X'PRESSIONS
Science, Reality and Being Real
by Pritish Kumar Varadwaj, Faculty, IIIT Allahabad
Vijay Kumar Chaurasiya, Faculty, IIIT Allahabad.
What is reality? One of our professors asked this during our grad classes at Nehru Science Centre. All of us in class suddenly started pouring lots of views but finally there was not even a single satisfying answer. What it left was few blank faces gazing with silence with dozens of contradicting thoughts. It made us felt how less we know and how rich our science is.
Some of my smart friend argued what we see is real, but contradiction was does it mean reality never exists for blinds. (Think about it twice)
We know and we claim science never gives up searching for truth. But fact is it does so since it never claims to have achieved it. Science is civilizing because it puts truth ahead of all else, including personal interests. These may be grand claims, but so is the enterprise in which scientists share. But again my doubt is with the term truth. What I feel is validity of the term “truth” is in time domain, because for science during pre-Galilean era geocentric model of the universe was the only truth. Here we can also consider many such examples. So in this regard below one is an interesting quote given by Professor Evelleen Richards:
“Science … is not so much concerned with truth as it is with consensus. What counts as “truth” is what scientists can agree to count as truth at any particular moment in time … [Scientists] are not really receptive or not really open-minded to any sorts of criticisms or any sorts of claims that actually are attacking some of the established parts of the research (traditional) paradigm — in this case neo-Darwinism — so it is very difficult for people who are pushing claims that contradict the paradigm to get a hearing. They’ll find it difficult to [get] research grants; they’ll find it hard to get their research published; they’ll, in fact, find it very hard.”
Science is knowledge. It is only in the popular mind that it is equated with facts. That is of course flattering, since facts are incontrovertible. But it is also demeaning, since facts are meaningless. They contain no narrative. So a new school of thoughts came with a bit refreshing answer that, it’s not eye but the brain which see and perceive the things. So now it’s much more difficult to define reality. Coz if eye can perceive reality, than there would not have any illusion and we all know and have experience few form of illusion by now. So answer may be the Mind. I repeat its Mind not brain. This may be a probable explanation for Red Indian not able to saw the ships of Columbus, till it reached the shore. But if mind is sole responsible to experience reality, how can we differentiate between illusion and reality? It has been a well know fact that mind can think and perceive the way it has been trained to do so. So is it that “reality can be correlated by the training pattern of mind”? If it is so the socioeconomic / environmental, ethnic and religion temperament can bias the reality. But this can be interpreted in much extended way i.e. we can be taught or we can be trained to see the reality. Huhhh…Seems interesting is it?
We use our primary scientific instrument, the eye. The eye searches for shapes. It searches for a beginning, middle, and an end. What we see is as a consequence, culturally conditioned. This is open to misunderstanding. It might be construed to mean that our conclusions are simply a matter of taste, which they are not.
So thoughts for today is if you want to see the reality, close your eye. The only channel you left is the mind and mind it , its much more than trillions of neuron. It’s a way to feel the quantum with in you and to explore every probability to be a witness of this spectacular Universe.
Synopsis: To get the elixir of Life and to be a part of the reality, close your eye and let your mind understand the language of Universe.
To be continued …..
Note: This is a part of a twelve series unpublished article by author. This text contains personal opinions by author himself and is by no mean want to hurt anyone’s feelings/ believe and sentiment. Few facts/ figures and quotes have been given from available online/offline references, please inform the author incase of any ambiguity.