Ambrosia Software Web Board: Mind Bending and Brain Blowing Questions - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Come all ye philosphers, theologians, mythologists, and insane guys!
Ponder those weird and sometimes unanswerable questions like "do we exist?" or "what is space when it is nothing?"

What is at the edge of the universe?
Can there be something that is infinite?
What are the origins of the universe and everything in it?
Do humans have an unconciouss telapathical ability?
Where do ideas come from?

Here's one I've been thinking about: Do humans have a different or higher consiecnness than other organisms? I know this is out there but bear with me. Plants are living organsims. However, they do not think. They only live and reproduce. But animals think, at least in theory. They probably have this capability that allows them to make decisions. Can plants do this? Are they capable of decision-making?
Now, humans are different. We can make complex decisions. But we also have emotions. Do animals have emotions? Or, at least, do they have them to our extent. Elephants have sometimes showed signs of "greif" or "sadness" when the herd would come across a dead elaphant or one elephant died. Is this enough to say that animals have human emotions, or vice-versa?
And another thing, what is the human driving force? What causes us to build cities of massive proportion instead of just living simply in a forest?

Give us your theories, ideas, or just plain nonsene if you wish to contribute.
Disclaimer: We take no responsibility if your head explodes from brain freezing or idea overloads.

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What is at the edge of the universe?

There's no such thing. The universe goes on forever, but the big bang, which we are all part of, has only gotten so far.

Can there be something that is infinite?

Yep. There's plenty of infinite things.

What are the origins of the universe and everything in it?

No idea, although I've had this theory for a while where the big bang was the result of a type of "Cold War" between two advanced civilizations that took a nasty turn.

Do humans have an unconcious telepathic ability?

No. A few get "feelings" and "hunches" and some are just making it up, but people don't really have telepathy.

Where do ideas come from?

People pondering stuff.


Here's one I've been thinking about: Do humans have a different or higher consiecnness than other organisms? I know this is out there but bear with me. Plants are living organsims. However, they do not think. They only live and reproduce. But animals think, at least in theory. They probably have this capability that allows them to make decisions. Can plants do this? Are they capable of decision-making?
Now, humans are different. We can make complex decisions. But we also have emotions. Do animals have emotions? Or, at least, do they have them to our extent. Elephants have sometimes showed signs of "greif" or "sadness" when the herd would come across a dead elaphant or one elephant died. Is this enough to say that animals have human emotions, or vice-versa?

Plants DO think, according to some tests. Humans, animals, and everything else can make complex decisions. I just think that different species have different average IQs.

Ants farm funguses in their colonies by feeding the fungus bits of leaf. They use sticks to wipe slime off of slugs so they can eat them without danger. They have aphids and catterpillars for cattle. They even build special areas in their colonies for them to leave. They work better as groups than humans ever have. My conclusion? Ants are just as smart as humans, or at least pretty close. The reason they haven't built cities and such is that they either did once, but found it to be bad, or the lightbulb hasn't gone on, yet, or their technology is at a standstill right now, just like humans in classical times, caveman times, and medievil times. (I'll bet you guys think I'm crazy, now.)

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"You can get much further with kind words and a loaded gun than you can with kind words alone."
- Al Capone

Actually, that's just about the most intelligent thing I've ever heard you say.

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"A mighty pain to love it is, and 'tis a pain that pain to miss; but of all the pains, the greatest pain is to love, but love in vain."
-Abraham Crowley

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I don't think it's that simple. Ideas or most likely a neurological product of some sort. People "pondering stuff" is just people thinking about ideas and such. But where do ideas come from? What is the neurological producer of ideas, if it is neurological? Are they byproducts of past expiriances? Cuz that's realy all our brains have. We have expieriances, and we learn from them. But ideas are probably just random thoughts about something that seem to come from nowhere. But that doesn't make sense! They have to come from somewhere, so where do they come from? Ideas?

"Do humans have an unconcious telepathic ability?

No. A few get "feelings" and "hunches" and some are just making it up, but people don't really have telepathy."

Hm. I pondered a little bit before posting my "disagreement arguement" and ended up convincing myself that you were right. Facial expressions and minute bady language probably replaces human telapathy.

My god. A highly intelligent, rational conersation!

*Gets out of its way to see if it will continue.*

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Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

What I mean by pondering stuff is:

"Hmm. I drop rock on skull of dead animal skeleton, skull of dead animal skeleton breaks into many small fragments."

Then, later:

"I need something sharp to put on end of my spear. I could use fragments of skull of dead animal! I don't have fragments of skull of dead animal."

Still later:

"Oof! I tripped over skeleton of dead animal and landed on rock. Hmm... I drop rock on skull of dead animal, and use fragments on my spear..."

Something like that.

