“Throughout this process, what I’m doing is using my observations as evidence for various propositions. “Reality” is my label for the framework that allows for those observations to occur, so what we call this process is “observing reality.”
“What’s confusing?”
It seems to me that given this explanation, we can never know reality. We can only ever have a transient belief in what it is, and that belief might turn out to be wrong. However many 9′s one adds onto 99.999% confident, it’s never 100%.
From the article: “Isn’t all this talk of ‘truth’ just an attempt to assert the privilege of your own beliefs over others, when there’s nothing that can actually compare a belief to reality itself, outside of anyone’s head?”
I think the article was, in part, setting out to debunk the above idea, but surely the explanation you have provided proves it to be the case? That’s why I’m confused.
Thanks for engaging on this—I’m finding it educating. I’ll try your suggestion but admit to finding it hard.
So, there’s a Chinese rocket-maker in town and Sir Isaac Newton has been offered the ride of his life atop the rocket. This is no ordinary rocket, and it’s going to go really, really fast. A little boy from down the road excitedly asks to join him, and being a jolly fellow, Newton agrees.
Now, Newton’s wife is pulling that funny face that only a married man will recognise, because she’s got dinner in the oven and she knows Newton is going to be late home again. But Newton is confident that THIS time, he’s going to be home at precisely 6pm. Newton has recently become the proud owner of the world’s most reliable and accurate watch.
As the rocket ignites, the little boy says to Newton, “The vicar told me that when we get back, dinner is going to be cold and your wife is going to insist that your watch is wrong.”
Now, we all now how that story plays out. Newton had been pretty confident about his timepiece. 99.9999%, in fact. And when they land, lo and behold his watch and the church clock agree precisely and dinner is very nice.
Er, huh?
Because in fact, the child is a brain in a vat, and the entire experience was a computer simulation, an advanced virtual reality indistinguishable from the real thing until someone disconnects him.
That’s the best I can do without breaking the taboo.