A conversation about "Knowing Stuff"

This conversation was the result of my facebook status (names appearing between |brackets| have been changed):

Kenny doesn't know anything...about anything. 8:16pm - 9 Comments

 
|Gordon| at 8:29pm January 7
That's true. You're only fairly sure about the most obvious of things. Certainty is simply stupidity.

 
Kenny Taylor at 8:42pm January 7
Yeah...but even beyond that. I just don't even know what I think today.

 
|Jane| at 8:55pm January 7
Everyone has those days. No matter how much you question things. Sometimes you just don't know anything at all. It's okay. You'll feel better soon.

 
Kenny Taylor at 8:59pm January 7
Haha. Well, not many people know what they think they know anyway.

 
|Gordon| at 9:09pm January 7
Nobody knows what they think they know. Knowledge is a technical impossibility, as there's no way to define the thing in a way that does not involve faith.

 
|Jane| at 11:14pm January 7
Well, you can't say you no absolutely nothing about anything. Why question everything you do. That's like saying" What if CAT really means DOG" ha ha. Revenge of the Nerds.

 
Kenny Taylor at 11:29pm January 7
Right. We are all in basic agreement that certain things seem to be true. Such as: We do exist. The sky is blue. There are 5 senses...etc. That's assuming that I'm not just imagining this entire thing I call my life, and not really a giant interdimensional octopus that shoots universes instead of ink, with eyes made of time and tentacles of light. My real name cannot be comprehended by the human mind. If you were to hear it, you would go insane with madness, because you would understand the true nature of the universe IN WHICH YOU LIVE...which is just one of the many I have excreted as a defense mechanism which allows me to elude my predators.

Holy crap! I think I just invented a religion!

Anyway, yeah. There are things we (humans) seem to agree on. It's in my favor to choose to believe that you're all real, rather than my consciousness being some cosmic irregularity that is the result of some chain reaction that I couldn't possibly comprehend...

Wait...IS that what consciousness is?

Whoooooaoaaaaaaa duuuude.


Oh and I forgot to say this about the octopus: I'm having a dream, and the dream is my consciousness. When I wake up, I'll be the interdimensional octopus again, and i'll be telling my interdimensional octopus friends about this WEIRD ASS dream I had, in which I started out extremely confused, but gradually learned more and more. I learned a language. I fell in love. I had been in fights. I got high. I nearly drowned. I created art. I hurt people's feelings. I got lost in a forrest.

I could outline every detail of my entire life, which isn't really my life at all...but just a dream.

And maybe my interdimensional octopus friend would reply, "Wow! All of that? You were only asleep for like 25 years!"

--------------------------
"...but just a dream."

But is a consciousness less valid if it is the result of a dream rather than biology or a divine force? Suppose your consciousness (aka "YOU") really is the result of a dream. The consciousness still happens. It is experienced. So it's still real. Even if it's not real ;-) Ha ha.