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"You can get much further with kind words and a loaded gun than you can with kind words alone."
- Al Capone

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I find that hard to beleive. Ants have built colonies and produced colonies like they always have since the dinosaurs. And that realy hasn't changed, as far as naturalists are concerned.
I also disagree with the statement that ants may be as smart as humans. This is why:
Many ants rely on the sense of smell to recognize things. The detect chemicals for identifying trails and fellow ants. If an ant is found to have a different chemical than another, then that ant is an enemy to the other. The chemical is immediatley recognizable, and there is no substitute.
However, there are some species of spiders that are able to produce the exact chemicals of certain species of ants. This allows the spiders to do whatever they want to the ants. They can grab a larva out of a nurse ant's jaws and eat it right in front of 'em and the nurse ant won't do a thing about it. It just goes along with its work all because the chemical scent checked out. Now, if a military officer (human) walked into the Pentagon and shot someone, a human could easily recognize that that person, even though they were military, was an enemy. But ants do not do this, and they don't recognize that spider as an enemy. They don't have the level of complex resoning that humans have. That seems to disagree with your claim that ants are as smart as humans.

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I think so (there have been succesful, repeatable tests than indicate a telekinetic ability or potential in groups of humans under propper conditions - I'll post refrences if I feel like it), and so does my character

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Me: You ******* IDIOTS!! That planet was INHABITED!!!
Them: Ooops
Me: Let's resume this disscussion near airlock 13.
[immediatly following the first disrupter missle test]

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 10-30-2000).]

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I've never heard of that for ants and spiders. Heard of it for termites and asassin bugs, though. I think part of it is that termites don't have eyes, and ants can't see well at all. Also, if you're looking for stupidity, I've got a human example. In my language arts class, we're doing a project where we supposedly own a time travel company, and are advertising. One group is doing one where you go to the 1950s for free dinner for $2,000.00. When asked why somebody would go to a restaurant to eat for free for $2,000.00, they reply: "But the clothes from back then are so cute!" Anyway, read The Edge in The Oregonian, and you'll see plenty of great examples of human stupidity.

Hmmm, I might start posting an "Edge" topic...

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"You can get much further with kind words and a loaded gun than you can with kind words alone."
- Al Capone

Beyond the universes edge there is nothing, until the universe grows further as to encompass that specific part of nothing, which is when it becomes vacuum.

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'Never ask for directions in wales baldric, you'll be washing spit out of your beard for months'
-Blackadder

[quote]Originally posted by Fleet Admiral Darkk:
 I think so (there have been succesful, repeatable tests than indicate a telekinetic ability or potential in groups of humans under propper conditions - I'll post refrences if I feel like it), and so does my character     Yes, please do post references (if you feel like it ).

Hard to find. Almost 2200 pages of articles, but here's one of the relevant ones:
The Unexplained II volume 2 page 1250. ISBN 0-86307-284-4
(I was raised on MLA for those of you who are wondering)

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Me: You ******* IDIOTS!! That planet was INHABITED!!!
Them: Ooops
Me: Let's resume this disscussion near airlock 13.
[immediatly following the first disrupter missle test]

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Well, that should be obvious. The moment you hit the edge of the universe, everything goes black. Then you here a voice call: "THIS PROGRAM HAS PERFORMED AN ILLEGAL OPERATION AND WILL BE SHUT DOWN..."

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"Anything that can be achieved using magic can be achieved using technology." -Salrillian Illegal Publicist ekt-Herna in his last message to the Salrillian public.

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Your implying that the universe in owned by windows 98. Many say that the universe is a sphere and wormholes and other things like that are lines drwn to go through the sphere.
About telepathy: I beleive there is the potential for telepathy in humans. We only use like 10% of are brains normally. If we could use the other 90% who knows what we could do.

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EVIL RUMOR!!! There is no basis for that statement. What most parts of our brains do has been figured out, usually by observing people wbo damaged those parts in accidents. The reasons we aren't using all our brains:
[list=1]
[*]regions of our brains are highly specialized and sometimes aren't needed
[*]90% of our brain's volume is composed of insulators.
[/list=a]

As for the human driving force, I'd have to say greed and insecurity.

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the human race is by far one of the most imperfect speicies ever put on this earth. Our brain is the only thing that makes us supperior to any other animal. Therefore I believe that there is more than just what we have right now behind are skulls. Also the driving force behind humans is a great lust for power. This is why communism doesnt work. Its also why most ppl are greedy and power hungry.

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The driving forces behind Humanity are:

-To survive
-To reproduce
-To acquire
-To have control

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
-Alduran Outlaw Rick Blazer
StarLance

It varies on a person-to-person basis. What you guys have said is true for most people, though.

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"You can get much further with kind words and a loaded gun than you can with kind words alone."
- Al Capone

[This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 11-11-2000).]

If you think there's more to our success than we know of, there's a great scholarly discussion of it in The Unexplained II series - admittedly "Von Dainkin(sp)" scholarship.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure human greed and lust for power are infinite.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*