Your mind = Blown [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Pheehelm

2010-05-26, 01:17 AM

Brace yourself. I've never seen anyone else make these observations.

Zork:
So you have these Elvish artifacts lying around in the games, right? Elvish longswords, Elvish cloak of stealth...

But I have never actually seen any elves in Zork. The stuff I've read on the world of Zork doesn't say anything about them. Just their artifacts keep popping up. What are these elves like? Where do they live? Who knows?

Calvin and Hobbes:
Calvin often proclaims himself to be the most important person in the world. There's at least one particular strip where he matter-of-factly states that his parents and the rest of his lineage exist for the express purpose of bringing him into existence.

Now, in the character breakdowns in the anniversary collection, Watterson says that he never named Calvin's parents, because their names aren't important. Straight from the creator himself, all that matters about them is that they're his mom and dad.

Everything Calvin says about being the center of the universe is exactly right.

Serpentine

2010-05-26, 01:21 AM

I don't so much have "mind blown" moments, as moments when things just... click into place. For example:
Fractions. I don't know if I missed a crucial class or what, but I just didn't get fractions and doing things with them. Then one day, I went "Ooooh, so you multiply the top with the top and the bottom with the bottom, and if you're adding you have to get the bottom the same first. OOooooh."
D&D CR. I couldn't wrap my head around why a CR 10 creature is a good challenge for a level 10 party. Eventually I wrangled it out: CR is based on a party of 4. With that in mind, it's expected that a CR 10 creature will require 1/4 of a party of 4's resources. Thus, a CR 10 creature should require all of a single level 10 character's resources - in other words, it should pretty much come down to luck, tactics or other swinging factors. Thus, challenge rating is approximately equal to character level, but good encounter levels have different assumptions. If you followed any of that...

Oh, actually, I have a bit of a "mind blown" moment. The other night, I watched "Inside Nature's Giants", where they disected a fully-grown... finn? whale. Whatever whale it was, it wasn't the biggest. As a woman stood inside its mouth and demonstrated that her head could fit through its voice box, I suddenly went, with full understanding for the first time, "whales are REALLY big."
This happened a few times in the show, such as when they pulled off a portion of the skin with a forklift, and went through a stroll through the stretched-out intestines.

Temotei

2010-05-26, 01:23 AM

If you think of salt in your mouth, you will start to taste it.

Sour tastes are easier for me. I hate sour tastes, so that's probably why.

One of my friends gave a bit of clever insight on a go-karting trip once.

"Ice is cold."

Superglucose

2010-05-26, 01:26 AM

When I figured out how integrals worked. That... that was weird.

Oh and OChem. I almost aced the final despite getting less than a D average, and I'm ashamed to say I didn't really study. Just somewhere over the last week I was like, DING! Reactions! GO GO GO!

Serpentine

2010-05-26, 01:33 AM

I may be having a "mind blown" moment in the LGBT thread at the moment...

Dogmantra

2010-05-26, 01:41 AM

My mind is blown every single time I remember the year, up until around December, when it hits me that "oh my, it's almost year+1"

I am still amazed that it's 2010.

Superglucose

2010-05-26, 01:43 AM

I may be having a "mind blown" moment in the LGBT thread at the moment...
That reminds me of the time I found the only group I identified with most on a gender-basis was... bisexual females. What a very strange day that was. I just looked around and was like, "Huh, it seems like most of my friends aren't just girls, they're bisexual. Weird." Then I was talking to my gf at the time about my feelings and it suddenly clicked.

What a strange day that was.

Pheehelm

2010-05-26, 02:21 AM

http://basicinstructions.net/storage/2009-04-08-Shocking-II.gif?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1259114982963
From here (http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2009/4/8/how-to-receive-a-shocking-truth.html).

Rockphed

2010-05-26, 02:48 AM

I frequently have mind blowing realizations, unfortunately, most of the ones I can think of right now are against board rules to post. Bah!

The Orange Zergling

2010-05-26, 02:53 AM

You can easily peel bananas by turning them upside down and pinching the bottom nub instead of using the top part as a tab.

I also have a hard time remembering that something that happened in, say, 1940 is actually 70 years ago rather than 60 because I can't get the fact that it's 2010 into my head rather than 2000.

T-O-E

2010-05-26, 06:56 AM

Only with language roots. Mostly Greek and Latin.

Also there are no female cereal mascots.

PersonMan

2010-05-26, 07:37 AM

When I was younger, we were driving home after being rained out of our camping spot, and I looked up. The sky was pitch black, no stars. I knew it wasn't too late, so I looked at the horizon. The Sun was just setting. I rolled up my window, realizing that we were directly underneath a super-full stormcloud. It started raining soon after.

It followed us the entire way home, and rained there too.

Serpentine

2010-05-26, 08:20 AM

I saw it start raining across the yard once. I had enough time to get my umbrella up before it got to me.

Teddy

2010-05-26, 08:32 AM

I saw it start raining across the yard once. I had enough time to get my umbrella up before it got to me.

It happened to me once when we were going home from a holiday. We were eating at a restaurant which is built as a bridge across the highway, and you could see perhaps a kilometre up the road from the windows. Now, suddenly, the dark cloud that had been chasing us during the travel finally caught up with us as we finished our meals, and you could see a curtain of rain moving towards you, especially on the ground, which wen't from dry to wet in a clearly visible line. We just managed to make it to the car before it was all over us.

The Watchman

2010-05-26, 08:34 AM

I saw it start raining across the yard once. I had enough time to get my umbrella up before it got to me.

It once rained on one side of my house, but not the other.

potatocubed

2010-05-26, 09:20 AM

I read up on bone healing and cell-level antiviral defences, and I was like "holy balls this works". Biology never fails to blow me away.

paddyfool

2010-05-26, 09:26 AM

I saw it start raining across the yard once. I had enough time to get my umbrella up before it got to me.

Go to any of a number of tropical countries, and you'll quite often have a very short warning of the "umbrella/run for cover" variety when you see or hear a wall of rain approaching. I think the furthest off I've noticed one was a couple hundred yards away, and that only gave me a few seconds warning.

EDIT: On the biology front - HIV inserts its genome into your DNA. Into. Your. DNA. That still freaks me out. (Not generally into your germline, though, otherwise parent-to-child transmission would be a lot harder to prevent.) And there's a fair chunk of our genome that bears the traces of other retroviruses coming and going over the past few hundred million years.

KuReshtin

2010-05-26, 10:11 AM

It happened to me once when we were going home from a holiday. We were eating at a restaurant which is built as a bridge across the highway, and you could see perhaps a kilometre up the road from the windows. Now, suddenly, the dark cloud that had been chasing us during the travel finally caught up with us as we finished our meals, and you could see a curtain of rain moving towards you, especially on the ground, which wen't from dry to wet in a clearly visible line. We just managed to make it to the car before it was all over us.

Nyköpings Bro? Sounds like it, anyways. :smallcool:

onthetown

2010-05-26, 10:52 AM

Mathis

2010-05-26, 11:50 AM

What blows my mind? The last world war was 70 years ago... just 70 years... We were walking on the moon 24 years after it ended.

Lykan

2010-05-26, 12:13 PM

Zanaril

2010-05-26, 12:30 PM

I'm seventeen.

No wait, seriously? It's been another whole year?! I've got to start paying attention!

(This happens every time my birthday rolls 'round)

(Ditto with it having been a whole decade since the millenium)

Teddy

2010-05-26, 12:45 PM

Nyköpings Bro? Sounds like it, anyways. :smallcool:

Nope, Gävle Bro.

Superglucose

2010-05-26, 12:52 PM

What blows my mind? The last world war was 70 years ago... just 70 years... We were walking on the moon 24 years after it ended.
I think K.A. Applegate put it best when she had Ax talking about humanity.

Paraphrase: it was just 57 years between the first human powered flight at when they put a man on the moon.

I mean think about that for a moment, for several thousand years humanity's highest technological invention was fire. Sure, we could make weapons with fire (by melting metals and hammering them into shapes) and sure we had the wheel, but the first powered flight didn't even use steam power or gasoline. It was two bicycle manufacturers peddling their way into destiny, and then fifty-seven years later, which is well under a lifetime, four men blasted off from earth, left earth, and two of them set foot on another celestial body.

Crazy. No wonder Sagan said, "If we do not destroy ourselves we will one day venture to the stars."

poisonoustea

2010-05-26, 01:54 PM

XKCD Comic explains it better.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/startling.png
Oh yes, definitely. "Wow. We're in the future."

@V my last time was when I saw this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0_mLumx-6Y) video about mechanical prosthetics.
Warning: it might be disturbing. Still, it's very interesting.

Zen Monkey

2010-05-26, 02:20 PM

I had a "we're in the future" moment the first time I saw a notice in the theater (the ones right before a movie starts, like trying to get you to go buy food or stop talking) that said "no lasers please." I know it meant the annoying pointers that kids bring in, but it still had a sci-fi ring to it.

Jokasti

2010-05-26, 05:54 PM

Lactose intolorence used to be the norm.

Orzel

2010-05-26, 06:03 PM

Oh Snap. I used to a baby!
..

And drank only milk!

Ravens_cry

2010-05-26, 06:12 PM

Lactose intolorence used to be the norm.
In cultures that never were big on the whole sucking down boob juice and derivatives thing post-weening, it still is. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance)

Dvandemon

2010-05-26, 06:35 PM

alexeduardo

2010-05-26, 06:36 PM

Every time I go to the Mexico City airport (or the subway station or somewhere along those lines) and get to some sort of vantage point, I look down at all the people walking around, clearly going somewhere only they know why, I cannot help but think to myself: "Wow, there are a lot of people."

shadow_archmagi

2010-05-26, 06:40 PM

Susan "Shadow_Archmagi" Brindle: can you help me I have to analyze these poems by Emily Dickinson

Jimmy Brindle: I don't know but I do know today is the day you realize that every single one of her poems can be sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle

Szilard

2010-05-26, 06:47 PM

You can easily peel bananas by turning them upside down and pinching the bottom nub instead of using the top part as a tab.

Are you telling me I've been opening my bananas upside down this entire time?

thubby

2010-05-26, 06:48 PM

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

were that line to represent the time the universe has existed, it would be physically impossible for the screen to accurately display the time humans have existed on it.

