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Perception and Reality
Salon Night at the Bookshop
Perception and Reality: Nuggets from Conversation
- Brianne van Reenen
- 5 July 2022
- 10:39 am
"Everything you can imagine is real."
The conversation began with an introduction by the Thinker who suggested the topic, and an interesting response by another was to not say too much or else it would color their own perspective of the topic before the conversation began. In the tapestry of conversation, society, and interactions of all kinds – is that coloring inevitable?
Here are some nuggets from a very intriguing conversation that spanned dimensions and time itself:
Icebreaker Exercise
Items were placed on a table in the center of the room. A piece of paper was passed around the room as we opened discussion. Each person would quickly draw an element of the centerpiece according our angle of perspective – much like Picasso did in his artwork. This is what was drawn after it passed through 16 people’s perspective. It was a surprisingly complete representation of the centerpiece.
Perception is reality.
Art History was discussed and how revolutions in art forms were made in response to something – often a societal structure and often as a form of rebellion. How are our own shifts in reality a rebellion to our own experiences?
Cartography and the meaning of “orienting your map” once meant holding the map so East was displayed at the top, because the trade routes were the center of economic activity and thus dominated society and thus dominate perspective.
Dimensions described as humans holding a piece of paper and how that is perceived – verses an ant being on the piece of paper and how the piece of paper is perceived to the ant. How and when are we the ants?
Perception and reality are two halves of the same whole.
Assigning names and understandings to things alter our perspectives and thus our realities. Calling a flower a “flower” versus calling it an “hibiscus.” Both names are correct.
Deconstructing is necessary in order to allow ourselves shifts in perspectives, but can you truly transcend your own reality? If realities are based upon our experiences, can we truly alter that reality without having had a different experience?
Standpoint Theory: Knowledge stems from a social perspective.
How do we affect the reality of those around us?
A person can change their opinion but can’t change how others react to the new opinion. Changing gender identity is a reality for the person, but a lack of others accepting that reality will in turn establish a new reality of their own being rejected.
Digital algorithms solidify our perspectives through constant validation. Thus our digital realities become valid realities. We are becoming more mindful and deliberate about how we interact with these algorithms.
A lie may not be a reality but the consequence of a lie is a reality.
We explored Hans Moravec: Simulations
“Like organisms evolved in gentle tide pools, who migrate to freezing oceans or steaming jungles by developing metabolisms, mechanisms, and behaviors workable in those harsher and vaster environments, our descendants, able to change their representations at will, may develop means to venture far from the comfortable realms we consider reality into arbitrarily strange worlds. Their techniques will be as meaningless to us as bicycles are to fish, but perhaps we can stretch our common-sense-hobbled imaginations enough to peer a short distance into this odd territory.”
Live every moment to its fullest, in the manner of what that means to you, to achieve the reality you want.
READING SUGGESTIONS:
DEEP FAKES by Michael Filimowicz
FEARING THE BLACK BODY: THE RACIAL ORIGINS OF FAT PHOBIA by Sabrina Strings
THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK by W.E.B. Du Bois
Topic for July 6th @ 6:00PM – A Conversation Between Generations
Not ready to stop the conversation? We’ll move the discussion to AULD BREWERY next door at 8:00PM.
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