Your own brain already simulates the outside world. What? You thought what you saw was really what's out there? Your brain is only showing you part of the story.
Most people don't realize that the brain gives them a description of the outside world, not a picture of it. Try drawing a still life. What? Too difficult? Why? If you actually saw the world as it is, it wouldn't be too difficult, the only problem would be making the brush strokes. But instead, you need knowledge of the technique of perspective, you need knowledge of shading, etc. Why do we need knowledge to draw a world we're seeing with out own eyes?
Furthermore, what our brain presents is not the whole truth, even if it is a partial truth, which this article presents an article against. We see three dimensions of a world that could have many more, according to some theories. Some people only see two dimensions of this world. Some people don't see any dimensions of this world. Why do we assume that other important things, like specifics about the very way things are, are not modified by are brain? They are, at least indirectly, by our evolved emotions, but we assume that there's no modification at the sensory level. When it seems so easy to introduce noticeable differences at the sensory level by hallucinogens, why can't we believe the brain is already doing it to an extent?
The "brain in a jar" theory not only has legs, I'm nearly certain it's true. Your body is the jar. Your body certainly distorts the world through your evolved emotions, and probably through your senses as well. Even if you see the real world to some extent, you don't completely see it.
I remember a Philip K. Dick story where there was a man kept in a fake world, playing a newspaper contest to try to figure out where the enemy would bomb next in an interstellar war. Perhaps our body is like that. Perhaps the
"Be there. Aloha."
-- Steve McGarret, _Hawaii Five-Oh_
You don't even need a Matrix for simulation... (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people don't realize that the brain gives them a description of the outside world, not a picture of it. Try drawing a still life. What? Too difficult? Why? If you actually saw the world as it is, it wouldn't be too difficult, the only problem would be making the brush strokes. But instead, you need knowledge of the technique of perspective, you need knowledge of shading, etc. Why do we need knowledge to draw a world we're seeing with out own eyes?
Furthermore, what our brain presents is not the whole truth, even if it is a partial truth, which this article presents an article against. We see three dimensions of a world that could have many more, according to some theories. Some people only see two dimensions of this world. Some people don't see any dimensions of this world. Why do we assume that other important things, like specifics about the very way things are, are not modified by are brain? They are, at least indirectly, by our evolved emotions, but we assume that there's no modification at the sensory level. When it seems so easy to introduce noticeable differences at the sensory level by hallucinogens, why can't we believe the brain is already doing it to an extent?
Re:You don't even need a Matrix for simulation... (Score:2)
I remember a Philip K. Dick story where there was a man kept in a fake world, playing a newspaper contest to try to figure out where the enemy would bomb next in an interstellar war. Perhaps our body is like that. Perhaps the