Quotes About Reality

The overarching lesson that has emerged from scientific inquiry over the last century is that human experience is often a misleading guide to the true nature of reality.

Then, just as two trees are the same age if they have the same number of tree rings, and just as two samples of glacial sediment are the same age if they have the same percentage of radioactive carbon, two locations in space are passing through the same moment in time when they have the same value of the inflaton field. That's how we set and synchronize clocks in our bubble universe.

So, whereas Bohr argued away by fiat all but one outcome in a measurement, the Many Worlds approach, combined with decoherence, ensures that within each universe it appears as though the other outcomes have vanished. Within each universe, that is, it's as if the probability wave has collapsed. But, compared with the Copenhagen approach, the as if provides for a very different picture of the expanse of reality. In the Many Worlds view, all outcomes, not just one, are realized.

the startling idea that the comings and goings we observe in the three dimensions of day-to-day life might themselves be holographic projections of physical processes taking place on a distant, two-dimensional surface.

Not only is mind our tether to reality, perhaps it is our tether to eternity.

It doesn't seem that something on a hard-to-locate boundary is somehow calling the shots regarding what happens here in the bulk.

The most extreme of those who hold this opinion would go as far as declaring that, indeed, when no one and no thing is "looking" at or interacting with the moon in any way, it is not there.

Science is a powerful, exquisite tool for grasping an external reality. But within that rubric, within that understanding, everything else is the human species contemplating itself

As we have seen, in quantum mechanics the norm is an indeterminate, fuzzy, hybrid reality consisting of many strands, which only crystallizes into a more familiar, definite reality when a suitable observation is carried out.

how utterly wondrous it is that a small collection of the universe's particles can rise up, examine themselves and the reality they inhabit, determine just how transitory they are, and with a flitting burst of activity create beauty, establish connection, and illuminate mystery.

The world of the everyday suddenly seemed nothing but an inverted magic act, lulling its audience into believing in the usual, familiar conceptions of space and time, while the astonishing truth of quantum reality lay carefully guarded by nature's sleights of hand.

If superstring theory is proven correct, we will be forced to accept that the reality we have known is but a delicate chiffon draped over a thick and richly textured cosmic fabric.

In Plato's parable of the cave, our senses are privy only to a flattened, diminished version of the true, more richly textured, reality. Maldacena's flattened world is very different. Far from being diminished, it tells the full story. It's a profoundly different story from the one we're used to. But his flattened world may well be the primary narrator.

I think I thought, therefore I think I was.

The implications of these features of quantum mechanics for our picture of reality are a subject of ongoing research. Many scientists, myself included, view them as part of a radical quantum updating of the meaning and properties of space.

Each moment—each event or happening—exists, just as each point in space exists. Moments don't momentarily come to life when illuminated by the "spotlight" of an observer's present; that image aligns well with our intuition but fails to stand up to logical analysis. Instead, once illuminated, always illuminated. Moments don't change. Moments are. Being illuminated is simply one of the many unchanging features that constitute a moment.

We could be dreaming all the time, but we do not perceive those dreams while we are awake because consciousness (like the sun obscuring stars during the day) is much too brilliant to allow the unconscious content so much definition.

The universe is our picture. Only the immature imagine the cosmos to be what they think it is.

There is no reality -- only our own order imposed on everything.

We create our own future by our own beliefs, which control our actions. A strong enough belief system, a sufficiently powerful conviction, can make anything happen. This is how we create our consensus reality, including our gods.

We must face our responsibilities regardless of whether we get what we want.

Some say that the anticipation of a thing is better than the thing itself. In my view, this is utter nonsense. Any fool can imagine a prize. I desire the tangible.

Human imagination is a powerful thing. It can be a sanctuary from difficult times, a catalyst to change society, or the impetus to create marvelous works of art. On the other hand, an overabundance of imagination can inspire paranoia that impairs one's ability to interact with reality. —Suk School Manual, Psychological Studies

Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence. —Caedmon Erb, Politics and Reality