Welcome to this deep dive and we're gonna be tackling
One of the big ones today one of those questions that makes you go, huh? What is reality? It's a big one
It is but I think we're gonna try to make it bite-sized, you know
Starting with something we all know an apple, you know red juicy. Maybe you have one for breakfast, right?
We're gonna use this simple apple as a springboard to explore some pretty wild ideas
Yeah, both philosophy and science and our sources for this one take us from you know those classic philosophers like
pondering life in their togas all the way to kind of mind-bending physics that might make your head spin, but
They might we're in this together. We are we are in it together. This is a journey
Yeah, and the journey starts with a seemingly simple question is an apple
I mean you can touch it you can taste it, but what does that even mean right?
This is where philosophy steps in yeah
And one of the first stops on our reality road trip is Plato's allegory of the cave. Are you familiar with this one?
Oh, yeah, it's about these prisoners who spend their entire lives seeing nothing but shadows on a cave wall
I'm thinking that's the whole world. Well, there is yeah, so
Plato's point was that what we perceive as reality might be like those shadows
Hmm, just a limited glimpse of a much bigger more complex picture. Hmm. You know our senses might be fooling us
Okay, that's already making me question my snack choices, but wait it gets weirder
Oh, yeah, our sources point out that animal see color totally differently than we do like a bee
Sees ultraviolet patterns on flowers that are invisible to us. That's right. Yeah
It's like each species is living in its own custom-made visual simulation
You know wow your reality. Yeah quite literally isn't the same as a dog's reality or a bird's reality
So what you're saying is my apple might look delicious to me, but to a bat it's practically broadcasting on a different channel
Exactly, that's wild. Yeah, so the takeaway here is that even something as basic as color is just our brains interpreting information
It's not necessarily an objective truth about the apple itself. You got it that that is a really good way to put it
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that's where science comes in trying to unpack. Yeah, what our senses are telling us right our sources talk about the poet John Keats
Who was a bit bummed when?
Newton explained light through physics. Yeah, basically unweaving the rainbow as Keats put it
I get that you know some things just seem more magical when you don't know how they work
But I guess understanding that magic on a deeper level is its own kind of awesome. It is it is
So how do our eyes make sense of all these colors? Well, this guy Tom is young figured out that we have
Three types of color sensitive cells in our eyes. Okay
They work together like a team mixing and matching signals to create the whole spectrum of colors
We see so it's like our eyes are mixing colors like a painter's palette
Yeah, and the final masterpiece is what we perceive as reality right and that reinforces the idea that even though we
Experience the world as solid and out there. Mm-hmm. A lot of it is actually being constructed inside our own heads
Whoa, okay. I'm starting to see things a little differently already
But if you think that's mind-blowing just wait till we start talking about Einstein. Oh, yeah
He basically ripped apart our comfy ideas about time and space. He did he sure did until
Einstein came along. Yeah
Everyone pretty much assumed time and space were these fixed
Absolute things, you know, like a universal plot taking away for everyone at the same rate, right?
But Einstein's theory of relativity totally flipped the script
Yeah, one of our sources mentions this experiment from 2023 where astronomers actually measured time dilation
Distant quasars and you know what they found time ran slower in the early universe in that wild
Yeah, that's the thing about Einstein. He comes up with these wild ideas that seem impossible, right?
And then decades later scientists find ways to prove him right. Yeah, it's incredible
So what we learned from Einstein is that even time something we think of as you know, this absolute thing
Yeah, relative to your perspective. It is. Yeah, your frame of reference
So there's no universal now mine out could be different from your now depending on where we are and how fast we're moving precisely
There is no universal now. Wow, it's all relative. Okay, and it gets even weirder when you start to consider black holes
Oh boy, they're immense gravity warps space time so much that time
Practically stands still near the event horizon. Yeah, so imagine being close to a black hole
While someone else is far away time would be passing at drastically different rates for each of you
Hold on my brain needs a minute to catch up. I know I think I'm starting to get
We can't take anything for granted not even something as fundamental as time
And if that wasn't enough to shake up your reality, just wait till we dive into the world of atoms
Okay, so we've gone from questioning the color of an apple to questioning the very nature of time, right now
We're going even smaller. Yeah to the building blocks of everything Adam to the building blocks
You know those tiny things we learned about in school turns out there even weirder than we thought. Oh, yeah way weirder
Think about the early 1900s. There was this
a
Scientist Ernest Rutherford, huh? And he did this experiment where he fired tiny particles at a thin sheet of gold foil
Okay, and guess what most of them went straight through like the gold was practically empty
Wait, what so it's like shooting a cannonball at tissue paper and having it pass right through basically. Yeah, but
We experienced the world is solid right. How does that even make sense? That's the wild part
Rutherford's experiment showed that atoms are mostly empty space
What we perceive as solidity is actually the result of forces between those tiny particles within the atom
So my apple which feels so firm in my hand is basically a bunch of empty space held together by invisible forces
You got it. I'm telling you the more we learn about reality less
I feel like I understand anything but that's the beauty of it, right? There's always more to discover always another layer to peel back and
Speaking of peeling back layers
Let's dive even deeper into the atom to the realm of electrons. You remember those little guys zipping around the nucleus
Yeah, they're like the planets orbiting the Sun, right? At least that's what I learned way back when well not quite
It turns out electrons don't behave like tiny planets at all. They're more like
Fuzzy clouds of possibility fuzzy clouds. Yeah, okay. Now you've really lost me. What's fuzzy about an electron?
