What exactly is the relationship between evolution and reality? Galileo Galilei claimed that tastes, smells, colors, and so on, reside in the consciousness. If the living creature experiencing these senses was removed, these qualities would not exist. Now, this is a bit similar to the, “if a tree falls in a forest, but no one is there to hear it, did it really make a sound?” question regarding reality.
It is a bit selfish of us to say that something cannot exist if it is not perceived. Millions of phenomena occur around us that we are not aware of without the help of technology. So, therefore, there must be an unobserved world out there that our evolution has not permitted us to experience.
Defining Experienced Reality
Donald Hoffman, a cognitive scientist and professor at the University of California, has a radical view of the divide between evolution and reality. In his viral TedTalk, he discusses his theory which states that species who “see” reality are just as fit as species who don’t (“fit” in relation to “physically fit” in evolution terms). It’s being fitness-tuned, not reality-tuned, that matters. After all, when you come across a snake in the woods, what your brain needs to tell you is to run away, not what the organization of neurons to make the snake is.
Basically, evolution doesn’t care if you objectively perceive reality, it only wants you to survive, and your world is tuned to making that happen to the best of your ability.
Perhaps perceptions, at root level, have nothing to do with fundamental physics and reality, thus forming a broken link between the two. Scientists are sure that there is a world separate from us that evolution doesn’t give us access to (because, I mean, if we have perceived all that there is in the universe, that would be awfully boring), and that our consciousness and interactions shape the reality we experience. Perception is reality, right?
Whether or not Hoffman’s theory is correct, he poses an interesting concept. The universe clearly doesn’t revolve around us, we know that much, but to think that our evolution, our DNA that makes up who we are, could be responsible for the distortion of our reality, is a fantastic concept to try to wrap your mind around. If Darwin were here today, I’d love to ask his opinion on the matter.
“Folks, it’s time to evolve. That’s why we’re troubled. You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything’s failing? It’s because, um–they’re no longer relevant. We’re supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You know that, right?”-Bill Hicks
Yeon Soo in 1986 as a hub for global companies. It’s projected completion date in in 2018, although Soo’s creation has become a futuristic ghost town. 99% of the tenants are Korean, bursting the bubble on the global diversity concept, as well as a lack of companies due to little to no economic incentives. The problem with Songdo is this: it lacks diversity and creativity, built upon ideas from the 80’s that were never updated.
The problem with these city plans is that they are discussed as projects between technology providers, engineers, authorities, and universities, not “ordinary people”, who make up the voting population, the tax-paying population, and the majority of the planet. These people aren’t aware of these cities until construction or approval is underway. You cannot appeal to the masses until you broadcast to them. These private investments cannot create broad social, economic, and environmental benefits.
Reality at it’s deepest, most complicated level could be something completely different from what we humans could image or comprehend, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a good grip on how it behaves through our eyes. As researchers and explorers, we must maintain a balance between believing everything is either fixed truth and acting as if we know nothing; that all of our theories remain up in the air. In order to discover, there must be a basis of fact or knowledge to go on. One person cannot blindly make a discovery, otherwise America would be named after Christopher Columbus, the man who thought he had found a new route to Asia instead of an unmapped continent, as opposed to Amerigo Vespucci, who knew he had made a discovery for the Eastern Hemisphere.
So, it turns out, there is a creative aspect to science, one we often don’t hear about in school. If, say, our lives are nothing more than a giant fishbowl and we’re the fish, scientists must use ingenuity to create possible scenarios to answer what we don’t know, such as some of the concepts listed above.
Generally speaking, the living room of a house is the designated area for social gathering. Equipped with a couch, a television, maybe some chairs and a coffee table, this household space, though morphing slightly over the years, has generally remained the same. In fact, the last greatest change to the classic living room was most likely the addition of the television, and now, in 2016, we’re about to gain a new groundbreaking addition.
For most users, the “cool factor” is the content, not so much the technology. The better demo presented to buyers will be dubbed the better technology (which can be a bit of a downer for those coming from a strictly tech-based background).
The Brain Vomit 