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Do Our Questions Create the World?

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Do Our Questions Create the World?

#41

Post by [deleted] »

alexpetralia wrote: post #34
mnw21cam wrote: post #2

No. No, I think the world would still be there if we didn't question it. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. (Philip K. Dick)

My metaphysical philosophy has always been: - Objective truth: the physical world as it is. There are no "chairs" in this world (would an ant recognize a chair, or a bacteria?) - only data from which we can derive patterns. - Consensus truth: what people have agreed to be true, often via perception or abstract logic. This is math, that is red, this is a chair, that is democracy. - Subjective truth: what I believe to…

[deleted]

Re: Do Our Questions Create the World?

#42

Post by geoffreyhale »

n4r9 wrote: post #38
alexpetralia wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My metaphysical philosophy has always been: - Objective truth: the physical world as it is. There are no "chairs" in this world (would an ant recognize a chair, or a bacteria?) - only data from which we can derive patterns. - Consensus truth: what people have agreed to be true, often via perception or abstract logic. This is math, that is red, this is a chair, that is democracy. - Subjective truth: what I believe to…

I don't know any name for it but I've wondered about those same delineations (my term for the second is "consensus-based reality"). I worry about to what extent the first one can be said to definitely exist.

I use "reality" instead of "truth" for all of those positions, reserving "truth" for logic or the opposite of a lie.

Re: Do Our Questions Create the World?

#43

Post by Theodores »

mnw21cam wrote: post #2

No. No, I think the world would still be there if we didn't question it. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. (Philip K. Dick)

Is this quote from Time Out Of Joint?

If so I need to read that book.

With political and other scandals where you get into believing the propaganda but then there are awkward facts that just can't be erased. Yet the world goes on ignoring the facts that, if taken into consideration, mean the convenient narrative verging on a fable can only be a lie.

The fact that disproves everything could be a five second clip from headline news reporting made decades ago, only broadcast live. Or the first edition version of a newsprint article revised in the 'final edition' that did make it to microfiche. Or a forum repost from a decade ago, now lost to a content management system update. These clues are everywhere, sometimes ignored due to 'fast moving events' where we are collectively still trying to learn the story and pertinent details and little clues are lost to the big picture we are still trying to see.

Maybe only with sci-fi can this be told, with real events too much opinion shaped by TV and the PR companies gets in the way.

Re: Do Our Questions Create the World?

#44

Post by drb91 »

Tiki wrote: post #5

Towards the end of the article was the question I had all along reading it: "Where was mind when the universe was born? And what sustained the universe for the billions of years before we came to be? He nonetheless bravely offers us a lovely, chilling paradox: At the heart of everything is a question, not an answer. When we peer down into the deepest recesses of matter or at the farthest edge of the universe, we see,…

One might have emotional attachment to an explainable universe; in such a scenario you might find the concept of an ultimate unanswerable question chilling. Or alternatively if you’re a skeptic, you might find it lovely.

Re: Do Our Questions Create the World?

#45

Post by drb91 »

mnw21cam wrote: post #2

No. No, I think the world would still be there if we didn't question it. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. (Philip K. Dick)

Not believing in realty is semantically suspect. Delusion still provides a (false) reality in which to live. Hell if anything it’s evidence of active questioning to perceive anything.

Re: Do Our Questions Create the World?

#47

Post by cheeko1234 »

rags2riches wrote: post #36

I can't claim to understand the first thing about quantum mechanics, but whenever I read about it I always come to think of lazy evaluation. Then I want to know if it's there simply for performance reasons or if it's to enable an infinite universe.

Just read the 'it from bit' paper referenced in the article. Wheeler goes quite in depth into why "turtles all the way down" is not a solution.

http://cqi.inf.usi.ch/qic/wheeler.pdf

Re: Do Our Questions Create the World?

#49

Post by s-shellfish »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #31
opportune wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it’s not profound except at face value. Just strikes me as extremely vague and hand-wavy metaphysics This is the reason that a lot of people don’t like philosophy - because people hide behind verbal tricks which have little meaning beyond sounding “deep”. Green ideas sleep furiously

I agree. If you immediately know the candle light is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago.

Can't there be room for both awarenesses in a single mind?
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