BYBS: Thoughtspace

Stop for a moment and think.

Take a piece of paper and draw a triangle on it. Think about it for a sec – are the sides of equal length, does it form a right angle, etc.

Now crumple up, shred, etc. the paper.

Does the triangle still exist?

My answer is "yes." You can draw it again, you can describe it to another person – the notion of a triangle exists in my mind after destroying any artifact of its existence.

Now consider this: at some point you or I first became aware of this concept. What came before that?

In other words, you did not always know what a triangle was, so did it exist before that? Well yes, other people knew about it they could teach each other, etc. so it existed long before you or I knew about it.

Now consider this: did it exist before the first human being?

Regardless of your beliefs, there is some point of time before human beings existed. There could be no people teaching each other about triangles because there were no people. Did triangles exist?

My answer is yes. The notion of a closed polygon in 2D space with 3 segments does not need anyone thinking about it to exist – it is a concept.

I always thought that this was a cool idea – that there is a whole universe that touches ours. It has no concept of time in that all ideas that have ever been thought or ever will be thought exist there at the same time. There is no space in that it is everywhere and nowhere.

The only really analogous property is being aware of some concept or thought. You can tell someone about triangles or what have you that they didn't know about before. They can then go to that "place".

An idea like this of course requires a cool name. So I give you readers Thoughtspace.