What Can We Trust?

I'll start with something very simple that I think everyone can relate to and understand - our memories are not perfect. We can remember things the wrong way, make up things that didn't actually happen, or completely forget something. It's even been shown that you can place fake memories into a person's head; you can convince a 30-year-old that he was left in the mall by his parents when he was a kid, even though no such incident ever occurred.

This fact is often brought up when people claim to see ghosts or be abducted by aliens, and for good reason. If our memories can be corrupted, or if we cannot be certain that our memories reflect the truth, how can we say that seeing a ghost is proof that they exist? The thing is, people tend to stop there. No one questions whether the man they met in Starbucks last week really existed or not. People just use memory problems as a way of explaining away odd things but never question how it may affect our normal lives.

I've heard that one part of the brain remembers something, while a different part remembers where the knowledge was obtained. So, I may remember that there are 6 gallons of blood in the human body while being unsure of where I got that fact. This can lead to big problems, especially if you're mixing comedy with real life. A comedian may jokingly say that 90% of all marriages end in divorce, and you may believe that you heard the statistic from the news.

Our memory cannot be completely trusted. All of our senses, honestly, because they are not perfect. Who hasn't smelled something that wasn't there or mistaken one thing for another? But if we cannot trust what we see and hear and even feel, what can we trust?

The main question I have for everyone is, how do you find a balance between being skeptical of everything and being flat-out paranoid? Are you only unsure of your senses if you experience something that seems strange? Do you question your senses and your mind all the time, wondering if what are you experiencing is real or an imagination? Do you sit comfortably, believing that since you are not schizophrenic, you do not have to worry about that sort of thing? Or do you worry that you can never truly know whether something is a delusion or not, because only other people can classify you as schizophrenic or delusional, and who's to say that they are not delusions?

I just stick to the facts, like how many videos there have been of objects moving On here own. I know they can be faked but even then there's things like ghost hunters were they don't fake em and whatnot things like that. if the facts say theres a strong possibility neeto! if there video, even better

A gallon of water weighs 8 lbs. Are you positive we have 6 gallons of blood in us?

How about 10 pints!

I somehow believed that being skeptical is just a sophisticated way of saying paranoid.

I believed to a certain extent what the newspaper and TV said about the news, even if that is what the media/government wants us to know.

I believed to a certain extent of what scientist claim and said about science, even if I do not even know science the slightest.

I believe it if one day I smell a food scent and identify it as chicken while 5 other individuals identify it as fish. I would question and doubt myself.

In short, I believed what the majority believes, but to a certain extent, as I will always have room for doubt, since "knowledge" is ever changing with time, there might be some evidence in the future that contradicts what we have all learned up to this date, and I am willing to believe that if there is concrete evidence, and with that, the majority views will change and so will I



In this world, to live a comfortable life, the majority must be pleased. Any attempt to bash the world with claims about your "truth" and their "delusions" will not be taken seriously and a waste of effort. I'd try to seek something with a reward, and live happily, rather then seek the truth.

Even if I doubt something, I would prioritise my comfort life first and cease to cause any trouble, and keep it to myself only. Since IMO, this isnt worth it.

.................... when I read this topic, I can't help but think this is in some way similar to the 'brain in a vat' argument...

as such, my answer to this is just a modification of my answer to that issue.

I'll be skeptical to things I think of strange, or struck awe in me in some way or the other. I know the memory isn't perfect, but I just use as a convenient reference, because actually worrying about it brings me nowhere. Sure, I do jot down important stuff, but meh.

Believe in the clean air that you breathe. The ones that doesn't let you breathe will all kill you. True fact, trust clean air aka clean oxygen even if you can't see it.

and how can we say otherwise?

If i do not trust my memories then the only thing i can rely on are my senses.
By my senses i interact with reality. Analyzing my interactions i understand cause and effect and other information/feelings wich i judge and memorize. This becomes my memories. My life depends on them. That's how my conscious works. But conscious itself is unknown to me. I may loose it if something extreme happens. During it any damage can be done to me and i may die eventually with out being aware of it because pain only works when i'm conscious. If that is so then how can i trust my conscious as well?
Despite everything i trust it.



When you smell - your nose does not mistake. It is you who mistakes defining the smell. The scent itself can be moved and you can loose the grip of it. But the memorie of your smell remains. Other senses work similarly.

As for people being defrauded by false memories - seems to me they can't properly keep a check of themselves and are easily decepted with imagination.

Think i already answered your other questions.

Technically nothing at all can be trusted as we have no proof that our senses are not lying to us for fun & profit.

Practically we can trust things that work logically. As for trusting people...well we never do completely. I'm sure everyone has at least one friend who has otherwise sound opinions but terrible taste (according to you) in music or movies or whatever. So you trust them, except when it comes to those subjects. Of course all people like to put trust into things that they wish were the truth (whether or not it is). Some people do this more than others but we all do this to some extent.

Well as for me I don't trust people, I've been betrayed a lot even with my best childhood-whole life friend so one day I said enough is enough so I will never ever trust people again i see the people i hang out with as comerads and stuff but will only trust them with small things nothin personal or anything. This has made come or take huge leaps in my life and I'm kinda happy 4 it, also I have an awesome memory ;)

Not to single you out, but you just happened to say the perfect thing.

