In his Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce defines reality as “The dream of a Mad Philosopher.” If we study reality closely, that definition fits. We assume there exists a real objective reality “out there”.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around does it make a sound ? This question was first asked by George Berkeley, the 18th century Irish philosopher. The answer is no. When the tree falls it causes vibrations in the air molecules around it. Our ears pick up these vibrations and send them as electro chemical signals to the brain which we then hear as sound. In other words sound is manufactured in the brain and does not exist outside of our brain.
Similarly with light. What our eyes receive is electro magnetic radiation of differing frequencies which the brain interprets as colour. The same is true of our other senses. Taste, touch and smell are also creations of the brain. In other words we create our own subjective reality! To cap it all off our brains are also part of our subjective reality and thus the body/mind is also perceived and so cannot be the true you. Our reality is a projected illusion within us. As each human's sense organs are basically similar, so we all perceive reality in much the same way.
What then is objective reality? What is out there? First lets take sound. The human ear can only pick up pressure frequencies or waves between 20Hz and 20kHz. Animals such as Bats and Dolphins can hear outside of this range and accordingly will have different perceptions of reality. Similarly with light. Our retinas can absorb light within the range of 380-750 nanometers. Other creatures such as bees, birds and snakes can absorb light in different frequencies and accordingly have a different perception of reality. Each of the five senses we possess gives us a very small slit on reality. Our sense of smell is almost vestigial in relation to that of dogs and wolves. In these animals their olfactory sense is a million times more sensitive than a human's and is their principal sense. A moth has an even stronger sense of smell than a dog. A male moth can scent a female up to twenty kilometers away.
One of the advantages to animals of a strong sense of smell is the fact that the object does not have to be seen to be perceived, unlike sight. This can be an obvious advantage. A bee has a capacity to respond to the earth’s magnetic field and it can see in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum, as can penguins. Some snakes have a sixth sense whereby they can locate prey by heat. Some fish have a lateral line with sense receptors that detect the motion of nearby fish and prey. Dolphins, whales and bats use echolocation. Other creatures see in both the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum. Many other creatures such as migratory birds, homing pigeons, sea turtles etc. also sense the earths magnetic fields. Every species has its own means of receiving information from its environment and using it for its own purposes. Each species has its own way of knowing, its own kind of intelligence and its own version of reality. Our perception is human-specific.
What would our perception of reality be if we had different senses?
The philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote a paper in 1974 entitled “what is it like to be a bat”. Bats emit high frequency sounds, most of which are outside the frequency which humans can hear. These sounds bounce off objects around them, making echoes which the bats detect. This is a very finely tuned sensory apparatus. They can detect flies as small as a human hair and intercept them in flight. Nagel did not ask us to consider what it would be like for us to have bat-like experiences. He challenged us to imagine what it would be like for a bat to be a bat. What is reality from a bat's point of view? How does the world look to a bat?
The electromagnetic spectrum covers a range from zero to infinity. It is generally divided into seven ranges i.e. Radio, Micro, Infrared, Visible, Ultraviolet, X-rays and Gamma rays. Imagine reality if we could see in the infrared, ultraviolet or X-ray range? Sound ranges over a huge spectrum also. Imagine if we could hear over an even larger range of frequencies such as many creatures do? Objective reality is a maelstrom of electromagnetic radiation of which our five senses can only pick up a very small amount and our brain then reinterprets this information which we see as reality. This electro magnetic radiation is all around and passing through us and we are unaware of it because our senses have not evolved to interpret it except in the ranges that our senses perceive and interpret. In actual fact our reality is in our brains and not outside of us. This is difficult to comprehend but is true. Even though our brain is enclosed in our skull in complete darkness, that is where our reality is. All our passions, emotions, pain, joy and happiness are all mental creations. The essence of reality is inaccessible to our minds. The only thing we know to be real is our consciousness. “Je pens donc je suis.” “I think therefore I am” as Descartes said. What we perceive is a brain-manufactured perception of reality that is not real at all. Einstein said: “Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one. Berkeley said “ Esse est percipi” - to be is to perceive, and the evolutionary cosmologist Brian Swimme asked somewhere “Before eyes evolved on Earth, was the sea blue”?
