Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Is Reality really Real!

The entire enterprise of science is based upon this simple belief that there has to be an explanation for everything. However if we analyse it critically then there is no specific reason for this belief, other than an overwhelming need that a human psyche has for some kind of an explanation for everything. It's a need for closure. We want things to make sense for us. Our mental apparatus craves for meaning in everything that we perceive.

We all have wondered, at some time or the other, from where did this universe come? Endless debates exist on this topic, some even questioning the validity of the question itself! We all have our views. Maybe God concept represents a different kind of sentience. The rules and properties of that layer of world may be different from ours, still they may make sense, even if in a way that might not be comprehensible by us.

One idea that's worth considering is - what if there is no such thing as a fixed universe in which we dwell! What if the world as we see it is a sum of everyone's individual 'sight'. The sum may be done in a very different manner, using very different rules (e.g., sum of vectors follows a different set of rules than the summing of the scalars).

What we perceive as physical substances may not be existing as 'absolute' entities. They may just be there as a consequence of our perception combined with perception of others in the basic framework of this world! Following this line of reasoning, we can conjecture maybe a few hypotheses.

What if the fundamental building blocks are made of some stuff that is not physical at all (in the current sense of the word "physical"). What are thoughts made of? What if everything is nothing but a manifestation of this core stuff!

So let's assume for a moment that this stuff is the "source" of everything, including the physical world as well as the thought processes. What if the world as a whole is a set stage! All the choices and alternatives exist simultaneously without any considerations of space or time! The observable world that manifests may just be an overlap of the individual "choices" (even the choices are not independent, if we assume this reasoning).

Maybe the substance that thoughts are made of, is the closest thing akin to the substance of this core stuff. In other words, thoughts are near raw manifestations of this core substance, rest all are complications. We assume that thoughts can only be generated by living beings. What if that's just not true! May be there are other ways that this same effect can be achieved.

It may be that the whole world may be nothing but a spectrum of various possibilities, all existing simultaneously. Our 'perception' of it gives it a physical reality. This has been touted as a popular interpretation of quantum mechanics as well. What this means is that nothing has any physical existence until an observer perceives it in some way or the other. Also it does "not" imply that simply by thinking we can change whatever we want. The stuff that we possess is only a small part of the whole stuff. Our perception is not ours alone, but a kaleidoscope of everything and everyone around us. As we think and perceive our world, we modify and create it!

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