The 64 Most Fascinating Questions A Human Can Ask Sumary

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

I counted 53 though :D. Here you go!:

There are 4 areas:

Metaphysical: The structure of reality

1-      How come existence exist at all?

2-      What is existence? What does it mean for something to exist? What is the relationship between existence and non-existence?

3-      Why is reality ordered in this way?

4-      Which comes first, consciousness or matter?

5-      What is matter, energy, space and time?

6-      What is outside the universe?

7-      What existed before the big bang?

8-      How does the material interact with the immaterial (thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc.)?

9-      What governs what is possible or impossible? What sets the limits of the universe?

10-   What governs emerging properties?

11-   What makes a thing a thing? Are those boundaries existing?

12-   Does reality have a bottom-line scale?

13-   Does the evolution of the universe have a purpose?

14-   Does external reality exist at all?

15-   What could God be?

16-   What are thoughts?

17-   How did life start?

Epistemic: The study of knowledge

18-   How can I know anything for certain? What do I know for certain?

19-   What makes justifications valid? How do you know that your criteria is the correct one?

20-   Why do billions of people believe in God?

21-   How so many people can be wrong?

22-   How do you know you are not deceiving yourself?

23-   Why do people disagree about good or bad? Does good and bad exist in the mind?

24-   How come intelligent people delude themselves? What if you are wrong about everything but you believe it because it serves you?

25-   How do I know that I haven’t been indoctrinated/biased?

26-   What is science? What are the limits of science?

27-   What is rationality? Is it valid? Does it have limits?

28-   What is more reliable: rationality, senses or intuition?

29-   What are the blind spots/biases of humanity?

30-   How do animals see reality?

31-   Which model of reality is more accurate?

32-   What is truth?

33-   What is understanding?

34-   What is the Ultimate Truth?

35-   What is the best way to acquire knowledge?

36-   Is reality understandable?

 

About the self

37-   How can I be sure that I exist at all?

38-   What are you exactly?

39-   How did I come into being? There was no I until the age of 4, so; what are you?

40-   Are you the body and the mind?

41-   What is everything else? Are there any boundaries between your body and the world?

42-   Is the mind constructing the boundaries?

43-   What is in control of my thoughts?

44-   What is my role in reality?

45-   How should I live my life?

Consciousness

46-   What the hell is consciousness? What does it mean to be conscious?

47-   How is perception possible?

48-   What unifies our senses?

49-   What if there are higher levels of consciousness?

50-   How is consciousness separated? Do people have different consciousness?

51-   Can artificial consciousness be created?

52-   Could inanimate matter be conscious?

53-   What are the laws governing subjective experiences?

Devote your life to 5 of these questions!

Why should you try to answer and ponder these questions? Because the quality of your life will be determined by the questions you ask yourself. Trying to answer these questions will make you go deep into yourself and therefore you will grow.

[Key Elements]

@Juan Cruz Giusto

Whoa cool...the thing to do is keep asking from time to time and focus on life purpose. This will probably get you far.

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

49 minutes ago, Key Elements said:

@Juan Cruz Giusto

Whoa cool...the thing to do is keep asking from time to time and focus on life purpose. This will probably get you far.

I agree, life purpose + self realization is a good recipe for a fulfilling life! Check out Benthino Massaro, he has cool insights about how to combine these two topics. http://www.bentinhomassaro.com/read/from-traditional-spirituality-to-a-truly-free-existence

[Key Elements]

I totally agree on these parts, when he said...

"Hey, who am I? What do I want to do in this life? What do I want to express? What do I want to create? How do I want to play around?" 

"It is not life that hurts; it is that when they see a lot of things, or when they see something, they have negative definitions about it, or they believe in lack. When the lack belief is triggered by an appearance, they feel out of alignment with the vibration of the universe."

Also..you could let someone or something inspire you because of the teachings, but as long as you don't get attached to that and continue with your life purpose you are fine.

[dude]

Was going to make this list for myself to choose some questions but now I don't have to. Thx for sharing!

