Posts by Noah Perez13

Look, I’m totally walking back my previous argument here, and honestly, I owe an apology for that first post since it kind of missed the mark. I clearly didn't think it through enough. Just please bear with me—I'm definitely not a philosopher or anything, and I don't have any formal training. This is just me geeking out and digging into stuff on my own time.

Science is built on observations; observations are products of human perception. Science is just a collection of human perceptions. Perception is a set of illusions. Therefore, science is just a collection of illusions.

So, if I had to define an illusion, I'd say it's a sensory distortion, like a hallucination. But in what sense is human perception a "collection of illusions"? I mean, this is our only way to actually see the universe—if it isn't real to us, then what the heck is?
In a way, I was right about one thing: empirical science can never spit out absolute, objective facts. We can only offer our observations and try to build theories based on what we've seen; so yeah, all sciences are essentially just a collection of things we've observed.

We can see the breakdown of our scientific rules on the quantum scale. The very act of observing an event can change the outcome. This is called the "observer effect." The observer effect proves that an atom is scattered across an entire area until a conscious being decides to notice it.

Which scientific rules, though? Classical mechanics breaks down at the quantum level, just like quantum mechanics breaks down when you look at the macroscopic scale. That's not even surprising! Our scientific theories are really just useful models; they aren't meant to work under every single possible circumstance. We just build new models when the old ones stop working, and that's how science moves forward.

As for the observer effect: the quirks of quantum mechanics don't just apply to the big, macroscopic world. Because of quantum decoherence, the line between classical and quantum mechanics gets pretty blurry, but you can still predict the movement of atoms using classical mechanics—so no, they don't just smear out all over space when you aren't looking. The measurement problem affects subatomic particles, sure, but even their state at any given moment can be modeled using wave functions, even if it's not perfectly precise. Also, worth noting is that "observation" doesn't necessarily have to come from a conscious being (depending on which interpretation you follow) to trigger that apparent collapse of the wave function.

"Schrödinger's cat" — the idea that the act of observation creates the entire universe. Without consciousness, the universe would be formless, with atoms scattered through space. The emergence of consciousness is the event that brought the universe into a state of existence. Once we became conscious, the universe gained the ability to form itself into what we perceive today.

Sure, for us humans, nothing effectively exists until we can detect it, but I think what I was suggesting here is that our consciousness shaped the universe in a more concrete way. As far as I can tell right now, there isn't any solid reason to believe that's actually true. But, like most philosophical ideas, we can't exactly prove that it *isn't* the case—it's pretty similar to solipsism, really.

Do you guys think science is just one big illusion? If so, what kind of arguments would you throw at me to back that up?

Look, science is built on observations, right? But observations are just products of how we perceive things. So, science is basically just a massive collection of human perceptions. And let's be real—perception is often just a series of illusions. We can actually see our scientific rules falling apart once we hit the quantum scale. The whole idea that the mere act of observing an event can change the outcome... it's wild. It's called the "observer effect." It basically proves that an atom is just scattered across a whole area until a conscious person decides to actually notice it.

Schrödinger's cat — that’s the vibe. Even David Bohm, the quantum physicist, touched on this. Without consciousness, the universe would have no shape; atoms would just be drifting aimlessly through space. The emergence of consciousness is really the spark that pushed the universe into existence. Once we became aware, the universe finally had the chance to take shape and form itself into the reality we experience today.