You know in Toy Story 3 when Mr Potato Head puts his face bits on a tortilla and escapes? Really bothers me. Where is Mr Potato Head's consciousness located? Is he an assortment of bits? A swarm? Is he incorporeal? And the face bits are just the ritual objects which summon him into a host shell? What if we pressed his face bits into a person? Does he possess them?

Every one of his parts is connected to a mass consciousness, all the parts share consciousness. this does mean that in order for the rest of the body to perceive what to do, it needs to be connected to the sensing parts-eyes, ears, etc

It’s clear that Potato Head doesn’t experience constant sensation from all his parts, because he’s capable of losing them and not using them at the same time, but it isn’t required that the parts be necessarily in the housing (which is superfluous) or that they be attached to a single continuous Potato body, as is demonstrated several times when parts continue to function while detached.

One might posit that Potato Head is a spirit force capable of manifesting himself within specially made parts - which are unique to each produced Head - but only if he is aware of their approximate position in space. How he moves the parts themselves or the object the parts are embedded in is another question entirely - is he capable of infinite locomotion? Perhaps the feet are capable of manipulating the object they’re placed into: do they have a limited strength?

How does the Potato Head decide on the nature of a single object to be embedded into? Could he be used as an ontological standard, to describe discrete objects by their Potatability? Could a Potato Head embedded in the ground, given a firm place to stand, move the Earth?

https://media.giphy.com/media/106QGJBeLBA8aA/giphy.gif

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8 comments

  • Thursday, Aug 30 2018

    There are so many issues with that movie that are creepy if you give it enough thought. My generation was ruined on "living toys" by horror movies, though.

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  • Wednesday, Aug 29 2018

    @timmy24le746 said:

    hahaha nice man! well double major, psychology and philosophy @aviatedwings148

    Thought so ;) appreciated the laugh!

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  • Wednesday, Aug 29 2018

    hahaha nice man! well double major, psychology and philosophy @aviatedwings148

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  • Wednesday, Aug 29 2018

    @timmy24le746 said:

    @aviatedwings148 oooooo true. maybe he is similar to Frankenstein...

    Philosophy major?

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  • Tuesday, Aug 28 2018

    Yeah it seems his potato body was more of a host than anything.

    I would have loved to see him pull pranks on Mrs. Potato Head. (Personally I'd swap out her eyes while she sleeps.)

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  • Tuesday, Aug 28 2018

    @aviatedwings148 oooooo true. maybe he is similar to Frankenstein...

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  • Monday, Aug 27 2018

    You ruined Toy Story 3 for me. I'm never gonna watch this scene without thinking about this post lmfaoo

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  • Monday, Aug 27 2018

    First off, this made me laugh, cry, and wonder (thank you so much). Perhaps Mr. Potato Head is a sum of his parts? Indeed, his moving parts are what give him wholeness. It seems that the host body is not necessary for his moving parts to function. Or rather, he may be like the monster in Frankenstein, who is a collection of various body parts. Hmm..makes one wonder...

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