TheThan

2010-05-26, 07:03 PM

Racer X is really Rex Racer!

Dvandemon

2010-05-26, 07:06 PM

It once rained on one side of my house, but not the other.

When I realized you where a Discworld fan. I wonder if there's anyone else I can talk to, where's Elder Tsofu?

Emperor Ing

2010-05-26, 07:08 PM

Realizing this random book I got for christmas, Dune, was not only an amazing book, but one of the most well respected and critically acclaimed sci-fi novels of all time.

Dragero

2010-05-26, 07:14 PM

My mind is blown every single time I remember the year, up until around December, when it hits me that "oh my, it's almost year+1"

I am still amazed that it's 2010.

Similar to me.

I always go:

"Holy Crap! 1990 was 20 years ago!"

T-O-E

2010-05-26, 07:17 PM

This is earth.

snipEverything that we know of is on that dot. Every civilization, every war, every world-rocking event, every beastie that exists or has ever exist, your gigantic lizards, fuzzy little critters, chemical spraying bugs, and us... Over the past several billion years, all of it's been constrained to that one little dot.

Make of this what you will.

Every Carl Sagan wannabe. :smalltongue:

No offense.

poisonoustea

2010-05-26, 07:34 PM

http://basicinstructions.net/storage/2009-04-08-Shocking-II.gif?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1259114982963
:smalleek: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHRMeRszw4)

@V, I know. I'm sorry. I thought it added to the drama... I'm still thinking about Bugs Bunny... horrible, horrible.

Krade

2010-05-26, 08:04 PM

:smalleek: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHRMeRszw4)

I didn't realize the smiley was a link until I accidently hit "Quote" instead of "Reply". Very appropriate video, sir.

My friend's little sister just turned 20 a couple days ago. Sure I'm only 23, but when we still lived with our parents, that 3 year difference was huge. It really drove home the fact that I'm not a kid anymore.:smalleek:

arguskos

2010-05-26, 08:09 PM

I still am getting over the fact I have a 2-year old sibling. I'm 21, 22 this year.

I have a sibling who is 20 years my junior. TWENTY YEARS. :eek:

onthetown

2010-05-26, 08:15 PM

Similar to me.

I always go:

"Holy Crap! 1990 was 20 years ago!"

Holy crap, I'm 20 years old?! :smalleek:

Anuan

2010-05-26, 09:03 PM

Occasionally I'll catch sight of myself in a mirror and go "...Crap. I'm big."

I'm broad shouldered. Broader than I look, even, because I always have my shoulders forward (terribleposturearrrggghhh). I'm somewhere in the close vicinity of six feet tall.

I used to have to stand on a chair to reach the panadol at the top of the fridge. :smalleek:

Lykan

2010-05-26, 09:09 PM

Every Carl Sagan wannabe. :smalltongue:

No offense.

Yeah. Prolly should have just quoted him rather than trying to seem smart, huh?

@v: So'kay.

T-O-E

2010-05-26, 09:23 PM

I didn't intend to be insulting. Just noting the similarities and obvious inspiration.

Sorry if it came out like that.

Partof1

2010-05-26, 10:01 PM

When I recognize a song that I heard often on the radio when I was really young, but then never heard since, I almost compulsively track down the band's cds.

Also, rather often, if I eat foods I know I like, but don't eat too too often, I am astounded how good they are. It seems odd to me.

Chambers

2010-05-26, 10:40 PM

One day my algebra teacher showed us the proof for the quadratic formula. I've never really been that good at math and having her show the whole proof really made it click at the end.

Dvandemon

2010-05-26, 11:02 PM

Cealocanth

2010-05-26, 11:13 PM

Douglas

2010-05-26, 11:26 PM

I recently had one of those after watching Lord of the Rings.

Why did tolken bother writing a seiries about how a short guy brought a piece of jewelry to a volcano to destroy it, when Gandalf could have just phoned his eagle buddies and brought the ring over himself.
The (speculative, fan-suggested) reason I've seen is that a giant eagle flying in would have been way too obvious, and would have been spotted well in advance and swarmed by all 9 Nazgul. Also, it still would have had to be a hobbit doing the job - Gandalf himself explicitly states that, if he bore the ring himself, the temptation to claim it and use it would be too great. I think it works something along the lines of temptation/corruption proportional to the subject's own power, with hobbits (for some unknown reason) having an additional special resistance. Gandalf, being both not a hobbit and one of the most powerful of the Maiar, would have fallen to the ring's influence much more easily than Frodo, a hobbit of no extraordinary power - and even Frodo failed when the critical moment came, with only Gollum's intervention (combined with compulsion by the ring itself, ironically) saving the day.

MCerberus

2010-05-26, 11:36 PM

When faced with the possibility of being in a position of endless creative power, your own psyche mostly attempts to sabotage your ability to use it. Your brain is programmed to the mundane. (when thinking about realizing you're in a dream and waking yourself up)

Then there was the time I taught myself to think recursively... that got weird for a while.

Zeb The Troll

2010-05-27, 12:52 AM

I still am getting over the fact I have a 2-year old sibling. I'm 21, 22 this year.

I have a sibling who is 20 years my junior. TWENTY YEARS. :eek:I wonder if my daughter feels this way. She'll turn 22 three days after Pudding Troll's first birthday.

Damn, I'm old. :smallcool:

arguskos

2010-05-27, 01:00 AM

I wonder if my daughter feels this way. She'll turn 22 three days after Pudding Troll's first birthday.

Damn, I'm old. :smallcool:
I mean, I'm more his uncle than his brother. By the time he's old enough to have a brew with me, I'll be FOURTY. I'm old enough to be my brother's father. :smalleek:

This is absurd and makes it crazy hard for me to think of him as "brother" and not "nephew".

Deth Muncher

2010-05-27, 01:13 AM

So like, you know that thing? That does the stuff?

...

Yeah. Mind = blown.

Zeb The Troll

2010-05-27, 01:30 AM

I mean, I'm more his uncle than his brother. By the time he's old enough to have a brew with me, I'll be FOURTY. I'm old enough to be my brother's father. :smalleek:

This is absurd and makes it crazy hard for me to think of him as "brother" and not "nephew".Exactly. She has a son older than her brother. Taking this a step further, then, her son has an uncle who is younger than he is. Right now Grandtroll is calling Pudding Troll "baby Jared" but I'm expecting some time in the future for that to change to "Uncle Junior". :smallcool:

Serpentine

2010-05-27, 01:50 AM

A girl I knew in high school, who has a huge family, has an aunt who's younger than her...

Excession

2010-05-27, 05:31 AM

In a first-year university astronomy course, they had us calculate the radius of Betelgeuse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse) from observational data. It's nearly as big as the orbit of JUPITER.

Another one, that Douglas Adams put better than I ever could: "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space". Start with this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/HubbleDeepField.800px.jpg/594px-HubbleDeepField.800px.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field)
The big ones are obvious, but every single dot is an entire galaxy. And that is a tiny bit of sky.

Eldan

2010-05-27, 06:12 AM

Holy crap, I'm 20 years old?! :smalleek:

Every so often, I still go
"Holy crap, I'm an adult.
...
For the last five years!"

I mean, I'm more his uncle than his brother. By the time he's old enough to have a brew with me, I'll be FOURTY. I'm old enough to be my brother's father. :smalleek:

This is absurd and makes it crazy hard for me to think of him as "brother" and not "nephew".

I have a friend who has a nephew his age.

As for the bigness of space: there was a video which started with the earth, and then showed astronomical objects in order of scale. After a while, it would go "This is the largest star we know. This (star moves aside so that only a part of it's curve fills half the screen, then a tiny, one pixel yellow dot shows up) is our sun."

ForzaFiori

2010-05-27, 06:50 AM

I was reading some of my mom's Star Trek novels, and realized suddenly that all the dates they're throwing around for things like the 3rd world war, first warp drive, first encounter, etc, are like...40 years away. That's what really drove home the fact that we're really living IN THE FUTURE! When you've started living in dates mentioned in Star Trek, its the future. plain and simple.

Also, I still freak out that I am technically an adult, even if I do live with my parents.

And I freak out over the fact that I have a nephew who's almost two! What happened to time taking forever?

Dogmantra

2010-05-27, 06:53 AM

I just remembered what blew my mind the most and still does.

Stuff exists.
I mean, think about it for a moment. What's that all about?

Serpentine

2010-05-27, 07:12 AM

What happened to time taking forever?Sucks, don' it. :smallfrown:

Pyrian

2010-05-27, 11:17 AM

I was reading some of my mom's Star Trek novels, and realized suddenly that all the dates they're throwing around for things like the 3rd world war, first warp drive, first encounter, etc, are like...40 years away. That's what really drove home the fact that we're really living IN THE FUTURE!I'm always amused by novels (and other media) like 1984, 2001, and 2010. Nah - didn't happen quite that way. :smallcool:

Murska

2010-05-27, 11:39 AM

Hmm. I have a few moments like this.

One would be when I finally managed to understand what a tesseract is like.

Then there's music(and to a lesser extent Guitar Hero) where I just suddenly notice how I've gotten so much better apparently without any work, because it wasn't work, because it was fun.

And there's the thoughtline: I don't believe in supernatural stuff. Natural stuff follows the laws of physics. Thus, I believe deep down there's a set of rules everything follows. My brain is constructed of stuff, thus it follows those laws. This means my free will is just an illusion and I actually act according to said laws... and this doesn't matter one bit! I'm still exactly who I am.

Supagoof

2010-05-27, 11:47 AM

Heh, I love this one.
Darth Vader is Princess Leia's Father!

Dvandemon

2010-05-27, 12:46 PM

I just realized adding &highlight= with whatever word I want to the end of the address will highlight that word in the forum

arguskos

2010-05-27, 12:56 PM

Exactly. She has a son older than her brother. Taking this a step further, then, her son has an uncle who is younger than he is. Right now Grandtroll is calling Pudding Troll "baby Jared" but I'm expecting some time in the future for that to change to "Uncle Junior". :smallcool:

A girl I knew in high school, who has a huge family, has an aunt who's younger than her...

I have a friend who has a nephew his age.
This doesn't help. Still freaks me out, especially because Dad expects me to play Big Brother to Edison, which just isn't really going to happen (age differences being what they are). :smalleek::smallfrown:

Lady Tialait

2010-05-27, 12:57 PM

My mind blower is for now: I had a baby. A real human being. It was created in me.

