Triangles, Getting Owned by GodLogic, and Douglas Adams’ Puddle: 1.778795m Subscriber QnA
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– TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – 1,778,795 Q&A
0:24 – How Are You?
5:12 – If You Could Choose Your Date of Birth, When Would It Be?
9:36 – Survival Tips From Bear Grylls?
10:21 – How Do You Remember so Much Stuff?
15:24 – What is Your Dream Podcast?
17:01 – Doesn’t Consciousness Just… Emerge?
29:26 – If You Clean a Vaccum, Are You a Vaccum Cleaner?
35:41 – Is Water Wet?
37:26 – How Many Holes Are In a Straw?
40:55 – Is a Hot Dog a Sandwich?
42:28 – Do You Edit Everything By Yourself?
43:23 – What Would It Be Like to Observe a Contradiction?
43:33 – Which Philosophical Concepts are Often Misunderstood?
50:29 – When I Changed My Mind Mid-Debate
01:01:49 – Would You Tour?
– CONNECT
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The Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168
– CONTACT
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——————————————
@sordidknifeparty
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
No Alex, we're saying imagine that your birth was done from frozen sperm and egg. We are now asking you, on what date do you want the frozen sperm and egg that will eventually become you to be implanted?
@Fruitfall-04
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
That would be so awesome if granting points became more normalized and everyone was encouraged to be honest during debates/discussions!
Keep being honest; I think it’s a great quality you have. I love how fairly you treat ideas that you don’t agree with.
@Jack-2-n3g
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
You can see the triangle image stored in your computer storage, I can't see a triangle stored in my brain at all. Comparing consciousness to internet doesn't work at all, that's like comparing math to photons. Photons still have location, just like internet information. Consciousness doesn't have a physical location.
@CrazyBeardedGamer
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Yes, but what the fuck does that have to do with anything interesting? Thank god im not an emergent nihilist.
@biff11010
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
DRY STEAM!!! Is a thing so no water is not wet.
@althealligator1467
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
19:53 I think the way to make sense of "where the triangle is" is something like this:
Take a situation wherein there are three distinct tirangles: the first is a triangle displayed on a physical screen, the second is the triangle you see when looking at the screen, and the third is the triangle you imagine when trying to recall what the one on the screen looked like. Your first thought here might be "how are the first and second triangles any different?" and I think this is the root of the confusion.
Your latest video as of writing this is fittingly an interview about illusionism, and I think the illusion here is that your mind tells itself that the first and second triangles are the same, when in reality I think the second one that you directly perceive is merely an image of the first physical triangle, information about it. I mean if your brain is the seat of the mind, and the first triangle exists on the screen, how can it simultaneously exist in your mind?
What's happening when you look at the first triangle is a chain reaction, namely light being emitted by the screen, which then activates the different types of cone cells on your retina, which then send patterns of electrical signals through your optic nerve, and then whatever the hell happens in the brain which is by far the most complex part; the first triangle never left the screen, it's just that information about the triangle was gathered by your sensory appartuses (your eyes) in the form of light and converted into some form of code which was then somehow interpreted by the different regions of your brain, forming the second triangle which is what you're actually perceiving when looking at the screen.
Because you have no direct access to the first triangle and the second is quite literally all you have, and it is evolutionarily in your best interest to behave as though all you do have direct access to (information about the outside world) is the outside world itself in order to efficiently navigate it. So you're under the impression that the first and second triangles are the same and that you are somehow directly perceiving the outside world — but you're not.
In fact, the third triangle, the one you imagine when trying to recall what the first looked like, is essentially analogous to the second triangle since both are some form of code representing sensory information. Actually, your entire consciousness is probably some absurdly complex databank of encoded sensory information which is repurposed in various ways in order to generate new combinations.
The kicker is that since you can feel that the second and third triangles are analogous in that it feels similar to perceive either of them (both feel like your sense of vision), but you believe that the first and second are analogous in that they are a supposedly physical triangle which clearly exists on the physical screen, then it feels like the third triangle must also exist somewhere. But it doesn't exist anywhere, because it's not really a triangle, and neither was the second.
The third triangle is just code. And you are just code, under the impression that you aren't. But everything you perceive, ever have, and ever will is just code. Probably. Maybe.
(I'm obviously not claiming that this is true, I'm just trying to make a case for it)
@christopotgieter4197
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
I think the main issue with Alex and people like Godlogic or Wes Huff is the inevitable ego factor. They could have a really interesting, substantive conversation without turning it into a contest of trying to out-debate or "own" each other.
Both worldviews stand up to serious scrutiny in their own right, and it would be far more insightful for the middle ground.
There are three sides to every story: my side, your side, and the truth.
@indyroodhorst1035
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
alex! i actually found your content because of ''shut up im talking''! i thought the episode was so interesting i listened to it twice, and since then ive been here!
@TakumiFH6
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Whats the philosophy of listening to this video in my pocket ar work so I in fact never see the triangle but I also believe its on screen
@steel_river
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
If the marksmen did execute you an infinite times, the missing scenario would occur. Eventually.
