Reality? Really?
03 May 2010, 1:30amSociety places too much importance on the difference between “reality”, “facts”, and things that are not real. On my part, I agree with HP Lovecraft – “reality” is a product of the mind. Game worlds are real, killing Orcs is good.
Physicists are discovering odd things at the microscopic levels of “reality” and it makes them feel unhappy. Especially the religious ones. Apparently, if you zoom in a lot, remote particles are starting to affect one another as if distances didn’t exist. Events are being caused by things that will happen, not things that have happened. The creepiness is so intense, that it turns even the most devote Christians into agnostics.
But it is not at all surprising, no. In our daily life we can’t observe such minuscule events, so our notions of “space” and “time” have evolved in a way that is not sufficiently general to explain them. Space and time, it would seem, are useful tools in our mental inventory but the universe is under no obligation to behave the way they dictate. The universe can be as naughty as it wishes.
Anyway, enough metaphysics. My real protest is a social one, against the habit of being a slave of “reality” and “facts”. This is what I ask – If time and space are not at all compulsory, then what can we say about other common “facts”?
Here’s a personal favourite: “Nowadays you should have a very narrow professional focus. You must focus on one tiny area in order to be any good. If you are an artist, you should be a texture artist, or a 3D artist, or a concept artist; Don’t ever think of being a ‘general ‘artist, OMG, that’s horrible, stupid, insane, god will punish you. Want to be a programmer AND an artist? … *tries to assimilate* … ”
Why is it that people try so hard to impose their personal realities on others? If something is unthinkable or undesirable in the reality of one human being, it may well be the practical thing to do from the point of view of another. Presenting opinions as facts should be banned, made a capital offence.