Fifth Avenue Forum

Why would it not be the same every single time?

It could be, but in this case:

And let’s say it could blow up again in any fashion with any asymmetry.

Correct.

But whether it’s the same every time or not, we’ve already had this discussion a few zillion times.

Are you the person you see in the mirror?

You see your container in the mirror. “You” are electrical current.

Oy vey. Pedantic Materialism 101 professor here. We can all be thankful.

redwill asked a question he didn't want answers to. i forgot that's your thing

I forgot what's not your thing.

Good talk

I laughed at the 2 year break and then the latest exchange

Oy vey. Pedantic Materialism 101 professor here. We can all be thankful.

my beliefs from '19 carry through precisely to today.

...but hooo boy did things get nihilistic later that year. it was a real energy buzz to feel like you figured something out. but "nothing matters and you have no identity" shockingly wasn't as fun as advertised in the long run.

Good talk

*shrug*

My question had -- to my mind -- deeper implications, but ... no one wants to play.

Good talk

*shrug*

My question had -- to my mind -- deeper implications, but ... no one wants to play.

I'll play... though I may be misinterpreting your question.

You are the person you see in the mirror...because you are viewing your reflection through the prism of your own contextualized reality, and you recognize the reflection as the physical you. That reflection, however, is only a true version of you to you. It is not a ’universal’ you...and it certainly isn't the you that others see. But because you are the beholder, it is, in fact, you.

I forgot what's not your thing.

Oh ****! How you doing man!?

I laughed at the 2 year break and then the latest exchange

It was smooth. Very impressive

My question stems from the fact that I saw myself on television a couple of weeks ago. A local charity thing. That wasn't me.

OK, it was me, but it was completely divorced from me. I was nothing more than the thousands of bodies and faces I see all the time. I have been troubled since I was a teenager with the press of humanity that I cannot know.

When you walk down the street, or when you're in a store, or maybe just in your home with your family, do you ever find yourself, uh ... psychically assaulted (?) ... by the humanity around you? Probably not, but I do: fascinated and yet revolted by these objects which I know are humans with every bit of a history, every bit of loves and hates, every bit of what they see as connections to other human beings.

Every bit of everything I have inside and every bit of what fills my brain. Each one of those humans, each one that you and I see every day, has all of that.

And yet I cannot know them. I think about what each of these humans thinks about.

It's a twisted combination of Nausea and The Zoo Story, which, perhaps regrettably, I have read and reread since I was a younger fellow.

So, like I said, I saw myself every-so-briefly on TV and I sometimes look in the mirror and wonder: Is that me or is it just one of those others who simultaneously obsesses and nauseates me?

I'll play... though I may be misinterpreting your question.

You are the person you see in the mirror...because you are viewing your reflection through the prism of your own contextualized reality, and you recognize the reflection as the physical you. That reflection, however, is only a true version of you to you. It is not a ’universal’ you...and it certainly isn't the you that others see. But because you are the beholder, it is, in fact, you.

Hmmm....

So it's me because it's me beholding me?

I know it must seemed like I'm seriously stoned, but I'm not. Mirrors always fascinate me and I just have never been able to figure out if what I see is me.

Because, as I implied above, I think that no one I see in real life is really anybody else.

And that includes each one of you.

(I know, I've never seen any of you, but it amounts to the same.)

Doesn't that viewpoint speak to something greater than the basics of life? What you see is light reflected off a surface. Or, there's something more to life than pure biology. Personally I think all week see is light.

Hey, man. I'm doing OK, at least corporeally. I hope you and yours are doing OK too.

"Something greater than the basics of life"?

Yeah, I suppose so, but, IMO, certainly nothing non-secular. More about our very secular relationships.

I can't see another human being -- in real life, on television, online, even my own wife, or siblings, or whatever, for what he or she truly is. How they see life, what experiences shaped them, how they see me or you or anyone. So I look in the mirror and I see someone. Just someone. Someone that I can't really see. Just another someone.

Meh.

I've been pondering too much Sartre, Camus, and Beckett lately. That's not a bad thing. Just got me ruminating.

How odd. I don't remember posting any of that last night. Haha.

I swear I wasn't high. Maybe drunk. Or maybe just something in the Kansas wind.

The question remains, however. After I read it I looked in the mirror and the same thing came to my mind. Sweet oblivious lucidity, I guess.

So your reflection has different experiences than you because it sees the world differently than you? Is that what you're saying? This is way above my pay grade.

I think I get it though. You'll never see the real person because you can never really know the real person.

Or I'm missing the mark completely

How odd. I don't remember posting any of that last night. Haha.

I swear I wasn't high. Maybe drunk. Or maybe just something in the Kansas wind.

The question remains, however. After I read it I looked in the mirror and the same thing came to my mind. Sweet oblivious lucidity, I guess.

Your thoughts last night made me think of the concept that humans are largely incapable of grasping objective reality. Very Bertrand Russell-ish, with a little of Plato's Allegory of the Cave thrown in for good measure.

What I mean by that is...we all agree the sky is blue, right? But...is it *really* blue, or is that just how *we* perceive it?

Aristotle > Plato