Try this thought experiment: Turn a stove burner to high. Wait five minutes. Plant a hand palm down on the burner.
You winced, right? Because that’s our reality. Hot stovetops hurt.
I suggested that experiment after seeing this headline: “New experiment demonstrates that reality might actually be real.”
Actually real? I’d never considered that reality might be … not real. I bet you hadn’t, either.
Curious, I searched online for “is reality real?” Google returned 1.51 billion results. I didn’t read everything, of course. But enough to grasp that scientists have long jousted about reality. The scientific debate seems real, even if reality might not be.
Here’s a headline on the doubters’ side, in the interest of fairness: “Is reality a game of quantum mirrors? A new theory suggests it might be.”
So, we might be real. Or we might be holograms. Or digital bits in a video game developed by an out-of-this-universe intelligence. Or electrical pulses zipping across neurons in the brain of a creature we’ll never fathom.
Fascinating. Truly. And beyond my comprehension.
Even so, beware the stove.
Reminds me of the gobbledegook from A Course in Miracles. “A chair isn’t a chair.”