Critical Thinking

Questioning Reality

The idea of reality is comforting, albeit uninformed. It is our best bet on something
absolute. We talk of it as if everyone understands it completely. Philosophers have
always questioned reality time and again. It is as if they seek pleasure in presenting
ideas that can make even the bravest of men afraid.

Here is the problem with reality, we never confirmed if it is how we perceive it. We
merely assumed it, as if there wasnt a need to ask - Is reality real?

The Brain in a Vat

American philosopher Gilbert Harman theorized a thought experiment based on Ren
Descartes famous evil demon. Imagine a crazy scientist who does crazy experiments to
demonstrate crazy ideas. Now he, being as crazy as he is, decides to remove the brain of
his assistant and place it in a jar. This jar has the perfect chemical composition to keep a
brain without damaging. He decides to feed the brain with electric impulses similar to
produced in a normal human brain. Now this brain of his assistant will continue to act
the same way it always had. If he now decided to run a simulation of the world as he
knows it on that brain, the assistant will never feel that his brain was taken out. He
would continue to live as if nothing has happened.

Extending this theory to ourselves, how do you know that reality is not just a cover?
How is our reality any different from that of the assistants reality. What if all the people
we see, all the things we touch and all we have ever felt was nothing but an experiment?

With technological advancements we are approaching a time when we would have

successfully created artificially intelligent robots who might as well be better than us in
every possible way. Now a sub question that comes under question of reality is assuming
others exist, do they perceive the same reality as we do?
Is my red same as your red?
Another set of thought experiment that tries to convey how alone we actually are in our
brains. How can you prove everyone sees the same color when they see a beautiful rose
flower? I would leave the thinking part on the reader and say what I think about this.

We will never be able to see things from someone elses eyes. We will die believing our
small existence was all everyone has and never think about other peoples fears, joys,
relationships and experiences. Even if we assume reality is real we will still be trapped
alone and never know if the reality, as it exists, is perceived the same.

Why we need to fool ourselves

Consider you are Neo, the One. You are contacted by Morpheus, the man who claims to
know the truth about your reality. You are trapped in the matrix with everyone else.
Now, assume you manage to break it. You manage to make everyone come to the real
world. Now, even if you have come out of the Matrix, this question of a fake reality
hasnt left you. You keep asking yourself if this is just another level of Matrix meant to
stop anyone from ever coming to the actual world. What if there are multiple levels of
realities built around you?

Assuming reality is much easier. You can conveniently go around and hang out with
your friends without having to concern yourself with questioning if the latte you just had
even exists.