I’ve read a fair amount of Dick, and while the fiction may be entertaining, I can’t take the “something” as anything more significant than the crud you get on your screen if your graphics card goes wrong. It may be very entertaining crud, it may even inspire great art, but in itself it’s of no significance.
I find this view somewhat unempathetic: “this impacted tooth pain is not very significant, it is just a cluster of neurons firing here and also here.” What he saw was significant to him.
A few days ago, for the second time in my life, I had a nested dream. In other words, I dreamed that I was dreaming, that I woke up within a dream. Interestingly, the dream within the dream was, from the perspective of this level of reality, completely sane. While the world I woke up to, within the dream, was very different. I dreamed that I dreamed that our neighbours removed some bushes from their garden. Which they didn’t do on this level. But everything else was seemingly exactly like it is here. But the world to which I dreamed to wake up to was weird (which I was not aware of in there). There was a foggy harbor next to our house, and a big ship was passing through it. Whereas in this level, and the nested level, the sea is far away.
Is this experience significant? Well, it could mean that there are many levels of reality, this just being another one I will wake up from sooner or later. It’s possible. But I just don’t see how it could be reasonable to take this into account when trying to figure out what is out there, as long as more sensible approaches have not been ruled out. Where sensible stands for concrete, specific, lawful, empirical activities that can be falsified in an intersubjective (objective) manner.
Oh yes, it was very significant to him. Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke was significant to her. Aldous Huxley’s drug experiences were significant to him. John C. Wright’s heart attack was significant to him.
But none of these are significant to me, and the tales they tell are told by compromised witnesses. If brain damage is the entry price for a glimpse of the interesting-if-true things they saw, I’ll pass.
I’ve read a fair amount of Dick, and while the fiction may be entertaining, I can’t take the “something” as anything more significant than the crud you get on your screen if your graphics card goes wrong. It may be very entertaining crud, it may even inspire great art, but in itself it’s of no significance.
I find this view somewhat unempathetic: “this impacted tooth pain is not very significant, it is just a cluster of neurons firing here and also here.” What he saw was significant to him.
A few days ago, for the second time in my life, I had a nested dream. In other words, I dreamed that I was dreaming, that I woke up within a dream. Interestingly, the dream within the dream was, from the perspective of this level of reality, completely sane. While the world I woke up to, within the dream, was very different. I dreamed that I dreamed that our neighbours removed some bushes from their garden. Which they didn’t do on this level. But everything else was seemingly exactly like it is here. But the world to which I dreamed to wake up to was weird (which I was not aware of in there). There was a foggy harbor next to our house, and a big ship was passing through it. Whereas in this level, and the nested level, the sea is far away.
Is this experience significant? Well, it could mean that there are many levels of reality, this just being another one I will wake up from sooner or later. It’s possible. But I just don’t see how it could be reasonable to take this into account when trying to figure out what is out there, as long as more sensible approaches have not been ruled out. Where sensible stands for concrete, specific, lawful, empirical activities that can be falsified in an intersubjective (objective) manner.
Oh yes, it was very significant to him. Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke was significant to her. Aldous Huxley’s drug experiences were significant to him. John C. Wright’s heart attack was significant to him.
But none of these are significant to me, and the tales they tell are told by compromised witnesses. If brain damage is the entry price for a glimpse of the interesting-if-true things they saw, I’ll pass.