It’s All Relative: Notes on our Perception of Reality
A simple definition of relative is - in comparison to something else. In life, in general, everything is compared to something else so it’s all relative.
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The theory of relativity (in it's simple form) suggests that time and movement are not absolute but rather, they are relative concepts. Even our perception of time is relative to the movement of our observing awareness. The faster we (the observer) are moving, the slower time is perceived and vise versa.
This concept is called “time dilation” which is the difference in perception of elapsed time by two different observers moving at different speeds. For instance, if two observers are holding a clock, one of which is at rest and one of which is moving extremely fast, than the observer at rest will notice that the other person’s clock is ticking much more slowly than their own local clock. The difference of perceived elapsed time also increases as speed is increased and approaches the speed of light.
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Time dilation is not due to the inner mechanisms of the clock itself but is due to the nature of space and time itself.
Measurement of lengths, like the length of one meter, is also relative as it is based on the speed at which we are moving at rest (i.e. the speed of the earths rotation). One meter as we have come to know it, is based on the observers speed when they are standing still. However, when an observer increases their speed and tries to measure something that is moving at a different speed, the observer will notice that the length of the object is compressed or lengthened depending on whether the object is moving faster or slower compared to their own relative speed.
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As an example, when we drive on a road marked with yellow lines to separate traffic we will notice that the length of the line is longer when our car is moving slowly and shorter when the car is most fast. The length of the line is altered by the movement of the observer in the car.
So how can something like time and length, which seem to be explicit, actually be relative and not absolute? Absolute implies that something exists complete unto itself, independent of external influence and therefore self contained. In our universe though, both matter and non-matter things, mostly lack an objective independent existence since everything is influenced by the perception of an observer. As such, nothing is self-contained. Instead, reality is made up of continuously interacting phenomena which are subject to the influences of all other phenomena.
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Matter and energy themselves are not only influencing each other but they are also influencing the perception of the observing awareness. Similarly, observation is continuously influencing matter and energy as well, as discovered through experimentation in quantum mechanics (double slit experiment, entanglement…etc).
Because of this, reality is not absolute, but rather it is relative. Mind and matter both partake in a co-dependent relationship in which they influence and alter each other on a continuous basis. Nothing is absolute, it’s all relative.
Thanks For Reading. Feel free to comment and share your own opinion or correct me if I am wrong in my explanation – I’m not a physicist :)
What holds true for where we live and breathe might not be true for a place different than ours. In that respect I think scientists have a edge in social evolution.
interesting. can you explain further what you mean by "scientists have a edge in social evolution."
I'm not sure I understand
Oh.
When one social corner if the world meets another some really interesting things happen. One of the most common side effect is friction between societies. While we struggle to understand each other, a scientist can detach himself from it because they understand the fact that what holds true for us might not be true for them. They might not subscribe to either of the social ideology but they sure can analyze it.
I meant it as a vague reference to relativity in social terms. I hope I am making some sense.
That makes sense. Thanks for elaborating.
I agree with what you are saying - If I am understanding correctly.
When we step back and analyze something (like society) we generally look at it from a broad perspective, which can be different from our own individual perspective. So our analysis of something can be true in a broad sense and also not true from an individual case perspective. I certainly agree with that - Hopefully I am understanding correctly.
That about it.
Yes so true!! We are just not wired to measure things accurately. It's all relative, and humans are designed to perceive it all wrong.
Lately I am amazed that we even function as society. It could crumble into chaos at any moment.
If not "wrong" then certainly limited. Human perception is limited so we can never see the whole picture. Our brains can only process a finite amount of information compared to the vast universe that is out there. Our sense are also limited.
Sometimes I feel the same way. Its surprising that we have made it this far hahaha. Sometimes I think that we are at a turning point in our evolution (or civilization). Its like we have to make a decision of whether we want to survive as a species and move forward together, or keep doing what we are doing which will ultimately lead to our extinction. I guess we will see. lol
Thanks for the comment
In my opinion, time does not exist, it is simply the way to perceive movement and entropy. The time is calculated with respect to something that moves, the earth with the sun, the sun with the center of the galaxy: If everything were stopped we could not describe what happens before and what after. This is what would happen near a black hole where gravity is so strong that nothings move compared to an external observer. All this is wonderful
That's really interesting. I agree that time is relative to something else. its kind of a way of measuring change as you suggested - movement and entropy.
I don't know much about black holes but i have heard that black holes and immense gravity in general, effects the perception of time. very interesting stuff.
Thanks for the comment :)
This is interesting in a lot of ways. But first, I want to believe that certain things are absolute but our perception can be influenced to measure it subjectively. e.g, a 10cm pen remains 10cm but if you swing it fast enough, it appears shorter. A day is always 24 hours but this can be perceived as long or as short as possible depending or how much fun or torture it was. (I think it is related to the question, "if a tree falls in the forest, but there was no one to witness it, does it still make a sound?) yes, it does but our conscious perception helps measure /study matter and our perception can be easily influenced by speed/pleasure and other states (this is my opinion).
this is a bit unrelated but, I recall that a long time ago, I ordered 5 books from amazon and waited like 4 months and they weren't delivered (Amazon confirmed shipment when I contacted them and even refunded me in the 3rd month), back then, I found writings by a guy and experimented with "visualization" (I neither doubt or believe it these days). It was around the 4th month when I read the guy and one day, I imagined the post man dropping off the books. Two weeks later, to my surprise, he came through and said they've had the books for like two months or so and were just thinking of reshipping it to amazon), I paid the drop off fees and took the books. My question then was, were they influenced to delay reshipping for two months just so I could experiment with visualization and have them bring the book? or was it just coincidental? some times, I think Quatum physics try to answer these questions but maybe we will never know. (Note: I have since experimented with visualization on a lot of things and this story was the only one that worked. lol)
this is a good point. But is 10cm actually absolutely 10cm or is it relative? That measurement is never truly measured in a vacuum. It is still based on our relative speed of our planet rotating and moving through space.
your visualization story is interesting. I personally do believe that a lot of these visualization scenarios rely on coincidence and confirmation bias. We tend to only take note of the times that something confirms our theory and largely ignore the times that our theories are disproven. But, as you suggested quantum mechanics has implications that often defy the laws of physics and nature - so who knows really? I'm open to anything as a possibility.
Also try see it this way, If you take two 10cm objects to be measured against each other in a vacuum, would they be inconsistent? I want to believe there is an underlying absoluteness in certain measurement even if they will fluctuate under different circumstances.
Yes, that's true, prayers and visualizations fail more than they work, sometimes maybe just 10% success rate. that's confirmation bias.
hmm. yes that is interesting. Maybe there is an absolute nature to external objects.
But like you said previously, there is a subjective nature to our perception of the external. Our sense perceptions are limited, so with that in mind I believe that we can never really experience the absolute nature of something.
yes, it is more understandable and I agree with that. Maybe it's something like consensus reality, something we developed and jointly agreed on to make sense of our perception of reality.
yeah maybe. thats certainly a possibility. All i know for certain is that life is mysterious lol
Lol..well, yes, but science keeps helping us learn and understand things better everyday.
that is true :)
good interesting blogs and posting 😱😱😍
Thank you :)