What is real?
The perception, given the individual involved, of a thing which ends up in shapes, forms, and mannerisms dictated by the viewer; having little to do with what is really in existence; mainly because nature does not care about our five senses.
There are many arguments about reality that are hard to understand.
If a tree falls in the middle of a forest, without having the aid of the human ear to transform the environmental input into what we know as sound, does it make any noise?
Is it plausible to believe that space is soundless? Would it be a fair assessment to say that human senses are what give our surroundings all meaning.
For instance, let’s take the quietly falling tree, let’s further say that it does not make a sound, for this analogy’s sake. If you are of the idea that the tree does not make a sound, partly because you were born deaf, can you then describe for us what happens if you are standing 1 centimeter away from where it falls? Do you feel the motion of the tree before your face, the wind that it carries as its force pushes the mammoth through the air and into its resting place. When it lands 1 centimeter from your feet, does your body not feel the reverberations of the tumultuous landing as the earth tremors with the sudden force of the weight now encumbering it? Furthermore, is there were a team of scientists studying the tree, with sensors that detect noises by the trees and other things, even though they are miles away with no ears in the near vicinity to receive the feedback of the tree… would they hear it fall?
Perhaps that is too hard to understand. Let us then look at another issue, that of sight. Simply put, what we see is not what is there. Imagine that a line measured ten feet in length. Now, I take a picture of the line, print the picture on a household printer, and showed you the picture. Then, I’d ask you how long the line is. Well, the width of the paper is eight inches, the line is all the way to the left and right margins, say one inch less for each margin (8”-1”-1”= 6”) so the line must be six inches. I’d agree if I didn’t know the line were a different length and that the picture is not to scale. The same happens with light, the visible spectrum if you will. What is visible exists, but the fact that we can only see a fraction of it, a portion, leaves us with the equivalent of that line in the printed paper. We can only see so much within the light spectrum visible to us, kind of like looking at that picture, we only know what we are presented, but what lies beyond what we see, is so much more complex. That is to say, if we were able to see with any and all portions of the light spectrum, what color would an otherwise red rose would be? Would it be the same color in the morning as it is at night, above and under water, or in other circumstances? That question is better posed like this: If you observe what you perceive to be a red rose under sunlight, but in the laboratory observed it under a different light source, would the color be the same? This article speaks of the matter better than I can.
The same occurs with taste, touch, and smell. There is so much that some would say we take for granted, but reality is that: what our reality is. We must understand that those differences exist in order to better form ideas and concepts that will help us understand, manage, and ultimately live fruitful lives. It is not enough to say or think sulfur is odorless, because when associated with other elements the properties become, let’s say stinky.
What does this all mean to the individual you/me? Nothing. Just because sulfuric acid rain on venus is much more of a redundant thing more than a danger, does not mean it affects us directly. Yet, the knowledge can help us in many different ways. As such, reality on Venus is very different than reality on Earth. Why? Rain on Earth means you get wet, whereas rain on Venus means there will be more clouds later. Yet again, that knowledge is paramount in helping us with our own problems as said in the article in this link:
...some sulfuric acid droplets evaporate at altitudes higher than previously thought and
raises serious questions about proposals to inject sulfur dioxide -- which deflects sunlight
-- into Earth's atmosphere to combat global warming….
Some knowledge, however trivial, gives humanity insight not into the unknown, but into how to better understand not just our environment, but through the study of other things, we also learn much about ourselves.
To that end, what is reality then? What is real here, is real because all of the evidence says it currently is so. To exist, is to be able to through a scientific exploration reach a conclusion on any of many angles surrounding any one thing; thus we are surrounded by reality as much as we are astounded by it. Because there is life on the planet, and because most living things have perception of one form or sort, it is plausible to say that not only does the tree make noise as it falls, while it is falling, when it lands, and through the echo after, but also that through other things in its environment like plants, insects, etcetera, it may do much more than just exert sound. The richness of the planet is in the brain we use to contrast every one the things we are provided with. Is it bad that I feel and because of it create ideas on what I have felt? Is it good that because I see something I attest to the prevalence of it? Can one truly be neutral in an ever changing world where science continues to show us just how little we have always known?
I reason that happiness as the ultimate goal in life is in part touched by the observations we make, how we perceive each and every occurrence, the ability to say that an object on a piece of paper is what color or length, the lively smell of an angry skunk, and the truths we learn about ourselves and surroundings with every turn of the scientific endeavor. Yet, as with wars, famine, hunger, and sickness, this too will probably be everlasting. That is, nature is absolute, reality is absolute, and the human concepts of each are an ever-evolving theoretical framework for understanding what is real.
