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.
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.