Infinite Possibility...

Not exactly. All Descartes said was besides oneself, everything around you has the *possibility* of being 'not real'; he didn't definitively promote the idea that everything around us is an illusion.

 

Well, that was actually by nastural selection. They were once the same species, but they evolved to adapt to their different enviroments. Aliens on another planet would look quite different to life on Earth because they would adapt to a different enviroment, including gravity, air, and temperature.

 

Yea, it was about an hour later that I realized I was off. *shrug* I'm an English major, not Philosophy. Though I will say that I remember him talking about everything around us being an illusion of some demon, but not God, or something to that effect. Been 2+ years since I've read anything by him though.

 

That would be creepy. But I don't put much store about everything been an illusion. Though I believe it's possible

 

That would be the origin of skepticism. Descartes coined the notion that it was possible that God was a cruel deceiver and that none of what we see or feel is real. He used this premise to try to prove God, but his arguments were circular. Other skeptic theories coin the idea that we're simply computer simulations or brains hooked up to a computer feeding us a surreal dream. At some point there was even the notion that a demon or evil being is simply manipulating us. The more contemporary view has since then phased out much of the skepticism people think is profound. As opposed to giving in to the skeptic's second guessing, the reliability theory implicitly accepts the objectivity of the world around us. That is to say as opposed to disproving the skeptic, the onus is placed on him or her to prove that reality isn't real.

 

like the matrix

 

More like Plato's Cave, which is what the Matrix is loosely based on.

 

It wasn't so much that the world is false, from what I remember, but more so that our perception of the world is false, an illusion embedded in our mind by a demon.

White_Rook: Am I right in remembering Descartes saying that God couldn't be the deceiver due to something of a notion in his mind of a benevolent God? If memory serves, he then ended by stating that it must be the work of some demon.

 

Yeah, you'd be right.

 

this is the kind of stuff that either keeps you up all night, or puts you to sleep instantly

 

hey... the universe is a ginormous plc... so anything is possible.. you never know whats out there and what new thing, either good or bad we will find... but its always got the chance and possibilities that what we consider fiction here can be very real and alive somewhere out there. the existance of many universe shows that there are things out there that we still havent found.. so if only one tiny star from the milky way held a planet w/ life, then whats not to say that from the other billions of universe out there, that there is at least one more planet that holds life.

lol... well said

 

Yes,that is correct,but even if there is something out there,does it have the proper technology to come in contact with us?You see,things are more complicated than that,even if we believe that some alien life-form exists,we need proof...But anyway,the thread started by saying that there is infinite possibility,which there is so ya! xD

 

well of course the technology comes into question... i mean we could be leading into the awesomeness of technology and while in some other planet... som caveman or alien thingy could barely be discovering FIRE... lol

bad analogy.. but ill stick w/ it. haha

and the possibilities NEVER end...

 

I always thought about that. The way I have of thinking eventually makes me confuse myself or I can't think any more about it.

What if our world has ended before? What if it went through such forces that it didn't lay a trace of evidence behind in its steps?
And then it goes to the whole thing where you can't know until it might happen, but it'd be a very low possibility of that happening now.

There's probably other planets out there... We just can't search the whole universe, it really does make you wonder.
How far does outer space stretch, what if theres another sun? And moon? And planet with people and animals just like us? And their trying to find us?​

 

Or, they could have tecnology a thousand time advanced. Everyone thinks that, but they might just have the same technology we have. I dunno. Nobody does.

 

Yes. Yes. Yes. I totally agree with this theory,it makes me happy when I see someone else thought of it too...

 

which one?

 

the main one at the beginning.

 

Infinite possibility is a possibility, but just as impossible as a cartoon character.

Who knows.

 

I was just trying to relate it to something a little closer to home. That's exactly what I meant. :/ Of course they would be nothing like us because even here on Earth, once continent away holds so many creatures that are different, now when you think of a whole other planet, the likeliness that anything would be the same is pretty low. So in short, about the first post, it couldn't happen, fictional characters being real on other planets? Maybe in a different dimension, but not on a different planet, the way things would evolve just couldn't work. the chances of human-like creatures on other planets is really really, like minuscule, tiny tiny tiny tiny, little bean sprout, mini chances.