Reality Check

Have you ever stopped to think about what reality is?

I mean, it’s all around us, but it’s like trying to describe water to a fish – we’re so immersed in it that we barely notice it.

Now, you might think, “Well, that’s easy. Science has it all figured out, right?”. We’re taught that everything is made of atoms, that it all started with the Big Bang, we evolved from apes and so on.

But what if I told you that this question is, in fact, far from answered? Even with all our knowledge, we’re still barely scratching the surface - and might forever do so!

Perception

Let’s start with something we all trust: our eyes. Take a look at the image below.

See those squares labeled A and B? Believe it or not, they’re the same color.

Wild, right? Our brains are playing tricks on us. This little illusion shows us that what we see isn’t always what’s really there. It’s like our brain is an overeager Instagram filter, that tweaks reality before we even realize it.

Every human perception is shaped by context, expectations, and the way our brains process information more than we realize.

Physics

Similar to the eyes, measurements we make to probe reality are also limited by the precision of our instruments.

As scientists continue to study the nature of reality, from the subatomic to the cosmic scale, we see things become more empty and bizarre the deeper we go.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, with its 27-kilometer circumference, is currently the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Yet, to probe even smaller scales and higher energies, scientists are already planning even larger colliders.

Similarly, to observe distant celestial objects and phenomena, we need increasingly large telescopes and sophisticated detection systems.

This trend however raises questions about the nature of measurement and reality itself.

When we measure anything physical, are we obtaining actual readings from reality, or are we simply recording the least count reading from our instruments?

Language

Language, our primary tool for communicating about reality, introduces its own set of limitations.

Words are merely tags that point to shared experiences. The word “red” doesn’t encode the actual experience of seeing red; it’s a shorthand for a complex sensory and neurological process.

Language is, at best, a low-resolution translator of reality. It allows us to share ideas and experiences, but it also shapes and constrains our thinking.

Concepts

Now, let’s try a little thought experiment.

Imagine you’re in a small village in Africa, trying to explain the Burj Khalifa to a child who’s never left their village. Oh, and here’s the catch – you can’t use words like “building,” “tall,” “glass,” or “city.”

Tough, isn’t it? This isn’t just a fun game – it shows us something important. We can only understand new things by relating them to stuff we already know. It’s like our knowledge is a big Lego structure, and we can only add new pieces that fit with what we’ve already built.

Maths

Well definitely maths should help us? World is just numbers at the end of the day right? right?

Maths allows us to model complex systems and uncover patterns that might otherwise remain hidden. However, it’s crucial to remember that mathematics is a language we’ve created to describe reality, not reality itself.

There is a reason why mathematicians need to keep inventing newer sets of numbers every few years!

Logic

“Logic isn’t supposed to tell us what is true, it is supposed to tell us what follows from what.” This quote nicely sums up the power and limits of logic. Here’s a simple way to think about it:

Logic is like a chain, linking ideas together. It shows how one thing leads to another. It doesn’t create new facts, but helps us see what comes from the facts we already have. Take this example:

All dogs have tails.

Fido is a dog.

So, Fido must have a tail.

The conclusion just follows from the first two statements. But here’s the tricky part - logic relies on those starting statements being true. And often, those statements come from what we observe in the world, not from logic itself.

Seeking Reality

In our modern world, it’s easy to feel like science has it all figured out. We’ve split atoms, explored distant planets, and mapped the human genome.

But our journey through the nature of perception, measurement, and knowledge reveals that we have gaping unknowns that stare at us all the time. Even math, and language—our most trusted tools—only give us a glimpse of the bigger picture.

If you found solace in science as the broker and authority of reality, this article should convince you that science and maths give us useful approximations but aren’t scratching reality in the first place.

Yet, this isn’t a reason to give up—it’s a reminder to seek reality harder - because it’s staring at you all the time!