Like movies. We react and get emotional and startled and stuff, but that’s totally fake and we know it.
And AI. I know it’s just a statistical illusion but I’ll still have a conversation with it. Sometimes I’ll even feel gratitude. So that’s nuts.
And then you have stories handed down by important authorities. Science and religion. The guy said it so I treat it as real. Is that good or bad?
Fact is, we as humans do this thing where we treat fantasy as reality. And sometimes that’s a good and useful and sometimes it’s bad. And sometimes it’s good for a while but then there’s a AHA moment and then you realize you’ve been fooled and it was all fake. And sometimes that matters and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t know. I’m getting confused here. You tell me.
Your brain simulates reality for you, so there is no difference.
You’ve never had any contact with the real, physical world, and you never can have.
It’s all an interpretation.
That’s why you can get as invested into real life, as you can into a game, as you can into a story you thought up in your head.
Humans have a very tenuous grasp on reality because there is no such thing as reality for us.
I prefer to start with what I perceive. I think that you prefer to start with what are popularly considered to be the smart ideas of the hour.
I don’t know what that means, but what I have described is what our scientific research tells about our senses and our brain.