The concluding part – Are We Real?
As I implied when I introduced Part 2 last Thursday, Why Are We Here?, these are deeply interesting films. Do find time to watch them both (Part 1 Are We Alone is here ) if you can. So here is the concluding part, Are We Real? You can either go to it via this link, or watch the YouTube elements below.
There is a fundamental chasm in our understanding of ourselves, the universe, and everything. To solve this, Sir Martin takes us on a mind-boggling journey through multiple universes to post-biological life.
On the way we learn of the disturbing possibility that we could be the product of someone else’s experiment.
I do hope you all found these three films as stimulating and thought-provoking as Jean and I did.
Learning from Dogs 
I did. Thank you very much for posting them.
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I haven’t quite got the time to watch them. I know there are a lot of questions still out there. One of the main problems with science is that every time you answer one question, you end up asking 10 more.
Then there are also things that some people think we will never know, e.g. what started the universe.
All I want to say in terms of ‘are we real’.
According to Descartes: ‘I think therefore I am’ philosophy.
I think, so I know I’m real. I’m just not sure about anyone else.
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Quantum Physics is what defines reality. At least in the best approximation we have today. And what does it say? Incredible things. Such incredible things that some, if not most, did not believe them, as they cling to the classical, not to say antiquated, views, of their late ancestors. Thus was launched the “Many Worlds” and “Multiverse” naivety. In truth, the multiverse is a flight from reality.
Making Quantum computers work will change all of that. “Weak Measurement” experiments last year seem to indicate, if confirmed, that Quantum Physics itself needs to be sublimated into something more precise. Something even less classical.
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com
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That may be true, I don’t know enough about quantum physics to make an opinion.
All I’m saying is that all of this is based on evidence through tests we have seen and done. Descartes point was that everything that we have ever sensed could be an illusion (in his words it could have been created by some mystical demon, in more modern terms I would liken it to a psychiatric disorder where our mind fantasises about the world around us.) and therefore not actually real.
In fact the only thing we can be sure of is that we are thinking. That in itself states that we must exist, as our thoughts exist. But it also says that that is the only thing in this world we can be sure of.
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SD & Patrice, thank you both for such a fascinating insight into this area. The concept, “That in itself states that we must exist, as our thoughts exist. But it also says that that is the only thing in this world we can be sure of.” is just tantalising; I’m sure that I will ‘borrow’ that for some other writings that I have in mind. Almost takes the notion of reality to a higher, philosophical level. Best wishes, Paul
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And an update from something recently published in Science Magazine, viz:
AUSTIN, TEXAS-Astronomers have made the largest map yet of dark matter in the universe. This invisible stuff gives off no light, but it does exert gravity on its surroundings. It probably consists of unknown elementary particles, and it’s much more prevalent than the normal matter from which stars, planets, and people are made.
The new map shows that dark matter is concentrated in huge clumps and filaments, with giant, empty regions in between—just as computer simulations had predicted. “We’re very happy to see that our results are similar to what we expected,” says astrophysicist Ludovic Van Waerbeke of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in Canada.
Mapping the invisible may sound impossible, but in fact it’s rather simple. Just as an invisible man sleeping in your bed will leave wrinkles in the sheets, the gravity of invisible dark matter produces minute distortions in the observed shapes of background galaxies. Using this “weak lensing” effect to map dark matter is “a first important step to understand the dark Universe,” says Van Waerbeke’s co-worker Catherine Heymans of the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.
Rest of the article may be seen here http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/01/a-guide-to-the-dark-side.html
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The idea of Descartes was to start from something he knew for sure (“I think”). As our honorable correspondent suggested, Descartes implicitly viewed that trait as the unique certainty. However, this is not so. There are plenty of other things we are sure of. A chimp swinging from a branch knows full well that if he let go from 30 meters up, he will suffer something terrible and most likely terminal.
So “Descartes’ error” was not just about forgetting the importance of the emotional. He also forgot lots of the logic.
(I thank SD for helping me to think of this.)
PA
/http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/
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Descartes did exclude more or less everything in his meditations which is a bit harsh to think about.
Yes we know if a monkey falls it will probably die, and it knows it as well. We know that the next day the sun will rise in the east. We know that if it rains, we will most likely get wet.
But again, this is all part of Descartes illusion.The monkey may fall and have looked to have died, but this is an illusion set upon you to believe that it has happened. The sun rises in the east because you are made to believe this. You become wet when it rains, not because you are wet, but because you believe you are wet. Everything in this sensory world tells us what to believe and what we think we know.
Descartes argued that the entire sensory world could be an illusion, and therefore our entire reality could be an illusion.
Of course there are certainties within this illusion, but that does not make them reality.
I just want to say that this is all philosophical nonsense that doesn’t really effect our daily lives that much. I’m more or less certain that this is our reality, and if its not, why would we waste our time in such an ‘illusion’ worrying about existence…
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Hey, you two! You can carry on forever if you wish. Just love ‘listening’ to you both! Big thanks, P.
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Interesting Video’s I will save to look later Paul and loved the interaction of comments :-)… BIG SMILES
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If only I understood what they were saying! 😉
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