, therefore I am is specifically targeted at the "Is life a dream" nonsense.