The mystery of reality

Many will say, ‘What mystery? Surely, reality just is.’ So, where to start? I’ll start with an essay by Raymond Tallis, who has a regular column in Philosophy Now called, Tallis in Wonderland – sometimes contentious, often provocative, always thought-expanding. His latest in Issue 157, Aug/Sep 2023 (new one must be due) is called Reflections on Reality, and it’s all of the above.
 
I’ve written on this topic many times before, so I’m sure to repeat myself. But Tallis’s essay, I felt, deserved both consideration and a response, partly because he starts with the one aspect of reality that we hardly ever ponder, which is doubting its existence.
 
Actually, not so much its existence, but whether our senses fool us, which they sometimes do, like when we dream (a point Tallis makes himself). And this brings me to the first point about reality that no one ever seems to discuss, and that is its dependence on consciousness, because when you’re unconscious, reality ceases to exist, for You. Now, you might argue that you’re unconscious when you dream, but I disagree; it’s just that your consciousness is misled. The point is that we sometimes remember our dreams, and I can’t see how that’s possible unless there is consciousness involved. If you think about it, everything you remember was laid down by a conscious thought or experience.
 
So, just to be clear, I’m not saying that the objective material world ceases to exist without consciousness – a philosophical position called idealism (advocated by Donald Hoffman) – but that the material objective world is ‘unknown’ and, to all intents and purposes, might as well not exist if it’s unperceived by conscious agents (like us). Try to imagine the Universe if no one observed it. It’s impossible, because the word, ‘imagine’, axiomatically requires a conscious agent.
 
Tallis proffers a quote from celebrated sci-fi author, Philip K Dick: 'Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away' (from The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick, 1955). And this allows me to segue into the world of fiction, which Tallis doesn’t really discuss, but it’s another arena where we willingly ‘suspend disbelief' to temporarily and deliberately conflate reality with non-reality. This is something I have in common with Dick, because we have both created imaginary worlds that are more than distorted versions of the reality we experience every day; they’re entirely new worlds that no one has ever experienced in real life. But Dick’s aphorism expresses this succinctly. The so-called reality of these worlds, in these stories, only exist while we believe in them.
 
I’ve discussed elsewhere how the brain (not just human but animal brains, generally) creates a model of reality that is so ‘realistic’, we actually believe it exists outside our head.
 
I recently had a cataract operation, which was most illuminating when I took the bandage off, because my vision in that eye was so distorted, it made me feel sea sick. Everything had a lean to it and it really did feel like I was looking through a lens; I thought they had botched the operation. With both eyes open, it looked like objects were peeling apart. So I put a new eye patch on, and distracted myself for an hour by doing a Sudoku problem. When I had finished it, I took the patch off and my vision was restored. The brain had made the necessary adjustments to restore the illusion of reality as I normally interacted with it. And that’s the key point: the brain creates a model so accurately, integrating all our senses, but especially, sight, sound and touch, that we think the model is the reality. And all creatures have evolved that facility simply so they can survive; it’s a matter of life-and-death.
 
But having said all that, there are some aspects of reality that really do only exist in your mind, and not ‘out there’. Colour is the most obvious, but so is sound and smell, which all may be experienced differently by other species – how are we to know? Actually, we do know that some animals can hear sounds that we can’t and see colours that we don’t, and vice versa. And I contend that these sensory experiences are among the attributes that keep us distinct from AI.
 
Tallis makes a passing reference to Kant, who argued that space and time are also aspects of reality that are produced by the mind. I have always struggled to understand how Kant got that so wrong. Mind you, he lived more than a century before Einstein all-but proved that space and time are fundamental parameters of the Universe. Nevertheless, there are more than a few physicists who argue that the ‘flow of time’ is a purely psychological phenomenon. They may be right (but arguably for different reasons). If consciousness exists in a constant present (as expounded by Schrodinger) and everything else becomes the past as soon as it happens, then the flow of time is guaranteed for any entity with consciousness. However, many physicists (like Sabine Hossenfelder), if not most, argue that there is no ‘now’ – it’s an illusion.
 
