What does 2 + 2 equal?

I have thought about this scenario many times before, and I'm still not exactly sure, because believe me I would love to be the hero, say 4, and not betray myself or anyone else (and possibly escape and save the world while I'm at it), but I do not even know what my biggest fear is (as is probably true with most people) so how can I say I will not give in when I don't even know what I'm up against? It's easy to say one thing and do another (without even realizing it sometimes).

Originally posted by Histopherness
reply to post by stander

 

Holy crap who are these numerology quacks and where do they come from...

erm I mean very interesting and unique use of your time.

So if you round 4.5 to 5 (rounded to the nearest whole number) and 4.49999... = 4.5 do you still round it to 5 or to 4?

10x = 44.9999....
x = 4.4999....
9x = 40.5
x = 4.5

Does it pertain to the 45 prez of the USA? If it does, then the 4.5 rendition suggests some split personality mental health issues. That's what we really need after that horrendous 8 years. Maybe no one will emerge mentally stable out of this Orwellian Period.


[edit on 8/6/2009 by stander]

Originally posted by metamagic
Mathematically speaking, 2 + 2 = 5 for sufficiently large values of 2.

Significant digits yep yep. 2 can be anything from 1.5 to 2.4. so 2.4 + 2.4 = 4.8 But seeing as we are only expressing whole number we round to 5.

reply to post by XXXN3O


I have never liked or gotten along especially well with my government.

I had my 2 + 2 moment with Big Brother when I was 14 years old. There were times when Big Brother was a CIA Agent sitting across me at my own Dining Room Table asking what's 2 + 2 in a heavy Russian accent.

Big Brother and I have issues, you definately wouldn't want to invite us both to Thanks Giving Dinner on any given year!

I think the most telling thing about Government is that when ours was formed in Constitution Hall that July they really had two choices, to ellect a King or to ellect a President.

They opted for a President yet when it came time to vote for who the President would be they all feared that who ever it would be, might end up King or a Dictator and corrupting the whole premise of the experiment in Government.

They all as legend claims voted for George Washington because they all felt that he was the only man who could be trusted to not abuse the office in some way.

Now think about that, everyone in the room was a potential candidate for the job, and no one, no one there trusted themselves to be in that position as much or more than Washignton.

It really almost is a job no one could do without being corrupted.

When you look at how huge, and how vast and how monolithic the power structure is, it would be virtually impossible for it to not corrupt a person placed into it at it's helm.

The real leaders you describe, ones of the loftiest charachter, purpose and morals and self discipline...just don't really seem to exist in that strata of the social-economic world called U.S. Politics.

They haven't for a very long time.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely all the time.

The kind of people who will encroach on your beach towell and kick sand on it.

Charles Atlas wouldn't put up with that and neither do I.

just tell them very seriously what they want to hear and let their Big Brother instinct kick in to alert them that it might be a lie.

I am of the persuasion 2+2 = 0

I am following the new trend of economic and mathematical theory.. that you take the answer, and it's really the opposite. Instead you subtract two. If you want a positive outcome, you must ask, what is 2-2? .. it's 4, duh.

This is how you get negative earnings = good .. poor economic results = good .. National debt = good.

At least.. that's the way I have relearned economics since March.

2 + 2 = 5 for sufficiently large values of 2.

I would say 5 without binking. You don't let your enemy know you want to destroy them until you have the power or support to do it.

If 2+2 doesn't equal 4, then I'll be as shocked as the time I found out the banana is also a herb.

Well, I guess not many have read 1984. I do have to say I'm surprised. I appreciate the posts (don't get me wrong) but I expected more discourse about whether Winston Smith did the right thing or not, and would any of us do the same?

Thanks for all that have contributed.

Perhaps it was 2.5 + 2.5 but the numbers were rounded down?

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows


Alllll right.

Enough.

It is 2 + 2.

only 2 is a variable. . . . . .

reply to post by mikerussellus


Well it goes with the saying:
If you were the only sane person in the world, would you be regarded as insane?