Look at reality now from the Physics point of view! Neils Bohr said, “Physics is not about how the world is, it is about what we can say about the world”. We are composed of matter. Every tangible thing is made of atoms, including us. They are the building blocks of matter. Each cell in our body contains 7 X 10 27 atoms and there are around 75 trillion cells in our body. Atoms are made from three types of smaller particles: protons and neutrons in the nucleus and electrons that orbit the nucleus. All atoms are not the same. They differ by virtue of different combinations of the three subatomic particles. Atoms combine to make elements and go from there to compounds, molecules and cells. From cells we go to organs and from organs to species. Within an atom the nucleus contains about 99.9% of the atoms mass but only a trillionth of its volume. Atoms are 99.99999% empty space. Neither do they have any color. We are therefore 99.99999 % empty space and yet to ourselves and our senses we are solid! The rest of matter is similar. We see matter as solid and colored. Yet it is neither. There is no hard matter out there to, see, hear, taste, smell or touch. We create our own reality. Solidity and substance are illusions. Physical reality is only a thought.
Next let us look at quantum physics. When I refer to quantum physics, I am referring to the particle zoo which makes up the protons, neutrons and electrons that in turn make up atoms. It includes concepts such as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, wave/particle duality, the interchangeability of matter and energy and also that particles can come in and out of existence as well as other strange concepts. It is the most proven theory of all time. Lasers, LEDs, hospital scanners, hard disks, the transistor, electronics and computers are all based on quantum physics. It is the most useful discipline in modern physics, but it is not understood. As those who practice it do not understand it, so I do not intend to say too much about it.
The Heisenberg Uncertainty principle within quantum physics, means that you cannot measure both the position and velocity of a particle simultaneously. To perform any measurement disturbs the particle to the extent that it creates uncertainty in the second measurement. Accordingly one cannot measure both position and velocity with perfect accuracy.
With wave/particle duality objects manifest both wavelike and particle-like properties. It takes either of these properties depending on whether the position or the velocity is being measured. When quantum physics is stripped of all its complexities what it finds is that the act of observation changes the nature of the thing observed. The observer and the observed are coupled and intimately linked. The observer is the observed.
Our senses and the technology and instruments that extends them such as telescopes and microscopes only detect phenomena and not real things in themselves. What it is that produces these bewildering sub atomic phenomena which are observed in high energy physics, we don’t actually know and I suspect we never can know. As Francis Crick said in 1994 in The Astonishing Hypothesis: The scientific Search for the Soul, “
The astonishing hypothesis is that, you, your joys and sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have phrased it: You’re nothing but a pack of neurons. This hypothesis is so alien to the ideas of most people today that it can truly be called astonishing”.
What I have said above is that we create our own reality in our brains. That is true in that the electro chemical actions in the brain create our reality, but it is in our consciousness that we become aware of this reality. What then is consciousness, remembering that the brain is itself part of the illusion created?
This is something for another article. But from what I have said above the obvious follow on question is whether matter is an epiphenomenon of consciousness or is consciousness an epiphenomenon of matter? If matter is an epiphenomenon of consciousness then all there is, is consciousness! Is matter apprehended by consciousness or is it the reverse?
⏩ Noel Byrne is a retired Civil Servant and a Humanist, with a principal interest in Philosophy, and a particular interest in Ethics and Morality.
One of the advantages to animals of a strong sense of smell is the fact that the object does not have to be seen to be perceived, unlike sight. This can be an obvious advantage. A bee has a capacity to respond to the earth’s magnetic field and it can see in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum, as can penguins. Some snakes have a sixth sense whereby they can locate prey by heat. Some fish have a lateral line with sense receptors that detect the motion of nearby fish and prey. Dolphins, whales and bats use echolocation. Other creatures see in both the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum. Many other creatures such as migratory birds, homing pigeons, sea turtles etc. also sense the earths magnetic fields. Every species has its own means of receiving information from its environment and using it for its own purposes. Each species has its own way of knowing, its own kind of intelligence and its own version of reality. Our perception is human-specific.
What would our perception of reality be if we had different senses?
The philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote a paper in 1974 entitled “what is it like to be a bat”. Bats emit high frequency sounds, most of which are outside the frequency which humans can hear. These sounds bounce off objects around them, making echoes which the bats detect. This is a very finely tuned sensory apparatus. They can detect flies as small as a human hair and intercept them in flight. Nagel did not ask us to consider what it would be like for us to have bat-like experiences. He challenged us to imagine what it would be like for a bat to be a bat. What is reality from a bat's point of view? How does the world look to a bat?
