We
all have a universe in our own minds. Our brains are amazing. A human
neural net contains some 100 trillion connections of neurons and
synapses. There’s nothing to compare it to in terms of scale. It seems
exquisitely ironic that we lack the capacity to realize the immensity
of that which allows us the capacity to realize. That unfathomable
network is the unique combination that makes us, and that makes our
understanding of reality - our own universe.
We all make our own universe. The way that we interpret the world and how it came to be is defined by parameters that we create in our own minds. A combination of heredity, evolutionary history and life experience maps out the network. Ideas and interactions make new neural connections, and repetition and reinforcement of experiences strengthens the pathways and solidifies those aspects of our thinking. When we reach adulthood, most of our neural net is mapped. The rules of our mental universe have been set in place. How we see and define the world and the rules that we teach ourselves to explain what we see are a lot like the laws of physics for our private universes.
I look at the world through a lens of numbers. I see mathematics and equations everywhere. The strong nuclear force in the physics of my private universe - the glue that holds the paradigm of my reality together - is made up of numbers, logical sequences, graphs, patterns and probabilities. It’s how I make sense of the immensity of this experience. I like to read about technology, cosmology, and other interpretations that reinforce my viewpoint. It’s the type of reasoning that “speaks” to me and aligns with my understanding of reality.
When we make our universe and define the rules that give it a structure, we’re forced to evaluate the veracity of many viewpoints. We are all confronted with claims of “The Truth” of very specific paths within science, religion and politics. When we choose a path and internalize it, we begin to access those neural pathways over and over again. We seed those ideas deep in our consciousness and in our sub-conscious minds.
We have access to a powerful tool of logic and reasoning - our frontal lobe. But when we’re confronted by ideas that challenge the private physics of our mental universe, we’re flooded with emotion as the deep-seeded feelings and sentiments that we attach to the guiding principles of our lives are accessed by more primitive parts of our thinking. Before we activate our frontal lobe, we’re already responding to the world on an instinctive, emotional level based on the rules that we’ve defined in our neural net to explain the universe that we see.
Consider the laws of physics in your universe. How did you define the rules? It’s extremely difficult to alter those powerful, heavily reinforced neural networks once they’ve been established and strengthened. We are all guilty of dismissing ideas - even thorough, scholarly research - when they do not conform to our rules. Perhaps it’s an instinctive need for self-preservation. We all need to feel that our universe is real, and an affront to our conception of reality is an attack on our whole universe. No wonder that our brains are designed to preserve the comforting rules that give our lives structure and allow us to make sense of our surroundings.
It’s comforting to believe in what’s familiar. When I make my day, I see familiar things, read familiar books, and seek out familiar entertainment that tends to reinforce the rules that I’ve already established and that seeks also to discard challenges to those rules. Finding validity in the ideas that I hold to be the foundation of the world is part of everyday life.
Our vast and unique brains tell us how the world is unfolding before our eyes. The neural net defines the pathways of our reasoning and understanding in a completely unique fashion inside the brain of every individual. Seven billion humans on earth, each with 100 trillion connections, have a virtually infinite combined capacity for thought and interpretation. No two brains are alike, and we still haven’t managed to download our consciousness into computers for interpretation (more on this subject in upcoming blog entries, stay tuned). Yet somehow, we share this experience and we agree that there is some sort of reality unfolding in front of us. Despite the shared nature of our experience, there is no agreement on a fundamental paradigm that defines the whole of the experience.
It seems that the search for Truth - a fundamental, absolute definition of reality - is a valid pursuit, even if it can never be attained. How utterly depressing to think our universe is based on a falsehood. But how can we discover a shared Truth of our existence when we cannot network the private universes that we all create to explain reality? People fight for the truthfulness that they see in their universe. There is endless conflict caused by people who try to force the truth of their paradigm.
But there is also hope and understanding. I feel that it’s important to remember that in the physics lab of our brain, variables are not kept constant. The rules that make my universe are not exclusively verified by exacting measurements and rigorous scientific standards. Some are in formative stages, some feel very concrete, and others are based more on assumptions and hypotheses than actual, carefully evaluated research. The measurements, the test subjects, the source material is biased, incomplete, unreliable, and tends to weigh heavily on emotional constructs and gut-reaction type thinking as opposed to more objective measures.
To me, the ultimate goal of life is to break the walls that contain my private universe. I know that they are artificial. I like to visualize the universe by thinking about every atom, every photon, every joule of energy as a single fiber in an infinite tapestry that expands in every spatial dimension. All of the atoms and all of the energy in my body make a visible thread. The way that it interacts with the whole tapestry is irrelevant in wide-shot, but when the focus narrows to a tiny point, it’s possible to see the way that it weaves through the billions of other strands in my local corner of the tapestry. The greatest objective of my life is to expand my frame of reference.