This is where we enter this strange and wonderful world of quantum mechanics
Okay in the quantum realm things don't follow the same rules we're used to in the everyday world
Yeah, electrons for example exhibit something called wave particle duality
Okay, it's like they can be in multiple places at once spread out like a wave
Hold on. Are you saying an electron is both a particle and a wave?
Yeah, how is that even possible? Think about light. We know it acts like a wave, right?
That's how we get things like rainbows and diffraction patterns
Yeah, but light can also act like a particle a photon. Okay electrons are similar
They can be a tiny point of matter or a spread out wave depending on how you observe them
So it's like if I look at an electron one way it's a particle, but if I look at it another way
It's a wave. That's a good way to think about it. Yeah, that's seriously messing with my head
I know right quantum mechanics is full of these mind-bending concepts, but here's what's really crazy because electrons can act like waves
They can do things that seem impossible in the classical world like tunnel through barriers tunnel through barriers like teleport through wall
Kind of imagine you have a wall and you throw a tennis ball at it
Yeah, normally the ball would bounce back right, but if the tennis ball were an electron
There's a chance it could actually pass right through the wall as if it tunneled through it
Okay, that's just plain spooky. So you're telling me the atoms in my apple the ones that are mostly empty space are made of these fuzzy
Electrons that can teleport. Yeah, pretty much this apple is way more complicated than it looks it is and all of this strangeness led to some
Serious head scratching even among the greatest minds in physics. Okay, for example
Did you know that Einstein actually disagreed with some of the implications of quantum mechanics?
Really, I thought Einstein was all about bending the rules of reality. He was but even Einstein had his limits
He famously said God does not play dice
Because he couldn't accept that the universe could be fundamentally random as quantum mechanics suggests
So Einstein thought there had to be some underlying order. Yes some hidden variables that would make everything predictable again
Exactly. He believed that quantum mechanics was incomplete that there had to be more to the story
This led to some
Fascinated debates with other physicists like Niels Bohr who championed the probabilistic interpretation
But didn't experiments eventually prove that Einstein was wrong?
At least on some of these points. Yes, one of the biggest sticking points was this concept of entanglement
Where two particles become linked in such a way that they share the same fate even when separated by vast distances
So you're saying if I have two entangled particles and I do something to one of them
Yeah, the other one instantly reacts even if it's light years away
That's exactly right. Isn't that faster than the speed of light? That's exactly what bothered Einstein. He called it spooky action at a distance
He thought there had to be some hidden communication going on something
We weren't seeing because how else could they be in sync like that?
But the experiments they actually proved that entanglement is real and it does happen
Instantaneously regardless of distance. Yes, and this is where it gets really mind-blowing experiments including one called the cosmic belt test
Using starlight and quasars Wow confirmed that entanglement is a real phenomenon
It implies that the universe is non-local which means that things can be connected to influence each other
Instantaneously regardless of how far apart they are. Whoa, okay
So my apple with its atoms and its entangled particles is somehow connected to everything else in the universe
It seems that way. That's kind of a beautiful thought. Yeah, but also a little scary. Don't you think it's definitely a paradigm shift
Yeah, and it raises some profound questions about the nature of space time and reality itself
But before we get too lost in the cosmos, let's bring things back down to earth to something a little closer to home
What does it mean for you to be real?
