Hard

Used as a response to express that you strongly agree with something said.

“Fuck yeah bro, hard!”

by Tophy Brightside March 2, 2022

Hard Problem of Spirituality and Metaphysics

The Hard Problem of Spirituality and Metaphysics concerns the difficulty of explaining subjective spiritual experiences, metaphysical meaning, and existential significance using objective, physical descriptions. Similar to the hard problem of consciousness, it asks why inner experiences of transcendence, purpose, or “the sacred” exist at all, and whether they correspond to real structures beyond the physical world. The problem challenges reductionist explanations, suggesting that spiritual phenomena may involve extraphysical dimensions, emergent metaphysical properties, or irreducible aspects of reality that resist empirical measurement.

Hard Problem of Spirituality and Metaphysics — Example

Two individuals undergo near-identical neurological states, yet one experiences a profound sense of transcendence while the other does not. No physical measurement explains the difference. The hard problem arises in explaining why spiritual meaning emerges subjectively and whether such experiences correspond to real metaphysical structures rather than being purely neurological artifacts.

by AbzuInExile January 24, 2026

Hard Problem of Extraphysics

The Hard Problem of Extraphysics addresses the challenge of defining, detecting, and validating realities or laws that exist beyond physical spacetime while still making coherent, non-arbitrary claims about them. It asks how extraphysical entities can have causal influence without violating known physics, how they can be studied without instruments, and how meaningful predictions can be made. The problem highlights the tension between explanatory ambition and empirical limits, questioning whether extraphysics is fundamentally unknowable or merely awaiting new conceptual and methodological breakthroughs.

Hard Problem of Extraphysics — Example

A theorist proposes a higher-dimensional entity that influences quantum outcomes without exchanging energy. The idea explains certain anomalies but cannot be tested without redefining causality itself. The challenge lies in distinguishing meaningful extraphysical explanations from unfalsifiable speculation while still allowing room for genuine discovery.

by AbzuInExile January 24, 2026

Hard Problem of Thermodynamics

The Hard Problem of Thermodynamics focuses on explaining why thermodynamic laws—especially entropy increase—exist in the first place, rather than merely describing their effects. It questions why the universe began in a low-entropy state, why time has a preferred direction, and whether thermodynamics is emergent, fundamental, or contingent on deeper probabilistic or cosmological structures. This problem becomes even more complex in multiverse or extraphysical contexts, where different universes might follow different thermodynamic rules or none at all.

Hard Problem of Thermodynamics — Example

Cosmologists observe that the early universe began in an extremely low-entropy state but cannot explain why. If multiple universes exist, some might begin in high entropy and never form structure. The problem is explaining why our universe’s thermodynamic arrow exists at all, rather than merely describing how it behaves.

by AbzuInExile January 24, 2026

Hard Problem of Conservation

The Hard Problem of Conservation examines why conservation laws exist and whether they are absolute or context-dependent. While physics treats conservation as fundamental, this problem asks whether conservation emerges from deeper symmetries, probabilistic structures, or multiversal bookkeeping. It also questions how conservation operates across universe boundaries, dimensional layers, or extraphysical domains. If energy, information, or causality can move between realities, the problem becomes whether conservation is local, global, or merely an approximation within limited physical frames of reference.

Hard Problem of Conservation — Example

A simulated universe allows information to exit into a higher-dimensional computation layer. Inside the simulation, information appears destroyed, violating conservation. From the outside, information is preserved. The hard problem is determining whether conservation laws are fundamental truths or artifacts of the observer’s dimensional perspective.

by AbzuInExile January 24, 2026

Hard Problem of Astral Projection

The core, unanswered paradox: If consciousness can allegedly leave the body as an "astral form" to travel and perceive remote locations, what physical or informational medium carries this perception back to the brain to be remembered? The hard problem isn't proving it happens, but explaining how it could even work without violating known physics. How does a non-physical "you" see light (which requires physical eyes and photons), hear sounds (which require air vibrations and eardrums), and then imprint those sensory details into the physical memory structures of a brain it supposedly left behind? It proposes perception utterly detached from any biological sensorium.

Example: You astral project to your friend's apartment in another city and correctly see a red coffee mug on their counter. Later, you verify it. The hard problem asks: Did your astral form have tiny, functional, ghostly retinas and optic nerves? Did light in that apartment bounce off the mug, interact with your non-physical form, and then how was that data packet uploaded to your physical hippocampus? It's the ultimate bandwidth problem for a signal with no known transmitter, receiver, or carrier wave. Skeptics call it a vivid lucid dream; proponents have no model for the information pipeline. Hard Problem of Astral Projection.

by Nammugal January 24, 2026

Hard Problem of Out-Of-Body Experiences (OBEs)

The specific puzzle of the visuospatial perspective. During an OBE, people often report seeing their own physical body from an external point in the room. The hard problem is: From where, and with what, is this third-person visual data being generated and processed? The brain is inside the skull, receiving data from eyes pointing forward. Even if it's a hallucination, the brain is constructing a geometrically accurate, egocentrically rotated 3D scene of the room from a vantage point it has never physically occupied. This requires integrated knowledge of the room's layout and the body's position within it, all rendered into a coherent, panoramic "view" without using the optic nerves.

Example: A patient under anesthesia has an OBE and later accurately describes the surgical tools used and a specific conversation among the staff. The hard problem isn't just about hearing (which could be auditory processing while semi-conscious). It's: How did their brain generate the visual scene of the operating theatre from a point near the ceiling, including the top of the surgeon's head and the layout of equipment, without visual input? It suggests either an inexplicable, high-fidelity internal simulation or a literal displacement of the perceptive locus—neither of which fits current neurobiology. Hard Problem of Out-Of-Body Experiences (OBEs).

by Nammugal January 24, 2026