Theories on everything

Young_pattyIs culture something created by people or something imposed on people?

Do genres create themselves through their defined frames? Was Harry Potter actually a creative piece of fiction or the predicted product of a genre?

Do dogs know they're dogs?

Are our identities actually a product of ourselves?

Do crayfish have feelings?

What makes someone a skier? or a writer? or a philosopher?

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

AlexHallsEyebrowI think culture is created by the people

The genre one is very interesting and I have no answer for it.

I think the dog one can go for any species on earth, how do we know we’re humans, but it’s hard to say because dogs aren’t educated therefore they don’t know what a dog or a or a tree really is, they may know it as something but it’s not in the way we call a tree a tree. And it can go for anything it might just not be in the way we have labeled it as.

I think identities are both created by ourselves, I identify as a skier, guitarist, I think I’m funny etc. but people also perceive you differently, someone may believe your something when your not…. This doesn’t really pertain to the question but.

Do crayfish have a nervous system, if so they’d have feelings in terms of physical feelings, emotions idk

I think time makes someone something, if you have studied for years written books etc I think you can label your what you have studied. So I think time allows you to label yourself as certain things.

ShingangbangWhat if inside every atom was another universe

BiffbarfI heard on some podcast that if we came from a singularity during the big bang, that every single black hole could be the singularity to another universe, meaning the universe could be reproducing similar to how plants and animals combine to reproduce. I'm sure I butchered it but it honestly blew my mind a bit

Young_pattyDo you wear arsenic, jiberish or any other park specific brands because as a member of the culture you feel obligated?

take some time to percolate on the genre one.

Do you think dogs understand what the concept of a “dog” is? Through time and evolution aren’t they well used to the role of a “dog”?

What about the factors that form your identity like environment, pop culture, music, community, ect? Where does your identity exist between yourself and those factors?

So teaching a crayfish to love is a maybe?

But you ski, write posts on here often, and are practicing philosophy right now. Doesn’t that maker you a writer, skier, and philosopher?

Young_pattyDo you wear arsenic, jiberish or any other park specific brands because as a member of the culture you feel obligated?

take some time to percolate on the genre one.

Do you think dogs understand what the concept of a “dog” is? Through time and evolution aren’t they well used to the role of a “dog”?

What about the factors that form your identity like environment, pop culture, music, community, ect? Where does your identity exist between yourself and those factors?

So teaching a crayfish to love is a maybe?

But you ski, write posts on here often, and are practicing philosophy right now. Doesn’t that maker you a writer, skier, and philosopher?

Young_pattyDo you wear arsenic, jiberish or any other park specific brands because as a member of the culture you feel obligated?

AlexHallsEyebrowI do wear a few park specific brands but I overall dress in XXL because that’s “the norm” in park skiing, I don’t feel obligated but I do it because that’s the style I like.

I do believe dogs do know the “role” of a dog but they don’t necessarily know they are a dog in our terms, we think of a dog as a companion that gives us affection, does stufff with us etc, but in the technical terms they don’t know they are a dog, they know what we want out of them, but that’s just them as a being. They don’t label themselves as a dog because dogs haven’t been educated.

For identity and pop culture, everyone’s identity is based around pop culture, obviously you can label yourself as funny, caring, smart etc. but I’m still a bit confused on this question.

I’m down to make crayfish feel love

Answered this question earlier but goddamn that genuinely blew my mind, but I think people who label themselves as a philosopher or writer, have done those things for a prolonged period of time, and have been educated or have alot of knowledge in that “field of work”

BradFiAusNzCoCaI’ve thought about this a lot in regards to society. I’ve come to the conclusion that I, personally, wear stuff to symbolize I am a part of the community and it is an interest of mine. I wear it as an indicator of this in the hopes of meeting other likeminded people.

Young_pattyWould you wear the same clothing if you were a racer? Or an all mountain skier?
Surely the culture you feel drawn to shapes you to an extent. If your personal values drew you to park skiing and then you dress like a park skier are you still conforming to “their” standards? As a new park skier did you think you needed to do to certain things to be classified as a member of the community?

BradFiAusNzCoCaI am an all mountain skier and a park skier. I don’t dress 100% like a park skier. If I were a racer, it would depend. Many racers, particularly young, ski park too.

I don’t allow park skiing to define me but I do incorporate it to symbolize to others, as stated.

But yeah, I get your questions are theoretical to go down the wormhole.

Young_pattyYou keep saying time and experience give someone the authority to classify themselves as something. There’s plenty of writers who have written for years and suck, there’s philosophers who have poured their personal life experience into their theory, and still no one listens to them.

you can be a “casual writer” or a “bad skier” but aren’t you still a writer or a skier?
You seem to define members of these fields through the top crust of them.

“I think, therefore I am” is one of the most famous pieces of philosophy to survive time. It is the first step to demonstrating the ability to learn or do something.

my question is do YOU define your identity or do you let others define what you are and are not?


Would you wear the same clothing if you were a racer? Or an all mountain skier?
Surely the culture you feel drawn to shapes you to an extent. If your personal values drew you to park skiing and then you dress like a park skier are you still conforming to “their” standards? As a new park skier did you think you needed to do to certain things to be classified as a member of the community?

Young_pattyI feel that. And hehe yeah its fun to dig deep on some stuff, I took a class last year that studied theory framed alongside literature, society and culture which was super fun. I wrote a paper about what we're talking about right now last semester using the French Structuralism/British Marxism binary of "is culture imposed on society or created by society?".

The conclusion I came to was that our own personal values and the values of the communities/cultures we're apart of both shape our identity, but our "true" identity exists in a space between those two forces. Like how two magnets can't fully touch, the two sets of values can both influence us a lot but we need both to create the space in the middle where our true identity can exist. I used a lot of colonialism history in my research since many native peoples have had to create new identities made up of their local values and the values of their controlling country forces on them.


But yeah TLDR:// Theory is a wormhole but I love talking about it lol, your guys responses in this thread have been fun!

BradFiAusNzCoCaIt is a fun topic. I took a philosophy class yearsssss ago and it was kinda fun to watch people get huffy and puffy and irritated. I was always thinking “don’t you GET it?! There is no end. Stop trying to give a satisfactory answer!” Haha

It’s really challenging to many people because it confronts ideas that they’ve taken as fact. When we realize we’re more easily influenced than we think and we’re essentially running on software programming - it challenges one’s identity to the core. I like all these crazy theories and ideas. I especially like the theories of alternate universes and time interweaving. I do believe that there are multiple universes running adjacent to each other at the same time. I, also, like the idea that time isn’t linear and that ghosts are viewed through a hole in time and we’re viewing them while they’re alive, unbeknownst to them.

BiffbarfI heard on some podcast that if we came from a singularity during the big bang, that every single black hole could be the singularity to another universe, meaning the universe could be reproducing similar to how plants and animals combine to reproduce. I'm sure I butchered it but it honestly blew my mind a bit