Original Concepts?

I would like somebody to verbalize a completely original concept which has arisen at any point in mankind's history. That is of course, if you believe that such a thing is possible.

If on the other hand, you believe that all things are merely refinements and recombinations of established concepts... say why that is.

Go. =]

 

Very interesting topic. I am inclined to say there is no such thing and that everything is a refinement of a previously existing concept. Our mental abilities and thus our imagination are very limited. I think this is exactly the reason why we can't make up a monster with completely genuine properties for example. Our mind stores everything we've seen and experienced in the subconscious (meaning you might not remember it but you'll recognise it when you see/experience it again) and never forgets them but rather reuses them, in our dreams for example. So even if you have a "great idea" even that isn't genuine but merely a remake or a combination of some things you've seen before.

Well that's my take on it, someone involved in studying the human mind and/or philosophy could elaborate a bit more on this I guess.

 

The thread like an attempt to prove someone wrong but anyways. While i believe most ideas are a variation of an earlier idea every now and then someone asks "what if this?" or "why is that?" and when they or someone else can finally answer the question they sometimes can come up with a brand new idea that no one one has thought of before.

 

Well I suppose you could call the thread an attempt to prove someone wrong, but it's more just to make a point - nothing personal, and I hope nobody feels it has a ridiculing vibe or anysuch thing. Mainly, it was just created because I wanted to discuss the topic, and didn't want to derail a thread which wasn't intended for that discussion any longer...

 

Government which arose due to an excess of food which allowed people to specialize in different things rather than just make/kill food for their own survival.

 

think about it, our imagination is limited thus we cannot create images out of thin air, thus we only think or imagine things by what we saw, or experienced and combine those things to create the things you wish to imagine.... heres my point........

if aliens was claimed to be non-existent, then why do people have images of them in their head? thus if we can imagine things that we only foresaw, then is it that they saw life forms that aren't existent on this planet???

in short........... THE ZERG RACE EXISTS!!!

and possibly......... the protoss too.........

OMG!
MAN THE SEIGE TANKS!
DEPLOY THOSE SPIDER MINES!
ARM THE SILOS!
CHARGE THE YAMATO GUNS!
AND SOMEBODY CALL RAYNOR!!!

 

nice theorie ursa owerup:

 

I've heard theory which states that our memory holds both sides of the timeline, we just can't recall future events. Following, seers would be the ones who 'remember future', maybe their behind starcraft?

Though I prefer one that says that if we belive strong enough anything can happen. It's just hella tough to belive yourself money

 

governments are clearly just a progression of the family system

and it's not that hard to see where alien ideas come from... we know about ppl, we know about stars... why not have ppl in the stars... matterofact, why not bugs out in the stars too?

 

Domestication. It's not an extension of anything really.

However, it's a weak answer, and the answer is 'man imitates nature' and 'history repeats itself absolutely'


EDIT: Oh, and explosives.

 

domestication is just an extension of ownership... person owns their body, they wish to own other bodies too

explosives are a progression from fire

 

No, you can own wild things. Domestication is not the ownership of something, but the taming and the raising.

 

I think it's pretty clear that ppl own their dogs, horses, cattle, etc... In fact taking another persons domesticated animal is certainly considered theft.

 

Yes, but there's a difference between ownership and domestication.

 

To answer the original question, unless you were one of the first Early-Human's you have successfully rehashed a concept and refined it to an extent that people feel it is shown in different ways. Concepts like all things come from an evolutionary line. The better concepts survive, others are properly discarded, although they still remain. The difference in all forms of the concept reveal how relative that concept is on a grand scale to the human brain. We could say in effect that we could equally compare the tale of the Odyssey to that of Lord of Rings as they are both of equally parallel concepts (the hero's journey), but what makes them equally important is that they are important to their time periods as a focal point of the concept as people generally accepted them as rather strong stories.

Point is all concepts are derived from a group of similar concepts that when proposed in a strong or favorable light come out as a new story. Imagination allows for an infinite amount of retelling of these concepts through different forms of story throughout generations as new scenarios reveal another infinite level of storytelling.

 

ahh, I see where you're coming from - but I'm saying the desire for domesticated animals comes from the concept of ownership combined with the concept of animals

 

Desire, there is no original desire, it's an instinct. Not really valid.

 

sure there is, the desire to keep living

 

Original is something new someone thought up in response to outside stimuli. The desire to live has always been with us.

 

original is something new? huh?

original just means first. that can mean infinitely first, there's no cutoff point