Belief vs. Reality

“We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right,” but “sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

— George Orwell

Or the marble halls of Congress. Seems like everybody is worried that millions of Trump supporters believe he really won the election. And that, they insist, undermines the very fabric of our democracy. I don’t doubt that but I’m skeptical there’s anything anyone can do to change what they believe. How much energy should be expended to convince these same people the QAnon conspiracy is horseshit? That there really are no pedophile lizard people. I see no difference. As long as they’re trapped in their social media echo chamber and getting all the news from Fox and OAN, their “beliefs” will continue to be fed and reinforced.

“But they’ll turn to violence, like what we saw on January 6 at the U.S. Capital!” Probably. People will die and a lot of damage will result. But I’m curious how these overweight weekend-warriors in their Wal-Mart camo will do against trained, well-armed National Guard troops. Don’t get me wrong, I hope this doesn’t happen but the Trumpsters insist it will. So be it.

As some of last week’s “patriots” get arrested and — eventually — face trial and jail time, I’ll  also be curious to see how they handle that. As well as true patriots like Rev. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela? Can they do a few years of federal prison time? We’ll see.

So I really don’t care if you “believe in your heart” the election was stolen. It wasn’t, but believe that lie –and live that lie — till the day you die. And send me a photo of one of the lizard people.

Reality

My current view of Reality is a jigsaw puzzle with an infinite number of pieces, scattered across a table of infinite size. I can see only a few nearby bits of the puzzle’s image. Pieces snap into place by some unseen cosmic hand but I only see those close to me. I am overwhelmed by the number of pieces and the impossibility of finding where each fits. But they do and, in time, a little more of the picture can be made out. And I think, “Of course. It couldn’t have been otherwise.”

A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality

“Proietti and co’s result suggests that objective reality does not exist. In other words, the experiment suggests that one or more of the assumptions—the idea that there is a reality we can agree on, the idea that we have freedom of choice, or the idea of locality—must be wrong.”

— Technology Review [Additional reading]

What is Reality?

“Emergence theory is a new physics model currently being developed by a Los Angeles based team of scientists. Emergence theory intricately – yet simply – weaves together quantum mechanics, general and special relativity, the standard model and other mainstream physics theories into a complete, fundamental picture of a discretized, self-actualizing universe.”

“Physics allows the possibility that all the energy of the universe can be converted into a single, conscious system that itself is a network of conscious systems. Given enough time, what can happen will eventually happen. By this axiom, universal emergent consciousness has emerged via self-organization somewhere ahead of us in 4D spacetime. And because it is possible, it is inevitable. In fact, according to the evidence of retro-causality time loops, that inevitable future is co-creating us right now just as we are co-creating it.”

Evolutionary Argument Against Reality

Interview with Donald D. Hoffman, a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine. Hoffman has spent the past three decades studying perception, artificial intelligence, evolutionary game theory and the brain, and his conclusion is a dramatic one: The world presented to us by our perceptions is nothing like reality.

“Useful as it is under ordinary circumstances to say that the world exists ‘out there’ independent of us, that view can no longer be upheld.” — Physicist John Wheeler

Scott Adams: The user interface to reality

“The so-called ‘truth’ of the universe is irrelevant because our tiny brains aren’t equipped to understand it anyway. […] Our human understanding of reality is like describing an elephant to a space alien by saying an elephant is grey. That is not nearly enough detail. And you have no way to know if the alien perceives color the same way you do. After enduring your inadequate explanation of the elephant, the alien would understand as much about elephants as humans understand about reality. […] Today when I hear people debate the existence of God, it feels exactly like debating whether the software they are using is hosted on Amazon’s servers or Rackspace.”

Virtual reality environments for the elderly

Is anyone creating virtual reality games/environments for the elderly? I’m not a gamer but each time I happen on some video a new game, I’m stunned by how good the graphics have gotten. I assume all other aspects are improving as well.

Today I can outside and romp and play with the other kids but someday that might not be the case. And I might be in an assisted living facility or whatever they have in the far, distant future for people who can’t care for themselves.

Could a clever person create a custom virtual environment for me. I have thousands of photos, hundreds of videos and many thousands of blog posts and tweets and such. A person could know a lot about my past and interests and use that data to create something amazing.

Instead of playing grab-ass with Mrs. Henson down in the day room, I could jack in to Steve World. Hell, in 20 years, the hardware and software will know things about my cognitive state and compensate where needed.

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There’s a pond at the bottom of the hill on which we live. On nice days I enjoy sitting at the edge and watching the geese. I’ll bet you that could be created with amazing accuracy. Even “get up and take a walk” around the pond (after I can no long walk anywhere). I’ll hear the geese and the wind in the trees and maybe smell the grass.

This might sound sad and creepy to some, it does to me a little. But aske me again in 20 years.