Life is full of mysteries that may never be solved - one being the nature of reality. Yet, amidst the uncertainties, there are revelations and insights that shed light on the world and offer us a deeper appreciation of reality. For they can transform our perspectives and enrich our lives, these precious gems must be sought and cherished.
If I was to ever write a book on my theories on the nature of reality, this would be the first chapter:
Reality is a fascinating puzzle that invites us to solve it: but the nature of reality is non-trivial.
There is a certain joy in life to appreciate the complexity of things and challenge ourselves to explore them. Often, when faced with a problem related to the workings of a cog of reality, we might have a quick, off-the-top response - a trivial solution. But, the truth is rarely trivial.
The process of solving unstructured problems and reaching non-trivial solutions is beautiful and expands our understanding of reality and ourselves. The journey is more valuable than simply reaching the destination, too. Others in the future may benefit more from your results, for you, the journey is most important.
There are epistemic limitations to our understanding of reality.
The rational, objective, and pragmatic part of our minds may believe reality is deterministic. This tells us that we are accountable for our actions, and it is healthy. However, believing that we can fully comprehend and predict all causal-deterministic relations in such a system is a fallacy that ignores the limits of our knowledge, and the notion of such super-determinism is flawed.
Different domains shape our understanding of causality. While some fields, such as physics or chemistry, provide a relatively high degree of certainty about how things will work and behave in the future. The uncertainty and complexity of other fields, such as economics and psychology, are much higher. Human behaviour is influenced by many factors that are difficult to measure and control. This makes it difficult to establish clear causal links and make accurate predictions.
Moreover, even when we have a lot of evidence to support our claims, our understanding of causality is always subject to a certain degree of uncertainty. There is always the possibility that new evidence will emerge that challenges or contradicts our previous assumptions. Therefore, our understanding of causality is never final or absolute, but provisional and revisable.
There is this striking, haunting, humbling yet comforting realisation that we face limitations in understanding the mechanism of things. This does not imply that we are doomed or inactive, but rather that we have to adjust our expectations and attitudes to the reality we face. We still have some control over how we handle these determinants, and we can use our logic and practicality to guide our behaviour and choices. However, we should also be curious and flexible, and appreciate the diversity and ambiguity of reality. This can help us to cultivate a more refined and realistic perspective on reality, and manage it more successfully.
This article is an eternal work in progress.
