Why do I always find the weirdest sites? Exit Mundi is a collection of end-of-the-world scenarioes. All of them are a good read, and most of them can be turned into good sci-fi movies. This is one of them, but this one caught my mind above others.
Exit Mundi said:Here we go: the place we call reality may not be real at all. It may look real, and feel real, and smell real. But if you know where to look, and you look real close, you can see the cracks. Just like a Hollywood actor that suddenly realizes he's not surrounded by real buildings -- but by props made of cardboard paper.
If youre easily disturbed, or prone to paranoia, better stop reading now. You may not like the answers to questions like these. What you are about to read may change the way you see things -- forever.
Matter: Chunks Of Music?
First, you should know the stuff our Universe is made of isnt very real at all. Sure, you can feel the chair underneath you, and see the monitor in front of you. But what we feel and touch and see in everyday life is actually a manifestation of some deeper, completely different kind of reality. Ultimately, matter is much like music. Weve listened to it for so long now, that we have grown accustomed to the idea that the music is the only thing there is. But would we open our eyes, we would suddenly see the instrument thats playing the music.
One way to explore what matter is, is by taking it apart. First, youll find tiny chunks of matter that are called molecules. Then, if you take the molecules apart, youll find the atoms the molecules are made of. And then, if you take apart the atoms, youll find a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons. And if you take apart the nucleus? Youll be in for a big surprise. For inside an atoms nucleus, reality as we know it actually ceases to exist.
An atoms nucleus is made of tiny entities we call particles. But particles is not really a good word for all the quarks, muons, protons, neutrons and electrons matter ultimately consists of. When you say particles, you think of little balls. But in quantum physics, theres no such thing as solid `balls you can touch or see. In fact, particles are so incredibly different from everything we know of, our language lacks the words to describe them. Particles can be in two places at the same time, and behave both like a wave and a tiny chunk of matter, depending on what you do with them. Particles can pop in and out of existence from nowhere. And grabbing them is impossible: it is simply not possible to both know where a particle is and how fast it moves about.
But still, a particle has to be something, right?
Thats why more and more physicists turn to `string theory. In string theory, matter is ultimately made of extremely small elastic circles, called strings. These strings vibrate. But not like anything we know: the strings vibrate in at least ten dimensions! Our particles are the vibrations of the strings: they are the music the strings make.
The Dimensions: Up Or Zgvnp?
Okay, hold that thought: matter is ultimately the manifestation of something else.
Gladly, there are also things that are normal. Matter is weird, unreal stuff -- so lets leave it out for a while. What you have left seems normal enough: its a thing we call room or space. You can go forward and backwards in it, or up or down, or left and right. No denying that.
Well, I hate to disappoint you, but in physics, its all different again. Much to their own surprise, physicists have found that many calculations add up much better when you assume there are more dimensions than three! Try eleven dimensions, and youll get the best results. In fact, you cannot explain the stuff you see in certain experiments without assuming there are more than three dimensions.
Again, it is extremely hard for us silly, three-dimensional beings to even imagine what a many-dimension reality really is. For starters, try not to think of dimensions as being some kind of place. Instead, they are better compared with `directions. Besides going left, right, up, down, backwards and forwards, you might want to go brlp or zgvnp for a change whatever you call it. Dimensions are everywhere around us. In fact, they are intimately interwoven in our everyday reality. They are just locked away from our experience.
The implications of this are, of course, staggering. Even physicists dont fully understand what living in a multidimensional universe really means. But we do know this for sure: we only see a small part of the real reality.
The Universe: Bubbles Of What?
Time to check out exhibit number three: the Universe.
Again, the Universe is something we think we know. It is that big black thing with all the lights in it over your head. Perhaps youve even heard its expanding: first, there was a kind of blast (called Big Bang), and from that moment on, the Universe grew bigger and bigger.
But hold it right there. Once more, the real story is far stranger than that. For starters, the Universe has no outside. To ask what is outside the Universe is a meaningless question it would be like asking what continent lies outside our planet. Outside the Universe there are no dimensions, and there is no time. The Universe is best seen as an expanding bubble of dimensions in a sea of nothingness although nothing isnt really a word you can use to describe what is outside the Universe.
It is extremely difficult to fully comprehend what that means. According to one theory, there are many dimensional bubbles like the one we live in. Our Universe could be the result of two of such bubbles or planes colliding. And wait, now youre doing it again: youre picturing a place with bubbles floating around. But theres no such thing as a place. Instead, the other Universes should be wrapped up within our own reality, remember?
An even more bizarre theory has it the place we call the Universe is actually best compared with a hologram. Our Universe could be some kind of optical illusion, the result of several dimensions resonating.
