The workings of reality and time
The concepts of reality and time are deeply intertwined, forming the foundation of human understanding and experience. Both are shaped by how our minds perceive and interpret the world around us. Imagine how we use our senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. The information gathered is invariably routed and processed by our brain to create an image of what is happening. We are like the pilot flying blind through a thick fog that prevents him from seeing ahead. We are like the inhabitants of Plato's cave who only see shadows moving on the walls of their prison.
When we look at a tree, our eyes capture the reflected light and send this information to our brain. The brain processes this data and creates/compares the image of the tree. This allows us, instantaneously, because the brain is the god of our reality, to recognize the tree. If, like a child, the tree is unfamiliar to us, we widen our eyes, breathe more deeply to learn more about it.
Our perception of time involves something similar, noticing changes and sequences of events, which our brain organizes into a coherent flow, helping us understand the past, present, and future. Everything is perception and construction, a mental construct. Does this mean that reality and time do not exist? Far from it.
Philosophical inquiry has long grappled with the nature of reality and time. Empiricists argue that our understanding of these two concepts comes from sensory experience and that, therefore, time, things, and their transformations are independent of our consciousness of them. In contrast, idealists claim that reality and time are fundamentally mental constructs.
Modern science has profoundly altered our understanding of reality and time. The advent of quantum mechanics challenges classical notions of an objective reality without invalidating them. This is the great paradox of modern advances in understanding time and reality. Phenomena such as wave-particle duality and quantum entanglement suggest that at fundamental levels, reality does not follow our everyday intuitions. Observations in quantum physics can alter the state of the observed system, implying that the act of observation is essential to the nature of reality itself. But at the level of our daily lives, everything is tangible, real. What is true? The infinitely small, intangible world constructed by our observations, or the "normal" world discovered by our senses?
Perhaps both, after all, if we consider that scientific understanding is made of theory, thought experiments, and mathematical equations that can be constantly invalidated in favor of new constructs, new equations... Reality plays a game of cat and mouse with us. Time, according to Einstein, is part of the team.
He proposed that time is relative and intertwined with space in a four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. According to this theory, time can be affected by speed and gravity, leading to phenomena such as time dilation, where time slows down at higher speeds or in stronger gravitational fields. This implies that our experience of time is not uniform but varies depending on our relative motion and position in the universe.
Neuroscience explores how our brains construct both reality and our perception of time. Sensory inputs are processed by the brain to create a coherent experience of the world and the passage of time. This process involves active interpretation, influenced by our expectations, memories, and emotions. And from there, to conclude that consciousness is a matter of neural mechanics...
However, cultural perspectives also shape our understanding of reality and time. Many Indigenous cultures view time as cyclical, emphasizing the importance of natural cycles and ancestral connections. Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, perceive time as a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, contrasting with the Western linear perspective.
Both science and indigenous reasoning draw their answers from fluctuating reasoning and imagination. One sends us to the Moon, the other invites us to accept our mysterious reality.
The intertwined concepts of reality and time are central to human understanding, continually explored and redefined through philosophical, scientific, and cultural lenses. Both are constructs shaped by our mental processes, perceptions, and interpretations. While our senses and brains provide us with a coherent experience of the world and the passage of time, these experiences are constructed representations, not direct apprehensions of objective reality or absolute time. The profound mystery of reality and time remains a central focus of human thought and inquiry, fueling our quest for deeper understanding.
For a long time—and this long time is only a few tens of thousands of years, which is so little on a cosmic scale—we thought that reality was animated by the whims and moods of the gods. Subsequently, they fell silent and left room for a few religious vibrations. But these have also gradually flattened, abandoned.
Because science has provided us with so many discoveries and understandings, we have convinced ourselves that its words must represent the Ultimate, that the reality it describes is greater, but cold, wonderful, but mechanical.
Everything appears so quickly, incomprehensible. We seem to have lost the notion and individual humility of our perception of things. It is high time that we slow down the pace. Not that we need to stop—how could we?—but at least realize that it is time to kill the atavistic God and Reasonings, to open our eyes and nostrils again in order to reinvent and respect the universe in which we bathe.
