GameBanshee Forums

[QUOTE=C Elegans]@Vicsun & Ekental: What is IB? Informationsbehandling?
EDIT: I think I found it, is it this?
http://www.norreg.dk/ib/ibnorregframe.htm[/QUOTE]
The IB is the International Baccalaureate. The most hellish pre-university program you can ever take. Nørreg is one school in Denmark offering the IB - it was the one I would have gone to had I not gotten a scholarship to Copenhagen International School.
The idea behind the IB is that you have to come out a balanced student. What that means is you have to take a language on a literature level, one on a second-language level, a natural science, a social science, mathematics and optionally some sort of art (if art is not your inclination you take a second subjects in one of the above areas). Additionally, by the end of the second year you must have written a 4000 word Extended Essay in one of your subjects, accumulated 150 hours of CAS (creativy/action/service - gathered through extracurricular activities), and have written an essay as well as have done an oral presentatoin in Theory of Knowledge (which is supposedly a course linking all your subjects and teaching you critical thinking).
In general, IB students develop a feeling of bitterness (really, a love/hate relationship of a sort) towards to program. I, for one, was not too fond of it at the time I was pulling two all-nighters per week on average for a 1-2 month period while having my social life constrained one night per week. However, it does give me enough of a reason to act snobbishly around those taking 'A' Levels or (*gasp!*) wasting their time with the public education system
The first two or so years in college are supposedly a breeze after the IB; but oh at what cost!

TOK? It drove me bloody nuts. I will take CAS over it any day of the week/month/year.

sorry to derail the thread further...

[QUOTE=CM]TOK? It drove me bloody nuts. I will take CAS over it any day of the week/month/year.[/QUOTE]
You can't really compare the two
Personally, I've no problem with either. I've already accumulated 200+ hours of CAS over my first year of IB and I'll probably have 100 more this year in between Model United Nations and school plays.
ToK I always found interesting and not very challenging. It was the extended essay that made the IB horrible for me. That and german B. And english A.

I hated TOK it was boring as hell. That and bio. I had to take a science and didnt want to take math HL or Psych HL. So i decided hey Bio HL. Man was I stupid. That is one f-ed up subject. It drove me mad. My EE was easy compared to my bio exams.

I had Econ H, English A H and Bio H. Psych S, Math Methods S and French B S.

@IBrs
Yes... IB's website is http://www.ibo.org
I dunno bout most hellish pre-college program but its supposed to be yeah. I'm finding many parts of it to be excruciatingly like torture
Specially since you have all these xtra things to do for your diploma... and now the college applications are comming up and gah angst, insommnia etc.

Back to knowledge
Tying this into existance... would "I think therefore I am" be true proof of existance? Because even though you think does that neccessarily mean you have to exist? Or knowledge is the form in which something exists? If I were to die and everyone forgot about me then wouldn't I cease to exist?

@DragonWench
You mention that the fading of stars are part of history... but history is almost all interpreation, as the only true history is current history no? As soon as something happens, there are a myriad of different interpretations for how it happened etc.

Finally... some people mention that too much knowledge is a bad thing... Granted there are ways to misuse it but whats the harm in knowing? [as "they" say] XD

Is 'I think therefore I am' an adequate proof of existence?

No. Although 'I think' proves that 'I am', it does not prove:
-That 'I' have a body.
-That 'I' is anything more than the causation behind a thought.
-That 'I' is capable of different thoughts.
-That 'I' is a unified singularity and not an intelligent network (for example) mistaking itself for a unified singular.
-That 'I' has ever existed before, or that 'I' will exist a split-second later.

Basically 'I think' proves that 'at this precise moment something causes a thought', which is a bit of a useless tautology.

....unless you believe that thoughts can spontaneously come into existence - in which case it doesn't even prove that

Ummm... why do you need anymore than I am? Why wouldn't the ability to think mean you exist. A single thought is still proof of existence at one point in time. Continual thought means continual existence then right? Existence doesn't even have to be corporeal because that cannot be proven. So this is the best you can do...

[QUOTE=Ekental]Ummm... why do you need anymore than I am? Why wouldn't the ability to think mean you exist. A single thought is still proof of existence at one point in time. Continual thought means continual existence then right? Existence doesn't even have to be corporeal because that cannot be proven. So this is the best you can do...[/QUOTE]
Continual thought would mean cntinual existence yes, but continul thought is an oxymoron. The only way you can verify that you have ever thought in the past is by thinking at this moment (exercising memory, recollecting). Therefore 'I think' could equally prove that you have only just sprung into existence with some illusory memories, as that you have existed before. If engaged in radical doubt ala Descartes, the former conclusion is adopted as it makes less appeal to our unproven common sense.

But also question what 'I' is:
Nothing in the act of thinking itself proves that 'I' (me, myself) is anything like what I assume it to be. As you say, it need not be corporeal - so why need it be personable? It could be a non-physical 'thought-generator' with no human characteristics whatsoever, if we're willing to go down this road.

Fine... then as long as you think moment to moment you still exist right? Even if you recreate yourself every time you think.
As for the "thought-generator" idea... I think this is a fairly common idea of existence is it not?