Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
Why do we talk about the characters as if they were real? But then, why not?
Is it cold in here?:
--- Quote from: NotDave on 05 Jun 2008, 14:24 ---... in the act of reading, we metaphorically identify ourselves with the characters and situations being described in the fictional work - the work becomes about us. And in the process of reading we discover things about ourselves and the world.
--- End quote ---
Intriguing!
I'd argue that it's not that the work "becomes about us" as we identify with the characters and the situations, but that we recognize elements of those which remind us of ourselves, or of parts of our selves, or of selves we want to be, or of selves we might become.
Still, it's the recognition of common experience with the characters that makes them feel real. I have more in common with Dora than with Pintsize, so Dora feels more real.
I just commented on the relative degrees of reality of two comic strip characters. I believe the technical psychological term for this is "batshit crazy".
Vendetagainst:
--- Quote from: Doug S. Machina on 20 May 2008, 14:57 ---That is the most succint expression of why the universe is thought to be infinite when it's finitely old and started at a single point in my rather shallow investigations of the subject.
--- End quote ---
I think it's erroneous to claim that there was a single point in which the universe began.
If you accept the Big Bang theory then the universe as it is now is explained, but the "origin" of the universe is necessarilly before this or else there can be no explaination for the matter involved.
Also, it is very difficult to claim that there can be a point in which the universe was created, for that would suggest that there was some driving force behind the creation and thus that the universe in some form had already existed.
himynameisjulien:
I too have thought that same idea, and every time I do, since I have read the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, I think of sand flowing upwards into a cone. I suppose, as well, that if the universe had started as a singularity, then it would have immediately broken down into a black hole. After all, that's what a black hole is, right? Any amount of matter compacted into a singularity will create nearly unlimited or unlimited gravity. But who am I to say that the universe isn't a black hole? For all we know, all black holes contain universes (universii?) identical or similar to our own. It's not as if we've explored them. My best guess is that there are ways of interaction and changes is phase, and whole new phases, of matter that we are unaware of and could not begin to imagine, and through some change in phase from nothing to something (theoretically impossible) our universe was born. Just writing this, I realize now why people choose to be religious in so many cases; it's so fucking hard to comprehend the magnitude and origin of pretty much everything. I mean astrophysically everything, not like a plate or something. Just thinking about black holes occupies your entire mind. Not to mention all this universe stuff. Ooooh, another theory. Time is circular, like the person who posted earlier said about the universe. Or maybe all moments exist in parallel, constantly. Slaughter-house Five.
NotDave:
With any luck the LHC will clear it all up for us. Then we can start making our brains hurt over a whole new set of problems.
himynameisjulien:
--- Quote from: NotDave on 03 Jul 2008, 13:19 ---With any luck the LHC will clear it all up for us. Then we can start making our brains hurt over a whole new set of problems.
--- End quote ---
I hear it's online as we speak, or will be shortly. Correct me if I'm wrong, which I suspect I am. I also suspect that the research conducted in the LHC will be some of the most important in recent history. *crosses fingers* Higgs Boson.
Maybe if we don't find the Higgs Boson we can shoot pigeons with the LHC. Or give helicopters cancer. I love xkcd.
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