How can anyone be certain that they have a perfect memory? In the past, I had a friend who would swear that things happened a certain way, when she was completely wrong about all the details. If she and I had an interaction with a shared friend, and something funny happened, she'd tell the story later on and include things that didn't happen, sometimes from other events, and leave out things that did happen. I remembered what happened; her memory was wrong, but she believed it was right. But really, who am I to say that my memory wasn't the messed up one?

There's practically no way to prove that your memory is right. The brain does all sorts of nifty things that can really fuck us up. Let's say you're watching a mystery show, and throughout the entire program, you have no clear idea who the criminal is. You have suspicions but are not sure. At the end of the show, when the criminal is revealed, you exclaim, "I knew it all along!" And you believe that. Your brain is taking the split-second after the reveal and interpreting it as if it came a split-second before the reveal. I cannot remember the name for this. (Is that ironic?)

In essence, my point is, if we rely on our memory and senses, or our brains to be simplistic about it, to tell us about the world, and they are imperfect and can screw up, how do we exist knowing that our brains could be fucking up at any given moment? Or that they fucked up at any point in the past? What if you found out that your best friend from when you were six was actually imaginary? Would that shake the foundation of your entire existence?

You can look back at your memories and rethink your thoughts about them, with the info and knowledge that you have at present. If its possible that some of them may have been false or wrong, they can be straightened out if you have the strength in you to look back at them and relive it with open-mindedness.

Its not always either being right or wrong, truth or lie, you have to accept that its more often merely a probability of being either. But sometimes we dont like that, and even if we arent sure of our memories, we just either say theyre true or not especially when we are talking to other people. Its just a part of being human I guess thats odd at times.

If you cant be sure of a memory, then just take it as a "possibility", and make decisions with that in mind.

As for paranoia, I do feel uncomfortable most of the time more often than others, but I do not out of no logical reason whatsoever. Then again, maybe that wont be classified as paranoia...

Shaggy, I think having imaginary friends is something more on psychosis... Maybe a better example can be a memory of being loved by an Ex, then figuring it out later, you were never loved and just used

In essence how can you judge perfectness when you don't even know what it is?


Animals, plants, insects, microbs recept reality as thier abilities allow it.
(Like dogs that see no colours or flies - with hell knows what; or bats, worms, trees, etc.)

You want to say they imperfectly percept reality without human abilities?



We exist just fine without knowing about it.

First: when you say knowing (knowledge) you mean our understanding, hence, our naming of objects, lifeforms, motions, feelings, cause and effects with words and creating statements. But we percept world without words. We percept it with senses and accept it with conscious/intuitively. And that "naturality" is enough for us to be existing and alive in all relations. Everything else is a human factor.

Second: as ashcrimson kindly intimated "having imaginary friends is something more on psychosis". If ya want to confirm in their existence then by all means do it!

Memory is a fickle thing, I have had friends who have said to me "Yeah i remember that one time where we did this and that etc etc." but i do not recall doing any of that of which he said.
I have thought about whether what i am doing in life could be just one long dream, Did i hit my head and could I be in a coma and be doing all thing in said dream? and everything around me is all a lie? Could the life of a walking spirit actually be whats going on in the "real world" and right now what we live in the false reality and we are so blind to see it?
Our minds make us think what we want to believe, If we thought we beat a game and in reality we didnt it doesnt change the fact that, in reality what we want we cant get, so we make it up in our minds and soon it becomes a fact to only us and noone else so it starts to confuse us when we try to think back when it actually happened.

My mind is a sneaky bastard.

I will find myself convinced thigns happened WAY out of proportion than they actually did not 2 days after the occurence. It'll happen like this.

"I got in a fight with that Soboleski kid from school, he called me a fag and I just kept eating my lunch, ignoring him."

And that will turn into, in a matter of days,

"I got into a fight with that sobleski kid from school. He told me i was a fag, so I told him to fuck off, so he punched me in the face, so I kicked him to the ground and started knocking the hell out of him. Then the phys ed teacher pulled me off and he got ISS for starting it."

Seriously, my mind is fucked up.

Descartes used this to prove that God exists.

- Our senses deceive us
- Nothing we can perceive is perfect
- However, we have the idea of perfection
- This idea does not/cannot come from man
- This idea comes from an outside source that _is_ perfect (ie God)

Or something along those lines. So, if our senses deceive us and our memory is imperfect, the only thing we can trust is God.

It would make me happy to drop kick that noisy kid next door.

However, I'm pretty sure it would make quite a number of other people unhappy. They likely won't appreciate any sort of argument about the baby not being real.

So, no. That's just being a sociopath.

I was going for the whole "childhood memory is bullshit" thing, where the memories you have of your childhood can be completely off-base and different from reality (everyone, try asking your parents about things that you remember happening when you were five or six; chances are, it will rock your world!), but yeah, remembering an imaginary friend as a real entity is a bit of a crazy example.

Anyways, I really like what I'm seeing. A psych or philosophy class would be great with you guys. :)