Reality

[andrewducker]

Trying again, because the previous wording was causing problems.

[Poll #157777]

Edit: I'd be interested in justifications for (3) from anyone that voted that way.

Comments

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

i don't think an objective reality actually -matters- that much. seems strange to say so, but really what matters is what we perceive, because that's what we act on. i perceive i can't walk on air, so i can't and i don't.

if our perceptions are our senses and thought combined so what we feel, see, smell etc is all combined and then out brains say "that is so, so this must be!", then surely it doesn't matter if it's real or not.

i mean.. erm, geeky example. the holodeck in NextGen Star Trek - say you were on that, and you heard birds singing and wind blowing, you felt the breeze on your face and so on, to make you think you wer ein the countryside, would it actually -matter- that you weren't? that instead you were on a spaceship in the middle of nothing? that what you were touching was just gubbins made by the computer system on board?

have i strayed too much from the point?

[andrewducker]

Oh goodness yes, you're right. It's the perceptions that matter.

But I still believe there is an objective reality underlying things, otherwise my subjkective reality would look nothing like yours...

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

i suppose. but then, you could be part of my subjective brain thoguths. you might not exist. i might be imagining all of this. i might not exist. you might be imagining all this.

and how do you know what i see as yellow you see as yellow (for example)? maybe what i see as yellow you see as blue or some other colour i have no word for because it doesn't exist. maybe how i see is how you smell. myabe what i think of as three dimensional you see s two dimensional?

[andrewducker]

Yup, but even if you are imagining all of this, there's still something which is 'you' and that exists. It's just that your perceptions are subjective and easily subverted.

"Subverted" - I love that word.