What is Reality?

What is Reality?

Have you asked yourself the following question: “what is reality?” In our day-to-day lives, we take little time to stop and think about just how absurd our circumstances are. From the vast depths and reaches of cold, dark dead space, here lies this minuscule rock on which we reside. And here we are, with no same-species neighbors presently within range (we’re talking light years here) – assuming that any truly exist anywhere and at all.

It almost seems too unbelievable to be real.

So, is it?

I’m sure that many of you have stopped and thought about this question at one point or another. What is truly real? Just what is reality? Although it may seem like an extremely odd question to ask, let’s not forget that many intelligent minds have spent endless hours trying to answer that question. And with all that pondering, a number of interesting theories  have emerged.

Although we may never have a definitive answer to that question, it’s fun to theorize about it. So, here are a few of the more interesting answers to the question: what is reality?

Solipsism

Solipsism is one of the more selfish and egocentric perspectives on what reality is.  According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Solipsism is essentially the mindset whereby you are convinced that your reality is nothing but a creation of your own mind and/or convinced that you are the only person who truly exists. All things are creations of your own mind and the world begins/ends when you do.  There’s no way to prove to you the world goes on without you since – according to this argument – you simply wouldn’t be around to see if it does.

This way of thinking is troublesome for obvious reasons. Someone who thinks in this way probably won’t be very mindful of other’s lives since it’s all “in their head” anyways. This  worldview is inherently lacking in empathy and sympathy. It is, in short, the ultimate pathogen – ontologically speaking.

As ridiculous as this may sound to some, Solipsism does seem to have some merit and, at the very least, can not be disproved. After all, how can you know that others really exist if you can’t actually step into their shoes and become them?

Presentism

Presentism is essentially the philosophical equivalent of “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me.” Actually, presentism takes it one step further. This ideology states “If I can’t see you, you don’t exist.”

More technically speaking, presentists believe that reality only exists in the present. The past once existed and the future will exist but it is not necessarily reality until it happens, since we cannot visit the past or the future; only the present. The present is the only conceivable state of time and space that can have any tangibility. Presentism, like many of these theories is pure conjecture and has very little scientific backing. Moreover, those scientific communities that concern themselves with the investigation of space and time have (loudly) voiced a great deal of disagreement with the basic tenets of Presentism.

Simulation Theory

I’m sure that most of you know about simulations and virtual reality. Virtual reality (or VR) digitally simulates an aspect of real life and makes you feel as though you are actually there. Although the idea has been around for quite some time, recently there have been promising improvements in the technology that provide these experiments. People speculate that soon the technology behind virtual reality will become so advanced that it will be nearly impossible to tell the difference between the simulations we create and our actual reality.

This has got some people thinking that maybe what we know as reality is just a simulation as well. Simulation theory proposes that our reality is an extremely complex computer simulation programmed by some being of higher intelligence. People justify this theory by pointing out that our world seems to be defined by basic laws, rules, and patterns – much like a computer program is defined by computer logic.

Simulation theory leads to some really interesting implications and questions. If this – all of reality – is just a simulation, then the world and our existence is limited to what the program encompasses. Is everything we do simply and definitively pre-determined by a kind of program code? Are we some sort of special AI within this Program of Programs? What happens if there is a bug in this simulation code? What if the creator just gets bored with us and turns off the simulation?

The Nocebo Effect

What is reality? Well, reality is what you make of it, according to the Nocebo Effect. The Nocebo Effect is the opposite of the well-documented and widely accepted Placebo Effect. For example, when a lactose-intolerant person takes a sugar pill and believes that it contains some form of lactose, they actually experience physical discomfort.

But in fact, the Placebo Effect – as well as its counterpart (the Nocebo Effect) – aren’t limited to just sugar pills. The Nocebo Effect, truth be told, has been directly related to instances of “medically unnecessary” death. In certain cases, patients who were told they had a terminal illness, and only had a certain amount of time to live, died within the specified timeframe. This happened despite the fact affirmed by the resulting autopsy – that there simply was no reason for their death from a strictly physiological point of view.

If our outlook on life is important enough to directly cause our death, then can we not confidently say that it also has a real effect on reality – or at least on our version of it?

All this just goes to show how powerful the human mind is. You can learn more about the Nocebo Effect in this TEDx talk by Lissa Rankin, MD.

Will we ever know?

So, to return to our initial question, what is reality? Well, to be honest, we simply don’t know and we may never know! While it’s fun to ponder these theories, where will all our pondering lead us and what good will it do us? So, while the great minds of our time toil over this question, I would suggest that we “Average Joes” look at it in the following way:

Reality is indeed what you make of it. You should try your best to accomplish your goals in life and to be the person you want to be. Instead of laboring to work out a potentially unsolvable equation, just try to make the most of your life. That’s what I think would be a better take on “reality”…whatever that really is!