Some of the things that we accept as true and take at face value are notoriously wrong.
Scientists and philosophers have made every effort to change our common perceptions of it. The 10 examples below will show you what I mean.
Big Freeze is the theory of the final state that our universe is heading toward. The universe has a limited supply of energy. According to this theory, when that energy finally runs out, the universe will devolve into a frozen state.
The thermal energy produced by the motion of the particles will gradually wear out, which means that eventually, this particle motion will slow down and, presumably, one day, everything will stop.
Solipsism is a philosophical theory, which asserts that nothing exists but the individual’s consciousness. At first, it seems silly, but if you think about it, it really is impossible to verify anything but your own consciousness.
To check this out, take a moment to recall all the dreams that you have experienced in your life. Is it not possible that everything around you is nothing but an incredibly intricate dream? But, you may say, there are people and things around us that we cannot doubt because we can hear, see, smell, taste, and feel them, right?
Yes, and no. People who take LSD, for example, say that they can touch the most convincing hallucinations, but we do not claim that their visions are a “reality”. Your dreams can simulate sensations as well. After all, what you perceive is just a product of the information processing that takes place in different sections of your brain.
As a result, which parts of existence can we not doubt? Probably none. Each of us can only be sure of their own thoughts.
George Berkeley, the father of Idealism, argued that everything exists as an idea in someone’s mind. Berkley discovered that some of his peers considered his theory to be stupid. The story goes that one of his opponents kicked a stone with his eyes closed and said, “I disprove it thus!”
The idea was that if the stone really only existed in his imagination, he could not have kicked it with his eyes closed. The way Berkeley refuted this is hard to understand, especially in these days. He argued that there was an omnipotent and omnipresent God who was able to see everything simultaneously.
Everybody has heard of Plato. He is one of the world’s most famous philosophers. Like all philosophers, he had a few things to say about the nature of reality. He argued that beyond our perceived reality, there lies a world of “perfect” forms.
Everything that we see is just a shade, an imitation of how things truly are. To learn more about these ideas, read about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which is a sort of the ‘Matrix‘ in its ancient version.
Plato argued that by studying philosophy, we have a chance of catching a glimpse of how things truly are and discovering the perfect forms of everything we perceive.
In addition to this stunning statement, Plato, being a monist, said that everything is made of a single substance. This means (according to him) that everything – from stars in the sky to the dust under your bed – consists of the same basic material, but in a different form. With the discovery of atoms and molecules, it has been proven true to an extent.
Time is something that we perceive as a reality. Of course, we usually divide it into the past, present and future. Presentism argues that the past and the future are imagined concepts while only the present is real.
In other words, today’s breakfast and every word of this article will cease to exist after you finish reading it until you open it to read it again. The future is just as imaginary because the time cannot exist before and after it happened, as claimed by St. Augustine.
Eternalism is the exact opposite of presentism. This is a philosophical theory that says that time is multi-layered. All layers of the time exist simultaneously, but the measurement is determined by the observer. What they see depends on which point they are looking at.
Thus, dinosaurs, Queen Victoria and Justin Bieber all exist simultaneously but can only be observed from a specific location. If one takes this view of reality, then the future is hopeless and the deterministic free will is illusory.
The “brain in a jar” thought experiment is a question discussed by thinkers and scientists who, like most people, believe that one’s understanding of reality depends solely on their subjective feelings.
So, what is the essence of this thought experiment? Imagine that you are just a brain in a jar that is run by aliens or mad scientists. How would you know? And can you truly deny the possibility that this is your reality?
This is a modern interpretation of Descartes’ evil demon problem. This thought experiment leads to the same conclusion: we cannot confirm the actual existence of anything except our consciousness.
If this seems to sound reminiscent of the movie “The Matrix“, it is only because this idea was part of the very basis of the story. Unfortunately, in reality, we have no red pills…
Anyone who has not spent the last ten years on a desert island has heard of “the multiverse” or parallel universes at least once. As many of us have seen, parallel words, in theory, are worlds very similar to ours, with little (or in some cases, large) changes or differences. The multiverse theory speculates that there could exist an infinite number of these alternate realities.
What’s the point? In a parallel reality, you may be living in the opposite corner of the world or may have already died in a car crash. In another one, you might have never even been born because your parents never met. The probabilities are endless.
This is probably the most fascinating branch of the multiverse theory. Superman is real. Yes, some of you would probably choose a different story, for argument’s sake, Harry Potter might be real too.
This branch of the theory argues that given an infinite number of universes, everything must exist somewhere. So, all of our favorite fiction and fantasy may be descriptive of an alternate universe, one where all the right pieces came into place to make it happen.
Everyone is interested in what happens to things when we aren’t looking at them. Scientists have carefully studied this problem and some of them came to a simple conclusion – they disappear. Well, not quite like this.