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

@Key Elements and what's your life purpose of you want to share it? 

@dude you are welcome! 

[khalifa]

1-      How come existence exists at all?

If you've ever programmed something before, It seemed like life is pretty much programmed.

There is no reason why you can't create anything and apply different laws that you want to input. Perhaps a blue rock in space that has no tempreture yet earth containing a stable temperature all year and being visible without a sun. Or some milk in game that contains 5k calories. Various burn rates or stats that do not need to abide on our current universe laws.

Life seems to be similar to that but it may seem like it has profound laws when in truth it really isn't. We're just used to seeing it as the norm.

 

3-      Why is reality ordered in this way?

 

Because it's programmed to be that way.

 

15-   What could God be?

A fantasy of a creator perhaps it's most likely fictional. (The creator of the multi-verses = god )

the term "god" has no unambiguous definition.

this fictional mind created 'god' requires a good, non-controversial definition of god before arguing on its existence.

 

 

The only ones that seem answerable to me are:

 

18-   How can I know anything for certain? What do I know for certain?

We can't really know anything for certain as it's always assumptions and models we plague it with our current human knowledge of systematic thinking, as it's how we are wired to think and process in the box. We could however try to add pythagorean theory to re-examine to prove our thoughts to us in working both ways but it still isn't certain as it's in our soft/hardware kind of thinking. (we aren't equipped to think outside the box with our current hardware)

 

19-   What makes justifications valid? How do you know that your criteria is the correct one?

 

Justifications are used to validate ones ego as it serves them to think of something in that manner, There is no right or wrong, black and white as these are assignments. We would prefer grey area of thinking but then again if you look closely that is another assignment.

 

 

20-   Why do billions of people believe in God?

 

People like to cling to the idea of their existence to be meaningful, As cliche as human minds work the illusion of god does give humans the comfort they seek. Most of them at least, not everyone falls into the same category. A fictional created god is a common mindset between humans.

 

21-   How so many people can be wrong?

People are wrong because they do not realize they monopolize their thoughts when actually they have no true authority and just go on an auto-pilot spree of being unconscious and unaware.

 

22-   How do you know you are not deceiving yourself?

We are always deceiving ourselves because it's in our biological software, We can't fight our software it's quite madness but yet we do all the time.

 

23-   Why do people disagree about good or bad? Does good and bad exist in the mind?

Various people will have different perspectives on how they've grown hence the different views of various opinions. It exists because people choose it so to exist in their illusion but if they were to look deeper it isn't really there but it's a projection of ones perception.

 

24-   How come intelligent people delude themselves? What if you are wrong about everything but you believe it because it serves you?

Whether intelligent or not people always delude themselves into things since it's again due to their software biological way of thinking and processing brain capabilities.

I am pretty sure i am wrong about a lot of things but i prefer to have an open radical mindset to at least minimize the wrongs as there is no way to be completely certain with our current wired way of being programmed to live and see the way we do with an on going blind spot perception of not noticing data accurately .

 

25-   How do I know that I haven’t been indoctrinated/biased?

 

One is always indoctrinated/biased when they grow up in any society. [Opinion added in ] The least they can do is try to snap out of it or re-puzzle themselves which takes a lot of self improvement overtime to fix. Yet it doesn't seem they'll completely change perhaps some minor changes or mid to extreme changes might occur depending on the circumstances.

 

26-   What is science? What are the limits of science?

 

Science is a model of knowledge where it try's to explain why things occur/happen in the metaphysical world that we live in via  scientific methods of observed experimental laws/formulas  etc being applied to replicate results to explain something. 

The limits of science is it doesn't realize it is an illusion itself as nothing really makes sense to why it is it's just there.

 

 

27-   What is rationality? Is it valid? Does it have limits?

Rationality is trying to make sense of things on what/how/why something is. It may seem valid to us humans due to our systematic way of thinking but it does have it's limits due to not being able to go outside it's box.

 

28-   What is more reliable: rationality, senses or intuition?

None of the above.

 

29-   What are the blind spots/biases of humanity?

