How Real is Reality?

By Carl Austin

In my last few blogs, I’ve endeavored to tweak your appreciation of the world, by pointing out  how it actually works.  Well, today I’m going to take this concept one step farther by having you consider one simple question, “How real is reality?

Now I know you’ve all seen sci-fi flicks like the Matrix that posit the theory that we’re all living in a simulation of reality.  In fact, there are a number of scientists who tend to agree with this concept.  But that’s not what I’ve come to investigate today.  Nor am I tilting at technological windmills that revolve around a multi-dimensional multiverse that exists alongside ours and occasionally breaks through to our reality.  Who knows, maybe I’ll tackle that Magilla in a later blog.

What I’m here to expose today doesn’t have one iota of science fiction at its core.  Like it or not, each and every one of us is a prisoner of our concept of reality due to the fact that everything we see, hear, taste, touch and smell is an amalgam of the world that has been acquired, processed, filtered and only then perceived by you and I.  Now don’t run off thinking I’ve lost my mind.  During the next few minutes, I intend to explain how every human being on the planet perceives reality, along with all the speed-bumps along the way. 

Unless you’re deaf and blind, then ninety percent of what you perceive of the world is taken in through sight and sound.  It’s just the way we naked apes are built, right?  Now ask yourself this; how much of what’s going on around you at this very moment do you really perceive.  Don’t answer that question yet, because if you do, odds are you’ll be dead wrong.  Allow me to explain.

Image courtesy flickr

To do that, I’m going to need the help of a couple four-legged friends.  If you’ve ever owned a dog, you soon discover that Fido hears things that you can’t.  I’m not just talking about the canine ability to hear sounds at great distances.  I'm talking about their range of hearing. You can buy a dog whistle at any pet store that when sounded will bring your pooch running. Yet you can’t hear it at all.  That’s because the whistle is too high for humans to perceive.   Score one for the animal kingdom.  Cats are also attuned to hear high-pitched sounds associated with their prey.  Plus, they can see in the dark, while we humans stumble around blindly looking to activate the flashlight app on our smartphones. Animals 2, people 0.

Even the speed of the world around us is relative.  Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to swat a fly?  That’s because a housefly sees the world very differently than you or I do.  And I’m not just talking about their weird compound eyes.  Flies literally live in a souped up super-fast reality that makes humans seem to be running in slow motion.  The reason I point this out is to get you to understand that reality is relative.

Here's another newsflash – Your eyes don’t really see.  At least not the way you think they do.  Most people believe their eyes work like a camera.  Light passes through the pupil before hitting the retina to produce an image much the same way a Nikon takes a picture, right?  You couldn’t be more wrong.  In fact, if your eyes worked like a camera, you’d perceive the world upside down.  That’s actually how your visual cortex sees the world.  The only reason we don’t trip over everything around us and stick forks in our eyes when we eat is because our brain flips the image right side up.  There are actual several areas of the brain that are tasked with processing sight.  This also means it takes a split second for all of us to react to sudden stimuli like that pesky fly.  All that processing takes time.

If you don’t believe me, let me point out that there have been several experiments conducted at Ivy League universities where subjects were given a set of goggles that simply flipped the world upside down.  As soon as they don the goggles, the subjects lose all sense of coordination.  Things are so bad that each is assigned an escort to help them navigate and feed themselves until their brain compensates for the anomaly.  What science has discovered is that after a week or so, the subjects no longer trip over their feet and spill beverages all over themselves.  In short, their brains adapt to the new normal and aside from the funky spectacles they wear everywhere they go, their behavior returns to normal.  At least it does until they take the glasses off, which flips the world on its head once more, requiring another week or two to reset.  Weird or what?

Image courtesy Pixabay

Well, I hate to break it to you, but that’s not the half of it.  Here’s another weird fact that virtually all of us take for granted.  You see, when it comes to sight and sound, the brain filters out much of what goes on around us.  That’s right, there’s a lot more happening than meets the eye and the ear.  Say what?  Allow me to point out the ugly truth.  If the brain didn’t selectively filter out the busy stimuli-rich world, nobody would be able to function.  If you were forced to deal with everything going on around you in real time, your world would devolve into an LSD-like state of sensory overload that would have you either bouncing off the walls, or hiding under your bed trying to turn off all the noise.  What’s worse is it doesn’t take a hit of acid to mess with our sense of reality.  All it takes is a sudden shock to the system.

Perhaps you were once involved in an auto accident that caused the world around you seem as though it moved in slow motion.  This is just one example of altered reality.  Then there are sudden shocks, diseases and brain disorders that can mess with your senses. 

      1.      Stroke victims experiencing Hemispatial Neglect literally lose half their world.  This can cause them to eat only half the food on their plate.  If asked to draw a clock, someone with the affliction may draw a clock that only has the numerals 6-12.

      2.      People afflicted with Prosopagnosia can’t remember faces.  I’m not talking about being unable to remember what your best friend looks like either.  I’m talking about mistaking your wife for a feather duster

      3.      Foreign Accent Syndrome causes some people to start talking in a thick foreign accent. Sacreblue!

      4.      Alien hand syndrome causes one limb to act as though it has a mind of its own, even to the point of restraining the other hand that may have been reaching for a garment in the closet.  Bad hand!  https://www.sciencealert.com/10-brain-disorders-that-completely-change-how-people-see-the-world

     

Image courtesy flickr

Needless to say, there are a myriad of physical conditions that can suddenly and without warning manifest themselves to alter your view of reality.  On top of that, since our senses are so limited in scope due to the constraints of evolution, there are lots of things going on around us  which we can’t perceive.  I mean, have you ever tried to see cellphone signals wafting through the air around you or hear colors as some synesthetes do?   Have you ever wondered what a daffodil looks like to a bumblebee that can see ultraviolet light?  Face it, there is no spoon!

How real is reality?  Let me know with your comments.

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