That just blows me mind every time I think about it.

Ravens_cry

2010-05-27, 01:02 PM

My mind blower is for now: I had a baby. A real human being. It was created in me.

That just blows me mind every time I think about it.
It's going to be even more so when they get bigger.
That was in my uterus? !:smalleek:
Congratulations by the way.:smallsmile:

Winthur

2010-05-27, 01:09 PM

I just realized that when you put your closed fist over your opened mouth and pump the hand up and down, your lips taste like salt.

I wonder what causes that...

Thajocoth

2010-05-27, 02:08 PM

I just realized that when you put your closed fist over your opened mouth and pump the hand up and down, your lips taste like salt.

I wonder what causes that...

Sweat. It's salty.

Lady Tialait

2010-05-27, 02:20 PM

I just realized that when you put your closed fist over your opened mouth and pump the hand up and down, your lips taste like salt.

....consider this my mind blow.

Why were you doing that?

Shas aia Toriia

2010-05-27, 02:25 PM

Sweat. It's salty.

I think it was more a trick to make you do something sexual in nature, but whatevs' yo.

Griever

2010-05-27, 02:37 PM

Every ounce of math one learns from the beginning of school to middle/end of high school is merely a special case with no imaginary counterpart on the real/imaginary graph.

So terribly one dimensional.

onthetown

2010-05-27, 02:47 PM

Every so often, I still go
"Holy crap, I'm an adult.
...
For the last five years!"

Up to my 19th birthday, I was going, "I can't wait to be legal!" since 19 is the drinking and gambling and whatnot age up here. Then on my 19th birthday, I woke up and went, "I've almost lived for two decades."

Another thing that totally blows my mind is realizing I don't feel any older than I did five or ten years ago.

onasuma

2010-05-27, 02:53 PM

If you clamp your thumb between your fist, your gag reflex goes.
Ok, it doesnt but if you think it will, it does
Wonder why that is?

Helanna

2010-05-27, 03:02 PM

Friend: "Are you going to vote on the school budget?"
Me: ". . . I CAN VOTE!"

'S true. I'm 18 now! :smallbiggrin:

Similarly: 9 days. There are 9 full days of high school left for me, and then it's done forever. I figure I've spent nearly 20,000 hours in school or doing school-related activities over the past 12 years. And now there are 9 days left until I leave forever. I'll never see most of the people of my grade again. All the little things that are so routine now, I will never, ever perform again. Just 9 more days.

It's rather terrifying.

Shas aia Toriia

2010-05-27, 03:20 PM

If you clamp your thumb between your fist, your gag reflex goes.
Ok, it doesnt but if you think it will, it does.

I didn't notice that at all.

Liffguard

2010-05-27, 03:21 PM

Okay, so my mind wasn't so much blown as mildly intrigued but nevertheless, I present to you my epiphany. Popular author China Mieville (http://www.kqed.org/assets/img/arts/programs/writersblock/china-mieville.jpg) looks exactly the same as Disturbed frontman David Draiman (http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/13265113/David+Draiman+David+1++Joey+Lawrence.jpg). Not just similar, completely identical save for piercings. Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together?

Deth Muncher

2010-05-27, 03:25 PM

If you clamp your thumb between your fist, your gag reflex goes.
Ok, it doesnt but if you think it will, it does
Wonder why that is?

LEFT. LEFT THUMB. Right one does nothing.

Dogmantra

2010-05-27, 03:35 PM

Similarly: 9 days. There are 9 full days of high school left for me, and then it's done forever. I figure I've spent nearly 20,000 hours in school or doing school-related activities over the past 12 years. And now there are 9 days left until I leave forever. I'll never see most of the people of my grade again. All the little things that are so routine now, I will never, ever perform again. Just 9 more days.

It's rather terrifying.

Yeah, this too now you mention it. Despite having had five-ish exams already, it's not really sunk in that I'm actually doing my GCSEs right now.

Xzeno

2010-05-27, 03:37 PM

arguskos

2010-05-27, 03:42 PM

Someone, somewhere, thought to themselves: "Gee, I'd like to set him on fire, but just can't quite reach. I need some device to throw flames on him from here. Let's make it happen!"

Thanks to George Carlin, my mind was blown for a moment, as I realized that had to happen for serious at some point in history.

Symmys

2010-05-27, 03:49 PM

I usually read books all in one go. So I'll spend most of the day reading, then I'll step away from the book (or computer game. I'll play those for hours on end.) and, several minutes later, I'll realize, "Holy crap, this is really happening. This is REAL." It never fails to blow my mind.

Shas aia Toriia

2010-05-27, 04:19 PM

Someone, somewhere, thought to themselves: "Gee, I'd like to set him on fire, but just can't quite reach. I need some device to throw flames on him from here. Let's make it happen!"

To be fair, this must have happened a lot early on with some pretty crazy ideas that are now considered mundane.

arguskos

2010-05-27, 04:24 PM

To be fair, this must have happened a lot early on with some pretty crazy ideas that are now considered mundane.
True enough, which makes those things all mind-blowing in nature. Think about how cars ACTUALLY run. Cars run on explosion power. Seriously, not even joking. Cars run because we blow stuff up in them. It's insane, and yet, no one even bats an eye.

Eldan

2010-05-27, 04:41 PM

Or to quote myself from the dumb foods thread:

"Anyway, cheese isn't that simple, really. I've made some myself. Someone had to think "Hmm. Let's take this milk, then add this substance from a calf's stomach, then let it stand around in a cool place, then take one half of it and let it stand around for two more years..."
"

poisonoustea

2010-05-27, 06:55 PM

A while back I noticed... okay, my brother noticed, but still: A soft consonant is a sound you can hold, like F or S, while a hard consonant is one you can't, like K or T.

Thus a hard C is one that makes the K sound, while a soft C makes the S sound. I always assumed it was just some arcane system of labeling, using a sort of logic unknowable to mortals, but it actually makes sense. Totally blew my mind.

Or at least I HOPE that's how hard/soft consonants work.
Welcome into the world of phonetics! :smallbiggrin:
It's not really about hard and soft consonants, it's about the different ways of moving air in your phonatory apparatus. Many sounds are so similar they only have one trait that distinguishes them from the other.

See, in example, P (pat, pull) and B (bat, bull). They're exactly the same thing, they're both plosives (you let the air 'explode' in order to produce the sound) and they're both labials (pronounced on the lips), but while [p] is a voiceless bilabial plosive, [b] is a voiced bilabial plosive. This basically means that [b] has you vibrate your vocal cords, while [p] doesn't. You can try it out, pat, bat. You'll notice the vibration in bat.

The "soft" C you can find in chunk and chip and generally written as [tʃ] is an affricate, half-way between a plosive and a sibilant, the category which comprises the [f] or [s] sounds. That's why it sounds similar to an [s].

*ehm* I'm done with the boring talk :smalltongue:

Serpentine

2010-05-27, 10:17 PM

I have two degrees. Not just one, which is kinda cool in itself, but two. I keep thinking "but it was a double degree, that doesn't count." Then I remember, I have a Bachelor of Science, AND a Bachelor of Arts. I just happened to do them at the same time.

Shas aia Toriia

2010-05-27, 10:46 PM

I have a Bachelor of Science, AND a Bachelor of Arts.

Right, so only one degree. :smallwink:

Serpentine

2010-05-27, 10:49 PM

Hardy har har har :smalltongue: Hey, without that "not-degree" I wouldn't be doing honours right now!

...

Wait, I'm not doing honours right now... But I should be! And I've nearly finished my second essay! ...that was due about 10 months ago <.<

RandomNPC

2010-05-28, 06:18 PM

I've seen a quarter of a century. My oldest living relative has seen cars advance from the begining. As wowed as I am at myself, she takes the cake.

Shas aia Toriia

2010-05-28, 06:34 PM

I think the most mind blowing thing of all is magnets.
I mean really, how do they work? :smalltongue:

Also, the internet is a pretty crazy concept, and I don't know how somebody could have imagined it from scratch.

arguskos

2010-05-28, 06:35 PM

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll

2010-05-28, 10:07 PM

My mother was at Woodstock. This randomly blows my mind. To be fair, she was a baby at the time, but still. :smalleek:

Also, my grandfather has probably killed dozens of men (soldier in Vietnam). I can't even imagine that, he's such a sweet old man these days. *shudder* Damn, family is bizarre if you really think about it.

We've been doing some family stuff, so...

My Great-Uncle and Great-Aunt went to Woodstock as teenagers.

My Great Great Grandfather survived the first ever use of gas at Ypres in world war one.

My ancestors came to the America's in the 17th century: They were some of the earliest settlers in the Massachussets colony.

One of my ancestors is buried in Westminster Abbey.

One of my ancestors is named James Blood.

That last one completely blew my mind. :smallbiggrin:

shadow_archmagi

2010-05-28, 10:22 PM

Obviously, many of these ideas were not imagined from scratch. They evolved over time. Some of them were adapted from other concepts.

Sometimes the design goal was the driving force behind the method, whereas in other cases the invention of a new method made possible a new goal.

Quincunx

2010-05-29, 08:04 AM

Dinner service layout has an internal logic.

A few years ago, the first time I made a spelling mistake and could not, for the life of me, think of the correction, hurt my mind. (One of my friends extrapolated from the moment and informed me I'll degrade to a drooling vegetable by 2012. :smallfrown:)

The mechanics of comforting depressives baffles me.

Texas. Just. . .Texas. :smallconfused:

Helanna

2010-05-29, 02:11 PM

Another "wow, I'm graduating in a month" one:

Our senior exit projects, that have been hanging over our heads all year, are due in less than one week.

. . . I should probably start mine at some point. At least I've got the framework done . . .

Derjuin

2010-05-29, 02:16 PM

I think the most mind blowing thing of all is magnets.
I mean really, how do they work? :smalltongue:

My Gods, I JUST got this. I think the whole thing blows my mind; specifically, how can something THAT BAD make it to the public?

Recaiden

2010-05-29, 02:23 PM

*phonetics*

*ehm* I'm done with the boring talk :smalltongue:

Ey, it isn't boring.

@Quincunx: What's so mind-blowing about Texas? :smallconfused:

Yora

2010-05-29, 02:24 PM

I have adult friends who were born after the german reunification. At first it was weired to have friends who are so young that they were born in the 90s. But now there are adult people who weren't even born during my childhood. That's really strange.

Okay, so my mind wasn't so much blown as mildly intrigued but nevertheless, I present to you my epiphany. Popular author China Mieville (http://www.kqed.org/assets/img/arts/programs/writersblock/china-mieville.jpg) looks exactly the same as Disturbed frontman David Draiman (http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/13265113/David+Draiman+David+1++Joey+Lawrence.jpg). Not just similar, completely identical save for piercings. Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together?
Dmitry Medvedev looks exactly like Tzar Nicholas II!
Which is even more strange, as they are both rulers of Russia.

Deth Muncher

2010-05-29, 02:55 PM

Even in such a random place as this forum, I have an evil doppleganger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?u=37794). :smallcool:

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-29, 02:55 PM

I had one ages ago that I've still not quite come to terms with.

My cousin is two years younger than me, and even now I still see her as a 12 year old. However she is now finishing her first year in university. But how can a 12 year old be in uni?

Also my younger sister is not a virgin. I sort of block this one out because it brings out a cliche, violent protective streak that is completely out of character (not least because my sister could kick my arse with ease).

Ravens_cry

2010-05-29, 03:01 PM

This not only blows my mind, but makes me cry.
Take look at the link below.
See that faint rusty brown band, see that blue pixel there?
That's us.
Every human act ever done, every joy, every fear, every hate, every love, every jealousy, every apathy every bloody war that showed us who we are, every act of humanity that showed us who we can be, is in that dot. All hope, all desire, all we have ever done, is bound up within that small, little speck. Such a fragile tender thing, so easily swept aside in the vast emptiness of a universe so much bigger then us.
And for now, and the foreseeable future, it's home.
It's Home. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot)

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-29, 03:02 PM

Teh link, it doesn't work. I could do with some depressive humbling.

Never mind. Also duuuuuuude.

Ravens_cry

2010-05-29, 04:41 PM

Teh link, it doesn't work. I could do with some depressive humbling.

Never mind. Also duuuuuuude.
*pats shoulder*
Dude.

Flickerdart

2010-05-29, 04:47 PM

Ravens_cry

2010-05-29, 05:03 PM

Imagine what we could do with two such dots, then. Or three, or four, or a thousand. Humbling? Please.
Imagine, yes. Sure, we may get those extra dots, someday. Someday soon, I hope.
But for now, this little dot is all we got. It's all we ever had. Some things seem less important, and others far more so, when you see it as such a small fragmentary jewel in the eternal night of an unfathomably vast universe.

Mauve Shirt

2010-05-29, 05:17 PM

My cousin is two yars younger than me, and even now I still see her as a 12 year old. However she is now finishing her first year in university. But how can a 12 year old be in uni?

I as well find it hard to fathom that my cousin will be graduating high school next year. She can't possibly be over 14.

Eldan

2010-05-29, 05:23 PM

Imagine, yes. Sure, we may get those extra dots, someday. Someday soon, I hope.
But for now, this little dot is all we got. It's all we ever had. Some things seem less important, and others far more so, when you see it as such a small fragmentary jewel in the eternal night of an unfathomably vast universe.

Doesn't make me humble, makes me smile. Earth is great. It's fantastic, beautiful, rich. It's huge and vast, and we covered it, and did great, fantastic, beautiful, rich and terrible things to it. And out there, an entire universe is waiting for us, to show us more greatness.
Why be humble? Be adventurous instead.

Emperor Ing

2010-05-29, 05:27 PM

I forgot to post this before, but my friend told me that one of my comics appeared on /tg/. I don't log onto 4chan and I don't have an account, but knowing its influence...:smallbiggrin:

Ravens_cry

2010-05-29, 05:36 PM

Doesn't make me humble, makes me smile. Earth is great. It's fantastic, beautiful, rich. It's huge and vast, and we covered it, and did great, fantastic, beautiful, rich and terrible things to it. And out there, an entire universe is waiting for us, to show us more greatness.
Why be humble? Be adventurous instead.
Just make sure we don't ruin it before we get there.
It is not vast, it is small, a tiny bauble in he cosmic ocean.All those terrible things we have done, for less then a pixel on camera on a space probe still within our solar system.
I hope as you do we go out into the depths of a nigh infinite universe, explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and other minds.
But for now, it's all we got.
edit: Puts a new spin on the phrase 'you break it, you buy it', no?

poisonoustea

2010-05-29, 05:53 PM

See that faint rusty brown band, see that blue pixel there?
That's us.
That picture makes me realize this is just the beginning. I wonder if humanity will reach other planets, if we'll ever meet other cultures other than our own, if space travel will be possible when I'm old. And it gives me a damn lot of inspiration to write science fiction :smallbiggrin:

People should also realize that the human mind is larger than the universe itself. Our potential has no boundaries, we should always keep that in mind to face the centuries to come and survive.

Eldan

2010-05-29, 06:27 PM

Just make sure we don't ruin it before we get there.
It is not vast, it is small, a tiny bauble in he cosmic ocean.All those terrible things we have done, for less then a pixel on camera on a space probe still within our solar system.
I hope as you do we go out into the depths of a nigh infinite universe, explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and other minds.
But for now, it's all we got.
edit: Puts a new spin on the phrase 'you break it, you buy it', no?

Oh yes. And I disagree. Earth is huge. It's incredibly large, and no one ever saw all of it. And how would they? Even if they had the time, it would have changed, and we would have changed, and we would have changed it, and added a thousand more things worth seeing, and destroyed another thousand.

Of course, as vast as earth is, everyone out there is still bigger. But that doesn't mean that Earth is small. Just that we don't really have words anymore for things that size.

The Blue Guard

2010-05-29, 06:33 PM

Not so much blown, but clicked and... like a light is turned on and all of a sudden you notice that what you thought was everything is barely anything.

The above equals, for me, reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. When I think about it I become so jealous of people who can really wrap their head around the stuff. It's like they're reading the instruction manual on the settee while the rest of us are sitting on the floor trying to sort it out by our wits alone.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll

2010-05-30, 06:13 PM

Ok, I was talking about my ancestors and stuff?

I'm directly descended from Charlemagne.

Mind = Blown.

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-30, 06:15 PM

Ok, I was talking about my ancestors and stuff?

I'm directly descended from Charlemagne.

Mind = Blown.

So is everyone, unfortunately. Seriously.

Sorry to disappoint.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll

2010-05-30, 06:32 PM

So is everyone, unfortunately. Seriously.

Sorry to disappoint.

Oh, I know that! But that still doesn't mean that the moment when i realized that I can actually trace my line back, through fathers and mothers, to Charlemagne, that was still a mind = blown moment.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-30, 07:30 PM

The whole universe is made of few basic particles that affect each other through a handful of basic forces. Simple, really.

Then you consider there are countless particles, even in the tiniest amount of space, say, in the nail of your thumb, each affecting each other. You start imagining the lines between those particles, a complex network of interactions.

Then you consider at any given second, a particle can be potentially affected by a particle that is as far 299 792 458 metres away. A sphere with that radius has the volume of 8,46471E+25 cubic metres. Now start drawing lines between all the dots within that space.

And then you start to think how many seconds have passed since the dawn of creation, and how many will pass before it ends. Now you have to consider all those lines don't extend through space only, they extend through time. And there's lots of time.

If your mind doesn't blow up somewhere along the way, you're doing it wrong. :smalltongue:

Innis Cabal

2010-05-30, 07:34 PM

Cobalt

2010-05-30, 08:06 PM

Add on top of this, that every particle in your body has existed since the dawn of time. And will exist until the end of time.

We are literaly stars, looking at stars.

Deep, man. Deep. And scientific, too.

ForzaFiori

2010-05-30, 08:55 PM

1/4 of all Asian people (Middle Eastern, Indian, Siberian, Far East, all of it) are DIRECT MALE DESCENDANTS of Genghis Khan. Direct male descendants. As in, their father's, father's, father's, father's, etc father, with not a single non male descendant in there. Which means there are COUNTLESS other people that are descendent's through females. Talk about getting around.

My step father's family has been living not just in the America's, not just in the area that is known as South Carolina, not just in the same county, but in the same TOWN (well, town and surrounding farmland) since before there was a USA. They came here in the early 1700s, and settled where they are today, roughly. Their family cemetery goes back to people DIED before America was born.

I have friends who have never seen, let alone played, an N64 or PS1, let alone a SNES. Games I grew up on, my friends think of in the same way I do Pong.

There was only about 67-70 years between the first powered flight, and a man on the moon. People who were born when only birds could fly watched a man step onto the moon!

Demons_eye

2010-05-30, 08:59 PM

Andy Griffith is Matlock!

Innis Cabal

2010-05-30, 09:00 PM

Andy Griffin is Matlock!

Andy Griffith.

Demons_eye

2010-05-30, 09:03 PM

Andy Griffith.

Sorry mind was blown.

Lord Raziere

2010-05-30, 09:42 PM

I once looked out at the night sky.....saw all the infinite expanse, all the giant enormity, all devouring void of nothing that makes us all look insignificant.....

.....and realized that I was actually more important and significant than all of that because, despite all its vastness.....its all out there, and all of it is just rock and gas and plasma floating out in desolate space, none of it special or unique.....while I am a thinking human being, dwelling perhaps on the only point where thinking human beings can exist......I realized, that we are the most unique things in the universe, that despite all those gigantic stuff out there, our little dot is the most important dot to ever exist as far as we know-
humanity is literally the most important thing in the universe.....even though they are one of the smallest things as well.

so when I stare up into space.....I don't feel insignificant at all....I feel the most significant I have ever been, ever.

mind = blown.

Ashen Lilies

2010-05-30, 10:02 PM

Add on top of this, that every particle in your body has existed since the dawn of time. And will exist until the end of time.

We are literaly stars, looking at stars.

And yet, you are nothing. Mostly nothing, anyway.

Anuan

2010-05-30, 10:05 PM

I realised yesterday the war in the Middle-East has gone on over twice as long as WWI. Mind was blown.

Jokasti

2010-05-30, 10:06 PM

Isn't America still technically at war with North Korea?

toasty

2010-05-31, 12:05 AM

Isn't America still technically at war with North Korea?

Yes. Its kinda scary to think about.

But its a Cold War... so I dunno if it really counts.

Quincunx

2010-05-31, 03:52 AM

That's more of a patrol-angrily-at-one-another situation than a war, in the Koreas. Not many people getting shot, which is my definition of a war you've got to worry about.

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 03:54 AM

Something I was told in my first lecture at university 3 years ago: In the last 200 years, there have been only about 4 where England has not been at war with someone or other.

Delusion

2010-05-31, 05:24 AM

I think Finland it still at war with some country in South America.

So yeah.

Cobalt

2010-05-31, 10:43 AM

I think Finland it still at war with some country in South America.

So yeah.

Got a name? I tried looking it up but couldn't find anything.

Atelm

2010-05-31, 11:00 AM

I have these moments all the time, ranging from the mundane to more complex matters.

A notable example being that every once in a while, when looking at math written down, or writing in general, I get this "Holy crap! Where and how did people come up with all this arbitrary stuff?" sensation in my head.

Mostly though, the above happens when I start thinking about time and how people have come to arbitrarily measure it. When you think about it, people came up with the concept of time from out of thin air (okay not quite, but still), and without people there would be no one on this planet to truly observe and note seasons changing, and time flowing forward. Naturally, I am discounting the possibility that animals apart from humans consciously note time passing.

If any of that makes sense.

I think Finland it still at war with some country in South America.

So yeah.

I doubt this, as the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty took care of all states of war in which Finland was involved.

Unless some country in South America sneakily declared war on Finland, or vice versa, after the fact. :smallamused:

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 11:04 AM

Fawkes

2010-05-31, 11:09 AM

Isn't America still technically at war with North Korea?

If you want to get technical, they never really were at war. Congress never officially declared war on Korea.

Quirinus_Obsidian

2010-05-31, 11:12 AM

Had a weird one the other day at work. I work in a call centre and the idea that I could talk into a headset and someone 200 miles away can hear it instantly and relpy just as quickly just blew my mind. How the hell does that soundtravel that distance in such an infinitesimal amount of time :smalleek: :smallconfused:

Becase once the voice is picked up by the microphone, it is translated into electricity. Electricty, even with all of the flaws with human designed transfer of it, still travels faster than actual sound; it seems like it is there instantly.

I killed the Kobold with Science! Or at least maimed.

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 11:13 AM

Becase once the voice is picked up by the microphone, it is translated into electricity. Electricty, even with all of the flaws with human designed transfer of it, still travels faster than actual sound; it seems like it is there instantly.

I killed the Kobold with Science! Or at least maimed.

I understand how it works, but it still freaks me out that it does work.

Salbazier

2010-05-31, 11:13 AM

Add on top of this, that every particle in your body has existed since the dawn of time. And will exist until the end of time.

We are literaly stars, looking at stars.

Love it.

As for my own moments... I can think only lame example. Usually right after exam, when I suddenly rememeber the right formula or something like that, and it usually very basic, or in another case, when I just realize that I forgot to write the main point of my answer T-T

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 11:18 AM

If you want to get technical, they never really were at war. Congress never officially declared war on Korea.

Yep. America hasn't been at war with anyone since the Japanese surrendered at the end of WWII. Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the current conflict are all "police actions" technically.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 11:32 AM

Add on top of this, that every particle in your body has existed since the dawn of time. And will exist until the end of time.

We are literaly stars, looking at stars.

Technically, depending on which end of the universe scenario you subscribe to, the basic particles that make us up are eternal. As the universe began from singularity and ends in one, energy transcends time.

Of course, then there's the perspective that time itself is an illusion, and everything exists simultaneously as one big N dimensional, er, sphere (for the lack of better words). Which... basically means the singularity didn't end in the first place.

Delusion

2010-05-31, 11:53 AM

Got a name? I tried looking it up but couldn't find anything.

Unfortunately can't remember it. There was article in the news paper year ago about it.

Of course I might be just delusioned but meh, I'm sure I saw it.

Lord Raziere

2010-05-31, 12:02 PM

Technically, depending on which end of the universe scenario you subscribe to, the basic particles that make us up are eternal. As the universe began from singularity and ends in one, energy transcends time.

Of course, then there's the perspective that time itself is an illusion, and everything exists simultaneously as one big N dimensional, er, sphere (for the lack of better words). Which... basically means the singularity didn't end in the first place.

or from another viewpoint the universe never began and will never happen.

meaning we are all impossible.

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 12:04 PM

or from another viewpoint the universe never began and will never happen.

meaning we are all impossible.

But it did happen. I've seen it.

Lord Raziere

2010-05-31, 12:06 PM

But it did happen. I've seen it.

exactly. which is why that theory is wrong

Cobalt

2010-05-31, 12:47 PM

exactly. which is why that theory is wrong

You perplex me with your logic. And I don't even know why.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 12:59 PM

Beginning and happening are concepts tied to time, so if time doesn't exist, then indeed the universe never began or happened.

It just is. :smallcool:

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 01:01 PM

But it did happen. I've seen it.

Are you sure? It could be an illusion. This could ALL be an illusion. Maybe nothing truly exists. Your mind merely thinks that there is a computer with words on the screen. It only thinks that you exist in a universe, that you have a human body.

Which brings me to my next blown mind. It is insanely hard to prove that anything exists other than yourself (I think, therefor I am). The mind is amazing at creating illusions of all 5 senses (ask anyone from the 70s, they'll back me up :smalltongue:) which means that, really, you don't know if anything you think you've experienced has ever actually happened.
Next thing you know, you'll be taking a red pill and waking up outside the matrix.

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 01:09 PM

Are you sure? It could be an illusion. This could ALL be an illusion.

...

It could be, but it isn't. Everyone rolls a Nat 20 Will save eventually, and I've never seen any evidence that the world isn't real.

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 01:13 PM

It could be, but it isn't. Everyone rolls a Nat 20 Will save eventually, and I've never seen any evidence that the world isn't real.

Have you seen any evidence that it IS? Typically, you have to prove a positive, not a negative. You prove someone committed a crime, not that they didn't, for instance. Therefor, you should prove that the world DOES exist, rather than need proof that it doesn't.

Lord Raziere

2010-05-31, 01:19 PM

You perplex me with your logic. And I don't even know why.

its simple.

the theory that all is one moment and the singularity never ended and all that, is wrong, because we are here right now. if it was true, the moment would have already ended because its a moment, if the moment can be cut up and measured, then time exists, we perceive time happening through motion and therefore we are real.

if the theory is true, the singularity would never ended right? then that would mean the universe would have never began, because the singularity ended when the universe began see? so if the singularity never ended, then the universe never began and none of us exist, however since I am here observing things that means time is passing, and it means that yes I'm real, therefore one moment theory and the singularity never ending is wrong, because people exist, see? time exists as long as people do, therefore, the universe and time exists.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 01:35 PM

I know my mind exists. I also know my mind perceives things. However, I don't have complete control over what it perceives, and how. This proves there is something else than my mind. Yes, you can twist the meaning of mind so that I'm just brain in a bottle - that's besides the point. The point is, there is a bottle.

RandomNPC

2010-05-31, 02:03 PM

There is no spoon.

there, I said it.

A few more:
More people have died in the name of peace than I can count in a lifetime.

That thing in Horror movies where your buddies mind gets taken over and you tell him that to go on a rampage and destroy everything he's got to go through you? that doesn't work, you just get killed by your buddy.

I can sit here, making archaic symbols with the board in front of me, hit a button, and people across the globe can see what I did and understand the ideas I was trying to convey.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 02:18 PM

I can sit here, making archaic symbols with the board in front of me, hit a button, and people across the globe can see what I did and understand the ideas I was trying to convey.

You're being overly optimistic there, my friend. Especially about the understanding bit. :smallwink:

ClockShock

2010-05-31, 02:24 PM

It could be, but it isn't. Everyone rolls a Nat 20 Will save eventually, and I've never seen any evidence that the world isn't real.

Cheese in a can

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 02:25 PM

Personally, I hate the expression "nothing is real". Obviously things exist, so they are real on some level. The real question is, which level is that? :smalltongue:

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 02:32 PM

Personally, I hate the expression "nothing is real". Obviously things exist, so they are real on some level. The real question is, which level is that? :smalltongue:

But how do you know that? You THINK your brain reacts to stimuli. But how do you know that is true? For all you know, you are actually an incorporeal mind, in a vast, never ending nothing, who just go so bored it started daydreaming, and this entire universe it what you dreamed up, and it's ALL IN YOUR HEAD. How do you know things exist? because you see them? feel them, hear them, experience them? I have had all of my senses react to things that are not there (as I perceive them anyway) at some point. Clearly, your senses are not fool proof. How can you say that just because your senses say something exists, it does?

Dogmantra

2010-05-31, 02:37 PM

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 02:37 PM

Cheese in a can

That's just proof that geniuses (creator) and idiots (imbibers) exist.

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 02:39 PM

Two words.
Occam's.
Razor.

Which is not always right. Just because a theory sometimes works doesn't mean it can be used all the time.

You can use Occam's Razor to believe whatever you want. However, that doesn't mean your can prove it, or that it is true.

Dogmantra

2010-05-31, 02:47 PM

Which is not always right. Just because a theory sometimes works doesn't mean it can be used all the time.

You can use Occam's Razor to believe whatever you want. However, that doesn't mean your can prove it, or that it is true.

I'm the first to doubt Occam's Razor, but there's a point where things just get very silly without it. I mean, what if I'm actually living in the world I appear to go to in my dreams, and I just dream about a highly consistent world where I go to school and can't occasionally fly and don't get arrested and sent to prison for a hundred years because I touched a piece of heavy machinery? What if I'm actually a metally unstable version of myself who adamantly believes he has brown hair when really he has blonde hair, but only sees the former? What if sandwiches, one time in every 10 billion, made you explode when you ate them?

PhoeKun

2010-05-31, 03:35 PM

But how do you know that? You THINK your brain reacts to stimuli. But how do you know that is true? For all you know, you are actually an incorporeal mind, in a vast, never ending nothing, who just go so bored it started daydreaming, and this entire universe it what you dreamed up, and it's ALL IN YOUR HEAD. How do you know things exist? because you see them? feel them, hear them, experience them? I have had all of my senses react to things that are not there (as I perceive them anyway) at some point. Clearly, your senses are not fool proof. How can you say that just because your senses say something exists, it does?

Proof doesn't work the way you're asking it to (outside of math). We can't fully prove anything - merely gather data and extrapolate, or disprove an assumption. Science, and in fact all interaction with the outside world, functions under the core assumption that the things around us both exist and are objectively observable. There are thousands of years of records which strongly suggest this is true.

Of course the possibility exists that we're wrong. But so what? If you spend every waking hour of every day in the same persistent illusion, in what way is it meaningfully distinguishable from reality? It's vastly more productive to just accept the world around you is what it is, rather than wasting time and energy worrying that it might not be.

What if sandwiches, one time in every 10 billion, made you explode when you ate them?

Then lunchtime just got a heck of a lot more interesting...

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 03:38 PM

Proof doesn't work the way you're asking it to (outside of math). We can't fully prove anything - merely gather data and extrapolate, or disprove an assumption. Science, and in fact all interaction with the outside world, functions under the core assumption that the things around us both exist and are objectively observable. There are thousands of years of records which strongly suggest this is true.

Of course the possibility exists that we're wrong. But so what? If you spend every waking hour of every day in the same persistent illusion, in what way is it meaningfully distinguishable from reality? It's vastly more productive to just accept the world around you is what it is, rather than wasting time and energy worrying that it might not be.

Then lunchtime just got a heck of a lot more interesting...

I never said that you shouldn't act as though, or even believe, that this isn't all real. I simply pointed out that there is a possibility that it ISN'T. In fact, it's something that you learn in almost all Philosophy classes. The idea blows my mind, which is why I brought it up. My sister told me about it several years ago when she was in college. I've found it interesting ever since. IIRC, on the test, one of the questions was "Prove the chair your sitting in exists" and no one got it right.

Dogmantra

2010-05-31, 03:41 PM

IIRC, on the test, one of the questions was "Prove the chair your sitting in exists" and no one got it right.

I would have answered by standing up and writing "I'm not sitting on a chair."

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 03:47 PM

T-O-E

2010-05-31, 03:54 PM

The answer is usually "what chair?"

Snopes link. (http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/oneword.asp)

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 03:57 PM

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 04:02 PM

But how do you know that? You THINK your brain reacts to stimuli. But how do you know that is true? For all you know, you are actually an incorporeal mind, in a vast, never ending nothing, who just go so bored it started daydreaming, and this entire universe it what you dreamed up, and it's ALL IN YOUR HEAD. How do you know things exist? because you see them? feel them, hear them, experience them? I have had all of my senses react to things that are not there (as I perceive them anyway) at some point. Clearly, your senses are not fool proof. How can you say that just because your senses say something exists, it does?

Your missing the point by mile. Even if it's all in my head, if all my senses are wrong, there's still something causing it in my head, something duping my mind. In other words, all the things I percieve at least exist as mental constructs of mine, and are real as such.

As said, I might be a brain in a bottle, but the bottle exists. Now, here's where Occam's Razor enters the picture. We have two theories: a) either the world is physically real to some extent, or b) it's all an elaborate hallucination of mine. Both explain the same thing, but a) cuts some major corners from the process.

PhoeKun

2010-05-31, 04:04 PM

So was there an actual answer that would get points, or was it basically a trick question that didn't have an answer? Because the latter just seems unduly harsh on people who use part of their time to thin of an answer.

I know this probably goes against the spirit of the question but I'm curious.

That type of question is typically after the most smart-ass answer the student is capable of coming up with. "What chair?" is the most common, but Dogmantra has provided us with a wonderful second possibility. I suppose that in a sense these sorts of exams are meant to challenge the student to think "outside of the box", but practically speaking it only tends to give smart alecks an inflated ego. The entire line of thought is meaningless - if its true the world (or the chair or the Matrix or whatever) isn't real then that observation has no relevant impact on how you can interact with the world you perceive. And if it isn't true, then you're wasting your time.

It's not mind blowing in the least. It's a parlor trick.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 04:11 PM

My stock answer to the chair question is to pick up the chair and hit the questioner. :smalltongue:

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 04:17 PM

Your missing the point by mile. Even if it's all in my head, if all my senses are wrong, there's still something causing it in my head, something duping my mind. In other words, all the things I percieve at least exist as mental constructs of mine, and are real as such.

As said, I might be a brain in a bottle, but the bottle exists. Now, here's where Occam's Razor enters the picture. We have two theories: a) either the world is physically real to some extent, or b) it's all an elaborate hallucination of mine. Both explain the same thing, but a) cuts some major corners from the process.

No, all your are is a mind. There may or may not be a bottle. There may or may not even be a brain. You are a mind. The mind can think of many different things. I could sit here right now, and imagine a penguin in my brain. The only thing that caused me to do this is my own mind. My mind decided to think of a penguin, my mind made the images, and my mind processed them. No outside influences needed. There is no need for any outside stimuli, nor any way to prove they are there. In essence, your mind is what is duping your mind. Just like how people can talk their self into confusion. Once again, I'm not saying live your life as though nothing is real, nor do I really believe that nothing is real. But that doesn't negate the point that it is POSSIBLE that nothing is real. The POSSIBILITY is what blows my mind, not the fact that I believe it to be true. By claiming that your mind needs something else to make it act a certain way is buying into the idea that the world you see now is how things really are, which may or may not be true.

Dogmantra

2010-05-31, 04:19 PM

I could sit here right now, and imagine a penguin in my brain. The only thing that caused me to do this is my own mind. My mind decided to think of a penguin, my mind made the images, and my mind processed them. No outside influences needed.

Actually, to think of a penguin, you first need to know what a penguin is. You learnt this from somwhere, that's an outside influence. If you didn't have that influence, you couldn't think of one. Try thinking of a plorm.

Kobold-Bard

2010-05-31, 04:23 PM

Actually, to think of a penguin, you first need to know what a penguin is. You learnt this from somwhere, that's an outside influence. If you didn't have that influence, you couldn't think of one. Try thinking of a plorm.

Unless penguins are an inherent part of the mind, and that's why you picked that "out of the air" to post about.

Maybe, that sounded like gibberish so it may well be.

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 04:33 PM

Actually, to think of a penguin, you first need to know what a penguin is. You learnt this from somwhere, that's an outside influence. If you didn't have that influence, you couldn't think of one. Try thinking of a plorm.

Have you never had a dream where you imagine something that isn't real? If we could not imagine that which we haven't experienced, how on earth did DnD get here, or the entire Fantasy genre, or Sci-fi? They are based ENTIRELY on us making stuff up. I can imagine a plorm. It's easy. I just let my mind decide what it is, and bring a picture into my head. It's about 3 feet tall, a translucent blue, 6 legs, and slimy.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 04:35 PM

No, all your are is a mind. There may or may not be a bottle. There may or may not even be a brain. You are a mind. The mind can think of many different things. I could sit here right now, and imagine a penguin in my brain. The only thing that caused me to do this is my own mind. My mind decided to think of a penguin, my mind made the images, and my mind processed them. No outside influences needed. There is no need for any outside stimuli, nor any way to prove they are there. In essence, your mind is what is duping your mind. Just like how people can talk their self into confusion. Once again, I'm not saying live your life as though nothing is real, nor do I really believe that nothing is real. But that doesn't negate the point that it is POSSIBLE that nothing is real. The POSSIBILITY is what blows my mind, not the fact that I believe it to be true. By claiming that your mind needs something else to make it act a certain way is buying into the idea that the world you see now is how things really are, which may or may not be true.
Ah, but as I said, there are obviously facets of the hallucination that I can't control, that I can't affect by my will alone. Just because I think of a penquin, doesn't create the mental construct of a penquin to the virtual world I live in. Surprising things, created from no prior knowledge of mine, can enter this virtual construct.

You can say these are all created "without outside influences" and it's "all in my mind", but those rely on dubious definitions of "outside", "all" and "mind". You might as well say the person next to you is not an outside influence, by the virtue of being part of the same Nth dimensional sphere you are.

Recaiden

2010-05-31, 04:37 PM

Have you never had a dream where you imagine something that isn't real? If we could not imagine that which we haven't experienced, how on earth did DnD get here, or the entire Fantasy genre, or Sci-fi? They are based ENTIRELY on us making stuff up. I can imagine a plorm. It's easy. I just let my mind decide what it is, and bring a picture into my head. It's about 3 feet tall, a translucent blue, 6 legs, and slimy.

They are based entirely on combining and mixing outside influences.

Dogmantra

2010-05-31, 04:45 PM

I can imagine a plorm. It's easy. I just let my mind decide what it is, and bring a picture into my head. It's about 3 feet tall, a translucent blue, 6 legs, and slimy.

That's not a plorm at all! A plorm is a hamburger made with the usual meat and plastic that pretends to be cheese, but it has brown bread instead and is marketed at health fanatics. Regardless, the plorm you thought of is still based on experience. You know what blue is from outside factors. If you were blind, it would be physically impossible for you to know what blue was. Same goes for translucency.

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 04:48 PM

That's not a plorm at all! A plorm is a hamburger made with the usual meat and plastic that pretends to be cheese, but it has brown bread instead and is marketed at health fanatics. Regardless, the plorm you thought of is still based on experience. You know what blue is from outside factors. If you were blind, it would be physically impossible for you to know what blue was. Same goes for translucency.

Who says that a blind person does not have something that they tie the word "blue" too? It may not be what you tie the word to, but that doesn't mean anything. Just because one person hears "blue" and thinks a color, and another hears it and thinks something else, doesn't mean that either is wrong, or that either is right. We have different ideas of what a plorm is. Neither one of us is wrong though. As to my description, how do you know that I did not simply use descriptions that made it easier for you to understand, based on our joint hallucinations?

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 04:58 PM

Add on top of this, that every particle in your body has existed since the dawn of time. And will exist until the end of time.

We are literaly stars, looking at stars.

Since we are trying to blow minds here, we don't have to end at that. We can take it a bit farther, and say we're all a single N dimensional eternal ball of energy which encloses everything in itself.

Dogmantra

2010-05-31, 04:59 PM

Who says that a blind person does not have something that they tie the word "blue" too? It may not be what you tie the word to, but that doesn't mean anything. Just because one person hears "blue" and thinks a color, and another hears it and thinks something else, doesn't mean that either is wrong, or that either is right. We have different ideas of what a plorm is. Neither one of us is wrong though. As to my description, how do you know that I did not simply use descriptions that made it easier for you to understand, based on our joint hallucinations?

