Fate or Accident - Writers Forum

Lusastrium · 04-17-2005, 07:32 PM

Do you view your life as one big series of accidents that happen for no reason, or do you view your life controlled by a force that is similiar destiny or fate?

valeca · 04-17-2005, 07:33 PM

None of the above.

Lusastrium · 04-17-2005, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by valeca

None of the above.

Then what do you view your life as?

Saponification · 04-17-2005, 07:38 PM

Karma, baby. Action and reaction.

grapefruit shall rule O_o · 04-17-2005, 09:12 PM

Organized randomization.

Kane · 04-17-2005, 10:17 PM

life is a series of choices and the consequences thereof. From the actions of the first man to each choice we make from here on out, everything works in varying degrees to shape life as we know it.

mammamaia · 04-18-2005, 11:29 AM

both... and neither... i know enough to know i know damn little... and that's one of the things we really know the littlest about...

one of my oldest personal lines is, 'the only thing i know for sure is that i can't know anything for sure'

our brains aren't developed enough to know much... and most human egos are too developed to admit it!... so, folks keep on guessing, and pretending, and making up all kinds of stuff, so they can believe the pitiful lie that they 'know' something...

when i was only 6 or 7, i used to go around asking questions like, 'is this really a table, or do we just think it is?'... which explained why i had no friends and few adults would dare even acknowledge i was in the room!

love and hugs, maia

PaPa · 04-18-2005, 11:50 AM

I'm going to go with the accidents, as long as its understood that all the accidents are caused by stuff. They aren't just a mess of random shit going down.

Kane · 04-18-2005, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mammamaia

both... and neither... i know enough to know i know damn little... and that's one of the things we really know the littlest about...

one of my oldest personal lines is, 'the only thing i know for sure is that i can't know anything for sure'

our brains aren't developed enough to know much... and most human egos are too developed to admit it!... so, folks keep on guessing, and pretending, and making up all kinds of stuff, so they can believe the pitiful lie that they 'know' something...

when i was only 6 or 7, i used to go around asking questions like, 'is this really a table, or do we just think it is?'... which explained why i had no friends and few adults would dare even acknowledge i was in the room!

love and hugs, maia

Aww, come on... We all know a little something about something. I don't think I'm making anything up when I say that life today is the result of a series of choices. Every choice made brings about a new, different set of choices, not only for the choice maker, but for everyone that will be affected by the choice that person makes. When you compound that with the billions of people that came before us, it makes up the 'living history' that we all belong to. Where I live today is not just a matter of my choice, but the decisions of each of my ancestors who lived their lives, shaping the world in their own small way. Everyone that came before me in my line lived their lives making the choices that were given to them, given to them as a result of all the people that came before them. The choices we make today not only affects our lives, but will affect the lives and shape the choices of our children, and their children, etc. Every decision we make, no matter how trivial it may seem at the time, has the potential to affect a decision made in the future, by us or by someone else. If you were to ask me what I "know" about the universe and the world we live in, I'd say comparitvely damn little. But I think I'm at least 'smart' enough to make a logical observation.

Pawn · 04-18-2005, 01:15 PM

So long as no one brings up quantum physics, then I'm happy to argue that probability is a myth.

Cause and effect, eh. What are personalities but the product of the experiences they have undergone? Had one a computer of infinite power, I maintain, one could predict, given data from the first year of a childs life, their entire lifetime from that point onwards.

Naturally, this renders 'choice' an illusion. Interestingly, this means absolutely nothing.

As to day to day life, I'm with Sartre. We have no one to blame, or to answer to, but ourselves.

riadohaed · 04-18-2005, 01:18 PM

.... higher power making sure shit dont get too outta hand + free will and choices.

Kane · 04-18-2005, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pawn

So long as no one brings up quantum physics, then I'm happy to argue that probability is a myth.

Cause and effect, eh. What are personalities but the product of the experiences they have undergone? Had one a computer of infinite power, I maintain, one could predict, given data from the first year of a childs life, their entire lifetime from that point onwards.

Naturally, this renders 'choice' an illusion. Interestingly, this means absolutely nothing.

As to day to day life, I'm with Sartre. We have no one to blame, or to answer to, but ourselves.

I disagree with that completely... You can't determine what a person will do the rest of their life based on their first year of living. Up until a point where they can make their own decisions, they experience the results of their parents' choices for them. As an adult, no one makes my choices for me. Sure, I may predispositioned to make certain types of choices, but in the end, I have a say over what I do. By your argument, one could say that if a person's entire life is mapped out from their first year, they couldn't be held responsible for anything they woud do in the future. Either someone has choice over their actions or they don't, can't be both.

Pawn · 04-18-2005, 02:23 PM

Consider that by the term 'personality' I refer to the manner in which an individual will react to any given stimulus. Now, this personality is initially contained as a series of impulses and instincts (e.g. eat, breath) contained within a childs brain. As the child undergoes various experiences, its personality becomes developed through the conclusions that its infantile brain draws from said experiences and outcomes. The entity will form response patterns to certain stimulus, which will grow increasingly complex, to the point of appearing arbitary.

Quote:

Up until a point where they can make their own decisions, they experience the results of their parents' choices for them.

The choices of their parents are also predictable. The reaction of the child to their parents choices is equally so.

A human beings reaction to a stimulus is nothing but a colossal equation containing many thousands of variables. Given hyperthetical infinite knowledge, such as I would assume the above mentioned super-computer might have, it would be possible to predict the individuals reaction to said stimulus. As the physics of the larger world are also essentially predictable, this means that not only could we hyperthetically predict the reaction of an individual to any stimulus, but predict the very stimuli that said individual would be exposed to. But it is more than a prediction. It is the way it will happen. How could it possible happen any other way?

In simple terms: You are your personality. Your personality dictates the way you respond to the world. Your personality derives from your experiences. Your experiences are, after a certain point, predicable. It follows that your personality is predictable.

Must fly now. Will revisit this later.

PaPa · 04-18-2005, 03:13 PM

Quote:

A human beings reaction to a stimulus is nothing but a colossal equation containing many thousands of variables. Given hyperthetical infinite knowledge, such as I would assume the above mentioned super-computer might have, it would be possible to predict the individuals reaction to said stimulus. As the physics of the larger world are also essentially predictable, this means that not only could we hyperthetically predict the reaction of an individual to any stimulus, but predict the very stimuli that said individual would be exposed to. But it is more than a prediction. It is the way it will happen. How could it possible happen any other way?

In simple terms: You are your personality. Your personality dictates the way you respond to the world. Your personality derives from your experiences. Your experiences are, after a certain point, predicable. It follows that your personality is predictable.

Must fly now. Will revisit this later.

I would say that the infinite knowledge required by this computer would include similar data concerning every other person on the planet. You would need to plot the personality and individual response to stimuli of every inhabitant of the earth in order to find the resulting equation of life for a single person. The up side is that once you've gathered all of this information you can then do it for everyone, so all we need is a way to gather infinite amounts of information and it's done.

Kane · 04-18-2005, 05:58 PM

I still see a problem with this in that though my personality might urge me to do one thing, I can still do something contrary to my 'nature'. You might even say that one's personality could be primarily built out of habit. For instance, I used to be a very nice, fun-loving, caring person. Although I am still a sensitive guy, over the years I have undergone a lot of hardships with people and it is almost second nature for me to be a dick. Over the past couple years I have worked alot on toning down my learned caustic nature and now I am much calmer when dealing with things. Not that I'm proud of it, but I used to get in a fight over every slight against me. Now, since I've become a dad, I haven't been in a fight for 5 years. I was originally hardened by a hard life, though through effort and persistance I have become a softer individual.