Word count: 1,072
We all make our own universe. The way that we interpret the world and how it came to be is defined by parameters that we create in our own minds. A combination of heredity, evolutionary history and life experience maps out the network. Ideas and interactions make new neural connections, and repetition and reinforcement of experiences strengthens the pathways and solidifies those aspects of our thinking. When we reach adulthood, most of our neural net is mapped. The rules of our mental universe have been set in place. How we see and define the world and the rules that we teach ourselves to explain what we see are a lot like the laws of physics for our private universes.
I look at the world through a lens of numbers. I see mathematics and equations everywhere. The strong nuclear force in the physics of my private universe - the glue that holds the paradigm of my reality together - is made up of numbers, logical sequences, graphs, patterns and probabilities. It’s how I make sense of the immensity of this experience. I like to read about technology, cosmology, and other interpretations that reinforce my viewpoint. It’s the type of reasoning that “speaks” to me and aligns with my understanding of reality.
When we make our universe and define the rules that give it a structure, we’re forced to evaluate the veracity of many viewpoints. We are all confronted with claims of “The Truth” of very specific paths within science, religion and politics. When we choose a path and internalize it, we begin to access those neural pathways over and over again. We seed those ideas deep in our consciousness and in our sub-conscious minds.
We have access to a powerful tool of logic and reasoning - our frontal lobe. But when we’re confronted by ideas that challenge the private physics of our mental universe, we’re flooded with emotion as the deep-seeded feelings and sentiments that we attach to the guiding principles of our lives are accessed by more primitive parts of our thinking. Before we activate our frontal lobe, we’re already responding to the world on an instinctive, emotional level based on the rules that we’ve defined in our neural net to explain the universe that we see.
Consider the laws of physics in your universe. How did you define the rules? It’s extremely difficult to alter those powerful, heavily reinforced neural networks once they’ve been established and strengthened. We are all guilty of dismissing ideas - even thorough, scholarly research - when they do not conform to our rules. Perhaps it’s an instinctive need for self-preservation. We all need to feel that our universe is real, and an affront to our conception of reality is an attack on our whole universe. No wonder that our brains are designed to preserve the comforting rules that give our lives structure and allow us to make sense of our surroundings.
It’s comforting to believe in what’s familiar. When I make my day, I see familiar things, read familiar books, and seek out familiar entertainment that tends to reinforce the rules that I’ve already established and that seeks also to discard challenges to those rules. Finding validity in the ideas that I hold to be the foundation of the world is part of everyday life.
Our vast and unique brains tell us how the world is unfolding before our eyes. The neural net defines the pathways of our reasoning and understanding in a completely unique fashion inside the brain of every individual. Seven billion humans on earth, each with 100 trillion connections, have a virtually infinite combined capacity for thought and interpretation. No two brains are alike, and we still haven’t managed to download our consciousness into computers for interpretation (more on this subject in upcoming blog entries, stay tuned). Yet somehow, we share this experience and we agree that there is some sort of reality unfolding in front of us. Despite the shared nature of our experience, there is no agreement on a fundamental paradigm that defines the whole of the experience.
It seems that the search for Truth - a fundamental, absolute definition of reality - is a valid pursuit, even if it can never be attained. How utterly depressing to think our universe is based on a falsehood. But how can we discover a shared Truth of our existence when we cannot network the private universes that we all create to explain reality? People fight for the truthfulness that they see in their universe. There is endless conflict caused by people who try to force the truth of their paradigm.
But there is also hope and understanding. I feel that it’s important to remember that in the physics lab of our brain, variables are not kept constant. The rules that make my universe are not exclusively verified by exacting measurements and rigorous scientific standards. Some are in formative stages, some feel very concrete, and others are based more on assumptions and hypotheses than actual, carefully evaluated research. The measurements, the test subjects, the source material is biased, incomplete, unreliable, and tends to weigh heavily on emotional constructs and gut-reaction type thinking as opposed to more objective measures.
To me, the ultimate goal of life is to break the walls that contain my private universe. I know that they are artificial. I like to visualize the universe by thinking about every atom, every photon, every joule of energy as a single fiber in an infinite tapestry that expands in every spatial dimension. All of the atoms and all of the energy in my body make a visible thread. The way that it interacts with the whole tapestry is irrelevant in wide-shot, but when the focus narrows to a tiny point, it’s possible to see the way that it weaves through the billions of other strands in my local corner of the tapestry. The greatest objective of my life is to expand my frame of reference.
Word count: 1,072
I completely love this blog post, John, and I'm with you all the way (Except for the part where you think in maths).
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