It’s been too long since my last post. At first, I was busy adjusting to a new job and getting my affairs in order. After a while, though, it got to the point that it had been so long since my last post that I knew I had to come back with something big—something worth reading.
Or so I’m telling you. What really do you know now that you read the above paragraph? Do you know now that I was holding off posting for a while in order to wait for something big? Well, not really. To believe that, you would have to make the assumption that I was informing you sincerely when I wrote the above. I could have simply wanted to introduce this article in a way that would make it seem profound. All you really know is that I chose to begin this article by saying that’s why there was a long break between posts. That’s what you perceived. The rest are assumptions.
When we are born, we begin to perceive. That perception yields real information. Very quickly, we begin to make assumptions based on that information, and we use those assumptions to build our concept of reality. Eventually, we have such a large repository of assumptions that we forget the fact that perception yields the only real information available to us, and that our assumptions merely make up a work-in-progress understanding of that information.
To illustrate: When I see a table, what information can I gather? That there is a table in front of me? No. That is actually an assumption. The ambient light reflects off that table and it has a physical effect on the retina of my eyes causing them to trigger neural impulses which are encoded and transmitted through the optic nerve into my brain. What I am directly aware of is not the existence of a table, but only the mental image my eyes provide me as a result of the table’s existence. Or so I have assumed. In any case, the image given by my eyes is all I can be definitely certain of. This is what is perceived.
Say I was a brand new human being looking at a table. Like a newborn, except without even the experience in the womb. I have no knowledge whatsoever. After I make the assumption that the image in front of me is of an object, I might wonder, “Did the object exist before I perceived it?” With no previous concept of reality to base my assumption on, there is no way to know at this point. If the object spontaneously appeared the moment I looked in its direction, the perception would have been the same. Then, after I look away, I might wonder, “Does the object still exist even though I no longer see it?” Again, there is no way of knowing, because regardless of its existence, I would not perceive it. After looking back and seeing that it’s still there, I might wonder, “Does the same object that I perceived before still exist or is this a new object that appeared as soon as I looked back?” I start to answer each of those questions with assumptions. Thus begins my concept of reality and the way it works.
There are things we would now believe to be ridiculous that at one time would have been reasonable assumptions based on available perceived information. For instance, when I turn around, does my body spin or does the room around me spin? Either way, the perception would be the same. Taking that a step further, does the Earth revolve around the Sun or does the Sun revolve around the Earth? It depends on our perspective. From here, it looks like the Sun revolves around the Earth. From the perspective of the Sun, it looks like the Earth is revolving around the Sun. The latter assumption makes it easier to explain other perceptions about the way objects in space move, so we have established it as “true”, but it really depends on what we define as the point of reference. When you drive a car, how fast are you moving? That also depends on your reference point. We assume the surface of the Earth is the reference point and consider its motion in relation to the Earth’s surface as “absolute”, when really we are also moving around the Earth, around the Sun, within our galaxy, etc. It all depends on your perspective. What is our absolute motion? There's no way of knowing, but since our motion beyond just with relation to the Earth's surface is not relevant while residing on it, we disregard it.
There’s another assumption that comes to mind that for millennia humans actually believed, which we now believe to be false. In fact, billions of humans lived their whole lives believing it: The Earth is flat. That’s ridiculous now, since we’ve circumnavigated the Earth and also seen it from space! But before we accomplished that, it was a reasonable assumption. From the surface of the Earth, where most all humans remain their whole lives, it appears to be flat. No one can ever deny this, because it is the perception. The assumption is what failed the test of time.
The idea of perception and assumption can be taken to a higher level when you consider communication. A child, for instance, is instructed by his parents. After learning to communicate, he perceives that his parents tell him things. Then he perceives that those things ended up being true. He then makes the reasonable assumption that everything his parents say is true. At that point, he will begin believing instantly anything they tell him. However, eventually, his parents will be wrong about something, and when he realizes it, he will be disillusioned. Why? Where was the illusion? His perception was accurate; everything his parents said up until that point seemed to be true. His assumption that all future tellings would be true as well was the illusion. What made it an illusion? The fact that it was faulty? Or the fact that it was an assumption?
If a person tells you a fact, you don’t perceive the fact; you perceive that the person told you that fact. Of that you can be certain. Whether or not that fact is true is an assumption that you will make; just because a person told you a fact does not mean they believe that fact or even that they were well-informed when they learned that fact. Often, people take things they are told for granted, depending upon the source, without realizing that they are fooling themselves.
Perception is real, assumptions are illusionary. We revised our assumption about the shape of the Earth when we sailed around it, because our perception then appeared to disprove our previous assumption that the Earth was flat. Our venture into space yielded perceptions that appear to support our current assumption. But the fact is we may yet encounter future perceptions that will yield our current assumption about the shape of the Earth obsolete as well. However, the fact that the Earth appears spherical from space will not change, just as the fact that the Earth appears flat from its surface has not changed. These perceptions are real and reliable. The assumptions that we make based on them are subject to revision.
When we realize this, it’s easy to see the need for open-mindedness. Too often, people hold on to their assumptions, defend them, and impose them on others. What we see as unquestionable reality is really the illusion. When another person comes to us with different assumptions gleaned from similar perceptions, who are we to say that our assumptions are better? It would be like saying “My illusion is better than your illusion. Your illusion is illusionary; my illusion is real!” Where is the harm in opening your perception to others’ assumptions?
After all, merely perceiving the fact that someone has an assumption that differs from you does not mean that you now adopt their assumption. It also does not necessarily mean that they are intending to challenge your assumption—that would be an assumption in itself. The fact that other people have different assumptions and thus different systems of understanding their perceptions is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s very useful. It’s really a miracle that our systems of understanding turn out to be as similar as they are! But who is to say that the majority are not wrong in their assumption, and only a single human being has a correct assumption? After all, that’s what happened before—everyone in the known world believed the Earth to be flat, but Christopher Colombus made the assumption that it was round, and he was daring enough to test out his assumption instead of conforming to the popular opinion. That’s just one example of how a single person’s alternate assumption can be useful.
It may seem that I’m knocking assumptions and saying you should only believe what you see. However, assumptions are necessary; without them, no meaningful understanding of our perceptions could exist. What I am advocating is realizing that you are making assumptions when you are making them and what those assumptions are. By doing so, your understanding of things can reach a new level. You will in effect have an understanding of your way of understanding things. When you hold your perceptions above your assumptions, you can be ready to abandon poor assumptions in favor of better ones when you encounter them. By doing so, you become less gullible and less prone to repeat the same mistakes others have made.