Brewster Rockit by Tim Rickard for January 24, 2009

Is it?

If the universe was a computer program, it would be a virus.

Good one Geeko!

Arguments of this type, beginning with “How do you know X isn’t…”, are traps that no one should ever step into.

It is perhaps the most common ploy of philosophical skepticism, asking you to suddenly doubt your lifetime of experience on the turn of one arbitrary question. It assumes you know the meaning of words like “reality”, “computer”, and “program”, but maybe all of your knowledge is invalid? Come off it!

Other variants of this argument include how do you know you are not a brain in a jar or that reality isn’t just a dream. Don’t fall for it, people! Your senses and logic are valid!

Not that I think the brilliant cartoonist actually is questioning reality or human knowledge, but I couldn’t resist warning against this common argument aimed at attacking the validity of the human mind.

Pschearer: Are we gonna get a bill for this advice??

Pschearer: Are we gonna get a bill for this advice??

“And still it’s all a speck amid a hundred billion stars In a galaxy we call the Milky Way. It’s sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other And still that’s just a fraction of the way. ‘Cause there’s a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars. And still the universe extends to a place that never ends Which is maybe just inside a little jar”! Yakkos Universe Song Animaniacs

And if a tree falls in the middle of the woods, would anyone care???

Someone once raised this question to me, but I decided I can’t possibly be a simulation. If I were, I would have crashed long ago.

And now Ladies and Gentlemen, for your enjoyment and auditory pleasure, and to assist in knowing the meaning of life….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2JU4gX6rg8

pschearer: Liked your comment.

…

Looks to me like Rickard is just a fan of the MIB movies.

Pretty profound coming from Brewster.

How do I know that pschearer isn’t just another computer program and he’s just saying that to confuse me into thinking that he’s really a human being?

If we are just some virtual simulation, then hear this, guy at the computer screen watching our every move! I’ll come and get you one day! Just you wait! And when I get my hands on you, I’ll-“FILE DELETED”

pschearer: Arbitrary and UNTESTABLE question, at that. :)

I loved watching on STARTREK.COM how that question kept on being posed in a certain form during live chats (by the same person, perhaps): “How do I know that’s really you at the other end?” Everyone being interviewed (that I saw) asked the questioner the same question! :D

Am I a man dreaming that I’m a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that I’m a man…?

Or maybe I am just a thought, fleeing through the brain of some enormous entity, barely aware of my existence.

“Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em,

and little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum"