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Post by negativenine on Jul 13, 2004 13:49:59 GMT -5
Yeah, I guess the whole nature vs nurture thing is always an issue.
I know we got into genes and if they control your sexual preference way back in those homosexuality threads, and it's obvious that a lot of people have a lot of varying opinions on this. I mean, it's so hard to prove what makes people behave the way they do. Is it the way they were raised, or the way they were born?
But, I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're all humans, and we all react relatively similarly in certain situations... it all just depends how our situations change and then how our reactions change, and then we're different people.
I mean, look at all the people everywhere... they're all people, and if you were to switch bodies with one them, would you find being him/her really really different from being yourself? Wouldn't it be basically the same except with little personality things?
I think I'm getting weird and losing track of what I'm thinking, though, so pardon me that...
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Luigi
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Post by Luigi on Jul 13, 2004 14:34:29 GMT -5
The thing about the computer is that I sound like a man and I stutter in real life, and you only have a limited time to say something in real life and you have to think quickly lest it comes out stupid. Which it does, anyway. On the computer, there's little, if an, experiation date, and you have time to think, and you don't stutter.
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Antenora
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Post by Antenora on Jul 13, 2004 15:17:44 GMT -5
And online you can rant without being interrupted midway through an irate paragraph. I like that. I guess typos would be the online equivalent of stuttering, however. But you can correct those.
Interesting how this topic has wandered from the soul, to personality, to individuality, and now to online openness. "Weird stuff" is a good name for it.
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Post by Soidanae on Jul 13, 2004 17:17:50 GMT -5
The internet can allow for wit-you have a bit of time to compose what you're going to say.
But as for identity...I react differently in certain situations than is expected, oftentimes. Completely differently.
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Post by negativenine on Jul 13, 2004 19:18:32 GMT -5
But within certain parameters, right? Everything people do, they do for a reason, which would make sense to people if they were to switch places with you and see what you were thinking at the time? Or something? Whatever, I'm off my rocker. You're probably right...
I am far less witty in real life, than I am online, for the reasons Tocuna and J stated above.
In fact, I'm not that witty here, so I've got to be really stupid in real life... *shrug*
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Post by Soidanae on Jul 13, 2004 22:49:28 GMT -5
Hmm...that's true. But there are people who really are so completely different that it makes no sense...
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Post by negativenine on Jul 14, 2004 0:20:33 GMT -5
------ I tend to agree with Neggie on the matter, and btw, J, it is something I actually think about a lot. ---- SS, I think some of your friends could fit a template. I don't always automatically stereotype someone however once you become familiar with people you'll notice, as J said, no one is unique. ------ Tocuna-- common misconceptions of a fifteen year old who girl who at least wears one item of black. 1. She thinks black is slimming. 2. She's goth. 3. She's artsy. 4. She's "different". 5. Uh, she's just wearing black what's the friggin' deal? 6. She doesn't even "try" to look presentable. I will admit I do stereotype, and I'm not ashamed. I do roll my eyes at the "fifteen year old girls who wear at least item of black" but it's usually due to their behavior, and not the way they dress. Though the way they dress usually enforces that the stereotype is typically true. ----- As for "onlineness". I don't think I'm witty but the remarks I make online are made offline as well but then again I never put much thought into what I have to say--- as it is sometimes evident. (: EDIT: I added the ---- to make sense of the flowing thoughts. I know my jumbled posts tend to confuse people. I'm glad you agree with me, because I sure have no idea what I believe. XD The whole us all being pretty much the same is not so much a stereotyping thing as a humanity thing, you know? You can relate to almost anyone because they really are a lot like you, even people who are criminally insane and over the top, because people, in general, are a lot alike... Just try to imagine being someone else for a second... maybe being in their head, but not being in control, if that's possible to understand... I think you'd find you have a lot of the same thoughts and a lot of the same questions, instincts, etc. Of course, it all depends on situation, but people are pretty much the same, I think. You'd find yourself doing things that make sense and acting the way this person would, which isn't to say that people aren't unique, only to say that that's nothing special. Very few people seem as though they actually have original ways of thinking. You know how you're just like that person in the fantasy novel who always knew he/she was special, and then got transported to another dimension to save the world? Well we're all like that, I think. We all think we're the special one, but in real life, I don't think we are. Ugh, I sound so horrible and pessimistic, but this is one of my HUGE preoccupations for the past year. Whenever I try to explain it it never ends up making sense, so I'm really sorry if that was a load of crap. Maybe it's one of those "weird things" that only make sense if you're thinking about it on your own, you know?
