patrick.net

It's like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll.

The movie Contact is a good treatment of science versus faith, and convincing skeptical others of a new explanation of reality, with only their own subjective experience as proof.

How to define and understand "reality" when everyone's experience is inherently subjective? My best working explanation is, "that which exists, independent of human notions or beliefs about it." Think of the parable of three blind men examining and defining an elephant, and the reality of the elephant versus their subjective experience thereof.

Dan8267 says

If you can translate what the hell he's trying to saw, please do so.

I think what heraclitusstudent saying is very simple: there's a difference between observing the reaction of others to touching a hot stove and feeling the pain for yourself. Right?

It's that age-old philosophical problem of wondering whether my subjective experiences actually correspond to an objective reality. It's where scary ideas like Plato's Cave, solipsism and simulated-reality come from.

Reaching for my Clonazepam...