I Don't Freakin' Believe It

by Smoot

July 08, 1999

"I will go in this way and find my own way out..."

Two nights ago, in the #subcafe IRC room, while talking to the other ficcers, Jesse Willey started making some interesting points about the exact nature of reality. Haesslich, Jesse, Dex, and I then dove headfirst into the discussion, and from what was said by everyone, I got some strange ideas bouncing around in my head.

First off, what is reality?

Well, I decided to find out the answer to that question. I went to Thor's Homepage of Recalcitrancy, where there is a link to the Wordnet 1.6 search database cleverly concealed in the title. I typed in "reality" and got this answer:
 

The noun "reality" has 4 senses in WordNet.

1. world, reality -- (all of your experiences that determine how things appear to you; "his world was shattered"; "we live in different worlds"; "for them demons were as much a part of reality as trees were")
2. reality, realness, realism -- (the state of being actual or real: "the reality of his situation slowly dawned on him")
3. reality -- (the state of the world as it really is rather than as you might want it to be; "businessmen have to face harsh realities")
4. reality -- (the quality possessed by something that is real)

The first definition hinges directly on what you perceive. I perceive the Billy Joel album in front of me; therefore it is real. But what about the things I haven't perceived or experienced? They don't exist in my reality, therefore they aren't real. Or are they? Others have perceived them. Probably even people in my reality. But can there be 5.5 billion realities running around out there?

The second one is almost an extension of the first. "The state of being actual or real". How can you be sure something is real unless you can perceive it's reality for yourself?

The third is a bit more interesting. You're perceiving two things at once, the way things would be if you had full control, and the way things are as you perceive them. The line between those can blur, because aren't you in control of what you perceive. Example: I see the pencil in front of me. I perceive it. It exists. I close my eyes. I no longer perceive it, therefore it no longer exists.

The last one, of course, hinges on everything above it. You can't bestow the quality of "real" on something until you define what "real" is.

And now for something completely different...

"There's no such thing as reality. It's just all different levels of not being." -Jess Willey.

Last night (July 6, 1999) I was talking with Jess about a conversation we had earlier in #subcafe about reality and illusions and the differences between the two. That definition can work, if you look at it the right way.

Take, for example, Snoopy. Yes, the cartoon dog created by Charles Schulz. Does Snoopy exist? He exists as a cartoon character. As something more? Ah, that's debatable.

Snoopy is a creation. Some of you will say, "well, he's a creation, so he's not as real." Well, according to a lot of people, God created us. We are creations. So are we real?

Got you thinking now, don't I?

Let's say that we are. In the words of Nathan Southwick, someone else I dragged into this discussion, "the word creations makes us real-when something is created, it comes into existence". So if God created us, we exist, but not on the same level as God, just as Snoopy doesn't exist on the same level as us. God, Snoopy, you and I, we all exist, but not on the same plane.

Okay, what about characters in a book? They all lead lives, have feelings, ambitions, dreams, hopes, loves, angst, and everything else that we as sentient beings do. How real are they? Nearly as real as us. When you look at things from their perspective as well, they ARE as real as we are. They live in their world, in their reality, and operate just as we do.

So who's to say that we aren't being written by somebody? We could be as subject to some author's whims as Rincewind is to the inspiration in Terry Pratchett's head.

You might argue that only a small portion of the world is being written, and only things in direct connection with the main character are shown. We live in a large, functional world, where billions of things are taking place at once.

Can you prove it?

It goes back to reality being what we can perceive. Can you prove that things you can't directly perceive, things in direct connection with you, exist? You may know it in your mind, but so would that character in that book.

So who's to say that we're only as real as that writer chooses to make us?

Time for another theory...

I was attempting to explain some of what I've said above of to Spade the other day, and for lack of a better idea of how to document it, I'll just post what we said. This conversation took place over ICQ.
 

Smoot      7/7/99   7:40 PM  So if reality what you perceive to be real, it
                                  sort of works that things you can't perceive
                                  therefore aren't real to you. Everyone's
                                  reality is different, therefore, we have 5.5
                                  billion different realities running around.
                                  Following me so far?