@jamano4017
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
News seems to function on the same attention economy as other competitive media and thus has a bias toward content that elicits emotional reactions, especially anger. That leads to exaggeration, hyperbole and misinformation being prevalent in all news media. We've seen this with stories like hantavirus being presented as the new COVID, and localised, limited supply disruptions being frequently amplified into nationwide shortages through publicity. Exposing yourself to more news may help to mitigate political bias, but does it hide or compound our exposure to reporting bias? In conversation, I've been reducing this criticism to the phrase, "the cure for lies is more lies." Are you worried that the concept of Ground News helps to traffic the harm created by news?
@RechargePsych
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
14:50 The prophecy has been fulfilled.
@loreansimon4755
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Godlogic responded to your comment that you left for him. I really hope to see u and Avery in a discussion.
@oliverwallace2856
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
I vaguely remember something about there being a field of mathematics called topography, which deals with the nature of shapes and forms, and that in this framework there is only one ‘hole’ in a straw, a donut, and a teacup.
@LowellMorgan
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Alex, it’s not a triangle, it’s just the idea of a triangle.
@Gamerwithtaste
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Alex, the triangle exists within the set of thought-objects.
Does morality exist? Surely… it does? How could it not? There's Utilitarianism, Social Contract Theory… but, I guess, they exist within thought exclusively.
Do fictional characters like Bat Man exist? They don't exist as real people, but surely they exist as fictional characters. We have comics written about them, movies portraying them.
Do triangles exist? 🔺️ Surely, at the very least, they exist as a concept within the class of thought-objects.
@Gamerwithtaste
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Can't believe my Christian boy Alex got the water question wrong. He said all the right things… then chose to be wrong.
@LeoB-c7k
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Constants, by definition are a single value. If they could be different, they'd be variables. It's a definitional issue. 🙂
@mentallydiane
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
14:22 nothing happened Alex dw we won't mention it
@sexy4ssninja
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
LMAO ALEX SAID 6-7
@The_Divine_Camedy
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Ice is wet
@The_Divine_Camedy
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Ai doesn't need a screen to see this video, so this exists absent a screen, just like the triangle
@selection2338
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
so what your saying is for a youtube video to exist you need a conscious observer + objective reality?
@joshuawoolridge8378
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
I don't see the computer analogy as bad, if you unplug the screen the computer is still "displaying a triangle" but is unseen, just as it is in the mind. It seems weird to completely understand that computers use 0's and 1's to accomplish this while the brain uses a more analog, neuron driven process to do something similar.
@ALoreMiles
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Hey Alex! Got your triangle answer. It is in the abstract platonic space that hosts everything. This space is also where minds are. Also Slaanesh amd the gang.
Also, concerning straws and holes, topology has a word to say about that. Straws are donuts.
Love the content, amazing job man!
@Mentesestoicas_
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
I know this is not his field of interest, and he’s also not very comfortable talking about it, but I would absolutely love to hear his views on current relationship issues in the world, feminism, sexism, social justice, laws, gender dynamics, etc. That would be so freaking interesting, because I’m sure he would bring some very valuable insights to the conversation.
@mahewson
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Can’t agree more on the “Is water wet?” argument you make. It’s like “Is dust dusty?” Well no. It is dust, and thus, by virtue of its presence, makes things dusty. However, unlike water, dust is not a homogeneous group of molecules; it’s a mix of many different things that we call dust only because of what it does. I’m not sure where that takes us, but I suddenly want to spend a bunch of time studying dust.
@flavertex658
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Having spent a fair bit of time writing about and trying to understand consciousness, I have come to the conclusion that it's probably not worth the effort. It's the equivalent of becoming overly fixated on the movie screen while a film is playing, trying to figure out how the screen and/or the projector work. Like, yeah that can be fun, but you're also missing the movie. Godspeed to the intrepid souls willing to drill down, but I've decided I have higher priorities, haha.
@dannymasters5461
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
@CosmicSkeptic the triangle in your mind exists in the same place your memories of your childhood do. It exists in the past. That'll be 50$.
@genesis650
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Triangle 🔺️
@GreySquaredBishop
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Happy birthday I guess!
@fixxbuilder2409
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
49:53 but maybe in These other Kinds of Universes a different Kind of selfreplicating evolving thing would observe and would ask itself the same thing, so the puddle analogy still works.
@fixxbuilder2409
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
27:26 the screen you are searching for here is the Area of your Brain that Processes optical Information isn’t it?
@Snowfall126
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
5:40 Happy early birthday!
@lokibdsh
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
I can’t see a triangle in my head. Should I be concerned? 😂
@glenjennett
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
The triangle doesn't exist, it's all in your mind.
@grindsession24
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
Triangles don't exist because the use of "exist" is loaded. Any knowledge we have begins and ends with our experiences.
@gilbertlujan1220
July 20, 2026 at 5:36 am
If there isn’t a hole , maybe there wouldn’t be a pole 😲
Comments are closed.