2 March 2005
If we perceive it, does that make it so?
Yes, because perception is reality!
It makes it so to the perceiver, possibly not to the perceived.
(that made sense in my head, less so when in actual text)
No.
Although my kneejerk response is to agree with Dorothee, reality tells me that there are far too many crazies out there that perceive the world in a way that has nothing to do with reality.
Sometimes we may want to perceive the world in a certain way, but reality tells us that we must adjust our perceptions. For those unwilling or unable to adjust, we leave to the courts.
No.
Magic tricks are perceived, but there is deception and deceit, so what we perceive is not what actually happened.
No. Except when you want it to be so. ;-)
Perception is an internal reality, filtered by ones own experiences and then coloured by personal standards and desires.
Even that which we "see" as "reality" is not necessarily what actually happens; since we are both observers and players in those interactions.
"Reality" is probably the gap or overlap between your reality and the other players in the frame.
I suppose history reveals what was actually reality at that point in time, since the historical outcome becomes the reality.
Unless you believe in fate.
In which case, the rest is bollocks !
Luke.
Depends what it is. Appearances can be deceptive. But some things don't exist other than as that which can be perceived, ie a funny smell.
Your question bears resemblance to the one about trees falling in forests.
Sometimes.
"I refute it thus!"
[stubs toe on a rock]
Computer says no
No.
Only Jean Luc Picard can 'make it so'.
Or in other words . . . no.
Given that perception is a process that simplifies the world around a person in order to enable that person to create an understanding of that world, perception is by its nature a creative process. And as to us everything is a product of this process, so everything that exists is actually entirely fictional.
In order for this to hold true, the subjective dimension of perception has to be considered as the P-dimension within an eleven dimensional universe. This is the model proposed according to P-theory, a development of Edward Witten's M-theory, and states that at the moment anything is perceived, a sub-space P-string is created across the perception dimension. As more is periveved, the more strings that come into existence, and the more tangeled and complicated that these P-Strings become. So the irony of perception is that the more we try to simplify and understand things, the more complex and confused we make our own universe.
To come back to the question, the answer is still no. For as we perceive something, far from 'making it so', we in fact 'make it not so', as we alter our universe and change the nature of the thing itself, making it a P-thing.
There is unfotunatley no punchline to this. Except to say that I am entirely a product of my own imagination and so am as simple as can be.
I think a more pertinent question is "why do you ask?"
Yes. No. Yes. Erm... No. Yes. No. (If 'it' was a snowman on a zebra crossing).
What was the question?
Yes. No. Yes. Erm... No. Yes. No. (If 'it' was a black cat on a zebra crossing).
What was the question?
You see - there's your answer - I only percieved that I posted once, but I obviously didn't. I mean, seriously, how would a snowman cross a zebra crossing, unless it was on the back of a cat?
On the back of a zebra with the cat holding the lollipop.
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