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Originally Posted by Iksander  I am in favor of this latter idea, even though the only way I can explain it is by saying the whole system is just...fluid. This is the defining human element, then? |
So, that hinges upon another question: if the system is fluid, why can't a single identity be universal? I'm uneasy asking this, because I haven't thought about it very thoroughly myself at the moment... but I'll throw it out anyways.
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Originally Posted by Iksander You will notice, however, that the majority of people actually do end up thrashing - I see it all the time. Specifically when it is something outside of their comfort zone and a large amount of thoughts are present |
I would surmise it happens because of the conflicting desire to explore newness and a need to stay within the bounds of familiarity. It sounds like those traits could conceivably be examples of mutual exclusivity, so you could end up thrashing over that.
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Originally Posted by Iksander The only flaw in my analogy is the fact that thrashing no longer really occurs because our hardware is so fast now. There are multiple technologies used to decrease processing time (hypther-threading, multiple cores) but the processor is still susceptible to thrashing because all of these technologies are built from the same elemental logic gates. Even with thread scheduling, if you load the processor up with processes it will schedule all of them until it comes to a screeching halt trying to run each one. |
Well, you can think of the human being as scaled incredibly high. We have myriads of processes, and lots and lots of processing power, so to speak. But I'll stop here, since I've always been leery of computer-brain analogies.
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Originally Posted by Amanda Norris I sometimes think of it like the branches of a tree or the tendrils of a plant. We, as humans are the tips of the tendrils. We can be far apart from each other and see each other as distinct and separate and individual. But actually we are all connected to the same plant. Does that make sense? |
So are we the leaves, or are we the tree?