Feel dizzy already? Well: the same goes for time. Time is also something we think we understand: yesterday was another time than today. But if you look on a large enough scale, its all different. Time is actually the same stuff as space!
Thats easier to understand than it looks. It takes time to go from one place to another. Sure, you could move faster. But theres a limit to how fast you can move. Nothing, not even a thought or a particle, can move faster than the speed of light which is still more than one billion kilometers per hour! But even at light speed, it takes time to go from one place to another. Thats why time and space are basically the same. Space is time, and time is space. No wonder Einstein called it space-time.
And You? How Real Is Your Mind?
So, to wrap things up: we live in a place thats not really a place, were made of stuff thats not really stuff and what we see is only a small part of whats really there. Matter, time, dimensions, the Universe its all lucid, unreal. We live in a kind of bubble thats not really a bubble, and were surrounded by tiny, resonating strings that play a kind of multidimensional music we call matter. Pretty confusing, don't you think?
Gladly, you can cling to this one security: that you are here. No matter how weird the stuff around you is, you are definitely for real. No need to explain: you just know you are.
But do you really?
Lets do an experiment. Speak out your name over and over and over and over again. After a while, youll notice something weird. Your name will begin to sound strange. Its no longer something that is you your name is just a word, a random sequence of syllables and sounds that other people utter when they want to catch your attention. If your parents had given you another name, you would listen to another sequence of sounds.
The same happens when you look in the mirror. Stare at your own face long enough, and youll suddenly realize its just another face. The face in the mirror is, of course, yours. But after a while, it wont feel like that anymore. The face you see could be anybody's.
Most neuroscientists agree the same applies for your consciousness. The thing you call your self is most likely an illusion, created by your brain. Your brain gives you vision, sound, speech, feelings, and thoughts. When you add all these things up, youll have some overall feeling of awareness you call your consciousness. But still, your brain is the thing running it. Your feeling of self is best compared to a software program running. It looks very real but it isnt.
Of course, most people believe there is something like a soul or a spirit living inside of you. But when it comes down to facts, there just isnt any evidence for that. Every thought you have, every move you make, every emotion you feel - its just brain, brain, brain.
There are actually experiments that prove it. When you disturb your brain in a certain way, your feeling of self can get detached from your brain. Suddenly, it will feel as if you are not inside your body anymore. You experience what is known as an out of body experience, or a near death experience. But you dont have to be nearly dead to feel it. The sensation can easily be created in a laboratory, by placing a helmet with rotating magnetic fields on your head. The magnetic field acts like a jam signal on your brain. Suddenly, you'll feel like you're floating outside your body. But you arent. Its just your brain going confused.
And you don't really need a helmet to do the trick. Visiting a place where the movement of the Earth's crust generates magnetic fields can give you the experience. Being in a situation where your brain doesn't get enough oxygen sometimes does it. Certain brain operations bring out the experience. Meditation and intensive prayer can generate it.
In fact, exactly this is why some people see ghosts, or Maria, or feel like they are visited by aliens. It is an incredible weird experience to be outside of your brain. Your brain will try to make sense of it. Immediately, the rational part of your brain will come up with an explanation for the experience. You will sense a presence near you. If youre religious, you might see Maria, or Jesus. If you believe in UFOs, your brain might tell you youre visited by aliens. If you believe in ghosts, youll feel the presence of a ghost of a dead person. But in reality, its your own feeling of self youre experiencing.
So... Are We A Game Of Simms?
So there you are. Youre just a walking piece of matter thats pretending to be someone. But in reality, things like matter, or self, or the Universe, or time, or dimensions are all illusions. Everything we see and everything we feel are, in fact, the manifestations of some underlying reality.
That leaves you with an unsettling question: what exactly is that reality?
The truth is: we dont know. Could be almost anything, really. A dream, even. Or a simulation. Or a kind of computer game, an advanced kind of Civilization or Simms. Theres no way of knowing if theres someone or something pushing the buttons. Theres no way of knowing if there isnt, either.
And then, theres this other thing most theorists agree on: our reality could suddenly end. Our universe could fold up. The dimensions we live in could be wrapped up. The very fabric of our physical world could be disrupted by some unprecedented, weird physical event. From one second to the other, our reality would no longer be there. Sounds like fun, right?
But then again, why bother? For thats the deeper consequence of these things. If there is no such thing as a place we call Earth, we neednt really worry about its end. Would the characters of a Simms-game feel sad or disappointed when you turned off the computer? Or would the people you dream of at night mind when you woke up? You guessed it: they probably wouldn't. What isnt really there, doesnt really end.
That being said, theres only one small problem. You see: you have to be a good philosopher to really feel it that way!
(Awww...)