Speaking of Schrodinger, he pointed out that there are fundamental differences between how we sense sight and sound, even though they are both waves. In the case of colour, we can blend them to get a new colour, and in fact, as we all know, all the colours we can see can be generated by just 3 colours, which is how the screens on all your devices work. However, that’s not the case with sound, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to distinguish all the different instruments in an orchestra. Just think: all the complexity is generated by a vibrating membrane (in the case of a speaker) and somehow our hearing separates it all. Of course, it can be done mathematically with a Fourier transform, but I don’t think that’s how our brains work, though I could be wrong.
 
And this leads me to discuss the role of science, and how it challenges our everyday experience of reality. Not surprisingly, Tallis also took his discussion in that direction. Quantum mechanics (QM) is the logical starting point, and Tallis references Bohr’s Copenhagen interpretation, ‘the view that the world has no definite state in the absence of observation.’ Now, I happen to think that there is a logical explanation for this, though I’m not sure anyone else agrees. If we go back to Schrodinger again, but this time his eponymous equation, it describes events before the ‘observation’ takes place, albeit with probabilities. What’s more, all the weird aspects of QM, like the Uncertainty Principle, superposition and entanglement, are all mathematically entailed in that equation. What’s missing is relativity theory, which has since been incorporated into QED or QFT.
 
But here’s the thing: once an observation or ‘measurement’ has taken place, Schrodinger’s equation no longer applies. In other words, you can’t use Schrodinger’s equation to describe something that has already happened. This is known as the ‘measurement problem’, because no one can explain it. But if QM only describes things that are yet to happen, then all the weird aspects aren’t so weird.
 
Tallis also mentions Einstein’s 'block universe', which infers past, present and future all exist simultaneously. In fact, that’s what Sabine Hossenfelder says in her book, Existential Physics:
 
The idea that the past and future exist in the same way as the present is compatible with all we currently know.
 
And:


Once you agree that anything exists now elsewhere, even though you see it only later, you are forced to accept that everything in the universe exists now. (Her emphasis.)
 
I’m not sure how she resolves this with cosmological history, but it does explain why she believes in superdeterminism (meaning the future is fixed), which axiomatically leads to her other strongly held belief that free will is an illusion; but so did Einstein, so she’s in good company.
 
In a passing remark, Tallis says, ‘science is entirely based on measurement’. I know from other essays that Tallis has written, that he believes the entire edifice of mathematics only exists because we can measure things, which we then applied to the natural world, which is why we have so-called ‘natural laws’. I’ve discussed his ideas on this elsewhere, but I think he has it back-to-front, whilst acknowledging that our ability to measure things, which is an extension of counting, is how humanity was introduced to mathematics. In fact, the ancient Greeks put geometry above arithmetic because it’s so physical. This is why there were no negative numbers in their mathematics, because the idea of a negative volume or area made no sense.
 
But, in the intervening 2 millennia, mathematics took on a life of its own, with such exotic entities like negative square roots and non-Euclidean geometry, which in turn suddenly found an unexpected home in QM and relativity theory respectively. All of a sudden, mathematics was informing us about reality before measurements were even made. Take Schrodinger’s wavefunction, which lies at the heart of his equation, and can’t be measured because it only exists in the future, assuming what I said above is correct.
 
But I think Tallis has a point, and I would argue that consciousness can’t be measured, which is why it might remain inexplicable to science, correlation with brain waves and their like notwithstanding.
 
So what is the mystery? Well, there’s more than one. For a start there is consciousness, without which reality would not be perceived or even be known, which seems to me to be pretty fundamental. Then there are the aspects of reality which have only recently been discovered, like the fact that time and space can have different ‘measurements’ dependent on the observer’s frame of reference. Then there is the increasing role of mathematics in our comprehension of reality at scales both cosmic and subatomic. In fact, given the role of numbers and mathematical relationships in determining fundamental constants and natural laws of the Universe, it would seem that mathematics is an inherent facet of reality.
 

What is your philosophy of life and why?

This was a question I answered on Quora, and, without specifically intending to, I brought together 2 apparently unrelated topics. The reason I discuss language is because it’s so intrinsic to our identity, not only as a species, but as an individual within our species. I’ve written an earlier post on language (in response to a Philosophy Now question-of-the-month), which has a different focus, and I deliberately avoided referencing that.
 
