Mind Bending Theories of Reality

ARE there vastly many near-duplicates of you reading vastly many near-duplicates of this article in vastly many parallel universes? Is consciousness a fundamental property of all matter? Could reality be a computer simulation? Reader, I can hear your groans from here in California.

We are inclined to reject ideas like these on the grounds that they sound preposterous. And yet some of the world’s leading scientists and philosophers advocate for them. Why? And how should you, assuming you aren’t an expert, react to these sorts of hypotheses?

When we confront fundamental questions about the nature of reality, things quickly get weird. As a philosopher specializing in metaphysics, I submit that weirdness is inevitable, and that something radically bizarre will turn out to be true.     READ MORE...

Myth Versus Reality on Aging

Paying extra for exotic vitamins in skin creams that promise to erase fine lines and prevent wrinkles will get you little more than an empty wallet, according to dermatologists. Although many face creams contain vitamins known as antioxidants, very few are actually effective in preventing or reversing skin damage.

"Despite advertising claims, almost all available topical formulations contain very low concentrations of antioxidants that are not well absorbed by the skin," said Karen E. Burke, MD, in a presentation to the American Academy of Dermatology's annual meeting this week in New Orleans. "There are three antioxidants that have been proven to decrease the effect of the sun on the skin and actually prevent further damage: selenium, vitamin E, and vitamin C."

Antioxidants are known to prevent agents called free radicals from damaging cells in the body and the skin. Free radicals are a result of normal body processes, but they can also be created by exposure to various environmental factors such as smoking or ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and can speed up the aging process.  READ MORE...

Reality of the Mind

One of the stranger articles we’ve seen in a long time at Aeon proposes a war on the very concept of “the mind.”

“The terms ‘mind’ and ‘mental’ are messy, harmful and distracting. We should get rid of them,” Joe Gough, a philosophy student, says.

Here is his reasoning:
"The terms mind and mental are used in so many ways and have such a chequered history that they carry more baggage than meaning. Ideas of the mind and the mental are simultaneously ambiguous and misleading, especially in various important areas of science and medicine. When people talk of ‘the mind’ and ‘the mental’, the no-mind thesis doesn’t deny that they’re talking about something – on the contrary, they’re often talking about too many things at once. Sometimes, when speaking of ‘the mind’, people really mean agency; other times, cognition; still others, consciousness; some uses of ‘mental’ really mean psychiatric; others psychological; others still immaterial; and yet others, something else."   JOE GOUGH, “THE MIND DOES

Joe Gough

Of course, all general terms are like that. Singling out “the mind,” as opposed to “a free press” or “wise financial management,” for special criticism is not clearly reasonable. We can’t just get rid of such terms because people are always reinterpreting them or moving the goalposts. That’s part of the very nature of abstractions. Abstractions are, by their nature, easier to just constantly reinvent than something wholly material like furniture or stonework.

And his recommendations?
"When we see the concepts of mind and mental doing such harm, we have good reason to get rid of them. Rather than talk about ‘minds’ and ‘the mental’, we would be better off discussing the more precise and helpful concepts relevant to what we’re doing. The good news is that they already exist for the most part, and work perfectly well once their connections with mind and mental are broken. Psychology has psychological, cognitive science cognitive, and psychiatry psychiatric. Outside these areas, there are many, many more –consciousness, imagination, responsibility, agency, thought, memory, to name but a few. Feminist work on relational autonomy and the relational self, and historical precursors such as Homer provide promising avenues for developing conceptions of people that don’t call on the notion of mind – notions according to which people are coherent wholes, not because they have some unifying inner core, but because of the way they, their relationships and their environments conjoin." JOE GOUGH, “THE MIND DOES NOT EXIST” AT AEON (AUGUST 30, 2021)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS...  CLICK HERE... 

 

Quantum Physics: Denying Reality

This morning I had a bowl of plain Greek yoghurt and toasted muesli for breakfast. I could have had a plain bagel with mashed avocado — or, I could have had nothing at all. But I had the yoghurt and muesli. I know, I know, damn millennials and their hipster breakfast food. But, also, who cares what I ate for breakfast? Well, perhaps the universe does.

Imagine that, after breakfast, I dutifully went to the lab to perform some quantum physics experiments. The results of the experiments obviously depend on what I do in the lab. But, they shouldn’t depend on what happens outside of the lab, right? 

I mean, why should laser light bouncing around through crystals and mirrors care what the current value of the S&P 500 is, let alone what I had for breakfast?

