My Friend Devon wrote this for his philosophy class in 99. I just thought I’d share, it’s pretty interesting.
Could someone or something switch us off? Could it possibly be true that our world is just a computer program, or a hologram, or a dream? Although it’s about the weirdest thing you could think of, there are some tantalizing clues this might indeed be the case. The stuff we call ‘reality’ may simply not be for real.
Welcome to the outskirts of reality. Welcome to the place where theoretical physics and philosophy meet, and where religion and science loose their meaning. Better fasten your mental seatbelts. What Im about to tell you is just too weird. Too mind-boggling. And quite disturbing, really.
Here we go: the place we call reality may not be real at all. It may look real, and feel real, and smell real. But if you know where to look, and you look real close, you can see the cracks. Just like a Hollywood actor that suddenly realizes he’s not surrounded by real buildings – but by props made of cardboard paper.
If that sounds like lame science fiction; I agree. Indeed, we’ve all seen The Matrix. And of course, there’s this ancient eastern saying: `Am I a man dreaming to be a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming to be man’? But could such a thing be conceivable? Could it be true? Are we really here? Or are we, as one of my friends suggested, only a computer simulation, run by an alien race? Perhaps the simulation is getting boring, and the guy running the program is about to switch it off. We’d see some kind of huge ‘game over’-sign, and that would be it. One moment, we’re here. And the next – we aren’t.
If you’re easily disturbed, or prone to paranoia, better stop reading now. You may not like the answers to questions like these. What you are about to read may change the way you see things – forever.
Matter: Chunks Of Music?
First, you should know the stuff our Universe is made of isn’t very real at all. Sure, you can feel the chair underneath you, and see the monitor in front of you. But what we feel and touch and see in everyday life is actually a manifestation of some deeper, completely different kind of reality. Ultimately, matter is much like music. We’ve listened to it for so long now, that we have grown accustomed to the idea that the music is the only thing there is. But would we open our eyes, we would suddenly see the instrument that’s playing the music.
One way to explore what matter is, is by taking it apart. First, you’ll find tiny chunks of matter that are called molecules. Then, if you take the molecules apart, you’ll find the atoms the molecules are made of. And then, if you take apart the atoms, you’ll find a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons. And if you take apart the nucleus? You’ll be in for a big surprise. For inside an atom’s nucleus, reality as we know it actually ceases to exist.
An atom’s nucleus is made of tiny entities we call ‘particles’. But ‘particles’ is not really a good word for all the quarks, muons, protons, neutrons and electrons matter ultimately consists of. When you say ‘particles’, you think of little balls. But in quantum physics, there’s no such thing as solid `balls’ you can touch or see. In fact, particles are so incredibly different from everything we know of, our language lacks the words to describe them. Particles can be in two places at the same time, and behave both like a wave and a tiny chunk of matter, depending on what you do with them. Particles can pop in and out of existence from nowhere. And ‘grabbing’ them is impossible: it is simply not possible to both know where a particle is and how fast it moves about.
But still, a particle has to be something, right?
That’s why more and more physicists turn to `string theory’. In string theory, matter is ultimately made of extremely small elastic circles, called strings. These strings vibrate. But not like anything we know: the strings vibrate in at least ten dimensions! Our particles are the vibrations of the strings: they are the music the strings make.
The Dimensions: Up Or Zgvnp?
Okay, hold that thought: matter is ultimately the manifestation of something else.
Gladly, there are also things that are normal. Matter is weird, unreal stuff – so lets leave it out for a while. What you have left seems normal enough: it’s a thing we call ‘room’ or ‘space’. You can go forward and backwards in it, or up or down, or left and right. No denying that.
Well, I hate to disappoint you, but in physics, it’s all different again. Much to their own surprise, physicists have found that many calculations add up much better when you assume there are more dimensions than three! Try eleven dimensions, and you’ll get the best results. In fact, you cannot explain the stuff you see in certain experiments without assuming there are more than three dimensions.
Again, it is extremely hard for us silly, three-dimensional beings to even imagine what a many-dimension reality really is. For starters, try not to think of dimensions as being some kind of ‘place’. Instead, they are better compared with `directions’. Besides going left, right, up, down, backwards and forwards, you might want to go ‘brlp’ or ‘zgvnp’ for a change – whatever you call it. Dimensions are everywhere around us. In fact, they are intimately interwoven in our everyday reality. They are just locked away from our experience.
The implications of this are, of course, staggering. Even physicists don’t fully understand what living in a multidimensional universe really means. But we do know this for sure: we only see a small part of the ‘real’ reality.
The Universe: Bubbles Of What?
Time to check out exhibit number three: the Universe.
Again, the Universe is something we think we know. It is that big black thing with all the lights in it over your head. Perhaps you’ve even heard it’s expanding: first, there was a kind of blast (called ‘Big Bang’), and from that moment on, the Universe grew bigger and bigger.
But hold it right there. Once more, the real story is far stranger than that. For starters, the Universe has no ‘outside’. To ask what is ‘outside’ the Universe is a meaningless question – it would be like asking what continent lies ‘outside’ our planet. ‘Outside’ the Universe there are no dimensions, and there is no time. The Universe is best seen as an expanding bubble of dimensions in a sea of nothingness – although ‘nothing’ isn’t really a word you can use to describe what is ‘outside’ the Universe.