The thing is, if you don't think of the colour blue when you hear the word "blue" and you know English and understand what was meant et cetera, then you are objectively wrong. Language exists as a way of exploiting common ground for communication. If we all had different definitions of "blue", then we might as well try beating our own faces with sticks for all the good we'd do. As the plorm demonstrated, without a commonly agreed definition, language is meaningless. Without an outside influence of some sort, it's all complete rubbish and there's no point because we don't know what we're talking about. It's the same with our own mind: without any frames of reference, everything becomes garbage. Like my new made up language where the only letter is a forward slash. /////// // /// ///////!

Language blows my mind. All the friggin' time

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 05:10 PM

Ah, language. It blows my mind every single time I realize there's a concept in Finnish that doesn't exist in English, and vice versa.

Sometimes, even the translations of some words cause a pause for me. For example, "vahingonilo", which is most commonly known as Schadenfreude in English. It blows my mind, because Schadenfreude is a direct German loan, following a completely different pronunciation than most English words. Considering the German word is just combination of 'joy' and 'harm', I can't for the life of me understand why English people don't just use "harm's joy" or "joy of harm" for the concept, instead preferring the German word for it.

Zeb The Troll

2010-05-31, 05:15 PM

You prove someone committed a crime, not that they didn't, for instance.You mean providing evidence that a person could not possibly have committed a crime isn't useful in court? :smalltongue:

Recaiden

2010-05-31, 05:45 PM

Vorpalbob

2010-05-31, 06:34 PM

The most mind-blowing thing in the world...

Is the thing you are looking at right now.

Think about it.

You are reading the words of someone in a city far away in a country you have never been to. You have instant conversations with people who have never, and probably will never, meet face to face. When you get bored of this, you will run a program made up of nothing but zeros and ones that somehow, despite this seeming simplicity, allows you to run around with a gun and shoot people. Then maybe you will open a word processing program and work on that book you dream of publishing but probably never will. At a few presses of keys, your words will be converted into those same zeros and ones and stored away in an amount of space you'd need a magnifying glass to see, and they can be put on paper in a matter of seconds.

Maybe then you will go to YouTube, and have instant access to an amount of footage that would take a warehouse of DVDs to hold, and will laugh at a cat playing or bang your head to a band long past its glory. You'll check the news, your mailbox, plan your next date, download some porn for later.

All this without leaving your seat.

I ****ing LOVE the future.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 06:37 PM

Innis Cabal

2010-05-31, 06:58 PM

Yes, but the words for the concept in other languanges are just a combination of equivalents of 'harm' and 'joy'. Due to the way compound word work in Finnish, it feels exceedingly stupid English couldn't just take the phrase "harm's joy" and run with it. Because that's what both German and Finnish do.

I've heard it used that way before by people. But the actual word just sounds better. Harm's joy is just rather clunky in conversation. Its not the implications or anything stated by the term. It just dosn't synch well with the syntax or the flow of the modern English language.

Frozen_Feet

2010-05-31, 07:07 PM

Pray tell me, how does Schadenfreude fit English any better? :smalltongue: At least to me, it's rather jarring every time it's used.

Innis Cabal

2010-05-31, 07:12 PM

Using it in a sentence or two

"He died three years after me, cancer to, and at that time I was still naive enough to imagine that what the afterlife chiefly provided were unrivalled opportunities for unbeatable gloating, unbelievable schadenfreude."

As opposed to this

"He died three years after me, cancer too, and at that time I was still naive enough to imagine that what the afterlife chiefly provided were unrivalled opportunities for unbeatable gloating, unbelievable harm joy"

That just looks wonky to an English speaker.

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 07:42 PM

The thing is, if you don't think of the colour blue when you hear the word "blue" and you know English and understand what was meant et cetera, then you are objectively wrong. Language exists as a way of exploiting common ground for communication. If we all had different definitions of "blue", then we might as well try beating our own faces with sticks for all the good we'd do. As the plorm demonstrated, without a commonly agreed definition, language is meaningless. Without an outside influence of some sort, it's all complete rubbish and there's no point because we don't know what we're talking about. It's the same with our own mind: without any frames of reference, everything becomes garbage. Like my new made up language where the only letter is a forward slash. /////// // /// ///////!

Language blows my mind. All the friggin' time

And how do you know that the color you think of as blue is the same as the one I do? Yes, we each have a color we call blue. This color is blue. However, for all I know, you might see that color as what I call red, only you call it blue because that is what you have been trained to do. You associate the color with a word. If you taught your child that This is blue, he or she will believe you. Therefor, while we both call it blue, we might be seeing two completely different things, because honestly, who can really know what is going on in our brains? That, by the way, is something that entirely involves the processes in your brain, so don't even try to sound smart by talking about stuff happening outside your brain. All were talking about right now is that when the nerves behind your eyes see a particular shade of light, your brain could turn it whatever damn color it wanted, but we'd all call it blue, or red, or what-have-you.

arguskos

2010-05-31, 07:46 PM

what-have-you.
Best. Color. Ever.

Dogmantra

2010-05-31, 07:46 PM

And how do you know that the color you think of as blue is the same as the one I do?

It doesn't need to be and that's the fun thing. We both call the same thing "blue" regardless of whether we see the same thing when we say "oh, that's blue, that is!"

PhoeKun

2010-05-31, 09:01 PM

And how do you know that the color you think of as blue is the same as the one I do? Yes, we each have a color we call blue. This color is blue. However, for all I know, you might see that color as what I call red, only you call it blue because that is what you have been trained to do. You associate the color with a word. If you taught your child that This is blue, he or she will believe you. Therefor, while we both call it blue, we might be seeing two completely different things, because honestly, who can really know what is going on in our brains? That, by the way, is something that entirely involves the processes in your brain, so don't even try to sound smart by talking about stuff happening outside your brain. All were talking about right now is that when the nerves behind your eyes see a particular shade of light, your brain could turn it whatever damn color it wanted, but we'd all call it blue, or red, or what-have-you.

Want to know something interesting? Every pair of eyes is constructed just a little bit differently. Enough so, in fact, that when we all look at the same source of blue light, we are each observing a different color! Some women (and this is exclusive to the gender) are even lucky enough to be born as tetrachromides - they see in a 4 base-color spectrum. Kind of like those televisions George Takei is selling, but in eyeball form. They see colors we will never experience, ever. Here's an interesting piece on color perception (http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/), while we're at it.

Further, vision is processed by receiving photons of light reflected off of an object. The photons that you see are provably not the ones that I see. So even looking at the same thing, we're perceiving an entirely different set of data.

The fact that we can communicate effectively about our shared experiences despite each of us seeing a completely separate world in a completely separate way is some very strong evidence for a real, objective outside world. Sure, there's a chance it might all be a mental construct, but doesn't that possibility seem trite and hollow next to the sheer, awe inspiring nature of reality?

ForzaFiori

2010-05-31, 10:23 PM

Both of the two topics I have recently been discussing, by the way, blow my mind all the time. Mainly because it's what i think about on the 75% or so nights that I just can't sleep.

Seffbasilisk

2010-05-31, 11:03 PM

Ok, I was talking about my ancestors and stuff?

I'm directly descended from Charlemagne.

Mind = Blown.

I am the first born son, of the first born son, of the first born son, etc. in a direct male line, from Amun.

When the ancient Egyptian pantheon was condensed into the monotheistic worship of Amun, that was my ancestors. I carry the bloodline, and bear the title, the Scion of Amun.

"You can't compare yourself to the mortals. You're a God."

Whoa.

Cealocanth

2010-06-01, 08:53 PM

Frozen chicken was invented by Francis Bacon during the Renaissance.Go meat!

My mind = x x = Blown therefore, My mind = Blown.

The Glyphstone

2010-06-01, 09:03 PM

I am the first born son, of the first born son, of the first born son, etc. in a direct male line, from Amun.

When the ancient Egyptian pantheon was condensed into the monotheistic worship of Amun, that was my ancestors. I carry the bloodline, and bear the title, the Scion of Amun.

"You can't compare yourself to the mortals. You're a God."

Whoa.

Well, this explains a lot.:smallbiggrin::smallcool::smallsmile:

Shadow of the Sun

2010-06-03, 02:17 AM

The very fact that I'm even HERE amazes me.

Not about the fact that I'm alive, or thinking than life is rare and stuff like that.

But thinking about the fact that of all the ways this universe could go, it ended up with...me existing, just blows my mind.

Kobold-Bard

2010-06-03, 05:35 AM

Renco92

2010-06-03, 08:45 AM

My mind was blown when I was thinking about how I don't know anyone is real or anything. Everything that ever was has just been a figment of my imagination.

The mind blowy part was when I considered the implications of that. My mind came up with discrimination, war, torture and every fetish ever known. Everything that is horrible in the world, my mind thought up, with no external influences whatsoever.

I really hope that isn't the case.

Teddy

2010-06-03, 09:01 AM

Does the fact that my mind is more blown by Whitney's gym being shaped like a Clefairy (http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/5/51/Pokemon-GSC-Johto-GoldenrodCity-Gym.png/300px-Pokemon-GSC-Johto-GoldenrodCity-Gym.png) and me never noticing despite the months I surrendered to that game than all this philosophical stuff make me a bad person/total ejit?

Whoa, never noticed that!

Might be because I spent most of the time when I was thinking about her gym planning for how to take out her Miltank, which wreaked havok with my team (it didn't help that my strongest pokémon was flying, and none of mine had any fighting moves)

Dogmantra

2010-06-03, 09:21 AM

Infinity blows my mind.

I own a hotel with an infinite number of rooms. A coach comes along with an infinite number of customers. "Certainly sirs," I say, "I have enough room for an infinite number of people." But then, oh my, another coach comes along with another infinite number of customers! OH NO! No-one plans for two lots of infinite customers in one day. No fear though, although my hotel is full, I tell everyone to move to the room that's double their current number. The people in room 1 move to room 2, et cetera. Now only the even numbered rooms are full, and I can fit in the new coachload in the odd numbered ones.

Thanks, David Hilbert, now I'll die infinitely rich!

