January 2009
14 posts
"I've got caught out teaching my kids the three... →
I’ve got caught out teaching my kids the three primary colours are Red, Green and Blue…
2 tags
5 tags
“Something terrible’s happening to me. I no longer can keep myself and my...”
– Richard Kongrosian in Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, p. 201. (?)
5 tags
“When I think of [Norbert Wiener], I imagine him laboring mightily to construct...”
– N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Post-Human, p. 87.
4 tags
http://ask.metafilter.com/111874/Im-real
Q: What is the best way to confirm your own reality, as much as logically possible?
This is not so much a psychological/emotional question as a practical/mechanical one. Let's say you're in a normal house with items such as computer, camera, kitchen, whatever. One condition: You cannot communicate instantaneously with any other people. This condition is mostly directed toward friends and acquaintances, rather than random people on the street.
For example, one thing I thought of was videotaping yourself walking around and speaking. Can this be improved, or what are some other ways?
--posted by acidic to religion & philosophy (31 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
Favorite answer:
Teach an animal to do something that it would not be likely to do without your influence. (But you didn't mention an animal in the house, so you'd have to open the window and lure in a bird or possible a bug-eating lizard and they are not the fastest learners.)
Then, as long a you believe the animal a unique creature with agency and not a figment of your imagination, viola!
Or, bake. Flour doesn't automatically go "poof" when you heat it. It just sits there and burns unless you make bread dough.
-- posted by Lesser Shrew at 5: 27 PM on January 16
and lure in a bird or possible a bug-eating lizard and they are not the fastest learners.
I'm sorry but as an ornithologist I must take offense at this. Please peruse the following: Alex the Parrot
-- posted by CTORourke at 7: 55 PM on January 16
