On Reality...

I was reading this wonderful book called 'Phantoms in the Brain' written by a neurologist. Although no one in their right mind will call it a light read, it did manage to hold my interest till I finished the book - and considering the nature of the topic I would think the writer has done quite a commendable job indeed. The book gives a very interesting perspective on the inner workings of our brains. It deals with such heavy concepts as what is reality? What is the nature of the self? Where do our thoughts come from etc etc
The single biggest takeaway i had from the book was how fragile is the concept which we call 'reality'. To most of us, reality is something so obvious. It is just the way things are.. and everyone else who doesn't see how these things are has no business being around - he/she is just wasting precious Oxygen. We actually have words like 'crazy', 'mad' for people who do not share our understanding of the world. But as the book shows all it takes is a few circuits in our brains to come loose and what is most obvious to everyone else would become completely incomprehensible to us. Sample these cases for e.g. people who have had injuries to certain parts of their brain have trouble telling which body parts are theirs (the disorder has some arcane name - i forget what it is). These people when shown their own arm will honestly claim that the arm actually belongs to their brother! That is reality to them.... you cannot convince them otherwise. Or consider the peculiar case of people with phantom limbs. Apparently, when people loose their limbs due to amputation etc the brain simply refuses to accept that the limb is no longer there - it will continue to think that the arm or leg is still attached to the body when even the patient's eyes can see that there is nothing attached to the stump on their shoulder. To make it worse, some of these patients suffer from intense pain in these phantom limbs. Try telling these patients that the pain is not real. The point is that our reality is nothing but certain inferences which our brain makes to ensure our continued survival in the world. Sometimes, these inferences can be wrong but we would have absolutely no way to tell. That is what makes this so scary!
As scary as that thought is, the book drove home one point quite strongly. That even if we have fully functional brains, we should still not be sure of whatever we think is the reality. Cause, there is simply no such thing. There is only perception. And if you can change your perception, you can change your reality.
This has enormous implications for our day to day working also. I have many times come across colleagues with whom I am unable to make any headway on solving some basic issues. They just don't seem to 'understand'. I wonder how someone can be so pigheaded and not see the obvious 'reality' in front of them. What makes the problem seem so difficult is that both of us are convinced we are right in dealing with the reality in front of us. But if either of us understood that we are fighting because our perceptions differ i would imagine it would be easier to negotiate and arrive at a solution. The reason is that it is easier to change our perspective - but not what we call reality. It is also easier to accept that the other person has a different perspective but we cannot accept that the other someone has a different reality altogether!
So, what I have figured out is that there is no such thing called 'Absolute Reality' in the world at all. It is only our collective perceptions. Whatever agrees with the perception of the maximum number of people becomes the reality - for everyone else also. And perceptions can change en masse and almost instantly.
e.g.: Before the ipad the 'reality' was that there was no market for tablet computers. Microsoft, HP, Acer had all tried and failed. And then Apple came along. Was Apple able to change reality and suddenly create a market for tablets? I think the answer is that Apple changed peoples perspectives about a tablet (and what it could do and how sexy it was) and when perspective changed, the reality changed overnight.
History has enough examples of well designed product that simply would not sell. No matter how much the pioneer tried, he could not convince the customers to give his product a shot. To him, he seemed to be doing everything right but still - no results. Why might this be so? Because his 'reality' and those of his customers was completely different (i.e. his perspective was at odds with the majority of his would be customers). He needed to accept that and either force the customers to change their perspectives so that his reality became their reality or change the product so that it became compliant with the perceived reality of his would be customers. And once this was done - Voila! we have a winner on our hands!
So I will keep this in mind the next time I run into some idiot who has trouble seeing things my way :)
Well - this is enough for today... Gotta go and make some tea... Stay tuned in for more!
- Gg