Phenomenalist philosophers believe that objects only exist as a phenomenon of consciousness. So, your laptop is only here while you are aware of it and believe in its existence, but when you turn away from it, it ceases to exist until you or someone else interacts with it. There is no existence without perception. This is the root of phenomenalism.
Which of these mind-blowing theories about the nature of reality appeal to you most of all? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Just curious, if all that heat is being lost in number 1, isn't it all going to other particles? To answer my own question, yes. Energy is conserved. It's the Law of Conservation of Energy... This guy is probably not smart.. And by probably I mean definitely.
You're partly correct. The total energy of the universe never changes, thus it is conserved, but energy flows in one direction, from useful -> not useful.
In any exchange of energy, even between particles, a small portion of that energy is lost. This is the reason why stars die. When the sun converts 600-million tons of hydrogen into 550 million tons of helium, its showing how energy is inherently lost in the transaction. If things worked the way you're describing, then the stars would never die, but we know they do because we can study the after effects of their deaths; supernova.
What you're describing would be a perpetual motion machine, something which would forever run on its own energy supply. The Universe is not like that however. Space is expanding, which means there is less energy available to fill an ever expanding volume. Eventually the Universe will be so massive and the amount of available useful energy so small that it will be spread far too thin to be of any use. At that point, all chemical reactions, even between the quarks, will cease. The Universe will come to a terrible, grinding, halt.
This isn't a doomsday theory, either, its a rather cold fact, at least presently. The universe is getting bigger at an ever accelerating rate and there's only so much hydrogen available to fuel the birth of stars...
technically, if we consider the universe as a closed isolated system, the only way the energy would be 'lost' is if the energy was converted to mass, since even the 'not useful' energy is still in this closed system.
No energy is ever "lost", it can change type and move, and as dino said, become mass. Stars give out energy and eventually die, but the energy is recycled, and new stars eventually created. Also there are lots of theories about what will happen to the universe if expansion continues, but none of them are "cold facts", some theories don't even say the universe will expand continually, and instead, that after this period of expansion, there will be a period of contraction.
I do admire the underlying intent of this post. However I do feel the urge to point out that most accounts of the different worldviews described is either inaccurate or incomplete. If this is an attempt to get the unfamiliar interested in different worldviews then its a good, not great, but a good article. If someone were to read it in a haste then the point of these ideas would woosch past them like a freight train delivering kidneys. Most of these ideas have been refuted and disproved and there is more accurate/up-to-date ideas that cover pretty much the same area. Finally, if you want people to change their perception of the world it´s better to pose an idea as a question; "What if...".
To explain my position; I have studied cognitive science and for those of you who don´t know, it is the study of human understanding, perception, behavior, etc.. for several years and though I believe this article strive for a noble pursuit, I can not say I agree with the accuracy of the descriptions.
However, for whomever decides to dive into the pit of philosophy because of this article, here is a sword, you will need it on your journey , you will need it. ;)
Well put man. I am a neuroscientist and was going to get into think mode for at least the next hour, but it looks like you already completed the job.
Most of the things that are listed, are new to me. Fictional realism was a idea I always had and it is very cool to know that the idea already existed. So yeah, it is very shot. But that's ok, because people will not be turned away by long texts.
I had to stop at the first one that says the universe has a limited supply of energy. This goes against the Law of Conservation of Energy that states that energy is neither created or destroyed, it just transforms or transfers into different types. So, the total amount of energy in the universe will always stay the same. It cannot be lost, nor can it be created.
Conservation of matter/energy only applies to closed systems. The universe isn't necessarily a closed system (and the theory proposed necessarily presumes that it isn't).
I have a question on number 5. If "Presentism argues that the past and the future are imagined concepts, while only the present is real." How does Presentism claim that "In other words, today’s breakfast and every word of this article will cease to exist after you have read it, until you open it again."? Wouldn't all of those things still exist? If i close my eyes everything doesn't "cease to exist" it is still there in the present. Tree falls in the forest...
Just wondering, because if it does claim that, Presentism is stupid.
I guess I would say that I subscribe to Presentism (though I'd never assigned it the name).
I'd like to point out that I think the description of this item was simply worded improperly. It's not that your breakfast or the words of this page cease to exist, it's that they cease to exist in their previous forms.
Once something changes in any way (the definition of what Time measures), then that previous state no longer exists. You cannot go back to it.
As for your breakfast, yes, the atoms and molecules that it was made of still exist (and may still be traveling through your body in some form or another), but it can never be reassembled into the original form, and you could never turn back Time to when it was in that form.
Likewise, the future state of everything does not exist yet.
Only the current state of Everything (otherwise known as "the Present") exists. And at every interval of Time in its smallest possible degree, a new "Present" is created, and overwrites the previous.
This put my mind some information. You have a great posts. cheers