Scientists are considering the idea that our perception of reality is shaped not only by our senses but by our brains creating an internal map or model of the world around us.
This means our perception of what’s true or real is malleable, and we are at risk of losing our grasp on it. The result can be tragedies like the Jonestown mass suicide and Nazi Germany.
Some philosophers think that evolution cares more about how to survive than about any accurate version of reality, which can lead to “useful fictions” about the world.
Do I still have to go to work tomorrow?
You never had to go to work. Still don’t.
PopMech has been too heavy on the pop side for too long. This is just Plato’s cave all over again.
I thought the article did a good job of introducing the fact that consciousness and perception are a hallucination, a trick of the mind as it assembles various datastreams and updates the model constantly. “Reality is a Lego tower all of us continuously assemble, fix, and adjust bit by bit.” This is a standard neuroscience perspective. It’s as ‘true’ as anything else we know about the brain.
And then … well it was some evocative writing, but I think they failed to bring home the final point. When they say ‘reality’, they mean ‘society’. Just substitute that word, and suddenly the whole article makes more sense, is relevant, and has teeth. They were trying to be poetic, when a more direct statement about the cha0s in our streets would have been more effective.
The title does suck.
That headline is cringe to it’s core, but that aside, who would possibly be an opponent of this concept? I thought it was just universally understood that our individual senses can lie to us and that collective reality with repeatable experimentation is our only source for basis in fact.
FFS as a species we’ve been recording this same conversation towards this same conclusion for thousands of years.
Nobody discovered fuck all with this assertion.
Headline is so wrong that i have to downvote. Reality is NOT a shared hallucination. Reality is what it is regardless of our thoughts about it.
True, but the caveat is that we have no way of knowing what that reality looks like other than through our interpretation of it. We can’t do anything about “true reality” because we have no way of proving anything about it without relying on said thoughts. Like for example, we really like the scientific method for “proving” reality, but it only works assuming that the “true reality” follows the same logical principles we adhere to. Is there really a cause-effect sense in “true reality” or is it just our biased interpretation that the universe follows natural logic rules?
That’s like saying that there are facts and alternative facts.
No. It’s like saying there is visible light and invisible light. Which is true, there’s ultra violet and infra red, but you don’t know that because you’ve seen it. Your can’t see infra red, that is the point, your model of the world is based on words, not on ‘reality’.
Isn’t this kind of what Kant said? For example that time is just how our mind is “ordering” everything.
We have thousands of years of works of philosophy discussing these exact ideas, but I would guess that some scientists don’t focus too much on the humanities in their education.
Paywalled article. Here is a cached version. https://archive.is/eKlVv
This is very obviously true in my hallucination of reality.
Yes our brains make “sense” of things. If you’ve taken Salvia you’ll know this (i haven’t).
I have and it sucks ass. It’s like a disassociative panic attack for ten minutes in plant form. I do not understand how people can even pretend it’s anywhere near a competitor to weed.
So the simulation theory has a grain of truth to it? Just not in the way we thought?
Simulation Theory is that we all live in a simulation.
The above article just says each person simulates their own internal model of the world around them.
That’s why I made sure to caveat it with a “grain a truth.” Not saying it’s exactly the same, only that it does share some similarities.
No they are two completely distinct theories which only both use the word simulate but in a completely different context. And one is not more true than the other because both are just philosophical ideas.
Reality is a rendering of the hivemind
If this is The Matrix, then MAGA is gonna be really upset. They don’t even know it.
Why? They’d just be like dipshit Cypher and murder to get back to their dumbass ignorance.
… no wait, they are like dipshit Cypher, no matrix required…
I was thinking of the trans allegory. They wouldn’t like to realize that is what is symbolizes.
