There Is No Spoon

Original quote from TheMatrix:

Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Boy: There is no spoon.

Neo: There is no spoon?

Boy: Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Neo: What truth?

Boy: There is no spoon.

Croc. Dundee: This is a spoon.

Magritte: This is not a spoon.

The Tick: SPOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

Whether or not there is a spoon is irrelevant. What matters is the belief.

Working on the assumption that there is not:

Descartes (There isn't anything else, either. Except him) Minor nit - Descartes started from cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"), but later expanded it to encompass an external world That's actually quite the opposite... after discarding the rest of the world and getting that nothing else existed appart from him, and knowing that if he was the only thing that existed and that he was aware of himself, he came to the conclusion in his 3rd meditation to the conclusion "I think, therefore I am".
Plato (That which you perceive as a spoon is a poor copy of the ideal spoon)
Whoever invented the Spork (There is no USEFUL spoon)
Socrates (Well, Okay, he didn't know whether there was a spoon)
Bohm (We may not want to know)
TerryPratchett: there may or may not be a spoon, but this begs the question of why is there the idea of soup?
Boolean: (spOOn, no spOOn)
TheTick: Spoooon
Spoon Guard!!!

You'll note that in TheMatrix, "ThereIsNoSpoon" applied only inside a certain giant neuro-interactive simulation...

The question is: how do you know if you are inside or outside?

You do not know. You believe. And so beliefs create your reality.

And so, one day, Neo, thinking he is inside the Jump Program when he's not, jumps to his death...

Unbeliever.

Even if matrices can be nested, there has to be a top level somewhere, where a spoon is a spoon. Have you ever had that feeling where you're not sure whether you're awake or still dreaming? In the absence of such evidence to the contrary, I'd say this is the top level. Welcome... to the RealWorld.

Unless you work on TheThirteenthFloor.

Or you realize we have evidence to the contrary: SimulationArgument

humorous version from [http://detonate.net/matrix/]

Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, try and realize the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Boy: The spoon effect will be added later, using some sort of SGI workstation.

[Actually, it was added using some sort of cluster of Dell servers, running FreeBsd: http://www.my-opensource.org/lists/myoss/1999-05/msg00141.html -- AnonymousDonor]

Granted this spoon even existed in any world, the spork is a much more efficient tool.

Boy: Do not try to think outside of the box. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Boy: There is no box.

Neo: No box? Then what am I sitting on?

Boy: You are missing the point of the lesson.

Neo: There's a lesson in all this gibberish?

Boy: Just shut up and focus on the truth, willya?!? <aside, to self> Sheesh! Some people's kids.

If, in truth there is no spoon, then any attempt to bend the spoon validates the truth of the spoon. That is why you bend yourself instead of the spoon.

Spoons make excellent murder weapons because the victim looks like they died of smileys.

"Well, at least I didn't use a spoon!" -- AlanRickman? as Sheriff of Nottingham (in RobinHoodMovie?)

A preceding dialogue to the mentioned citation contained in the movie is:

Sheriff of Nottingham: Locksley! I'm gonna cut your heart out with a spoon!

Guy of Gisbourne: Why a spoon cousin? Why not an axe?

Sheriff of Nottingham: Because it's dull, you twit, it'll hurt more!

Professor: "There, is no spoon" Student: "Okay, Where, is a spoon?"

Less humorous parts factored to SimulationArgument

See: TheMatrix, TasteTheSoup, BeliefCreatesReality

CategoryPhilosophy