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Jun. 2nd, 2006 07:26 amRunning in Great Falls (doing terrible) I realize that the reality I know as real is not real. I've always criticized people with religious faith as morons, and wondered why they believe in things in the absence of any data whatsoever to prove them. Well, I've been presented with tons of data about this reality - and inferred that enough existed to demonstrate that reality is real. I was wrong. I failed to compare my direct experience to the claims made by this reality. Had I done so, I would have discovered that the claims were simply impossible.
First off, this reality seems consistent. I know if I put my hand over a flame it will hurt. That is my consistent experience, and it seems reasonable to conclude that if, in the future, I put my hand into or over a flame it will hurt. I don't like hurt, so I will generally avoid such activity. Regardless of whether this reality is real or not does not substantially change my actions.
Some examples: airplanes. They clearly cannot fly. I've felt air, usually it's something I pass through with no consideration, but at great speed I find that it presses with great force against my body. Still, I cannot propel myself fast enough to fly unaided - even if dragged from a car by a rope I would merely be dashed against the ground until my meat dissolved in small pieces across the pavement rather than flying in the air like a kite. I've created paper airplanes, very light creatures which, when physically propelled by an outside force, can take short flights. I know how to shape them for longer or curlier flights - how the confusing up equals down based on the alleged lift based on air passing over different parts of the paper at different speeds. That I could live with. Airplanes, however, fail the laugh test. They cannot fly. I remember in grade school when we had an airplane contest, and one fellow had an airplane shaped like a typical airplane. We tried to get it to fly, but it would go no further than a similarly weighted rock.
You cannot convince me that airplanes fly. I don't understand the math, and if I did it would only prove that the math was flawed or not real. Common sense clearly demonstrates that you cannot take a large metal object with a surface as smooth and as slippery as a hard vibrator and propel it with such force that it flies. No amount of lift would make those tiny wings lift a giant metal boulder into the air. The dinky flaps on those monstrous wings would hardly make a dent in the lift. The wings themselves are hardly anything but cylinders. The more I stare air airplanes, the more I wonder why I ever believed the stupid things flew through the air in the first place. If they do, it's only because some other force influences their trajectory.
Maybe that's god, maybe that's the matrix, maybe that's a creation of my mind, maybe it's a video game, but what it aint is real.
You know what else isn't real? Energy. Fuel. I talked with VJ a long time ago, and he was talking about the unrealistic futures of alternative fuels. Most alternative fuels are produced using fossil fuels, and solar panels require absurd chemicals and produce little result. The argument exists that fossil fuels are very efficient - for those millions of years of life, we now have tremendous amounts of energy in a small space. With me so far? That all makes sense, but not having experienced photosynthesis or other biochemical reactions over millions of years, nor done the alleged chemical analyses to prove that these invisible molecules do indeed possess such unlikely levels of energy. Hell even photosynthesis can't pass the laugh test, and even if it could light cannot. Light deomonstrates principles of both particles and waves? Then you take this impossible energy and convert it into food? Screw that! Then I realized I was running in the woods.
I was running in the woods, and barely able to get my body to go 4 - 5 miles. I hurt going up hills. I thought about how much I ate that day, and how much water I was losing on this trip. My shirt was soaked in water, allegedly a low energy fluid. Then I realized my car cannot possibly work. There is no way that one gallon of any fluid can propel a piece of metal that weighs tons 40 miles. 40 miles! I can barely go 4 miles, and even with wheels I can't push my damn car very far. I certainly can't push it 40 miles, and I can eat all sorts of things and drink far more than a gallon. It is patently absurd to claim that any fluid can be used to propel a huge hunk of steel such a great distance. Fossil fuels do not exist, and my car cannot work.
I realized reality is not real. I felt foolish for seeing it all this time, but I tend to trust what I am told. I have been told countless times to rely on the foundations of science, even conducted "experiments" to verify some principles of science. Still, I never imagined that the entire data set and analysis might be based on a vast conspiracy to deceive me, and perhaps others. I can't even rely on others - they might also not be real, or they might not all be real. I certainly can't rely on your responses to judge whether or not you exist.
I stepped over another toad in the road, but this one...I wasn't sure it was a toad. Every time I stopped to watch a shadow that moved it was either a leaf or a hoppy-toad. This one looked like a small black triangle flipping into perhaps diamond. It was blurry while objects around it were clear. I chose not to look back because in my experience all such things were toads...but then I returned to the realization that reality is not real. So I turned back.