Now you're getting personal
I'm not sure I'm ready to question my own existence just yet, but I'm definitely intrigued
Where do we even begin with something like that? Well one way to approach the question of you is through this
Thought experiment called the ship of Theseus, okay?
Imagine a ship that gradually has all of its parts replaced over time. Yeah, is it still the same ship?
Hmm if every plank every sail every nail is eventually swapped out
Does it fundamentally change the identity of the ship? That's a good one
It's kind of like that question, you know if you replace all the parts of a car, right?
Is it still the same car? Right?
I guess it depends on what you consider to be the essence of the car or the ship, right exactly
And it gets even trickier when you apply it to humans. Yeah, our bodies are constantly replacing cells, right?
So are you still the same? Yeah, you from ten years ago, even though none of the physical matter is the same
Oh, that's heavy stuff makes you wonder what really matters the physical stuff or something more like
I don't know a pattern a soul an ongoing story
Yeah, our sources touch on this idea of consciousness, which seems like a key piece of the puzzle, right?
But what even is consciousness? Yeah, that's the million dollar question, right?
Is it just a byproduct of all those neurons firing in our brains?
Oh, huh, or is it something more fundamental and maybe even separate from the physical world?
Some scientists believe that consciousness could emerge from any sufficiently complex system, even artificial ones
So you're saying a computer if it gets sophisticated enough. Yeah, could
Actually become aware like have its own thoughts and feelings. That's the idea behind emerging consciousness
And it's pretty wild to consider on the other hand
There's this idea called mind-body dualism which goes way back to philosophers like Descartes
Okay, they argued that the mind is a totally separate entity from the body
So like our bodies are physical machines, right? But our minds are something else entirely maybe even non-physical
That's starting to sound a little like I don't know ghosts in the machine
I know it's a tough one to wrap your head around, but here's where things get really interesting. Okay ready for a mind-bender. Yeah
Some people think our entire reality might be a simulation wait a simulation like we're all just living in the matrix exactly
That's the simulation hypothesis
The idea is that our universe could be a giant computer program created by some super advanced civilization
Okay, everything we experience our thoughts our feelings
Our entire reality would just be lines of code. Okay, that's either the coolest or the most terrifying thing
I've ever heard so if we are in a simulation
Yeah, does that mean free will is an illusion and what about the meaning of life?
Does any of it even matter? Those are some of the big questions the simulation hypothesis raises
It makes you wonder who are the programmers?
What's their purpose in creating our simulated world and are they watching us right now?
Okay, now I'm definitely getting creeped out, but one of our sources takes this idea even further talking about the mathematical universe hypothesis
Oh, yeah, what's that all about? That's a truly mind-blowing concept. Yeah, it suggests the universe isn't made of physical stuff at all
Instead it's pure mathematics wait so instead of atoms and particles were made of equations and formulas. Is that what you're saying in a way?
Yes, it's like the universe itself is a giant mathematical equation playing itself out
Yeah, and if that's the case it means there could be an infinite number of other universes each representing a different mathematical possibility
Infinite universes my brain is officially fried
But there's one last concept our sources touch on that I have to ask you about this idea of Boltzmann brains. Oh, yeah
They sound kind of terrifying. They're definitely a bit unsettling
Boltzmann brains are
Hypothetical conscious entities that could spontaneously pop into existence in a random fluctuation of energy
Even in the vast emptiness of space like a disembodied brain just suddenly appears with thoughts and memories
Vanishes again pretty much. That's both amazing and terrifying and the really wild part is that
Statistically speaking it might be more likely for a Boltzmann brain to exist than a whole universe like ours really so there's a chance that we're all
Just temporary fluctuations in the cosmic void. Okay, that's officially too much for me to process
I think I need a break from reality for a while. I hear you. It's been quite a journey, hasn't it?
We started with a simple apple and ended up questioning the very fabric of existence. Yeah, but
Even though we may not have all the answers one thing's for sure
The universe is a far stranger and more wondrous place than we ever imagined. Absolutely
We've explored color time atoms consciousness simulations even disembodied brains
We've been everywhere and while it's mind-blowing. I wouldn't have it any other way me neither
So as you go about your day
Yeah, take a moment to look around and appreciate the mystery of it all
It's all a mystery that solidity you feel that sense of self that flow of time
It's all a lot more complex and amazing than we realize really is and who knows what incredible discoveries are waiting for us
Just around the corner. We'll be back soon to dive into another fascinating topic until then stay curious