Understanding reality is never as easy and as simple as we would like it to be.
To question everything, especially our existence, has always been an integral part of our human
nature.
As children, our innate and endless curiosity often led us to constantly wonder how things
came to be.
When we got older, we still possess the same curious minds that we had in our youth, only
the questions we ask ourselves and other people have gotten a lot more complicated since then.
For most people, the ultimate question that drives our existence is the search for the
meaning of life.
But beyond this query lies a vast subset of inquiries that are possibly even more difficult
to answer.
Is our reality even real?
Are we real?
Are we alone in the universe?
How did all this came to be?
How will all of this end?
For now, though we do not have definite answers to these questions, scientists and philosophers
have formulated complex theories about reality as we know it as well as our existence.
Some of them operate on the basic principles of common sense, but there those that have
gone far and beyond what most people are able to grasp and even more so, willing to accept.
The evidence and arguments presented for such theories are quite compelling, and efforts
to fully understand them could lead to great ramifications that could break one’s sanity.
And so, here are six of the most mind-blowing theories about our reality that will make
you question your entire existence and what the rest of the universe holds!
Number 1 – The “Big Freeze” Theory.
Also referred to by some as “The Great Glaciation” or “Heat Death,” the “Big Freeze”
is a plausible scientific theory on the possible end of the universe.
This ending is theorized to be the direct consequence of an ever-expanding universe,
which is proven by indications of an increasing rate of expansion in the regions farthest
from Earth.
Because of this, it is also a widely-accepted model pertaining to the ultimate fate of our
universe.
According to this theory, the universe will slowly cool as it expands until it is no longer
capable of sustaining life.
The process itself is a lot more capable than that as this theory is founded on the idea
that entropy – a principle of thermodynamics that measures the shift of all energy in the
universe from a state of order to disorder – will eventually reach its “maximum value.”
And should that happen, the heat in the universe will be distributed evenly to the point that
there would be no usable energy or heat left, which means the mechanical motion within the
universe will cease to exist.
And because of this “heat death,” time becomes an endless void in which nothing ever
happens.
Number 2 – Solipsism.
The philosophical theory of Solipsism states that only one’s own mind is sure to exist.
Some may argue that this theory was specially made for narcissists for being ego-centric,
but once you get past the notion that your mind is the center of the universe, this philosophical
believe is actually pretty simple.
Solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside a person’s own mind is unsure, and
so, the external worlds as well as other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside
the mind.
For the solipsist, it is not merely the case that he believes that his thoughts, experiences,
and emotions are, as a matter of contingent fact, the only thoughts, experiences, and
emotions there are.
But rather, the solipsist can attach no meaning to the supposition that there could be thoughts,
experiences, and emotions other than his own.
For example, a true solipsist understands the word “pain” to mean his own pain.
Therefore, he cannot conceive how the word is applied in any sense other than his exclusively
egocentric understanding of it.
Number 3 – Presentism.
Philosophical presentism is the view that neither the future nor the past exist.
The only events and objects which exist are those that exist in the present.
So, the only things which exist now – right now – are actually real.
According to Saint Augustine, the future and the past does not exist, as time cannot be
both behind and ahead.
Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, a leading scholar of the modern era on Buddhist philosophy, has
written extensively on Buddhist presentism, saying: "Everything past is unreal, everything
future is unreal, everything imagined, absent, mental... is unreal.
Ultimately, real is only the present moment of physical efficiency.”
Number 4 – Eternalism.
Taking the opposite approach to presentism is eternalism.
According to this theory, the past, present, future, the simple past, and continuous future
are all happening right now.
All points in time are equally real.
This philosophical theory postulates that time actually has many layers which exist
simultaneously.
However, the layer seen by a particular observer depends on where he is standing.
This means, the dinosaurs, the World Wars and Lady Gaga performing on the Super Bowl
all exist at the same time but can only be seen from a certain point.
And so, based on this theory, the future is not only deterministic, free will is also
merely an illusion.
Number 5 – Multiverse Theory.
From science fiction to science fact, there is a proposal suggesting that there could
be other universes aside from our own, where all the choices that a person makes are played
out in alternate realities.
These parallel worlds are said to be very similar to ours, but with only a few minor
or major differences, and the number of these universes are infinite.
One possible implication of parallel universes is the idea that there are infinite copies
of you in an infinite number of universes carrying out every possible version of existence.
One type of theory about parallel universes envisions countless of bubble universes popping
up and disappearing.
This would mean that the beginning of our universe, the Big Bang, was just the creation
of one bubble in a vast sea of inflating universes, which will in turn eventually “pop” when
these universes become unstable.
A second theory is the Brane Multiverse, which is based on String Theory, and postulates
that our entire universe exists on a membrane which floats in a higher dimension or “bulk”.
In this bulk, there are other membranes as well with their own universes.
These universes can interact with one another, and when they collide, the violence and energy
produced is more than enough to give rise to a “big bang.”
The branes float or drift near each other in the bulk, and every few trillion years,
attracted by gravity or some other force we do not understand, they would likely collide
and bang into each other.
This repeated contact with each other is what allegedly gives rise to multiple or “cyclic”
big bangs.
Number 6 – Simulation Hypothesis.
The simulation hypothesis proposes that reality is in fact a simulation, and even most likely,
a computer simulation.
This theory postulates that due to the overwhelming likelihood of technological singularities
occurring in the universe, it also likely that advanced civilizations – either aliens
from a distant galaxy or humanity later on in the future – have created or will create
simulations.
And because the number of these simulations would be infinite, philosopher Nick Bostrom
argues that it is very likely that we, right now, are actually living in a computer simulation.
The simulation theory bears similarity with the “Brain in the Vat” thought experiment,
which is also just a modern and updated version of Rene Descartes’ Evil Demon thought experiment
originated by Gilbert Harman.
Common to many science fiction stories, this is a scenario in which a mad scientist, machine,
or some other enigmatic entity might remove a person's brain from his body, suspend it
in a vat or ajar of life-sustaining liquid, and connect the brain’s neurons by wires
to a supercomputer which would fire electrical impulses identical to those normally received
by the brain.
According to this thought experiment, the computer would then be simulating reality
and the "disembodied" brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences,
as if it was that of a person with an embodied brain but without the necessity of experiencing
actual objects or events in the real world.
If this sounds eerily similar to the film franchise “The Matrix” starring Keanu
Reeves, that’s because the Matrix was based on this particular scenario.
We may never really know for certain if any of these theories provide the right explanation
about our universe, our reality and our existence.
Nevertheless, these speculations and theories are telling of how intelligent and determined
we are in finding the key that will unlock all the mysteries that plague our consciousness.