The Barstool Experiment

[Jasper]

Well spoken.  It's like, whether or not the stool is really there is connected to your own physical presence.

Phantoms we may all be, but everything we see still affects us.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I hate to say it, but I really thing we're parsing it kind of fine.

In it's most base sense, we agree that the parable ends with a measure of physical proof, and someone encounters the physicality of the barstool.

So, it comes down to the manner in which the barstool is applied: passively, coercively, or actively.

"Why don't you..."

"I will give you the solution if you ask nicely."

"Take that, motherfuckers!"



If that's all you're objecting to, then all you need to do is change the story.  The priciple allagory still holds up.

I think I agree completely... in fact didn't we figure that out a couple pages back?

[Triple Zero]

Well Rat, I have to admit, I wrote this on the fly; it's a fairly condensed version.  I intended to flesh it out, but eventually just said "fuck it".

is there actually an original story you based it on?

because your version is the first and oldest one that i ever read, but still it seems some people knew it already before that. so, where did the story come from?

[hooplala]

I thought the first time I heard it was from ECH.  A LONG time ago.

[Triple Zero]

oh which reminds me, there also was a version that featured LMNO and LHX talking about the nature of the universe, and then ECH coming along to bash their heads in.

dunno if that one was earlier, though.

[hooplala]

That might be what I'm thinking of.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

And quickly the shadows of esoterica envelop the roots of another parable. 

[hooplala]

What I meant to say was that I heard it from L. Ron Hubbard when we were both submarine captains . . . we fought JAPS!

[LMNO]

The seraphim ADONAI Q'ALABDADABADABA spake it to mine person whilst I dozed.



















Heh. the phrase was kicking around for a while before I came across it, but I think I was the first to make it into a parable.

oh which reminds me, there also was a version that featured LMNO and LHX talking about the nature of the universe, and then ECH coming along to bash their heads in.

dunno if that one was earlier, though.

Truth be told, that actually happened IRL.

[Triple Zero]

sorry, but i happen to be forbidden to believe anything i read

[Jasper]

Does that apply to your own posts?

[hooplala]

Yet ANOTHER take on it:


Yesterday, I overheard a conversation between two homeless men who were waiting in a line for lunch at a nearby shelter. I was waiting for a bus on a bench close to where the two were standing, and happened to overhear one of them mention a 'golden apple'. This, of course, piqued my interest, so I began to listen to the two.

It turns out that the 'golden apple' the one man was referring to was what is commonly referred to as an 'Orange', but he is correct that at one time the fruit was called a golden apple - the conversation centered around the man holding the orange trying to convince the other man that the fruit he was holding was in fact blue, not orange.

"It's like this," said the man. "colour works in opposites. When you look at an Orange the light bounces off the Orange, and back to your eye. But, the thing is, the thing is this: the Orange absorbs all the colours of the white light, and only bounces back the colour orange to your eye. So, really, the Orange is any colour BUT orange."

"I don't get it." said the other man. "Why does it look orange to us, then?"

"Because that's the only colour bouncing back to your eye. It looks orange because orange is bouncing back. The eye works on opposites. We actually see things upside down, but our eyes correct the image so that we see it normally. And, we usually see in negative, but the eye corrects for that too."

"That's fucked." the other man answered aptly.

It was at this point that I turned to the two men. "I'll tell you what's more fucked. Colour doesn't exist at all."

They both just stared at me. I continued: "Think about this: Everything is made from molecules, right? Well, what colour are molecules?"

The one man shrugged, and the other said: "I don't know."

I winked. "Exactly. That's because molecules don't have any colour. And, if everything is made from molecules, and molecules have no colour, than de facto NOTHING has colour.  BOOYA!"

Before either man could respond, I disappeared into a puff of smoke.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I would have kicked your invisible ass.

[hooplala]

 

[LMNO]

So Hoops, are you saying that the entire Barstool Experiment can be summed up as Sophistry?