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter
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Post by Antenora on Jul 14, 2004 9:34:15 GMT -5
In some ways all people are the same; we share over 99% of our genes. It's impossible to be truly and entirely unique because we are all connected to and influenced by each other, but we have many differences. If we all agreed on every issue, there would be no debates at this board, and it wouldn't be much fun. I understand by "separate entity" you aren't implying that the brain and the mind can't work together but I'm very curious as to how you came to this conclusion. I was using mind to mean more or less what is meant by "soul", the spiritual part of a person. The soul resides within the body and controls its movements using signals from the brain, and at death it leaves the body. I'm rather spiritual, you see.
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Post by Soidanae on Jul 14, 2004 11:35:30 GMT -5
Ah-ha, that'd explain it. It's one of those things that can't really be proved or disproved. I'm more of a materialist myself, I feel that there's some sort of identity which is shaped by our experiences and so on, but it's not seperate from the body in any way at all, and when you're dead you're honestly dead.
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Post by negativenine on Jul 14, 2004 20:27:59 GMT -5
Okay, now that I know what swans was agreeing with, I'm good to go.
For some reason I just can't believe that everything ends when we die... maybe that's just the way human nature is: we like think we're invincible and have to go on living forever or something.
I think when we die, there's something that happens... when I read what Joe wrote up there, I went, "But THEN what happens?" which pretty much means I'm a hopeless case, eh? For some reason, that just being it doesn't settle with me. What happens to our conscience, our memories, our emotions, character, etc? Are those all just simple brain functions, or is there more to them? I don't know if I'm necessarily talking about a soul, in whatever sense that is, but the thought of nothing happening after death doesn't rub me the right way, because if there's nothing and you know there's nothing then there's something, right? So I guess we'll never find out, if that's the case. Just die... then what? How'll we know it's over?
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter
Fiendish Philologist
Put down that harpoon gun, in the name of these wonderful birds!
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Post by Antenora on Jul 14, 2004 21:35:07 GMT -5
Some say that after death you are just eternally unconcious. I don't like that theory because, understandably, I can't imagine what total and neverending unconciousness feels like. Some part of you, your conciousness, must live on. My current philosophy for the afterlife is "die and find out, but live a good life just in case and because virtue is its own reward."
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Luigi
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Post by Luigi on Jul 14, 2004 21:36:20 GMT -5
Some say that after death you are just eternally unconcious. I don't like that theory because, understandably, I can't imagine what total and neverending unconciousness feels like. Some part of you, your conciousness, must live on. My current philosophy for the afterlife is "die and find out, but live a good life just in case and because virtue is its own reward." I agree that people think of afterlife because they can't fathom eternal unconciouss, but I believe that's what death it.
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Post by Soidanae on Jul 14, 2004 22:40:40 GMT -5
Right...good god! Did you clone yourself? Did I clone myself? Humans can't seem to accept the fact that there is no superior entity, everything being determined by chance. What cracks me up is the fact that all of the faiths today deny the Egyptian mythology, the Greeks, the Romans...saying that they basically made it all up in their heads. What, isn't that what we did with "God"?
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Luigi
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Post by Luigi on Jul 15, 2004 11:21:49 GMT -5
I know! If the Egyptian religions are false, why can't our current ones be? In 3000 years or something, the children will be learning about the ancient, dead religion of Christianity. But for now, they can't accept that religion is religion, like the ones so many years ago, and that Christainity/Judaism/etc can die just like all the others.
Oh, and let me turn slightly and talk about the Meaning of Life. That is definate proof that humans are so arrogant. They can't accept the fact that their existance is meaningless, so they come up with that.
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter
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Put down that harpoon gun, in the name of these wonderful birds!
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Post by Antenora on Jul 15, 2004 11:32:43 GMT -5
The meaning of life: 42. Sorry, had to say that. J will get the joke.
It's true that a single human life, or even the lives of many humans, will have little effect on the universe as a whole. But I believe that everything exists for some reason, if only for the sake of existing. Everything can somehow affect everything else, through complex chains of events. It's said that a butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause a hurricane in the US, and in the same way every action will have wide-ranging and unpredictable consequences. So nothing is truly meaningless. Sorry, that was kind of random.
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