In a physics lecture the other day, I had a thought.
Plato's "The Cave" is an allegory about how people imprisoned in a firelit cave for their entire life seeing would see the shadows of objects projected on the wall as reality.
This is more true than Plato could have ever known. Everything we see and feel in reality is merely a simplification of an infinitely complex network of gauge fields and wavefunctions.
If string theory is ever verified experimentally, this is even more true. We're all n-dimensional objects projected onto a 3-d surface.
>>7961804
I concur. This is going to go into /x/ dream thread realms but as Mr Zappa said, who gives a fuck anyway. Many years ago I had a dream and all I remember of it was the waking up process of my mind returning from where it had been. I knew I had been aware of, and in, a different dimension. Now I'm not talking about the usual astral projection stuff, floating around some other plane but basically still with a 3D view of things. I mean another dimension in a geometric sense. I was aware that my mind had been functioning in this vastly different way, and all I could perceive was the shutting down of that 'shape' as I returned to waking consciousness. I could feel my mind shutting down part of it's function to return to the physical world. Trying to hold on to the experience was like trying to touch the ceiling when it's out of reach, while shrinking in height.
I've since been in some pleasant states in meditation, quite expansive and definitely they were different aspects or levels of consciousness, but never anything like this dream. It was the most different, unexpected and unusual mental experience I've ever had.
I've no idea if any of this has any practical value. I don't know where I went in that experience, or why, and don't know if I'll ever go back there. It just seemed I was shown a glimpse of something. Maybe as a reminder that what I like to think of as my mind or my identity isn't so 3D after all.
OK science fags, have at it if ye will. In b4 lame 'dreams aren't real' comments.
>>7961913
Brains are incredible, this is similar to some of the effects psychedelics have. For example, LSD changes the way certain neuro-receptors bind to neurons in the brain. This changes the way the brain sends signals, essentially changing the wiring that makes up who you are. The reason people see fractals is that the neuroreceptors in the visual cortex are firing in entirely new and different ways.
With psychedelics and dreams like yours, you can literally experience what it is like to be an alien, with a completely different mental circuitry.
>Plato's "The Cave" is an allegory about how people imprisoned in a firelit cave for their entire life seeing would see the shadows of objects projected on the wall as reality
That isn't what the allegory is about: that's how it's expressed. The purpose of his allegory was to demonstrate the effect of philosophy on the human mind (at least how Plato saw it), and especially to draw attention to the persecution of philosophers (read: Socrates) by a government.
Plato's theory of forms is not the same thing as field theory.
>>7962041
Interesting, I didn't know that wasn't one of Plato's original intentions. I was just expressing how my feelings at how applicable it was to the way our simple brains see only a shadow of the terrible complexity of the universe. Makes me think Lovecraft was onto something after all.
>>7962053
The allegory of the cave is part of a much larger dialogue between Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon, part of book 7 of The Republic. The Republic is all about political philosophy, and in particular, book 7 is about the connections between philosophy, politics, and mathematics. Specifically relating to the compulsion of the study of philosophy and mathematics through political means.
>"Then this is a kind of knowledge which legislation may fitly prescribe; and we must endeavour to persuade those who are prescribe to be the principal men of our State to go and learn arithmetic, not as amateurs, but they must carry on the study until they see the nature of numbers with the mind only; nor again, like merchants or retail-traders, with a view to buying or selling, but for the sake of their military use, and of the soul herself; and because this will be the easiest way for her to pass from becoming to truth and being."
If you read it like political philosophy, the intent of the argument makes more sense, and it still is relevant today. If you focus more on the theory of forms and Plato's love of triangles, you run into some pretty ludicrous statements about the world that modern philosophy treats as a relic of history.
I get what you're saying about how we only see a "shadow" of the true Universe, but it's a stretch and modern philosophy of science is far more powerful than Plato, who thought everything was triangles.
>>7961804
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle
>>7961804
>We're all n-dimensional objects projected onto a 3-d surface
Where is your evidence of more than 3 spatial dimensions?
Don't bother replying.
>>7962693
He said IF string theory is verified, and the extra dimensions are a well established part of all that stuff.
>>7962099
>If you focus more on the theory of forms and Plato's love of triangles, you run into some pretty ludicrous statements about the world that modern philosophy treats as a relic of history.
Sounds like hes just2deep4u desu
>>7961804
The Cave is a way of explaining how hard it is to change your mind.
Our view of reality tends to be wrong because we let ourselves believe what makes us feel better. This is why lying and deceit are so effective.
We are afraid of what we don't know, and that fear is why we make up explanations that might not be true.
>>7963136
>We are afraid of what we don't know, and that fear is why we make up explanations that might not be true.
science in a nutshell
