Trocisp

I have a simple question, with a not so simple answer.

At what point does a shelf, become a floor?

At what point does one thing, anything, become another thing? This is applicable in all walks of life, in everything we do.

An example relevant to this forum;
When does a thread veer too far off topic? A discussion about aliens could very easily lead to exobiology, which could lead to exo-geology, the origin of planets, stars, systems and eventually the cosmos itself. This thread could then jump back on topic, go from aliens, to alien technology, to human technology, to human space exploration.

SpiralArchitect

The floor is my biggest shelf/storage area.

Seems simple enough. When it becomes the other thing? Right?

When does a smiley face turn into a frown? When it's upside down.

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Hashishi

FFS, just make sure the bubble's in the centre and you're good to go- no matter how many books you read.



Seriously though, look at it like the electrons around an atom behave or their 'quantum leap'. I think that's where this topic's going... or is it?

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Trocisp

Oddly enough, no.

This was going to be a venture into a social science. Languages, specifically.

I was attempting to make the point of how imprecise and uneasy languages are, and barriers that differentiate within not only the languages, but those which we enforce upon our thoughts.

When you think "planet," you think Earth, Jupiter, maybe pluto, right?

What about Ceres? It's within the Asteroid belt, larger than Pluto. Is it a planet?

Just how 'big' is a planet? where's the differentiation between planetary impacts and 'meteor' impacts?

When's a planet a star? 13 times the mass of Jupiter in order to fuse deuterium, but if the rotational motion is fast enough, there isn't enough mass in the universe to fuse two molecules of deuterium.

My point was really to illustrate the... uselessness of artificially constructed groups of objects in general.

THC Fiend

This reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg joke...

"A table is just a floor that's a little closer to me" or something along those lines. haha

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"Nietzsche is dead."
-God

brevity is... wit

ctwalrus

lol this is when a thread veers too off topic lol

Merry-juana

When it is aflame, Jupiter can become a star if you where to set it aflame, since Jupiter is made out of gas.

Also, a shelf is a floor when you stand on it, and it is the lowest thing to the ground. When is a table a floor? when you cut off the legs and use the table to walk on. When is a house telephone a cellphone, when you can walk around with it wherever you go, and works with radiowaves, and you pay 5 times as much to call with it. When is a cellphone a walkietalkie, when it can only call a certain wave length and have a limited range of distance. Something is something else when it's characteristics change to that of the other object.

SpiralArchitect

Trocisp, ya' needa smoke a joint and let that brain of yours chill a bit. Only playin'....

I'm pretty sure most humans have figured that out. It's hard to convey exactly the same concept meaning to someone, as although words have a definite meaning, different connotations and imagery comes into our minds depending on their use.

Tomato, tomatoe?

tagor

To attain more meaning from my interpretation of your question's concept I need to ask several related questions.

What is a question? A directed approach at retrieving information.

Why is a question a directed approach? Since we are restricted by time, and therefore cannot understand the future as the present, we make an educated guess based off of relevant information.

What is relevant is circumstantial.

To answer your question: A shelf becomes a floor when circumstance defines the relevance of what a floor is. Relevance is individually understood. However, if humanity were one collective mind you would be able to measure how relevant information is and define a common standard..

JohnBoySmoker

When its in the ocean.
(The continental shelf is the ocean floor. )