# Reality's Grand Illusion **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 12, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304 "2005-01-12T00:58:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mentefinale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@mentefinale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mentefinale)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/1 "2005-01-12T00:58:14Z")
Over the years i have read of several revered scientists from this centuries and and those before noting that reality is an illusion. I know this is a philisophical debate but it reeks of having a definite factual answer. If science has found to the best of it’s knowledge that everything is made up of atoms, which are made of smaller things, and then smaller things still and then everything is just defined as “energy”. as if everything that we can see, taste, touch, smell and hear can be broken down in a primitive form atom-\>sub-atomic-\>energy. my questions are 1. then if everything is essentially the “same” when broken down, why do we perceive things to be different? 2. how is it possible that at the most bottem level everything is the same that it can all be arranged into an infinite number of combinations of which we are just one of them? i know it’s not really coherent but i have trouble saying what i mean without a lot of space 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/2 "2005-01-12T02:48:36Z")
> [@mentefinale](#): > > i know it’s not really coherent but i have trouble saying what i mean without a lot of space 🙂 A practical illustration is worth much philosophy. A friend related the following story of the Appalaichian Mountains. A sherrif’s deputy and a friend went to a religious meeting where there was to be a ‘raising of the dead.’ Arriving early, purposely, the deptuty went down front where the ‘corpse’ was laid out in state. He asked the man, apparently in charge, if they were going to raise this ‘corpse’ from the dead. Getting an affirmative answer he announced loudly, "Well if he’s dead a couple of .38’s won’t make any difference, now, will it? And he drew his revolver. At this point the ‘corpse’ jumped up out of the casket and tore out the side door. In this case the reality was far more real that the illusion. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/3 "2005-01-12T03:01:27Z")
This ought to be in the GD forum. > [@](#): > > 1. then if everything is essentially the “same” when broken down, why do we perceive things to be different? In short: **why** does anything emerge? Science can’t really answer the question of **why**. Your question is too broad and does not currently have a factual answer, if one is even possible. I suggest acquainting yourself with [metaphysical philosophy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics) at large. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/4 "2005-01-12T03:21:23Z")
There are no answers to your questions, this definetly falls under philosophy. If you break down what we are made up of you begin to realize a few things. 1)Everything you see is 99% or more empty space. I know that seems strange. 2) There are no hard boundaries in the universe. Put your hand on the desk. On an atomic level there is no boundary between where your hand ends and the desk begins. It is all a sea of moving particles. So if everything is made of empty space, and there are no real boundaries between the objects we see and touch. How do we KNOW its real. We don’t. Physicists can’t tell you WHY the world looks, smells, tastes the way it does, they can only explain to you the rules that govern HOW it works. There is no factual answer, it boils down to a question of FAITH. You can be a typical freshman physics student and believe that the world is REAL, and everything in it can be explained. Or you can be a typical senior physics student who realizes that the amount of practical knowledge we have about the true nature of the universe is basically nothing. All we can hope to do is describe whats happening, not explain whats happening. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/5 "2005-01-12T03:46:00Z")
While I’m certain that the atoms in the words that I’m writing are of the same kind that are in responses over in Great Debates, somehow I’ll just sleep better knowing that someone over there will cope with this better tonight than I. **samclem** General Questions moderator ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/6 "2005-01-12T05:34:44Z")
> [@mentefinale](#): > > 1. then if everything is essentially the “same” when broken down, why do we perceive things to be different? Imagine 100 black legos. split them into two piles. Build a castle with the 50 in one pile, and an airplane with the other 50. They are the same when broken down, but clearly different. > [@](#): > > 1. how is it possible that at the most bottem level everything is the same that it can all be arranged into an infinite number of combinations of which we are just one of them? I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean here. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/7 "2005-01-12T07:23:21Z")
In the world of computers, everything is made up of elementary particles called ‘bits’. A byte has eight of them. A gigabyte has a whole bunch of them. Arrange them in the proper manner, with the proper rules in place, and you get the endless variety known as the internet. The universe works in much the same way. Hope that helps. q;} ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/8 "2005-01-12T08:35:01Z")
> [@Taber](#): > > Imagine 100 black legos. split them into two piles. Build a castle with the 50 in one pile, and an airplane with the other 50. They are the same when broken down, but clearly different. Excellent analogy; if I may extend it a little; take the same lego bricks and arrange one lot into a flattish block, the other lot into a tall, thin block - the flattish block has much more surface exposed with ‘lugs’ and holes on it and so it can interact much more richly with other bits of lego than the tall, thin block, which consists mostly of sheer sides with only a few lugs and holes exposed at the top and bottom. The _active_ properties of the two items you have made are different, even though they are made from the same stuff. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realitys-grand-illusion/284304/9 "2005-01-12T09:39:32Z")
Second things first: [/quote] 2) how is it possible that at the most bottem level everything is the same that it can all be arranged into an infinite number of combinations of which we are just one of them? [/quote] “How” is usually the question which science tries to answer. As **Tber** said, there is no reason why atoms should _not_ be arranged into different configurations. Indeed, if space and matter exist, then that matter _must_ form a configuration of some kind. > [@](#): > > 1. then if everything is essentially the “same” when broken down, why do we perceive things to be different? As a [physicalist](http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/), my position is that only very specific arrangements of atoms are able to “perceive” - specifically those characterised by [senses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_memory) and [memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_memory). Thus, the two arrangements of atoms may be sorted and stored as distinct memories according to their size, shape, colour, spatial or temporal location, or any number of ways in which our sense organs might process the signals received from them. Again, this is more “_how_” the unique memory strings called “we” do something called “perceiving”. Similarly, we could explain _how_ it rains with reference to condensing water vapour, but does that _really_ answer the question ‘_why_ does it rain’?