What is reality?

What is reality?

Isn't funny that as advanced as we think we are, as a civilization, we still aren't able to answer that simple question?
But, to be fair the twist is that it's really not a simple question, let's dive into it ...
If we want to define reality, we have to sort of find the opposite of reality (of what is).
Defining by contrast is usually an efficient method.
What is the opposite of "a reality"?
Fiction, fictitious stories or Universes aren't real – right?
An illusion is also usually defined as the opposite of reality too.
Although many are saying that reality is an illusion.
Who or what decide what is real or not?
who's the beholder, who's the reference point ... consciousness?!
What if this is just the "continuity" – I was about to say the brain, but research have proven that the brain can't really perceive the difference between what is real, imagined or dreamed … the reaction will be the same.
Continuity on the other hand, is the one that will prevail in the assurance that we are dealing with a reality, because reality is persistent. That's one of the many quality of reality.
Like Philip K. Dick astutely wrote : "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" -
Why it doesn't go away?
Is it because reality is co-created, or is it because of a bigger "creator" that can provide that reality even when everybody has turned away from it?
What is an illusion (a non-reality)?
An illusionist will project an alternate vision to the viewer that will then see something that isn't real but a crafted version of the illusionist's reality. An illusion is real to the viewer until the viewer realize it was an illusion, that is .. when at a particular moment, the viewer see the truth and wake up from the illusion. He then see something else, he sees his own version of reality.
This can happen in dreams, when the dreamer is so into the story that he can participate in a situation that would be in his awaken life completely unrealistic (doesn't follow the usual reality rules – might they be morals, physic, common sense …)
the illusion won't stand if it is questioned though .. that's why people are getting lucid in their dreams, if questioning is part of your daily routine – chances are you will wake up during the dream or become lucid.

Mid 2014 - Waiting for the "Big One"

Waiting for the next big one

That's pretty much what all humanity is doing right now, the BP oil spill has happened, a nuclear accident has happened in Fukushima, they were both more or less resolved...
But to be honest, nothing is seriously done to prevent new incidents like these. Have we moved away of oil consumption and are most of the automobiles running on alternative energies (I don't think so).
Are most nuclear reactor closed and are we moving away from Nuclear use in the future (doesn't feel like it).
It all looks like we are all blindly hoping that - those kind of incidents won't happen again.
Which is why I believe we as a collective are either very ignorant or very positive.
And we must never have heard of the Murphy's law either.

Don't we know what to do?

This is a funny question, when we were students we probably had this procrastination thing - that was a constant hindrance, we knew we had to do some homework, or writing for an exam, but we couldn't for the love of God - begin to work on it.
What usually got us moving ?
Deadlines, or major wake-up call
Yep, that's how we as a collective move and make decision that are required.
The idea behind all this post - is that it doesn't seem necessary for us as a collective to go through hardship to plan a better future or to overcome our inertia.
But we just wait for this "special moment of crisis" to start working on it.

We as a collective

I keep writing "us as a collective" or "we as a collective" - but this is a flawed concept actually, we aren't acting as a collective at all. We are still very much in this mess actively trying to get the best seat on that bus that is about to crash on a wall or down the hill.

Nobody is to blame, we are doing our best, ... we will figure this all out probably because of the next big One that is about to come. Solidarity, cooperation, aren't our default mode when competition is in place - but unless a paradigm shift ; we will still act like no action is best, and competing with each other is very much our default mode of action.

It must have been that so far we have been lucky that nothing major has made us change our  mindset - to shake us on our standard behavior and made us question everything we thought we knew.
Why ? Because the big One has not yet happened  ...

In the meantime, it's "more of the same"

While we wait for that big One, that will inevitably come .. to make us change.
We will have more of the same crescendo of financial crisis, peak oil, climate change, discussion about controversial topics, and any sort of complex politics that have lots of potential for discussion, but very little impact in the long run.


Press Kit: A middle-class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the end of the American lifestyle.