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This thought is similar to solipsism. René Descartes was afraid that he is truly alone because all his experiences are just imaginations. He said «Cogito ergo s
by _nalply 10y ago
This thought is similar to solipsism. René Descartes was afraid that he is truly alone because all his experiences are just imaginations. He said «Cogito ergo sum», but this was not enough to prove that others exist. The similarity to the simulation argument originates from the problem that we can't be sure that our perception is truthful.
However there is a counter-argument from Ludwig Wittgenstein. In a summary we have language. Language is too complex a construct to be invented alone. Because we speak we know we are not alone.
This is of special importance to me, being born profoundly Deaf. There exist poor deaf children who were isolated from language and never learned the basics. I had the misfortune to meet some of them. This drove the nail home that language cannot emerge in complete aloneness.
Now this doesn't apply to the simulation argument, because language might be provided from outside by the simulators.
- nanny 10y ago>However there is a counter-argument from Ludwig Wittgenstein. In a summary we have language. Language is too complex a construct to be invented alone. Because we speak we know we are not alone. I'm not familiar with that argument, so I'm just going based off your summary, but to me that sounds eerily similar to people who claim that life cannot evolve because it is too complex.
- _nalply 10y agoGood point. However it's different. There were billions of molecules to evolve to life. But a single molecule can't evolve to life. Of course this argument is hyperbolic but you know...
- jasonkostempski 10y agoThere exist poor deaf children who were isolated from language and never learned the basics... in your imagination.
- _nalply 10y agoFirst I thought you were trolling. A good one.
- jasonkostempski 10y agoJust applying the thought experiment. If everything is imagination, then that includes language itself and other people. So your understanding of language, and your perception of other peoples understanding of language could all just be your imagination.
- _nalply 10y agoBut most probably it isn't, because language is too complex for imagination of a single, alone person.
- jasonkostempski 10y agoI think the "imagination" Descartes is imagining is something with the ability to create the thing we typically call "imagination". i.e. You're ability to "imagine" is just part of the imagination :)
- _nalply 10y agoYes I followed this thought too. Why not imagining that language is too complex to imagine? However you have finally to experience all these intricacies of language even those ones which exceed your capability to understand. It's similar to the problem of a moderately intelligent author inventing a super-intelligent character and describing their actions and the rationales thereof in plausible detail. Somehow the outcome is just mediocre and meh. But the complexity of language is just awesome. For example the German articles. They have only five endings but manage to capture sex, plurality and case in their 24 combinations exactly and people understand these fine nuances in split seconds. This is too awesome for my brains to imagine. Or in English the difference between ludicrous and ridiculous. The possibility to express this fine a nuance is just awesome.
- 10y ago