It is extremely difficult to fully comprehend what that means. According to one theory, there are many dimensional bubbles like the one we live in. Our Universe could be the result of two of such bubbles – or ‘planes’ – colliding. And wait, now you’re doing it again: you’re picturing a place with bubbles floating around. But there’s no such thing as a ‘place’. Instead, the other Universes should be wrapped up within our own reality, remember?
An even more bizarre theory has it the place we call the Universe is actually best compared with a hologram. Our Universe could be some kind of optical illusion, the result of several dimensions resonating.
Feel dizzy already? Well: the same goes for time. Time is also something we think we understand: yesterday was another time than today. But if you look on a large enough scale, it’s all different. Time is actually the same ‘stuff’ as space!
That’s easier to understand than it looks. It takes time to go from one place to another. Sure, you could move faster. But there’s a limit to how fast you can move. Nothing, not even a thought or a particle, can move faster than the speed of light – which is still more than one billion kilometers per hour! But even at light speed, it takes time to go from one place to another. That’s why time and space are basically the same. Space is time, and time is space. No wonder Einstein called it ‘space-time’.
And You? How Real Is Your Mind?
So, to wrap things up: we live in a place that’s not really a ‘place’, we’re made of stuff that’s not really ‘stuff’ and what we see is only a small part of what’s really there. Matter, time, dimensions, the Universe – it’s all lucid, unreal. We live in a kind of bubble that’s not really a bubble, and we’re surrounded by tiny, resonating strings that play a kind of multidimensional music we call ‘matter’. Pretty confusing, don’t you think?
Gladly, you can cling to this one security: that you are here. No matter how weird the stuff around you is, you are definitely for real. No need to explain: you just know you are.
But do you really?
Let’s do an experiment. Speak out your name over and over and over and over again. After a while, you’ll notice something weird. Your name will begin to sound strange. It’s no longer something that is you – your name is just a word, a random sequence of syllables and sounds that other people utter when they want to catch your attention. If your parents had given you another name, you would listen to another sequence of sounds.
The same happens when you look in the mirror. Stare at your own face long enough, and you’ll suddenly realize it’s just another face. The face in the mirror is, of course, yours. But after a while, it won’t feel like that anymore. The face you see could be anybody’s.
Most neuroscientists agree the same applies for your consciousness. The thing you call your ‘self’ is most likely an illusion, created by your brain. Your brain gives you vision, sound, speech, feelings, and thoughts. When you add all these things up, you’ll have some overall feeling of awareness you call your consciousness. But still, your brain is the thing running it. Your feeling of ‘self’ is best compared to a software program running. It looks very real – but it isn’t.
Of course, most people believe there is something like a ‘soul’ or a ‘spirit’ living inside of you. But when it comes down to facts, there just isn’t any evidence for that. Every thought you have, every move you make, every emotion you feel - it’s just brain, brain, brain.
There are actually experiments that prove it. When you disturb your brain in a certain way, your feeling of ‘self’ can get detached from your brain. Suddenly, it will feel as if ‘you’ are not inside your body anymore. You experience what is known as an ‘out of body experience’, or a ‘near death experience’. But you don’t have to be nearly dead to feel it. The sensation can easily be created in a laboratory, by placing a helmet with rotating magnetic fields on your head. The magnetic field acts like a ‘jam signal’ on your brain. Suddenly, you’ll feel like you’re floating outside your body. But you aren’t. It’s just your brain going confused.
And you don’t really need a helmet to do the trick. Visiting a place where the movement of the Earth’s crust generates magnetic fields can give you the experience. Being in a situation where your brain doesn’t get enough oxygen sometimes does it. Certain brain operations bring out the experience. Meditation and intensive prayer can generate it.
In fact, exactly this is why some people see ghosts, or Maria, or feel like they are visited by aliens. It is an incredible weird experience to be ‘outside of your brain’. Your brain will try to make sense of it. Immediately, the rational part of your brain will come up with an ‘explanation’ for the experience. You will sense a ‘presence’ near you. If you’re religious, you might see Maria, or Jesus. If you believe in UFOs, your brain might tell you you’re visited by aliens. If you believe in ghosts, you’ll feel the presence of a ghost of a dead person. But in reality, it’s your own feeling of self you’re experiencing.
So… Are We A Game Of Simms?
So there you are. You’re just a walking piece of matter that’s pretending to be someone. But in reality, things like matter, or self, or the Universe, or time, or dimensions are all illusions. Everything we see and everything we feel are, in fact, the manifestations of some underlying reality.
That leaves you with an unsettling question: what exactly is that reality?
The truth is: we don’t know. Could be almost anything, really. A dream, even. Or a simulation. Or a kind of computer game, an advanced kind of Civilization or Simms. There’s no way of knowing if there’s someone or something pushing the buttons. There’s no way of knowing if there isn’t, either.
And then, there’s this other thing most theorists agree on: our reality could suddenly end. Our universe could fold up. The dimensions we live in could be wrapped up. The very fabric of our physical world could be disrupted by some unprecedented, weird physical event. From one second to the other, our reality would no longer be there. Soundslike fun, right?
But then again, why bother? For that’s the deeper consequence of these things. If there is no such thing as a place we call Earth, we needn’t really worry about its end. Would the characters of a Simms-game feel sad or disappointed when you turned off the computer? Or would the people you dream of at night mind when you woke up? You guessed it: they probably wouldn’t. What isn’t really there, doesn’t really end.