The conditions under which an experiment is performed are called its context. In practice, the contexts we consider are very limited to a few settings on the devices in the lab. But, maybe the temperature of the room is important. Were the lights on? Was the door open? Especially when things go wrong — which is more often than not — the context is where you look for answers. 

But some parts of the context are so far removed from the experiment that there is absolutely no way they could affect the results, such as that delicious muesli. (Did I mention it was toasted with a hint of maple and paired with a pot set Greek yoghurt?)

A theory is a set of mathematical rules that make predictions about the outcomes of experiments. Most theories automatically rule out most contexts simply by ignoring them. Dependence on other contexts are ruled out by experimentation. 

If there is no possible experimental arrangement in the lab that can distinguish what I had for breakfast, then the theory shouldn’t make reference to that context. Think of it as an application of Occam’s razor. Indeed, quantum physics makes no mention of breakfast choices.

As successful as quantum physics is, it is merely an operational theory. It’s like a lab manual with instructions about the preparations and expectations of experiments. It’s remarkably accurate, allowing us to engineer materials and devices which form the basis of all modern technology. But, it doesn’t tell us anything about reality — and that bothers a lot of physicists.  READ MORE

Life's Purpose: Do We Exist?

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality.  The word "metaphysics" comes from two Greek words that, together, literally mean "after or behind or among [the study of] the natural". It has been suggested that the term might have been coined by a first century CE editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle’s works into the treatise we now know by the name Metaphysics (ta meta ta phusika, 'after the Physics ', another of Aristotle's works).

Metaphysics studies questions related to what it is for something to exist and what types of existence there are. Metaphysics seeks to answer, in an abstract and fully general manner, the questions:

• What is there?
• What is it like?

Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. Metaphysics is considered one of the four main branches of philosophy, along with epistemology, logic, and ethics.

EXISTENCE

Existence as defined by the dictionary is:  the fact or state of living or having objective reality.

Objective reality means that something is actual (so it exists) independent of the mind. For example: while no one is nearby, a meteor crashes into a car, putting it on flames, leaving only a pile of ashes.

But, now does one prove that one exists simply because one perceives that one is living in some sort of reality? like an illusion... like a dream... like a fantasy...

The French philosopher Descartes believed that we exist because: "I think therefore I am."
but Descartes was a devout doubter in everything; in fact, his complete philosophical approach was based upon DOUBTING. So, if one thinks, one thinks in the context of doubt... so one would have to doubt that I AM.

So, this does not really help us much... even though DESCARTES' statement is still used today to prove that we exist.

The Movie THE MATRIX perceived existence in a another manner as if we were all in some illusionary dream world that was controlled by some sort of gigantic super computer and a variety of super program applications.

Without proof of existence... Life's Purpose is rather meaningless... wouldn't you say?

Our Reality Has Always Been

As a boy, I was never precocious in anything except maybe being rebellious and believing that I personally needed to break as many rules as I could without the need or desire that anyone should follow me...   so, I was no revolutionary leader of men and women, cats and dogs, and livestock if you're willing.  I was simply born with a personality that needed to break the rules while living by my own which obviously had to change often as I grew older and older.

My parents found me difficult to manage in the strict sense of the word and my siblings found me rude and ill mannered and had little to do with me as we were growing up...  especially since we had absolutely nothing in common and as each of us grew older, absolutely nothing in common ever developed.  We were like siblings born of another mother and found little generosity wherever we were together in our parent's homes in Virginia or North Carolina.

In case you are wondering, my rebellious talents NEVER SERVED ME WELL throughout my entire like up to and actually into my retirement where I continue to remain as NOT PART OF ANYTHING for fear I will ruin it and family will be ashamed of my behavior.  AND...  if you are reading this, by now are probably wondering why I have continued to be this way all of my life...  and, should I not remove the chip that lays upon my shoulder?

I am the purple vase in the reflection of the Panasonic Television Screen that never changes shape or colors but remains in its own image just as it had been discovered.  In short, I am or have become that which I was supposed to be or become all along...  and, regardless of my choices, my will, or obstacles placed in from of me, I still became what I was supposed to be even though no one knew it or even could predict it at the time...  especially since time travel is not an accept form of forward movement.

All of us have our ROLES TO PLAY which eventually becomes our DESTINY and no matter how we might want to twist and turn life, our fate had already been preserved in time long before we saw it unfold or we were later told.  Call it our curse of life that we were known before we had become...  but that is what our life is all about whether we believe it or not, all we have to do is look at who we are or have become right now...  and that reality has always been.