Sunday, July 10, 2011, 6:47 PM
PERCEPTIONS OVER REALITY...
"Random thought: Our perceptions are ruled by observations from our senses; what we perceive as the truth may very well be a fabricated piece of memory..."
Take for example: One fine day, you receive a letter saying that you have been awarded the model student of Singapore (but of course we know that it's not possible), and that you have been invited to the Istana to receive the scholarship to study at Oxford University. Then you realised that you do not wish to study abroad, coz all your friends, family (and maybe boyfriend or girlfriend) is here in Singapore and you are at a lost as to whether to take up the offer or not.
Maybe this isn't the best example, but perhaps you can think it this way: what difference would it have made if you had never received the letter? Would things have changed? Have you ever thought about going overseas to further your studies? Would you have went overseas to study even if you never received the letter? So as such, there was perhaps never a conflict as the answer is clear that you do not have to take up the offer, and that there is no actual lost in some sense.
Although one may argue that it's a lost opportunity to study overseas, but I would like to view it as an opportunity that can be said to have never arrived at your feet. You reject the offer and your life goes on as usual before you receive the letter and lived happily ever after, studying in National University of Singapore - for guys after serving the nation.
In another example: Suppose say Santa comes knocking on your door one fine Christmas (but we all know that Santa Claus doesn't really exist right? That is that Santa Claus that we used to believe, as children, that lives in the North Pole and drops through the chimney - not that there are any here in Singapore - to bless you with a present that you dearly want) only to give you a present you never liked, but that can be said to be not the same Santa and thus no true disappointment. In that sense, Santa never came knocking on your door.
This idea, philosophy it might actually become that I came up with, might very well be applied into Quantum Mechanics -- Quantum Mechanics suggests that every thing that happens is a result of a course of events that might have led to an infinite possibilities. That is to say that you might not have been the person reading this post, but instead have become a fine young man or lady studying in America for some god-knows reason, or that I might have even posted this post, or chance upon this revelation, I would like to call it. Would you consider not been that young fine man or lady studying in America a lost, knowing that there is that possibility that your life could have taken upon that path? In my opinion, perhaps not. Once again, it's all about how we perceive every course of event that happens around us, directly and indirectly affects us. Not forgetting the old cliché that suggests that "If one door closes, another opens". That is to say, that although you might not have accepted the offer to go over to Oxford University to study, you might very well become the Top Student in your cohort in NUS, or to be married to the man or woman of your dreams.
The idea that what we perceived as the truth is merely what we observe came through me as I was reading "Nineteen Eight-Four" by George Orwell. It suggested a world where every single aspect of your life is dominated by Big Brother. No word can be taken to be the truth, and yet there is no where of disputing and identifying whether what the news reports is the truth or false as all news might as well be fabricated having been filtered by the government (as in the story). The protagonist could not recall if there was a time of better life before the revolution, but what is said to be true through the telescreen (a machine in which news are disseminated, as in the story).
This, to me, proved how what we perceived is ruled by information around us. If every source of information around us is controlled, filtered so much so as that we are forced to believe a certain idea is true, that idea might as well be the Truth; there's no telling lies from truths and truths from lies, man from pigs and pigs from man as this is all a language game.
Infinite possibilities. I'll just say... let us not be ruled by our perceptions that are solely based on observations. Quite an optimistic view, I would say, this is in dealing with disappointments and lost opportunities.
"Random thought: Our perceptions are ruled by observations from our senses; what we perceive as the truth may very well be a fabricated piece of memory..."
Take for example: One fine day, you receive a letter saying that you have been awarded the model student of Singapore (but of course we know that it's not possible), and that you have been invited to the Istana to receive the scholarship to study at Oxford University. Then you realised that you do not wish to study abroad, coz all your friends, family (and maybe boyfriend or girlfriend) is here in Singapore and you are at a lost as to whether to take up the offer or not.
Maybe this isn't the best example, but perhaps you can think it this way: what difference would it have made if you had never received the letter? Would things have changed? Have you ever thought about going overseas to further your studies? Would you have went overseas to study even if you never received the letter? So as such, there was perhaps never a conflict as the answer is clear that you do not have to take up the offer, and that there is no actual lost in some sense.
Although one may argue that it's a lost opportunity to study overseas, but I would like to view it as an opportunity that can be said to have never arrived at your feet. You reject the offer and your life goes on as usual before you receive the letter and lived happily ever after, studying in National University of Singapore - for guys after serving the nation.
In another example: Suppose say Santa comes knocking on your door one fine Christmas (but we all know that Santa Claus doesn't really exist right? That is that Santa Claus that we used to believe, as children, that lives in the North Pole and drops through the chimney - not that there are any here in Singapore - to bless you with a present that you dearly want) only to give you a present you never liked, but that can be said to be not the same Santa and thus no true disappointment. In that sense, Santa never came knocking on your door.
This idea, philosophy it might actually become that I came up with, might very well be applied into Quantum Mechanics -- Quantum Mechanics suggests that every thing that happens is a result of a course of events that might have led to an infinite possibilities. That is to say that you might not have been the person reading this post, but instead have become a fine young man or lady studying in America for some god-knows reason, or that I might have even posted this post, or chance upon this revelation, I would like to call it. Would you consider not been that young fine man or lady studying in America a lost, knowing that there is that possibility that your life could have taken upon that path? In my opinion, perhaps not. Once again, it's all about how we perceive every course of event that happens around us, directly and indirectly affects us. Not forgetting the old cliché that suggests that "If one door closes, another opens". That is to say, that although you might not have accepted the offer to go over to Oxford University to study, you might very well become the Top Student in your cohort in NUS, or to be married to the man or woman of your dreams.
The idea that what we perceived as the truth is merely what we observe came through me as I was reading "Nineteen Eight-Four" by George Orwell. It suggested a world where every single aspect of your life is dominated by Big Brother. No word can be taken to be the truth, and yet there is no where of disputing and identifying whether what the news reports is the truth or false as all news might as well be fabricated having been filtered by the government (as in the story). The protagonist could not recall if there was a time of better life before the revolution, but what is said to be true through the telescreen (a machine in which news are disseminated, as in the story).
This, to me, proved how what we perceived is ruled by information around us. If every source of information around us is controlled, filtered so much so as that we are forced to believe a certain idea is true, that idea might as well be the Truth; there's no telling lies from truths and truths from lies, man from pigs and pigs from man as this is all a language game.
Infinite possibilities. I'll just say... let us not be ruled by our perceptions that are solely based on observations. Quite an optimistic view, I would say, this is in dealing with disappointments and lost opportunities.