The electromagnetic spectrum covers a range from zero to infinity. It is generally divided into seven ranges i.e. Radio, Micro, Infrared, Visible, Ultraviolet, X-rays and Gamma rays. Imagine reality if we could see in the infrared, ultraviolet or X-ray range? Sound ranges over a huge spectrum also. Imagine if we could hear over an even larger range of frequencies such as many creatures do? Objective reality is a maelstrom of electromagnetic radiation of which our five senses can only pick up a very small amount and our brain then reinterprets this information which we see as reality. This electro magnetic radiation is all around and passing through us and we are unaware of it because our senses have not evolved to interpret it except in the ranges that our senses perceive and interpret. In actual fact our reality is in our brains and not outside of us. This is difficult to comprehend but is true. Even though our brain is enclosed in our skull in complete darkness, that is where our reality is. All our passions, emotions, pain, joy and happiness are all mental creations. The essence of reality is inaccessible to our minds. The only thing we know to be real is our consciousness. “Je pens donc je suis.” “I think therefore I am” as Descartes said. What we perceive is a brain-manufactured perception of reality that is not real at all. Einstein said: “Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one. Berkeley said “ Esse est percipi” - to be is to perceive, and the evolutionary cosmologist Brian Swimme asked somewhere “Before eyes evolved on Earth, was the sea blue”?
Look at reality now from the Physics point of view! Neils Bohr said, “Physics is not about how the world is, it is about what we can say about the world”. We are composed of matter. Every tangible thing is made of atoms, including us. They are the building blocks of matter. Each cell in our body contains 7 X 10 27 atoms and there are around 75 trillion cells in our body. Atoms are made from three types of smaller particles: protons and neutrons in the nucleus and electrons that orbit the nucleus. All atoms are not the same. They differ by virtue of different combinations of the three subatomic particles. Atoms combine to make elements and go from there to compounds, molecules and cells. From cells we go to organs and from organs to species. Within an atom the nucleus contains about 99.9% of the atoms mass but only a trillionth of its volume. Atoms are 99.99999% empty space. Neither do they have any color. We are therefore 99.99999 % empty space and yet to ourselves and our senses we are solid! The rest of matter is similar. We see matter as solid and colored. Yet it is neither. There is no hard matter out there to, see, hear, taste, smell or touch. We create our own reality. Solidity and substance are illusions. Physical reality is only a thought.
Next let us look at quantum physics. When I refer to quantum physics, I am referring to the particle zoo which makes up the protons, neutrons and electrons that in turn make up atoms. It includes concepts such as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, wave/particle duality, the interchangeability of matter and energy and also that particles can come in and out of existence as well as other strange concepts. It is the most proven theory of all time. Lasers, LEDs, hospital scanners, hard disks, the transistor, electronics and computers are all based on quantum physics. It is the most useful discipline in modern physics, but it is not understood. As those who practice it do not understand it, so I do not intend to say too much about it.
The Heisenberg Uncertainty principle within quantum physics, means that you cannot measure both the position and velocity of a particle simultaneously. To perform any measurement disturbs the particle to the extent that it creates uncertainty in the second measurement. Accordingly one cannot measure both position and velocity with perfect accuracy.
With wave/particle duality objects manifest both wavelike and particle-like properties. It takes either of these properties depending on whether the position or the velocity is being measured. When quantum physics is stripped of all its complexities what it finds is that the act of observation changes the nature of the thing observed. The observer and the observed are coupled and intimately linked. The observer is the observed.
Our senses and the technology and instruments that extends them such as telescopes and microscopes only detect phenomena and not real things in themselves. What it is that produces these bewildering sub atomic phenomena which are observed in high energy physics, we don’t actually know and I suspect we never can know. As Francis Crick said in 1994 in The Astonishing Hypothesis: The scientific Search for the Soul, “
The astonishing hypothesis is that, you, your joys and sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have phrased it: You’re nothing but a pack of neurons. This hypothesis is so alien to the ideas of most people today that it can truly be called astonishing”.
What I have said above is that we create our own reality in our brains. That is true in that the electro chemical actions in the brain create our reality, but it is in our consciousness that we become aware of this reality. What then is consciousness, remembering that the brain is itself part of the illusion created?
This is something for another article. But from what I have said above the obvious follow on question is whether matter is an epiphenomenon of consciousness or is consciousness an epiphenomenon of matter? If matter is an epiphenomenon of consciousness then all there is, is consciousness! Is matter apprehended by consciousness or is it the reverse?
⏩ Noel Byrne is a retired Civil Servant and a Humanist, with a principal interest in Philosophy, and a particular interest in Ethics and Morality.
