Kicking the tires
It’s true that we’re probably not here, we do not exist, we are simply experiencing a memory or a dream, and there’s nothing but our own personal sensory impulses to back anything up. Furthermore, what if there’s nobody else at all, and this entire elaborate illusion is nothing more than a product of my [your] own imagination?
There’s no way to prove anything at all, but there’s a degree of confidence we can restore by experiencing things that “couldn’t possibly be” products of our imaginations. One way is by “going out”, and seeking “evidence” of external creation: faraway lands, miracles, relationships, religion, nature, serendipity, luck, magic, fantasy, coincidence.
Another way is looking in: delving into specialized fields and exploring their complexity. If something is unknowable to a human mind, it must not be a product of a human mind. As we discover more and more of a discipline or a theory, we learn how much more there is left unknown.
I think that at a subconscious level, we yearn towards these two extremes in everything we do, in order to convince ourselves that this is real. And by seeking and learning about these phenomena, to root ourselves therein and feign some level of control, meager as it may be, over our destiny and our environment.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: complexity, creation, life, thoughts