
Reality is a Shared Hallucination (1997) - MichaelAO
http://reactor-core.org/reality-hallucination.html
======
randomdrake
This was a cool read. Fun to dig through the Internet to figure out where the
article came from.

Searching around, this appears to be Part VIII of a collection from Howard
Bloom[1] entitled "History of the Global Brain" that looks to have been
written over the course of 1997 for Telepolis[2]. It looks like these writings
were put together in a book, published in 2000, called _Global Brain: The
Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century_ [3].

There are a lot more links, images, formatting, and other stuff in the
original articles. You can start with Part I of this series, called "Biology,
Evolution and the Global Brain," still available online[4].

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Bloom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Bloom)

[2] -
[http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/2/2227/1.html](http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/2/2227/1.html)

[3] - [http://www.abebooks.com/9780471295846/Global-Brain-
Evolution...](http://www.abebooks.com/9780471295846/Global-Brain-Evolution-
Mass-Mind-0471295841/plp)

[4] -
[http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/2/2102/1.html](http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/2/2102/1.html)

------
adrianratnapala
I am still reading it, but already I see it unnecessarily engages in a
postmodernist-like confusion of map and territory.

> _Yet you know sure as you were born that there 's a broader world outside
> ... [you know a bunch of other things about reality] ... At this instant,
> reading by yourself, where do these realities reside? Inside your mind.
> Memory in a very real sense is reality._

Bloom is absolutely right that memory is central to all this. But it's a
category error to say that just because your knowledge of reality is through
memory, that memory is the only realitiy.

Ok, it's logically possible there is no external reality, and all that exists
is just my (Ratnapala's) memory. But even then the distinction remains. Then,
the lying medium (memory) is real, but the _content_ of those memories is not
a reality.

~~~
visarga
Even if there is no reality outside memory, there still is a simulation. We
could not have created such a complex world buy pure imagination. The
simulation might be just as complex as the reality itself. So, it would be
just a game of words to distinguish between them.

~~~
amatic
Why would there be a simulation? Do you call all perceptions simulations?

~~~
keithb-
I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps it was meant to say "stimulation"
otherwise we're just talking about another layer of separation from reality.

"To see things in a new light is a cognitive challenge; to adjust the language
to the new insight is nothing more than a bothersome technicality." \- Rudolph
Arnheim, Visual Thinking

------
zeko
I was actually hoping that this would be an article explaining how reality is
literally a shared hallucination, and not just an eye grabbing metaphor for
explaining how non-autistic people perceive reality.

~~~
kordless
Reality is a security overlay, keeping private data about individual entities
from being inspected casually and limits the knowledge of all things from
occurring in a single locale. This is the speed of causality (light).

The base function of this reality is to read, process, and write data in a
highly immutable manner. This is conservation of energy. Collaborators in this
reality exchange data in a variety of ways, but visual inputs through the
mind's eye seem to be the predominate method for memory recollection. Based on
causal interviews with individuals since learning I have Aphantasia, it would
appear these "internal" views seem less immutable than "out here". Some can
zoom their mind's eye. Some see in black and white. Some see icons.

One hypothesis to explain the "shared" part of the hallucination would be the
existence an immutable shared data structure underlying the universe which
uses consensus to agree, long term, about what happened "out here" based on
various and sundry inputs from an entity's internal view & resulting
action(causality). Internal views may be non-immutable (highly mutable) and
may be influenced by metaphysical phenomenon. People see things that others
don't see. The Romans thought it was the act of Gods to see and hear things
others didn't.

We've always assumed our brains are making these images up, but perhaps they
aren't and we missed something important along the way.

~~~
MarkPNeyer
> One hypothesis to explain the "shared" part of the hallucination would be
> the existence an immutable shared data structure underlying the universe
> which uses consensus to agree, long term

This is a hypothesis i also stumbled into: reality as a method for coming to
consensus on a data structure.

Check out this simple description of a game with similar mechanics:

[https://markpneyer.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/the-photoshop-
ga...](https://markpneyer.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/the-photoshop-game-
overlapping-subjective-realities-create-a-stable-objective-reality/)

~~~
jasonkostempski
That reminded me I had a random thought about how the universe is a sorting
algorithm working towards heat death a few months ago. Probably not an
original thought but its fun to think about.

~~~
kordless
Where heat death == infinite light on the metaphysical side.

------
tealounge
In case anyone is interested in the author's bio:
[http://howardbloom.net/howard-bloom/about-howard-
bloom/](http://howardbloom.net/howard-bloom/about-howard-bloom/)

Howard is a piece of work, he used to always sit in the exact same chair in a
Brooklyn cafe every night for years. It is now closed and I wonder where he
ended up. I haven't given his work a chance, I'll admit, mainly because of
that outrageous bio and the content of some of his work. I'd prefer to
remember him as that eccentric guy in the coffee shop.

~~~
ikeyany
The URL itself is outrageous, let alone the bio.

------
jhallenworld
Reality is a MUSH?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSH)

------
zer0gravity
Evolutionary this makes sense. When the ways in which you can die far outreach
the way in which you can stay alive, if you don't adopt fast the correct rules
you're gone. And you do that by just copying the behaviour of individuals you
perceive. It's called imprinting.

However as the individual matures ( talking about humans here ) this should
fade away, and critical thinking should take its place, but apparently doesn't
really happen.

------
callesgg
Here is a quote from an article about consciousness

    
    
        "One of the processes important in perception is the comparing of current input with similar past experience.
        When we see a friend, a memory image of his face is presented to our consciousness along with the
        sensation of his actual present appearance.
        This memory image (which can be called a schema) blends with the current sensation, so that the
        perception is a combination of the two. The relative strengths of each source of information probably 
        vary from person to person."
    

It not scientific or proven true. It does however work as a model for a part
of peoples perception that fits quite well to peoples behavior.

~~~
aidenn0
I'm not sure how you can simultaneously claim that a model has predictive
power but is not scientific.

~~~
callesgg
It is my personal experience/opinion not something that is scientifically
proven.

------
peter303
Extremely ancient idea in eastern philosophy. Though they dont assign
anatomical causes.

~~~
kleer001
... and the shoe gazing hobby horse of literally every 150th high school nerd.

------
anonymouslee
If you're into this sort of thing you might enjoy a more rigorous treatment
from an actual neuroscientist, David Eagleman.

[http://www.pbs.org/the-brain-with-david-
eagleman/episodes/wh...](http://www.pbs.org/the-brain-with-david-
eagleman/episodes/what-is-reality/)

------
voidhorse
I prefer Harold's work myself, and at first glance thought this piece was by
him, and was, admittedly, for reasons any other fans of his work probably can
understand, quite surprised.

------
swayvil
This bit is nice

    
    
        Crowds of silent voices whisper in our ears, transforming the nature of what we see and hear.

------
slantaclaus
Compared to what?

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FrankyHollywood
Well since we can't prove it isn't true, it must be true.

Just like invisible gods :)

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overcast
Quite the imagination on this one.

