Soren,
What we see is shaped by what we think. Our minds fill in missing information all the time.
Today, I was working at my job for the water company, delivering a letter, when all of a sudden I saw a bug jump, in front of me, next to a wall.
Hop! Big as life.
So I went over to see what it was. You know how I like bugs! (Except for flies.) Much to my surprise, the acrobat was a pill bug, Armadillilium vulgare. Of course, there has never, in the history of the world, been a pill bug that jumped. It has fourteen legs, but each and every one of them is far too weak to push it off the ground. Even altogether they couldn't make a start at the weakest of hops. If a bunch of pill bugs got together in the hope of launching one among them, they could do no more than lift it off the ground, never propel it into the air. Pill bugs are as likely to fly (which is not likely at all.)
So I did what a reasonable person does when confronted with facts that prove he did not see what he thought he saw. I asked myself exactly what I saw that I had explained by the idea that something jumped. You may wonder.
I saw it fall.
It must have been climbing on the wall in front of me and lost its grip, whereupon it tumbled to the ground. I saw the tumbling and my mind sought to explain how something could have been in the air. One likely cause of bug in air is a hopping bug, and so my mind edited my experience. I saw something hop. Only after I knew it couldn't hop was I able to think of another possibility. I saw it fall off the wall.
But here is the real lesson. Perhaps it didn't fall from that wall. I'm convinced my new explanation is the right one, but maybe I'm wrong. What if it fell from the roof? What if a neighbor kid behind me threw it in my direction? What if it crawled onto a bird's feathers and fell after the bird took flight? What if I saw another bug hop, but when I went to the place I thought it landed, it was already gone, and I blamed the action on the pill bug? These are possibilities I didn't even think about, because I am sure it fell from the wall.
Just like I was sure it jumped.
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Hey Michael, good to know you're alright. I just found your Guide yesterday and was curious to see if you continue to live your lifestyle and what has changed since your last post.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the guide and found it really useful. Would be interested in sharing thoughts if you can spare some time.
Feel free to email me at my gmail account. My username is xbrunon.
An excellent illustration of the value of intellectual humility. Thanks for writing.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually pretty fecking creepy if one thinks about it for too long. Take it a step further: can we trust our perception about anything? Not the 'life is but a dream' stuff some people go on about (though I suppose that would be the next step or two down in the train of thought), but rather:
ReplyDeleteIf I come back later and find all evidence of this post gone, and nobody recalls my ever posting it, did I ever really post?
Anyway, great post (yours I mean). Very thought provoking and paranoia inducing.