Nature doesn’t know red, by Terry Mejdrich
The color red doesn’t exist in Nature nor does any other color for that matter. But wait, you say, what about the light spectrum, where white light is separated into the colors of the rainbow. What about green forests and majestic sunsets? Each of those colors represents a different wavelength, yet each is a part of light. But Nature doesn’t ‘see’ them as colors. They are merely different physical variations of the same phenomena. The sensation we call red doesn’t exist until the visual cortex in the occipital lobe in our brains creates that illusion. Red becomes red only because evolution has created the ability of the brain to distinguish different wavelengths of light, which the brain interprets as colors. Outside the brain, red doesn’t exist.
Every sensory input into the billions of neuron connections in the brain is categorized, prioritized, and either considered relevant for the present circumstance or discarded by our conscious and subconscious mind. The visual information alone is staggering and only a tiny portion of what we see with any sweep of the eyes is evaluated for relevance to the situation at hand. Nothing we produce in our minds is real in the sense that everything is run through multiple filters and the final product is the illusion we create and what we believe is real. We are more concerned about what works or helps us in some way rather than if it is objectively true.
In Nature truth has very little importance. And for most of human history, some would say all of human history, that was the case. The average person fibs multiple times a day about little things and big things. Mostly we fib to ourselves. About our jobs, our relationships, our fantasies, our beliefs, even our aspirations. Our beliefs, our opinions of others, our personal reality, and our view of ourselves are illusions created by the mind. But in most cases that’s okay, even essential.
On the other hand, objective truths are those things that would be true even if no one was around to observe them. But is that possible? We can speculate that the Universe might still exist in its physical form if people did not exist. So we might say that the stars, planets, galaxies and so on would be physically present. The laws and tendencies of Nature might still exist. But there is no way to know. Without a consciousness to observe these objective truths, would they even exist? It is consciousness that creates the illusion of reality. If it were totally up to you to bring everything into existence through observation but by some quirk of fate you had never been born, would anything exist at all? It is an existential extension of the question: If a tree fell in the forest and no one was around to witness it, would it still make a sound? A falling tree would create waves of disturbance through the air, but it is not sound until a brain perceives it. In the same way, the physical Universe and everything in it would not exist as it appears to us unless there was a consciousness to look upon it.
If we discard all cultural, religious and political influences, and keep only what is absolutely necessary for survival, then the mental illusions we create are still just as important as what is objectively true. Strong evidence of this is obvious. Despite all the stories, religions, political institutions, wars, and other self-inflicted illusions, fantasies, and atrocities, we are still here. Since we are a relatively new presence on Earth, some would say that’s just pure beginner’s luck. Any other species that had tried so hard to kill itself off would have been in the geologic dustbin millennia ago.
But it is precisely because we are able to create illusions and fantasies that are better, and often more pleasing, than the reality that we may find troubling that we survive. Our legends, religious narratives, folk tales, parables, and philosophies are not objectively true and often barbaric, yet they have helped sustain humanity through the darkest times when the objective truths were too painful to contemplate and accept. They can be a type of mental glue that keeps the mind from fragmenting into despair and hopelessness.
If there is a way to continue, a people will find it even if all of objective reality has to be denied and replaced with a comfortable illusion. That is not necessarily an error in thought, but rather instinctively doing what is necessary to continue to have a chance to carry on. Yes science is the only known path to finding objective truths, and yet science has discovered one of the lessor truths that organisms evolve mental and physical mechanisms to deal with changing environments and challenges. That is what the illusions our brains create do for us. From a survival perspective objective truths and creative visions of reality (illusion, delusion, and fantasy) are equally important in getting us and our species into the next day.
Every sensory input into the billions of neuron connections in the brain is categorized, prioritized, and either considered relevant for the present circumstance or discarded by our conscious and subconscious mind. The visual information alone is staggering and only a tiny portion of what we see with any sweep of the eyes is evaluated for relevance to the situation at hand. Nothing we produce in our minds is real in the sense that everything is run through multiple filters and the final product is the illusion we create and what we believe is real. We are more concerned about what works or helps us in some way rather than if it is objectively true.
In Nature truth has very little importance. And for most of human history, some would say all of human history, that was the case. The average person fibs multiple times a day about little things and big things. Mostly we fib to ourselves. About our jobs, our relationships, our fantasies, our beliefs, even our aspirations. Our beliefs, our opinions of others, our personal reality, and our view of ourselves are illusions created by the mind. But in most cases that’s okay, even essential.
On the other hand, objective truths are those things that would be true even if no one was around to observe them. But is that possible? We can speculate that the Universe might still exist in its physical form if people did not exist. So we might say that the stars, planets, galaxies and so on would be physically present. The laws and tendencies of Nature might still exist. But there is no way to know. Without a consciousness to observe these objective truths, would they even exist? It is consciousness that creates the illusion of reality. If it were totally up to you to bring everything into existence through observation but by some quirk of fate you had never been born, would anything exist at all? It is an existential extension of the question: If a tree fell in the forest and no one was around to witness it, would it still make a sound? A falling tree would create waves of disturbance through the air, but it is not sound until a brain perceives it. In the same way, the physical Universe and everything in it would not exist as it appears to us unless there was a consciousness to look upon it.
If we discard all cultural, religious and political influences, and keep only what is absolutely necessary for survival, then the mental illusions we create are still just as important as what is objectively true. Strong evidence of this is obvious. Despite all the stories, religions, political institutions, wars, and other self-inflicted illusions, fantasies, and atrocities, we are still here. Since we are a relatively new presence on Earth, some would say that’s just pure beginner’s luck. Any other species that had tried so hard to kill itself off would have been in the geologic dustbin millennia ago.
But it is precisely because we are able to create illusions and fantasies that are better, and often more pleasing, than the reality that we may find troubling that we survive. Our legends, religious narratives, folk tales, parables, and philosophies are not objectively true and often barbaric, yet they have helped sustain humanity through the darkest times when the objective truths were too painful to contemplate and accept. They can be a type of mental glue that keeps the mind from fragmenting into despair and hopelessness.
If there is a way to continue, a people will find it even if all of objective reality has to be denied and replaced with a comfortable illusion. That is not necessarily an error in thought, but rather instinctively doing what is necessary to continue to have a chance to carry on. Yes science is the only known path to finding objective truths, and yet science has discovered one of the lessor truths that organisms evolve mental and physical mechanisms to deal with changing environments and challenges. That is what the illusions our brains create do for us. From a survival perspective objective truths and creative visions of reality (illusion, delusion, and fantasy) are equally important in getting us and our species into the next day.