Eldan

2010-06-03, 09:34 AM

However, some guests will have to move infinite distances to their new room. I don't think they'll be very happy.

Dogmantra

2010-06-03, 11:08 AM

They can suck it up. They're staying for an infinite number of days, so they'll make it before their stay ends.

Kroy

2010-06-04, 08:54 AM

The Guatemalan Sinkhole (http://www.nachi.org/images10/Guatemala-Sinkhole.jpg)

:smalleek:

Serpentine

2010-06-04, 09:16 AM

Whoa. I had to wiki that. When exactly did it happen? Wiki says this month :smalleek:

Kroy

2010-06-04, 09:34 AM

A few days ago. June 1st maybe?

Recaiden

2010-06-04, 09:40 AM

Whoa. I had to wiki that. When exactly did it happen? Wiki says this month :smalleek:

May 31st. It's a few hundred feet deep, if I recall correctly.

Serpentine

2010-06-04, 09:41 AM

Hmm. Who do I believe?! D= We'll compromise, and say it happened midnight.
And wiki said, iirc, about 200m deep. Or was it 200ft/~60ft? That sounds more likely. The Hell was that? :smallconfused: 200ft, 61m according to wiki.

megabyter5

2010-06-04, 07:54 PM

I just had one this morning. Friday, June 4th, 2010, at about 10:15 A.M., I walked down a hallway along with several other people who were very excited, feeling rather separate from the world around me. Only one bewildering thought crossed my mind: "...Did I just finish high school?"

Trog

2010-06-04, 09:01 PM

This (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__-pMfc8Cl9U/TAf3xZubSEI/AAAAAAAAEH4/ty5FpOwUMao/s1600/HURRI.jpg), perhaps? o.O

CrimsonAngel

2010-06-04, 09:05 PM

When I found out the girl who died at my school was a friend from a few years back. Not exactly a good mind blow.

Zeb The Troll

2010-06-05, 12:14 AM

This (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__-pMfc8Cl9U/TAf3xZubSEI/AAAAAAAAEH4/ty5FpOwUMao/s1600/HURRI.jpg), perhaps? o.OAnd in response, this...

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/worst_case_scenario.png

Reinboom

2010-06-05, 12:28 AM

I think K.A. Applegate put it best when she had Ax talking about humanity.

Paraphrase: it was just 57 years between the first human powered flight at when they put a man on the moon.

I mean think about that for a moment, for several thousand years humanity's highest technological invention was fire. Sure, we could make weapons with fire (by melting metals and hammering them into shapes) and sure we had the wheel, but the first powered flight didn't even use steam power or gasoline. It was two bicycle manufacturers peddling their way into destiny, and then fifty-seven years later, which is well under a lifetime, four men blasted off from earth, left earth, and two of them set foot on another celestial body.

Crazy. No wonder Sagan said, "If we do not destroy ourselves we will one day venture to the stars."

I'm sorry for commenting on this so late...
But I must. There is just so much wrong here.

The closest I can figure of your talking is the Wright brother's plane, "Kitty Hawk" or Flyer I. However, that design was from 1903, 66 years before Apollo 11. Not 57.

I can't figure out what plane you would be referring to. Quite a bit happened in the aviation scene between 1903 to 1912. So I'll just assume Flyer I.

Further, Flyer I was not the first powered flight. It was the first (which is even open for debate) controlled power flight. Now, to your benefit... you said human powered. The first HPA didn't occur until 1935, however. So that can't be right either.

Which brings me to the final point. Flyer I did use an internal combustion engine. It was not "peddled".

My mind is blown. But not necessarily for the reasons this thread asks for. :smalltongue:

Serpentine

2010-06-05, 12:54 AM

The actual quote is this:
It took humans only sixty-six years to go from inventing the first flying machine to landing on the moon. It took Andalites almost three times as long.Now, this is an alien, talking about a fact about another species, that he read in the World Almanac, so it's not terribly surprising if it's not totally accurate, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Setra

2010-06-05, 12:56 AM

Things that blow my mind..

On the sillier side.. Final Fantasy is older than I am, ditto with Dragon Quest. This just blows my mind for some reason. For some reason people still consider videogames recent, when in reality they're QUITE old. And that's not including the earlier stuff like Arcades or that one box.

Also

The universe could have just as easily not existed as existed, at least this is what I see as true, it's hard to explain why I feel this way, because it would involve trying to describe feelings or concepts I don't know words for.

Also

The concept of Oblivion.

Think about how you existed before you were born, that is Oblivion, and it freaks me the hell out.

Also

The difference between Languages, the fact there is a concept in one language that does not exist in another. Also that there are over twenty different ways of expressing certain concepts.

"One two three" "Uno dos tres" "Un deux trois" "Hana dul ses" "Ichi ni san" all mean the same thing, yet each language developed these same concepts on their own.... though I'm pretty sure the first three didn't 'come up with it on their own' so much as 'descended from a language that did'.

Or maybe not.

Also

The concept of stories, reading a life of another, whether real or fake, and in a way experiencing some of what those others have.

Maybe my mind is easily blown.

Revanmal

2010-06-05, 01:17 AM

This is earth.

http://timb.me.uk/__oneclick_uploads/2010/04/pale_blue_dot.jpg
Everything that we know of is on that dot. Every civilization, every war, every world-rocking event, every beastie that exists or has ever exist, your gigantic lizards, fuzzy little critters, chemical spraying bugs, and us... Over the past several billion years, all of it's been constrained to that one little dot.

Make of this what you will.

The Pale Blue Dot was life changing. I think everyone in the world should sit down, watch that video, and really think about what they're doing and why. There'd probably be some kind of improvement.

Tyrandar

2010-06-05, 01:34 AM

The gun between the two students on the cover of Battle Royale.

For the longest time, I had the cardinal directions for the major highway in my town reversed (I thought Princeton was north of where I lived and Sommerville south). Still unnerves me sometimes. :smallyuk:

The fact that the old-fashioned logo on mailboxes (and sometimes commercials) is an eagle and not a fancy boot as I previously thought.

Reinboom

2010-06-05, 01:34 AM

Setra: On numbers.
Most English numbers are Germanic in origin... though quite a bit of the pronunciation was influenced by... every other invader of England.

Also, for many number systems - most of the modern rendition and thinking of them was developed in central locations. Our concept of a radix point (the decimal point) is Indian, for example. This includes east Asian decimals. The number system that we all know and love, though have many different words depending on language, is mostly just hindu-arabic.

Now, if you want something that is astonishing, research 0. That's a brilliant modern idea. That came up independently in multiple locations.

Or the Incan counting system (which we can only guess at). Or that there are languages that did not use base 10 (until hindu-arabic number system influence) - or even a system resembling base 10.
There were many native american tribes in the west that used base 8, for example.

There's even a native amazonian tribe, the Piraha, who do not have a concept for numbers.
They can do "One", "Many", "All". They can figure out what to exchange for what, values relative to each other. Get the correct number of meals ready for the tribe based on the number of people in the tribe.

...Yet they have shown to be unable to actually grasp the concept of numbers.
It's not because they are unintelligent either. They are quite intelligent. It's just that such concepts were never developed.
This is bewildering to me.

Also, the Incans had cloths with long strands tied in various knots down their length. The significance of this is that these things held messages encrypted into their threads. Encryption and coding.
Or their counting device that seems like it is based on the fibonacci sequence.
...So independent of their use in hindu-arabic math.

I adore these cultures.

The Orange Zergling

2010-06-05, 01:39 AM

One I had recently;

Think of all of your memories, experiences, knowledge and so forth that you've accumulated throughout your lifespan. Think of all of your ups and downs, all of the times you've been happy, angry, sad or afraid. Think of everything good and bad that's ever happened to you.

Now, that's a lot on its own, but also consider that every single person on the planet has a similarly large repertoire. Every anonymous person you walk past on the sidewalk, every jerk who made a driving violation that you've gotten mad at, every person with a droning voice behind the counter of a fast food chain, every single one of the hundreds or thousands of people you hear about on the news who were affected by some catastrophe or act of kindness or some other event. Every last one of the ~6.8 billion humans on Earth.

I mean, damn.

Serpentine

2010-06-05, 01:59 AM

Along those lines: Everyone has their own story. Think about it when you're in a crowd. You know where you're going, but where are they all going? Who are they seeing? What are they doing? Etc.

I like Mayan numbers. Did a bunch for a D&D prop. They're in base 20, I think, more or less. Been a while since I looked at it. It's more like tallying than Arabic numbers, though.

EmeraldPhoenix

2010-06-05, 09:35 PM

I had some really awful ones last year when I realised...
that they're called Postcards...
Because they're cards...
That you send by post...
*facepalm*

Or when I figured it out that midnight...
is in the middle of the night.
*double facepalm*

Or even when I got it that they call it a hardcover...
because the covers are hard.
*facepalm x 3 combo*

Jokasti

2010-06-05, 09:40 PM

I like Mayan numbers. Did a bunch for a D&D prop. They're in base 20, I think, more or less. Been a while since I looked at it. It's more like tallying than Arabic numbers, though.

I made a program on my trusty old TI-84 that converted Base 10 into Mayan (something like the third tier is Base 18, so it isn't completely Base 20), it also did dates. Twas awesome.

Rongue

2010-06-05, 10:00 PM

When I lie on my back outside and look up at the sky, especially at the stars, it's terrifying and awesome and mind-blowing to realize just how tiny you are in such a gigantic place, yet you can make a difference in our world.
Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.... you just felt smaller...
if you dont know what I mean then please feel free to use goggle..... or youtube.... XD
Personaly the whole of tengen toppa gurren lagann, and the fact that a gundam series had unicorn in it's name....
and that unicorn's exist..... the rhino I mean. XD
Also male seahorse's have it rough...

Serpentine

2010-06-05, 10:44 PM

I made a program on my trusty old TI-84 that converted Base 10 into Mayan (something like the third tier is Base 18, so it isn't completely Base 20), it also did dates. Twas awesome.Not sure what you mean by that. But the numbers themselves are along these lines:
{table]|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|2 0|30|40
top||||||||||||||||.|..|...|....|.|.|..
middle|||||||||||.|..|...|....|_|_|_|_|_|||
middle||||||.|..|...|....|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|||_|
bottom|.|..|...|....|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_ |O|_|O[/table]
(O = a special specific symbol sort of like a stylised eye)