Monday, September 5, 2016

Evidence, evidence

Sometimes people advance the idea that the world is infinitely malleable, limited only by what you can conceive. This idea is easy to reject: where are all the people who have figured this out and put it to use? Shouldn't we expect there to be lots of real-life examples of Neo and Doctor Strange?

Well, there aren't. QED. The world is as objective and mundane as it appears.

But not so fast. Let's view this bit of evidence from the "infinitely malleable" hypothesis. It says: the mind (not the brain, mind you, but the sheer wondrous capacity for experience itself) is infinitely permissive. In its infinite patience, it has allowed you to dream up a reality in which you explain this capacity away as the mere byproduct of a "physical" organ; one that is subject to arbitrary external forces ("physical reality"). Ironically, you have used this infinite freedom to build a prison for yourself; one where you can not only be a victim, but one where you can prove that you are a victim.

From this perspective, you have designed this dream to disallow "glitches in the Matrix," or anything that might expose your role as the warden of your ridiculous prison. That's why you don't see anyone who's done it.

So the evidence does not favor one conclusion over the other, much to your dismay. The lack of other free people does not support the conclusion of an objective universe any more than the conclusion of an utterly free one.

You can go on looking for bits of evidence that will support your victim hypothesis (the "objective reality" one), but one day you will grow some cojones and set off on an adventure for the truth hidden in plain sight.

Look at the unfathomable spinelessness of man: all the means he's been given to stay alert he uses, in the end, to ornament his sleep. – Rene Daumal

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