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Do humans always purposly think?

This is where you can discuss your homework, family, just about anything, make strange sounds and otherwise discuss things which are really not related to the Lancer-series. Yes that means you can discuss other games.

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:31 pm

Do humans always purposly think?

I am in an argument with a teacher and I need an answer

Demouser: I have no wish to join the play, but rather to see it enacted. My only concern is to avoid having the lands of Microsoftia bare down on myself.

Spammers: have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_failure.wav playing back in ther head when they visit TLR

Mods have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_victory.wav playing in their heads every time they remove Spammers

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:39 pm

Do humans always purposly think? Hm. You are always thinking, no matter what. It is impossible (while you are awake and concious, of course) to have a completely blank mind. You are always thinking, or else you wouldn't survive. So the question is, is it being done purposfully or not. Well, most of the time it is "on purpose," however other times it is easy to be thinking without actually noticing it, and therefore not thinking on purpose. Such an occasion could happen when you're day dreaming, for example. So the answer is no.

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Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:47 pm

and you think when you dream in sleep, that's why you can remember stuff you've said or heard or done during a dream. And you can sometimes think lucidly, i.e. be aware youre dreaming but still (obv) be asleep, so where does that fit in? Brain activity doesn't stop till your dead, so at some level you're always thinking, purposefully or not.

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:01 pm

In order to present the best possible answer I could come up with I decided to look up the word "think" on webster. Apperently this is a subject steeped in controversy and disagreement.

Webster gave me about 25 different definitions. This leads me to believe that the term "think" is so abstract that it doesn't really mean anything. What entails thinking is basically up to opinion and to determine whether we do it on purpose once in our lives let alone all the time or never is completely based on what you personally call "thinking"

Tell your teacher to bite your a**.

Good?....Bad?......I'm the guy with the gun.

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:45 pm

Are you thinking that you should think however?

Demouser: I have no wish to join the play, but rather to see it enacted. My only concern is to avoid having the lands of Microsoftia bare down on myself.

Spammers: have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_failure.wav playing back in ther head when they visit TLR

Mods have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_victory.wav playing in their heads every time they remove Spammers

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:46 pm

Also the teacher is the most popular teacher in the school so I can't be to rude or obnoxious though that was what I want to do

Demouser: I have no wish to join the play, but rather to see it enacted. My only concern is to avoid having the lands of Microsoftia bare down on myself.

Spammers: have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_failure.wav playing back in ther head when they visit TLR

Mods have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_victory.wav playing in their heads every time they remove Spammers

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:18 pm

My point is that it's a loaded question.
There is no definative answer.
I can tell you what I think the answer is.
But any answer I give can be argued and discounted.
likewise with any answer that anyone gives.

But who am I to let a good arguement pass me by??? So here goes.

If you want to know whether a person consciously ponders a topic all the time, obviously no. We are not always problem solving .

If you want to know whether a person consciously controls their actions all the time, obviously no. There are plenty of actions our body takes that we have absolutely no control over.

If you want to know whether a person consciously recieves and transmits information all the time, things get a little hazy at this point. It could be argued that information can be transmitted by simple presence. After all we do not have to be aware of the light bouncing off of us in order for someone to see us, and even location relayed through sight can be considered information. Considering this a conscious effort and being able to classify mere reflective properties of the body as thinking is a bit of a stretch though. Even the light gathering properties of our eyes seems to be a completely involuntary action, Though how and when seem to be pretty much up to us.
The actual processing of information, structureing this input into understandable portions and utilizing or creating predetermined actions would seem to fit into the category of thought rather easily.
However it could be argued that this processing happens through lilttle or no fault of our own. That we are nothing more than meat puppets with a decent processor speed.

I would say, in conclusion (finally Doom, you long winded **cker!), that though we don't do any of these things we call thinking ALL of the time, we probably are doing one of them at any given moment. Therefore we are probably always thinking.

Just my opinion though



Good?....Bad?......I'm the guy with the gun.

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 7:39 pm

Geek.. .... sort of difficult to know what you're getting at if you don't dial us in a little bit closer to what your discussion with this most popular teacher happens to be.

To name a few, there are philosophical ways to answer your question, strictily biochemical ways and there are pyschoanalytical ways. Taking the last one as an example per good ol' Siggy Freud, you might say that some thoughts are involuntary, not subject to your conscious control at all. Such thoughts, therefore, would not be "on purpose" so-to-speak because you didn't intend to have the thought at the time you actually had it.

So, to go back to your original question, my question to you would be: In what context?

Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:40 pm

It was a great thinker Descartes who said "I think therefore I am, I drink so I don't need to think, so therefore I am drunk."

Sir S

Post Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:21 am

I would have thought a more appropriate question would be 'Do humans always think?'

However, to your question, I would say no. People have argued that when asleep and dreaming, you are thinking. I define thinking as a purposeful function anyway, let alone doing it purposefully [it makes sense if you read it a few times! . You brain is always in action but you are not always 'using your brain'. Your brain controls almost everything and is therefore regulating your homeostatic environment whilst you are asleep but this is not thinking, it is automatic. I conceed that it may well be possible to think during a dream, you can have some control (or at least it 'feels' like it) over what happens, but I don't believe it is possible for the human brain to constantly think as you put it. Thinking is a tiring function. One reason for sleeping is to ensure that your brain gets some rest, not just your body. If you thought whilst asleep this would not make any difference therefore you cannot think whilst asleep... Humans would perish long before reaching an age to reproduce, and even if they managed that, they'd be so tired from thinking that nothing would be invented, everyone would be to tired mentally to research etc.

OK, I went off at a few tangents, and that last bit... I hope you got the general gist of my argument though.

visit www.civ3.1bigcommunity.com for all your civ3 needs

Post Tue Jan 06, 2004 3:52 pm

The argument is over do humans purposly think meaning actually think I am going to think about this all the time very confusing

Demouser: I have no wish to join the play, but rather to see it enacted. My only concern is to avoid having the lands of Microsoftia bare down on myself.

Spammers: have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_failure.wav playing back in ther head when they visit TLR

Mods have C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\AUDIO\MUSIC\music_victory.wav playing in their heads every time they remove Spammers

Post Tue Jan 06, 2004 4:31 pm

humans think all of the time, most of it is just the brain processing information ie. how hot it is, are you hungry, do you need the loo etc. so i wouldnt say always purposly, no

Post Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:07 pm

As I said it could be argued that what we consider conscious thought is no different than unconscious thought. That is to say that we don't control any thoughts that we have. If this is true than the neuron that fires to make my heart beat is no different than the neuron fireing to for me to say "brown is the color of poop ! HAHAHHA" In this example the constant brain activity IS thinking and therefore yes we think all the time whether we like it or not.

Of course I think it's a pile a dogsnot anyway.....I'm sick of making my heart beat. I want my heart to ....just.....siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!!!!!!!!

heh

Either way geekus.....you sound like an incredibly smart and incredibly boring little kid, and I think I may just be giving you the smart compliment so that it doesn't seem like I'm picking on a little kid.......meh.



Good?....Bad?......I'm the guy with the gun.

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