A ‘philosophy of life’ can be represented in many ways, but my perspective is within the context of relationships, in all their variety and manifestations. It also includes a recurring theme of mine.

First of all, what does one mean by ‘philosophy of life? For some people, it means a religious or cultural way-of-life. For others it might mean a category of philosophy, like post-modernism or existentialism or logical positivism.
 
For me, it means a philosophy on how I should live, and on how I both look at and interact with the world. This is not only dependent on my intrinsic beliefs that I might have grown up with, but also on how I conduct myself professionally and socially. So it’s something that has evolved over time.
 
I think that almost all aspects of our lives are dependent on our interactions with others, which starts right from when we were born, and really only ends when we die. And the thing is that everything we do, including all our failures and successes occur in this context.
 
Just to underline the significance of this dependence, we all think in a language, and we all gain our language from our milieu at an age before we can rationally and critically think, especially compared to when we mature. In fact, language is analogous to software that gets downloaded from generation to generation, so that knowledge can also be passed on and accumulated over ages, which has given rise to civilizations and disciplines like science, mathematics and art.
 
This all sounds off-topic, but it’s core to who we are and it’s what distinguishes us from other creatures. Language is also key to our relationships with others, both socially and professionally. But I take it further, because I’m a storyteller and language is the medium I use to create a world inside your head, populated by characters who feel like real people and who interact in ways we find believable. More than any other activity, this illustrates how powerful language is.
 
But it’s the necessity of relationships in all their manifestations that determines how one lives one’s life. As a consequence, my philosophy of life centres around one core value and that is trust. Without trust, I believe I am of no value. But, not only that, trust is the foundational value upon which a society either flourishes or devolves into a state of oppression with its antithesis, rebellion.
 

Oppenheimer and lessons for today

 I watched Chris Nolan’s 3hr movie, Oppenheimer, and then read the 600 page book it was based on, American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which deservedly won a Pulitzer prize. Its subtitle is The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, which really does sum up his life.
 
I think the movie should win a swag of Oscars, not just because of the leading actors, but the way the story was told. In the movie, the ‘triumph’ and the ‘tragedy’ are more-or-less told in parallel, using the clever device of colour for the ‘bomb’ story and black and white for the political story. From memory, the bomb is detonated at the 2hr mark and the remainder of the film focuses on what I’d call the ‘inquisition’, though ‘kangaroo court’ is possibly a more accurate description and is used at least once in the book by a contemporary commentator.
 
Despite its length, the book is a relatively easy read and is hard to put down, or at least it was for me – it really does read like a thriller in places.
 
It so happened that I followed it up with The Last Days of Socrates by Plato, and I couldn’t help but draw comparisons. Both were public figures who had political influence that wasn’t welcome or even tolerated in some circles.
 
I will talk briefly about Socrates, as I think its relevant, even though its 2400 years ago. Plato, of course, adopts Socrates’ perspective, and though I expect Plato was present at his trial, we don’t know how accurate a transcription it is. Nevertheless, the most interesting and informative part of the text is the section titled The Apology of Socrates (‘Socrates’ Defence’). Basically, Socrates argued that he had been the victim of what we would call a ‘smear campaign’ or even slander, and this is well and truly before social media, but perhaps they had something equivalent in Athens (4-300 BC). Socrates makes the point that he’s a private citizen, not a public figure, and says, …you can be quite sure, men of Athens, that if I’d set about a political career all those years ago, I’d long ago have come to a sticky end… Anyone who is really fighting for justice must live as a private citizen and not a public figure if he’s going to survive even a short time.
 
One of the reasons, if not the main reason, according to Plato, that Socrates accepted his fate was that he refused to change. Practicing philosophy in the way he did was, in effect, his essence.
 
The parallels with Oppenheimer, is that Oppenheimer publicly advocated policies that were not favourable among certain politicians and certainly not the military. But to appreciate this, one must see it in the political context of its time.
 
Firstly, one must understand that immediately after the second world war, most if not all the nations that had been involved, didn’t really have an appetite for another conflict, especially on that scale, let alone one involving nuclear weapons, which I believe, is how the cold war came to be.
 
