What is Reality?

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BumCuddle
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08 Aug 2021

I've been pondering this question all my life and I'm sure you have too. I've been down many avenues philosophically, psychologically, spiritually and scientifically and of course the answer still alludes me.
When I look around and observe I perceive that whatever it is and no matter how messed up the universe seems there is a simple perfection and beauty to it that is beyond my comprehension.
For the last 5 years I have been diving into quantum physics which has led me to this video the other day,



I think this is a very interesting if disturbing theory yet it is being shunned by the scientific establishment.
If you have the notion to watch the video I'd love to see your thoughts on the universe and everything, that is if you are actually real at all :puf_wink:

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jam-s
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08 Aug 2021

I really like the style of the Kurzgesagt videos. They usually also touch on rather mind blowing concepts and try to give answers to philosophical questions. If you've not yet seen them, I highly recommend them: https://www.youtube.com/user/Kurzgesagt

The video that's related to yours is most likely this one:

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BRIGGS
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08 Aug 2021

TLDW;

Reality is the opposite of Fantasy. :lol:
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rgdaniel
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08 Aug 2021

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Dick

Bit simplistic, but kind of a fun theme to base a bunch of stories and novels on.

PhillipOrdonez
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08 Aug 2021

Didn't find anything disturbing here that wasn't known about for ages? I mean, the only disturbing thing here is the perceptual limitations we live with and that's something everyone agrees with at this point. I mean, charlatans have been trying to cash in on that very fact for ages trying to sell the craziest of things, therefore it must be a widely known phenomena. Everything else wasn't disturbing at all... 🤷‍♂️

Yeah kurzgesagt, brilliant channel, with vsauce, veritasium and PBS space time. Edutainment ftw.

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bxbrkrz
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08 Aug 2021

Cool video.
So, is Reality coding itself?
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PhillipOrdonez
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08 Aug 2021

bxbrkrz wrote:
08 Aug 2021
Cool video.
So, is Reality coding itself?
I took it as the universe being described as a process with a set of rules that interact based on those rules alone. Those interactions form a something we call reality, the universe, everything.

From another angle, you can think of us constantly decoding reality the best our senses are capable of

Kinda like with sound and audio and ad/da converters and stuff.

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Zac
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08 Aug 2021

I've been reading and watching a bit of how Lee Smolin interprets things. I think his insistence that time shouldn't be 'put' outside of the interaction/observation paradigm is very interesting. It allows for so much that putting time as an axis outside the universe doesn't.

His interpretation of quantum mechanics with time being real and a consequence of interactions of matter and radiation made more sense to me than any other I have read.

In a psychological analogy it made me put more importance on my social interactions.

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bxbrkrz
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08 Aug 2021

PhillipOrdonez wrote:
08 Aug 2021
bxbrkrz wrote:
08 Aug 2021
Cool video.
So, is Reality coding itself?
I took it as the universe being described as a process with a set of rules that interact based on those rules alone. Those interactions form a something we call reality, the universe, everything.

From another angle, you can think of us constantly decoding reality the best our senses are capable of

Kinda like with sound and audio and ad/da converters and stuff.
The part I don't get is if the rules evolved over time, or were all the same, built-in at the *beginning*. We look back *in time* when looking *up* and seeing events in the *past*, while we have the Hubble constant, moving *forward*. We need to write codes to describe the best we can what Reality is supposed to be. We create a set of rules. We type them on a computer, then we observe the mutations/evolution on a monitor. My point is not how we decode Reality, but how Reality was written. Since we are part of the *codes*, as the video would suggest, it will be impossible to ever know, while within.

No escape.
757365206C6F67696320746F207365656B20616E73776572732075736520726561736F6E20746F2066696E6420776973646F6D20676574206F7574206F6620796F757220636F6D666F7274207A6F6E65206F7220796F757220696E737069726174696F6E2077696C6C206372797374616C6C697A6520666F7265766572

WarStar
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08 Aug 2021

All great ideas guys ⚡

I'm on the "consciousness" side of things but similar to the concept of a embedded system/master script.. the hardware coding = quantum mechanics, space/time, gravity, etc and then the software code = "reality" as a subjective psychological experience of the individual.. how the two are connected is where you get into some serious philosophical thinking lol

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BumCuddle
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09 Aug 2021

bxbrkrz wrote:
08 Aug 2021

The part I don't get is if the rules evolved over time
I don't think time as a concept comes into question. The exponential growth of complexity from these simple rules can create what we perceive as the universe almost instantaneously and that complexity is far beyond our understanding. Maybe time is simply a concept we have created to survive and the universe is absolutely everything that could happen, will happen and has happened all together? It is our perception that makes it linear and of substance and motion when in fact whatever is going on behind the curtain is something like a 'fractal cascade'....the ultimate question is what made the rules and how? :?

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DaveyG
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09 Aug 2021

Hope is the wish list for new features in Reason.
Reality is what RS deliver.

PhillipOrdonez
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09 Aug 2021

bxbrkrz wrote:
08 Aug 2021
PhillipOrdonez wrote:
08 Aug 2021


I took it as the universe being described as a process with a set of rules that interact based on those rules alone. Those interactions form a something we call reality, the universe, everything.

From another angle, you can think of us constantly decoding reality the best our senses are capable of

Kinda like with sound and audio and ad/da converters and stuff.
The part I don't get is if the rules evolved over time, or were all the same, built-in at the *beginning*. We look back *in time* when looking *up* and seeing events in the *past*, while we have the Hubble constant, moving *forward*. We need to write codes to describe the best we can what Reality is supposed to be. We create a set of rules. We type them on a computer, then we observe the mutations/evolution on a monitor. My point is not how we decode Reality, but how Reality was written. Since we are part of the *codes*, as the video would suggest, it will be impossible to ever know, while within.

