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Does the world make sense?

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Eggman
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29 Jan 2009, 4:57 am

the world makes sense...people dont


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Shiggily
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29 Jan 2009, 5:04 am

Ragtime wrote:
This question immediately poses another: What does it mean for a system to "make sense"?

People are fairly split on the first question, which can also be phrased: "Does reality have a pattern, or is it all just random chaos?"

I'm not looking for a yes or a no, but rather a supposition of a valid way in which we could go about finding the answer.

The world could in reality be sensical, while continuing to not "make sense" in the normal way. (Make sense to our finite minds.) The first part is what I'm mostly asking: Is there a pattern to reality, whether or not we can see that pattern? Can we at least know whether or not there is a pattern, even if we can't discover what the pattern might be?

I would like a yes or a no to that last question.


life and much of the universe follows complexity, which is neither order nor chaos... but something in between.


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ruveyn
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29 Jan 2009, 5:11 am

twoshots wrote:

Whether or not pi is nonsensical is a matter of perspective. It looks quite orderly when written like this:
Image


That is slicker than beets. I wonder why we don't make more use of continued fractions. I suspect it is because we need a two dimensional manifold to write them down.

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29 Jan 2009, 12:14 pm

Pi in the sky? topic

I believe the world is dynamically ambiguous, and we humans impose on it whatever order is in vogue or that we are comfortable or skilled at.

These orders are not always compatible, and so conflict arises, and this entices others to impose yet other orders. Some orders are less controversial than others, eg, mathematics. Some are to die and murder for, like religion, politics, and philosophy. :P


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Last edited by sartresue on 29 Jan 2009, 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

slowmutant
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29 Jan 2009, 2:34 pm

The world makes sense, but not consistently. But I guess that depends on who is making sense of what and why. Perception is anything but uniform.



history_of_psychiatry
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29 Jan 2009, 2:42 pm

Does anything in this world make sense? Very rarely.


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slowmutant
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29 Jan 2009, 2:55 pm

What I do understand is made microscopic by what I do not understand. But just because I find no sense in it does not mean there is no sense to be found.



merrymadscientist
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29 Jan 2009, 5:14 pm

twoshots wrote:

Whether or not pi is nonsensical is a matter of perspective. It looks quite orderly when written like this:
Image


That looks lovely. But that 4 at the top isn't quite so orderly as the rest. Why is that? It doesn't fit in, but obviously being at the top, it must be extremely important.