If one looks at warfare through a historical lens, the side with a technological advantage invariably prevails. A good example is the Roman empire who could build roads, bridges and viaducts, all in the service of its armies.
 
So, there was a common view among the American military, as well as the politicians of the day, that, because they had the atomic bomb, they had a supreme technological superiority and all they had to do was keep the knowledge from the enemy.
 
Oppenheimer knew this was folly and was advocating an arms treaty with Russia decades before it became accepted. Not only Oppenheimer, but most scientists, knew that humanity would not survive a nuclear holocaust, but many politicians believed that the threat of a nuclear war was the only road to peace. For this reason, many viewed Oppenheimer as a very dangerous man. Oppenheimer opposed the hydrogen bomb because it was effectively a super-bomb that would make the atomic bomb look like a comparative non-event.
 
He also knew that the US Air Force had already circled which cities in Russia they would eliminate should another hot war start. Oppenheimer knew this was madness, and today there’s few people who would not agree with him. Hindsight is a remarkable facility.
 
On February 17 1953, Oppenheimer gave a speech in New York before an audience comprising a ‘closed meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations’, in which he attempted to relay the precarious state the world was in and the pivotal role that the US was playing, while all the time acknowledging that he was severely limited in what he could actually tell them. Here are some excerpts that give a flavour:

Looking a decade ahead, it is likely to be small comfort that the Soviet Union is four years behind us… the very least we can conclude is that our twenty-thousandth bomb… will not in any deep strategic sense offset their two-thousandth.
 
We have from the first, maintained that we should be free to use these weapons… [and] one ingredient of this plan is a rather rigid commitment to their use in a very massive, initial, unremitting strategic assault on the enemy.
 
Without putting it into actual words, Oppenheimer was spelling out America’s defence policy towards the Soviets at that time. What he couldn’t tell them was that this was the strategy of the Strategic Air Command – to obliterate scores of Russian cities in a genocidal air strike.
 
In his summing up, he said, We may anticipate a state of affairs in which the two Great Powers will each be in a position to put an end to civilization and life of the other, though not without risking its own.
 
He then gave this chilling analogy: We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of its own life.
 
This all happened against the backdrop and hysteria of McCarthyism, which Einstein compared to Nazi Germany. Oppenheimer, his wife and his brother all had links with the Communist party, though Oppenheimer distanced himself when he became aware of the barbaric excesses of Stalin’s Russia. The FBI had him under surveillance for much of his career, both during and after the war, and it was countless files of FBI wiretaps that was used in evidence against him, in his so-called hearing. They would have been inadmissible in a proper court of law, and in the hearing, his counsel was not allowed to access them because they were ‘classified’. There were 3 panel members and one of them, a Dr Evans, wrote a dissent, arguing that there was no new evidence, and that if Oppenheimer had been cleared in 1947, he was even less of a security risk in 1954.
 
After the ‘hearing’, media was divided, just like it would be today, and that’s its relevance to modern America. The schism was the left and right of politics and that schism is still there today, and possibly even deeper than it was then.
 
If one looks at the downfall of great people – I’m thinking Alan Turing and Galileo Galilei, not to mention Socrates – history judges them differently to how they were judged in their day, and that also goes for Oppenheimer. Hypatia is another who comes to mind, though she lived (and died) 400 AD. What all these have in common, other than being persecuted, is that they were ahead of their time. People will say the same about advocates for same-sex marriage, not to mention the Cassandras warning about climate change.

Addendum: I recently wrote a post on Quora that’s made me revisit this. Basically, I gave this as an example of when the world was on the brink of madness – specifically, the potential for nuclear Armageddon – and Oppenheimer was almost a lone voice in trying to warn people, while having neither the authority nor the legal right to do so.
 
It made me consider that we are now possibly on the brink of a different madness, that I referenced in my Quora post:
 
But the greatest harbinger of madness on the world stage is that the leading contender for the next POTUS is a twice-impeached, 4-times indicted ex-President. To quote Robert De Niro: “Democracy won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator.” We are potentially about to enter an era where madness will reign in the most powerful nation in the world. It’s happened before, so we are well aware of the consequences. Trump may not lead us into a world war, but despots will thrive and alliances will deteriorate if not outright crumble.