Outside The Box, Part II

(Last week, we touched on the principle of Though Experiments, a method by which people can test and draw conclusions on things that can be impossible to test in laboratory conditions. This week, we dip again into this irrational pool.)

There seems to be no way to measure the nature of the human experience. The definition of "real" hinges largely upon the individual and the sort of world-views that they have. But can that really be trusted?

The center of the "human condition" is ultimately The Brain; the all-powerful bundle of nerves and tissue that dictate every facet of life. Even in the so-called "lesser animals," the brain gives light to everything in the surrounding world. The only thing that seems to really stop the brain are biological conditions. In a brain where there are no organic problems, the human mind is capable of creating new concepts and learning new things that an alarming rate. With repetition, the brain forms new synaptic connections which allow for greater depth and clarity of action and reasoning. But the brain's greatest strength is also it's biggest weakness - Organic construction and chemo-electrical signals are seemingly the only thing that brain really functions on.

For this reason alone, more skeptical people could argue that we cannot know with any certainty that anything we have experienced or encountered is, in fact, real. This realization has led philosophers to create a thought experiment that is horrifying yet amusing in it's implications: "The Brain In A Vat." By indulging in this exercise, we are allowed to ask ourselves questions regarding the very nature experience itself, and the potential for the malleability of simply being alive.

The experimental set-up, though hypothetical one, requires so stretching of the imagination. In theory, we would have to imagine that there is a setting like a laboratory where it is capable to suspend a brain in a fluid capable of nourishing it's tissues and keeping it alive. As well, it would require an electrical system and subsequent rig that would allow for precise electrical signals to be sent directly to very specific portions of the structure of the mind, allowing for a exact facsimile of the standard senses and memories. Presuming we are capable of this sort of place and technology, place yourself in the position of the brain. At this point, ask yourself this: "What do we know to be true? How many of our memories can be relied upon?"

Have you tasted a food so delicious that it could be described as "better than sex?" Under the parameters of this experiment, it is wholly possible to presume that your tongue (if you had one in the first place) never actually did. For that matter, if you did have a tongue that tasted something that good, how can you trust that you were actually eating it in the first place? This also begs the question: What does sex feel like, in these parameters, presuming that you are no longer (or potentially are not now) physically equipped for such an activity?

Under the scenario of the "Brain In a Vat," how can we guarantee that anything we have ever known is an actuality? If all experience can be broken down to chemistry and electricity, what are we as a species? It would nearly preclude the existence of a Soul, let alone the certainty of any sort of physical life experiences.



Come back next week and we will take one last look at this strange world. I strongly recommend you open your mind as widely as possible for next time; it's a mind-bender.