An unusual string of events

tris-

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for some odd reason, i went to the gym at 5pm instead of my normal morning times. i parked at the front instead of the back. I did 45 mins had a water break and went to weigh my self. dissappointed with what i found (gained 8lbs in 2 days? lol), i decided to leave early. i walked out in my usual manner, i got in the car and opend the window all the way down. normally i only open it 3/4 the way down. i drove the wrong way out the car park. at the exit, a bird happend to shit right through the window and land on my shoulder and the inside of the door.

now, what are the chances that a bird happens to shit through your open window and hit you? if i stuck to my routine, would i still of been shat on? all the things i did ultimatley led me to be under neath a bird that needed a shit while the window was fully down, instead of 3/4. if the window was 3/4, i wouldnt of been shat on as the shit came through right at the bottom of the window frame.

is it even possible to work out EXACTLY which event caused me to be under that bird at that precise time? does it really prove that every little thing causes a chain reaction and leads onto an 'ultimate event'? if it didnt happen, then maybe you wouldnt of been thinking about subjects such as this. it just goes on and on.
 

Gumbo

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Karma, man. You're being punished for going to the gym.
 

Wazzerphuk

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Haha, class.

I'd say it'd be a direct cause of eating one too many pies. You asked for it :D
 

tris-

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u know, thinking back to when i was in my mams womb. something that hapend in there ultimatley led me to going to the gym at the given times etc.

if you keep goin back, the timing of the creation of the universe has caused this to happen. maybe not, i dunno im no science nobel prize dude.

afaik, this is the first time ive ever thought how one thing will impact a lot of other things and lead to something happening.
 

Dillinja

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tris- said:
for some odd reason, i went to the gym at 5pm instead of my normal morning times. i parked at the front instead of the back. I did 45 mins had a water break and went to weigh my self. dissappointed with what i found (gained 8lbs in 2 days? lol), i decided to leave early. i walked out in my usual manner, i got in the car and opend the window all the way down. normally i only open it 3/4 the way down. i drove the wrong way out the car park. at the exit, a bird happend to shit right through the window and land on my shoulder and the inside of the door.

now, what are the chances that a bird happens to shit through your open window and hit you? if i stuck to my routine, would i still of been shat on? all the things i did ultimatley led me to be under neath a bird that needed a shit while the window was fully down, instead of 3/4. if the window was 3/4, i wouldnt of been shat on as the shit came through right at the bottom of the window frame.

is it even possible to work out EXACTLY which event caused me to be under that bird at that precise time? does it really prove that every little thing causes a chain reaction and leads onto an 'ultimate event'? if it didnt happen, then maybe you wouldnt of been thinking about subjects such as this. it just goes on and on.

I think it is called "the butterfly effect". The smallest things can make huge differences to the future.
 

Doomy

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Watch Run Lola Run for a wicked insight into your day :p
 

Mazling

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Rather than get a degree in philosophy/theoretical physics, just dial 0-800-THRODDY for (manly) help with those nasty, filthy birds ...
 

nath

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Chaos theory, causality etc - personally I totally believe that every single thing that ever happens is as of a result of everything that has happened before. Free will? Illusion :D
 

throdgrain

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Mazling said:
Rather than get a degree in philosophy/theoretical physics, just dial 0-800-THRODDY for (manly) help with those nasty, filthy birds ...

LMAO :)
 

old.Tohtori

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I do believe that's called the buttershit effect.

When the smallest of events lead for something to shit all over your life.
 

Ch3tan

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There is only one solution to the buttershit effect. Go back in time and smash that birds nest while it's still an egg.
 

Cask

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Had a near miss the other day, just walked out from a subway a bird poo fell about a yard in front of me, made me stop in my tracks. Lucky I hadn't been rushing that day.

Last time I got pooed on was at the top of the empire state building. I saw this gap where no one was standing and thought that it looked like a good spot. I didn't notice the pigeons directly above it on a railing waiting for a sucker like me to stand there.

In conclusion it probably wasn't random chance, the bird was aiming for you.
 

DaGaffer

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Cask said:
In conclusion it probably wasn't random chance, the bird was aiming for you.

That's what I'd guess; I'm convinced that all of God's little creatures are far more smart/evil than we give them credit for; there's a bird that sits in a tree opposite my house and it shits on my car if its parked under the tree, but if the car's parked down the street the little fucker will jump of its perch, fly down the street and shit on the car there. I've watched the little bastard do it. Alfred Hitchcock was definitely on to something...
 

venus

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The weight gain was probably because you weighed yourself at the end of the day. They say that you should always weigh yourself first thing in the morning because that will show your true weight as you will be heavier at the end of the day (dunno how true this is). Now this i dont think could explain an 8lb weight gain but it certainly could explain a couple of pounds.... as for the bird,.. well shit happens i guess ;)
 

caLLous

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You're taller at the start of the day than at the end but I don't see how this applies to weight... Surely it just depends how much you eat/shit? :)
 

Wij

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nath said:
Chaos theory, causality etc - personally I totally believe that every single thing that ever happens is as of a result of everything that has happened before. Free will? Illusion :D

Ah, a pet subject :)

Add quantum uncertainty just to get out of the 'Everything can be predicted from event 1' mindset.

Then add that this doesn't affect the free-will argument.

Next ask 'What is the alternative to our actions being CAUSED by prior events/states' ? Our actions being random ??? How is that free will ? It isn't.

Finally re-assess your view of free will to make it plain that prior causation is perfectly compatible with free-will and is even a NECESSARY component of it.

<PEGGY_HILL>
HO YEAH !!!
</PEGGY_HILL>
 

nath

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I certainly don't believe that we can ever fully and completely predict the future - quantum uncertainty being a part of that. However - just because one can't think of an alternative to free will that sounds more "free" doesn't mean that one one we've currently got is. Honestly - I can't think of a way that free will would work at all, but then I can't see any way that a coffee table would make any decisions either - I still think free will is an illusion - a side effect of being sentient is believing that you have the ability to choose. The fact, is any decision that we make were were influenced by everything else.

Perhaps at the end of the day, it comes down to semantics but when someone mentions free will I always think of the soul or something like - some inner driving force. However, when it comes to the crunch we're nothing but very complicated machines. If someone wrote a program to perfectly copy a human mind, would it have free will too?*




*sorry for the horrifically clichéd example :\


edit: point - compare an entity that you believe has free will (i.e. humans) with something that doesn't. What's the difference exactly? What exactly constitutes a free will?
 

tris-

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i dont really believe in free will at all. imo, everything is happening because it has to.

i always find this stuff hard to explain from my PoV. just one example - someone goes for a glass of water. did they really decide they needed to? is it not that they had no choice but to do it but they believed they made the decision? actually, i think nath explained it just fine.
 

Tom

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I don't believe in free will. For instance, when confronted with a tub of B&J Cherry Garcia, I must eat it. When confronted by a beautiful woman, I must look at her chest.

Thus, we have no free will. Unless somebody bans him. Or something.

*rambles*
 

Bodhi

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Tom said:
I don't believe in free will. For instance, when confronted with a tub of B&J Cherry Garcia, I must eat it. When confronted by a beautiful woman, I must look at her chest.

Thus, we have no free will. Unless somebody bans him. Or something.

See? Causality in motion. Your joke has started an uncontrollable series of events that has made the baby jesus cry. I hope you're happy with yourself.
 

OblongChicken

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I would just like to say that i recently wrote a dissertation on the subject of free will and determinism and that i know more about it than all of you combined.
 

nath

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<insert angry ramblings here>


C-. Back to troll school with you!
 

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