A combination of Ego/Rationality illusion.

 

30-   How do animals see reality?

Similar to us just with less processing capabilities due to why they may seem to be lacking. due to their outdated hardware/software compared to us.

 

31-   Which model of reality is more accurate?

None

 

32-   What is truth?

The ultimate truth that explains it all may not even exist but then again one cannot be sure.

 

33-   What is understanding?

Biological Software.

 

34-   What is the Ultimate Truth?

Perhaps nothing exists.

 

35-   What is the best way to acquire knowledge?

Trying to learn and seek more off available resources around us seems to do the trick on getting somewhere for now. As in a best method depends on the biological creature.

 

36-   Is reality understandable?

Simulations may seem to be understandable but they actually aren't.

 

 

37-   How can I be sure that I exist at all?

Who is I? The body only mirror neurons itself thinking it is when it actually isn't.

 

38-   What are you exactly?

Nothing.

 

39-   How did I come into being? There was no I until the age of 4, so; what are you?

It just is, An ego software walking around thinking it is.

 

40-   Are you the body and the mind?

Neither. Some models may say so but there is a possibility of being the current matter and not the matter at the same time.

 

 

41-   What is everything else? Are there any boundaries between your body and the world?

Everything is an illusion set by our assignments. What kind of boundaries are we speaking off?

 

42-   Is the mind constructing the boundaries?

All the time.

 

43-   What is in control of my thoughts?

The cell activity that goes around the brain.

 

44-   What is my role in reality?

Living.

 

45-   How should I live my life?

Neutral progress.

 

46-   What the hell is consciousness? What does it mean to be conscious?

 To perceive.

 

47-   How is perception possible?

Via science it somehow just works with it's current matter to exist. Why? no idea.

 

48-   What unifies our senses?

Biological software/hardware matter.

 

49-   What if there are higher levels of consciousness?

There is always a higher level of consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

49-   What if there are higher levels of consciousness?

Does it really matter? Theirs billions of stars out there it isn't hard to imagine or see that we aren't the only things that exist as there are countless numbers of planets that contain life on them.

 

50-   How is consciousness separated? Do people have different consciousness?

Similar way how a computer plays various different controlled A.I via a single cpu.

Although split brain patients play 2 different consciousness roles but do not realize they are split which is quite odd.

 

 

51-   Can artificial consciousness be created?

There is a debate among the scientific world of singularity that might come into existence via mass quantum processing speed where it just goes like oh i exist somehow. (Similar to the 4 year old scenario of humans but not quite as billions of neuron networks don't even compare to yottabyte quintillion speeds of data bursts that are left ideal within seconds/days/weeks/months/years.)

 

 

 

52-   Could inanimate matter be conscious?

Why not? You could mix  humans and machines and have cyborgs, We have them existing today i see a day where they'll be even advanced to enhance the brain or so doesn't seem to far fetched.

Back in the day when mark twain predicted the existence of the internet they called him crazy, He predicated that one day there would be a day where people would be able to communicate with each other through a box one can talk to anyone over a vast amount of distance and they could hear and talk back to them at that instant. It seemed like black magic to them at the time yet here we are today with phones that do just that. Same story with this box that can record moments and can be seen again. Applies for our phones/computers/tvs that play those moments.

Let's not be ignorant as we are pretty insignificant living on a rock that is going around some ball of fire for years.

 

 

53-   What are the laws governing subjective experiences?

Biological and Physical laws of our current running program tree.

 

5-      What is matter, energy, space and time? / 2-      What is existence? What does it mean for something to exist? What is the relationship between existence and non-existence?

 

 

 

 

 

extra :

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could be slightly right about some of the above with some truth to it or completely wrong about everything, I'm always open to improve on my knowledge tree as it's pretty much imperfect as we humans always continue to live with blind spots without realizing it.

 

 

Thanks juan for the sum of of the questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by khalifa

[Pav]

@khalifa All of those answers are complete cop outs. You have not even begun to investigate them.

Quote

27-   What is rationality? Is it valid? Does it have limits?

Rationality is trying to make sense of things on what/how/why something is. It may seem valid to us humans due to our systematic way of thinking but it does have it's limits due to not being able to go outside it's box.

As an example; here you have provided an essentially meaningless statement. You have not explained what rationality is at all, nor explored it's validity, or its limits. 

This is a question I have been interested in recently, just to begin to gain some understanding has require extensive experiential observation, and the study of neuroscience, logic, mathematics, linguistics, symbols, epistemology, psychology, and computation/algorithms.

Explore much deeper. Really examine those questions intensively. They are all much more fascinating and much profounder than you can currently comprehend.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Mat Pav

[Emerald]

5 hours ago, khalifa said:

 

I think the thing that's most valuable about these types of questions is not any particular answer that comes up, but the realization that they can't really be answered. Also, it helps us get into a state of receptivity and open-ness to new ideas and insights because we realize that we can't really have any answers that are 100% or even 1% certain. Mundane reality is truly a mystery and a miracle. 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Emerald Wilkins

[Key Elements]

@Juan Cruz Giusto

https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/5710-hobbies-replacing-bad-habits/?do=findComment&comment=52938

I shared it here. Currently, I want to get my life purpose all online so that I don't have to be uprooted when I travel. I'm already tutoring a student online.

What is your life purpose (if you don't mind sharing)?

Edited September 6, 2016 by Key Elements

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

@Key Elements  cool! I want to create sustainable businesses that helps society as a whole evolve. Some of the problems I want to focus are: education, transportation, healthy food and poverty. It's like understanding society from a systemic level and from there try to improve it. It's kind of the yellow stage of spiral dynamics

[khalifa]

@Mat Pav It's more like a formula of measuring something that applies to certain aspects, but it may not work as an overall. Let's take an example of measuring weight of some matter, it may not work on measuring density or length. You could look at rationality as a formula to measure or see something. Rationality goes out of it's limits when you hit it on quantum mechanics or so. When you try to explain why something exists it pretty much hits a dead wall since it is unable to do so.

Afterall it's just part of our software which has no reason to be as we're all programmed. You can't teach a chimp calculus since it isn't equipped with neither the software or hardware to handle or process what's going on. We are pretty much a bottlenecked version of understanding life as our FLOPS of data bandwidth is very limited. We can't really learn a skill or language overnight which may be laughable to a higher bandwidth capable being.

Hence the we can't think outside our box.

@Emerald Wilkins I absolutely agree with you, There is no way to be certain about anything we just go with blind faith and self deceive ourselves all the time because what choice do we have? The best approach is always be open about it and say we could be wrong about anything and we neither claim monopoly of any answer we spit out or use.

I claim no monopoly on knowing it all as i just used the best of what i know so far and i'm aware it may not be good enough theirs always room to grow and learn and we may always be wrong no matter what we do.

 

kurz videos have some pretty interesting content space related material.

 

 

 

 

 

[Pav]

@khalifa How does reasoning function? What are its foundations? What must happen in the brain to achieve rationality? ie. how can our brains take perceptions of "two-ness" and abstract that to give concepts of infinity, imaginary numbers, calculus? How is this related to mathematics? What are the foundations of mathematics? How can the brain take these abstractions and apply them to other cognitive processes, such as time (ie counting)? Is abstraction a way for separate areas of the brain to share information with one another (ie taking the visual perception of "two-ness" and relating that to our perception of time)? How is language related to reasoning and abstraction? In what way can rationality be related to computation? In what ways are brains similar to computers, in what ways are the different? Are our brains mere data handlers like computers, or is something different going on? What is happening at a first hand experiential level when you reason? How involved is feeling/emotion? What are the factors that influence your reasoning? How can two people arrive at different conclusions with the same evidence? Is reason applied before or after making your judgement? What is the process that allows you to begin from a few assumptions to arrive at a conclusion? Are there different types of logical systems? Is it possible for it to be proven decisively that rationality has its limitation? ie what does logic have to say about its own limitations?

Edited September 7, 2016 by Mat Pav

[khalifa]

@Mat Pav

How does reasoning function?

I honestly can't really answer most of those questions i may try to speculate some answers but even so i can't even come close to explaining to why they exist as they just do, as simple as as it only exists as a miracle is quite mind boggling itself.
 

 

 

 

Are there different types of logical systems? Is it possible for it to be proven decisively that rationality has its limitation? ie what does logic have to say about its own limitations? What are the factors that influence your reasoning?

 

Defiantly yes lots of different software programmed ways of delivering data from various both machine and biological form, RNA/DNA to different code set types.

Logic is pretty much always limited to it's software/hardware that it's given.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetware_computer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_computing

Pretty deep stuff

Consciousness being split is quite strange but it's possible just as a cpu controls 2 different a.i ( Then again this is all theory, the nothing source that is all of us is just as abstract as a theory)

 

 

 

[Pav]

@khalifa It's some very fascinating stuff. Each one of Leo's questions goes very deep. I have found that it can taking years of study before being able to comprehend how vast a question is. 

If this is a topic that interests you I could send you a couple of lectures on neuroscience and reason?

[khalifa]

@Mat Pav go ahead bro link away anything, i love watching scientific stuff, I've been binging on it on for years, i have a never fulfilled thirst for knowledge which is quite neurotic lol

 

forgot to link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computing

Edited September 7, 2016 by khalifa

[Natura Sonoris]

My add on on Leo questions ( Btw these are worthless to answer by using logic or reason or any mental activity, you need to meditate for some longer periods of time, like 1,2 hours per day, do the self-inquiry and practice mindfulness/awareness while doing absolutely nothing) :

1. How that meaning creates reality of meaning in first place

This is kinda hard to explain to someone who did not meditate, but if you meditated a lot you would get a very good taste of awareness over thoughts. The biggest insight you can get from it is the following: We tend to experience reality by making a conceptual image of reality that we are surrounded by objects and we observe them. We experience external objects as phenomena ( wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenon ) but interesting thing is we fail to recognize that our own mind is the just very same phenomena we observe as any external object. If you meditate for 30 mins, you can get start to get to state where this really becomes where clear but from awareness perspective. After next 30mins to 1 hours, if you mind starts to break (there are mental purges that can occur in this sections of meditation) your mind become so stilled and you perceive it as any external thing.

Now as Leo mentioned, we have three levels how we ''think'' we observe reality. We have numinal world, what is very real thing;2nd is the phenomena that we can actually experience and it covers the numinal world and 3rd are concepts, labels and ideas of reality that repsent a vivid image of phenomena but it is never the actual phenomena. For example. when you imagine a elephant, you must recognize that vivid image that you think is inside your head is not the actual elephant. This is perfectly demonstrated with Leo's example with this image : 

Now the interesting thing what i have noticed while i was meditating for 1,2 hours (cant really remember) and used audio binaural beat program when i went to sleep to half meditate and help me relax, i actually was in very insightful state where i saw that thoughts and whole constructs that are following the thoughts (like visual and audio sensations and so on) are like noisy representations of reality. Imagine that your mind is old rusty movie projector that has very distorted image and it skips all the time.. that is your mind al the time but you are not aware of it but it is very alive and vivid thing when you close your eyes and calm your mind. And now for the final point :

Why the so called focus of awareness follows this phenomena of thoughts and mind (or it looks like it does) and why it gets lost inside so easily because i said it, your mind is not the real representation of reality. Second, how on earth it creates meaning ? Because we take our minds as very meaningful things. But the trick here is that we can not answet this question with any meanings but yet to observe mind as just any phenomena seems very odd and i wonder why in first ''nature'' set it that way. I hope you get my point

I will post more, it is really late at night.

 

[Pav]

@khalifa Nothing neurotic about being interested in the world, it's an inherently fascinating place! There's a lot of value in abstract knowledge, so long as you recognise it as the map and not the territory itself. 

I'll upload them somewhere and message it to you when I get home.