Say something original

Yes, that's what I was gonna say... (an inauspicious beginning to a thread on originality.) My example was going to be "The Wide Sargasso Sea", which took the basic plot, characters, and more from "Jane Eyre" and made a very different, original story.

There is nothing new under the sun, conservation of matter, the building blocks are the same over and over, but how they are joined can be original. I think it's just a matter of where the line is drawn.

Dunno -- I think the relativity example is a good one, if only because it calls attention to scientific endeavors. The first person to look at something under a microscope was surely privy to some original ideas, if only because they were seeing something that no one else had.

But even then, there was a jump forward in thinking, but based on existing principles -- the average scientist has say 1% originality built on 99% existing principles, while Einsten (and Newton, and Gallileo, and...) had a higher percentage but not 100%. They still took what was known, what others established, and went with it.

And ultimately, I s'pose, it's immaterial to the person doing the thing. Dr. J, I'm sure, didn't think to himself, "This wraparound is derivative of a move by Elgin Baylor." He put the ball in the hole and left the spectators to make their comparisons -- at least in the moment of doing it.

Ecclesiastes
Reflections of a Royal Philosopher


1 The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

3 What do people gain from all the toil
at which they toil under the sun?

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun goes down,
and hurries to the place where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south,
and goes around to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.

7 All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they continue to flow.

8 All things are wearisome;
more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
or the ear filled with hearing.

9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
"See, this is new"?
It has already been,
in the ages before us.

11 The people of long ago are not remembered,
nor will there be any remembrance
of people yet to come
by those who come after them.


http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/BIBLE/ECC/ECC1.HTM


Edited to remove footnote citations.

Nonetheless, there was a time during which there were no trains, and a time during which there are trains. Surely something original must have happened somewhere along the line, or trains would originate nowhere and not exist. (The observations of the wise teacher notwithstanding; thinking again on the human scale.)

Re: Say something original

Every time i misspeak, make a typo, or think something stupid, all of which happens a lot. It's easy to be original. Being original and correct is the hard part -- and this happens to me very rarely. Sozobe's 1% of all time may be a good average, but I'm more on the boring, simple-minded side myself.


If it's information, it's new and original, and not repeated and repackaged, by definition. (But of course it isn't necessarily correct, see above) For a rigorous treatment, Google "Claude Shannon", "A mathematical theory of communication".

What about the paradox between Pamenides and Hereclitus.

parmenides & hericlitus
Suppose Hericlitus' theory is true... you can not stand in the same river twice. Also suppose Parmenides theory is true... nothing changes because change is impossible, because it is illogical. The first because, through casual observation, we can visibly detect change, the mind detects change, our scientific investigative devices detect change. The second, if nothing changes into something, it must go through a process of changing from nothing into something. During the process of changing from nothing into something... it is neither nothing nor something... therefor... logically... change is impossible. That is the paradox... on one hand we observe change... and on the other change is impossible. I think in order to understand original thought, we may have to resolve this delemna. Or, is it a delemna? Maybe it is just our vantage point in space-time (if there is such a thing) that appears to cause the paradox. Regardless, I think the illusion of change (hence the illusion of original thought) is so absolute... it doesn't matter.

Perhaps originality is just a concept of the observer, as in: The more you are misunderstood, the more likely you will be perceived as an original.

Is this like when an "artist" creates a total pile of junk, which is misunderstood as junk, and instead perceived to be an original artwork?

Something like that.

my claws and teeth are red with the frsh blood of prey
The animal remains at my feet as I sated in my hunger for blood
look at my works and marvel
Life is good as a badger

Life is hard
But life is hardest
When you're dumb
In your head
Is an empty
Vac-u-um...

my skull crushes, implodes from the victorious vacuum
She claims another skull. crunching like an egg when all the goo is sucked out when you can make
piesanki

would that hurt? I think not
why not?
dont ask me cuz my head just imploded.

ok heres another idea. Get some luciferase protein like Renilla (some kinda sea pansy)its ananoflour protein so you can activate it in water by adding salt..
Now wait it gets better.
You pour the nanoflour protein and salt into your bedroom toilet. If your like me and you have to pee in the middle of the night, there is something about the challenge of hitting the bowl dead on in the dark. this is sometimes not possible cause the seat may be down or you just miss. In which case you are dead tired , trying to mop up and clean the floor without waking up the lady. so you mix a batch of the Renilla and walla. phosphorescent toilet water. even Stevie Wonder could hit the potty every time

Glowing toilet water... I can be the first in the neighborhood to have it I wonder where I can get the ingredients. If I flush this stuff, and it flows through the septic into the leaching field, will the grass glow also?

Anyway, these statements seem pretty unique to me. Does anyone care to argue that originality has been demonstrated here?

If these are examples of originality, how often do they arise (for individuals, as well as cultures) in relation to repeated information?

Inquiry ..... what percentage of expelled liquid constitutes a 'hit'

(I have Parkinsons)

well gelis ' I would probably recc that we sit. I can make the water glow by a little Mr Tidy bowl emitter so youll be able to see the bowl in the dark/. This is gonna be big.

Thx farmerman but I'll have to pass on the glow bowl ... I grew up in the sixties and don't know if I could keep it together .... gotta have flashbacks on a flourescent potty .... esp with the rotating mirror ball hung above the thing.