Is anything real?

Human beings have 5 senses is something which we are taught in school. Those 5 being taste, sight, touch, smell, and hearing. However, there are others too, like pressure, temperature, pain, thirst, hunger, direction, time, etc. All these senses helps us in understanding the world around us. Are these senses perfect? Absolutely not. Many animals have better sensory organs than us. They can see better in the dark, hear frequencies inaudible to us, smell better. The mantis shrimp can see more colors than us. They also pack in a mean punch. Search for it in YouTube to find out more.

In short, our sensory organs are average in comparison to other animals. That does not mean we are inferior, just not that great in picking up smells and sounds than others.

How does the sensory organs work? Take for example, what is sight? In scientific terms, photons reflecting off an object, enters our eyes and hits the retina which passes the information to the brain and the brain processes it as that object. Of course, it's not as easy like this. However, you get the point.

Here are 2 videos about vision. The second one also tells us about how earth looks, but you will understand why I added it here once you start watching it.

(Both videos are from VSauce which is a great channel with quality content. Do check it out.)


Human brain is the most complex thing and we are yet to understand it fully. Take dreams for example. Nobody can say for sure the purpose and reason behind dreams. There are many theories and interpretations from Freudian to meta-physical. But one thing is for sure, some dreams can scare the hell out of us.

Another great thing about our brain is the tendency to see faces in inanimate objects like a cloud or day to day objects. It is is known as face pareidolia. It is a form of apophenia, which is when people see patterns or connections in random, unconnected data. Findings suggest humans have evolved to recognize facial shapes due to their importance in social interactions.

It is very easy to fool our brain too. Many magicians and illusionists use this to their advantage. Our brain can focus on one task at a time and hence, multi-tasking is not our forte. Of course, our brain do multi-tasking but all those are involuntary activities. Take the video below as an example.

This is the reason why talking on the phone while driving is risky. We can either drive or talk on the phone but not both.

Have you ever had a dream that you felt so real that after you woke up you were still not sure? Our brain conjures up pretty good stuff while we are sleeping. Thank God for sleep paralysis otherwise we would have acted our dreams in real (sleep walking). If brain can do this, then what makes us believe that we are not living in a simulation? There are strong arguments on both sides.

Our brains are awesome, but they are also very fragile. There are variety of ways wherein our brains can be damaged. A mere few seconds of oxygen deprivation could lead to complete brain shutdown. A few hits on the head can cause irreparable damage.

Coming back to the original question, who can say what is real or what is not. For all intense and purposes, we are just a floating brain which is conjuring up stuff just to keep itself amused.

Quote to end the blog:
Reality is that part of the imagination we all agree on.