Spade   7/7/99   7:42 PM  Yes. That's what I meant by peoples'
                                  perceptions of their own reality. In my
                                  reality, I'm having a ICQ conversation with
                                  you and you with me. However, in your reality,
                                  that might not be true. But I'll never know
                                  that because this is my reality and my
                                  perception of you.

Smoot      7/7/99   7:45 PM  Exactly. So these realities intersct with one
                                  another, because my reality includes this
                                  conversation, and yours does too. There's one
                                  point of intersection. So if we say that this
                                  is one plane of reality, and that, say, Snoopy
                                  and Garfield are another, because they do
                                  exist, and that maybe thoughts and the
                                  subconscious are another plane, because they
                                  exist, would you say it's possible for the
                                  planes of reality to intersect?

Spade   7/7/99   7:50 PM  In my opinion it's entirely possible. See, I
                                  figure that these multiple palnes include not
                                  just our perceptions of what we believe but
                                  different time lines or realities as well.
                                  Depending on how one adjusts to what they
                                  believe their reality to be, then there will
                                  be an intersection of some sort. It's sort of
                                  like a fractured time line theory. Say one
                                  reality starts with two people, okay?

Smoot      7/7/99   7:51 PM  Okay, continue.

Spade   7/7/99   7:54 PM  Ran out of character space. :) On this plane,
                                  one person percieves something differently
                                  from the other. There's a divergance. There
                                  are now two planes of reality. Things move on
                                  like that until there are too many for our
                                  puny minds to concieve. That's how you get
                                  similar planes. The way I figure it, if humans
                                  would actually use a greater percentage of our
                                  brains ( we use, what, 30%?) than we'd be able
                                  to move through the different planes.
 

In actuality, we only use roughly 10% of our brain power, not thirty. That makes the statistic even more ridiculous.

Can anyone harness more brain power than is considered normal?

"Personally, I think some 'crazy' people do. Ya figure a genius goes nuts. Why? Maybe he has more brain power, but because of pre-taught perceptions, he's unable to accept and therefore control where he's navigating through the planes. That suggests a physical
attatchment to whatever plane you started out in, but maybe not a mental one."   -Spade

We also discussed autism. Maybe the deal with autism isn't so much that the victim has less brain power, it's that the power he has isn't all centered in this plane of reality. Any autistic child doesn't necessarily seem dumb, just detached. In another world, so to speak. Another plane of reality, perhaps.

Who's to say that this doesn't happen in other forms as well? When a person goes into a coma, their consciousness basically shuts down. Does it lie dormant, or does it go elsewhere? I've heard stories of people waking up from comas with interesting stories to tell that wouldn't make sense if they merely lied in stasis for a long time.

There's a wiccan theory called the Aspect theory, which says that there are hundreds of aspects of your mind all dwelling in different places at the same time, and you can connect with that aspect. What if you could not only connect with that aspect, you could become that aspect. When you into the coma, or even extreme shock, your consciousness might be shunted out of the aspect of the physical realm and transported to another aspect of yourself. People in comas might do this by default.

"So comas, dreams, and shock to a less extreme level, hell, maybe even death,
just release the mind in some form. Goodbye constricted perception and close-mindedness,
hello alternate reality."  -Spade

With all this in mind, look around you. Lookat what you perceive, what you see, what you feel, and think for a moment. What is real? What are your beliefs? These are only theories.

-Matt W Bowyer

I would like to thank Nathan Southwick, Jesse Willey, and Jennifer "Spade" Southerington for allowing me to use their thoughts and ideas in this rant. The wiccan theory was brought to me by Spade as well. :-)

By the way, why not email me and tell me what you think?

Past rants:

Edition 1: Fanficcers' Depression and ways to get over it.
Edition 2: "May You Live in Interesting Times"
Edition 3: OTL, Chicken Debacle, and much ranting and raving.
Edtition 4: Image is Everything
Edition 5: Web page wars, and safety in the school.