No escape.
I don't think it is possible to figure out how it was *written*, but the point is to figure out what are the rules and how everything operates. I don't think the rules needed to evolve at any point, knowing that even a set of simple rules can result in complexity.

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motuscott
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09 Aug 2021

I like pie.
Giddy up go Reason Pony
Who’s using the royal plural now baby? 🧂

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bxbrkrz
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09 Aug 2021

If we let the program with its simple rules run long enough on a computer for billions of years, will Consciousness emerge eventually?
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guitfnky
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09 Aug 2021

bxbrkrz wrote:
09 Aug 2021
If we let the program with its simple rules run long enough on a computer for billions of years, will Consciousness emerge eventually?
if the computer is fast enough, it might not take that long—like rendering audio faster than real-time. we could experience everything the way we are (feeling like it’s in real-time) even if the actual processing already happened long in the past. 🤯
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bxbrkrz
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09 Aug 2021

guitfnky wrote:
09 Aug 2021
bxbrkrz wrote:
09 Aug 2021
If we let the program with its simple rules run long enough on a computer for billions of years, will Consciousness emerge eventually?
if the computer is fast enough, it might not take that long—like rendering audio faster than real-time. we could experience everything the way we are (feeling like it’s in real-time) even if the actual processing already happened long in the past. 🤯
The universe is 13.7 billion years old, ~130,000 years. That's how long that computer took to create what we experience as Consciousness, from nothingness.
Yes, maybe everything past, present, future, all events were created at once. For humans to process it, Time was invented.
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Neo
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09 Aug 2021

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jam-s
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09 Aug 2021

bxbrkrz wrote:
09 Aug 2021
If we let the program with its simple rules run long enough on a computer for billions of years, will Consciousness emerge eventually?
Nah, it will either crash or end up in spin loop due to some trivial bug. :twisted:

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plaamook
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09 Aug 2021

I’m gonna go with ...since we don’t (can’t?) understand what consciousness is it’s unlikely we’ll simulate it, or even know if we did necessarily.
And if we don’t (can’t) understand consciousness we can’t understand reality. Because you can’t describe everything in the universe apart from that which knows such a thing is happening and consider that a complete model.
That said, it’s all so amazing to ponder I’ve no intention of giving up!

Simulation? Meh. The only problem there is the idea that a simulation isn’t ‘real’. But if you just accept that all experience is real there’s no problem. Dreams, hallucinations, consciousness, so called material reality. It’s all real. But maybe we don’t fully understand what real means.
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bxbrkrz
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09 Aug 2021

jam-s wrote:
09 Aug 2021
bxbrkrz wrote:
09 Aug 2021
If we let the program with its simple rules run long enough on a computer for billions of years, will Consciousness emerge eventually?
Nah, it will either crash or end up in spin loop due to some trivial bug. :twisted:
Maybe we are the result of a bug from reality.exe
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bxbrkrz
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09 Aug 2021

plaamook wrote:
09 Aug 2021
I’m gonna go with ...since we don’t (can’t?) understand what consciousness is it’s unlikely we’ll simulate it, or even know if we did necessarily.
And if we don’t (can’t) understand consciousness we can’t understand reality. Because you can’t describe everything in the universe apart from that which knows such a thing is happening and consider that a complete model.
That said, it’s all so amazing to ponder I’ve no intention of giving up!

Simulation? Meh. The only problem there is the idea that a simulation isn’t ‘real’. But if you just accept that all experience is real there’s no problem. Dreams, hallucinations, consciousness, so called material reality. It’s all real. But maybe we don’t fully understand what real means.
Image
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GeorgeFeb
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09 Aug 2021

Reality is a non-fungible token aka NFT. That was a simple question, lol.

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EdwardKiy
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09 Aug 2021

BumCuddle wrote:
09 Aug 2021
It is our perception that makes it linear and of substance and motion when in fact whatever is going on behind the curtain is something like a 'fractal cascade'....the ultimate question is what made the rules and how? :?
We know the expansion is NOT fractal, although that would seem like an obvious and intuitive assumption.

We know there's selection and recombination going on on all levels (e.g. making children, strains of bacteria, viruses, fungi and basically all sorts of animae), there's adaptation of form (mountains erode to make way for rivers; carbon condensed to diamonds to facilitate the forming of efficient surface landscape while at the same time storing energy for future breakdown and expulsion); there's a definite proclivity to homeostasis, such as when our kidneys shut down, the body will expel more carbon through the lungs to maintain the pH balance of our blood (Krebs cycle) or how the decrease of the ice mass of the Arctic is cyclic (4000 year cycles) and is always commensurate with increase of ice mass of the Antarctic https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/na ... han-losses (hence the names) or increased volcanic activity wherever a reduction of global temperature is required to maintain homeostasis etc etc.

There are many more that I haven't mentioned and those I/we are simply not aware of, that make it all non-linear, but

When we observe more of these within and without ourselves/our planet/w.e., we will become more aware of the driving motive and this means we will certainly and inevitably understand "the source", provided we have enough time.

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plaamook
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10 Aug 2021

I think it was bostrum who had the idea that a system couldn’t describe itself. That it would need to be larger than itself somehow.

I’ve not read this, a friend explained it to me. But if it’s accurate, we may never be able to fully understand the universe. We’d need a system larger than the universe in order to process it.

Interesting idea anyway.
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