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Nagel's Bat

Prove that man wrong!
  (+3, -6)
(+3, -6)
  [vote for,
against]

I wanna know what it's like to be a bat. I wanna know bad. But, every time I read up on it, I always get ol' Nagel telling me that I'll never know. Ever. I'll only know what its like to be me... or, at the very least, what it's like to be me trying to be like a bat. Well, I wanna prove him wrong.

It'll take...

Audible sound frequencies up to 100 kHz, translated into actual sound ranges via computer. Vocal peripheral to turn my voive into such high frequency sounds. $50,000

Lots of hair and wings, and a harness to sleep upside down in my closet. $5,000

One Batmobile. $300,000

Knowing just what it feels like to be a bat: Priceless

daseva, May 26 2005

You should ask this young man! http://sf.indymedia.../uploads/batboy.gif
Baked I believe, sir! [gnomethang, May 26 2005]

...or this older man. http://www.noosfere...ntasy%20library.jpg
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 27 2005]

Don't ask this guy. http://members.aol....tics/Nagel_Bat.html
[daseva, May 27 2005]

[link]






       you're upside down man!
po, May 26 2005
  

       Someone's on a rampage...
justaguy, May 26 2005
  

       What was god thinking when "I'm all out of fantasies"?
reensure, May 26 2005
  

       And a diet of insects...or blood.
normzone, May 27 2005
  

       I’d MFD this if I knew what it meant.
ldischler, May 27 2005
  

       Imagine inverted spectra. It is not conceivable to be dazzled by black, so you cannot invert one part of your experience like that without altering other parts, for instance the experience of seeing black as white, since then what would be bright to others would not be dazzling. There is a whole network of qualia that fit together into a whole of experience - what it is like to be a particular individual or perhaps member of a species. Bats have sonar as part of their sensory system, and this relates to the rest of their experience just as seeing bright things as dazzling relates to the rest of ours. We also use sonar, but only as an artefact out there in the world. Perhaps someone who is very accustomed to using sonar would be able to relate more to being a bat, just as an often-used object may become virtually part of one's being, but the way that relates to the rest of their life would still differ: for instance, they might recall the experience of learning about sonar first. Blind people also use sonar to an extent, but in a much cruder way than bats or dolphins.
Hence, although there is something it is like to be a bat, we don't have access to it because we are not bats. However, you could always ask a tiny flying dolphin.
nineteenthly, May 27 2005
  

       They're hard to get settled down for an interview...
daseva, May 27 2005
  

       You could change your name to Ash.
bristolz, May 27 2005
  

       If a bat were interviewed, we would not be able to understand it.
nineteenthly, May 27 2005
  

       I van to ...
reensure, May 27 2005
  

       [2-fries]!. That is SOME link!. So who do you think would win?.
gnomethang, May 27 2005
  

       [Pa'va], I accidentally deleted your awesome anno about becoming Batman. I like the idea that, if you want to be a baseball bat, just have people throw baseballs at you. I like that.   

       [gnomethang], you'll just have to wait for it to come out on DVD...
daseva, May 28 2005
  

       //I van to//be a ford.
po, May 28 2005
  

       Be a ford ... be vary a ford.
reensure, May 28 2005
  
      
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