Is reality real?
Say what?
This is more of a philosophical question, but scientists have discussed it, and some even ascribe to the idea that reality is not there.
To answer this question one must consider how we discover nature and discern what’s out there in the cosmos. Humans depend on their senses to determine what’s going on around them. However, as we have seen, much of what we sense it regulated or modified by the brain. The reason why this makes sense is because of how we evolved, which is adaptation to a changing environment. Our ancestor species evolved eyes, ears and a nose to catch prey easier, and the sense of touch was needed to do precise work with tools.
But, is these a true indicator to what’s really out there? The answer to this is not really. What we are sensing in our environment is what our brain says it is, and that is a perception that has evolved along with us. What’s really out there is crazier than we think.
As you should see from my last sentence, I believe that reality is real. Where I differ from everyday thinking is in assuming that what I sense is really what is out there.
Why do I say that? The reason is simple. We humans are of a size that is between the very tiny and the very large and that influences how we think about our surroundings. We are looking at things from a specific perspective of size. If we were as large as a galaxy, we would consider anything as small as a human to be insignificant. This is much the same way we don’t see bacteria or viruses, but they’re still there.
If we were the size of bacteria, we would have no concept of what a human is. It’s just too large to comprehend. So, as you can see, size does matter in understanding our surroundings.
Now, some have even questioned the existence of reality and have proposed that it’s an illusion. However, illusion has to exist somewhere and that somewhere is in our brains. Could something that’s an illusion create an illusionary universe? Some say that it could, and they call it a dream world. Even Albert Einstein said: ‘Reality is only an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.’ Why did he say this? The reason is because all of the things that physicists have discovered about nature, such as time, space, mass, force, energy and so forth are not in nature, they are convenient things that have been formulated to describe nature. Again, this is a human brain function.
Quantum physics has added fuel to this fire because of the Uncertainty Principle, which states that we can’t know the position and the energy state of a particle at the same time. In other words, particles can jump in and out of existence. But, is this proof of an illusionary universe?
The next question that comes out of this is: are some things more real than others? Time is one of these less real things because it’s more of a perception than a real physical thing. Space, which Einstein relegated to a concept not an entity, falls into this realm. You can see how this idea causes problems.
Actually, the real problem is in the reasoning process that we humans use to understand things. We use math, which is a method of measuring reality, as our main tool for creating a model of nature. Math is symbolic and often imaginary, as in imaginary numbers. Is that proof that reality is an illusion?
One could argue that we can only know our self as existing. This is solipsism, a philosophical concept. Unfortunately, this idea creates many paradoxes, one of which is trying to reconcile other individuals. If they are illusionary, why am I not an illusion?
I don’t ascribe to any of these illusionary concepts of nature. The main reason is that science is based on verifiable facts and experiments that can be repeated by others. If nature were an illusion this would not happen. The other reason is cause and effect. Illusion would make the result of a cause different each time.
What I consider illusionary is many of the philosophical proposals that deny the existence of God, nature and even us. It just doesn’t make any sense to throw out the baby with the bath water and say that we are just an illusion. What I do say is that our perception of reality is fashioned and molded in our brains, but reality is still out there and it’s the job of scientists to find out what it is and how it works.
Thanks for reading.