I look down and see this small black thing is geometric. Now it's clear. It has 3 dimensions, and opens into a dual-triangle shape, like a mouth. I walk up to it, and as my foot nears it the thing suddenly expands. It opens into the shape of a giant mouth or an oval - taller than me by a foot. I realize it is real. This thing is real and I understand what real is from my senses - I don't even know what sense, but this thing is real and all I have ever known is not. I step inside, and there are many lights. Now it is dark.
First off, this reality seems consistent. I know if I put my hand over a flame it will hurt. That is my consistent experience, and it seems reasonable to conclude that if, in the future, I put my hand into or over a flame it will hurt. I don't like hurt, so I will generally avoid such activity. Regardless of whether this reality is real or not does not substantially change my actions.
Some examples: airplanes. They clearly cannot fly. I've felt air, usually it's something I pass through with no consideration, but at great speed I find that it presses with great force against my body. Still, I cannot propel myself fast enough to fly unaided - even if dragged from a car by a rope I would merely be dashed against the ground until my meat dissolved in small pieces across the pavement rather than flying in the air like a kite. I've created paper airplanes, very light creatures which, when physically propelled by an outside force, can take short flights. I know how to shape them for longer or curlier flights - how the confusing up equals down based on the alleged lift based on air passing over different parts of the paper at different speeds. That I could live with. Airplanes, however, fail the laugh test. They cannot fly. I remember in grade school when we had an airplane contest, and one fellow had an airplane shaped like a typical airplane. We tried to get it to fly, but it would go no further than a similarly weighted rock.
You cannot convince me that airplanes fly. I don't understand the math, and if I did it would only prove that the math was flawed or not real. Common sense clearly demonstrates that you cannot take a large metal object with a surface as smooth and as slippery as a hard vibrator and propel it with such force that it flies. No amount of lift would make those tiny wings lift a giant metal boulder into the air. The dinky flaps on those monstrous wings would hardly make a dent in the lift. The wings themselves are hardly anything but cylinders. The more I stare air airplanes, the more I wonder why I ever believed the stupid things flew through the air in the first place. If they do, it's only because some other force influences their trajectory.
Maybe that's god, maybe that's the matrix, maybe that's a creation of my mind, maybe it's a video game, but what it aint is real.
You know what else isn't real? Energy. Fuel. I talked with VJ a long time ago, and he was talking about the unrealistic futures of alternative fuels. Most alternative fuels are produced using fossil fuels, and solar panels require absurd chemicals and produce little result. The argument exists that fossil fuels are very efficient - for those millions of years of life, we now have tremendous amounts of energy in a small space. With me so far? That all makes sense, but not having experienced photosynthesis or other biochemical reactions over millions of years, nor done the alleged chemical analyses to prove that these invisible molecules do indeed possess such unlikely levels of energy. Hell even photosynthesis can't pass the laugh test, and even if it could light cannot. Light deomonstrates principles of both particles and waves? Then you take this impossible energy and convert it into food? Screw that! Then I realized I was running in the woods.
I was running in the woods, and barely able to get my body to go 4 - 5 miles. I hurt going up hills. I thought about how much I ate that day, and how much water I was losing on this trip. My shirt was soaked in water, allegedly a low energy fluid. Then I realized my car cannot possibly work. There is no way that one gallon of any fluid can propel a piece of metal that weighs tons 40 miles. 40 miles! I can barely go 4 miles, and even with wheels I can't push my damn car very far. I certainly can't push it 40 miles, and I can eat all sorts of things and drink far more than a gallon. It is patently absurd to claim that any fluid can be used to propel a huge hunk of steel such a great distance. Fossil fuels do not exist, and my car cannot work.
I realized reality is not real. I felt foolish for seeing it all this time, but I tend to trust what I am told. I have been told countless times to rely on the foundations of science, even conducted "experiments" to verify some principles of science. Still, I never imagined that the entire data set and analysis might be based on a vast conspiracy to deceive me, and perhaps others. I can't even rely on others - they might also not be real, or they might not all be real. I certainly can't rely on your responses to judge whether or not you exist.
I stepped over another toad in the road, but this one...I wasn't sure it was a toad. Every time I stopped to watch a shadow that moved it was either a leaf or a hoppy-toad. This one looked like a small black triangle flipping into perhaps diamond. It was blurry while objects around it were clear. I chose not to look back because in my experience all such things were toads...but then I returned to the realization that reality is not real. So I turned back.
I look down and see this small black thing is geometric. Now it's clear. It has 3 dimensions, and opens into a dual-triangle shape, like a mouth. I walk up to it, and as my foot nears it the thing suddenly expands. It opens into the shape of a giant mouth or an oval - taller than me by a foot. I realize it is real. This thing is real and I understand what real is from my senses - I don't even know what sense, but this thing is real and all I have ever known is not. I step inside, and there are many lights. Now it is dark.