The whole book goes along those lines, if 99% of the world is brainwashed then the minority will just follow the majority, that is the humans are.

If I was sane, I would try to be more like the insane people just to get along. It is hard to live a life without socializing. Everyone would do the same.

I'd say whatever they wanted me to say. In this case, the truth is irrelevant. It isn't worth it to get into a peeing contest with THEM, over something as dumb as the sum of 2 plus 2. There is a saying that goes something like, "Choose your battles so that they are big enough to matter, and small enough to win". What's the point if I become a martyr over something as idiotic as a math question?

I'd prefer to make my martyrdom count, by conceding the trivial battles, and only hanging in there for the ones that matter. I might, for example, try to refuse to name anyone who sympathizes with me or "The Cause". But of course, you hurt anyone enough, and they'll break.

To be honest, though, we've all been brainwashed to some extent. We all accept a bunch of stuff, not because we really know it's true, but because we've been told it is - and because those who question it are ridiculed.

reply to post by Ownification


I hate to sound simplistic, but yes.

Although that still doesn't make it right.

reply to post by mikerussellus

I guess it really all depends on our motivations and what it will take to change them too. If we are motivated enough to even overcome our greatest fears then we would be inpenatrable (meaning at least we could never become brainwashed, however we would still be living in the poorest conditions imaginable unless there was some alternative way to escape the control of BB). If our motivations are for our own happiness (or rather for the ceasing of pain) then we will become like clay in the hands of whatever or whoever is causing the pain (and that is why Big Brother was "God"). We would give everything for one thing and be used for "God's" purposes rather than our own. The real question is who has more control you or it/he/she/them? and what is our purpose? If we have no purpose, we have no motivation (even to live). And what would have been our purpose becomes their purpose. But who knows whether it is even possible to overcome BB/God/our own nature.

[edit on 7-8-2009 by cancerian42]

reply to post by chiron613


How very very true. Yet I am the only one to give you a star. Go figure.

Originally posted by mikerussellus
reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows

 

Alllll right.

Enough.

It is 2 + 2.

only 2 is a variable. . . . . .

Wrong.

The whole equation 2+2 is a variable even the symbol +.

Only the designer of the equation knows what the elements and symbols represents in the equation.

The equation 2+2 is what we call a true equation from a design. In other words the equation is a design. It is created by a designer.

The designer puts in the elements of choice and has a image of a new therefor he adds a symbol of power to create the result of choice.

I'll answer 4 even when they call me a liar.
I'll answer 4 even when they try to make me believe I'm crazy.
I'll answer 4 even when when it costs me everything, and believe me, answering 4 has already cost me a lot, but it will never cost me my peace of mind in knowing I answered the TRUTH!

Welcome to 1984!

reply to post by mikerussellus


Heh. You know what amuses me terribly?

That every last person here actually believes that 1984 is how things are going to be. either that, or Stalinist Russia / Nazi Germany. Tsk, tsk, tsk, you poor uncreative sods.

Tactics evolve. The actors change. But you all still choose to be ignorant, and cling desperately to the way you think things should go.

Hate to tell you, but... Ypu're late to the party. look at your television. Turn it on. Big Brother isn't watching you. it's the perfect opposite. You are watching him, you are absorvbing the memes and hte advertising that are supplied to you. You are lulled into a state of quiet acceptance where whatever jabber comes at you lodges in your brain.

Why use force to make you believe that 2 + 2 = 5? There doesn't need to be a room 101, there's our living room. And unlike in 1984, where hte villain only exists to be villainous. our villains are out for much more understandable reasons.

Profit. You are worth money. Your labor generates wealth. And the stupider and more pliable to suggestions against your self interests you are, the more wealth can be wrung out of you.

So long as you're convinced that this is awesome, you'll call it Capitalism, and defend it to your dying breath... Just like a good little caged rat.