What is reality? How does what we perceive differ from the world around us? Were we to see the world through different eyes, what would change? This article explores these questions, referencing principles in fundamental physics. The widely-helf belief that our perception of reality must be accurate because of evolution and survival of the fittest is, according to cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman, false. It is survival of the fittest, and accurate perception does not necessarily win out over inaccurate perception as long as both allow beneficial interpretation of reality. Hoffman has also created an algorithm to explain perception.
Okay, these types of questions keep me up at night (as does my anxiety and irrational fear of the dark, but hey). One thing that I find fascinating in fundamental physics is the principle that particles behave differently when observed, and cannot be presumed to have a purpose. This article mentions that, as well as the fact that what we perceive could easily be the limits of what exists. Is a snake a snake? What's in the rest of the universe? What the heck is in the freaking ocean? The mind-boggling ideas in this article relate heavily to technological discoveries in the past, from Galileo's challenges to European science with the claim that gravity acted equally upon all objects to the much later Civil Rights movement in the 1900s in which all pre-concieved prejudices were thoroughly questioned ad people marched and fought for minority freedom once more. Just as that fight has not ceased, our investigations of the universe continue on. There is more to learn at every turn, and I can only hope to live long enough to see some of it.
Source:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-illusion-of-reality/479559/
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